- ANF05. Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

XIX.

But seeing now that we must make proof of what is alleged at greater length, we shall not shrink from the task. For it is certain that he is destined to spring from the tribe of Dan,¹⁹³⁶

¹⁹³⁶ After Irenæus, book v. ch. xxx. [vol. i. p. 559, this series], many of the ancients express this opinion. See too Bellarmine, De Pontifice Rom., iii. 12.
and to range himself in opposition like a princely tyrant, a terrible judge and accuser,¹⁹³⁷

¹⁹³⁷ διάβολος.
as the prophet testifies when he says, “Dan shall judge his people, as one tribe in Israel.”¹⁹³⁸

¹⁹³⁸ Gen. xlix. 16.
But some one may say that this was meant of Samson, who sprang from the tribe of Dan, and judged his people for twenty years. That, however, was only partially made good in the case of Samson; but this shall be fulfilled completely in the case of Antichrist. For Jeremiah, too, speaks in this manner: “From Dan we shall hear the sound of the sharpness¹⁹³⁹

¹⁹³⁹ φωνὴν ὀξύτητος. There is another reading, σπουδήν = haste.
of his horses; at the sound of the neighing¹⁹⁴⁰

¹⁹⁴⁰ χρεμετισμοῦ. [Conf. p. 207, supra.]
of his horses the whole land trembled.”¹⁹⁴¹

¹⁹⁴¹ Jer. viii. 16.
And again, Moses says: “Dan is a lion’s whelp, and he shall leap from Bashan.”¹⁹⁴²

¹⁹⁴² Deut. xxxiii. 22.
And that no one may fall into the mistake of thinking that this is spoken of the Saviour, let him attend to this. “Dan,” says he, “is a lion’s whelp;” and by thus naming the tribe of Dan as the one whence the accuser is destined to spring, he made the matter in hand quite clear. For as Christ is born of the tribe of Judah, so Antichrist shall be born of the tribe of Dan. And as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was spoken of in prophecy as a lion on account or His royalty and glory, in the same manner also has the Scripture prophetically described the accuser as a lion, on account of his tyranny and violence.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH