30. The judges
said: Speak to those points, Archelaus, which he has just now
propounded. Archelaus said: By the prince of the
world, and the wicked one, and darkness, and death, he means one and
the same thing, and alleges that the law has been given by that being,
on the ground of the scriptural statement that it is “the
ministration of death,” as well as on the ground of other things
which he has urged against it. Well, then, I say1717
| 1717
Reading inquam for the iniquam of the Codex
Casinensis. But Routh suggests iniquæ, in reference
to what has been said towards the close of ch. xxviii. |
that since, as
we have explained above, the
law which was written naturally on
men’s
hearts did not keep carefully by the memory of
evil things,
and since there was not a sufficiently established
tradition among the
elders, inasmuch as hostile oblivion always attached itself to the
memory,
1718
| 1718 The
codex gives, “cum eas inimica semper memoriæ ineresis sed
oblivio;” which is corrected thus, “cum eis inimica semper
memoriæ inhæsisset oblivio.” |
and one man
was
instructed in the knowledge of that law by master, and
another by himself, it easily came about that
transgressions of the
law
engraved by
nature did take place, and that through the violation of
the
commandments death obtained its kingship among men. For the
race of men is of such a
nature, that it needs to be ruled by
God with
a
rod of
iron. And so
death triumphed and
reigned with all its
power on to
Moses, even over those who had not
sinned, in the way which
we have explained: over
sinners indeed, as these were its proper
objects, and under subjection to it,—men after the type of
Cain
and
Judas;
1719
| 1719
The text writes it Juda. |
but also over
the
righteous, because they refused to consent to it, and rather
withstood it, by putting away from themselves the vices and
concupiscence of
lusts,—men like those who have arisen at times
from
Abel on to
Zacharias;
1720
—
death thus
always passing, up to the time
of Moses, upon those after that
similitude.
1721
| 1721 This
would appear to be the meaning of these words, “transferens
semper usque ad tempus in similes illius,” if we suppose the
speaker still to be keeping Rom. v. 12–14 in view. Routh suggests
transiens. |
But after Moses had made his appearance, and had
given the law to the children of Israel, and had brought into their
memory all the requirements of the law, and all that it behoved men to
observe and do under it, and when he delivered over to death only those
who should transgress the law, then death was cut off from reigning
over all men; for it reigned then over sinners alone, as the law said
to it, “Touch not those that keep my precepts.”1722
Moses
therefore served the ministration of this word upon
death, while he
delivered up to
destruction1723
| 1723
Reading interitui tradens for the interit ut tradens of
the codex. |
all others who were
transgressors of
the
law; for it was not with the intent that
death might not
reign in
any territory at all that
Moses came, inasmuch as multitudes were
assuredly held under the
power of
death even after
Moses. And the
law was called a “ministration of
death” from the fact that
then only
transgressors of the
law were
punished, and not those who
kept it, and who obeyed and observed the things which are in the
law,
as
Abel did, whom
Cain, who was made a
vessel of the
wicked one,
slew. However, even after these things
death wished to
break the
covenant which had been made by the instrumentality of
Moses, and to
reign again over the
righteous; and with this object it did indeed
assail the
prophets, killing and stoning those who had been sent by
God, on to Zacharias. But my
Lord Jesus, as maintaining the
righteousness of the
law of
Moses, was
wroth with
death for its
transgression of the
covenant1724
| 1724
Reading pacti for the acti of the codex. |
and of that whole ministration, and
condescended to appear in the body of man, with the view of avenging
not Himself, but
Moses, and those who in a continuous succession after
him had been
oppressed by the
violence of
death. That
wicked one,
however, in ignorance
of the meaning of a dispensation of this
kind, entered into
Judas, thinking to
slay Him by that man’s
means, as before he had put
righteous Abel to
death. But when he
had entered into
Judas, he was overcome with penitence, and hanged
himself; for which reason also the
divine word says: “O
death, where is thy
victory? O
death,
1725
where is thy
sting?” And
again: “
Death is
swallowed up of
victory.”
1726
It is for
this reason, therefore, that the
law is called a “ministration of
death” because it
delivered sinners and
transgressors over to
death; but those who observed it, it
defended from
death; and these it
also established in glory, by the help and aid of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
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