34. I think that you cannot
fail to understand this too, that the word “father” is but
a single term indeed, and yet one admitting of being understood in
various ways. For one is called father, as being the parent of
those children whom he has begotten in a natural way; another is called
father, as being the guardian of children whom he has but brought up;
and some, again, are called fathers in respect of the privileged
standing accruing through time or age. Hence our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself is said to have a variety of fathers: for David
was called His father, and Joseph was reckoned to be His father, while
neither of these two was His father in respect of the actuality of
nature. For David is called His father as touching the
prerogative of time and age,1774
| 1774
Ætatis ac temporis privilegio. |
and
Joseph is designated His
father as
concerning the
law of upbringing; but
God Himself is His only
Father by
nature, who was pleased to make all things manifest in short
space
1775
to us by His
word. And our
Lord Jesus Christ, making no tarrying,
1776
| 1776
Nec in aliquo remoratus. |
in the space
of one year
1777
| 1777
The text gives “inter unius anni spatium,” for which
intra, etc., is proposed. With certain others of the
fathers, Archelaus seems to assign but one year to the preaching of
Christ and to His working of miracles. See ch. xlix. [Vol.
i. p. 391, this series.] |
restored
multitudes of the
sick to
health, and gave back the dead to the
light
of
life; and He did indeed embrace all things in the
power of His own
word.
1778
And
wherein, forsooth, did He make any tarrying, so that we should have to
believe Him to have waited so long,
even to these days, before
He actually sent the Paraclete?
1779
| 1779
Migne gives this sentence as a direct statement. We adopt the
interrogative form with Routh. |
Nay, rather, as has been already
said above, He gave
proof of His presence with us forthwith, and did
most
abundantly impart Himself to
Paul, whose
testimony we also believe
when he says, “Unto me only is this
grace given.”
1780
For this
is he who formerly was a persecutor of the
Church of
God, but
who afterwards
appeared openly before all men as a
faithful minister of the Paraclete;
by whose instrumentality His singular clemency was made known to all
men, in such
wise that even to us who some time were without
hope the
largess of His
gifts has come. For which of us could have hoped
that
Paul, the persecutor and
enemy of the
Church, would
prove its
defender and
guardian? Yea, and not that alone, but that he would
become also its
ruler, the founder and architect of the
churches?
Wherefore after him, and after those who were with Himself—that
is, the
disciples—we are not to look for the
advent of any other
(such), according to the Scriptures; for our
Lord Jesus Christ says of
this Paraclete, “He shall receive of mine.”
1781
Him
therefore He selected as an acceptable
vessel; and He sent this
Paul to
us in the Spirit. Into him the Spirit was poured;
1782
| 1782
The text reads, “quem misit ad nos Paulum in Spiritus influxit
Spiritus,” etc. We adopt the emendation, “quem misit
ad nos Paulum in Spiritu. Influxit Spiritus,” etc.
Routh suggests, “Paulum cujus in spiritum influxit
Spiritus” = this Paul, into whose spirit the Spirit was
poured. |
and as that
Spirit could not
abide upon all men, but only on Him who was
born of
Mary the mother of
God, so that Spirit, the Paraclete, could not come
into any other, but could only come upon the
apostles and the sainted
Paul. “For he is a chosen
vessel,” He says,
“unto me, to bear my name before kings and the
Gentiles.”
1783
The
apostle himself, too,
states the same thing in his first
epistle, where
he says: “According to the
grace that is given to me of
God, that I should be the
minister of
Jesus Christ to the Gentiles,
ministering
1784
| 1784
Consecrans. [Vol. v. p. 290, note 8; also p. 409.] |
the
Gospel of
God.”
1785
“I
say the
truth in
Christ, I
lie not, my conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy
Ghost.”
1786
And again: “For I
will not
dare to speak of any of those things which
Christ hath not
wrought by me by word and
deed.”
1787
“I am the last of all the
apostles, that am not meet to be called an
apostle. But by the
grace of
God I am what I am.”
1788
| 1788
1 Cor. xv. 9, 10. Archelaus here gives
“novissimus omnium apostolorum” for the ἐλάχιστος of the
Greek, and the “minimus” of the Vulgate.
[“The last” instead of least.] |
And it, is his wish to have to
deal with
1789
those who
sought the
proof of that
Christ who spake in him, for this reason, that
the Paraclete was in him: and as having obtained His
gift of
grace, and as being enriched with
magnificent, honour,
1790
| 1790
Reading “magnifico honore” for the “magnifico
hoc ore” of the codex. |
he says:
“For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice, that it might depart
from me. And He said unto me, My
grace is sufficient for thee;
for
strength is made
perfect in
weakness.”
1791
Again, that it was the Paraclete
Himself who was in
Paul, is indicated by our
Lord Jesus Christ in the
Gospel, when He says: “If ye
love me, keep my
commandments. And I will
pray my
Father, and He shall give you
another Comforter.”
1792
In these words He points to the
Paraclete Himself, for He speaks of “another”
Comforter. And hence we have given credit to
Paul, and have
hearkened to him when he says, “Or
1793
seek ye a
proof of
Christ speaking in
me?”
1794
and when he
expresses himself in similar terms, of which we have already spoken
above. Thus, too, he seals his testament for us as for his
faithful heirs, and like a
father he addresses us in these words in his
Epistle to the Corinthians: “I
delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that
Christ died for our
sins
according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen
of
Cephas, then of the eleven
apostles:
1795
after that He was seen of above
five
hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto
this present, but some are fallen
asleep. After that He was seen
of James; then of all the
apostles. And last of all He was seen
of me also, as of one
born out of due time. For I am the last of
the
apostles.”
1796
“Therefore, whether it were
I or they, so we
preach, and so ye believed.”
1797
And again, in delivering over to
his heirs that inheritance which he
gained first himself, he
says: “But I
fear, lest by any means, as the
serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be
corrupted
from the simplicity that is in
Christ. For if he that cometh
preacheth another Christ,
1798
whom we have not preached, or if ye
receive another Spirit, which we have not received, or another gospel,
which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. For I
suppose that I did nothing less for you than the other
apostles.”
1799
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