62. But, you will
say, He was cut off by death as men are. Not Christ
Himself; for it is impossible either that death should befall what is
divine, or that that should waste away and disappear in death which is
one in its substance, and not compounded, nor formed by bringing
together any parts. Who, then, you ask, was seen hanging
on the cross? Who dead? The human form,3361
| 3361
So the ms., followed by Hildebrand and
Oehler, reads and punctuates quis mortuus? homo, for
which all edd. read mortuus est? “Who died?” |
I reply, which He had put
on,
3362
| 3362
Here, as in the whole discussion in the second book on the origin and
nature of the soul, the opinions expressed are Gnostic, Cerinthus
saying more precisely that Christ having descended from heaven in the
form of a dove, dwelt in the body of Jesus during His life, but removed
from it before the crucifixion. |
and which He
bore about with Him. It is a tale passing belief,
you say,
and wrapt in
dark obscurity; if you will, it is not
dark, and is
established by a very close analogy.
3363
| 3363
So the ms. by changing a single letter,
with LB. and others, similitudine proxim-a
(ms. o) constitutum;
while the first ed., Gelenius, Canterus, Ursinus, Orelli, and others,
read -dini proxime—“settled very closely to
analogy.” |
If the Sibyl, when she was
uttering and pouring forth her
prophecies and oracular responses, was
filled, as you say, with Apollo’s
power, had been
cut down and
slain by impious robbers,
3364
| 3364 In
the original latronibus; here, as in the next chapter, used
loosely to denote lawless men. |
would Apollo be said to have been
slain in her? If Bacis,
3365
| 3365
So emended by Mercerus for the ms.
vatis. |
if Helenus, Marcius,
3366
| 3366
So read in the ms.—not
-tius, as in LB. and Orelli. |
and other soothsayers, had been in
like manner
robbed of
life and
light when raving as inspired, would any
one say that those who, speaking by their mouths, declared to inquirers
what should be done,
3367
| 3367
Lit., “the ways of things”—vias rerum. |
had
perished according to the
conditions of human
life? The
death of which you speak was
that of the human body which He had assumed,
3368
| 3368
The ms. reads unintelligibly
assumpti-o which was, however, retained in both Roman edd.,
although Ursinus suggested the dropping of the o, which
has been done by all later edd. |
not His own—of that which was
borne, not of the bearer; and not even this
death would
He
3369
| 3369
The ms. reads, quam nec ipsam
perpeti succubuisset vis—“would his might,” i.e.,
“would He with His great power have stooped.” Orelli
simply omits vis as Canterus, and seemingly the other later edd.
do. |
have stooped
to suffer, were it not that a matter of such importance was to be dealt
with, and the inscrutable plan of fate
3370
| 3370
The ms. and 1st ed. read
sati-s, which has clearly arisen from f being confounded
with the old form of s. |
brought to light in hidden
mysteries.
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