Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Why Jesus Called Them an Adulterous Generation. The Law as Husband.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
4. Why Jesus
Called Them an Adulterous Generation. The Law as
Husband.
And He called them, indeed, “an evil
generation,” because of the quality arising from evil which had
been produced in them, for wickedness is voluntary evil-doing, but
“adulterous” because that when the Pharisees and Sadducees
left that which is figuratively called man, the word of truth or the
law, they were debauched by falsehood and the law of sin. For if
there are two laws, the law in our members warring against the law of
the mind, and the law of the mind,5572
we must say
that the law of the mind—that is, the spiritual—is man, to
whom the soul was given by God as wife, that is, to the man who is law,
according to what is written, “A wife is married to a man by
God;”5573
but the other is a
paramour of the soul which is subject to it, which also on account of
it is called an adulteress. Now that the law is husband of the
soul Paul clearly exhibits in the Epistle to the Romans, saying,
“The law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth;
for the woman that hath a husband is bound to the husband while he liveth, to the husband who is
law,”5574
| 5574 Rom. vii. 1, 2. ῾Η
γὰρ
ὕπανδρος
γυνὴ τῷ ζῶντι
ἀνδρὶ
δέδεται
νόμῳ. The reader must note that
Origen takes νόμῳ in apposition to ἀνδρὶ. | etc. For
consider in these things that the law hath dominion over the man so
long time as the law liveth,—as a husband over a wife.
“For the woman that hath a husband,” that is, the soul
under the law, “is bound to the husband while he liveth,”
to the husband who is the law; but if the husband—that is, the
law die—she is discharged from the law, which is her
husband. Now the law dies to him who has gone up to the condition
of blessedness, and no longer lives under the law, but acts like to
Christ, who, though He became under law for the sake of those under
law, that He might gain those under law,5575
did not continue under law, nor did He leave subject to law those who
had been freed by Him; for He led them up along with Himself to the
divine citizenship which is above the law, which contains, as for the
imperfect and such as are still sinners, sacrifices for the remission
of sins. He then who is without sin, and stands no longer in need
of legal sacrifices, perhaps when he has become perfect has passed
beyond even the spiritual law, and comes to the Word beyond it, who
became flesh to those who live in the flesh, but to those who no longer
at all war after the flesh, He is perceived as being the Word,
as5576
He was God in the beginning with God, and
reveals the Father. Three things therefore are to be thought of
in connection with this place—the woman that hath a husband, who
is under a husband—the law; and the woman who is an adulteress,
to-wit, the soul, which, while her husband, the law, liveth, has become
joined to another husband, namely, the law of the flesh; and the woman
who is married to the brother of the dead husband, to the Word who is
alive and dies not, who “being raised from the dead dieth no
more, for death hath no more dominion over Him.”5577
So far then because of the saying,
“But if the husband die she is discharged from the law, the
husband,” and because of this, “so then, while her husband
liveth, she shall be called an adulteress, if she be joined to another
man,” and because of this, “but if the husband die, she is
free from the law, so that she is no adulteress though she be joined to
another man.”5578
But this very
saying, “So then while her husband liveth, she shall be called an
adulteress,” we have brought forward, wishing clearly to show why
in answer to the Pharisees and Sadducees who were tempting Him and
asking Him to show them a sign from heaven, He said not only “a
wicked generation,” but an “adulterous”
generation.5579
In a general
way, then, the law in the members which wars against the law of the
mind,5580
as a man who is an adulterer, is an
adulterer of the soul. But now also every power that is hostile,
which gains the mastery over the human soul, and has intercourse with
it, commits adultery with her who had a bridegroom given to her by God,
namely, the Word. After these things it is written that “He
left them and departed.” For how was the
bridegroom—the Word—not going to leave the adulterous
generation and depart from it? But you might say that the Word of
God, leaving the synagogue of the Jews as adulterous, departed from it,
and took a wife of fornication,5581
namely, those
from the Gentiles; since those who were “Sion, a faithful
city,”5582
have become
harlots; but these have become like the harlot Rahab, who received the
spies of Joshua, and was saved with all her house;5583
after this no longer playing the harlot, but
coming to the feet of Jesus, and wetting them with the tears of
repentance, and anointing them with the fragrance of the ointment of
holy conversation, on account of whom, reproaching Simon the
leper,—the former people,—He spoke those things which are
written.5584
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
