Anf-03 iv.xi.l Pg 7
2 Kings ii. 11.
nor did they experience death: it was postponed, (and only postponed,) most certainly: they are reserved for the suffering of death, that by their blood they may extinguish Antichrist.1787 1787
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.xii Pg 40
2 Kings ii. 11.
But what will excite my surprise still more is the case (next supposed by Marcion), that a God so good and gracious, and so averse to blows and cruelty, should have suborned the angel Satan—not his own either, but the Creator’s—“to buffet” the apostle,5778 5778
Anf-03 v.viii.lviii Pg 12
Gen. v. 24; 2 Kings ii. 11.
—to what faith do these notable facts bear witness, if not to that which ought to inspire in us the belief that they are proofs and documents of our own future integrity and perfect resurrection? For, to borrow the apostle’s phrase, these were “figures of ourselves;”7738 7738
Anf-03 iv.xi.xxxv Pg 16
Mal. iv. 5.
The fact, however, is, that their metempsychosis, or transmigration theory, signifies the recall of the soul which had died long before, and its return to some other body. But Elias is to come again, not after quitting life (in the way of dying), but after his translation (or removal without dying); not for the purpose of being restored to the body, from which he had not departed, but for the purpose of revisiting the world from which he was translated; not by way of resuming a life which he had laid aside, but of fulfilling prophecy,—really and truly the same man, both in respect of his name and designation, as well as of his unchanged humanity. How, therefore could John be Elias? You have your answer in the angel’s announcement: “And he shall go before the people,” says he, “in the spirit and power of Elias”—not (observe) in his soul and his body. These substances are, in fact, the natural property of each individual; whilst “the spirit and power” are bestowed as external gifts by the grace of God and so may be transferred to another person according to the purpose and will of the Almighty, as was anciently the case with respect to the spirit of Moses.1741 1741
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 6
VERSE (26) - 2 Esd 6:26; Gn 5:24; 2 K 2:11, 12; Si 44:16; Ml 4:5, 6; .
