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PARALLEL HISTORY BIBLE - Hosea 4:4
CHAPTERS: Hosea 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 
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LXX- Greek Septuagint - Hosea 4:4 οπως 3704 μηδεις 3367 μητε 3383 δικαζηται μητε 3383 ελεγχη μηδεις 3367 ο 3588 3739 δε 1161 λαος 2992 μου 3450 ως 5613 αντιλεγομενος ιερευς 2409
Douay Rheims Bible But yet let not any man judge: and let not a man be rebuked: for thy people are as they that contradict the priest.
King James Bible - Hosea 4:4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
World English Bible "Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; For your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.
Early Church Father Links Anf-05 iv.v.v Pg 31, Anf-05 iv.v.xii.iv.xlix Pg 3
World Wide Bible Resources
Hosea 4:4
Early Christian Commentary - (A.D. 100 - A.D. 325) Anf-03 iv.ix.xiii Pg 26
See Ex. xv. 22–26. just as we do, who, drawn out from the calamities of the heathendom1405 1405 Sæculi. in which we were tarrying perishing with thirst (that is, deprived of the divine word), drinking, “by the faith which is on Him,”1406 1406
Anf-02 vi.iii.i.ix Pg 40.1
Anf-01 v.iii.iii Pg 15
1 Sam. viii. 7. And Moses declares, “For their murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord God.”656 656
Anf-03 iv.iv.xx Pg 8
Because Scripture calls idols “vanities” and “vain things.” See 2 Kings xvii. 15, Ps. xxiv. 4, Isa. lix. 4, Deut. xxxii. 21, etc. Whoever, therefore, honours an idol with the name of God, has fallen into idolatry. But if I speak of them as gods, something must be added to make it appear that I do not call them gods. For even the Scripture names “gods,” but adds “their,” viz. “of the nations:” just as David does when he had named “gods,” where he says, “But the gods of the nations are demons.”328 328
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxi Pg 36
Isa. lvii. i. When does this more frequently happen than in the persecution of His saints? This, indeed, is no ordinary matter,4291 4291 We have, by understanding res, treated these adjectives as nouns. Rigalt. applies them to the doctrina of the sentence just previous. Perhaps, however, “persecutione” is the noun. no common casualty of the law of nature; but it is that illustrious devotion, that fighting for the faith, wherein whosoever loses his life for God saves it, so that you may here again recognize the Judge who recompenses the evil gain of life with its destruction, and the good loss thereof with its salvation. It is, however, a jealous God whom He here presents to me; one who returns evil for evil. “For whosoever,” says He, “shall be ashamed of me, of him will I also be ashamed.”4292 4292
Anf-01 ix.vi.xix Pg 13
Isa. xxx. 1. In order, therefore, that their inner wish and thought, being brought to light, may show that God is without blame, and worketh no evil —that God who reveals what is hidden [in the heart], but who worketh not evil—when Cain was by no means at rest, He saith to him: “To thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”4044 4044
Anf-01 viii.iv.lxxix Pg 5
Isa. xxx. 1–5. And, further, Zechariah tells, as you yourself have related, that the devil stood on the right hand of Joshua the priest, to resist him; and [the Lord] said, ‘The Lord, who has taken2253 2253 ἐκδεξάμενος; in chap. cxv. inf. it is ἐκλεξάμενος. Jerusalem, rebuke thee.’2254 2254
Anf-02 vi.iii.i.ix Pg 19.1
Anf-03 iv.ix.ix Pg 27
Oehler refers to Isa. xix. 1. See, too, Isa. xxx. and xxxi. So, again, Babylon, in our own John, is a figure of the city Rome, as being equally great and proud of her sway, and triumphant over the saints.1273 1273
Anf-01 viii.iv.xxii Pg 2
Amos v. 18 to end, Amos vi. 1–7. And again by Jeremiah: ‘Collect your flesh, and sacrifices, and eat: for concerning neither sacrifices nor libations did I command your fathers in the day in which I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.’2002 2002
Anf-01 viii.iv.ciii Pg 4
Hos. x. 6. Or He meant the devil by the lion roaring against Him: whom Moses calls the serpent, but in Job and Zechariah he is called the devil, and by Jesus is addressed as Satan, showing that a compounded name was acquired by him from the deeds which he performed. For ‘Sata’ in the Jewish and Syrian tongue means apostate; and ‘Nas’ is the word from which he is called by interpretation the serpent, i.e., according to the interpretation of the Hebrew term, from both of which there arises the single word Satanas. For this devil, when [Jesus] went up from the river Jordan, at the time when the voice spake to Him, ‘Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten Thee,’2344 2344
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xlii Pg 13
Hos. x. 6 (Sept. ξένια τῷ βασιλεῖ). Herod was “exceeding glad” when he saw Jesus, but he heard not a word from Him.5132 5132
Anf-01 viii.iv.xii Pg 3
Not in Jeremiah; some would insert, in place of Jeremiah, Isaiah or John. [St. John xii. 40; Isa. vi. 10; where see full references in the English margin. But comp. Jer. vii. 24; 26, Jer. xi. 8, and Jer. xvii. 23.] has cried; yet not even then do you listen. The Lawgiver is present, yet you do not see Him; to the poor the Gospel is preached, the blind see, yet you do not understand. You have now need of a second circumcision, though you glory greatly in the flesh. The new law requires you to keep perpetual sabbath, and you, because you are idle for one day, suppose you are pious, not discerning why this has been commanded you: and if you eat unleavened bread, you say the will of God has been fulfilled. The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances: if there is any perjured person or a thief among you, let him cease to be so; if any adulterer, let him repent; then he has kept the sweet and true sabbaths of God. If any one has impure hands, let him wash and be pure.
Anf-01 ix.vi.xxx Pg 3
Matt. xiii. 11–16; Isa. vi. 10. For one and the same God [that blesses others] inflicts blindness upon those who do not believe, but who set Him at naught; just as the sun, which is a creature of His, [acts with regard] to those who, by reason of any weakness of the eyes cannot behold his light; but to those who believe in Him and follow Him, He grants a fuller and greater illumination of mind. In accordance with this word, therefore, does the apostle say, in the Second [Epistle] to the Corinthians: “In whom the this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine [unto them].”4210 4210
Anf-03 v.iv.iv.vi Pg 11
Isa. vi. 9, 10. Quoted with some verbal differences. Now this blunting of their sound senses they had brought on themselves, loving God with their lips, but keeping far away from Him in their heart. Since, then, Christ was announced by the Creator, “who formeth the lightning, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man His Christ,” as the prophet Joel says,3166 3166
Anf-03 iv.iii.xxi Pg 5
Isa. vi. 10. As, then, under the force of their pre-judgment, they had convinced themselves from His lowly guise that Christ was no more than man, it followed from that, as a necessary consequence, that they should hold Him a magician from the powers which He displayed,—expelling devils from men by a word, restoring vision to the blind, cleansing the leprous, reinvigorating the paralytic, summoning the dead to life again, making the very elements of nature obey Him, stilling the storms and walking on the sea; proving that He was the Logos of God, that primordial first-begotten Word, accompanied by power and reason, and based on Spirit,—that He who was now doing all things by His word, and He who had done that of old, were one and the same. But the Jews were so exasperated by His teaching, by which their rulers and chiefs were convicted of the truth, chiefly because so many turned aside to Him, that at last they brought Him before Pontius Pilate, at that time Roman governor of Syria; and, by the violence of their outcries against Him, extorted a sentence giving Him up to them to be crucified. He Himself had predicted this; which, however, would have signified little had not the prophets of old done it as well. And yet, nailed upon the cross, He exhibited many notable signs, by which His death was distinguished from all others. At His own free-will, He with a word dismissed from Him His spirit, anticipating the executioner’s work. In the same hour, too, the light of day was withdrawn, when the sun at the very time was in his meridian blaze. Those who were not aware that this had been predicted about Christ, no doubt thought it an eclipse. You yourselves have the account of the world-portent still in your archives.107 107 Elucidation V. Then, when His body was taken down from the cross and placed in a sepulchre, the Jews in their eager watchfulness surrounded it with a large military guard, lest, as He had predicted His resurrection from the dead on the third day, His disciples might remove by stealth His body, and deceive even the incredulous. But, lo, on the third day there a was a sudden shock of earthquake, and the stone which sealed the sepulchre was rolled away, and the guard fled off in terror: without a single disciple near, the grave was found empty of all but the clothes of the buried One. But nevertheless, the leaders of the Jews, whom it nearly concerned both to spread abroad a lie, and keep back a people tributary and submissive to them from the faith, gave it out that the body of Christ had been stolen by His followers. For the Lord, you see, did not go forth into the public gaze, lest the wicked should be delivered from their error; that faith also, destined to a great reward, might hold its ground in difficulty. But He spent forty days with some of His disciples down in Galilee, a region of Judea, instructing them in the doctrines they were to teach to others. Thereafter, having given them commission to preach the gospel through the world, He was encompassed with a cloud and taken up to heaven,—a fact more certain far than the assertions of your Proculi concerning Romulus.108 108 Proculus was a Roman senator who affirmed that Romulus had appeared to him after his death. All these things Pilate did to Christ; and now in fact a Christian in his own convictions, he sent word of Him to the reigning Cæsar, who was at the time Tiberius. Yes, and the Cæsars too would have believed on Christ, if either the Cæsars had not been necessary for the world, or if Christians could have been Cæsars. His disciples also, spreading over the world, did as their Divine Master bade them; and after suffering greatly themselves from the persecutions of the Jews, and with no unwilling heart, as having faith undoubting in the truth, at last by Nero’s cruel sword sowed the seed of Christian blood at Rome.109 109 [Chapter l. at close. “The blood of Christians is the seed of the Church.”] Yes, and we shall prove that even your own gods are effective witnesses for Christ. It is a great matter if, to give you faith in Christians, I can bring forward the authority of the very beings on account of whom you refuse them credit. Thus far we have carried out the plan we laid down. We have set forth this origin of our sect and name, with this account of the Founder of Christianity. Let no one henceforth charge us with infamous wickedness; let no one think that it is otherwise than we have represented, for none may give a false account of his religion. For in the very fact that he says he worships another god than he really does, he is guilty of denying the object of his worship, and transferring his worship and homage to another; and, in the transference, he ceases to worship the god he has repudiated. We say, and before all men we say, and torn and bleeding under your tortures, we cry out, “We worship God through Christ.” Count Christ a man, if you please; by Him and in Him God would be known and be adored. If the Jews object, we answer that Moses, who was but a man, taught them their religion; against the Greeks we urge that Orpheus at Pieria, Musæus at Athens, Melampus at Argos, Trophonius in Bœotia, imposed religious rites; turning to yourselves, who exercise sway over the nations, it was the man Numa Pompilius who laid on the Romans a heavy load of costly superstitions. Surely Christ, then, had a right to reveal Deity, which was in fact His own essential possession, not with the object of bringing boors and savages by the dread of multitudinous gods, whose favour must be won into some civilization, as was the case with Numa; but as one who aimed to enlighten men already civilized, and under illusions from their very culture, that they might come to the knowledge of the truth. Search, then, and see if that divinity of Christ be true. If it be of such a nature that the acceptance of it transforms a man, and makes him truly good, there is implied in that the duty of renouncing what is opposed to it as false; especially and on every ground that which, hiding itself under the names and images of dead, the labours to convince men of its divinity by certain signs, and miracles, and oracles.
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxi Pg 14
Isa. vi. 10. their calling of God. In a manner most germane4738 4738 Pertinentissime. to this parable, He said by Jeremiah: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and ye shall walk in all my ways, which I have commanded you.”4739 4739
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.xi Pg 34
Isa. vi. 10 (only adapted). and, “If ye will not believe, ye shall not understand;”5711 5711
Anf-01 ix.vii.xxxvi Pg 5
Isa. vi. 12. “And they shall build houses, and shall inhabit them themselves: and plant vineyards, and eat of them themselves.”4769 4769
Anf-02 vi.iv.vi.xvi Pg 58.1
Npnf-201 iii.xii.xi Pg 17
Npnf-201 iii.xii.xi Pg 17
Anf-01 vi.ii.xvi Pg 7
Comp. Isa. v., Jer. xxv.; but the words do not occur in Scripture. And it so happened as the Lord had spoken. Let us inquire, then, if there still is a temple of God. There is—where He himself declared He would make and finish it. For it is written, “And it shall come to pass, when the week is completed, the temple of God shall be built in glory in the name of the Lord.”1678 1678
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxi Pg 20
Bible:Jer.44.4">Jer. vii. 25; also xxv. 4, xxvi. 5, xxxv. 15, xliv. 4. The Holy Spirit is here meant, the admonisher of the guests. “Yet my people hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck.”4744 4744
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.vi Pg 48
Ps. cxviii. 8. and the same thing is said about glorying (in princes).5471 5471
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xv Pg 53
Ps. cxviii. 8, 9. Thus everything which is caught at by men is adjured by the Creator, down to their good words.4033 4033 Nedum benedictionem. It is as much His property to condemn the praise and flattering words bestowed on the false prophets by their fathers, as to condemn their vexatious and persecuting treatment of the (true) prophets. As the injuries suffered by the prophets could not be imputed4034 4034 Non pertinuissent ad. to their own God, so the applause bestowed on the false prophets could not have been displeasing to any other god but the God of the true prophets.
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xv Pg 53
Ps. cxviii. 8, 9. Thus everything which is caught at by men is adjured by the Creator, down to their good words.4033 4033 Nedum benedictionem. It is as much His property to condemn the praise and flattering words bestowed on the false prophets by their fathers, as to condemn their vexatious and persecuting treatment of the (true) prophets. As the injuries suffered by the prophets could not be imputed4034 4034 Non pertinuissent ad. to their own God, so the applause bestowed on the false prophets could not have been displeasing to any other god but the God of the true prophets.
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxvii Pg 26
Ps. cxviii. 9. and pronounces him to be altogether wretched who places his confidence in man. But whoever4599 4599 Quodsiquis. aims at high position, because he would glory in the officious attentions4600 4600 Officiis. of other people, (in every such case,) inasmuch as He forbade such attentions (in the shape) of placing hope and confidence in man, He at the same time4601 4601 Idem. censured all who were ambitious of high positions. He also inveighs against the doctors of the law themselves, because they were “lading men with burdens grievous to be borne, which they did not venture to touch with even a finger of their own;”4602 4602
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.vi Pg 49
Ps. cxviii. 9.
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.xiv Pg 41
Ps. cxviii. 9. “Patient in tribulation.”5876 5876
Anf-01 ix.iv.xi Pg 20
Isa. xii. 2. But as bringing salvation, thus: “God hath made known His salvation (salutare) in the sight of the heathen.”3412 3412
Anf-01 viii.ii.lii Pg 2
Ezek. xxxvii. 7, 8; Isa. xlv. 24. And in what kind of sensation and punishment the wicked are to be, hear from what was said in like manner with reference to this; it is as follows: “Their worm shall not rest, and their fire shall not be quenched;”1877 1877 Isa. lxvi. 24. and then shall they repent, when it profits them not. And what the people of the Jews shall say and do, when they see Him coming in glory, has been thus predicted by Zechariah the prophet: “I will command the four winds to gather the scattered children; I will command the north wind to bring them, and the south wind, that it keep not back. And then in Jerusalem there shall be great lamentation, not the lamentation of mouths or of lips, but the lamentation of the heart; and they shall rend not their garments, but their hearts. Tribe by tribe they shall mourn, and then they shall look on Him whom they have pierced; and they shall say, Why, O Lord, hast Thou made us to err from Thy way? The glory which our fathers blessed, has for us been turned into shame.”1878 1878
Anf-01 vi.ii.ix Pg 10
Isa. i. 10. And again He saith, “Hear, ye children, the voice of one crying in the wilderness.”1557 1557 Cod. Sin. reads, “it is the voice,” corrected, however, as above. Therefore He hath circumcised our ears, that we might hear His word and believe, for the circumcision in which they trusted is abolished.1558
Anf-01 ix.vi.xlii Pg 14
Isa. i. 10. intimating that they were like the Sodomites in wickedness, and that the same description of sins was rife among them, calling them by the same name, because of the similarity of their conduct. And inasmuch as they were not by nature so created by God, but had power also to act rightly, the same person said to them, giving them good counsel, “Wash ye, make you clean; take away iniquity from your souls before mine eyes; cease from your iniquities.”4447 4447
Anf-03 iv.ix.ix Pg 22
Isa. i. 10. when those cities had already long been extinct.1268 1268
Anf-03 v.iv.iv.xiii Pg 28
Isa. i. 10. And in another passage He also says: “Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite,”3281 3281
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxvii Pg 25
Isa. i. 10. who forbids us “to put confidence even in princes,”4598 4598
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxi Pg 36
Isa. lvii. i. When does this more frequently happen than in the persecution of His saints? This, indeed, is no ordinary matter,4291 4291 We have, by understanding res, treated these adjectives as nouns. Rigalt. applies them to the doctrina of the sentence just previous. Perhaps, however, “persecutione” is the noun. no common casualty of the law of nature; but it is that illustrious devotion, that fighting for the faith, wherein whosoever loses his life for God saves it, so that you may here again recognize the Judge who recompenses the evil gain of life with its destruction, and the good loss thereof with its salvation. It is, however, a jealous God whom He here presents to me; one who returns evil for evil. “For whosoever,” says He, “shall be ashamed of me, of him will I also be ashamed.”4292 4292
Anf-01 viii.iv.lxxxii Pg 3
Isa. i. 23. Now, if you know certain amongst us to be of this sort, do not for their sakes blaspheme the Scriptures and Christ, and do not assiduously strive to give falsified interpretations.
Anf-01 ix.vi.iii Pg 21
Isa. i. 23. And Jeremiah, in like manner: “They,” he says, “who rule my people did not know me; they are senseless and imprudent children; they are wise to do evil, but to do well they have no knowledge.”3822 3822
Anf-02 vi.iii.i.ix Pg 49.1
Anf-01 ix.vii.xxxv Pg 20
Isa. xxxi. 9, Isa. xxxii. 1. And with regard to the foundation on which it shall be rebuilt, he says: “Behold, I will lay in order for thee a carbuncle stone, and sapphire for thy foundations; and I will lay thy ramparts with jasper, and thy gates with crystal, and thy wall with choice stones: and all thy children shall be taught of God, and great shall be the peace of thy children; and in righteousness shalt thou be built up.”4763 4763
Anf-01 ii.ii.xlii Pg 9
Isa. lx. 17, Sept.; but the text is here altered by Clement. The LXX. have “I will give thy rulers in peace, and thy overseers in righteousness.”
Anf-01 ix.vi.xxvii Pg 27
Isa. lx. 17. Of whom also did the Lord declare, “Who then shall be a faithful steward (actor), good and wise, whom the Lord sets over His household, to give them their meat in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh, shall find so doing.”4171 4171
Anf-01 viii.ii.lii Pg 2
Ezek. xxxvii. 7, 8; Isa. xlv. 24. And in what kind of sensation and punishment the wicked are to be, hear from what was said in like manner with reference to this; it is as follows: “Their worm shall not rest, and their fire shall not be quenched;”1877 1877 Isa. lxvi. 24. and then shall they repent, when it profits them not. And what the people of the Jews shall say and do, when they see Him coming in glory, has been thus predicted by Zechariah the prophet: “I will command the four winds to gather the scattered children; I will command the north wind to bring them, and the south wind, that it keep not back. And then in Jerusalem there shall be great lamentation, not the lamentation of mouths or of lips, but the lamentation of the heart; and they shall rend not their garments, but their hearts. Tribe by tribe they shall mourn, and then they shall look on Him whom they have pierced; and they shall say, Why, O Lord, hast Thou made us to err from Thy way? The glory which our fathers blessed, has for us been turned into shame.”1878 1878
Anf-01 viii.iv.xxii Pg 2
Amos v. 18 to end, Amos vi. 1–7. And again by Jeremiah: ‘Collect your flesh, and sacrifices, and eat: for concerning neither sacrifices nor libations did I command your fathers in the day in which I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.’2002 2002
Anf-01 viii.iv.ciii Pg 4
Hos. x. 6. Or He meant the devil by the lion roaring against Him: whom Moses calls the serpent, but in Job and Zechariah he is called the devil, and by Jesus is addressed as Satan, showing that a compounded name was acquired by him from the deeds which he performed. For ‘Sata’ in the Jewish and Syrian tongue means apostate; and ‘Nas’ is the word from which he is called by interpretation the serpent, i.e., according to the interpretation of the Hebrew term, from both of which there arises the single word Satanas. For this devil, when [Jesus] went up from the river Jordan, at the time when the voice spake to Him, ‘Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten Thee,’2344 2344
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xlii Pg 13
Hos. x. 6 (Sept. ξένια τῷ βασιλεῖ). Herod was “exceeding glad” when he saw Jesus, but he heard not a word from Him.5132 5132
Anf-01 viii.iv.xii Pg 3
Not in Jeremiah; some would insert, in place of Jeremiah, Isaiah or John. [St. John xii. 40; Isa. vi. 10; where see full references in the English margin. But comp. Jer. vii. 24; 26, Jer. xi. 8, and Jer. xvii. 23.] has cried; yet not even then do you listen. The Lawgiver is present, yet you do not see Him; to the poor the Gospel is preached, the blind see, yet you do not understand. You have now need of a second circumcision, though you glory greatly in the flesh. The new law requires you to keep perpetual sabbath, and you, because you are idle for one day, suppose you are pious, not discerning why this has been commanded you: and if you eat unleavened bread, you say the will of God has been fulfilled. The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances: if there is any perjured person or a thief among you, let him cease to be so; if any adulterer, let him repent; then he has kept the sweet and true sabbaths of God. If any one has impure hands, let him wash and be pure.
Anf-01 ix.vi.xxx Pg 3
Matt. xiii. 11–16; Isa. vi. 10. For one and the same God [that blesses others] inflicts blindness upon those who do not believe, but who set Him at naught; just as the sun, which is a creature of His, [acts with regard] to those who, by reason of any weakness of the eyes cannot behold his light; but to those who believe in Him and follow Him, He grants a fuller and greater illumination of mind. In accordance with this word, therefore, does the apostle say, in the Second [Epistle] to the Corinthians: “In whom the this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine [unto them].”4210 4210
Anf-03 v.iv.iv.vi Pg 11
Isa. vi. 9, 10. Quoted with some verbal differences. Now this blunting of their sound senses they had brought on themselves, loving God with their lips, but keeping far away from Him in their heart. Since, then, Christ was announced by the Creator, “who formeth the lightning, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man His Christ,” as the prophet Joel says,3166 3166
Anf-03 iv.iii.xxi Pg 5
Isa. vi. 10. As, then, under the force of their pre-judgment, they had convinced themselves from His lowly guise that Christ was no more than man, it followed from that, as a necessary consequence, that they should hold Him a magician from the powers which He displayed,—expelling devils from men by a word, restoring vision to the blind, cleansing the leprous, reinvigorating the paralytic, summoning the dead to life again, making the very elements of nature obey Him, stilling the storms and walking on the sea; proving that He was the Logos of God, that primordial first-begotten Word, accompanied by power and reason, and based on Spirit,—that He who was now doing all things by His word, and He who had done that of old, were one and the same. But the Jews were so exasperated by His teaching, by which their rulers and chiefs were convicted of the truth, chiefly because so many turned aside to Him, that at last they brought Him before Pontius Pilate, at that time Roman governor of Syria; and, by the violence of their outcries against Him, extorted a sentence giving Him up to them to be crucified. He Himself had predicted this; which, however, would have signified little had not the prophets of old done it as well. And yet, nailed upon the cross, He exhibited many notable signs, by which His death was distinguished from all others. At His own free-will, He with a word dismissed from Him His spirit, anticipating the executioner’s work. In the same hour, too, the light of day was withdrawn, when the sun at the very time was in his meridian blaze. Those who were not aware that this had been predicted about Christ, no doubt thought it an eclipse. You yourselves have the account of the world-portent still in your archives.107 107 Elucidation V. Then, when His body was taken down from the cross and placed in a sepulchre, the Jews in their eager watchfulness surrounded it with a large military guard, lest, as He had predicted His resurrection from the dead on the third day, His disciples might remove by stealth His body, and deceive even the incredulous. But, lo, on the third day there a was a sudden shock of earthquake, and the stone which sealed the sepulchre was rolled away, and the guard fled off in terror: without a single disciple near, the grave was found empty of all but the clothes of the buried One. But nevertheless, the leaders of the Jews, whom it nearly concerned both to spread abroad a lie, and keep back a people tributary and submissive to them from the faith, gave it out that the body of Christ had been stolen by His followers. For the Lord, you see, did not go forth into the public gaze, lest the wicked should be delivered from their error; that faith also, destined to a great reward, might hold its ground in difficulty. But He spent forty days with some of His disciples down in Galilee, a region of Judea, instructing them in the doctrines they were to teach to others. Thereafter, having given them commission to preach the gospel through the world, He was encompassed with a cloud and taken up to heaven,—a fact more certain far than the assertions of your Proculi concerning Romulus.108 108 Proculus was a Roman senator who affirmed that Romulus had appeared to him after his death. All these things Pilate did to Christ; and now in fact a Christian in his own convictions, he sent word of Him to the reigning Cæsar, who was at the time Tiberius. Yes, and the Cæsars too would have believed on Christ, if either the Cæsars had not been necessary for the world, or if Christians could have been Cæsars. His disciples also, spreading over the world, did as their Divine Master bade them; and after suffering greatly themselves from the persecutions of the Jews, and with no unwilling heart, as having faith undoubting in the truth, at last by Nero’s cruel sword sowed the seed of Christian blood at Rome.109 109 [Chapter l. at close. “The blood of Christians is the seed of the Church.”] Yes, and we shall prove that even your own gods are effective witnesses for Christ. It is a great matter if, to give you faith in Christians, I can bring forward the authority of the very beings on account of whom you refuse them credit. Thus far we have carried out the plan we laid down. We have set forth this origin of our sect and name, with this account of the Founder of Christianity. Let no one henceforth charge us with infamous wickedness; let no one think that it is otherwise than we have represented, for none may give a false account of his religion. For in the very fact that he says he worships another god than he really does, he is guilty of denying the object of his worship, and transferring his worship and homage to another; and, in the transference, he ceases to worship the god he has repudiated. We say, and before all men we say, and torn and bleeding under your tortures, we cry out, “We worship God through Christ.” Count Christ a man, if you please; by Him and in Him God would be known and be adored. If the Jews object, we answer that Moses, who was but a man, taught them their religion; against the Greeks we urge that Orpheus at Pieria, Musæus at Athens, Melampus at Argos, Trophonius in Bœotia, imposed religious rites; turning to yourselves, who exercise sway over the nations, it was the man Numa Pompilius who laid on the Romans a heavy load of costly superstitions. Surely Christ, then, had a right to reveal Deity, which was in fact His own essential possession, not with the object of bringing boors and savages by the dread of multitudinous gods, whose favour must be won into some civilization, as was the case with Numa; but as one who aimed to enlighten men already civilized, and under illusions from their very culture, that they might come to the knowledge of the truth. Search, then, and see if that divinity of Christ be true. If it be of such a nature that the acceptance of it transforms a man, and makes him truly good, there is implied in that the duty of renouncing what is opposed to it as false; especially and on every ground that which, hiding itself under the names and images of dead, the labours to convince men of its divinity by certain signs, and miracles, and oracles.
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxi Pg 14
Isa. vi. 10. their calling of God. In a manner most germane4738 4738 Pertinentissime. to this parable, He said by Jeremiah: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and ye shall walk in all my ways, which I have commanded you.”4739 4739
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.xi Pg 34
Isa. vi. 10 (only adapted). and, “If ye will not believe, ye shall not understand;”5711 5711
Anf-01 ix.vii.xxxvi Pg 5
Isa. vi. 12. “And they shall build houses, and shall inhabit them themselves: and plant vineyards, and eat of them themselves.”4769 4769
Anf-02 vi.iv.vi.xvi Pg 58.1
Npnf-201 iii.xii.xi Pg 17
Npnf-201 iii.xii.xi Pg 17
Anf-01 vi.ii.xvi Pg 7
Comp. Isa. v., Jer. xxv.; but the words do not occur in Scripture. And it so happened as the Lord had spoken. Let us inquire, then, if there still is a temple of God. There is—where He himself declared He would make and finish it. For it is written, “And it shall come to pass, when the week is completed, the temple of God shall be built in glory in the name of the Lord.”1678 1678
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxi Pg 20
Bible:Jer.44.4">Jer. vii. 25; also xxv. 4, xxvi. 5, xxxv. 15, xliv. 4. The Holy Spirit is here meant, the admonisher of the guests. “Yet my people hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck.”4744 4744
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 4VERSE (4) - :17 Am 5:13; 6:10 Mt 7:3-6
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