Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxv Pg 45
Luke xvii. 20, 21.
Now, who will not interpret the words “within you” to mean in your hand, within your power, if you hear, and do the commandment of God? If, however, the kingdom of God lies in His commandment, set before your mind Moses on the other side, according to our antitheses, and you will find the self-same view of the case.4903 4903 Una sententia.
“The commandment is not a lofty one,4904 4904 Excelsum: Sept. ὑπέρογχος.
neither is it far off from thee. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?’ nor is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?’ But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, and in thy hands, to do it.”4905 4905
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxv Pg 49
Luke xvii. 21.
And if the heretics, in their audacity, should contend that the Lord did not give an answer about His own kingdom, but only about the Creator’s kingdom, concerning which they had inquired, then the following words are against them. For He tells them that “the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected,” before His coming,4907 4907
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxix Pg 7
Luke xxi. 8.
they will be received by you, who have already received one altogether like them.5020 5020 Consimilem: of course Marcion’s Christ; the Marcionite being challenged in the “you.”
Christ, however, comes in His own name. What will you do, then, when He Himself comes who is the very Proprietor of these names, the Creator’s Christ and Jesus? Will you reject Him? But how iniquitous, how unjust and disrespectful to the good God, that you should not receive Him who comes in His own name, when you have received another in His name! Now, let us see what are the signs which He ascribes to the times. “Wars,” I observe, “and kingdom against kingdom, and nation against nation, and pestilence, and famines, and earthquakes, and fearful sights, and great signs from heaven”5021 5021
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.i Pg 28
Luke xxi. 8.
Now if any one can pretend that he is Christ, how much more might a man profess to be an apostle of Christ! But still, for my own part, I appear5215 5215 Conversor.
in the character of a disciple and an inquirer; that so I may even thus5216 5216 Jam hinc.
both refute your belief, who have nothing to support it, and confound your shamelessness, who make claims without possessing the means of establishing them. Let there be a Christ, let there be an apostle, although of another god; but what matter? since they are only to draw their proofs out of the Testament of the Creator. Because even the book of Genesis so long ago promised me the Apostle Paul. For among the types and prophetic blessings which he pronounced over his sons, Jacob, when he turned his attention to Benjamin, exclaimed, “Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall impart nourishment.”5217 5217 Gen. xlix. 27, Septuagint, the latter clause being καὶ εἰς τὸ ἑσπέρας δίδωσι τροφήν.
He foresaw that Paul would arise out of the tribe of Benjamin, a voracious wolf, devouring his prey in the morning: in order words, in the early period of his life he would devastate the Lord’s sheep, as a persecutor of the churches; but in the evening he would give them nourishment, which means that in his declining years he would educate the fold of Christ, as the teacher of the Gentiles. Then, again, in Saul’s conduct towards David, exhibited first in violent persecution of him, and then in remorse and reparation,5218 5218 Satisfactio.
on his receiving from him good for evil, we have nothing else than an anticipation5219 5219 Non aliud portendebat quam.
of Paul in Saul—belonging, too, as they did, to the same tribe—and of Jesus in David, from whom He descended according to the Virgin’s genealogy.5220 5220 Secundum Virginis censum.
Should you, however, disapprove of these types,5221 5221 Figurarum sacramenta.
the Acts of the Apostles,5222 5222
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 17
VERSE (23) - :21; 21:8 Mt 24:23-26 Mr 13:21-23
