Anf-03 v.iv.v.ix Pg 20
Compare, in Simeon’s song, Luke ii. 32, the designation, “A light to lighten the Gentiles.”
steeped as they were in the stains of the seven deadly sins:3729 3729 [See Elucidation I.]
idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery, fornication, false-witness, and fraud.3730 3730 Such seems to be the meaning of the obscure passage in the original, “Syro facilius emundato significato per nationes emundationis in Christo lumine earum quæ septem maculis, capitalium delictorum inhorrerent, idoatria,” etc. We have treated significato as one member of an ablative absolute clause, from significatum, a noun occuring in Gloss. Lat. Gr. synonymous with δήλωσις. Rigault, in a note on the passage, imputes the obscurity to Tertullian’s arguing on the Marcionite hypothesis. “Marcion,” says he, “held that the prophets, like Elisha, belonged to the Creator, and Christ to the good God. To magnify Christ’s beneficence, he prominently dwells on the alleged fact, that Christ, although a stranger to the Creator’s world, yet vouchsafed to do good in it. This vain conceit Tertullian refutes from the Marcionite hypothesis itself. God the Creator, said they, had found Himself incapable of cleansing this Israelite; but He had more easily cleansed the Syrian. Christ, however, cleansed the Israelite, and so showed himself the superior power. Tertullian denies both positions.”
Seven times, therefore, as if once for each,3731 3731 Quasi per singulos titulos.
did he wash in Jordan; both in order that he might celebrate the expiation of a perfect hebdomad;3732 3732 There was a mystic completeness in the number seven.
and because the virtue and fulness of the one baptism was thus solemnly imputed3733 3733 Dicabatur.
to Christ, alone, who was one day to establish on earth not only a revelation, but also a baptism, endued with compendious efficacy.3734 3734 Sicut sermonem compendiatum, ita et lavacrum. In chap. i. of this book, the N.T. is called the compendiatum. This illustrates the present phrase.
Even Marcion finds here an antithesis:3735 3735 Et hoc opponit.
how that Elisha indeed required a material resource, applied water, and that seven times; whereas Christ, by the employment of a word only, and that but once for all, instantly effected3736 3736 Repræsentavit.
the cure. And surely I might venture3737 3737 Quasi non audeam.
to claim3738 3738 Vindicare in.
the Very Word also as of the Creator’s substance. There is nothing of which He who was the primitive Author is not also the more powerful one. Forsooth,3739 3739 Plane. An ironical cavil from the Marcionite view.
it is incredible that that power of the Creator should have, by a word, produced a remedy for a single malady, which once by a word brought into being so vast a fabric as the world! From what can the Christ of the Creator be better discerned, than from the power of His word? But Christ is on this account another (Christ), because He acted differently from Elisha—because, in fact, the master is more powerful than his servant! Why, Marcion, do you lay down the rule, that things are done by servants just as they are by their very masters? Are you not afraid that it will turn to your discredit, if you deny that Christ belongs to the Creator, on the ground that He was once more powerful than a servant of the Creator—since, in comparison with the weakness of Elisha, He is acknowledged to be the greater, if indeed greater!3740 3740 Si tamen major.
For the cure is the same, although there is a difference in the working of it. What has your Christ performed more than my Elisha? Nay, what great thing has the word of your Christ performed, when it has simply done that which a river of the Creator effected? On the same principle occurs all the rest. So far as renouncing all human glory went, He forbade the man to publish abroad the cure; but so far as the honour of the law was concerned, He requested that the usual course should be followed: “Go, show thyself to the priest, and present the offering which Moses commanded.”3741 3741
Edersheim Bible History
Lifetimes vii.vii Pg 51.1, Lifetimes ix.viii Pg 23.1, Lifetimes ix.viii Pg 31.1
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 2
VERSE (32) - Isa 9:2; 42:6,7; 49:6; 60:1-3,19 Mt 4:16 Ac 13:47,48; 28:28
