Anf-01 ix.vi.xxxiii Pg 4
Gen. i. 3.
and as we read in the Gospel, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was nothing made;”4245 4245
Anf-02 vi.iv.v.xiv Pg 17.1
Anf-03 v.iv.iii.iv Pg 8
Gen. i.
not as if He were ignorant of the good until He saw it; but because it was good, He therefore saw it, and honoured it, and set His seal upon it; and consummated2745 2745 Dispungens, i.e., examinans et probans et ita quasi consummans (Oehler).
the goodness of His works by His vouchsafing to them that contemplation. Thus God blessed what He made good, in order that He might commend Himself to you as whole and perfect, good both in word and act.2746 2746 This twofold virtue is very tersely expressed: “Sic et benedicebat quæ benefaciebat.”
As yet the Word knew no malediction, because He was a stranger to malefaction.2747 2747 This, the translator fears, is only a clumsy way of representing the terseness of our author’s “maledicere” and “malefacere.”
We shall see what reasons required this also of God. Meanwhile the world consisted of all things good, plainly foreshowing how much good was preparing for him for whom all this was provided. Who indeed was so worthy of dwelling amongst the works of God, as he who was His own image and likeness? That image was wrought out by a goodness even more operative than its wont,2748 2748 Bonitas et quidem operantior.
with no imperious word, but with friendly hand preceded by an almost affable2749 2749 Blandiente.
utterance: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”2750 2750
Anf-03 v.iv.vi.xi Pg 44
Gen. i. 3.
And who was it that said to Christ concerning giving light to the world: “I have set Thee as a light to the Gentiles”5721 5721
Anf-03 v.v.iii Pg 12
Gen. i. 3, etc.
but nowhere do we yet find the Lord. But when He completed the whole creation, and especially man himself, who was destined to understand His sovereignty in a way of special propriety, He then is designated6161 6161 Cognominatur: as if by way of surname, Deus Dominus.
Lord. Then also the Scripture added the name Lord: “And the Lord God, Deus Dominus, took the man, whom He had formed;”6162 6162
Anf-03 v.ix.vii Pg 4
Gen. i. 3.
This is the perfect nativity of the Word, when He proceeds forth from God—formed7825 7825 Conditus. [See Theophilus To Autolycus, cap. x. note 1, p. 98, Vol. II. of this series. Also Ibid. p. 103, note 5. On the whole subject, Bp. Bull, Defensio Fid. Nicænæ. Vol. V. pp. 585–592.]
by Him first to devise and think out all things under the name of Wisdom—“The Lord created or formed7826 7826 Condidit.
me as the beginning of His ways;”7827 7827
Anf-03 v.ix.xii Pg 6
Gen. i. 3.
Immediately there appears the Word, “that true light, which lighteth man on his coming into the world,”7898 7898
Anf-03 v.iv.iii.iv Pg 8
Gen. i.
not as if He were ignorant of the good until He saw it; but because it was good, He therefore saw it, and honoured it, and set His seal upon it; and consummated2745 2745 Dispungens, i.e., examinans et probans et ita quasi consummans (Oehler).
the goodness of His works by His vouchsafing to them that contemplation. Thus God blessed what He made good, in order that He might commend Himself to you as whole and perfect, good both in word and act.2746 2746 This twofold virtue is very tersely expressed: “Sic et benedicebat quæ benefaciebat.”
As yet the Word knew no malediction, because He was a stranger to malefaction.2747 2747 This, the translator fears, is only a clumsy way of representing the terseness of our author’s “maledicere” and “malefacere.”
We shall see what reasons required this also of God. Meanwhile the world consisted of all things good, plainly foreshowing how much good was preparing for him for whom all this was provided. Who indeed was so worthy of dwelling amongst the works of God, as he who was His own image and likeness? That image was wrought out by a goodness even more operative than its wont,2748 2748 Bonitas et quidem operantior.
with no imperious word, but with friendly hand preceded by an almost affable2749 2749 Blandiente.
utterance: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”2750 2750
Anf-03 v.v.xxix Pg 18
Gen. i. 9.
“Appear,” says He, not “be made.” It had been already made, only in its invisible condition it was then waiting6415 6415 Sustinebat: i.e. expectabat (Oehler).
to appear. “Dry,” because it was about to become such by its severance from the moisture, but yet “land.” “And God called the dry land Earth,”6416 6416
Anf-03 v.v.xxix Pg 27
Gen. i. 9.
Why does He command it to appear, if it were not previously invisible? His purpose was also, that He might thus prevent His having made it in vain, by rendering it visible, and so fit for use. And thus, throughout, proofs arise to us that this earth which we inhabit is the very same which was both created and formed6424 6424 Ostensam: “manifested” (see note 10, p. 96.)
by God, and that none other was “Without form, and void,” than that which had been created and formed. It therefore follows that the sentence, “Now the earth was without form, and void,” applies to that same earth which God mentioned separately along with the heaven.6425 6425
Anf-01 ix.iii.iii Pg 11
Ps. xxxiii. 9, Ps. cxlviii. 5.
Whom, therefore, shall we believe as to the creation of the world—these heretics who have been mentioned that prate so foolishly and inconsistently on the subject, or the disciples of the Lord, and Moses, who was both a faithful servant of God and a prophet? He at first narrated the formation of the world in these words: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,”2996 2996
Anf-02 vi.iv.i.xvi Pg 4.1
Npnf-201 iii.vi.ii Pg 14
Npnf-201 iii.xvi.iv Pg 60
Anf-01 ix.viii.xxxiv Pg 3
2 Kings v. 14.
It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but [it served] as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: “Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”4856 4856
Anf-03 v.iv.v.ix Pg 17
Compare 2 Kings v. 9–; 14 with Luke iv. 27.
this fact contributes nothing to the distinction of Christ, as if he were in this way the better one for cleansing this Israelite leper, although a stranger to him, whom his own Lord had been unable to cleanse. The cleansing of the Syrian rather3726 3726 Facilius—rather than of Israelites.
was significant throughout the nations of the world3727 3727 Per Nationes. [Bishop Andrewes thus classifies the “Sins of the Nations,” as Tertullian’s idea seems to have suggested: (1) Pride, Amorite; (2) Envy, Hittite; (3) Wrath, Perizzite; (4) Gluttony, Girgashite; (5) Lechery, Hivite; (6) Covetousness, Canaanite; (7) Sloth, Jebusite.]
of their own cleansing in Christ their light,3728 3728
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 5
VERSE (13) - Ge 1:3,9 Ps 33:9 2Ki 5:10,14 Eze 36:25-27,29 Ho 14:4
