Anf-01 ix.iv.xi Pg 36
The Greek of this passage in St. Mark i. 2 reads, τὰς τρίβους αὐτοῦ, i.e., His paths, which varies from the Hebrew original, to which the text of Irenæus seems to revert, unless indeed his copy of the Gospels contained the reading of the Codex Bezæ. [See book iii. cap. xii. 3, 14, below; also, xiv. 2 and xxiii. 3. On this Codex, see Burgon, Revision Revised, p. 12, etc., and references.]
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make the paths straight before our God.” Plainly does the commencement of the Gospel quote the words of the holy prophets, and point out Him at once, whom they confessed as God and Lord; Him, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had also made promise to Him, that He would send His messenger before His face, who was John, crying in the wilderness, in “the spirit and power of Elias,”3425 3425
Anf-03 iv.ix.ix Pg 55
Mal. iii. 1: comp. Matt. xi. 10; Mark i. 2; Luke vii. 27.
Nor is it a novel practice to the Holy Spirit to call those “angels” whom God has appointed as ministers of His power. For the same John is called not merely an “angel” of Christ, but withal a “lamp” shining before Christ: for David predicts, “I have prepared the lamp for my Christ;”1299 1299
Anf-02 vi.ii.i Pg 29.1
Anf-03 iv.ix.ix Pg 59
Comp. reference 8, p. 232; and Isa. xl. 3; John i. 23.
but withal, by pointing out “the Lamb of God,”1303 1303
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxiii Pg 33
Isa. xl. 3.
and as about to come for the purpose of terminating thenceforth the course of the law and the prophets; by their fulfilment and not their extinction, and in order that the kingdom of God might be announced by Christ, He therefore purposely added the assurance that the elements would more easily pass away than His words fail; affirming, as He did, the further fact, that what He had said concerning John had not fallen to the ground.
