XVIII.
(For Christ is the God, p. 153.)
Dr. Wordsworth justly censures Bunsen for his rendering of this passage, [1134] also for manufacturing for Hippolytus a "Confession of Faith" out of his tenth book. [1135] I must refer the student to that all-important chapter in Dr. Wordsworth's work (cap. xi.) on the "Development of Christian Doctrine." It is masterly, as against Dr. Newman, as well; and the respectful justice which he renders at the same time to Dr. Bunsen is worthy of all admiration. Let it be noted, that, while one must be surprised by the ready command of literary and theological materials which the learned doctor and chevalier brings into instantaneous use for his work, it is hardly less surprising, in spite of all that, that he was willing to throw off his theories and strictures, without any delay, during the confusions of that memorable year 1851, when I had the honour of meeting him among London notabilities. He says to his "dearest friend, Archdeacon Hare,...Dr. Tregelles informed me last week of the appearance of the work (of Hippolytus)...I procured a copy in consequence, and perused it as soon as I could; and I have already arrived at conclusions which seem to me so evident that I feel no hesitation in expressing them to you at once." These conclusions were creditable to his acumen and learning in general; eminently so. But the theories he had so hastily conceived, in other particulars, crop out in so many crudities of theological caprice, that nobody should try to study his theoretical opinions without the aid of that calm reviewal they have received from Dr. Wordsworth's ripe and sober scholarship and well-balanced intellect.
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[1109] I venture to state this to encourage young students to keep pen in hand in all their researches, and always to make notes.
[1110] Pompey and others were called imperatores before the Cæsars, but who includes them with the Roman emperors?
[1111] How St. Peter would regard it, see 1 Pet. v. 1-3. I am sorry to find Dr. Schaff, in his useful compilation, History of the Christian Church, vol. ii. p 166, dropping into the old ruts of fable, after sufficiently proving just before, what I have maintained. He speaks of "the insignificance of the first Popes,"--meaning the early Bishops of Rome, men who minded their own business, but could not have been "insignificant" had they even imagined themselves "Popes."
[1112] See Bossuet, passim, and all the Gallican doctors down to our own times. In England the "supremacy" was never acknowledged, nor in France, until now.
[1113] See his Hippol., vol. i. pp. 209, 311.
[1114] See vol. ii. p. 298, this series.
[1115] p. 207.
[1116] Vol. iv. p 114, Elucidation II., this series.
[1117] Even Quinet notes this. See his Ultramontanism, p. 40, ed. 1845.
[1118] Bunsen gives it as the thirty-fifth, vol. i. p. 311.
[1119] Of which we shall learn in vol. viii., this series.
[1120] See Bingham, book ix. cap. i. sec. 9.
[1121] Wordsworth, chap. viii. p. 93.
[1122] See vol. i. pp. 415, 460, this series.
[1123] Introduction to Greek Classics, p. 228.
[1124] See vol. ii. p. 12, also iv. 210.
[1125] See Treatise on the Lapsed, infra.
[1126] Ver. 17.
[1127] See p. v. supra.
[1128] Ps. cvi. 30-31.
[1129] 2 Thess. ii. 8.
[1130] Bunsen, p. 134; Theodor., tom. iv. pt. i. p. 343, ed. Hal. 1772.
[1131] St. Hippol., p. 315.
[1132] tartarosas, 2 Pet. ii. 4. A sufficient answer to Dr. Bunsen, vol. iv. p. 33, who says this Epistle was not known to the primitive Church.
[1133] See Speaker's Comm., ad loc.
[1134] St. Hippol., p. 301, with original text.
[1135] Vol. i. p. 141, etc.
General Note.
I avail myself of a little spare space to add, from Michelet's friend, E. Quinet, [1136] the passage to which I have made a reference on p. 156. Let me say, however, that Quinet and Michelet are specimens of that intellectual revolt against Roman dogma which is all but universal in Europe in our day, and of which the history of M. Renan is a melancholy exposition. To Quinet, with all his faults, belongs the credit of having more thoroughly understood than any theological writer the absolute revolution created by the Council of Trent; and he justly remarks that the Jesuits showed their address "in making this revolution, without anywhere speaking of it." Hence a dull world has not observed it. Contrasting this pseudo-council with the free councils of antiquity, M. Quinet says: "The Council of Trent has not its roots in all nations; it does not assemble about it the representatives of all nations...omni plebe adstante, according to the ancient formula...The East and the North are, almost equally, wanting; and this is why the king of France refused it the title of a council." He quotes noble passages from Bossuet. [1137]
[1136] A translation of Quinet, on Ultramontanism, appeared in London in a semi-infidel series, 1845.
[1137] See pp. 40, 47.
hippolytus fragments anf05 hippolytus-fragments The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus /ccel/schaff/anf05.iii.iv.html
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus
The Extant Works and Fragments
of
Hippolytus.
[Translated by the Rev. S. D. F. Salmond.]
------------------------
Part I.--Exegetical.
Fragments from Commentaries on Various Books of Scripture.
On the Hexaëmeron, [1138] Or Six Days' Work.
Now these things we are under the necessity of setting forth at length, in order to disprove the supposition of others. For some choose to maintain that paradise is in heaven, and forms no part of the system of creation. But since we see with our eyes the rivers that go forth from it which are open, indeed, even in our day, to the inspection of any who choose, let every one conclude from this that it did not belong to heaven, but was in reality planted in the created system. And, in truth, it is a locality in the east, and a place select.
[1138] In John Damasc., Sacr. Parall., Works, ii. p. 787. That Hippolytus wrote on the Hexaëmeron is noticed by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., vi. 22, and by Jerome, Syncellus, Honorius, etc.
On Genesis. [1139]
Gen. i. 5 And it was evening, and it was morning, one day.
Hippolytus. He did not say [1140] "night and day," but "one day," with reference to the name of the light. He did not say the "first day;" for if he had said the "first" day, he would also have had to say that the "second" day was made. But it was right to speak not of the "first day," but of "one day," in order that by saying "one," he might show that it returns on its orbit and, while it remains one, makes up the week.
Gen. i. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water.
Hipp. On the first day God made what He made out of nothing. But on the other days He did not make out of nothing, but out of what He had made on the first day, by moulding it according to His pleasure.
Gen. i. 6, 7. And let it divide between water and water: and it was so. And God made the firmament; and God divided between the water which was under the firmament, and the water above the firmament: and it was so.
Hipp. As the excessive volume of water bore along over the face of the earth, the earth was by reason thereof "invisible" and "formless." When the Lord of all designed to make the invisible visible, He fixed then a third part of the waters in the midst; and another third part He set by itself on high, raising it together with the firmament by His own power; and the remaining third He left beneath, for the use and benefit of men. Now at [1141] this point we have an asterisk. The words are found in the Hebrew, but do not occur in the Septuagint.
Gen. iii. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden at even.
Hipp. Rather they discerned the approach of the Lord by a certain breeze. As soon, therefore, as they had sinned, God appeared to them, producing consciousness of their sin, and calling them to repentance.
Gen. xlix. 3 Reuben, my first-born, thou art my strength, and the first of my children; hard to bear with, and hard and self-willed: thou hast waxed wanton as water; boil not over. [1142]
Aquila. Reuben, my first-born, thou art my strength, and the sum of my sorrow: excelling in dignity and excelling in might: thou hast been insensate as water; excel not. [1143]
Symmachus. Reuben, my first-born, and beginning of my [1144] pain: above measure grasping, and above measure hot as water, thou shalt not more excel. [1145]
Hipp. For there was a great display of strength made by God in behalf of His first-born people from Egypt. For in very many ways was the land of the Egyptians chastised. That first people of the circumcision is meant by "my strength, and the first of my children:" even as God gave the promise to Abraham and to his seed. But "hard to bear with," because the people hardened itself against the obedience of God. And "hard, self-willed," because it was not only hard against the obedience of God, but also self-willed so as to set upon the Lord. "Thou hast waxed wanton," because in the instance of our Lord Jesus Christ the people waxed wanton against the Father. But "boil not over," says the Spirit, by way of comfort, that it might not, by boiling utterly over, be spilt abroad,--giving it hope of salvation. For what has boiled over and been spilt is lost.
Gen. xlix. 4 For thou wentest up to thy father's bed.
Hipp. First he mentions the event,--that in the last days the people will assault the bed of the Father, that is, the bride, [1146] the Church, with intent to corrupt her; which thing, indeed, it does even at this present day, assaulting her by blasphemies.
Gen. xlix. 5. Simeon and Levi, brethren.
Hipp. Since from Simeon sprang the scribes, and from Levi the priests. For the scribes and priests fulfilled iniquity [1147] of their own choice, and with one mind they slew the Lord.
Gen. xlix. 5 Simeon and Levi, brethren, fulfilled iniquity of their own choice. Into their counsel let not my soul enter, and in their assembly let not my heart contend; for in their anger they slew men, and in their passion they houghed a bull.
Hipp. This he says regarding the conspiracy into which they were to enter against the Lord. And that he means this conspiracy, is evident to us. For the blessed David sings, "Rulers have taken counsel together against the Lord," [1148] and so forth. And of this conspiracy the Spirit prophesied, saying, "Let not my soul contend," desiring to draw them off, if possible, so that that future crime might not happen through them. "They slew men, and houghed the bull;" by the "strong bull" he means Christ. And "they houghed," since, when He was suspended on the tree, they pierced through His sinews. Again, "in their anger they houghed a bull." And mark the nicety of the expression: for "they slew men, and houghed a bull." For they killed the saints, and they remain dead, awaiting the time of the resurrection. But as a young bull, so to speak, when houghed, sinks down to the ground, such was Christ in submitting voluntarily to the death of the flesh; but He was not overcome of death. But though as man He became one of the dead, He remained alive in the nature of divinity. For Christ is the bull,--an animal, above all, strong and neat and devoted to sacred use. And the Son is Lord of all power, who did no sin, but rather offered Himself for us, a savour of a sweet smell to His God and Father. Therefore let those hear who houghed this august bull: "Cursed be their anger, for it was stubborn; and their wrath, for it was hardened." [1149] But this people of the Jews dared to boast of houghing the bull: "Our hands shed this." [1150] For this is nothing different, I think, from the word of folly: "His blood" (be upon us), and so forth. [1151] Moses recalls [1152] the curse against Levi, or, rather converts it into a blessing, on account of the subsequent zeal of the tribe, and of Phinehas in particular, in behalf of God. But that against Simeon he did not recall. Wherefore it also was fulfilled in deed. [1153] For Simeon did not obtain an inheritance like the other tribes, for he dwelt in the midst of Judah. Yet his tribe was preserved, although it was small in number. [1154]
Gen. xlix. 11 Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt to the choice vine,--the tendril of the vine,--he will wash his garment in wine, and his clothes in the blood of the grape.
Hipp. By the "foal" he means the calling of the Gentiles; by the other, that of the circumcision: "one ass," moreover, that is to signify that the two colts are of one faith; in other words, the two callings. And one colt is bound to the "vine," and the other to the "vine tendril," which means that the Church of the Gentiles is bound to the Lord, but he who is of the circumcision to the oldness of the law. "He will wash his garment in wine;" that is, by the Holy Spirit and the word of truth, he will cleanse the flesh, which is meant by the garment. And "in the blood of the grape," trodden and giving forth blood, which means the flesh of the Lord, he cleanses the whole calling of the Gentiles.