[1002] Another fragment from the Vatican Codex, 1611, fol. 291. See also Mai, Bibliotheca Nova, vi. 1. 165. This is given here in a longer and fuller form than in the Greek of Gallandi in his Bibliotheca, xiv., Appendix, p. 115, as we have had it presented above, and than in the Latin of Corderius in his Catena on Luke xxii. 42, etc. This text is taken from a complete codex.
[1003] dunamis.
[1004] liparos.
[1005] tou thanatou to hupsoma.
[1006] paraphereis.
[1007] ei de ouk epion auto ede kai anelosa; alla deos me hup' autou pleres epikeimenou katapotheien.
[1008] kekenomenos.
[1009] [In these allegorical interpretations we see the pupil of Origen.]
IV.--An Exposition of Luke XXII. 46, Etc. [1010]
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This prayer He also offered up Himself, falling repeatedly on His face; and on both occasions He urged His request for not entering into temptation: both when He prayed, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me;" and when He said, "Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." For He spoke of not entering into temptation, and He made that His prayer; but He did not ask that He should have no trial whatsoever in these circumstances, or [1011] that no manner of hardship should ever befall Him. For in the most general application it holds good, that it does not appear to be possible for any man to remain altogether without experience of ill: for, as one says, "The whole world lieth in wickedness;" [1012] and again, "The most of the days of man are labour and trouble," [1013] as men themselves also admit. Short is our life, and full of sorrow. Howbeit it was not meet that He should bid them pray directly that that curse might not be fulfilled, which is expressed thus: "Cursed is the ground in thy works: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;" [1014] or thus, "Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return." [1015] For which reason the Holy Scriptures, that indicate in many various ways the dire distressfulness of life, designate it as a valley of weeping. And most of all indeed is this world a scene of pain to the saints, to whom He addresses this word, and He cannot lie in uttering it: "In the world ye shall have tribulation." [1016] And to the same effect also He says by the prophet, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." [1017] But I suppose that He refers to this entering not into temptation, when He speaks in the prophet's words of being delivered out of the afflictions. For He adds, "The Lord will deliver him out of them all." And this is just in accordance with the Saviour's word, whereby He promises that they will overcome their afflictions, and that they will participate in that victory which He has won for them. For after saying, "In the world ye shall have tribulation," He added, "But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." And again, He taught them to pray that they might not fall into temptation, when He said, "And lead us not into temptation;" which means, "Suffer us not to fall into temptation." And to show that this did not imply they should not be tempted, but really that they should be delivered from the evil, He added, "But deliver us from evil." But perhaps you will say, What difference is there between being tempted, and falling or entering into temptation? Well, if one is overcome of evil--and he will be overcome unless he struggles against it himself, and unless God protects him with His shield--that man has entered into temptation, and is in it, and is brought under it like one that is led captive. But if one withstands and endures, that man is indeed tempted; but he has not entered into temptation, or fallen under it. Thus Jesus was led up of the Spirit, not indeed to enter into temptation, but "to be tempted of the devil." [1018] And Abraham, again, did not enter into temptation, neither did God lead him into temptation, but He tempted (tried) him; yet He did not drive him into temptation. The Lord Himself, moreover, tempted (tried) the disciples. And thus the wicked one, when he tempts us, draws us into the temptations, as dealing himself with the temptations of evil; but God, when He tempts (tries), adduces the temptations as one untempted of evil. For God, it is said, "cannot be tempted of evil." [1019] The devil, therefore, drives us on by violence, drawing us to destruction; but God leads us by the hand, training us for our salvation.
[1010] Another fragment, connected with the preceding on Christ's prayer in Gethsemane. Edited in a mutilated form, as given by Gallandi, in his Bibliotheca, xiv. p. 117, and here presented in its completeness, as found its the Vatican Codex 1611, f. 292, b.
[1011] Reading e for en.
[1012] 1 John v. 19.
[1013] Ps. xc. 10.
[1014] Gen. iii. 17.
[1015] Gen. iii. 19.
[1016] John xvi. 33.
[1017] Ps. xxxiv. 19.
[1018] Matt. iv. 1.
[1019] James i. 13.
V.--On John VIII. 12. [1020]
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Now this word "I am" expresses His eternal subsistence. For if He is the reflection of the eternal light, He must also be eternal Himself. For if the light subsists for ever, it is evident that the reflection also subsists for ever. And that this light subsists, is known only by its shining; neither can there be a light that does not give light. We come back, therefore, to our illustrations. If there is day, there is light; and if there is no such thing, the sun certainly cannot be present. [1021] If, therefore, the sun had been eternal, there would also have been endless day. Now, however, as it is not so, the day begins when the sun rises, and it ends when the sun sets. But God is eternal light, having neither beginning nor end. And along with Him there is the reflection, also without beginning, and everlasting. The Father, then, being eternal, the Son is also eternal, being light of light; and if God is the light, Christ is the reflection; and if God is also a Spirit, as it is written, "God is a Spirit," Christ, again, is called analogously Spirit. [1022]
[1020] A fragment. Edited from the Vatican Codex 1996, f. 78, belonging to a date somewhere about the tenth century.
[1021] Reading pollou ge dei. The text gives polu ge dei.
[1022] atmis. If this strange reading atmis is correct, there is apparently a play intended on the two words pneuma and atmis, = if God is a pneuma, which word literally signifies Wind or Air, Christ, on that analogy, may be called atmis that is to say, the Vapour or Breath of that Wind.
VI.--Of the One Substance. [1023]
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The plant that springs from the root is something distinct from that whence it grows up; and yet it is of one nature with it. And the river which flows from the fountain is something distinct from the fountain. For we cannot call either the river a fountain, or the fountain a river. Nevertheless we allow that they are both one according to nature, and also one in substance; and we admit that the fountain may be conceived of as father, and that the river is what is begotten of the fountain. [1024]
[1023] That the Son is not different from the Father in nature, but connatural and consubstantial with Him. From the Panoplia of Euthymius Zigabenus in the Cod. xix. Nanianæ Biblioth.
[1024] [See his explanations in the epistle to Dionysius p. 92, supra.]
VII.--On the Reception of the Lapsed to Penitence. [1025]
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But now we are doing the opposite. For whereas Christ, who is the good Shepherd, goes in quest of one who wanders, lost among the mountains, and calls him back when he flees from Him, and is at pains to take him up on His shoulders when He has found him, we, on the contrary, harshly spurn such a one even when He approaches us. Yet let us not consult so miserably for ourselves, and let us not in this way be driving the sword against ourselves. For when people set themselves either to do evil or to do good to others, what they do is certainly not confined to the carrying out of their will on those others; but just as they attach themselves to iniquity or to goodness, they will themselves become possessed either by divine virtues or by unbridled passions. And the former will become the followers and comrades of the good angels; and both in this world and in the other, with the enjoyment of perfect peace and immunity from all ills, they will fulfil the most blessed destinies unto all eternity, and in God's fellowship they will be for ever (in possession of) the supremest good. But these latter will fall away at once from the peace of God and from peace with themselves, and both in this world and after death they will abide with the spirits of blood-guiltiness. [1026] Wherefore let us not thrust from us those who seek a penitent return; but let us receive them gladly, and number them once more with the stedfast, and make up again what is defective in them.
[1025] A fragment, probably by the Alexandrian Dionysius. This seems to be an excerpt from his works On Penitence, three of which are mentioned by Jerome in his De Script. Eccl., ch. 69. See Mai, Classici Auctores, x. 484. It is edited here from the Vatican Codex.
[1026] tois palamnaiois daimosi. Or, with the demons of vengeance.
Note by the American Editor.
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Frequent references to Gallandi, whose collection I have been unable to inspect, the cost of the best edition being about two hundred dollars, makes it worth while to insert here, from a London book-catalogue, the following useful memoranda: "Gallandii, Cong. Orat. (Andr.) Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum Antiquorumque Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Græco-Latina; Opera silicet eorundum minora ac rariora usque ad xiii. Sæculum complexa, quorum clxxx. et amplius nec in Veteri Parisiensi, neque in postrema Lugdunensi edits sunt. Venet., 1765.
"The contents are given in Darling, col. 298-306. Of the three hundred and eighty-nine writers enumerated, it appears that nearly two hundred are not in the earlier collections.
"The contents of these great collections are, not the works of the Great Fathers, of whose writings separate editions have been published, but the works, often extensive and important, of those numerous Ecclesiastical writers whose works go, with the Greater Fathers referred to, to make up the sum of Church Patristic literature."
Julius Africanus
Julius Africanus.
Introductory Notice
to
Julius Africanus.
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[a.d. 200-232-245.] In a former volume, strengthened by a word from Archbishop Usher, [1027] I have not hesitated to claim for Theophilus of Antioch a primary place among Christian chronologists. It is no detraction from the fame of our author to admit this, and truth requires it. But the great Alexandrian school must again come into view when we speak of any considerable achievements, among early Christian writers, in this important element of all biblical, in fact, all historical, science. Africanus was a pupil of Heraclas, and we must therefore date his pupilage in Alexandria before a.d. 232, when Dionysius succeeded Heraclas in the presidency of that school. It appears that in a.d. 226 he was performing some duty in behalf of Emmaus (Nicopolis) in Palestine; but Heraclas, who had acted subordinately as Origen's assistant as early as a.d. 218, could not have become the head of the school, even provisionally, till after Origen's unhappy ordination. [1028] Let us assume the period of our author's attending the school under Heraclas to be between a.d. 228 and a.d. 232, however. We may then venture to reckon his birth as circa a.d. 200. And, if he became "bishop of Emmaus," it could hardly have been before the year 240, when he was of ripe age and experience. He adds additional lustre to the age of Gregory Thaumaturgus and Dionysius, as well as to that of their common mother in letters and theology, the already ancient academy of Pantænus and of Clement. His reviving credit in modern times has been largely due to the learned criticism of Dr. Routh, to whose edition of these Fragments the student must necessarily apply. Their chief interest arises from the important specimen which treats of the difficult question of the genealogies of our Lord contained in the evangelists. For a succinct statement of the points involved, and for a candid concession that they were not preserved to meet what modern curiosity would prefer to see established, I know of nothing more satisfactory than the commentary of Wordsworth, [1029] from which I have borrowed almost wholly one of my elucidations.
The reader will remember the specimen of our author's critical judgment which is given with the works of Origen. [1030] He differed with that great author, and the Church Catholic has sustained his judgment as just. I regret that the Edinburgh editors thought it necessary to make the Letter to Origen concerning the Apocryphal Book of Susannah a mere preface to Origen's answer. It might have been quoted there as a preface; but it is too important not to be included here, with the other fragments of his noble contributions to primitive Christian literature.