12. And when he finished his words, he said: I charge you, my children, carry up my bones out of Egypt, and bury me at Hebron, near my fathers. So Benjamin died a hundred and twenty-five years old, in a good old age, and they placed him in a coffin. And in the ninety-first year of the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt, they and their brethren brought up the bones of their fathers secretly in a place which is called Canaan; and they buried them in Hebron, by the feet of their fathers. And they returned from the land of Canaan, and dwelt in Egypt until the day of their departing from the land of Egypt.
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[185] The ordinary theory as to the meaning of Benjamin is comparatively late, and seems doubtful. The Targum Jerushalmi (on Gen. xxxv. 18), and the Breshith Rabba, § 82, make Benjamin and Benoni synonymous. Cf. Josephus, Antiq., i. 21. 3; Cyril, Glaph. in Gen., lib. iv. With the view mentioned in the text, cf. Arethas on Rev. vii. 8 (Cramer's Catena, viii. 289).
[186] This would seem to be the earliest instance of the application of the word anamartetos to our Lord.
[187] [How could any Christian more fully testify to the Nicene Faith? So the Gloria in Excelsis.]
[188] [Matt. vi. 22; Luke xi. 34.]
[189] For heptakosiois etesin the Ox. ms. reads simply hepta.
[190] This would seem to be the meaning of protos naos.
[191] [Rev. xx. 5, 6. See p. 25, note 4, supra.]
[192] Gen. xlix. 27. This passage, referring to St. Paul (who was of the tribe of Benjamin, Rom. xi. 1; Phil. iii. 5), is quoted by Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem, v. 1. [See vol. iii. p. 430, this series.]
[193] Compare Scorpiace, cap. 13 [with reference to Gen. xxv. 34 and xxvii. 25, vol. iii. p. 646, this series. Lardner adds Origen, Hom. in Ezech., iv. tom. iii. p. 731; Theodoret, in Gen. Quæst., cx. tom. i. p. 77; and Augustine, Serm., 279 (and passim), tom. v. ed. Benedict.].
[194] ["Mel in ore, melos in aure, melodia in corde."--St. Bernard.]
Note by the American Editor.
I had prepared annotations for these pages which I find will require more space than this overloaded volume can afford. Let me indicate some sources of information which the student may find convenient. Thus, in Liddon's Bampton Lecture (4th ed., London, 1869), consult p. 71 for remarks on Philo and Alexandrian Jews; see also p. 91. Concerning the "Book of Enoch," pp. 7 and 302; see Westcott, Study of the Gospels (London, 1867), p. 109, a reference to the Book of Jubilees, and its lack of reference to Messiah. See Jewish doctrine of the Messiah, pp. 86, 143, 151; the "Book of Henoch," pp. 69, 93, 101; apocryphal words of Jews, p. 428. He places the "Book of Henoch" earlier than the "Book of Jubilees," and the Twelve Patriarchs after that. Compare Westcott's Historic Faith (London, 1883), a quotation from Goldwin Smith, on "the blood of Christ," note 8, p. 237.
I cannot forbear to note, among useful suggestions in these Testaments, that (on p. 11) of the share of Simeon in the persecution of Joseph. It explains the real purpose of Joseph in selecting Simeon as the hostage to be left in Egypt (Gen. xlii. 21-24.) Joseph heard the mutual reproaches of his brothers, and foresaw that Simeon would be made to suffer as most guilty: so he was withdrawn. Again, a like anxiety (Gen. xlv. 2) appears when Simeon was sent back with them to his father. Other suggestions may be noted as substantially illustrating the sacred narrative.
Excerpts of Theodotus
Excerpts of Theodotus;
or,
Selections from the Prophetic Scriptures.
[Translated by the Rev. William Wilson, M.A.]
Introductory Notice
to
Excerpts of Theodotus; or, Selections from the Prophetic Scriptures.
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We may thank Mr. Wilson, the translator, for separating this collection, absolutely, from the works of Clement of Alexandria, to which it has been made an appendix. The reference to "our Pantænus" gives the only colour for such a collocation with so great a name. It is the work of a Montanist, perhaps, who may have had some relations with the Alexandrian school; but it is hard to say precisely who of three or four named Theodotus (all heretics), may have made the compilation, more especially because disjointed and contradictory fragments seem mixed up in it as it is commonly edited. Dupin (perhaps too readily copying Valesius) appears to think Clement may have been the compiler, but that, like the Hypotyposes, the work was the product of days when he was imperfectly educated in Christian truth. It seems to me more reasonable to conclude that these excerpts, and what goes by the name of Fragments from the Hypotyposes, are alike corrupt or forged documents, for which Clement's name has been borrowed, to give them some credit; and I can desire no better authority for this opinion than that of Jeremiah Jones, with the arguments to be found in his learned work on the Canon. [195]
The wretched performance, therefore, is valuable chiefly as illustrating certain heresies of the second century; but, incidentally, it is of considerable importance as confirming the orthodox writers in those books and doctrines to which it bears witness in coincidence with them.
I regret that the Edinburgh editors give us not a line of information as to their estimate of these extracts, or concerning authorship and like matters of interest and natural curiosity.
[195] Vol. i. pp. 371-376. These Selections are often quoted as "Eclogues."
Excerpts of Theodotus; [196]
or,
Selections from the Prophetic Scriptures. [197]
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I. Those around Sedrach, Misak, and Abednago in the furnace of fire say as they praise God, "Bless, ye heavens, the Lord; praise and exalt Him for ever;" then, "Bless, ye angels, the Lord;" then, "Bless the Lord, all ye waters that are above heaven." So the Scriptures assign the heavens and the waters to the class of pure powers [198] as is shown in Genesis. Suitably, then, inasmuch as "power" is used with a variety of meaning, Daniel adds, "Let every power bless the Lord;" then, further, "Bless the Lord, sun and moon;" and, "Bless the Lord, ye stars of heaven. Bless the Lord, all ye that worship Him; praise and confess the God of gods, for His mercy is for ever." It is written in Daniel, on the occasion of the three children praising in the furnace.
II. "Blessed art Thou, who lookest on the abysses as Thou sittest on the cherubim," says Daniel, in agreement with Enoch, [199] who said, "And I saw all sorts of matter." For the abyss, which is in its essence boundless, is bounded by the power of God. These material essences then, from which the separate genera and their species are produced, are called abysses; since you would not call the water alone the abyss, although matter is allegorically called water, the abyss.
III. "In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth," [200] both terrestrial and celestial things. And that this is true, the Lord said to Osee, "Go, take to thyself a wife of fornication, and children of fornication: because the land committing fornication, shall commit fornication, departing from the Lord." [201] For it is not the element of earth that he speaks of, but those that dwell in the element, those who have an earthly disposition.
IV. And that the Son is the beginning [202] or head, Hosea teaches clearly: "And it shall be, that in the place in which it was said to them, Ye are not my people, they shall be called the children of the living God: and the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered to the same place, and they shall place over them one head, [203] and they shall come up out of the land; for great is the day of Jezreel." [204] For whom one believes, him He chooses. But one believes the Son, who is the head; wherefore also he said in addition: "But I will have mercy on the sons of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God." [205] Now the Saviour who saves is the Son of God. He is then the head. [206]
V. The Spirit by Osee says, "I am your Instructor;" [207] "Blow ye [208] the trumpet upon the hills of the Lord; sound upon the high places." [209] And is not baptism itself, which is the sign of regeneration, an escape from matter, by the teaching of the Saviour, a great impetuous stream, ever rushing on and bearing us along? The Lord accordingly, leading us out of disorder, illumines us by bringing us into the light, which is shadowless and is material no longer.
VI. This river and sea of matter two prophets [210] cut asunder and divided by the power of the Lord, the matter being bounded, through both divisions of the water. Famous leaders both, by whom the signs were believed, they complied with the will of God, so that the righteous man may proceed from matter, having journeyed through it first. On the one of these commanders also was imposed the name of our Saviour. [211]
VII. Now, regeneration is by water and spirit, as was all creation: "For the Spirit of God moved on the abyss." [212] And for this reason the Saviour was baptized, though not Himself needing [213] to be so, in order that He might consecrate the whole water for those who were being regenerated. Thus it is not the body only, but the soul, that we cleanse. It is accordingly a sign of the sanctifying of our invisible part, and of the straining off from the new and spiritual creation of the unclean spirits that have got mixed up with the soul.
VIII. "The water above the heaven." Since baptism is performed by water and the Spirit as a protection against the twofold fire,--that which lays hold of what is visible, and that which lays hold of what is invisible; and of necessity, there being an immaterial element of water and a material, is it a protection against the twofold [214] fire. And the earthly water cleanses the body; but the heavenly water, by reason of its being immaterial and invisible, is an emblem of the Holy Spirit, who is the purifier of what is invisible, as the water of the Spirit, as the other of the body.
IX. God, out of goodness, hath mingled fear with goodness. For what is beneficial for each one, that He also supplies, as a physician to a sick man, as a father to his insubordinate child: "For he that spareth his rod hateth his son." [215] And the Lord and His apostles walked in the midst of fear and labours. When, then, the affliction is sent in the person of a righteous man, [216] it is either from the Lord rebuking him for a sin committed before, or guarding him on account of the future, or not preventing by the exercise of His power an assault from without, [217] --for some good end to him and to those near, for the sake of example.
X. Now those that dwell in a corrupt body, like those who sail in an old ship, do not lie on their back, but are ever praying, stretching their hands to God.
XI. The ancients were exceedingly distressed, unless they had always some suffering in the body. For they were afraid, that if they received not in this world the punishment of the sins which, in numbers through ignorance, accompany those that are in the flesh, they would in the other world suffer the penalty all at once. So that they preferred curative treatment here. What is to be dreaded is, then, not external disease, but sins, for which disease comes, and disease of the soul, not of the body: "For all flesh is grass," [218] and corporeal and external good things are temporary; "but the things which are unseen are eternal." [219]
XII. As to knowledge, some elements of it we already possess; others, by what we do possess, we firmly hope to attain. For neither have we attained all, nor do we lack all. But we have received, as it were, an earnest of the eternal blessings, and of the ancestral riches. The provisions for the Lord's way are the Lord's beatitudes. For He said: "Seek," and anxiously seek, "the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you: for the Father knoweth what things ye have need of." [220] Thus He limits not only our occupations, but our cares. For He says: "Ye cannot, by taking thought, add aught to your stature." [221] For God knows well what it is good for us to have and what to want. He wishes, therefore, that we, emptying ourselves of worldly cares, should be filled with that which is directed towards God. "For we groan, desiring to be clothed upon with that which is incorruptible, before putting off corruption." For when faith is shed abroad, unbelief is nonplussed. Similarly also with knowledge and righteousness. We must therefore not only empty the soul, but fill it with God. For no longer is there evil in it, since that has been made to cease; nor yet is there good, since it has not yet received good. But what is neither good nor evil is nothing. "For to the swept and empty house return," [222] if none of the blessings of salvation has been put in, the unclean spirit that dwelt there before, taking with him seven other unclean spirits. Wherefore, after emptying the soul of what is evil, we must fill with the good God that which is His chosen dwelling-place. For when the empty rooms are filled, then follows the seal, that the sanctuary may be guarded for God.