[1101] Dæmons. Gr. daimon, which some hold to = daemon, "knowing," "skilful," in which case it would come to be used of any superhuman intelligence; others, again, derive from daio, "to divide, distribute," in which case it would mean a distributor of destinies; which latter derivation and meaning Liddell and Scott incline to.
[1102] Actum: or "career."
[1103] Mundi.
[1104] i.e., till his time.
[1105] Pareretur. As the word seems to be used here with reference to his father, this, although not by any means a usual meaning, would seem to be the sense. [As in the equivalent Greek.]
[1106] A Cretibus, hominibus natis. The force seems to be in the absurdity of supposing that, 1st, there should be human beings (hominibus) born, (as Jupiter is said to have been "born,") already existing at the time of the "birth" of "the highest god;" 2ndly, that these should have had the power to do him so essential service as to conceal him from the search of his own father, likewise a mighty deity, by the simple expedient of rattling their arms.
[1107] See Hom. Il. ii. 446-9; but Homer says there were 100 such tassels.
[1108] Oehler's "virginis" must mean "virgines."
[1109] So Scott: "He drave my cows last Fastern's night."--Lay of Last Minstrel.
[1110] See Acts xxvi. 26.
[1111] Latitatio.
[1112] i.e., Western: here=Italian, as being west of Greece.
[1113] Latina.
[1114] See Virg. Æn. viii. 319-323: see also Ov. Fast. i. 234-238.
[1115] Oehler does not mark this as a question. If we follow him, we may render, "this can find belief." Above, it seemed necessary to introduce the parenthetical words to make some sense. The Latin is throughout very clumsy and incoherent.
[1116] Orbis.
[1117] Lex Cornelia transgressi foederis ammissum novis exemplis novi coitus sacrilegum damnaret. After consulting Dr. Holmes, I have rendered, but not without hesitation, as above. "Foedus" seems to have been technically used, especially in later Latin, of the marriage compact; but what "lex Cornelia" is meant I have sought vainly to discover, and whether "lex Cornelia transgressi foederis" ought not to go together I am not sure. For "ammissum" (=admissum) Migne's ed. reads "amissum," a very different word. For "sacrilegus" with a genitive, see de Res. Carn, c. xlii. med.
[1118] Quid putatur (Oehler) putatus (Migne).
[1119] Or, "feeling"--"sensu."
[1120] The Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux.
[1121] Perhaps Ægipana (marginal reading of the ms. as given in Oehler and Migne).
[1122] i.e., Bacchus.
[1123] Oehler reads "vide etem;" but Migne's "viventem" seems better: indeed, Oehler's is probably a misprint. The punctuation of this treatise in Oehler is very faulty throughout, and has been disregarded.
[1124] "Immensum," rendered "incomprehensible" in the "Athanasian Creed.
Elucidation.
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This Fragment is noted as spurious, by Oehler who attributes it to somebody only moderately acquainted with Tertullian's style and teaching. [1125] I do not find it mentioned by Dupin, nor by Routh. This translation is by Thelwall.
[1125] See page 14, supra.
tertullian jews_answer anf03 tertullian-jews_answer An Answer to the Jews /ccel/schaff/anf03.iv.ix.html
An Answer to the Jews
VII.
An Answer to the Jews. [1126]
[Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.]
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Chapter I.--Occasion of Writing. Relative Position of Jews and Gentiles Illustrated.
It happened very recently a dispute was held between a Christian and a Jewish proselyte. Alternately with contentious cable they each spun out the day until evening. By the opposing din, moreover, of some partisans of the individuals, truth began to be overcast by a sort of cloud. It was therefore our pleasure that that which, owing to the confused noise of disputation, could be less fully elucidated point by point, should be more carefully looked into, and that the pen should determine, for reading purposes, the questions handled.
For the occasion, indeed, of claiming Divine grace even for the Gentiles derived a pre-eminent fitness from this fact, that the man who set up to vindicate God's Law as his own was of the Gentiles, and not a Jew "of the stock of the Israelites." [1127] For this fact--that Gentiles are admissible to God's Law--is enough to prevent Israel from priding himself on the notion that "the Gentiles are accounted as a little drop of a bucket," or else as "dust out of a threshing-floor:" [1128] although we have God Himself as an adequate engager and faithful promiser, in that He promised to Abraham that "in his seed should be blest all nations of the earth;" [1129] and that [1130] out of the womb of Rebecca "two peoples and two nations were about to proceed," [1131] --of course those of the Jews, that is, of Israel; and of the Gentiles, that is ours. Each, then, was called a people and a nation; lest, from the nuncupative appellation, any should dare to claim for himself the privilege of grace. For God ordained "two peoples and two nations" as about to proceed out of the womb of one woman: nor did grace [1132] make distinction in the nuncupative appellation, but in the order of birth; to the effect that, which ever was to be prior in proceeding from the womb, should be subjected to "the less," that is, the posterior. For thus unto Rebecca did God speak: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be divided from thy bowels; and people shall overcome people, and the greater shall serve the less." [1133] Accordingly, since the people or nation of the Jews is anterior in time, and "greater" through the grace of primary favour in the Law, whereas ours is understood to be "less" in the age of times, as having in the last era of the world [1134] attained the knowledge of divine mercy: beyond doubt, through the edict of the divine utterance, the prior and "greater" people--that is, the Jewish--must necessarily serve the "less;" and the "less" people--that is, the Christian--overcome the "greater." For, withal, according to the memorial records of the divine Scriptures, the people of the Jews--that is, the more ancient--quite forsook God, and did degrading service to idols, and, abandoning the Divinity, was surrendered to images; while "the people" said to Aaron, "Make us gods to go before us." [1135] And when the gold out of the necklaces of the women and the rings of the men had been wholly smelted by fire, and there had come forth a calf-like head, to this figment Israel with one consent (abandoning God) gave honour, saying, "These are the gods who brought us from the land of Egypt." [1136] For thus, in the later times in which kings were governing them, did they again, in conjunction with Jeroboam, worship golden kine, and groves, and enslave themselves to Baal. [1137] Whence is proved that they have ever been depicted, out of the volume of the divine Scriptures, as guilty of the crime of idolatry; whereas our "less"--that is, posterior--people, quitting the idols which formerly it used slavishly to serve, has been converted to the same God from whom Israel, as we have above related, had departed. [1138] For thus has the "less"--that is, posterior--people overcome the "greater people," while it attains the grace of divine favour, from which Israel has been divorced.
[1126] [This treatise was written while our author was a Catholic. This seems to me the best supported of the theories concerning it. Let us accept Pamelius, for once and date it a.d. 198. Dr. Allix following Baronius, will have it as late as a.d. 208. Neander thinks the work, after the quotation from Isaiah in the beginning of chapter ninth, is not our author's, but was finished by another hand, clumsily annexing what is said on the same chapter of Isaiah in the Third Book against Marcion. It is only slightly varied. Bp. Kaye admits the very striking facts instanced by Neander, in support of this theory, but demolishes, with a word any argument drawn from thence that the genuine work was written after the author's lapse. This treatise is sufficiently annotated by Thelwall, and covers ground elsewhere gone over in this Series. My own notes are therefore very few.]
[1127] Comp. Phil. iii. 5.
[1128] See Isa. xl. 15: "dust of the balance," Eng. Ver.; rhope zugou LXX. For the expression "dust out of a threshing-floor," however, see Ps. i. 4, Dan. ii. 35.
[1129] See Gen. xxii. 18; and comp. Gal. iii. 16, and the reference in both places.
[1130] This promise may be said to have been given "to Abraham," because (of course) he was still living at the time; as we see by comparing Gen. xxi. 5 with xxv. 7 and 26. See, too, Heb. xi. 9.
[1131] Or, "nor did He make, by grace, a distinction."
[1132] Or, "nor did He make, by grace, a distinction."
[1133] See Gen. xxv. 21-23, especially in the LXX.; and comp. Rom. ix. 10-13.
[1134] Sæculi.
[1135] Ex. xxxii. 1, 23; Acts vii. 39, 40.
[1136] Ex. xxxii. 4: comp. Acts vii. 38-41; 1 Cor. x. 7; Ps. cvi. 19-22.
[1137] Comp. 1 Kings xii. 25-33; 2 Kings xvii. 7-17 (in LXX. 3 and 4 Kings). The Eng. ver. speaks of "calves;" the LXX. call them "heifers."
[1138] Comp. 1 Thess. i. 9, 10.