Ante-Nicene Fathers • VOLUME 1
The Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr & Irenaeus
SECTION 201
Chapter CIV.--Circumstances of Christ's death are predicted in this Psalm.
Chapter CIV.--Circumstances of Christ's death are predicted in this Psalm. "And the statement, Thou hast brought me into the dust of death; for many dogs have surrounded me: the assembly of the wicked have beset me round. They pierced my hands and my feet. They did tell all my bones. They did look and stare upon me. They parted…
1,044 wordsSECTION 202Chapter CVII.--The same is taught from the history of Jonah.
Chapter CVII.--The same is taught from the history of Jonah. "And that He would rise again on the third day after the crucifixion, it is written [2359] in the memoirs that some of your nation, questioning Him, said, Show us a sign;' and He replied to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and no sign shal…
717 wordsSECTION 203Chapter CIX.--The conversion of the Gentiles has been predicted by Micah.
Chapter CIX.--The conversion of the Gentiles has been predicted by Micah. "But that the Gentiles would repent of the evil in which they led erring lives, when they heard the doctrine preached by His apostles from Jerusalem, and which they learned [2364] through them, suffer me to show you by quoting a short statement from the p…
982 wordsSECTION 204Chapter CXI.--The two advents were signified by the two goats. Other figures of the first advent, in which the Gentiles are freed by the blood of Christ.
Chapter CXI.--The two advents were signified by the two goats. Other figures of the first advent, in which the Gentiles are freed by the blood of Christ. "And that it was declared by symbol, even in the time of Moses, that there would be two advents of this Christ, as I have mentioned previously, [is manifest] from the symbol o…
963 wordsSECTION 205Chapter CXIII.--Joshua was a figure of Christ.
Chapter CXIII.--Joshua was a figure of Christ. "What I mean is this. Jesus (Joshua), as I have now frequently remarked, who was called Oshea, when he was sent to spy out the land of Canaan, was named by Moses Jesus (Joshua). Why he did this you neither ask, nor are at a loss about it, nor make strict inquiries. Therefore Christ…
1,157 wordsSECTION 206Chapter CXV.--Prediction about the Christians in Zechariah. The malignant way which the Jews have in disputations.
Chapter CXV.--Prediction about the Christians in Zechariah. The malignant way which the Jews have in disputations. "But you ought to believe Zechariah when he shows in parable the mystery of Christ, and announces it obscurely. The following are his words: Rejoice, and be glad, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I shall dw…
1,043 wordsSECTION 207Chapter CXVII.--Malachi's prophecy concerning the sacrifices of the Christians. It cannot be taken as referring to the prayers of Jews of the dispersion.
Chapter CXVII.--Malachi's prophecy concerning the sacrifices of the Christians. It cannot be taken as referring to the prayers of Jews of the dispersion. "Accordingly, God, anticipating all the sacrifices which we offer through this name, and which Jesus the Christ enjoined us to offer, i.e., in the Eucharist of the bread and t…
1,000 wordsSECTION 208Chapter CXIX.--Christians are the holy people promised to Abraham. They have been called like Abraham.
Chapter CXIX.--Christians are the holy people promised to Abraham. They have been called like Abraham. Then I said again, "Would you suppose, sirs, that we could ever have understood these matters in the Scriptures, if we had not received grace to discern by the will of Him whose pleasure it was? in order that the saying of Mos…
1,412 wordsSECTION 209Chapter CXXI.--From the fact that the Gentiles believe in Jesus, it is evident that He is Christ.
Chapter CXXI.--From the fact that the Gentiles believe in Jesus, it is evident that He is Christ. And as they kept silence, I went on: "[The Scripture], speaking by David about this Christ, my friends, said no longer that in His seed' the nations should be blessed, but in Him.' So it is here: His name shall rise up for ever abo…
970 wordsSECTION 210Chapter CXXIII.--Ridiculous interpretations of the Jews. Christians are the true Israel.
Chapter CXXIII.--Ridiculous interpretations of the Jews. Christians are the true Israel. "As, therefore, all these latter prophecies refer to Christ and the nations, you should believe that the former refer to Him and them in like manner. For the proselytes have no need of a covenant, if, since there is one and the same law imp…
883 wordsSECTION 211Chapter CXXIV.--Christians are the sons of God.
Chapter CXXIV.--Christians are the sons of God. And when I saw that they were perturbed because I said that we are the sons of God, I anticipated their questioning, and said, "Listen, sirs, how the Holy Ghost speaks of this people, saying that they are all sons of the Highest; and how this very Christ will be present in their a…
924 wordsSECTION 212Chapter CXXVI.--The various names of Christ according to both natures. It is shown that He is God, and appeared to the patriarchs.
Chapter CXXVI.--The various names of Christ according to both natures. It is shown that He is God, and appeared to the patriarchs. "But if you knew, Trypho," continued I, "who He is that is called at one time the Angel of great counsel, [2439] and a Man by Ezekiel, and like the Son of man by Daniel, and a Child by Isaiah, and C…
1,151 wordsSECTION 213Chapter CXXVIII.--The Word is sent not as an inanimate power, but as a person begotten of the Father's substance.
Chapter CXXVIII.--The Word is sent not as an inanimate power, but as a person begotten of the Father's substance. "And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom, has been dem…
741 wordsSECTION 214Chapter CXXX.--He returns to the conversion of the Gentiles, and shows that it was foretold.
Chapter CXXX.--He returns to the conversion of the Gentiles, and shows that it was foretold. And when all had given assent, I said: "I would now adduce some passages which I had not recounted before. They are recorded by the faithful servant Moses in parable, and are as follows: Rejoice, O ye heavens, with Him, and let all the …
1,087 wordsSECTION 215Chapter CXXXII.--How great the power was of the name of Jesus in the Old Testament.
Chapter CXXXII.--How great the power was of the name of Jesus in the Old Testament. "Yet after this you made a calf, and were very zealous in committing fornication with the daughters of strangers, and in serving idols. And again, when the land was given up to you with so great a display of power, that you witnessed [2462] the …
1,027 wordsSECTION 216Chapter CXXXIV.--The marriages of Jacob are a figure of the Church.
Chapter CXXXIV.--The marriages of Jacob are a figure of the Church. "If, then, the teaching of the prophets and of Himself moves you, it is better for you to follow God than your imprudent and blind masters, who even till this time permit each man to have four or five wives; and if any one see a beautiful woman and desire to ha…
970 wordsSECTION 217Chapter CXXXVI.--The Jews, in rejecting Christ, rejected God who sent him.
Chapter CXXXVI.--The Jews, in rejecting Christ, rejected God who sent him. "For you see how He now addresses the people, saying a little before: As the grape shall be found in the cluster, and they will say, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it; so will I do for My servant's sake: for His sake I will not destroy them all.' […
706 wordsSECTION 218Chapter CXXXVIII.--Noah is a figure of Christ, who has regenerated us by water, and faith, and wood: [i.e., the cross.]
Chapter CXXXVIII.--Noah is a figure of Christ, who has regenerated us by water, and faith, and wood: [i.e., the cross.] "You know, then, sirs," I said, "that God has said in Isaiah to Jerusalem: I saved thee in the deluge of Noah.' [2479] By this which God said was meant that the mystery of saved men appeared in the deluge. For…
845 wordsSECTION 219Chapter CXL.--In Christ all are free. The Jews hope for salvation in vain because they are sons of Abraham.
Chapter CXL.--In Christ all are free. The Jews hope for salvation in vain because they are sons of Abraham. "Hence also Jacob, as I remarked before, being himself a type of Christ, had married the two handmaids of his two free wives, and of them begat sons, for the purpose of indicating beforehand that Christ would receive even…
897 wordsSECTION 220Chapter CXLII.--The Jews return thanks, and leave Justin.
Chapter CXLII.--The Jews return thanks, and leave Justin. Then Trypho, after a little delay, said, "You see that it was not intentionally that we came to discuss these points. And I confess that I have been particularly pleased with the conference; and I think that these are of quite the same opinion as myself. For we have foun…
757 wordsSECTION 221Chapter II.--The Greek theogony exposed.
Chapter II.--The Greek theogony exposed. But since, next to Homer, Hesiod wrote his Works and Days, who will believe his drivelling theogony? For they say that Chronos, the son of Ouranos, [2497] in the beginning slew his father, and possessed himself of his rule; and that, being seized with a panic lest he should himself suffe…
829 wordsSECTION 222Chapter IV.--Shameless practices of the Greeks.
Chapter IV.--Shameless practices of the Greeks. And your public assemblies I have come to hate. For there are excessive banquetings, and subtle flutes which provoke to lustful movements, and useless and luxurious anointings, and crowning with garlands. With such a mass of evils do you banish shame; and ye fill your minds with t…
811 wordsSECTION 223Chapter II--The poets are unfit to be religious teachers.
Chapter II--The poets are unfit to be religious teachers. Whom, then, ye men of Greece, do ye call your teachers of religion? The poets? It will do your cause no good to say so to men who know the poets; for they know how very ridiculous a theogony they have composed,--as we can learn from Homer, your most distinguished and pri…
859 wordsSECTION 224Chapter III.--Opinions of the school of Thales.
Chapter III.--Opinions of the school of Thales. And if you decline citing the poets, because you say it is allowable for them to frame myths, and to relate in a mythical way many things about the gods which are far from true, do you suppose you have some others for your religious teachers, or how do you say that they themselves…
711 wordsSECTION 225Chapter V.--Opinions of Plato and Aristotle.
Chapter V.--Opinions of Plato and Aristotle. But possibly those who are unwilling to give up the ancient and inveterate error, maintain that they have received the doctrine of their religion not from those who have now been mentioned, but from those who are esteemed among them as the most renowned and finished philosophers, Pla…
714 wordsSECTION 226Chapter VI.--Further disagreements between Plato and Aristotle.
Chapter VI.--Further disagreements between Plato and Aristotle. And that these very wonderful sages of yours do not even agree in other respects, can be easily learned from this. For while Plato says that there are three first principles of all things, God, and matter, and form,--God, the maker of all; and matter, which is the …
730 wordsSECTION 227Chapter VIII.--Antiquity, inspiration, and harmony of Christian teachers.
Chapter VIII.--Antiquity, inspiration, and harmony of Christian teachers. Since therefore it is impossible to learn anything true concerning religion from your teachers, who by their mutual disagreement have furnished you with sufficient proof of their own ignorance, I consider it reasonable to recur to our progenitors, who bot…
1,062 wordsSECTION 228Chapter X--Training and inspiration of Moses. [2539]
Chapter X--Training and inspiration of Moses. [2539] These things, ye men of Greece, have been recorded in writing concerning the antiquity of Moses by those who were not of our religion; and they said that they learned all these things from the Egyptian priests, among whom Moses was not only born, but also was thought worthy o…
1,077 wordsSECTION 229Chapter XIII.--History of the Septuagint.
Chapter XIII.--History of the Septuagint. But if any one says that the writings of Moses and of the rest of the prophets were also written in the Greek character, let him read profane histories, and know that Ptolemy, king of Egypt, when he had built the library in Alexandria, and by gathering books from every quarter had fille…
813 wordsSECTION 230Chapter XV.--Testimony of Orpheus to monotheism.
Chapter XV.--Testimony of Orpheus to monotheism. At all events, we must remind you what Orpheus, who was, as one might say, your first teacher of polytheism, latterly addressed to his son Musæus, and to the other legitimate auditors, concerning the one and only God. And he spoke thus:-- "I speak to those who lawfully may hear:…
967 wordsSECTION 231Chapter XVIII.--Testimony of Sophocles.
Chapter XVIII.--Testimony of Sophocles. And if it is needful that we add testimonies concerning one God, even from the dramatists, hear even Sophocles speaking thus:-- "There is one God, in truth there is but one, Who made the heavens and the broad earth beneath, The glancing waves of ocean and the winds But many of us mort…
1,200 wordsSECTION 232Chapter XXII.--Studied ambiguity of Plato.
Chapter XXII.--Studied ambiguity of Plato. Plato accordingly having learned this in Egypt, and being greatly taken with what was said about one God, did indeed consider it unsafe to mention the name of Moses, on account of his teaching the doctrine of one only God, for he dreaded the Areopagus; but what is very well expressed b…
814 wordsSECTION 233Chapter XXIV.--Agreement of Plato and Homer.
Chapter XXIV.--Agreement of Plato and Homer. How, then, does Plato banish Homer from his republic, since, in the embassy to Achilles, he represents Phoenix as saying to Achilles, "Even the gods themselves are not inflexible," [2556] though Homer said this not of the king and Platonic maker of the gods, but of some of the multit…
945 wordsSECTION 234Chapter XXVI.--Plato indebted to the prophets.
Chapter XXVI.--Plato indebted to the prophets. And let no one wonder that Plato should believe Moses regarding the eternity of God. For you will find him mystically referring the true knowledge of realities to the prophets, next in order after the really existent God. For, discoursing in the Timæus about certain first principle…
925 wordsSECTION 235Chapter XXVIII.--Homer's obligations to the sacred writers.
Chapter XXVIII.--Homer's obligations to the sacred writers. And not only Plato, but Homer also, having received similar enlightenment in Egypt, said that Tityus was in like manner punished. For Ulysses speaks thus to Alcinous when he is recounting his divination by the shades of the dead: [2565] -- "There Tityus, large and lon…
955 wordsSECTION 236Chapter XXIX.--Origin of Plato's doctrine of form.
Chapter XXIX.--Origin of Plato's doctrine of form. And Plato, too, when he says that form is the third original principle next to God and matter, has manifestly received this suggestion from no other source than from Moses, having learned, indeed, from the words of Moses the name of form, but not having at the same time been in…
904 wordsSECTION 237Chapter XXXII.--Plato's doctrine of the heavenly gift.
Chapter XXXII.--Plato's doctrine of the heavenly gift. And if any one will attentively consider the gift that descends from God on the holy men, --which gift the sacred prophets call the Holy Ghost,--he shall find that this was announced under another name by Plato in the dialogue with Meno. For, fearing to name the gift of God…
814 wordsSECTION 238Chapter XXXV.--Appeal to the Greeks.
Chapter XXXV.--Appeal to the Greeks. The time, then, ye men of Greece, is now come, that ye, having been persuaded by the secular histories that Moses and the rest of the prophets were far more ancient than any of those who have been esteemed sages among you, abandon the ancient delusion of your forefathers, and read the divine…
1,014 wordsSECTION 239Chapter XXXVII.--Of the Sibyl. [2589]
Chapter XXXVII.--Of the Sibyl. [2589] And you may in part easily learn the right religion from the ancient Sibyl, who by some kind of potent inspiration teaches you, through her oracular predictions, truths which seem to be much akin to the teaching of the prophets. She, they say, was of Babylonian extraction, being the daughte…
1,205 wordsSECTION 240Chapter I.--Object of the author.
Chapter I.--Object of the author. Although human nature at first received a union of intelligence and safety to discern the truth, and the worship due to the one Lord of all, yet envy, insinuating the excellence of human greatness, turned men away to the making of idols; and this superstitious custom, after continuing for a lon…
1,055 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.