| Author |
Message |
Bruce H
| | Posted on Monday, November 15, 1999 - 3:21 pm: |     |
More Justin Martyr
CHAPTER 18
CHRISTIANS WOULD OBSERVE THE LAW,
IF THEY DID NOT KNOW WHY IT WAS INSTITUTED
For since you have read, O Trypho, as you
yourself admitted, the
doctrines taught by our Savior, I do not think
that I have done foolishly in
adding some short utterances of His to the
prophetic statements. Wash
therefore, and be now clean, and put away iniquity
from your souls, as
God bids you be washed in this laver, and be
circumcised with the true
circumcision. For we too would observe the fleshly
circumcision, and the
Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts, if we did
not know for what reason
they were enjoined you, namely, on account of
your transgressions and
the hardness of your hearts. For if we patiently
endure all things contrived
against us by wicked men and demons, so that even
amid cruelties
unutterable, death and torments, we pray for mercy
to those who inflict
such things upon us, and do not wish to give the
least retort to any one,
even as the new Lawgiver commanded us: how is it,
Trypho, that we
would not observe those rites which do not harm
us, I speak of fleshly
circumcision, and Sabbaths, and feasts?
BH |
Bruce H
| | Posted on Monday, November 15, 1999 - 3:29 pm: | |
More Justin Martyr
382
CHAPTER 19
CIRCUMCISION UNKNOWN BEFORE ABRAHAM.
THE LAW WAS GIVEN BY MOSES ON ACCOUNT
OF THE HARDNESS OF THEIR HEARTS
It is this about which we are at a loss, and with
reason, because, while
you endure such things, you do not observe all the
other customs which
we are now discussing.2
3This circumcision is not, however, necessary for
all men, but for you
alone, in order that, as I have already said, you
may suffer these things
which you now justly suffer. Nor do we receive
that useless baptism of
cisterns, for it has nothing to do with this
baptism of life. Wherefore also
God has announced that you have forsaken Him, the
living fountain, and
digged for your selves broken cisterns which can
hold no water. Even you,
who are the circumcised according to the flesh,
have need of our
circumcision; but we, having the latter, do not
require the former. For if it
were necessary, as you suppose, God would not have
made Adam
uncircumcised; would not have had respect to the
gifts of Abel when, being
uncircumcised, he offered sacrifice; and would not
have been pleased with
the uncircumcision of Enoch, who was not found,
because God had
translated him. Lot, being uncircumcised, was
saved from Sodom, the
angels themselves and the Lord sending him out.
Noah was the beginning
of our race; yet, uncircumcised, along with his
children he went into the
ark. Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High, was
uncircumcised; to
whom also Abraham the first who received
circumcision after the flesh,
gave tithes, and he blessed him: after whose order
God declared, by the
mouth of David, that He would establish the
everlasting priest. Therefore
to you alone this circumcision was necessary, in
order that the people may
be no people, and the nation no nation; as also
Hosea, one of the twelve
prophets, declares. Moreover, all those righteous
men already mentioned,
though they kept no Sabbaths, were pleasing to
God; and after them
Abraham with all his descendants until Moses,
under whom your nation
appeared unrighteous and ungrateful to God, making
a calf in the
wilderness: wherefore God, accommodating Himself
to that nation,
enjoined them also to offer sacrifices, as if to
His name, in order that you
383
might not serve idols. Which precept, however, you
have not observed;
nay, you sacrificed your children to demons. And
you were commanded to
keep Sabbaths, that you might retain the memorial
of God. For His word
makes this announcement, saying, That ye may know
that I am God who
redeemed you.1
CHAPTER 21
SABBATHS WERE INSTITUTED ON ACCOUNT OF THE
PEOPLE1S SINS, AND NOT FOR A WORK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Moreover, that God enjoined you to keep the
Sabbath, and impose on
you other precepts for a sign, as I have already
said, on account of your
unrighteousness, and that of your fathers, as He
declares that for the
sake of the nations, lest His name be profaned
among them, therefore He
permitted some of you to remain alive, these
words of His can prove to
you: they are narrated by Ezekiel thus: I am the
Lord your God; walk in
My statutes, and keep My judgments, and take no
part in the customs of
Egypt; and hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a
sign between Me and
you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.
Notwithstanding ye
rebelled against Me, and your children walked not
in My statutes, neither
kept My judgments to do them: which if a man do,
he shall live in them.
But they polluted My Sabbaths. And I said that I
would pour out My
fury upon them in the wilderness, to accomplish My
anger upon them; yet
I did it not; that My name might not be altogether
profaned in the sight of
the heathen. I led them out before their eyes, and
I lifted up Mine hand
unto them in the wilderness, that I would scatter
them among the heathen,
and disperse them through the countries; because
they had not executed
My judgments, but had despised My statutes, and
polluted My Sabbaths,
and their eyes were after the devices of their
fathers. Wherefore I gave
them also statutes which were not good, and
judgments whereby they shall
not live. And I shall pollute them in their own
gifts, that I may destroy all that openeth the
womb, when I pass through them.1
B |
Bruce H
| | Posted on Monday, November 15, 1999 - 3:31 pm: | |
I will see if I can post all of Justins writings
on my study notes
B |
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