The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire Part 25

_Deuteronomy_ 33,17: Moses' blessing of Joseph. (The unicorn's horns, with some arrangement, form a cross: cf. _Psalm_ 22).

_Exodus_ 17, 11: Moses with his arms spread wide.

_Numbers_ 21, 9: The brazen serpent.

_Psalm_ 96, 10: The Lord hath reigned _from the tree, e ligno_ (though the Jews have cut out the last words).

_Isaiah_ 9, 6: The government upon his shoulder.

_Jeremiah_ 11, 19: Let us cast wood (_lignum_) into his bread.

_Isaiah_ 53, 8, 9: For the transgression of my people is he stricken ... and his sepulture is taken from the midst (_i.e._ the resurrection).

_Amos_ 8, 9: I will cause the sun to go down at noon.

For a long time before Justin was done with his exposition, Trypho was silent--the better part, perhaps, in all controversy. At last, writes Justin, "I finished. Trypho said nothing for a while, and then he said, 'You see, we came to the controversy unprepared. Still, I own, I am greatly pleased to have met you, and I think my friends have the same feeling. For we have found more than we expected,--or anyone could have expected. If we could do it at more length, we might be better profited by looking into the pa.s.sages themselves. But, since you are on the point of sailing and expect to embark every day now,--be sure you think of us as friends, if you go.'"[71] So, with kindly feelings, Trypho went away unconvinced. And there were others, as clear of mind, who were as little convinced,--Marcion, for instance, and Celsus. "The more reasonable among Jews and Christians," says Celsus, "try to allegorize them [the Scriptures], but they are beyond being {194} allegorized and are nothing but sheer mythology of the silliest type. The supposed allegories that have been made are more disgraceful than the myths and more absurd, in their endeavour to string together what never can in any way be harmonized--it is folly positively wonderful for its utter want of perception."[72] The modern reader may not be so ready as Origen was to suggest that Celsus probably had Philo in mind.[73]

[Sidenote: Results]

It is clear that, in the endeavour to give Christianity a historical background and a prophetic warrant, the Apologists lost all perspective.[74] The compelling personality of Jesus receded behind the vague figure of the Christ of prophecy; and, in their pre-occupation with what they themselves called "types and shadows,"

men stepped out of the sunlight into the shade and hardly noticed the change. Yet there is still among the best of them the note of love of Jesus--"do not speak evil of the crucified," pleads Justin, "nor mock at his stripes, whereby all may be healed, as _we_ have been healed."[75] And after all it was an instinct for the truth and universal significance of Jesus that carried them away. He must be eternal; and they, like the men of their day, thought much of the beginning and the end of creation, and perhaps found it easier than we do,--certainly more natural,--to frame schemes under which the Eternal Mind might manifest itself. Eschatology, purpose, foreknowledge, pervade their religious thought, and they speak with a confidence which the centuries since the Renaissance have made more and more impossible for us, who find it hard enough to be sure of the fact without adventuring ourselves in the possibilities that lie around it. None the less the centre of interest was the same for them as for us--what _is_ the significance of Jesus of Nazareth? For them the facts of his life and of his mind had often less value than the fancy that they fulfilled prophecy; Celsus said outright that the Christians altered them, and there is some evidence that, in the accommodation of prophecy and history, {195} the latter was sometimes over-developed. For us, the danger is the opposite; we risk losing sight of the eternal significance in our need of seeing clearly the historic lineaments.

In the conflict of religions, Christianity had first to face Judaism, and, though the encounter left its record upon the conquering faith, it secured its freedom from the yoke of the past. It gained background and the broadening of the historic imagination. It made the prophets and psalmists of Israel a permanent and integral part of Christian literature--and in all these ways it became more fit to be the faith of mankind, as it deepened its hold upon the universal religious experience. Yet it did so at the cost of a false method which has hampered it for centuries, and of a departure (for too long a time) from the simplicity and candour of the mind of Jesus. In seeking to recover that mind to-day we commit ourselves to the belief that it is sufficient, and that, when we have rid ourselves of all that in the course of ages has obscured the great personality, in proportion as we regain his point of view, we shall find once more (in the words of a far distant age) that his spirit will guide us into all truth.

Chapter VI Footnotes:

[1] Justin, _Trypho_, c. 17; Tert. _adv. Jud._ 13.

[2] _Psalm. Solom._ xvii, 27-35. Ed. Ryle and James.

[3] _a.s.sumption of Moses_, x, 8-10, tr. R. H. Charles. "Gehenna" is a restoration which seems probable, the Latin _in terram_ representing what was left of the word in Greek. See Dr Charles' note.

[4] Justin, _Trypho_, 46, 47. The question is still asked; I have heard it asked.

[5] Justin, _Trypho_, 50.

[6] Justin, _Trypho_, 32; the quotations are from Daniel.

[7] Justin, _Trypho_, 48.

[8] Justin, _Trypho_, 68.

[9] Justin, _Trypho_, 17, 108.

[10] Cf. Tert. _de Spect._ 30, _fabri aut quaestuariae filius_.

[11] Origen, _c. Cels._ i, 28, 32, 39. The beauty of the woman is an element in the stories of Greek demi-G.o.ds.

[12] _c. Cels._ ii, 55.

[13] ii, 27.

[14] ii, 29.

[15] ii, 28.

[16] i, 50.

[17] 2 Tim. 8, 15.

[18] _Trypho_, 39.

[19] Ign. _Philad._ 8, 2.

[20] Ign. _Magn._ 10, 3; 8, 1.

[21] So says Eusebius, _E.H._ iv, 18. Justin does not name the city.

[22] _Trypho_, 8.

[23] Justin, _Trypho_, 8.

[24] _ad Diogn._ 3, 4.

[25] _Trypho_, 22.

[26] _Ibid._ 12.

[27] _Deut._ 10, 16, 17; _Trypho_, 16.

[28] _Jerem._ 4, 4; 9, 25; _Trypho_, 28.

[29] Tert. _adv. Jud._ 4.

[30] Justin, _Trypho_, 19; Tert. _adv. Jud._ 2; Cyprian, _Testim._ 1, 8. Tertullian had to face a similar criticism of Christian life--was Abraham _baptized_? _de Bapt._ 13.

[31] Tert. _adv. Jud._ 3.

[32] _Trypho_, 23; Cyprian, _Testim._ 1, 8.

[33] _Trypho_, 16 (slightly compressed).

[34] _Trypho_, 19, 20; cf. Tert. _adv. Jud. _

[35] _Trypho_, 22.

[36] Barnabas, 10; cf. Pliny, _N.H._ 8, 218, on the hare; and Plutarch, _de Iside et Osiride_, 353 F, 363 F, 376 E, 381 A (weasel), for similar zoology and symbolism. Clem. Alex. _Str._ ii, 67; v, 51; refers to this teaching of Barnabas (cf. _ib._ ii, 105).