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| Chapter CIII.—The Pharisees are the bulls: the roaring lion is Herod or the devil.
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Chapter CIII.—The Pharisees are the
bulls: the roaring lion is Herod or the devil.
“Then what is next said in
the Psalm—‘For trouble is near, for there is none to help
me. Many calves have compassed me; fat bulls have beset me round. They
opened their mouth upon me as a ravening and roaring lion. All my bones
are poured out and dispersed like water,’—was likewise a
prediction of the events which happened to Him. For on that night when
some of your nation, who had been sent by the Pharisees and Scribes, and
teachers,2341
| 2341 καὶ τῶν διδασκάλων,
adopted instead of κατὰ τὴν διδασκαλίαν,
“according to their instructions.” | came upon Him
from the Mount2342
| 2342 ἀπὸ τοῦ ὄρους. Justin seems to
have supposed that the Jews came on Christ from some point of the hill
while He was in the valley below. ᾽Επὶ τοῦ ὄρους and ἐπὶ τὸ ὄρος have been
suggested. | of Olives, those whom Scripture called butting
and prematurely destructive calves surrounded Him. And the expression,
‘Fat bulls have beset me round,’ He spoke beforehand of those
who acted similarly to the calves, when He was led before your teachers.
And the Scripture described them as bulls, since we know that bulls are
authors of calves’ existence. As therefore the bulls are the
begetters of the calves, so your teachers were the cause why their
children went out to the Mount of Olives to take Him and bring Him to
them. And the expression, ‘For there is none to help,’ is
also indicative of what took place. For there was not even a single man
to assist Him as an innocent person. And the expression, ‘They
opened their mouth upon me like a roaring lion,’
designates him who was then king of the Jews, and was called
Herod, a successor of the Herod who, when Christ was born, slew all the
infants in Bethlehem born about the same time, because he imagined that
amongst them He would assuredly be of whom the Magi from Arabia had
spoken; for he was ignorant of the will of Him that is stronger than all,
how He had commanded Joseph and Mary to take the Child and depart into
Egypt, and there to remain until a revelation should again be made to
them to return into their own country. And there they did remain until
Herod, who slew the infants in Bethlehem, was dead, and Archelaus had
succeeded him. And he died before Christ came to the dispensation on the
cross which was given Him by His Father. And when Herod succeeded
Archelaus, having received the authority which had been allotted to him,
Pilate sent to him by way of compliment Jesus bound; and God foreknowing
that this would happen, had thus spoken: ‘And they brought Him to
the Assyrian, a present to the king.’2343
Or He meant the devil by the
lion roaring against Him: whom Moses calls the serpent, but in Job and
Zechariah he is called the devil, and by Jesus is addressed as Satan,
showing that a compounded name was acquired by him from the deeds which
he performed. For ‘Sata’ in the Jewish and Syrian tongue
means apostate; and ‘Nas’ is the word from which he is called
by interpretation the serpent, i.e., according to the
interpretation of the Hebrew term, from both of which there arises the
single word Satanas. For this devil, when [Jesus] went up from the
river Jordan, at the time when the voice spake to Him, ‘Thou art my
Son: this day have I begotten Thee,’2344
is recorded in the
memoirs of the apostles to have come to Him and tempted Him, even so far
as to say to Him, ‘Worship me;’ and Christ answered him,
‘Get thee behind me, Satan: thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and Him only shalt thou serve.’2345
For as
he had deceived Adam, so he hoped2346
that he might
contrive some mischief against Christ also. Moreover, the statement,
‘All my bones are poured out2347
| 2347 Maranus says it is hardly to be doubted that Justin
read, “I am poured out like water,” etc. | and
dispersed like water; my heart has become like wax, melting in the midst
of my belly,’ was a prediction of that which happened to Him on
that night when men came out against Him to the Mount of Olives to seize
Him. For in the memoirs which I say were drawn up by His apostles and
those who followed them, [it is recorded] that His sweat fell down like
drops of blood while He was praying, and saying, ‘If it be
possible, let this cup pass:’2348
His
heart and also His bones trembling; His heart being like wax melting in
His belly:2349
| 2349 [Breast,
rather. The (κοίλη) cavity of the
nobler viscera.] | in order that we may perceive that
the Father wished His Son really2350
to undergo
such sufferings for our sakes, and may not say that He, being the Son of
God, did not feel what was happening to Him and inflicted on Him.
Further, the expression, ‘My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue has cleaved to my throat,’ was a prediction, as I
previously remarked, of that silence, when He who convicted all your
teachers of being unwise returned no answer at all.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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