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| Chapter XXXVI
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Chapter
XXXVI.
We would say, moreover, that death ceases in the
world when the sin of the world dies, referring the saying to the
mystical words of the apostle, which run as follows: “When
He shall have put all enemies under His feet, then the last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death.”4463
And
also: “When this corruptible shall have put on
incorruption, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory.”4464
The “strait
descent,”4465
again, may perhaps
be referred by those who hold the doctrine of transmigration of souls
to that view of things. And it is not incredible that the gates
which are said to open spontaneously are referred obscurely by some to
the words, “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may go
into them, and praise the Lord; this gate of
the Lord, into it the righteous shall
enter;”4466
and again, to what
is said in the ninth psalm, “Thou that liftest me up from the
gates of death, that I may show forth all Thy praise in the gates of
the daughter of Zion.”4467
The Scripture
further gives the name of “gates of death” to those sins
which lead to destruction, as it terms, on the contrary, good actions
the “gates of Zion.” So also “the gates of
righteousness,” which is an equivalent expression to “the
gates of virtue,” and these are ready to be opened to him who
follows after virtuous pursuits. The subject of the “tree
of life” will be more appropriately explained when we interpret
the statements in the book of Genesis regarding the paradise planted by
God. Celsus, moreover, has often mocked at the subject of a
resurrection,—a doctrine which he did not comprehend; and on the
present occasion, not satisfied with what he has formerly said, he
adds, “And there is said to be a resurrection of the flesh by
means of the tree;” not understanding, I think, the symbolical
expression, that “through the tree came death, and through the
tree comes life,”4468
because death was
in Adam, and life in Christ. He next scoffs at the
“tree,” assailing it on two grounds, and saying, “For
this reason is the tree introduced, either because our teacher was
nailed to a cross, or because he was a carpenter by trade;” not
observing that the tree of life is mentioned in the Mosaic writings,
and being blind also to this, that in none of the Gospels current in
the Churches4469
| 4469 [See note
supra, p. 582. S.] | is Jesus Himself
ever described as being a carpenter.4470
| 4470 Cf., however,
Mark vi. 3. [Some mss., though not of much value, have the reading here
(Mark vi. 3), “Is not this the
carpenter’s son, the son of Mary?” Origen seems to
have so read the evangelist. See Alford, in loc.
S.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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