Anf-01 ii.ii.xvii Pg 5
Job xiv. 4, 5. [Septuagint.]
Moses was called faithful in all God’s house;76 76
Anf-02 vi.iv.iii Pg 229.1
Anf-01 ii.ii.xxvi Pg 4
Comp. Ps. iii. 6.
and again, Job says, “Thou shalt raise up this flesh of mine, which has suffered all these things.”108 108
Anf-01 ix.vi.xxxii Pg 10
Ps. iii. 6.
And because He used thus to act while He dwelt and lived among us, He says again, “And my sleep became sweet unto me.”4237 4237 107:41
Anf-02 vi.iii.i.ix Pg 65.1
Npnf-201 iii.xii.xxiii Pg 8
Anf-02 vi.iv.v.xiv Pg 6.1
Anf-02 vi.iv.ii.xxii Pg 7.1
Anf-03 v.iv.v.xxxix Pg 13
Zech. ix. 15, 16 (Septuagint).
etc. And that you may not suppose that these predictions refer to such sufferings as await them from so many wars with strangers,5026 5026 Allophylis.
consider the nature (of the sufferings). In a prophecy of wars which were to be waged with legitimate arms, no one would think of enumerating stones as weapons, which are better known in popular crowds and unarmed tumults. Nobody measures the copious streams of blood which flow in war by bowlfuls, nor limits it to what is shed upon a single altar. No one gives the name of sheep to those who fall in battle with arms in hand, and while repelling force with force, but only to those who are slain, yielding themselves up in their own place of duty and with patience, rather than fighting in self-defence. In short, as he says, “they roll as sacred stones,” and not like soldiers fight. Stones are they, even foundation stones, upon which we are ourselves edified—“built,” as St. Paul says, “upon the foundation of the apostles,”5027 5027
Anf-01 v.xvi.i Pg 8
Eccl. ii. 25 (after LXX.); Zech. ix. 17.
Give attention to reading,1273 1273
Anf-02 ii.ii.iii Pg 18.3
Anf-03 v.iv.iii.iv Pg 7
“Eructavit cor. meum Sermonem optimum” is Tertullian’s reading of Ps. xlv. 1, “My heart is inditing a good matter,” A.V., which the Vulgate, Ps. xliv. 1, renders by “Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum,” and the Septuagint by ᾽Εξηρεύξατο ἡ καρδία μου λόγον ἀγαθόν. This is a tolerably literal rendering of the original words, בוֹט רבָרָ יבִּלִ שׁהַרָ. In these words the Fathers used to descry an adumbration of the mystery of the Son’s eternal generation from the Father, and His coming forth in time to create the world. See Bellarmine, On the Psalms (Paris ed. 1861), vol. i. 292. The Psalm is no doubt eminently Messianic, as both Jewish and Christian writers have ever held. See Perowne, The Psalms, vol. i. p. 216. Bishop Bull reviews at length the theological opinions of Tertullian, and shows that he held the eternity of the Son of God, whom he calls “Sermo” or “Verbum Dei.” See Defensio Fidei Nicænæ (translation in the “Oxford Library of the Fathers,” by the translator of this work) vol. ii. 509–545. In the same volume, p. 482, the passage from the Psalm before us is similarly applied by Novatian: “Sic Dei Verbum processit, de quo dictum est, Eructavit cor meum Verbum bonum.” [See vol. ii. p. 98, this series: and Kaye, p. 515.]
Let Marcion take hence his first lesson on the noble fruit of this truly most excellent tree. But, like a most clumsy clown, he has grafted a good branch on a bad stock. The sapling, however, of his blasphemy shall be never strong: it shall wither with its planter, and thus shall be manifested the nature of the good tree. Look at the total result: how fruitful was the Word! God issued His fiat, and it was done: God also saw that it was good;2744 2744
Npnf-201 iii.xvi.iv Pg 15
Anf-03 v.ix.xi Pg 12
Ps. lxxi. 18.
Also to the same purport in another Psalm: “O Lord, how are they increased that trouble me!”7885 7885
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 7
VERSE (6) - Job 9:25; 16:22; 17:11 Ps 90:5,6; 102:11; 103:15,16; 144:4
