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pastortomsteers · 1 month ago

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The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity

October 6, 2024

Pastor Tom Steers

Christ the Saviour Lutheran Church, Toronto

Our guest preacher this Sunday was Martin Luther. Read his sermon below given some 500 years ago on today's Gospel text.

Divine Service Setting III (Pages 184 – 202)

Lutheran Service Book

OPENING HYMN: 606 “I Lay My Sins on Jesus”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IjgwTfBSYI

THE CONFESSION & ABSOLUTION Page 184-185

THE INTROIT –

Psalm 78:1-3,4b; antiphon Ps. 35: 3b; 34:17a, 6b; 48:14a

Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!” When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears. [The Lord] saved him out of all his troubles; this is God, our God forever and ever.

Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable;

I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us.

We will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. Glory be to the Father and to the So and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, now, and will be forever. Amen. Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!”

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears. [The Lord] saved him out of all his troubles; this is God, our God forever and ever.

THE KYRIE (Lord Have Mercy)

Congregation:

Lord have mercy upon us.

Christ have mercy upon us.

Lord have mercy upon us.

Gloria in Excelsis (Glory to God in the Highest) Page 187

The Salutation:

Pastor: The Lord be with you.

Congregation: And with thy spirit.

OUR COLLECT PRAYER:

Almighty and merciful God, of Your boundless goodness keep from us all things that may hurt us that we, being ready in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish whatever You would have us do; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

OUR BIBLE READINGS –

First Reading – Genesis 28:10-17

Psalm 84; antiphon: v.8

Epistle Reading – Ephesians 4:17-28

Gospel Reading – Matthew 9:1-8

THE APOSTLES’ CREED Page 192

HYMN OF THE DAY: 708 “Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart”

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THE SERMON –

The fact of the matter is, without God and His Word of forgiveness, we are all spiritual paralytics.

There is no ‘good work’ we can do that will last, and get us out of this world alive to achieve eternal life.

Without Christ’s forgiveness, spiritual paralysis is the best we can expect, and hell is the just reward for sin despite the best of human endeavors.

Yet, there is a lasting blessing that overcomes this disease – God’s forgiveness and spiritual healing through Jesus.

This is the heart of our Gospel reading this morning.

Almost 500 years ago, Martin Luther, the Reformer of the Christian Church, preached a sermon on this Sunday’s verses from Matthew.

I offer you that sermon, and pray it will reassure and guide you in the faith.

“From today's Gospel we learn about the wondrously gracious ministry of the Word which God has given to mankind on earth, a Word we can speak to one another, namely, "Your sins are forgiven!"

It truly is a mighty power, as valid as if God were saying to you, "Your sins are forgiven."

When the Pastor or another Christian declares to you, "God is not angry with you," you should believe this pledge with all your might.

Better to be torn apart rather than doubt it!

For if you doubt and do not believe, the absolution is of no benefit, even if God with all His angels were to speak it with His own mouth over you.

For when we refuse to believe, we disdain God as a deceiver, as though the things He declares to us were not true.

May God graciously keep us from such unbelief and sin.

But the devil is an extraordinary master at getting us to call God a liar and refuse to believe His promise.

A believing heart honours God with the highest possible honour due Him, for it regards Him as trustworthy, incapable of lying, One who certainly fulfills what He promises.

That is why Christ is very pleased with these people who brought the man sick with palsy to Him, because they showed their confidence in His ability to help this individual.

Tenderly He addresses him, in effect saying: ‘My son, you are ill; the devil has afflicted you with crippling palsy, and God has permitted it to happen to you, a sinful human being. As a result, your conscience is troubled and you think -- God is angry with me; what can I do? It is natural that we fear when we perceive God's judgment.’

But Jesus is saying, ‘Don't let such thoughts sink too deeply into your heart. Do not think: What does God care about me? Who knows whether He will be gracious to me, or not? What, after all, am I to God? Do not look at your illness, but listen to Me when I say, your sins are forgiven you. Therefore, say instead, 'palsy - so what? My sins are forgiven, and I will not let palsy or any other illness divert me from this faith.'

God's grace has given this Word to us purely, and unadulterated.

But we, at times, do not believe and trust firmly.

This is the devil's doing, the result of original sin, that causes us to be drawn away from the Word and the truth, toward believing the lie instead.

It is the devil's fraud and our flesh's deception because our natures are so corrupted by original sin.

It’s only with great difficulty that we fight off unbelief.

That’s because our flesh and reason want to have nothing to do with the Word; they are willing to believe only what they want to believe.

What Christ says here to this stricken man, He is saying to you and me every day in Baptism, in Absolution, in public preaching.

That should cause us to stand on our heads with joy.

It should make everything sweet as sugar, pure as gold – sheer everlasting life.

The fact that this joy doesn’t happen for us proves the old Adam and the devil are constantly working to drag us away from faith, and God’s Word.

Therefore, we are to learn from today's Gospel that we must possess the Word, and firmly believe that by divine power we have forgiveness of sin and salvation, here and now.

This power to forgive sins is a power God has given to mankind, as stated in the Gospel.

If I am to have forgiveness of sins, I must not sit in some corner and say, "My God, forgive me my sin," and then as it were, wait for an angel from heaven to come, to say to me, "Your sins are forgiven."

But God draws near to me by ordaining Holy Baptism and His Word.

When you go to your Pastor, or in his absence some other Christian, asking that he comfort you and absolve you from your sin, you may be certain that through the external word your sins are really and truly forgiven.

For the Word does not lie to you.

If you want to have forgiveness of sin, do not try to climb up to heaven, but remember the promise God has made to you in your Baptism, and ask that the Absolution be declared to you in Jesus' name.

Believe the Word, receive the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, so that you may be sure that such priceless treasure is meant for you to have, and enjoy.

We must not despise Baptism, Absolution, preaching, and the Sacrament, but seek and receive forgiveness of sins in this way.

That is why God has ordained that there be Pastors.

That is why He has given us fathers and mothers, and fellow Christians who bring us to Church, and help reassure us of God’s Word.

When the Pastor Baptizes a child, think of it this way: God is Baptizing the child.

When the Pastor Absolves, it is God speaking, and He has declared this verdict upon me, that I should be free and forgiven of my sin.

These are things we must surely learn well, so that when we encounter the shameless, fantastic spirits who cry, "What is water? What is the laying on of hands? Do you think that water and the hands can make you clean from sin?"

Then we can answer, "True, water and the hand do not do it of themselves, but the Word of God that is with the water and the Pastor's hand is whereby we can be born again into the kingdom of God and be free from our sin."

We are to seek forgiveness in the Word that is spoken by human mouths and the Sacrament, both found in the Church, and nowhere else.

Therefore, when on the Last Day people parade their works and merits, Christ will put the question to them, "But where is My Word? Have I not provided My church with Baptism, the Sacrament, Absolution, and preaching, so that men might come to have forgiveness of sins and be assured of My grace? Why did you not hold on to these? They would not have failed you, as your works must and will fail you."

You need not scramble here and there for forgiveness, except to the true Christian Church, for it possesses the Word and Sacraments.

The fanatics, enthusiasts and Anabaptists perilously sever the forgiveness of sins from the Word.

Since they turn away from God's Word, they deprive themselves and others - who let themselves be influenced - of all the blessings, the forgiveness of sins, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and retain nothing but the mere husks of the Sacraments.

So many have lost the pulpit.

They despise the Word of God.

In our text, the palsied man serves as a picture of all sinners, for it is the nature of this illness that it incapacitates the members of the body; one can no longer flex the foot or hand or draw it upwards to oneself, but these become rigid and stretched out.

By nature, we are all palsied.

The more we try to draw close to God through our works and actions, the farther from Him we get.

When I think I can do very well on my own, I’m actually making things much worse, because I am not acting in faith.

We need to look away from our works and trust in Christ who is able to help us wondrously.

He says to us, "Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you."

With such words the limbs become strong and sound, capable of helping us carry a load, as happened here with the paralyzed man whom Christ healed physically, having bestowed the forgiveness of sins upon him.

The palsied man lay before Him helpless.

But at Christ's Word he immediately stood up, sound and healthy.

By this wonderful miracle He demonstrated that He had power on earth to forgive sins.

Very plainly He says, "on earth," in order that we should not gaze to heaven, or hope for forgiveness of sins through other people's work and merits.

He clearly states that power has been given to men on earth to forgive sins, when a person Baptizes, administers the Sacrament, Absolves, and preaches from the pulpit.

He declares that whatever is loosed or forgiven on earth is loosed in heaven.

Whatever is bound on earth, is bound in heaven.

God's glory is not taken from Him through the exercise of this power, as some uninformed people say, for we are simply carrying out this office.

If you believe His Word, then you have the power of the Word; reject the Word, and you have nothing.

God has bound us together through this office, so that one Christian can comfort another as a concerned friend, and the other by his faith can know that he has the forgiveness of sins in Christ's name, as long as the Word is rightly proclaimed.

That is what leading a person to God and the forgiveness of sins means.

Whoever dies in such faith, dies well, and will be saved.

However, many others are striving to take these blessed doctrines away from us.

Therefore, be wary of them and learn that forgiveness of sins exists only where the Word is found, and nowhere else.

The Holy Spirit does not want to carry on His work apart from the Word and Sacraments.

For this reason, we dare not disdain the Word and Sacraments, but should cherish them as the very best and noblest of treasures.

May God grant us His grace to hold fast to this doctrine, now and into life eternal. Amen.”

THE PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH

SERVICE OF THE SACRAMENT Page 194

The Preface Page 194

Sanctus Page 195

THE LORD’S PRAYER Page 196

THE WORDS OF OUR LORD Page 197

Pax Domini Pastor: The peace of the Lord be with you always.

Congregation: Amen.

The Agnus Dei Page 198

THE DISTRIBUTION

The Nunc Dimittis Page 199

Post Communion Collect (Right-hand column) Page 201 Salutation and Benedicamus Page 201-202 Benediction Page 202

CLOSING HYMN: 923 “Almighty Father, Bless the Word”

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#christian religion #lutheran #christian #faith #jesus #salvation #bible #evangelism #holy spirit #religious art #Youtube

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spiritsoulandbody · 6 months ago

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#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The Word Of God

#DailyDevotion Jesus Is The Word Of God Heb. 4 12God's Word is living and active. It cuts better than any two-edged sword. It pierces until it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow. And it can judge thoughts and purposes of the heart. 13No creature can hide from Him. Everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account. We should remember this section began at the beginning of chapter 3 and so should be read in light of the theme, Jesus is better than Moses. Moses only delivered the Word of God. Jesus is the Word of God in the flesh. We should take into account then John's words from his gospel: "IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3Everything was made by Him, and not one thing that was made was made without Him." "14And the Word became flesh and lived among us for a time and we saw His glory, the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." These words identify Jesus as the Word of God in the flesh. Then there are these words, "4In Him was life, and the Life was the Light of men. 5The Light is shining in the dark, and the darkness has not put it out." "9The true Light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world." In ch. 11. of John Jesus says, 25“I am the Resurrection and the Life. Anyone who believes in Me will live even if he dies. In ch. 14:6 John writes, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” So Jesus, God's Word, is living and active because He is Life itself. Jesus, as the Word of God, comes to us in the Scriptures which are the word of God. Since they are His Word, they share in His nature. The words of Scripture impart the life and light of the Word of God. It is living and active. As Isaiah prophesied in ch. 55, "11so will My Word be that I speak. It will not return to Me empty but it will accomplish what I want and achieve what I had in mind." In Matt. 10 Jesus says, 34“Don't think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. 35I came to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." In Revelation 1 it is written, "16In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp, double-edged sword, . . ." The Word of God, "It pierces until it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow. And it can judge thoughts and purposes of the heart." This is to say when God's Word is read, spoken or preached, it reaches deep into each and everyone one of it. It judges the very core of our being. It exposes the things done in faith and the acts of unbelief. It shows us our motivations for everything we think, say and do. We may not always want to admit it. Sometimes we may be so hardened though we may not understand it and then we ignore it to our own detriment. Jesus, the Word of God, is the Judge of the living and the dead. The living are those who possess His life. The dead are those who do not possess His life. Everything is uncovered before Him to whom we must give account. This should give us a little trepidation as we work out our salvation. Are we just sitting on our faith or is it living and active like the Word that gave birth to it? Are we living lives contrary to that Word? Remember our works are tested with fire and only that which is born of faith will we take with us into the world to come. Merciful God and Father, give us Your Holy Spirit when we hear Your Word so we may do those things that please you and avoid those things which will not last, to the glory of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our LORD. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Read the full article

#Christ #Christianity #devotion #doubleedgedsword #faith #Jesus #LCMS #Lutheran #Messiah #WordofGod

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the-drokainian · 11 months ago

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Sunday Morning Sermon, December 17, 2023

Romans 16:1-27: "The Triumph of God's People"

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"Scrooge" (1970)

"I hate people!"What a terrible thing to say!- But don't we fall into that?- Individualism, selfishnessIf we're going to obey Romans 12:1, we must do it together!Chs. 1-11- What God has doneChs. 12-16- It's through his people!

‭Romans‬ ‭8:37‬ ‭ESV‬

[37] No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

‭Romans‬ ‭16:1‭-‬27‬ ‭ESV‬

[1] I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae, [2] that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she may need from you, for she has been a patron of many and of myself as well. [3] Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, [4] who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. [5] Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia. [6] Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. [7] Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. [8] Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. [9] Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. [10] Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. [11] Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus. [12] Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. [13] Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. [14] Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them. [15] Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. [16] Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. [17] I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. [18] For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. [19] For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. [20] The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. [21] Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. [22] I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. [23] Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you. [25] Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages [26] but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— [27] to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Hall of No Fame (vv.1-16)Paul closing in typical fashion- Greetings, farewells- Names, closing remarksExcept for a few, we don't know these!They don't mean anything to us...But they did to Paul!

‭Romans‬ ‭16:1‭-‬16‬ ‭ESV‬

- "Fellow workers"- "Fellow prisoners"- Laborers, missionaries- "Risked their necks..."Paul remembers with thanksgiving.You wouldn't know my list.I probably wouldn't know yours.What about people right here and now?What is God doing through them now?Thank God for these names and faces!- Who God has used to shape you- Who God has used to sanctify you

‭Romans‬ ‭8:29‬ ‭ESV‬

[29] For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

History may not remember their names.- But you do.- I do.- God does!

Victory is at Hand (vv.17-24)One chief goal of the church: "Watch!"- Be on guard for one another.- Be on guard with one another.- Against "divisions" (false teaching)

‭Romans‬ ‭16:17‭-‬19‬ ‭ESV‬

[17] I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. [18] For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. [19] For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.

We are called to do this together.- Pastors, elders, leaders- Teachers, congregation- No one left behind!

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‭1 Peter‬ ‭5:8‬ ‭ESV‬

[8] Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

No shepherd?No flock?See the benfits of being together in this!- Protection, love, family

But it isn't all bleak.

‭Romans‬ ‭16:20‬ ‭ESV‬

[20] The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Another allusion to Genesis here!

‭Genesis‬ ‭3:15‬ ‭ESV‬

[15] I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

The storyline of all Scripture- From Genesis to Revelation...

‭Revelation‬ ‭12:9‬ ‭ESV‬

[9] And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

But here... there's something else!- "Under your feet..."?- Jesus? Apostles? Angels?- No... yours!The victory is Christ's!- But you are in him by faith!- His death is yours.- His resurrection is yours.- His victory is yours!

‭Revelation‬ ‭12:11‬ ‭ESV‬

[11] And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.

Want to be rid of sin and temptation?Want to serve and love Jesus perfectly?Are you tired of suffering and pain?Rejoice! You are a conqueror in Christ!- Satan is already defeated!- Crushed beneath the feet of Jesus- A soon... yours too!NOTE: "Your" is plural!- As the Body, the Church- There is weight to what we do.- A steady remnider that Satan is doomed!

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We're in this together!- To the very end... and beyond!- Get used to each other!Have you missed it?

‭Romans‬ ‭16:21‭-‬23‬ ‭ESV‬

[21] Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you; so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. [22] I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. [23] Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.

Paul didn't do it alone.- You can't do it alone.- Tap into God's power!- Stand with God's people!

Go in God's Strength (vv.25-27)A second doxology.- The depths of God's work (chs.1-11)- The power of God's work in us (chs.12-16)All according to God's powerAll for God's glory

‭Romans‬ ‭16:25‭-‬26‬ ‭ESV‬

[25] Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages [26] but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—

What has God done?What has God called us to do?So what?!With God's people- Your list, my list- As one triumphant army- Storm the gates of Hell!

‭Matthew‬ ‭16:18‬ ‭ESV‬

[18] And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I'm in this with you!Are you in this with me?With each other?Good news! We win!

‭Romans‬ ‭16:27‬ ‭ESV‬

[27] to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.

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nijjhar · 1 year ago

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Punjabi - After knowing your tribal father, then Khuda will introduce to... Punjabi - After knowing your tribal father, Ilah then Khuda will introduce to you our Supernatural Father of our souls Al-Ilah = Allah for Salvation or Muktti. Part 2. https://youtu.be/Sl_ylakBVPQ Punjabi - First be of your tribal father for the PROTECTION of your house, land and family and then you will know our Supernatural Father Allah of our "souls" for resurrection - Muktti -Part 1. https://youtu.be/BrUqRWIrqBc Full description at my website:- http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/JattPeo.htm MAKE THIS POST VIRAL AMONG OUR JATTS. SHAME ON OUR EDUCATED JATTS, THEY CAN’T UNITE US. IN 1947, OUR JATTS WERE NOT EDUCATED. LATTON KAE BHOOTT BATTON SAE NAHI MANTTAE. SEND THIS POSTER TO YOUR FRIENDS/RELATIVES ESPECIALLY AT THE BORDER VILLAGES OR BETTER YOU VISIT THEM. PAGRRI SANBHAAL JATTA https://youtu.be/gSwPvK3B4rg MATT. 13V24-30:- ATOMIC WAR EXPECTED ON 14/11/2023 Punjabi - Ch. Saddam Hussein Khokhar was a Jatt of the same Calibre as our Ch. Chhotu Ram Ohlyan Jat https://youtu.be/XAb1fhT3Mqk Much more on my website:- http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/UnitedJatts.htm Punjabi - Taliban - Al-Djmar Al-Aksa is best defeated by the tribal sons of Man and not by the guns. https://youtu.be/1dDW3SapKWE NAHI TO LALLON NAE AAP KAA DAMM BANDH KRNA HAE; KALI JHANDI LAGWA DO LALLON KAE. Youtube video in Punjabi:- https://youtu.be/QJLnbgoMMkM http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/Chhotu.pdf Playlist for our Jatt Unity:- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0C8AFaJhsWwfWhnrV1UKKbBJNCbYjqI3 and explains it as he sings. Be sons of your tribal father "Jatt" and not the super bastard Hindu, Sikh or Muslim Qom as these Lalas did form soon after the death of our Jatt Qom Pillar Ch Chhotu Ram Ohlyan; the three Lalas; Lala Gandhi, a Bania, Lala Tara Singh Malhotra Khatri and Lala Mohd. Ali Jinnah, a Babla Bhatia. DON’T KILL EACH OTHER IN THE INDO-PAK WARS. THREE LALAS; LALA GANDHI, A BANIA, LALA TARA SINGH MALHOTRA KHATRI AND LALA MOHD. ALI JINNAH, A BABLA BHATIA IN COLLUSION WITH THE DIRTY-HEARTED BRITISH TRADERS DIVIDED OUR COUNTRY. WE JATTS FOUGHT FOR THE BRITISH ARMY THE BEST BUT THE “SALTLESS PAKKAE HARAAMI” BRITISH NOT ONLY DIVIDED OUR JATT HOMELAND INTO INDIA AND PAKISTAN BUT ALSO CREATED A MARKET FOR THE SALE OF THEIR DEADLY WEAPONS IN SATAN. THAT IS, YOU BRAVE SOLDIERS OF THE JATT TRIBE, QOM, CLAN, KABEELA, “ILAH”, ETC. NOW, FIGHT WITH EACH OTHER OVER “KASHMIR”, THE BONE OF CONTENTION AND WE WILL SUPPLY YOU GUNS AND TANKS TO KILL EACH OTHER. WE JATTS ARE WELL KNOWN FOR STUPIDITY - MOORAKHHTAEE:- http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/Riots.htm SO, LET US WRITE OUR FULL NAMES AS I DO:- CHAUDHRY (COURTESY TITLE OF THE JATTS) RAJINDER NIJJHAR JATT Kabah is the Temple of Shiv nothing to do with Allah. Http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.docx Http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.pdf www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.htm. Punjabi:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/pbook.docx http://www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/pdbook.pdf Punjabi - No son of Brahma, a Hindu, no son of Parbrahm, a Sikh but Shankar Varniyia Super Bastard Fanatic Devil, a TERRORIST. https://youtu.be/PMMG99nMANk https://youtu.be/GDqOcARj4Po Punjabi - Satguru Angad Dev Ji was the "Kiln" in which the Mitti Mussallman ki, sons of Man were baked. Or the "Ego" of them was burnt making them the most humble Bhagats. https://youtu.be/aMBUhvacOAw WHY TEN LIGHTS? Nanak wasn't a Moral Teacher, a Brahmin Guru but Satguru = Christ of the highest order that Preaches the Gospel to one's mind, Munn, Nafs, etc. https://youtu.be/HquVBRjtXF8 www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/tenlight.htm Punjabi - Nirmallae Sants learnt the Scriptures from Kanshi and then, they Preached the Gospel. They do not handle money or they are the sons of Satan. https://youtu.be/chiRrKtEqLg TUKHUM, BIND, BEEJ, ETC., SAE PAIDAH HOTA HAE. JATT DI SATT NAAL JATT QOM DA ADMI PAEDAH HONDA HAE. MAA KISSI BHI QOM KI HO PAR BAETA JATT DA. TYPICAL EDUCATED KAFFIR BAJWA JATT:- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0C8AFaJhsWwYKeFSCQNc6dOGm92fk4A4 A Video on Atomic War:- https://youtu.be/qDU964t_0i0 Playlist on Jattistan:- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0C8AFaJhsWxsONN55F1ZZGdM-SMvjrmg Punjabi/English - A new type of political robber was predicted by Bhagat Kabir Ji called Al-Djmar Al-Akasa/Kubra. That also tells us in Haume how stupid are our Jatt politicians? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0C8AFaJhsWz9zwqDMqorcpkSUgi8NJqX We need a singer to sing this song in honour of our Pillar Ch. Chhotu Ram Ohlyan Jatt www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/ikchor.pdf Our Ch. Navjot Sidhu Qom Jatt by replacing his Jatt Qom with Sikh Qom became a SUPER BASTARD FANATIC DEVIL. Navjot's Video:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LZXvCL3rR8 By proclaiming Sikh Qom. https://youtu.be/O0iERZu_TyU My Books:- ONE GOD ONE FAITH:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/bookfin.pdf and in Punjabi KAKHH OHLAE LAKHH:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/pdbook.pdf John's baptism:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/johnsig.pdf Trinity:- www.gnosticgospel.co.uk/trinity.pdf

#youtube

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filmloading361 · 3 years ago

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More Apocrypha Iirejected Scriptures

(This is the second in a series of posts on texts to be featured in New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures edited by Brent Landau and I. The material here is included also on my More Christian Apocrypha page).

The Revelation of the Magi has appeared recently in an English translation: Brent Landau, Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2010), based on his dissertation (to be published in CCSA) “The Sages and the Star-Child: An Introduction to the Revelation of the Magi, An Ancient Christian Apocryphon” (Ph. D. diss.., Harvard Divinity School, 2008 (available HERE)). Brent and I did not feel it was necessary to include another translation of the text in the MNTA volume, but did want to expose a wider audience to the text. So, we decided to include an introduction and a summary. The same strategy was going to be employed for the Armenian Infancy Gospel (recently translated into English by Abraham Terian) and the apocryphal Apocalypses of John, but those contributions have not materialized.

More Apocrypha Iirejected Scriptures Fulfilled

More Apocrypha Iirejected Scriptures King James Version

The text is available in a single Syriac manuscript (Vatican, Biblioteca apostolica, syr. 162) of a larger text known as the Chronicle of Zuqnin. There are a number of apocryphal Jewish and Christian texts that have been preserved in such chronicles and compendia (e.g., Joseph and Aseneth, material in the Book of the Bee and the Cave of Treasures). The story is told from the perspective of the Magi, who are described much differently than in the canonical account of their journey. Here there are twelve Magi (perhaps more), they hail from a mythological eastern land named Shir, and the name “Magi,” it is said, derives etymologically from their practice of praying in silence. They knew to follow the star to Bethlehem because they are descendants of Seth, the third child of Adam and Eve, who passed on to them a prophecy told to him by his father Adam. The star appears to the Magi in the Cave of Treasures on the Mountain of Victories. There it transforms into a small, luminous being (clearly Christ, but his precise identity is never explicitly revealed) and instructs them about its origins and their mission. The Magi follow the star to Bethlehem, where it transforms into the infant Jesus. Upon returning to their land, the Magi instruct their people about the star-child. In an epilogue likely secondary to the text, Judas Thomas arrives in Shir, baptizes the Magi and commissions them to preach throughout the world.

Rev. Magi contains several interesting parallels with other texts from antiquity, indicating that its traditions about the Magi were wide-spread. The “Cave of Treasures” is mentioned also in the Syriac version of the Testament of Adam (a Christian work from the fifth or sixth century) and from there is taken up in the Cave of Treasures (dated to the sixth century) and the Book of the Bee (from the thirteenth century). Several elements of Rev. Magi's story are found also in the Liber de nativitate salvatoris, an expansion of the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew with curious features that may have originated in a very early infancy gospel. Some aspects of Rev. Magi were also passed on in summary by the anonymous author of a fifth-century commentary on the Gospel of Matthew known as the Opus Imperfectum in Matthaeum. From here some elements found their way into the Golden Legend (ch. 6). The Rev. Magi traditions are surprisingly widespread for a text that, were it not for that one manuscript, would have been lost to history.

Compilation of little-known and never-before-published apocryphal Christian texts in English translation

This anthology of ancient nonbiblical Christian literature presents introductions to and translations of little-known apocryphal texts from a wide variety of genres, most of which have never before been translated into any modern language.

More Buying Choices $102.40 (24 used & new offers) Apocrypha (Large Print): King James Version. 4.7 out of 5 stars 387. The Encyclopedia of Lost and Rejected Scriptures: The Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha. 4.7 out of 5 stars 532. Hardcover $42.49 $ 42. 49 $65.00 $65.00. FREE Shipping by Amazon. Burke & Long, eds., New Testament Apocrypha, first galley proofs February 19, 2016 1:23 PM New Testament Apocrypha More Noncanonical Scriptures Volume one Edited by Tony Burke and Brent Landau William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan.

An introduction to the volume as a whole addresses the most significant features of the included writings and contextualizes them within the contemporary (quickly evolving) study of the Christian Apocrypha. The body of the book comprises thirty texts that have been carefully introduced, annotated, and translated into readable English by eminent scholars. Ranging from the second century to early in the second millennium, these fascinating texts provide a more complete picture of Christian thought and expression than canonical texts alone can offer.

For ordering information, visit Eerdmans.

PREVIEW (introduction and front matter)

CONTENTS

1. Gospels and Related Traditions of New Testament Figures The Legend of Aphroditianus (Katharina Heyden) The Revelation of the Magi (Brent Landau) The Hospitality of Dysmas (Mark Bilby) The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Syriac) (Tony Burke) On the Priesthood of Jesus (Bill Adler) Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 210 (Brent Landau) Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5072 (Ross P. Ponder) The Dialogue of the Paralytic with Christ (Bradley N. Rice) The Toledot Yeshu (Stanley Jones) The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon (Alin Suciu) The Discourse of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior (Paul C. Dilley) An Encomium on Mary Magdalene (Christine Luckritz Marquis) An Encomium on John the Baptist (Philip L. Tite) The Life of John the Baptist by Serapion (Slavomír Céplö) Life and Martyrdom of John the Baptist (Andrew Bernhard) The Legend of the Thirty Silver Pieces (Tony Burke and Slavomír Céplö) The Death of Judas according to Papias (Geoffrey S. Smith)

2. Apocryphal Acts and Related Traditions The Acts of Barnabas (Glenn E. Snyder) The Acts of Cornelius the Centurion (Tony Burke and Witold Witakowski) John and the Robber (Rick Brannan) The History of Simon Cephas, the Chief of the Apostles (Stanley Jones) The Acts of Timothy (Cavan Concannon) The Acts of Titus (Richard Pervo) The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena (David Eastman)

3. Epistles The Epistle of Christ from Heaven (Calogero A. Miceli) The Letter of Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite to Timothy on the Death of Peter and Paul (David Eastman)

More Apocrypha Iirejected Scriptures John Hagee

4. Apocalypses The (Latin) Revelation of John about Antichrist (Charles Wright) The Apocalypse of the Virgin (Stephen Shoemaker) The Tiburtine Sibyl (Stephen Shoemaker) The Investiture of Abbaton (Alin Suciu and Ibrahim Saweros)

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claudinei-de-jesus · 3 years ago

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The Second Coming of Christ

1. The fact of your coming.

The fact of Christ's second coming is mentioned more than 300 times in the New Testament. Paul refers to the event about fifty times.

Someone has already said that the second coming is mentioned eight times more than the first. Entire epistles (Cl and 2Tess.) And entire chapters (Mat. 24, Mat. 13) are dedicated to the subject. Without a doubt, it is one of the most important doctrines of the New Testament.

2. The way of your coming.

It will be personal (John 14: 3; Acts 1: 10,11; 1 Thess. 4:16; Rev. 1: 7; 22: 7), literal (Acts 1:10; 1 Thess. 4:16, 17; Apo . 1: 7; Zec. 14: 4), visible (Heb. 9:28; Fps. 3:20; Zac. 12:10) and glorious (Matt. 16:27; 25:31; 2Th. 1: 7 -9; Gal. 3: 4). There are interpretations that try to avoid the opinion that the coming of Christ is literal and personal. Some teach that death is the second coming of Christ. But the Bible shows that the second coming is the opposite of death, for the dead in Christ will rise at that time.

With death we will go to Christ, but when he comes he will come to fetch us. Certain passages (Matt. 16:28; Phil. 3:20) lose their meaning if we replace death with a second coming. Finally, death is an enemy, while the coming of Christ is the glorious hope. Some maintain that the second coming was the descent of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Others teach that Christ came at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, but in each of these cases there was no resurrection of the dead, nor the rapture of the living, nor other predicted events that will accompany the second advent.

3. The time of his coming.

Attempts were made to determine the date of Christ's coming, but in none of them did the Lord come at the appointed time for men! He declared that the exact time of his coming is hidden in the divine councils. (Matt. 24: 36-42; Mar. 13:21, 22.) It is a good thing.

Who would like to know in advance his exact time of death? Such knowledge would have the effect of disturbing and rendering the person useless. It is enough for us to know that death can come at any moment; therefore, we must work "while it is daytime because the night comes when no one can work". The same reasoning applies to the end of the present dispensation. That day has not been revealed to us either, but we know that it will be sudden (1Cor. 15:52; Matt. 24:27) and unexpected (2Ped. 3: 4; Mat. 24: 48-51; Rev. 16:15). The Lord warns his servants: "Negotiate until I come"

We give below an overview of Christ's teaching on the time of his coming: after the destruction of Jerusalem the Jews will be banished from all nations, driven out of his land, which will be subjugated by the Gentiles until the end of time, when God will judge the Gentile nations (Luke 21:24). During this time, the servants of Christ will carry on their work (Luke 19: 11-27), preaching the Gospel to all nations (Matt. 24:14).

It will be a time of delay during which the church will often be tempted to doubt the return of its Lord (Luke 18: 1-8), when some will prepare and others will become negligent, while the Bridegroom will delay (Matt. 25: 1-11). Unfaithful ministers will stray, saying to themselves, "My Lord is slow to come" (Luke 12:45).

"Long afterwards" (Matt. 25:19), "... midnight (Matt. 25: 6),‹ the hour and day that none of his disciples know of (Matt. 24:36, 42.50) , the Lord will suddenly appear to gather his servants and judge them according to their works (Matt. 25:19; and 2 Cor. 5:10). Later, after the Gospel had been universally preached and after the world had it rejected, when the people are living completely ignorant of the impending catastrophe, as in the days of Noah (Matt. 24: 37-39) and in the days of the destruction of Sodom (Luke 17:28, 29) the Son of man will come in glory and power to judge the nations of the world and to reign over them (Matt. 25: 31-46).

4. Signs of your coming.

Scripture teaches that the appearance of Christ ushering in the Millennial Age will be preceded by an eventful time of transition, in which there will be physical upheavals, wars, economic crises, moral decline, religious apostasy, infidelity, general panic and bewilderment. The last part of that transitional period is called "The Great Tribulation", during which the whole world will be under the rule of a government against God and anti-Christian. Believers in God will be brutally persecuted, and the Jewish nation, in particular, will pass through the furnace of affliction.

5. The purpose of your coming.

(a) In relation to the church. Thus writes Dr. Pardington: Just as the first coming of the Lord extended over a period of 30 years, so the second coming will influence various events. At the first coming he was revealed as the Child of Bethlehem; later as the Lamb of God, when he was baptized, and as the Redeemer on Calvary. At the second coming he will appear to his secretly and suddenly to transfer them to the Wedding of the Lamb. This apparition is called the rapture or "Parousia" (which means "apparition" or "presence" or "arrival" in the Greek language). At that time believers will be judged to determine their rewards for services rendered (Matt. 25: 14-30). After the rapture, a period of terrible tribulation follows, which will end in revelation, or open manifestation of

Christ from heaven, when he will establish his messianic kingdom on earth.

(b) In relation to Israel. He who is the Head and Savior of the church, of the people of heaven, is also the promised Messiah of Israel, of the earthly people. As Messiah, he will free these people from tribulation, bring them together from the four corners of the earth, restore them to their former land and reign over them as their long-promised King over the House of David.

(c) In relation to the antichrist. The spirit of the Antichrist is already in the world (1 John 4: 3; 2:18; 2:22), but yet another final Antichrist will come (2 Thess. 2: 3). In the last days he will rise from the old world (Rev. 13: 1) and will become the sovereign over a resurrected Roman Empire that will dominate the whole world. He will assume great political (Dan. 7: 8, 25), commercial (Dan. 8:25; Rev. 13:16, 17) and religious (Rev. 17: 1-15) power. He will be anti-God and anti-Christ, and will persecute Christians in an attempt to extinguish Christianity. (Dan. 7:25; 8:24; Rev. 13: 7, 15). Knowing that men desire to have some religion, he will establish a cult based on the divinity of man and the supremacy of the state.

As an embodiment of that state, he will demand the worship of the people, and form a priesthood to enforce and promulgate that worship. (2Th. 2: 9,10; Rev. 13: 12-15.) The antichrist will take the doctrine of the supremacy of the state to the extreme, which teaches that government is the supreme power, around which everything, including itself man's conscience, has to be subordinate to him. Since there is no higher power or law than the State, according to them, God and his law must be abolished in order to worship the State. The first attempt to establish the cult of the State is recorded in Daniel ch. 3. Nebuchadnezzar was proud of the powerful empire he had built. "Is not this the great Babylon that I have built? ..." (Dan. 4:30).

So dazzled was he in the face of human power and government, that the state for him became like a god. What better way to impress men with your glory than to order them to have the symbol of that government worshiped! Therefore, he built a great golden image and ordered all peoples to prostrate themselves before it, under pain of death. The image was not that of a local deity, but it represented the state itself. Refusing to worship the image was considered atheism or betrayal. When instituting this new religion, Nebuchadnezzar as if saying to the people: "Who gave you the beautiful cities, the good roads, and beautiful gardens? The State! Who provides you with food and service, who founds schools and sponsors temples?

The state! Who defends you from enemy attacks? The state! then is the State, this power, not a god? So, what greater god do you want than your exalted government? Prostrate yourselves before the symbol of great Babylon! "And if God had not humbled him from his blasphemous pride (Dan. 4: 28-37), Nebuchadnezzar perhaps would have demanded the worship of his own person as head of state. Like the three Hebrew children (Dan. 3) were persecuted for refusing to bow to Nebuchadnezzar's image, so first-century Christians suffered because they refused to pay divine homage to Caesar's image.

There was tolerance for all religions in the Roman Empire, but on condition that the image of Caesar as a symbol of the state was venerated. Christians were persecuted, not so much for their loyalty to Christ, but because they refused to worship Caesar and say, "Caesar is Lord." They refused to worship the state as a god. The French Revolution offers another example of this policy. God and Christ were thrown out and a god, or goddess, made himself the "Fatherland" (the State). So said one of the leaders: "The state is supreme in all things. When the state speaks, the church has nothing to say." Loyalty to the state has risen to the position of religion.

The assembly decreed that altars should be erected in every village with the following inscription: "The citizen is born, lives and dies for La Patrie." A ritual was prepared for baptisms, weddings and civil burials. The state religion had its hymns and prayers, its fasts and feasts. The New Testament recognizes human government as divinely ordained for the maintenance of order and justice. The Christian, therefore, owes loyalty to his homeland.

Both the church and the state have their share in the divine program, and each must be limited to its own sphere. God must receive what belongs to him, and Caesar must receive what belongs to him. But it turns out that many times Caesar demands things that are from God, with the result that the church, very against his will, clashes with the government. Scripture predicts that these conflicts will peak in the future. The last civilization will be anti-God, and the antichrist, its leader, the world dictator, will make the laws of this superstate supreme over all other laws ", and will demand the worship of his person as the personification of the state. The same Scriptures predict the victory of God and that on the ruins of the anti-Christian world empire, he will raise up his kingdom in which God is supreme - the Kingdom of God. (Dan. 2:34, 35, 44; Rev. 11:15; 19: 11-21.)

(d) In relation to nations. The nations will be judged, the kingdoms of the world will be destroyed, and all peoples will be subject to the King of kings. (Dan. 2:44; Mic. 4: 1; Isa. 49:22, 23; Jer. 23: 5; Luc. 1:32; Zec. 14: 9; Isa. 24:23; Rev. 11:15 .) Christ will rule the nations with an iron rod; he will remove all oppression and injustice from the land and inaugurate the golden age of a thousand years. (Ps. 2: 7-9; 72; Isa. 11: 1-9; Rev. 20: 6.) "Then the end will come, when he has given the kingdom over to God the Father and when he has annihilated the entire empire , and all power and strength "(1Cor. 15:24).

There are three stages in the work of Christ as Mediator: His work as a Prophet, accomplished during his earthly ministry; his work as a Priest, begun on the cross and continued during the current dispensation; and his work as King, beginning with his coming and continuing during the Millennium. After the Millennium has accomplished its work of uniting humanity to God, so that the inhabitants of heaven and earth form one big family where God will be everything and will be in everyone. (Eph. 1:10; 3:14, 15.)

However, Christ will continue to reign as the God-man, and to share in the divine government, for "his kingdom will have no end" (Luke 1:33). .. A segunda vinda de Cristo

1. O fato de sua vinda.

O fato da segunda vinda de Cristo é mais de 300 vezes no Novo Testamento. Paulo refere-se ao evento umas cinqüenta vezes.

Alguém já disse que a segunda vinda é mencionada oito vezes mais do que a primeira. Epístolas inteiras (Cl e 2Tess.) E capítulos inteiros (Mat. 24, Mat. 13) são dedicados ao assunto. Sem dúvida, é uma das doutrinas mais importantes do Novo Testamento.

2. Uma maneira de sua vinda.

Será de maneira pessoal (João 14: 3; Atos 1: 10,11; 1Tess. 4:16; Apo. 1: 7; 22: 7), literal (Atos 1:10; 1Tess. 4:16, 17; Apo. . 1: 7; Zac. 14: 4), visível (Heb. 9:28; Fps. 3:20; Zac. 12:10) e gloriosa (Mat. 16:27; 25:31; 2Tess. 1: 7 -9; Gál. 3: 4). Há interpretações que procuram evitar a opinião de que a vinda de Cristo seja literal e pessoal. Alguns ensinam que a morte é uma segunda vinda de Cristo. Mas a Bíblia mostra que uma segunda vinda é o contrário da morte, pois os mortos em Cristo ressuscitarão nessa ocasião.

Com a morte iremos para Cristo, mas na sua vinda ele virá para nos buscar. Certas passagens (Mat. 16:28; Fil. 3:20) perdem seu significado se substituíssemos morte por segunda vinda. Finalmente, a morte é um inimigo, enquanto a vinda de Cristo é a gloriosa esperança. Alguns sustentam que a segunda vinda foi a descida do Espírito no dia de Pentecoste. Outros ensinam que Cristo veio no tempo da destruição de Jerusalém no ano 70 d.C., mas em cada um desses casos não houve ressurreição dos mortos, nem o arrebatamento dos vivos, nem outros eventos preditos que acompanham o segundo advento.

3. O Tempo da sua vinda.

Tentativas houve para determinar os dados da vinda de Cristo, mas em nenhuma delas o Senhor veio na hora marcada pelos homens! Ele requer que o tempo exato de sua vinda está oculto nos conselhos divinos. (Mat. 24: 36-42; Mar. 13:21, 22.) é bom que seja assim.

Quem gostaria de saber com antecedência a hora exata de sua morte? Tal conhecimento teria o efeito de perturbar e inutilizar uma pessoa. Basta que saibamos que a morte pode vir a qualquer instante; portanto, dever trabalhar "enquanto é dia pois a noite vem quando ninguém pode trabalhar". O mesmo raciocínio serve quanto ao fim da presente dispensação. Esse dia também não nos foi revelado, mas sabemos será repentino (1Cor. 15:52; Mat. 24:27) e inesperado (2Ped. 3: 4; Mat. 24: 48-51; Apo. 16:15). O Senhor avisa seus servos: "Negociai até que eu venha"

Damos em seguida uma visão geral do ensino de Cristo sobre o tempo da sua vinda: após a destruição de Jerusalém os serão desterrados entre todas as nações, expulsos de sua terra, a qual passará a ser subjugada pelos gentios até o fim dos tempos, quando Deus julgará as nações gentias (Luc. 21:24). Durante esse período os servos de Cristo levarão sua obra avante (Luc. 19: 11-27) pregando o Evangelho a todas as nações (Mat. 24:14).

Será um tempo de demora durante o qual muitas vezes a igreja será tentada a duvidar do retomo do seu Senhor (Luc. 18: 1-8), quando alguns se prepararão e outros se tornarão negligentes, enquanto o Noivo demorar (Mat. 25: 1-11). Ministros infiéis desviar-se-ão, dizendo consigo mesmos: "O meu Senhor tarda a vir" (Luc. 12:45).

"Muito tempo depois" (Mat. 25:19), "… meia-noite (Mat. 25: 6),‹ a hora e no dia dos quais nenhum dos seus discípulos sabe (Mat. 24:36, 42,50) , o Senhor repentinamente vencido para ajuntar seus servos e julgá-los segundo como suas obras (Mat. 25:19; e 2Cor. 5:10). Mais tarde, depois de ter sido pregado universalmente o Evangelho e após o mundo havê-lo rejeitado, quando o povo estiver vivendo completamente ignorante quanto à catástrofe iminente, como nos dias de Noé (Mat. 24: 37-39) e nos dias da destruição de Sodoma (Luc. 17:28, 29) virá o Filho do homem em glória e poder para julgar as nações do mundo e sobre elas reinar (Mat. 25: 31-46).

4. Sinais de sua vinda.

As Escrituras ensinam que a aparição de Cristo inaugurando a Idade Milenial será precedida por um tempo agitado de transição, no qual haverá distúrbios físicos, guerras, crises preventivas, declínio moral, apostasia religiosa, infidelidade, pânico geral e perplexidade. A última parte desse período transitório chama-se "A Grande Tribulação", durante a qual o mundo inteiro estará sob o domínio governo contra Deus e anticristão. Crentes em Deus serão brutalmente perseguidos, e uma nação judaica, em particular, passará pela fornalha da aflição.

5. O propósito de sua vinda.

(a) Em relação à igreja. Assim chamado ao Dr. Pardington: Assim como a primeira vinda do Senhor se estendeu sobre um período de 30 anos, assim como a segunda vinda influirá em vários eventos. Na primeira vinda ele foi revelado como o Menino de Belém; mais tarde como o Cordeiro de Deus, ao ser batizado, e como o Redentor no Calvário. Na segunda vinda anunciada aos seus secreta e repentinamente para trasladá-los às Bodas do Cordeiro. Essa aparição chama-se o arrebatamento ou "Parousia" (que significa "aparição" ou "presença" ou "chegada" na língua grega). Nessa ocasião os crentes serão julgados para determinar as suas recompensas por serviços prestados (Mat. 25: 14-30). Após o arrebatamento, segue-se um período de terrível tribulação, que terminará na revelação, ou manifestação aberta de

Cristo proveniente do céu, quando ele estabelecer seu reino messiânico sobre a terra.

(b) Em relação a Israel. Aquele que é a Cabeça e Salvador da igreja, do povo do céu, é também o prometido Messias de Israel, do povo terrestre. Como Messias, ele libertará esse povo da tribulação, congregá-lo-á dos quatro cantos da terra, restaurá-lo-á na sua antiga terra e sobre ele reinará como seu, há muito prometido, Rei sobre a Casa de Davi.

(c) Em relação ao anticristo. O espírito do anticristo já está no mundo (1João 4: 3; 2:18; 2:22), mas ainda virá outro anticristo final (2Ts. 2: 3). Nos últimos dias ele se levantará o velho mundo (Apo. 13: 1) e tornar-se-á o sóbrio sobre um Império Romano ressuscitado que dominará todo o mundo. Assumirá grande poder político (Dn 7: 8, 25), comercial (Dn 8:25; Apo. 13:16, 17) e religioso (Apo. 17: 1-15). Ele será anti-Deus e anti-Cristo, e perseguirá os cristãos numa tentativa de extinção do Cristianismo. (Dan. 7:25; 8:24; Apo. 13: 7, 15). Sabendo que os homens que desejam ter alguma religião, ele estabelecerá um culto baseado na divindade do homem e na supremacia do Estado.

Como personificação desse Estado, ele exigirá o culto do povo, e formará um sacerdócio para fazer cumprir e promulgar esse culto. (2Tess. 2: 9,10; Apo. 13: 12-15.) O anticristo levará ao extremo a doutrina da supremacia do Estado, a qual ensina que o governo é o supremo poder, em torno do qual tudo, incluindo a própria consciente do homem, tem que estar subordinado. Visto que não existe poder ou lei mais elevados do que o Estado, segundo eles, Deus e sua lei precisam ser abolidos para prestar culto ao Estado. A primeira tentativa para estabelecer o culto ao Estado está registrado em Daniel cap. 3. Nabucodonosor orgulhou-se do poderoso império que edificara. "não é esta a grande Babilônia que eu edifiquei? ..." (Dan. 4:30).

Tão deslumbrado ficou ele diante do poderio e governos humanos, que o Estado para ele se tomou como um deus. Que melhor maneira de impressionar os homens com sua glória, do que ordenar-lhes que o símbolo desse governo fosse venerado! Portanto, ele edificou uma grande imagem dourada e mandou que todos os povos se prostrassem diante dela, sob pena de morte. A imagem não foi a de uma divindade local, mas representava o próprio Estado. Recusar cultuar a imagem era considerado ateísmo ou traição. Ao instituir essa nova religião, Nabucodonosor como que dizia ao povo: "Quem vos deu as belas cidades, as boas estradas, e belos jardins? O Estado! Quem vos provê de alimentos e serviço, quem funda escolas e patrocina templos?

O Estado! Quem vos defende dos inimigos? O Estado! não será então o Estado, esse poderio, um deus? Portanto, que maior deus quereis do que vosso exaltado governo? Prostrai-vos perante o símbolo da grande Babilônia! "E se Deus não o tivesse humilhado do seu orgulho blasfemo (Dan. 4: 28-37), Nabucodonosor talvez tivesse exigido o culto de sua própria pessoa como chefe do Estado. Como os três os filhos hebreus (Dan. 3) foram perseguidos por se recusarem a curvar-se perante a imagem de Nabucodonosor, assim os cristãos do primeiro século sofreram porque se recusaram a render homenagens divinas à imagem de César.

Havia de tolerância todas as religiões no Império Romano, mas sob a condição de que fosse venerada a imagem de César como símbolo do Estado. Os cristãos foram perseguidos, não tanto por sua lealdade a Cristo, mas porque se recusaram a adorar a César e dizer: "César é Senhor." Recusaram-se a cultuar o Estado como deus. A Revolução francesa oferece outro exemplo dessa política. Deus e Cristo foram lançados fora e um deus, ou deusa, se fez do "Pátria". Assim disse um dos lideres: "O Estado é supremo em todas as coisas. Quando o Estado se pronuncia, a igreja não tem nada a dizer." A lealdade ao Estado elevou-se à posição de religião.

A assembléia decretou que em todas as vilas feitas levantados altares com a seguinte inscrição: "O cidadão nasce, vive e morre por La Patrie." Preparou-se um ritual para batismos, casamentos e enterros civis. A religião do Estado possuía seus hinos e orações, seus jejuns e festas. O Novo Testamento reconhecido o governo humano como divinamente ordenado para a manutenção da ordem e da justiça. O cristão, por conseguinte, deve lealdade à sua pátria.

Tanto a igreja como o estado têm sua parte no programa divino, e cada qual deve limitar-se a sua esfera. Deus deve receber o que pertence, e César deve receber o que pertence. Mas acontece que muitas vezes César exige as coisas que são de Deus, atualizando a igreja, muito contra sua vontade, entra em choque com o governo. As Escrituras prevêem que esses conflitos futuramente chegarão ao seu ponto máximo. A última civilização será anti-Deus, e o anticristo, seu chefe, o ditador mundial, tornar�� as leis desse superestado supremas sobre todas as demais leis ", e exigirá o culto à sua pessoa como a personificação do Estado. As primeiras Escrituras predizem uma vitória de Deus e que sobre as ruínas do império mundial "anticristão, ele levantará seu reino no qual Deus é supremo - o Reino de Deus. (Dan. 2:34, 35, 44; Apo. 11:15; 19: 11-21.)

(d) Em relação às nações. As nações serão julgadas, os reinos do mundo destruídos, e todos os povos estão sujeitos ao Rei dos reis. (Dan. 2:44; Miq. 4: 1; Isa. 49:22, 23; Jer. 23: 5; Luc. 1:32; Zac. 14: 9; Isa. 24:23; Apo. 11:15 .) Cristo regerá as nações com vara de ferro; tirará toda a opressão e injustiça da terra e inaugurará a Idade áurea de mil anos. (Sal. 2: 7-9; 72; Isa. 11: 1-9; Apo. 20: 6.) "Depois virá o fim, quando houver entregado o reino a Deus, o Pai, e quando houver aniquilado todo o império , e toda potestade e força "(1 Cor. 15:24).

Há três estágios na obra de Cristo como Mediador: Sua obra como Profeta, cumprida durante seu ministério terrestre; sua obra como Sacerdote, começada na cruz e continuada durante a dispensação atual; e sua obra como Rei, começando com sua vinda e continuando durante o Milênio. Depois do milênio ter cumprido sua obra de unir a humanidade a Deus, de forma que os habitantes do céu e da terra formem uma só grande família onde Deus será tudo e estará em todos. (Efés. 1:10; 3:14, 15.)

Contudo, Cristo continuará a reinar como o Deus-homem, e compartilhar do governo divino, pois "o seu reino não terá fim" (Luc. 1:33).

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orthodoxydaily · 4 years ago

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Saints&Reading: Sun., Nov. 29, 2020

Commemorated on November 16_ Julian calendar

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew (+60)

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, was also named Levi (Mk. 2: 14; Lk. 5: 27); he was an Apostle from among the Twelve (Mk. 3: 18; Lk. 6: 45; Acts 1: 13), and was brother of the Apostle James Alphaeus (Mk. 2: 14). He was a publican, i.e. a tax-collector for Rome, in a time when the Jews had come under the rule of the Roman empire. He lived in the Galileian city of Capernaum [Capharnum]. Matthew, in hearing the voice of Jesus Christ: "Come, follow Me" (Mt. 9: 9), left off from his duties and followed the Saviour. Christ and His disciples did not refuse the invitation of Matthew and they visited at his house, where they shared table with the friends and acquaintances of the publican – who like the host were publicans and known sinners. This event extremely bothered the pharisees and scribes. Publicans, in collecting taxes from their countrymen, did this with great profit for themselves. Usually greedy and cruel people, the Jews considered them pernicious and betrayers of their country and religion. The word "publican" connoted for the Jews the sense of "public-sinner" and "idol-worshipper". To even speak with a tax-collector was considered a sin, and to associate with one – was defilement. But the Jewish teachers were not able to comprehend, that the Lord was "come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Mt. 9: 13).

Matthew, acknowledging his sinfulness, recompensed fourfold anyone he had overcharged, and he distributed his remaining possessions to the poor, and together with the other apostles he followed after Christ. Saint Matthew was attentive to the instructions of the Divine Teacher, he beheld His innumerable miracles, he went together with the 12 apostles preaching to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Mt. 10: 6), he was a witness to the suffering, death, and Resurrection of the Saviour, and of His glorious Ascension into Heaven. Having received the gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which descended upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Matthew for the first 8 years preached in Palestine. And before his departure to preach the Gospel in faraway lands, at the request of the Jews remaining at Jerusalem, the holy Apostle Matthew in his Gospel gave account of the earthly life of the Saviour of the world – of the God-man Jesus Christ and His teaching. In the order of the books of the New Testament, the Gospel of Matthew comes first. Palestine is said to be the place of writing of the Gospel. The Gospel was written by Saint Matthew in the year 42 ([AD – "Anno Domini" or "Year of the Lord",] i.e. after the Birth of Christ), in his native Jewish language, and then translated into Greek. The Hebrew text has not survived for us, but many of the linguistic and cultural-historical peculiarities of the Greek translation remind of it. The Apostle Matthew preached among people having quite certain religious expectations about the Messiah. His Gospel manifests itself as a vivid proof that Jesus Christ – is the real Messiah, foretold of by the prophets, and that another there would not be (Mt. 11: 3). The preachings and deeds of the Saviour are presented by the evangelist in three divisions, constituting three aspects of the service of the Messiah: as Prophet and Law-Giver (Ch. 5-7), Lord over the world both visible and invisible (Ch. 8-25), and finally as High-Priest offered as Sacrifice for the sins of all mankind (Ch. 26-27). The theological content of the Gospel, besides the Christological themes, includes also the teaching about the Kingdom of God and about the Church, which the Lord sets forth in parables about the inner preparation for entering into the Kingdom (Ch. 5-7), about the worthiness of servers of the Church in the world (Ch. 10-11), about the signs of the Kingdom and its growth in the souls of mankind (Ch. 13), about the humility and simplicity of the inheritors of the Kingdom (Mt. 18: 1-35; 19: 13-30; 20: 1-16; 25-27; 23: 1-28), and about the eschatological revelations of the Kingdom in the Second Coming of Christ within the daily spiritual life of the Church (Ch. 24-25). The Kingdom of Heaven and the Church are closely inter-connected in the spiritual experience of Christianity: the Church is the historical embodiment of the Kingdom of Heaven in the world, and the Kingdom of Heaven is the Church of Christ in its eschatological perfection (Mt. 16: 18-19; 28: 18-20). The holy Apostle made the rounds with the "good-news" [euangelia in Greek or evangelium in Latin – the meaning of the word "gospel"] to Syria, Media, Persia, Parthia, and finishing his preaching work in AEthiopia with a martyr's death. This land was inhabited by tribes of cannibals with primitive customs and beliefs. The holy Apostle Matthew by his preaching there converted some of the idol-worshippers to faith in Christ. He founded the Church and built a temple in the city of Mirmena, establishing there as bishop his companion by the name of Plato(n). When the holy apostle was fervently beseeching God for the conversion of the Ethiopians, during the time of prayer the Lord Himself appeared to him in the form of a youth, and having given him a staff, commanded him to put it upright at the doors of the church. The Lord said, that from this staff would grow a tree and it would bear fruit, and from its roots would flow a stream of water. And in washing themselves in the water and eating of the fruit, the Ethiopians lost their wild ways and became gentle and good. When the holy apostle carried the staff towards the church, on the pathway there met him the wife and son of the ruler of the land, Fulvian, who were afflicted by unclean spirits. By the Name of Christ the holy apostle healed them. This miracle converted to the Lord quite a number of the pagans. But the ruler did not want that his subjects should become Christians and cease to worship the pagan gods. He accused the apostle of sorcery and gave orders to execute him. They put saint Matthew head downwards, heaped up brushwood and ignited it. When the bonfire flared up, everyone then saw, that the fire did no harm to Saint Matthew. Then Fulvian gave orders to add more wood to the fire, and frenzied with boldness, he commanded to set up around the bonfire 12 idols. But the flames spread to the idols and caught on even Fulvian. The frightened Ethiopian turned to the saint with an entreaty for mercy, and by the prayer of the martyr the flame went out. The body of the holy apostle remained unharmed, and he expired to the Lord (+ 60). The ruler Fulvian deeply repented his deed, but still he had doubts. By his command, they put the body of Saint Matthew into an iron coffin and threw it into the sea. In doing this Fulvian said, that if the God of Matthew would preserve the body of the apostle in the water, as He preserved him in the fire, then this would be proper reason to worship this One True God. On that night the Apostle Matthew appeared to Bishop Platon in a dream vision, and commanded him to go with clergy to the shore of the sea and to find his body there. Together with the bishop on his way to the shore of the sea went Righteous Fulvian and his retinue. The coffin carried back by the waves was with honour taken to the church built by the apostle. Then Fulvian begged forgiveness of the holy Apostle Matthew, after which Bishop Platon baptised him, giving him the name Matthew in obedience to a command of God. Soon Saint Fulvian-Matthew abdicated his rule and became a presbyter. Upon the death of Bishop Platon, the Apostle Matthew appeared to him and exhorted him to head the AEthiopian Church. Having become a bishop, Saint Matthew-Fulvian toiled much at preaching the Word of God, continuing with the work of his heavenly patron-saint.

St. Fulvianus, prince of Ethiopia, in holy baptism Matthew (1st c.)

He handed over the Holy Apostle Matthew to fire, but seeing the miracles leading to the death of the Holy Apostle, believed in Christ and zealously preached the Christian faith. Later for his saintly life he became worthy of the rank of bishop. He died in peace.

Mark 16:9-20

9Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.11 And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.12 After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country.13 And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.14 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. 19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

Corinthians 4:9-16

9 For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! 11 To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. 12 And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; 13 being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now. 14 I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you. 15 For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you, imitate me

#orthodoxy #orthodoxchristianity #ancientchristianity #originofchristianity #spirituality #holyscripture #gospel #sacredtexts #wisdom

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mythicalartisttm · 5 years ago

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So what's your opinion on homosexuality and transgender?

I’m going to be perfectly honest with you chief, I do not know everything regarding either of these topics. I’m not actively involved in either communities, so I’m not all that aware of too much about what happens during the sexual and gender transitions. I just wanted apologize upfront for my lack of knowledge/understanding regarding things and I should be enlightened on such things, but that’s my fault…

Anyway, about the actual questions, I’ve never been asked these before, so I’m going to answer to the best of my ability.

So. Homosexuality. I’ll admit I did think that LGBTQ+ was ok for a while, because as someone asked the blog @godandgaming, it didn’t really seem to be bringing anyone any harm, and people were happy. The only line of scripture that spoke out against homosexuality that I knew of at the time was in Leviticus - in the Old Testament - so I figured that this was probably fine since I hadn’t heard anything about it in the New Testament, which would be where Jesus establishes a new/edited law.

However, I later came across something in the New Testament when Jesus was addressing the Pharisees (religious leaders). There’s a passage in Mark 10 (verses 1-10) that talks about divorce, and in said passage, Jesus talks about the husband and the wife. Not husband and husband, not wife and wife. Just husband and wife. Jesus never alludes to married couples of the same gender when he preached (Jesus spoke a LOT in the New Testament though so I’d need to read over at LEAST the 4 Gospels to fact check but today is (probably) not that day).

Then, later on in the book of 1 Timothy, the ex-persecutor-now-turned-believer Paul writes this letter of encouragement and instruction to his mentee Timothy. Ch.1 verses 8-10 say this:

“(8)We know that the law is good when used correctly. (9)For the law was not intended for the people who do what is right. It is for the people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders. (10)The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching (11)that comes from the glorious Good News entrusted to me by our blessed God.” (New Living Translation)

…those two points slapped me over the head and set me back on track, to say the least.

As for trans people, I’ve always been worried about the ethics of tampering with the human body, and nature in general. But yes, there’s a right and wrong way to go about ‘messing’ with creation. Medicines, vaccines, and surgeries for example do us a world of good if used correctly/done in a correct way (this includes morally). The thing with transgender is that it’s idea of changing ones’ view of themselves, and in various cases the body, to the degree of the opposite sex isn’t exactly good for the person in the perspective that God created everything the way they are and are called to serve to serve their purposes as the way He made them.

Again, something on @godandgaming‘s blog: “I have a psychology degree so the following is not just being pulled out of my butt. Gender dysphoria is a mental disorder. This has been universally agreed upon up until the most recent revision of the DSM, which only changed due to sociopolitical pressure within the Psychology community.”

So that answers your question I hope, but before I post this, I need to say that homophobia and transphobia are certainly not things to stand by. Hate is never a good thing in any context and the same goes for prejudice. When getting to know a person and befriending them, don’t turn your back on them because of their spot in/standing with either of these communities. Whether they’re a jerk or a cool person lies completely outside their affiliation with these groups and that’s just facts.

Regarding LGBTQ+, this is what I live by.

#tm answers #anonymous #christianity #i knew i was gonna lose followers and get asks over this but this is important #i do not know much outside of text book definitions and i am i fool for it #*because of it

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pamphletstoinspire · 6 years ago

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Gospel Reading and Commentary for December 17th - Third Monday of Advent - Roman Catholic -Matthew: 1: 1 - 17

Ver. 1. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.

Jerome, Ez, i. 5. Hier. Prolog. in Com. in Matt.: ‘The face of a man’ (in Ezekiel’s vision) signifies Matthew, who accordingly opens his Gospel with the human genealogy of Christ.

Rabanus: By this exordium he shews that it is the birth of Christ according to the flesh that he has undertaken to narrate.

Pseudo-Chrys., Hom. in Matt., Hom. i: Matthew wrote for the Jews, and in Hebrew [ed. note: It seems to be the general witness of antiquity that there was a Hebrew copy of St. Matthew’s Gospel, whether written before or after the Greek. This Hebrew copy was interpolated by the Ebionites.]; to them it was unnecessary to explain the divinity which they recognized; but necessary to unfold the mystery of the Incarnation. John wrote in Greek for the Gentiles who knew nothing of a Son of God. They required therefore to be told first, that the Son of God was God, then that this Deity was incarnate.

Rabanus: Though the genealogy occupies only a small part of the volume, he yet begins thus, “The book of the generation.” For it is the manner of the Hebrews to name their books from that with which they open; as Genesis.

Gloss. Ordinaria: The full expression would be “This is the book of the generation;” but this is a usual ellipse; e.g. “The vision of Isaiah,” for, ‘This is the vision.’

“Generation,” he says in the singular number, though there be many here given in succession, as it is for the sake of the one generation of Christ that the rest are here introduced.

Chrys., Hom. in Matt., Hom. ii: Or he therefore entitles it, “The book of the generation,” because this is the sum of the whole dispensation, the root of all its blessings; viz. [p. 10] that God become man; for this once effected, all other things followed of course.

Rabanus: He says, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ,” because he knew it was written, ‘The book of the generation of Adam.’ He begins thus then, that he may oppose book to book, the new Adam to the old Adam, for by the one were all things restored which had been corrupted by the other.

Jerome, Hier. Comm. in Matt., ch. 1: We read in Isaiah, “Who shall declare His generation?” [Isa 53:8] But it does not follow that the Evangelist contradicts the Prophet, or undertakes what he declares impossible; for Isaiah is speaking of the generation of the Divine nature; St. Matthew of the incarnation of the human.

Chrys.: And do not consider this genealogy a small thing to hear: for truly it is a marvellous thing that God should descend to be born of a woman, and to have as His ancestors David and Abraham.

Remigius: Though any affirm that the prophet (Isaiah) does speak of His human generation, we need not answer to his enquiry, “Who shall declare it?” - “No man;” but, “Very few;” because Matthew and Luke have.

Rabanus: By saying, “of Jesus Christ,” he expresses both the kingly and priestly office to be in Him, for Jesus, who first bore this name, was after Moses, the first who was leader of the children of Israel; and Aaron, anointed by the mystical ointment, was the first priest under the Law.

Hilary, Quaest. Nov. et Vet. Test. q. 40: What God conferred on those, who, by the anointing of oil were consecrated as kings or priests, this the Holy Spirit conferred on the Man Christ; adding moreover a purification. The Holy Spirit cleansed that which taken of the Virgin Mary was exalted into the Body of the Saviour, and this is that anointing of the Body of the Saviour’s flesh whence He was called Christ.

[ed. note: This passage is from a work commonly ascribed to Hilary the Deacon. The Fathers bear out its doctrine; e.g. “Since the flesh is not holy in itself, therefore it was sanctified even in Christ, the Word which dwelt in it, through the Holy Ghost, sanctifying His own Temple, and changing it into the energy of His own Nature. For therefore is Christ’s Body understood to be both holy and hallowing, as being made a Temple of the Word united to it bodily, as Paul says.” Cyril Alex. lib. v. in Joann. p. 992.

In like manner, Gregory of Nazianzus speaks of “The Father of the True and really Anointed (Christ), whom He has anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows, anointing the manhood with the Godhead, so as to make both one.” Orat. 5. fin]

Because the impious craft of the Jews denied that Jesus was born of the seed of David, he adds, “The son of David, the son of Abraham.” [p. 11]

Chrys.: But why would it not have been enough to name one of them, David alone, or Abraham alone? Because the promise had been made to both of Christ to be born of their seed. To Abraham, “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” [Gen 22:18] To David, “Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy seat.” [Ps 137:11]

He therefore calls Christ the Son of both, to shew that in Him was fulfilled the promise to both. Also because Christ was to have three dignities; King, Prophet, Priest; but Abraham was prophet and priest; priest, as God says to him in Genesis, “Take an heifer;” [Gen 15:9] Prophet, as the Lord said to Abimelech concerning him, “He is a prophet, and shall pray for thee.” [Gen 20:7] David was king and prophet, but not priest.

Thus He is expressly called the son of both, that the threefold dignity of His forefathers might be recognized by hereditary right in Christ.

Ambrose, in Luc. iii: He therefore names specially two authors of His birth - one who received the promise concerning the kindreds of the people, the other who obtained the oracle concerning the generation of Christ; and though he is later in order of succession is yet first named, inasmuch as it is greater to have received the promise concerning Christ than concerning the Church, which is through Christ; for greater is He who saves than that which is saved.

Jerome: The order of the names is inverted, but of necessity; for had he written Abraham first, and David afterwards, he would have to repeat Abraham again to preserve the series of the genealogy.

Pseudo-Chrys.: Another reason is that royal dignity is above natural, though Abraham was first in time, yet David is honour.

Gloss.: But since from this title it appears that the whole book is concerning Jesus Christ, it is necessary first to know what we must think concerning Him; for so shall be better explained what this book relates of Him.

Aug., de Haer, et 10: Cerinthus then and Ebion made Jesus Christ only man; Paul of Samosata, following them, asserted Christ not to have had an existence from eternity, but to have begun to be from His birth of the Virgin Mary; he also thought Him nothing more than man. This heresy was afterwards confirmed by Photinus.

Pseudo-Athan., Vigil. Tapsens. (Athan. Ed. Ben., vol ii, p. 646): The Apostle John, seeing long before by the Holy Spirit this man’s madness, rouses him from his deep sleep of error by the preaching of his voice, saying, “In the beginning was the [p. 12] Word.” [John 1:1]

He therefore, who in the beginning was with God, could not in this last time take the beginning of His being from man. He says further, (let Photinus hear his words,) “Father, glorify Me with that glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” [John 17:5]

Aug., de Haeres. 19: The error of Nestorius was, that he taught that a man only was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom the Word of God received not into Unity of person and inseparable fellowship; a doctrine which Catholic ears could not endure.

Cyril of Alexandria, Ep. i. ad Monachos Egypti.: Saith the Apostle of the Only-begotten, “Who being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God.” [Phil 2:6]

Who then is this who is in the form of God? or how emptied He Himself, and humbled Himself to the likeness of man? If the abovementioned heretics dividing Christ into two parts, i.e. the Man and the Word, affirm that it was the Man that was emptied of glory, they must first shew what form and equality with the Father are understood to be, and did exist, which might suffer any manner of emptying.

But there is no creature, in its own proper nature, equal with the Father; how then can any creature be said to be emptied? or from what eminence to descend to become man? Or how can he be understood to have taken upon Him, as though He had not at first, the form of a servant?

But, they say, the Word being equal with the Father dwelt in Man born of a woman, and this is the emptying. I hear the Son truly saying to the Holy Apostles, “If any man love Me, he will keep My saying, and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.” [John 14:23]

Hear how He saith that He and the Father will dwell in them that love Him. Do you then suppose that we shall grant that He is there emptied of His glory, and has taken upon Him the form of a servant, when He makes His abode in the hearts of them that love Him? Or the Holy Spirit, does He fulfil an assumption of human flesh when He dwells in our hearts?

Isidore, Epist. lib. iv. 166: But not to mention all arguments, let us bring forward that one to which all arguments point, that, for one who was God to assume a lowly guise both has an obvious use, and is an adaptation and in nothing contradicts the course of nature. But for one who is man to speak things divine and supernatural is the highest presumption; for though a king may [p. 13] humble himself a common soldier may not take on him the state of an emperor. So, if He were God made man, all lowly things have place; but if mere man, high things have none.

Aug., de Haeres. 41: Sabellius they say was a disciple of Noctus, who taught that the same Christ was one and the same Father and Holy Spirit.

Pseudo-Athan., Vigil. Tapsens. (ibid. p. 644): The audaciousness of this most insane error I will curb by the authority of the heavenly testimonies, and demonstrate the distinct personality of the proper substance of the Son. I shall not produce things which are liable to be explained away as agreeable to the assumption of human nature; but shall offer such passages as all will allow to be decisive in proof of His divine nature.

In Genesis we find God saying, “Let Us make man in Our own Image.” By this plural number shewing, that there was some other person to whom He spoke. Had He been one, He would have been said to have made Him in His own Image, but there is another; and He is said to have made man in the Image of that other.

Gloss.: Other denied the reality of Christ’s human nature. Valentinus said that Christ sent from the Father, carried about a spiritual or celestial body, and took nothing of the Virgin, but passed through her as through a channel, taking nothing of her flesh. But we do not therefore believe Him to have been born of the Virgin, because by no other means He could have truly lived in the flesh, and appeared among men; but because it is so written in the Scripture, which if we believe not we cannot either be Christians, or be saved.

But even a body taken of spiritual, or ethereal, or clayey substance, had He willed to change into the true and very quality of human flesh, who will deny His power to do this? The Manichaeans said that the Lord Jesus Christ was a phantasm, and could not be born of the womb of a woman. But if the body of Christ was a phantasm, He was a deceiver, and if a deceiver, then He was not the truth. But Christ is the Truth; therefore His Body was not a phantasm.

Gloss.: And as the opening both of this Gospel, and of that according to Luke, manifestly proves Christ’s birth of a woman, and hence His real humanity, they reject the beginning of both these Gospels.

Aug., cont. Faust, ii, 1: Faustus affirms, that “the Gospel both begins, and begins to be so called, from the preaching of [p. 14] Christ, in which He no where affirms Himself to have been born of men. [ed. note: The Ebionites, as well as the Manichees, rejected the beginning of St. Matthew, vid. Epiphan. II arr. xxx. 23. And the Marcionites the beginning of St. Luke. Epiph. Haer. xlii, 11. But what exact portion they rejected is doubtful.]

Nay, so far is this genealogy from being part of the Gospel, that the writer does not venture so to entitle it; beginning, ‘The book of the generation,’ not ‘The book of the Gospel.’ Mark again, who cared not to write of the generation, but only of the preaching of the Son of God, which is properly The Gospel, begins thus accordingly, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” Thus then, all that we read in Matthew before the words, “Jesus began to preach the Gospel of the kingdom,” [Matt 4:!4] is a part of the genealogy, not of the Gospel. I therefore betook myself to Mark and John, with whose prefaces I had good reason to be satisfied, as they introduce neither David, nor Mary, nor Joseph.”

To which Augustine replies, What will he say then to the Apostle’s words, “Remember the resurrection of Jesus Christ of the seed of David according to my Gospel.” [2 Tim 2:8] But the Gospel of the Apostle Paul was likewise that of the other Apostles, and of all the faithful, as he says, “Whether I, or they, thus have we preached the Gospel.”

Aug., de Haer., 49: The Arians will not have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be of one and the same substance, nature, and existence; but that the Son is a creature of the Father, and Holy Spirit a creature of a creature, i.e. created by the Son; further, they think that Christ took the flesh without a soul.

But John declares the Son to be not only God, but even of the same substance as the Father; [margin note: ref Id. de Trin. i. 6] for when he had said, “The Word was God,” he added, “all things were made by Him;” whence it is clear that He was not made by Whom all things were made; and if not made, then not created; and therefore of one substance with the Father, for all that is not of one substance with the Father is creature.

I know not what benefit the person of the Mediator has conferred upon us, if He redeemed not our better part, but took upon Him our flesh only, which without the soul cannot have consciousness of the benefit. But if Christ came to save that which had perished, [p. 15] the whole man had perished, and therefore needs a Saviour; Christ then in coming saves the whole man, taking on Him both soul and body.

How too do they answer innumerable objections from the Gospel Scriptures, in which the Lord speaks so many things manifestly contrary to them? as is that, “My soul is sorrowful even unto death,” [Matt 26:38] and, “I have power to lay down My life;” [John 10:18] and many more things of the like kind.

Should they say that He spoke thus in parables, we have at hand proofs from the Evangelists themselves, who in relating His actions, bear witness as to the reality of His body, so of His soul, by mention of passions which cannot be without a soul; as when they say, “Jesus wondered, was angry,” and others of like kind.

The Apollinarians also as the Arians affirmed that Christ had taken the human flesh without the soul [margin note: Id. de Haeres. 55]. But overthrown on this point by the weight of Scripture proof, they then said that part which is the rational soul of man was wanting to the soul of Christ, and that its place was filled by the Word itself.

But if it be so, then we must believe that the Word of God took on Him the nature of some brute with a human shape and appearance. But even concerning the nature of Christ’s body, there are some who have so far swerved from the right faith, as to say, that the flesh and the Word were of one and the same substance, most perversely insisting on that expression, The Word was made flesh; which they interpret that some portion of the Word was changed into flesh, not that He took to Him flesh of the flesh of the Virgin.

[ed. note: Some of the Apollinarians thus hold. vid. Nyssen. vol. ii, p. 694. A.Theodor. Eranist. p. 174. ed. Schulz. The same doctrine was afterwards ascribed to the Eutychians, vid. Vigil. Taps. in Eutych. iv. Theod. Haer. iv. 13]

Cyril, Ep. ad Joan. Antioch. tom. 6, Ep. 107: We account those persons mad who have suspected that so much as the shadow of change could take place in the nature of the Divine Word; it abides what it ever was, neither is nor can be changed.

Leo, Epist. 59, ad Const.: We do not speak of Christ as man in such a sort as to allow that any thing was wanting to Him, which it is certain pertains to human nature, whether soul, or rational mind, or flesh, and flesh such as was taken of the Woman, not gained by a change or conversion of the Word into flesh.

These three several errors, that thrice false heresy of the Apollinarists has brought forward. Eutyches also chose out this third dogma of Apollinaris, which denying [p. 16] the verity of the human body and soul, maintained that our Lord Jesus Christ was wholly and entirely of one nature, as though the Divine Word had changed itself into flesh and soul, and as though the conception, birth, growth, and such like, had been undergone by that Divine Essence, which was incapable of any such changes with the very and true flesh; for such as is the nature of the Only-begotten, such is the nature of the Father, and such is the nature of the Holy Ghost, both impassible and eternal.

But if to avoid being driven to the conclusion that the Godhead could feel suffering and death, he departs from the corruption of Apollinaris, and should still dare to affirm the nature of the incarnate Word, that is of the Word and the flesh, to be the same, he clearly falls into the insane notions of Manichaeus and Marcion, and believes that the Lord Jesus Christ did all His actions with a false appearance, that His body was not a human body, but a phantasm, which imposed on the eyes of the beholders.

But what Eutyches ventured [margin note: Id. Ep. 35 ad Julian] to pronounce as an episcopal decision, that in Christ before His incarnation were two natures, but after His incarnation only one, it behoved that he should have been urgently pressed to give the reason of this his belief.

I suppose that in using such language he supposed the soul which the Saviour took, to have had its abode in heaven before it was born of the Virgin Mary [ed. note, e: This opinion, which involves Nestorianism, the opposite error to Eutychianism or Monophysitism, is imputed to Eutyches by Flavian, ap. Leon. Ep. xxii. 3. Ephraem, Antioch, ap Phot. p. 805. Leont. de Sectis 7 init].

This Catholic hearts and ears endure not, for that the Lord when He came down from heaven shewed nothing of the condition of human nature, nor did He take on Him any soul that had existed before, nor any flesh that was not taken of the flesh of His mother. Thus what was justly condemned in Origen [ed. note, f: Vid. Origen in Joan. t. i. n. 37. t. xx. n. 17. Patriarch. ii. 6. n. 4. ix. Cels. i. 32, 33], must needs be rebuked in Eutyches, to wit, that our souls before they were placed in our bodies had actions not only wonderful but various.

Remig: These heresies therefore the Apostles overthrow in the opening of their Gospels, as Matthew in relating how He derived His descent from the kings of the Jews proves Him to have been truly man and to have had true flesh.

Likewise Luke, when he [p. 17] describes the priestly stock and person; Mark when he says, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God;” and John when he says, “In the beginning was the Word;” both shew Him to have been before all ages God, with God the Father.

2. Abraham began Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren.

Aug., de Con. Evan., ii, 1: Matthew, by beginning with Christ’s genealogy, shews that he has undertaken to relate Christ’s birth according to the flesh. But Luke, as rather describing Him as a Priest for the atonement of sin, gives Christ’s genealogy not in the beginning of his Gospel, but at His baptism, when John bare that testimony, “Lo, He that taketh away the sins of the world.” [John 1:29]

In the genealogy of Matthew is figured to us the taking on Him of our sins by the Lord Christ: in the genealogy of Luke, the taking away of our sins by the same; hence Matthew gives them in a descending, Luke in an ascending, series. But Matthew, describing Christ’s human generation in descending order, begins his enumeration with Abraham.

Ambrose, in Luc. cap. 3. lib. iii. n. 7,8: For Abraham was the first who deserved the witness of faith; “He believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” It behoved therefore that he should be set forth as the first in the line of descent, who was the first to deserve the promise of the restoration of the Church, “In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” And it is again brought to a period in David, for that Jesus should be called his Son; hence to him is preserved the privilege, that from him should come the beginning of the Lord’s genealogy.

Chrys., Hom. iii, and Aug. City of God, 15, 15: Matthew then, desiring to preserve in memory the lineage of the Lord’s humanity through the succession of His parents, begins with Abraham, saying, “Abraham begat Isaac.” Why does he not mention Ismael, his first-born? And again, “Isaac began Jacob;” why does he not speak of Esau his first-born? Because through them he could not have come down to David.

Gloss.: Yet he names all the brethren of Judah with him in the lineage. Ismael and Esau had not remained in the worship of the true God; but the brethren of Judah were reckoned in God’s people. [p. 18]

Chrys., Hom. iii: Or, he names all the twelve Patriarchs that he may lower that pride which is drawn from a line of noble ancestry. For many of these were born of maidservants, and yet were Patriarchs and heads of tribes.

Gloss: But Judah is the only one mentioned by name, and that because the Lord was descended from him only. But in each of the Patriarchs we must note not their history only, but the allegorical and moral meaning to be drawn from them; allegory, in seeing whom each of the Fathers foreshewed; moral instruction in that through each one of the Fathers some virtue may be edified in us either through the signification of his name, or through his example.

[ed. note: Origen considered that there were three senses of Scripture, the literal or historical, the moral, and the mystical or spiritual, corresponding to the three parts of man, body, and soul, and spirit. Hom. in Lev. ii, 5, de Princio iv, p. 168. By the moral sense is meant, as the name implies, a practical application of the text; by mystical one which interprets it of the invisible and the spiritual world.]

Abraham is in many respects a figure of Christ, and chiefly in his name, which is interpreted the Father of many nations, and Christ is Father of many believers. Abraham moreover went out from his own kindred, and abode in a strange land; in like manner Christ, leaving the Jewish nation, went by His preachers throughout the Gentiles.

Pseudo-Chys.: Isaac is interpreted, ‘laughter,’ but the laughter of the saints is not the foolish convulsion of the lips, but the rational joy of the heart, which was the mystery of Christ. For as he was granted to his parents in their extreme age to their great joy, that it might be known that he was not the child of nature, but of grace, thus Christ also in this last time came of a Jewish mother to be the joy of the whole earth; the one of a virgin, the other of a woman past the age, both contrary to the expectation of nature.

Remig.: Jacob is interpreted, ‘supplanter,’ and it is said of Christ, “Thou hast cast down beneath Me them that rose up against Me.” [Ps 18:43]

Pseudo-Chrys.: Our Jacob in like manner begot the twelve Apostles in the Spirit, not in the flesh; in word, not in blood. Judah is interpreted, ‘confessor,’ for he was a type of Christ who was to be the confessor of His Father, as He spake, “I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.”

Gloss: Morally; Abraham signifies to us the virtue of faith in Christ, as an example himself, as it [p. 19] is said of him, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto Him for righteousness.” Isaac may represent hope; for Isaac is interpreted, ‘laughter,’ as he was the joy of his parents; and hope is our joy, making us to hope for eternal blessings and to joy in them. “Abraham begat Isaac,” and faith begets hope. Jacob signifies, ‘love,’ for love embraces two lives; active in the love of our neighbour, contemplative in the love of God; the active is signified by Leah, the contemplative by Rachel. For Leah is interpreted ‘labouring,’ [ed. note, h: Leah full of labour, Jerom. de nomin. Hebr. from לאה, to weary one’s self.] for she is active in labour; Rachel ‘having seen the beginning,’ [ed. note, i: Rachel, in ewe, (as Gen. xxxi, 38, &c.) Jerom. ibid. who also gives the interpretation in the text, from ראה and חלל (החלה beginning.] because by the contemplative, the beginning, that is God, is seen. Jacob is born of two parents, as love is born of faith and hope; for what we believe, we both hope for and love.

3-6. And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; and Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; and Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; and Jesse begat David the king.

Gloss: Passing over the other sons of Jacob, the Evangelist follows the family of Judah, saying, “But Judah begat Phares and Zara of Thamar.”

Augustine, City of God, 15, 15: Neither was Judah himself first-born, nor of these two sons was either his first-born; he had already had three before them. So that he keeps in that line of descent, by which he shall arrive at David, and from him whither he purposed.

Jerome: It should be noted, that none of the holy women are taken into the Saviour’s genealogy, but rather such as Scripture has condemned, that He who came for sinners being born of sinners might so put away the sins of all; thus Ruth the Moabitess follows among the rest.

Ambrose, in Luc. 3: But Luke has avoided the mention of these, that he might set forth the series of the priestly race immaculate. But the plan of St. Matthew did not exclude the [p. 20] righteousness of natural reason; for when he wrote in his Gospel, that He who should take on Him the sins of all, was born in the flesh, was subject to wrongs and pain, he did not think it any detraction from His holiness that He did not refuse the further humiliation of a sinful parentage.

Nor, again, would it shame the Church to be gathered from among sinners, when the Lord Himself was born of sinners; and, lastly, that the benefits of redemption might have their beginning with His own forefathers: and that none might imagine that a stain in their blood was any hindrance to virtue, nor again any pride themselves insolently on nobility of birth.

Chrys.: Besides this, it shews that all are equally liable to sin; for here is Thamar accusing Judah of incest, and David begat Solomon with a woman with whom he had committed adultery. But if the Law was not fulfilled by these great ones, neither could it be by their less great posterity, and so all have sinned, and the presence of Christ is become necessary.

Ambrose: Observe that Matthew does not name both without a meaning; for though the object of his writing only required the mention of Phares, yet in the twins a mystery is signified; namely, the double life of the nations, one by the Law, the other by Faith.

Pseudo-Chys.: By Zarah is denoted the people of the Jews, which first appeared in the light of faith, coming out of the dark womb of the world, and was therefore marked with the scarlet thread of the circumciser, for all supposed that they were to be God’s people; but the Law was set before their face as it had been a wall or hedge. Thus the Jews were hindered by the Law, but in the times of Christ’s coming the hedge of the Law was broken down that was between Jews and Gentiles, as the Apostle speaks, “Breaking down the middle wall of partition;” [Eph 2:14] and thus it fell out that the Gentiles, who were signified by Phares, as soon as the Law was broken through by Christ’s commandments, first entered into the faith, and after followed the Jews.

Gloss: Judah begat Phares and Zarah before he went into Egypt, whither they both accompanied their father. In Egypt, “Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; Aram begat Aminadab; Aminadab begat Naasson;” and then Moses led them out of Egypt. Naasson was head of the tribe of Judah under Moses in the desert, where he begat Salmon; and this Salmon it was who, as prince of the tribe [p. 21] of Judah, entered the land of promise with Joshua.

Pseudo-Chrys.: But as we believe that the names of these Fathers were given for some special reason under the providence of God, it follows, but “Naasson begat Salmon.” This Salmon after his father’s death entered the promised land with Joshua as prince of the tribe of Judah. He took a wife of the name of Rahab. This Rahab is said to have been that Rahab the harlot of Jericho who entertained the spies of the children of Israel, and hid them safely. For Salmon being noble among the children of Israel, inasmuch as he was of the tribe of Judah, and son of the prince thereof, beheld Rahab so ennobled through her great faith, that she was worthy whom he should take to wife. Salmon is interpreted ‘receive a vessel,’ [ed. note: שלמון. Probably as if from מאן Ch. a vessel; perhaps נשא למאן] perhaps as if invited in God’s providence by his very name to receive Rahab a vessel of election.

Gloss: This Salmon in the promised land begat Booz of this Rahab. Booz begat Obeth of Ruth.

Pseudo-Chrys.: How Booz took to wife a Moabitess whose name was Ruth, I thought it needless to tell, seeing the Scripture concerning them is open to all. We need but say thus much, that Ruth married Booz for the reward of her faith, for that she had cast off the gods of her forefathers, and had chosen the living God. And Booz received her to wife for reward of his faith, that from such sanctified wedlock might be descended a kingly race.

Ambrose: But how did Ruth who was an alien marry a man that was a Jew? and wherefore in Christ’s genealogy did His Evangelist so much as mention a union, which in the eye of the law was bastard? Thus the Saviour’s birth of a parentage not admitted by the law appears to us monstrous, until we attend to that declaration of the Apostle, “The Law was not given for the righteous, but for the unrighteous.” [1 Tim 1:9]

For this woman who was an alien, a Moabitess, a nation with whom the Mosaic Law forbad all intermarriage, and shut them totally out of the Church, how did she enter into the Church, unless that she were holy and unstained in her life above the Law? Therefore she was exempt from this restriction of the Law, and deserved to be numbered in the Lord’s lineage, chosen from the kindred of her mind, not of her body.

To us she is a great example, for [p. 22] that in her was prefigured the entrance into the Lord’s Church of all of us who are gathered out of the Gentiles.

Jerome: Ruth the Moabitess fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah, “Send forth, O Lord, the Lamb that shall rule over the earth, out of the rock of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion.” [Isa 16:1]

Gloss: Jesse, the father of David, has two names, being more frequently called Isai. But the Prophet says, “There shall come a rod from the stem of Jesse;” [Isa 11:1] therefore to shew that this prophecy was fulfilled in Mary and Christ, the Evangelist puts Jesse.

Remig.: It is asked, why this epithet King is thus given by the holy Evangelist to David alone? Because he was the first king in the tribe of Judah. Christ Himself is Phares ‘the divider,’ as it is written, “Thou shalt divide the sheep from the goats;” [Matt 25:33] He is Zaram [ed. note, l: זרח; in Zech. 6:12, it is זרח], ‘the east,’ “Lo the man, the east is His name;” [Zech 6:12]; He is Esrom [ed. note, m: חצרון, as if from חץ, and so Jerome.], ‘an arrow,’ “He hath set me as a polished shaft.” [Isa 49:2]

Raban.: Or following another interpretation, according to the abundance of grace, and the width of love. He is Aram the chosen [ed. note, n: רם to be lofty, vid. infr. p.23], according to that, “Behold my Servant whom I have chosen.” [Isa 42:1] He is Aminadab, that is ‘willing,’ [ed. note, o: עמי נדב My people is willing, - Jerome; comp. עמך נדבת, Ps 110:3], in that He says, “I will freely sacrifice to Thee.” [Isa 54:6] Also He is Naasson [ed. note, p: נחשן, from נחש to augur from serpents, and so Jerome], i.e. ‘augury,’ as He knows the past, the present, and the future; or, ‘like a serpent,’ according to that, “Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.” [John 3:14] He is Salmon [ed. note, q: And so Jerome], i.e. ‘the feeleth,’ as He said, “I feel that power is gone forth out of me.” [Luke 8:46]

Gloss: Christ Himself espouses Rahab, i.e. the Gentile Church; for Rahab [ed. note, : רחב, to be wide or broad. (רהב might רעב hunger)] is interpreted either ‘hunger’ or ‘breadth’ or ‘might;’ for the Church of the Gentiles hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and converts philosophers and kings by the might of her doctrine. Ruth is interpreted either ‘seeing’ or ‘hastening’ [ed. note, s: And so Jerome, from ראה, and perhaps רוץ for the second.], and denotes the Church which in purity of heart sees God, and hastens to the prize of the heavenly call.

Remig. Christ is also Booz [ed. note, t: And so Jerome; perhaps בעז =بعز activity; here, as if בעז “with might.”], because He is strength, for, [p. 23] “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me.” [John 12:32] He is Obeth, ‘a servant’ [ed. note, u: עובד Obed, and so Jerome], for “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” [Matt 20:28] He is Jesse, or ‘burnt’ [ed. note, x: As if from אש], for, “I am come to send fire on earth.” [Luke 12:49] He is David [ed. note, y: And so Jerome], ‘mighty in arm,’ for, “the Lord is great and powerful;” [Ps 24:8] ‘desirable,’ for, “He shall come, the Desire of all nations;” [Hag 2:7] ‘beautiful to behold,’ according to that, “Beautiful in form before the sons of men.” [Ps. 45:3]

Gloss: Let us now see what virtues they be which these fathers edify in us; for faith, hope, and charity are the foundation of all virtues; those that follow are like additions over and above them. Judah is interpreted ‘confession,’ of which there are two kinds, confession of faith, and of sin. If then, after we be endowed with the three forementioned virtues, we sin, confession not of faith only but of sin is needful for us.

Phares is interpreted, ‘division,’ Zamar ‘the east,’ and Thamar, ‘bitterness.’ [ed note, z: תמרורים bitterness, from מרר Jer. 31:15, Hos 12:15] Thus confession begets separation from vice, the rise of virtue, and the bitterness of repentance.

After Phares follows Esron, ‘an arrow,’ for when one is separated from vice and secular pursuits, he should become a dart wherewith to slay by preaching the vices of others.

Aram is interpreted ‘elect’ or ‘lofty’ [ed. note, a: Lofty from רום], for as soon as one is detached from this world, and profiteth for another, he must needs be held to be elect of God, famous amongst men, high in virtue.

Naasson is ‘augury,’ but this augury is of heaven, not of earth. It is that of which Joseph boasted when he said, “Ye have taken away the cup of my Lord, wherewith He is wont to divine.” [Gen 44:5] The cup is the divine Scripture wherein is the draught of wisdom; by this the wise man divines, since in it he sees things future, that is, heavenly things.

Next is Salomon [ed. note, b: שלם peace, and so Jerome], ‘that perceiveth,’ for he who studies divine Scripture becomes perceiving, that is, he discerns by the taste of reason, good from bad, sweet from bitter.

Next is Booz, that is, ‘brave,’ for who is well taught in Scripture becomes brave to endure all adversity.

Pseudo-Chrys.: This brave one is the son of Rahab, that is, of the Church; for Rahab signifies ‘breadth’ or ‘spread out,’ for because the [p. 24] Church of the Gentiles was called from all quarters of the earth, it is called, ‘breadth.’

Gloss: Then follows Obeth, i.e. ‘servitude,’ for which none is fit but he who is strong; and this servitude is begotten of Ruth, that is ‘haste,’ for it behoves a slave to be quick, not slow.

Pseudo-Chrys.: They who look to wealth and not temper, to beauty and not faith, and require in a wife such endowments as are required in harlots, will not beget sons obedient to their parents or to God, but rebellious to both; that their children may be punishment of their ungodly wedlock. Obeth begat Jesse, that is, ‘refreshment,’ for whoever is subject to God and his parents, begets such children as prove his ‘refreshment.’

Gloss: Or Jesse may be interpreted, ‘incense.’ [ed. note: See p. 29, note i] For if we serve God in love and fear, there will be a devotion in the heart, which in the heat and desire of the heart offers the sweetest incense to God. But when one is become a fit servant, and a sacrifice of incense to God, it follows that he becomes David (ie. ‘of a strong hand’), who fought mightily against his enemies, and made the Idumeans tributary.

In like manner ought he to subdue carnal men to God by teaching and example.

6-8. David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; and Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa; and Asa begat Josaphat.

The Evangelist has now finished the first fourteen generations, and is come to the second, which consists of royal personages, and therefore beginning with David, who was the first king in the tribe of Judah, he calls him “David the king.”

Aug., de Cons. Evan., ii, 4: Since in Matthew’s genealogy is shewed forth the taking on Him by Christ of our sins, therefore he descends from David to Solomon, in whose mother David had sinned. Luke ascends to David through Nathan, for through Nathan the prophet of God punished David’s sin; because Luke’s genealogy is to shew the putting away of our sins.

Aug., Lib. Retract., ii, 16: That [p. 25] is it, must be said, through a prophet of the same name, for it was not Nathan the son of David who reproved him, but a prophet of the same name.

Remig.: Let us enquire why Matthew does not mention Bathsheba by name as he does the other women. Because the others, though deserving of much blame, were yet commendable for many virtues. But Bathsheba was not only consenting in the adultery, but in the murder of her husband, hence her name is not introduced in the Lord’s genealogy.

Gloss: Besides, he does not name Bathsheba, that, by naming Urias, he may recall to memory that great wickedness which she was guilty of towards him.

Ambrose: But the holy David is the more excellent in this, that he confessed himself to be but man, and neglected not to wash out with the tears of repentance the sin of which he had been guilty, in so taking away Urias’ wife. Herein shewing us that none ought to trust in his own strength, for we have a mighty adversary whom we cannot overcome without God’s aid. And you will commonly observe very heavy sins befalling to the share of illustrious men, that they may not from their other excellent virtues be thought more than men, but that you may see that as men they yield to temptation.

Pseudo-Chrys.: Solomon is interpreted, ‘peace-maker,’ because having subdued all the nations round about, and made them tributary, he had a peaceful reign. Roboam in interpreted, ‘by a multitude of people,’ for multitude is the mother of sedition; for where many are joined in a crime, that is commonly unpunishable. But a limit in numbers is the mistress of good order.

8-11. And Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; and Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; and Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias; and Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon.

Jerome: In the fourth book of Kings we read, that Ochozias was the son of Joram. On his death, Josabeth, sister of [p. 26] Ochozias and daughter of Joram, took Joash, her brother’s son, and preserved him from the slaughter of the royal seed by Athalias. To Joash succeeded his son Amasias; after him his son Azarias, who is called Ozias; after him his son Joatham. Thus you see according to historical truth there were three intervening kings, who are omitted by the Evangelist. Joram, moveover, begot not Ozias, but Ochozias, and the rest as we have related.

But because it was the purpose of the Evangelist to make each of the three periods consist of fourteen generations, and because Joram had connected himself with Jezebel’s most impious race, therefore his posterity to the third generation is omitted in tracing the lineage of the holy birth.

Hilary: Thus the stain of the Gentile alliance being purged, the royal race is again taken up in the fourth following generation.

Pseudo-Chrys.: What the Holy Spirit testified through the Prophet, saying, that He would cut off every male from the house of Ahab, and Jezebel, that Jehu the son of Nausi fulfilled, and received the promise that his children to the fourth generation should sit on the throne of Israel. As great a blessing then as was given upon the house of Ahab, so great a curse was given on the house of Joram, because of the wicked daughter of Ahab and Jazebel, that his sons to the fourth generation should be cut out of the number of the Kings.

Thus his sin descended on his posterity as it had been written, “I will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.” [Ex 20:5] Thus see how dangerous it is to marry with the seed of the ungodly.

Aug., Hilsr. Amast. V. et N. Test. q. 85: Or, Ochozias, Joash, and Amasias, were excluded from the number, because their wickedness was continuous and without interval. For Solomon was suffered to hold the kingdom for his father’s deserts, Roboam for his son’s.

But these three doing evil successively were excluded. This then is an example how a race is cut off when wickedness is shewn therein in perpetual succession.

“And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias.”

Gloss: This Ezekias was he to whom, when he had no children, it was said, “Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die.” [Isa 38:1] He wept, not from desire of longer life, for he knew that Solomon had thereby pleased God, that he had not [p. 27] asked length of days; but he wept, for he feared that God’s promise should not be fulfilled, when himself, being in the line of David of whom Christ should come, was without children.

“And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias.”

Pseudo-Chrys.: But the order in the Book of Kings is different [2 Ki 23], thus namely; Josias begot Eliakim, afterwards called Joakim; Joakim begot Jechonias. But Joakim is not reckoned among the Kings in the genealogy, because God’s people had not set him on the throne, but Pharoah by his might. For if it were just that only for their intermixture with the race of Ahab, three kings should be shut out of the number in the genealogy, was it not just that Joakim should be likewise shut out, whom Pharaoh had set up as king by hostile force? And thus Jechonias, who is the son of Joakim, and the grandson of Josiah, is reckoned among the kings as the son of Josiah, in place of his father who is omitted.

Jerome: Otherwise, we may consider the first Jeconias to be the same as Joakim, and the second to be the son not the father, the one being spelt with k and m, the second by ch and n. This distinction has been confounded both by Greeks and Latins, by the fault of writers and the lapse of time.

Ambrose, in Luc., cap. 2: That there were two kings of the name of Joakim, is clear from the Book of Kings. “And Joakim slept with his fathers, and Joachim his son reigned in his stead.” [2 Ki 24:6] This son is the same whom Jeremiah calls Jeconias. And rightly did St. Matthew purpose to differ from the Prophet, because he sought to shew therein the great abundance of the Lord’s mercies. For the Lord did not seek among men nobility of race, but suitably chose to be born of captives and of sinners, as He came to preach remission of sin to the captives. The Evangelist therefore did not conceal either of these; but rather shewed them both, inasmuch as both were called Jeconias.

Remig.: But it may be asked, why the Evangelist says they were born in the carrying away, when they were born before the carrying away. He says this because they were born for this purpose, that they should be led captive, from the dominion of the whole nation, for their own and others’ sins. And because God foreknew that they were [p. 28] to be carried away captive, therefore he says, they were born in the carrying away to Babylon.

But of those whom the holy Evangelist places together in the Lord’s genealogy, it should be known, that they were alike in good or ill fame. Judas and his brethren were notable for good, in like manner Phares and Zara, Jechonias and his brethren, were notable for evil.

Gloss: Mystically, David is Christ, who overcame Golias, that is, the Devil. Urias, i.e. God is my light, is the Devil who says, “I will be like the Highest.” [Isa 14:14] To Him the Church was married, when Christ on the Throne of the majesty of His Father loved her, and having made her beautiful, united her to Himself in wedlock.

Or Urias is the Jewish nation who through the Law boasted of their light. From them Christ took away the Law, having taught it to speak of Himself.

Bersabee is ‘the well of satiety,’ that is, the abundance of spiritual grace.

Remig.: Bersabee is interpreted, ‘the seventh well,’ or, ‘the well of the oath’ [ed. note, c: באר שבע the well of the oath, the origin of the name is given, Gen 21:28-31. “satiety” as if from שבע], by which is signified the grant of baptism, in which is given the gift of the sevenfold Spirit, and the oath against the Devil is made.

Christ is also Solomon, i.e. the peaceful, according to that of the Apostle, “He is our peace.” [Eph 2:14]

Roboam [ed. note, d: So Jerome, from רחב; or the foolishness of the people, Ecclus. 47. 23] is, ‘the breadth of the people,’ according to that, “Many shall come from the East and from the West.”

Raban.: Or; ‘the might of the people,’ because he quickly converts the people to the faith.

Remig.: He is also Abias, that is, ‘the Lord Father,’ according to that, “One is your Father who is in heaven.” [Matt 23:9] And again, “Ye call me Master and Lord.” [John 13:13]

He is also Asa [ed. note, e: So Jerome; as if from נשה=נסה; but אסא means a physician], that is, ‘lifting up,’ according to that, “Who taketh away the sins of the world.” [John 1:29]

He is also Josaphat, that is, ‘judging,’ for, “The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son.” [John 5:22]

He is also Joram, that is, ‘lofty,’ according to that, “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven.” [John 3:13]

He is also Ozias, that is, ‘the Lord’s strength,’ for “The Lord is my strength and my praise.” [Ps 118:14]

He is also Jotham [ed. note, f: And so Jerome, from תמם], that is, ‘completed,’ or ‘perfected,’ for “Christ is the end of [p. 29] the Law.” [Rom 10:4]

He is also Ahaz [ed. note, g: אחז to seize or hold, and so Jerome.], that is, ‘turning,’ according to that, “Be ye turned to Me.” [Zech 1:3]

Raban.: Or, ‘embracing,’ because, “None knoweth the Father but the Son.” [Matt 11:27]

Remig.: His is also Ezekias, that is, ‘the strong Lord,’ or, ‘the Lord shall comfort;’ according to that, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” [John 16:33]

He is also Manasses, that is, ‘forgetful,’ or, ‘forgotten,’ according to that, “I will not remember your sins any more.” [Ezek 28]

He is also Aaron [ed note, h: A strong mountain; Jerome. It has no Hebrew root.], that is, ‘faithful,’ according to that, “The Lord is faithful in all His words.” [Ps 145:17]

He is also Josias, that is, ‘the incense of the Lord,’ [ed. note, i: A sacrifice to the Lord, - Jerome; from אשה fire in the ritual service, or incense, Lev 24:7], as, “And being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly.” [Luke 22:44]

Raban.: And that incense signifies prayer, the Psalmist witnesses, saying, “Let my prayer come up as incense before Thee.” [Ps 141:2] Or, ‘The salvation of the Lord,’ according to that, “My salvation is for ever.” [Isa 55]

Remig.: He is Jechonias [ed. note, k: יכניהו “the Lord establisheth,” also “prepareth.”], that is, ‘preparing,’ or ‘the Lord’s preparation,’ according to that, “If I shall depart, I will also prepare a place for you.” [John 14:3]

Gloss: Morally; After David follows Solomon, which is interpreted, ‘peaceful.’ For one then becomes peaceful, when unlawful motions being composed, and being as it were already set in the everlasting rest, he serves God, and turns others to Him.

Then follows Roboam, that is, ‘the breadth of the people.’ For when there is no longer any thing to overcome within himself, it behoves a man to look abroad to others, and to draw with him the people of God to heavenly things.

Next is Abias, that is, ‘the Lord Father,’ for these things premised, He may proclaim Himself the Son of God, and then He will be Asa, that is, ‘raising up,’ and will ascend to His Father from virtue to virtue: and He will become Josaphat, that is, ‘judging,’ for He will judge others, and will be judged of none.

Thus he becomes Joram, that is, ‘lofty,’ as it were dwelling on high; and is made Oziah, that is, ‘the strong One of the Lord,’ as attributing all his strength to God, and persevering in his path.

Then follows Jotham, that is, ‘perfect,’ for he groweth daily for greater perfection. And thus he becomes Ahaz, that is, ‘embracing,’ for by obedience knowledge is increased according [p. 30] to that, “They have proclaimed the worship of the Lord, and have understood His doings.”

Then follows Ezekias, that is, ‘the Lord is strong,’ because he understands that God is strong, and so turning to His love, he becomes Manassas, ‘forgetful,’ because he gives up as forgotten all worldly things; and is made thereby Amon, that is, ‘faithful,’ for whoso despises all temporal things, defrauds no man of his goods. Thus he is made Josias, that is, ‘in certain hope of the Lord’s salvation;’ for Josias in intepreted ‘the salvation of the Lord.’

12-15. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel; and Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor; and Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud; and Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob.

Pseudo-Chrys.: After the carrying away, he sets Jeconiah again, as now become a private person.

Ambrose: Of whom Jeremiah speaks. “Write this man dethroned; for there shall not spring of his seed one sitting on the throne of David.” [Jer 22:30]

How is this said of the Prophet, that none of the seed of Jeconias should reign? For if Christ reigned, and Christ was of the seed of Jeconiah, then has the Prophet spoken falsely. But it is not there declared that there shall be none of the seed of Jeconiah, and so Christ is of his seed; and that Christ did reign, is not in contradiction to the prophecy; for He did not reign with worldly honours, as He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” [John 18:36]

Pseudo-Chrys.: Concerning Salathiel [ed. note, l: This Gloss. from Pseudo-Chrys. is not found in Nicolai’s edition.], we have read nothing either good or bad, but we suppose him to have been a holy man, and in the captivity to have constantly besought God in behalf of afflicted Israel, and that hence he was named, Salathiel, ‘the petition of God.’ [ed. note, m: שאלתי אל “I have asked of God.”]

“Salathiel begot Zorobabel,” which is interpreted, ‘flowing postponed,’ or, ‘of the confusion,’ or here, ‘the doctor of Babylon.’ [ed. note, n (p.31): The teacher of Babylon; Jerome; perhaps from זר “crown;” זרב Ch. flowed, poured away,” Syr. “contracted, bound;” hence another of the meanings in the text.]

I have read, but know not [p. 31] whether it be true, that both the priestly line and the royal line were united in Zorobabel; and that it was through him that the children of Israel returned into their own country. For that in a disputation held between three, of whom Zorobabel was one, each defending his own opinion, Zorobabel’s sentence, that Truth was the strongest thing, prevailed; and that for this Darius granted him that the children of Israel should return to their country; and therefore after this providence of God, he was rightly called Zorobabel, ‘the doctor of Babylon.’ For what doctrine greater than to shew that Truth is the mistress of all things?

Gloss: But this seems to contradict the genealogy which is read in Chronicles. For there it is said, that Jeconias begot Salathiel and Phadaias, and Phadaias begot Zorobabel, and Zorobabel Mosollah, Ananias, and Solomith their sister. [1 Chron 3:17] But we know that many parts of the Chronicles have been corrupted by time, and error of transcribers. Hence come many and controverted questions of genealogies which the Apostle bids us avoid. [1 Tim 1:4]

Or it may be said, that Salathiel and Phadaias are the same man under two different names. Or that Salathiel and Phadaias were brothers, and both had sons of the same name, and that the writer of the history followed the genealogy of Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel. From Abiud down to Joseph, no history is found in the Chronicles; but we read that the Hebrews had many other annals, which were called the Words of the Days, of which much was burned by Herod, who was a foreigner, in order to confound the descent of the royal line.

And perhaps Joseph had read in them the names of his ancestors, or knew them from some other source. And thus the Evangelist could learn the succession of this genealogy. It should be noted, that the first Jeconiah is called the resurrection of the Lord, the second, the preparation of the Lord. Both are very applicable to the Lord Christ, who declares, “I am the resurrection, and the life;” [John 11:25] and, “I go to prepare a place for you.” [John 14:2]

Salathiel, i.e. ‘the Lord is my petition,’ is suitable to Him who said, “Holy Father, keep them whom Thou hast given Me.” [John 17:11]

Remig.: He is also Zorobabel, [p. 32] that is, ‘the master of confusion,’ according to that, “Your Master eateth with publicans and sinners.” [Matt 9:11]

He is Abiud, that is, ‘He is my Father,’ according to that, “I and the Father are One.” [John 10:30]

He is also Eliacim [ed. note: So Jerome, אל יקים “God will raise up”], that is, ‘God the Reviver,’ according to that, “I will revive him again in the last day.” [John 6:54]

He is also Azor, that is, ‘aided,’ according of that, “He who sent Me is with Me.” [John 8:29]

He is also Sadoch, that is, ‘the just,’, or, ‘the justified,’ according to that, “He was delivered, the just for the unjust.” [1 Pet 3:18]

He is also Achim, that is, ‘my brother is He,’ according to that, “Whoso doeth the will of My Father, he is My brother.” [Matt 12:50]

He is also Eliud, that is, ‘He is my God,’ according to that, “My Lord, and my God.” [John 20:28]

Gloss: He is also Eleazar, i.e. ‘God is my helper,’ as in the seventeenth Psalm, “My God, my helper.”

He is also Mathan, that is, ‘giving,’ or, ‘given,’ for, “He gave gifts for men;” [Eph 4:8] and, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.” [John 3:16]

Remig.: He is also Jacob, ‘that supplanteth,’ for not only hath He supplanted the Devil, but hath given His power to His faithful people; as, “Behold I have given you power to tread upon serpents.” [Luke 10:19]

He is also Joseph, that is, ‘adding,’ according to that, “I came that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly.”

Raban.: But let us see what moral signification these names contain. After Jeconias, which means ‘the preparation of the Lord,’ follows Salathiel, i.e. ‘God is my petition,’ for he who is rightly prepared, prays not but of God.

Again, he becomes Zorobabel, ‘the master of Babylon,’ that is, of the men of the earth, whom he makes to know concerning God, that He is their Father, which is signified in Abiud.

Then that people rise again from their vices, whence follows Eliacim, ‘the resurrection;’ and thence rise to good works, which is Azor, and becomes Sadoch, i.e. ‘righteous;’ and then they are taught the love of their neighbour. He is my brother, which is signified in Achim; and through love to God he says of Him, ‘My God,’ which Eliud signifies.

Then follows Eleazar, i.e. ‘God is my helper;’ he recognizes God as his helper. But whereto he tends is shewn in Matthan, which is interpreted ‘gift,’ or ‘giving;’ for he looks to God as his benefactor; and as he wrestled with and overcame his vices [p. 33] in the beginning, so he does in the end of life, which belongs to Jacob, and thus he reaches Joseph, that is, ‘The increase of virtues.’

16. And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Gloss: In the last place, after all the patriarchs, he sets down Joseph the husband of Mary, for whose sake all the rest are introduced, saying, “But Jacob begot Joseph.”

Jerome: This passage is objected to us by the Emperor Julian in his Discrepancy of the Evangelists. Matthew calls Joseph the son of Jacob, Luke makes him the son of Heli. He did not know the Scripture manner, one was his father by nature, the other by law. For we know that God commanded by Moses, that if a brother or near kinsman died without children, another should take his wife, to raise up seed to his brother or kinsman. [Deut 25]

But of this matter Africanus the chronologist [ed. note: In his Epist. ad Aristidem, vid. Reuth Reliqu. vol. ii, p. 114. Africanus], and Eusebius of Caesarea, have disputed more fully.

Euseb., Hist. Eccles. i, 7: For Matthan and Melchi at different periods had each a son by one and the same wife Jesca. Matthan, who traced through Solomon, first had her, and died leaving one son, Jacob by name. As the Law forbade not a widow, either dismissed from her husband, or after the death of her husband, to be married to another, so Melchi, who traced through Matthan, being of the same tribe but of another race, took this widow to his wife, and begat Heli his son.

Thus shall we find Jacob and Heli, though of a different race, yet by the same mother, to have been brethren. One of whom, namely Jacob, after Heli his brother was deceased without issue, married his wife, and begat on her the third, Joseph, by nature indeed and reason his own son. Whereupon also it is written, “And Jacob begat Joseph.” But by the Law, he was the son of Heli; for Jacob, being his brother, raised up seed to him.

Thus the genealogy, both as recited by Matthew, and by Luke, stands right and true; Matthew saying, “And Jacob begot Joseph;” Luke saying, “Which was the son, as it was supposed, (for he adds this withal,) of Joseph, [p. 34] which was the son of Heli, which was the son of Melchi.”

Nor could he have more significantly or properly expressed that way of generation according to the Law, which was made by a certain adoption that had respect to the dead, carefully leaving out the word “begetting” throughout even to the end.

Augustine, de Cons. Evan., ii, 2: He is more properly called his son, by whom he was adopted, than had he been said to have been begotten of him of whose flesh he was not born. Wherefore Matthew, in saying, “Abraham begot Isaac,” and continuing the same phrase throughout down to “Jacob begot Joseph,” sufficiently declares that he gives the father according to the order of nature, so as that we must hold Joseph to have been begotten, not adopted, by Jacob. Though even if Luke had used the word, “begotten,” we need not have thought it any serious objection; for it is not absurd to say of an adopted son that he is begotten, not after the flesh, but by affection.

Euseb.: Neither does this lack good authority; nor has it been suddenly devised by us for this purpose. For the kinsmen of our Saviour according to the flesh, either out of desire to shew forth this their so great nobility of stock, or simply for the truth’s sake, have delivered it unto us.

Aug., de Cons. Evan., ii, 4: And suitably does Luke, who relates Christ’s ancestry not in the opening of his Gospel, but at his baptism, follow the line of adoption, as thus more clearly pointing Him out as the Priest that should make atonement for sin. For by adoption we are made the sons of God, by believing in the Son of God. But by the descent according to the flesh which Matthew follows, we rather see that the Son of God was for us made man.

Luke sufficiently shews that he called Joseph the son of Heli, because he was adopted by Heli, by his calling Adam the son of God, which he was by grace, as he was set in Paradise, though he lost it afterwards by sinning.

Chrys., Hom. 4: Having gone through all the ancestry, and ended in Joseph, he adds, “The husband of Mary,” thereby declaring that is was for her sake that he was included in the genealogy.

Jerome: When you hear this word, “husband,” do not straight bethink you of wedlock, but remember the Scripture manner, which calls persons only betrothed husband and wife.

Gennadius, de Eccles. Dog., 2: The Son of God was born of human flesh, that is of Mary, and not by man after the way of nature, as Ebion says; and accordingly it is significantly [p. 35] added, “Of her Jesus was born.”

Aug., De Haeres, ii: This is said against Valentinus, who taught that Christ took nothing of the Virgin Mary, but passed through her as through a channel or pipe.

Wherefore it pleased Him to take flesh of the womb of a woman, is known in His own secret counsels; whether that He might confer honour on both sexes alike, by taking the form of a man, and being born of a woman, or from some other reason which I would not hastily pronounce on.

Hilary, Quaest. Nov. et Vet. Test. q. 49: What God conveyed by the anointing of oil to those who were anointed to be kings, this the Holy Spirit conveyed upon the man Christ, adding thereto the expiation; wherefore when born He was called Christ; and thus it proceeds, “who is called Christ.”

Aug., de Cons. Evan., ii, 1: It was not lawful that he should think to separate himself from Mary for this, that she brought forth Christ as yet a Virgin. And herein may the faithful gather, that if they be married, and preserve strict continence on both sides, yet may their wedlock hold with union of love only, without carnal; for here they see that it is possible that a son be born without carnal embrace.

Aug., de Nupt. et Concup., i, 11: In Christ’s parents was accomplished every good benefit of marriage, fidelity, progeny, and a sacrament. The progeny we see in the Lord Himself; fidelity, for there was no adultery; sacrament, for there was no divorce.

Jerome: The attentive reader may ask, Seeing Joseph was not the father of the Lord and Saviour, how does his genealogy traced down to him in order pertain to the Lord? We will answer, first, that it is not the practice of Scripture to follow the female line in its genealogies; secondly, that Joseph and Mary were of the same tribe, and that he was thence compelled to take her to wife as a kinsman, and they were enrolled together at Bethlehem, as being come of one stock.

Augustine: Also, the line of descent ought to be brought down to Joseph, that in wedlock no wron

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