Friday, November 21, 2014

Matthew 16:14

Now if he caught at the name Christ, just as the pickpocket clutches the dole-basket, why did he wish to be called Jesus too, by a name which was not so much looked for by the Jews? For although we, who have by God's grace attained to the understanding of His mysteries, acknowledge that this name also was destined for Christ, yet, for all that, the fact was not known to the Jews, from whom wisdom was taken away. To this day, in short, it is Christ that they are looking for, not Jesus; and they interpret Elias to be Christ rather than Jesus. [Tertullian Adv Marc 3.16.1 KROYMANN Aem., CCL 1 (1954)(p.528, l.13) BP1]
Who could doubt His having been born, when they saw Him before them a veritable man?----whom they had heard call Himself "Son of man? "----of whom they doubted whether He were God or Son of God, from seeing Him, as they did, in the perfect garb of human quality?----supposing Him rather to be a prophet, a great one indeed, but still one who had been born as man? Even if it had been necessary that He should thus be tried in the investigation of His birth, surely any other proof would have better answered the trial than that to be obtained from mentioning those relatives which it was quite possible for Him, in spite of His true nativity, not at that moment to have had [Tertullian Adv Marc 4.19.9 KROYMANN Aem., CCL 1 (1954),(p.593, l.27) BP1]


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