1. Hebrew Bible, Deuteronomy, 8.5 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)
| 8.5. וְיָדַעְתָּ עִם־לְבָבֶךָ כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר יְיַסֵּר אִישׁ אֶת־בְּנוֹ יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מְיַסְּרֶךָּ׃ | 8.5. And thou shalt consider in thy heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee." |
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2. Hebrew Bible, Genesis, 1.27 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)
| 1.27. וַיִּבְרָא אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָדָם בְּצַלְמוֹ בְּצֶלֶם אֱלֹהִים בָּרָא אֹתוֹ זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה בָּרָא אֹתָם׃ | 1.27. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." |
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3. Hebrew Bible, Psalms, 2.1, 16.8-16.11 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)
| 2.1. וְעַתָּה מְלָכִים הַשְׂכִּילוּ הִוָּסְרוּ שֹׁפְטֵי אָרֶץ׃ 2.1. לָמָּה רָגְשׁוּ גוֹיִם וּלְאֻמִּים יֶהְגּוּ־רִיק׃ 16.8. שִׁוִּיתִי יְהוָה לְנֶגְדִּי תָמִיד כִּי מִימִינִי בַּל־אֶמּוֹט׃ 16.9. לָכֵן שָׂמַח לִבִּי וַיָּגֶל כְּבוֹדִי אַף־בְּשָׂרִי יִשְׁכֹּן לָבֶטַח׃ 16.11. תּוֹדִיעֵנִי אֹרַח חַיִּים שֹׂבַע שְׂמָחוֹת אֶת־פָּנֶיךָ נְעִמוֹת בִּימִינְךָ נֶצַח׃ | 2.1. Why are the nations in an uproar? And why do the peoples mutter in vain?" 16.8. I have set the LORD always before me; Surely He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." 16.9. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth; my flesh also dwelleth in safety;" 16.10. For Thou wilt not abandon my soul to the nether-world; Neither wilt Thou suffer Thy godly one to see the pit." 16.11. Thou makest me to know the path of life; In Thy presence is fulness of joy, In Thy right hand bliss for evermore." |
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4. Plato, Phaedo, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 81d. as they say, it flits about the monuments and the tombs, where shadowy shapes of souls have been seen, figures of those souls which were not set free in purity but retain something of the visible; and this is why they are seen. That is likely, Socrates. It is likely, Cebes. And it is likely that those are not the souls of the good, but those of the base, which are compelled to flit about such places as a punishment for their former evil mode of life. And they flit about |
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5. Anon., 1 Enoch, 6.2, 14.3 (3rd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)
| 6.2. them beautiful and comely daughters. And the angels, the children of the heaven, saw and lusted after them, and said to one another: 'Come, let us choose us wives from among the children of men 14.3. converse therewith and understand with the heart. As He has created and given to man the power of understanding the word of wisdom, so hath He created me also and given me the power of reprimanding |
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6. Dead Sea Scrolls, War Scroll, 1.5, 18.1 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)
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7. Dead Sea Scrolls, Community Rule, 4.22, 11.8 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)
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8. Dead Sea Scrolls, Hodayot, 3.21-3.22 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)
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9. Dead Sea Scrolls, Hodayot, 3.21-3.22 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. CE)
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10. Septuagint, 2 Maccabees, 7.9, 7.14, 7.23, 7.29, 7.36, 12.43-12.45, 15.12 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)
| 7.9. And when he was at his last breath, he said, 'You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws.' 7.14. And when he was near death, he said, 'One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!' 7.23. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws.' 7.29. Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers. Accept death, so that in God's mercy I may get you back again with your brothers.' 7.36. For our brothers after enduring a brief suffering have drunk of everflowing life under God's covet; but you, by the judgment of God, will receive just punishment for your arrogance.' 12.43. He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection.' 12.44. For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.' 12.45. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.' 15.12. What he saw was this: Onias, who had been high priest, a noble and good man, of modest bearing and gentle manner, one who spoke fittingly and had been trained from childhood in all that belongs to excellence, was praying with outstretched hands for the whole body of the Jews.' |
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11. Septuagint, Wisdom of Solomon, 12.19 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 12.19. Through such works thou has taught thy people that the righteous man must be kind,and thou hast filled thy sons with good hope,because thou givest repentance for sins. |
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12. Septuagint, 3 Maccabees, 6.28 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)
| 6.28. Release the sons of the almighty and living God of heaven, who from the time of our ancestors until now has granted an unimpeded and notable stability to our government. |
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13. Anon., 2 Baruch, 51.11-51.12, 54.15-54.16, 70.7, 73.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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14. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 1.20.2 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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15. Josephus Flavius, Jewish War, 2.8, 2.165, 3.374 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 2.8. 3. At these clamors Archelaus was provoked, but restrained himself from taking vengeance on the authors, on account of the haste he was in of going to Rome, as fearing lest, upon his making war on the multitude, such an action might detain him at home. Accordingly, he made trial to quiet the innovators by persuasion, rather than by force, and sent his general in a private way to them, and by him exhorted them to be quiet. 2.8. 1. But now came another accusation from the Jews against Archelaus at Rome, which he was to answer to. It was made by those ambassadors who, before the revolt, had come, by Varus’s permission, to plead for the liberty of their country; those that came were fifty in number, but there were more than eight thousand of the Jews at Rome who supported them. 2.165. and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, is at men’s own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to every one, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades. 3.374. Do not you know that those who depart out of this life, according to the law of nature, and pay that debt which was received from God, when he that lent it us is pleased to require it back again, enjoy eternal fame? that their houses and their posterity are sure, that their souls are pure and obedient, and obtain a most holy place in heaven, from whence, in the revolution of ages, they are again sent into pure bodies; |
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16. Mishnah, Sanhedrin, 10.1 (1st cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 10.1. All Israel have a portion in the world to come, for it says, “Your people, all of them righteous, shall possess the land for ever; They are the shoot that I planted, my handiwork in which I glory” (Isaiah 60:2. And these are the ones who have no portion in the world to come: He who maintains that resurrection is not a biblical doctrine, that the torah was not divinely revealed, and an epikoros. Rabbi Akiva says: “Even one who reads non-canonical books and one who whispers [a charm] over a wound and says, “I will not bring upon you any of the diseases whichbrought upon the Egyptians: for I the lord am you healer” (Exodus 15:26). Abba Shaul says: “Also one who pronounces the divine name as it is spelled.”" |
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17. New Testament, 1 Corinthians, 4.14, 5.1, 6.14, 7.8-7.9, 13.9, 13.12, 15.12 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 4.14. I don'twrite these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my belovedchildren. 5.1. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality amongyou, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among theGentiles, that one has his father's wife. 6.14. Now God raised up the Lord, and will alsoraise us up by his power. 7.8. But I sayto the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain evenas I am. 7.9. But if they don't have self-control, let them marry. Forit's better to marry than to burn. 13.9. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 13.12. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, butthen face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, evenas I was also fully known. 15.12. Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from thedead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of thedead? |
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18. New Testament, 2 Timothy, 2.11, 2.18 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 2.11. This saying is faithful: For if we died with him, We will also live with him. 2.18. men who have erred concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past, and overthrowing the faith of some. |
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19. New Testament, Acts, 1.6-1.7, 1.10-1.11, 2.22-2.36, 2.44-2.45, 3.16-3.18, 3.20, 4.1-4.2, 4.25-4.27, 5.17, 5.34, 5.42, 7.52, 8.5, 9.22, 10.24, 10.42, 14.22, 15.5, 17.3, 17.30-17.32, 18.5, 18.28, 23.6-23.10, 24.15, 24.21, 26.3-26.8, 26.22-26.23 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 1.6. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel? 1.7. He said to them, "It isn't for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within His own authority. 1.10. While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing 1.11. who also said, "You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky. 2.22. You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, even as you yourselves know 2.23. him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed; 2.24. whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. 2.25. For David says concerning him, 'I saw the Lord always before my face, For he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. 2.26. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope; 2.27. Because you will not leave my soul in Hades, Neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay. 2.28. You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.' 2.29. Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 2.30. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne 2.31. he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was his soul left in Hades, nor did his flesh see decay. 2.32. This Jesus God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 2.33. Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear. 2.34. For David didn't ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit by my right hand 2.35. Until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet."' 2.36. Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. 2.44. All who believed were together, and had all things common. 2.45. They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need. 3.16. By faith in his name has his name made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. 3.17. Now, brothers, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 3.18. But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled. 3.20. and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before 4.1. As they spoke to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came to them 4.2. being upset because they taught the people and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 4.25. who by the mouth of your servant, David, said, 'Why do the nations rage, And the peoples plot a vain thing? 4.26. The kings of the earth take a stand, And the rulers take council together, Against the Lord, and against his Christ.' 4.27. For truly, in this city against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 5.17. But the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy 5.34. But one stood up in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, honored by all the people, and commanded to take the apostles out a little while. 5.42. Every day, in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and preaching Jesus, the Christ. 7.52. Which of the prophets didn't your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. 8.5. Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and proclaimed to them the Christ. 9.22. But Saul increased more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ. 10.24. On the next day they entered into Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for them, having called together his relatives and his near friends. 10.42. He charged us to preach to the people and to testify that this is he who is appointed by God as the Judge of the living and the dead. 14.22. confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of God. 15.5. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them, and to charge them to keep the law of Moses. 17.3. explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer, and to rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ. 17.30. The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all men everywhere should repent 17.31. because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead. 17.32. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, "We want to hear you yet again concerning this. 18.5. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 18.28. for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. 23.6. But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, "Men and brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. Concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged! 23.7. When he had said this, an argument arose between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 23.8. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess all of these. 23.9. A great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees part stood up, and contended, saying, "We find no evil in this man. But if a spirit or angel has spoken to him, let's not fight against God! 23.10. When a great argument arose, the commanding officer, fearing that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and bring him into the barracks. 24.15. having hope toward God, which these also themselves look for, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. 24.21. unless it is for this one thing that I cried standing among them, 'Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged before you today!' 26.3. especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently. 26.4. Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem; 26.5. having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. 26.6. Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers 26.7. which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa! 26.8. Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead? 26.22. Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come 26.23. how the Christ must suffer, and how he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to these people and to the Gentiles. |
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20. New Testament, Hebrews, 6.2 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 6.2. of the teaching of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. |
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21. New Testament, Philippians, 3.12 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 3.12. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, if it is so that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. |
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22. New Testament, Romans, 8.11 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 8.11. But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. |
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23. New Testament, John, 1.18, 4.40-4.42, 5.8, 5.25-5.29, 6.39-6.59, 11.24-11.25, 20.24-20.29 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.18. No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. 4.40. So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days. 4.41. Many more believed because of his word. 4.42. They said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of your speaking; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world. 5.8. Jesus said to him, "Arise, take up your mat, and walk. 5.25. Most assuredly, I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God's voice; and those who hear will live. 5.26. For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself. 5.27. He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man. 5.28. Don't marvel at this, for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice 5.29. and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. 6.39. This is the will of my Father who sent me, that of all he has given to me I should lose nothing, but should raise him up at the last day. 6.40. This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 6.41. The Jews therefore murmured concerning him, because he said, "I am the bread which came down out of heaven. 6.42. They said, "Isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say, 'I have come down out of heaven?' 6.43. Therefore Jesus answered them, "Don't murmur among yourselves. 6.44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day. 6.45. It is written in the prophets, 'They will all be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who hears from the Father, and has learned, comes to me. 6.46. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God. He has seen the Father. 6.47. Most assuredly, I tell you, he who believes in me has eternal life. 6.48. I am the bread of life. 6.49. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 6.50. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die. 6.51. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. 6.52. The Jews therefore contended with one another, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 6.53. Jesus therefore said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don't have life in yourselves. 6.54. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 6.55. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 6.56. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him. 6.57. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he who feeds on me, he will also live because of me. 6.58. This is the bread which came down out of heaven -- not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever. 6.59. These things he said in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. 11.24. Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 11.25. Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, though he die, yet will he live. 20.24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, wasn't with them when Jesus came. 20.25. The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord!"But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. 20.26. After eight days again his disciples were inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being locked, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace be to you. 20.27. Then he said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see my hands. Reach here your hand, and put it into my side. Don't be unbelieving, but believing. 20.28. Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God! 20.29. Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed. |
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24. New Testament, Luke, 1.69, 2.11, 2.26, 2.29-2.30, 3.15, 4.9-4.12, 4.41, 5.17, 5.24, 5.27-5.32, 7.1-7.10, 7.36-7.50, 8.19-8.21, 9.20, 10.13, 10.20, 10.25-10.37, 11.27-11.28, 11.31-11.32, 11.37-11.52, 12.29, 12.35-12.40, 14.1, 14.7-14.24, 14.26-14.27, 16.16-16.31, 17.26-17.37, 18.18-18.30, 20.5-20.35, 20.37-20.40, 21.9-21.26, 21.28, 21.34, 21.36, 22.28-22.30, 22.67, 23.28-23.31, 23.35-23.36, 24.21, 24.26-24.27, 24.36-24.43, 24.46 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.69. And has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David 2.11. For there is born to you, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 2.26. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 2.29. Now you are releasing your servant, Master, According to your word, in peace; 2.30. For my eyes have seen your salvation 3.15. As the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he was the Christ 4.9. He led him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here 4.10. for it is written, 'He will give his angels charge concerning you, to guard you;' 4.11. and, 'On their hands they will bear you up, Lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone.' 4.12. Jesus answering, said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' 4.41. Demons also came out from many, crying out, and saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of God!" Rebuking them, he didn't allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. 5.17. It happened on one of those days, that he was teaching; and there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every village of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. The power of the Lord was with him to heal them. 5.24. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (he said to the paralyzed man), "I tell you, arise, and take up your cot, and go to your house. 5.27. After these things he went out, and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and said to him, "Follow me! 5.28. He left everything, and rose up and followed him. 5.29. Levi made a great feast for him in his house. There was a great crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining with them. 5.30. Their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners? 5.31. Jesus answered them, "Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do. 5.32. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 7.1. After he had finished speaking in the hearing of the people, he entered into Capernaum. 7.2. A certain centurion's servant, who was dear to him, was sick and at the point of death. 7.3. When he heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and save his servant. 7.4. When they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy for you to do this for him 7.5. for he loves our nation, and he built our synagogue for us. 7.6. Jesus went with them. When he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I am not worthy for you to come under my roof. 7.7. Therefore I didn't even think myself worthy to come to you; but say the word, and my servant will be healed. 7.8. For I also am a man placed under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, 'Go!' and he goes; and to another, 'Come!' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it. 7.9. When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned and said to the multitude who followed him, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel. 7.10. Those who were sent, returning to the house, found that the servant who had been sick was well. 7.36. One of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He entered into the Pharisee's house, and sat at the table. 7.37. Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that he was reclining in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 7.38. Standing behind at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and she wiped them with the hair of her head, kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 7.39. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner. 7.40. Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."He said, "Teacher, say on. 7.41. A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 7.42. When they couldn't pay, he forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him most? 7.43. Simon answered, "He, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most."He said to him, "You have judged correctly. 7.44. Turning to the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head. 7.45. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. 7.46. You didn't anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 7.47. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. 7.48. He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven. 7.49. Those who sat at the table with him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins? 7.50. He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace. 8.19. His mother and brothers came to him, and they could not come near him for the crowd. 8.20. It was told him by some saying, "Your mother and your brothers stand outside, desiring to see you. 8.21. But he answered them, "My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God, and do it. 9.20. He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"Peter answered, "The Christ of God. 10.13. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 10.20. Nevertheless, don't rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. 10.25. Behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 10.26. He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it? 10.27. He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. 10.28. He said to him, "You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live. 10.29. But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor? 10.30. Jesus answered, "A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 10.31. By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 10.32. In the same way a Levite also, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed by on the other side. 10.33. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. When he saw him, he was moved with compassion 10.34. came to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. He set him on his own animal, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 10.35. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said to him, 'Take care of him. Whatever you spend beyond that, I will repay you when I return.' 10.36. Now which of these three do you think seemed to be a neighbor to him who fell among the robbers? 10.37. He said, "He who showed mercy on him."Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise. 11.27. It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you! 11.28. But he said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it. 11.31. The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and will condemn them: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, one greater than Solomon is here. 11.32. The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here. 11.37. Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in, and sat at the table. 11.38. When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner. 11.39. The Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness. 11.40. You foolish ones, didn't he who made the outside make the inside also? 11.41. But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you. 11.42. But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and the love of God. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. 11.43. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces. 11.44. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don't know it. 11.45. One of the lawyers answered him, "Teacher, in saying this you insult us also. 11.46. He said, "Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won't even lift one finger to help carry those burdens. 11.47. Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 11.48. So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs. 11.49. Therefore also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute 11.50. that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 11.51. from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.' Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. 11.52. Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn't enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered. 12.29. Don't seek what you will eat or what you will drink; neither be anxious. 12.35. Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning. 12.36. Be like men watching for their lord, when he returns from the marriage feast; that, when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him. 12.37. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most assuredly I tell you, that he will dress himself, and make them recline, and will come and serve them. 12.38. They will be blessed if he comes in the second or third watch, and finds them so. 12.39. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not allowed his house to be broken into. 12.40. Therefore be ready also, for the Son of Man is coming in an hour that you don't expect him. 14.1. It happened, when he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees on a Sabbath to eat bread, that they were watching him. 14.7. He spoke a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the best seats, and said to them 14.8. When you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, don't sit in the best seat, since perhaps someone more honorable than you might be invited by him 14.9. and he who invited both of you would come and tell you, 'Make room for this person.' Then you would begin, with shame, to take the lowest place. 14.10. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes, he may tell you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. 14.11. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. 14.12. He also said to the one who had invited him, "When you make a dinner or a supper, don't call your friends, nor your brothers, nor your kinsmen, nor rich neighbors, or perhaps they might also return the favor, and pay you back. 14.13. But when you make a feast, ask the poor, the maimed, the lame, or the blind; 14.14. and you will be blessed, because they don't have the resources to repay you. For you will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous. 14.15. When one of those who sat at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, "Blessed is he who will feast in the Kingdom of God! 14.16. But he said to him, "A certain man made a great supper, and he invited many people. 14.17. He sent out his servant at supper time to tell those who were invited, 'Come, for everything is ready now.' 14.18. They all as one began to make excuses. "The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please have me excused.' 14.19. Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go try them out. Please have me excused.' 14.20. Another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I can't come.' 14.21. That servant came, and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, maimed, blind, and lame.' 14.22. The servant said, 'Lord, it is done as you commanded, and there is still room.' 14.23. The lord said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 14.24. For I tell you that none of those men who were invited will taste of my supper.' 14.26. If anyone comes to me, and doesn't hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can't be my disciple. 14.27. Whoever doesn't bear his own cross, and come after me, can't be my disciple. 16.16. The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the gospel of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. 16.17. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tiny stroke of a pen in the law to fall. 16.18. Everyone who divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery. He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery. 16.19. Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. 16.20. A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, full of sores 16.21. and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 16.22. It happened that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. 16.23. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. 16.24. He cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.' 16.25. But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in like manner, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish. 16.26. Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that none may cross over from there to us.' 16.27. He said, 'I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house; 16.28. for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won't also come into this place of torment.' 16.29. But Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.' 16.30. He said, 'No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' 16.31. He said to him, 'If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.' 17.26. As it happened in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man. 17.27. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 17.28. Likewise, even as it happened in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 17.29. but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky, and destroyed them all. 17.30. It will be the same way in the day that the Son of Man is revealed. 17.31. In that day, he who will be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field likewise not turn back. 17.32. Remember Lot's wife! 17.33. Whoever seeks to save his life loses it, but whoever loses his life preserves it. 17.34. I tell you, in that night there will be two people in one bed. The one will be taken, and the other will be left. 17.35. There will be two women grinding together. The one will be taken, and the other will be left. 17.37. They answering, asked him, "Where, Lord?"He said to them, "Where the body is, there will the vultures also be gathered together. 18.18. A certain ruler asked him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 18.19. Jesus asked him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good, except one -- God. 18.20. You know the commandments: 'Don't commit adultery,' 'Don't murder,' 'Don't steal,' 'Don't give false testimony,' 'Honor your father and your mother.' 18.21. He said, "I have observed all these things from my youth up. 18.22. When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me. 18.23. But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was very rich. 18.24. Jesus, seeing that he became very sad, said, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter into the Kingdom of God! 18.25. For it is easier for a camel to enter in through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God. 18.26. Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved? 18.27. But he said, "The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. 18.28. Peter said, "Look, we have left everything, and followed you. 18.29. He said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or wife, or brothers, or parents, or children, for the Kingdom of God's sake 18.30. who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the world to come, eternal life. 20.5. They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why didn't you believe him?' 20.6. But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, for they are persuaded that John was a prophet. 20.7. They answered that they didn't know where it was from. 20.8. Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. 20.9. He began to tell the people this parable. "A man planted a vineyard, and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time. 20.10. At the proper season, he sent a servant to the farmers to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him, and sent him away empty. 20.11. He sent yet another servant, and they also beat him, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. 20.12. He sent yet a third, and they also wounded him, and threw him out. 20.13. The lord of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him.' 20.14. But when the farmers saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, that the inheritance may be ours.' 20.15. They threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore will the lord of the vineyard do to them? 20.16. He will come and destroy these farmers, and will give the vineyard to others."When they heard it, they said, "May it never be! 20.17. But he looked at them, and said, "Then what is this that is written, 'The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the chief cornerstone?' 20.18. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, But it will crush whomever it falls on to dust. 20.19. The chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on Him that very hour, but they feared the people -- for they knew He had spoken this parable against them. 20.20. They watched him, and sent out spies, who pretended to be righteous, that they might trap him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the power and authority of the governor. 20.21. They asked him, "Teacher, we know that you say and teach what is right, and aren't partial to anyone, but truly teach the way of God. 20.22. Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? 20.23. But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, "Why do you test me? 20.24. Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?"They answered, "Caesar's. 20.25. He said to them, "Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. 20.26. They weren't able to trap him in his words before the people. They marveled at his answer, and were silent. 20.27. Some of the Sadducees came to him, those who deny that there is a resurrection. 20.28. They asked him, "Teacher, Moses wrote to us that if a man's brother dies having a wife, and he is childless, his brother should take the wife, and raise up children for his brother. 20.29. There were therefore seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died childless. 20.30. The second took her as wife, and he died childless. 20.31. The third took her, and likewise the seven all left no children, and died. 20.32. Afterward the woman also died. 20.33. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? For the seven had her as a wife. 20.34. Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry, and are given in marriage. 20.35. But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. 20.37. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he called the Lord 'The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' 20.38. Now he is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to him. 20.39. Some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you speak well. 20.40. They didn't dare to ask him any more questions. 21.9. When you hear of wars and disturbances, don't be terrified, for these things must happen first, but the end won't come immediately. 21.10. Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. 21.11. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 21.12. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name's sake. 21.13. It will turn out as a testimony for you. 21.14. Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer 21.15. for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict. 21.16. You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. Some of you they will cause to be put to death. 21.17. You will be hated by all men for my name's sake. 21.18. Not a hair of your head will perish. 21.19. By your endurance you will win your lives. 21.20. But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. 21.21. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the midst of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein. 21.22. For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 21.23. Woe to those who are pregt and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people. 21.24. They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 21.25. There will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars; and on the earth anxiety of nations, in perplexity for the roaring of the sea and the waves; 21.26. men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 21.28. But when these things begin to happen, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is near. 21.34. So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly. 21.36. Therefore be watchful all the time, asking that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man. 22.28. But you are those who have continued with me in my trials. 22.29. I confer on you a kingdom, even as my Father conferred on me 22.30. that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. You will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 22.67. If you are the Christ, tell us."But he said to them, "If I tell you, you won't believe 23.28. But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 23.29. For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.' 23.30. Then they will begin to tell the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us.' 23.31. For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry? 23.35. The people stood watching. The rulers with them also scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others. Let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one! 23.36. The soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar 24.21. But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. 24.26. Didn't the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? 24.27. Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. 24.36. As they said these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, "Peace be to you. 24.37. But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 24.38. He said to them, "Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? 24.39. See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones, as you see that I have. 24.40. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 24.41. While they still didn't believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, "Do you have anything here to eat? 24.42. They gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb. 24.43. He took it, and ate in front of them. 24.46. He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day |
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25. New Testament, Mark, 2.9, 2.11, 3.31-3.35, 6.1-6.6, 6.30-6.44, 6.49, 8.11-8.12, 9.10-9.12, 9.14-9.17, 10.10-10.12, 10.17-10.31, 12.6, 12.18-12.28, 13.12-13.13, 13.19-13.20, 13.24-13.25, 13.33-13.37, 14.55-14.64 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 2.9. Which is easier, to tell the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven;' or to say, 'Arise, and take up your bed, and walk?' 2.11. I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house. 3.31. His mother and his brothers came, and standing outside, they sent to him, calling him. 3.32. A multitude was sitting around him, and they told him, "Behold, your mother, your brothers, and your sisters are outside looking for you. 3.33. He answered them, "Who are my mother and my brothers? 3.34. Looking around at those who sat around him, he said, "Behold, my mother and my brothers! 3.35. For whoever does the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. 6.1. He went out from there. He came into his own country, and his disciples followed him. 6.2. When the Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many hearing him were astonished, saying, "Where did this man get these things?" and, "What is the wisdom that is given to this man, that such mighty works come about by his hands? 6.3. Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" They were offended at him. 6.4. Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own relatives, and in his own house. 6.5. He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick folk, and healed them. 6.6. He marveled because of their unbelief. He went around the villages teaching. 6.30. The apostles gathered themselves together to Jesus, and they told him all things, whatever they had done, and whatever they had taught. 6.31. He said to them, "You come apart into a deserted place, and rest awhile." For there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat. 6.32. They went away in the boat to a desert place by themselves. 6.33. They saw them going, and many recognized him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him. 6.34. Jesus came out, saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things. 6.35. When it was late in the day, his disciples came to him, and said, "This place is deserted, and it is late in the day. 6.36. Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages, and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. 6.37. But he answered them, "You give them something to eat."They asked him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give them something to eat? 6.38. He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go see."When they knew, they said, "Five, and two fish. 6.39. He commanded them that everyone should sit down in groups on the green grass. 6.40. They sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties. 6.41. He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and broke the loaves, and he gave to his disciples to set before them, and he divided the two fish among them all. 6.42. They all ate, and were filled. 6.43. They took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and also of the fish. 6.44. Those who ate the loaves were five thousand men. 6.49. but they, when they saw him walking on the sea, supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; 8.11. The Pharisees came out and began to question him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, and testing him. 8.12. He sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, "Why does this generation seek a sign? Most assuredly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation. 9.10. They kept the saying, questioning among themselves what the rising from the dead should mean. 9.11. They asked him, saying, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first? 9.12. He said to them, "Elijah indeed comes first, and restores all things. How is it written about the Son of Man, that he should suffer many things and be despised? 9.14. Coming to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them, and scribes questioning them. 9.15. Immediately all the multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and running to him greeted him. 9.16. He asked the scribes, "What are you asking them? 9.17. One of the multitude answered, "Teacher, I brought to you my son, who has a mute spirit; 10.10. In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter. 10.11. He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her. 10.12. If a woman herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery. 10.17. As he was going out into the way, one ran to him, knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 10.18. Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except one -- God. 10.19. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder,' 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not give false testimony,' 'Do not defraud,' 'Honor your father and mother.' 10.20. He said to him, "Teacher, I have observed all these things from my youth. 10.21. Jesus looking at him loved him, and said to him, "One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross. 10.22. But his face fell at that saying, and he went away sorrowful, for he was one who had great possessions. 10.23. Jesus looked around, and said to his disciples, "How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter into the Kingdom of God! 10.24. The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again, "Children, how hard is it for those who trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God! 10.25. It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God. 10.26. They were exceedingly astonished, saying to him, "Then who can be saved? 10.27. Jesus, looking at them, said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. 10.28. Peter began to tell him, "Behold, we have left all, and have followed you. 10.29. Jesus said, "Most assuredly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for my sake, and for the gospel's sake 10.30. but he will receive one hundred times more now in this time, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land, with persecutions; and in the age to come eternal life. 10.31. But many who are first will be last; and the last first. 12.6. Therefore still having one, his beloved son, he sent him last to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 12.18. There came to him Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection. They asked him, saying 12.19. Teacher, Moses wrote to us, 'If a man's brother dies, and leaves a wife behind him, and leaves no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother.' 12.20. There were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and dying left no offspring. 12.21. The second took her, and died, leaving no children behind him. The third likewise; 12.22. and the seven took her and left no children. Last of all the woman also died. 12.23. In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be of them? For the seven had her as a wife. 12.24. Jesus answered them, "Isn't this because you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God? 12.25. For when they will rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 12.26. But about the dead, that they are raised; haven't you read in the book of Moses, about the Bush, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' 12.27. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are therefore badly mistaken. 12.28. One of the scribes came, and heard them questioning together. Knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the greatest of all? 13.12. Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. 13.13. You will be hated by all men for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end, the same will be saved. 13.19. For in those days there will be oppression, such as there has not been the like from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be. 13.20. Unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the elect's sake, whom he chose, he shortened the days. 13.24. But in those days, after that oppression, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light 13.25. the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken. 13.33. Watch, keep alert, and pray; for you don't know when the time is. 13.34. It is like a man, traveling to another country, having left his house, and given authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and also commanded the doorkeeper to keep watch. 13.35. Watch therefore, for you don't know when the lord of the house is coming, whether at evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning; 13.36. lest coming suddenly he might find you sleeping. 13.37. What I tell you, I tell all: Watch. 14.55. Now the chief priests and the whole council sought witnesses against Jesus to put him to death, and found none. 14.56. For many gave false testimony against him, and their testimony didn't agree with each other. 14.57. Some stood up, and gave false testimony against him, saying 14.58. We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.' 14.59. Even so, their testimony did not agree. 14.60. The high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, "Have you no answer? What is it which these testify against you? 14.61. But he stayed quiet, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? 14.62. Jesus said, "I AM. You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of the sky. 14.63. The high priest tore his clothes, and said, "What further need have we of witnesses? 14.64. You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?" They all condemned him to be worthy of death. |
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26. New Testament, Matthew, 2.6, 4.6-4.7, 5.31-5.32, 8.5-8.13, 9.6, 10.6, 10.15, 10.21-10.23, 10.28, 10.35-10.37, 11.22-11.30, 12.36-12.42, 12.46-12.49, 13.54-13.58, 14.13-14.21, 14.26, 16.4, 19.10-19.12, 19.16-19.30, 21.31-21.32, 21.37, 22.23-22.34, 23.2-23.7, 23.13, 23.23, 23.25-23.29, 24.13-24.14, 24.19, 24.21-24.22, 24.29, 24.43-24.51, 25.13, 26.59-26.66, 27.39-27.41, 27.43 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 2.6. 'You Bethlehem, land of Judah, Are in no way least among the princes of Judah: For out of you shall come forth a governor, Who shall shepherd my people, Israel.' 4.6. and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will give his angels charge concerning you.' and, 'On their hands they will bear you up, So that you don't dash your foot against a stone.' 4.7. Jesus said to him, "Again, it is written, 'You shall not test the Lord, your God.' 5.31. It was also said, 'Whoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,' 5.32. but I tell you that whoever who puts away his wife, except for the cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries her when she is put away commits adultery. 8.5. When he came into Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking him 8.6. and saying, "Lord, my servant lies in the house paralyzed, grievously tormented. 8.7. Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him. 8.8. The centurion answered, "Lord, I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8.9. For I am also a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it. 8.10. When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, "Most assuredly I tell you, I haven't found so great a faith, not even in Israel. 8.11. I tell you that many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven 8.12. but the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 8.13. Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way. Let it be done for you as you as you have believed." His servant was healed in that hour. 9.6. But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins..." (then he said to the paralytic), "Get up, and take up your mat, and go up to your house. 10.6. Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 10.15. Most assuredly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. 10.21. Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death. 10.22. You will be hated by all men for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved. 10.23. But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next, for most assuredly I tell you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel, until the Son of Man has come. 10.28. Don't be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. 10.35. For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 10.36. A man's foes will be those of his own household. 10.37. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn't worthy of me. 11.22. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 11.23. You, Capernaum, who are exalted to Heaven, you will go down to Hades. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in you, it would have remained until this day. 11.24. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, on the day of judgment, than for you. 11.25. At that time, Jesus answered, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants. 11.26. Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight. 11.27. All things have been delivered to me by my Father. No one knows the Son, except the Father; neither does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son desires to reveal him. 11.28. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. 11.29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am humble and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. 11.30. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. 12.36. I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 12.37. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. 12.38. Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. 12.39. But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given it but the sign of Jonah the prophet. 12.40. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 12.41. The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here. 12.42. The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here. 12.46. While he was yet speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, seeking to speak to him. 12.47. One said to him, "Behold, your mother and your brothers stand outside, seeking to speak to you. 12.48. But he answered him who spoke to him, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? 12.49. He stretched out his hand towards his disciples, and said, "Behold, my mother and my brothers! 13.54. Coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom, and these mighty works? 13.55. Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 13.56. Aren't all of his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all of these things? 13.57. They were offended by him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and in his own house. 13.58. He didn't do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. 14.13. Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat, to a deserted place apart. When the multitudes heard it, they followed him on foot from the cities. 14.14. Jesus went out, and he saw a great multitude. He had compassion on them, and healed their sick. 14.15. When evening had come, his disciples came to him, saying, "This place is deserted, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves food. 14.16. But Jesus said to them, "They don't need to go away. You give them something to eat. 14.17. They told him, "We only have here five loaves and two fish. 14.18. He said, "Bring them here to me. 14.19. He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; and he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 14.20. They all ate, and were filled. They took up twelve baskets full of that which remained left over from the broken pieces. 14.21. Those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children. 14.26. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It's a ghost!" and they cried out for fear. 16.4. An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and there will be no sign given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah."He left them, and departed. 19.10. His disciples said to him, "If this is the case of the man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry. 19.11. But he said to them, "Not all men can receive this saying, but those to whom it is given. 19.12. For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's sake. He who is able to receive it, let him receive it. 19.16. Behold, one came to him and said, "Good teacher, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? 19.17. He said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. 19.18. He said to him, "Which ones?"Jesus said, "'You shall not murder.' 'You shall not commit adultery.' 'You shall not steal.' 'You shall not offer false testimony.' 19.19. 'Honor your father and mother.' And, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 19.20. The young man said to him, "All these things I have observed from my youth. What do I still lack? 19.21. Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. 19.22. But when the young man heard the saying, he went away sad, for he was one who had great possessions. 19.23. Jesus said to his disciples, "Most assuredly I say to you, a rich man will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with difficulty. 19.24. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God. 19.25. When the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved? 19.26. Looking at them, Jesus said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. 19.27. Then Peter answered, "Behold, we have left everything, and followed you. What then will we have? 19.28. Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 19.29. Everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, will receive one hundred times, and will inherit eternal life. 19.30. But many will be last who are first; and first who are last. 21.31. Which of the two did the will of his father?"They said to him, "The first."Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into the Kingdom of God before you. 21.32. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn't even repent afterward, that you might believe him. 21.37. But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 22.23. On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him 22.24. saying, "Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed for his brother.' 22.25. Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no seed left his wife to his brother. 22.26. In like manner the second also, and the third, to the seventh. 22.27. After them all, the woman died. 22.28. In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her. 22.29. But Jesus answered them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. 22.30. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God's angels in heaven. 22.31. But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven't you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying 22.32. 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 22.33. When the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. 22.34. But the Pharisees, when they heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, gathered themselves together. 23.2. saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses' seat. 23.3. All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don't do their works; for they say, and don't do. 23.4. For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them. 23.5. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad, enlarge the fringes of their garments 23.6. and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues 23.7. the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called 'Rabbi, Rabbi' by men. 23.13. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. 23.23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. 23.25. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness. 23.26. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside of it may become clean also. 23.27. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. 23.28. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 23.29. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the tombs of the righteous 24.13. But he who endures to the end, the same will be saved. 24.14. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. 24.19. But woe to those who are with child and to nursing mothers in those days! 24.21. for then there will be great oppression, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, nor ever will be. 24.22. Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. 24.29. But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; 24.43. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 24.44. Therefore also be ready, for in an hour that you don't expect, the Son of Man will come. 24.45. Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has set over his household, to give them their food in due season? 24.46. Blessed is that servant whom his lord finds doing so when he comes. 24.47. Most assuredly I tell you that he will set him over all that he has. 24.48. But if that evil servant should say in his heart, 'My lord is delaying his coming,' 24.49. and begins to beat his fellow-servants, and eat and drink with the drunken 24.50. the lord of that servant will come in a day when he doesn't expect it, and in an hour when he doesn't know it 24.51. and will cut him in pieces, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites; there is where the weeping and grinding of teeth will be. 25.13. Watch therefore, for you don't know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. 26.59. Now the chief priests, the elders, and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus, that they might put him to death; 26.60. and they found none. Even though many false witnesses came forward, they found none. But at last two false witnesses came forward 26.61. and said, "This man said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.' 26.62. The high priest stood up, and said to him, "Have you no answer? What is this that these testify against you? 26.63. But Jesus held his peace. The high priest answered him, "I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God. 26.64. Jesus said to him, "You have said it. Nevertheless, I tell you, henceforth you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of the sky. 26.65. Then the high priest tore his clothing, saying, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Behold, now you have heard his blasphemy. 26.66. What do you think?"They answered, "He is worthy of death! 27.39. Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads 27.40. and saying, "You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross! 27.41. Likewise the chief priests also mocking, with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders, said 27.43. He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' |
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27. Anon., Acts of Thomas, 15, 12 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 12. Remember, my children, what my brother spake unto you and what he delivered before you: and know this, that if ye abstain from this foul intercourse, ye become holy temples, pure, being quit of impulses and pains, seen and unseen, and ye will acquire no cares of life or of children, whose end is destruction: and if indeed ye get many children, for their sakes ye become grasping and covetous, stripping orphans and overreaching widows, and by so doing subject yourselves to grievous punishments. For the more part of children become useless oppressed of devils, some openly and some invisibly, for they become either lunatic or half withered or blind or deaf or dumb or paralytic or foolish; and if they be sound, again they will be vain, doing useless or abominable acts, for they will be caught either in adultery or murder or theft or fornication, and by all these will ye be afflicted. But if ye be persuaded and keep your souls chaste before God, there will come unto you living children whom these blemishes touch not, and ye shall be without care, leading a tranquil life without grief or anxiety, looking to receive that incorruptible and true marriage, and ye shall be therein groomsmen entering into that bride-chamber which is full of immortality and light. |
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28. Clement of Alexandria, A Discourse Concerning The Salvation of Rich Men, 21.1 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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29. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies, 3.58, 3.66, 3.68, 3.72-3.74, 3.79, 6.9, 7.10-7.11, 7.14 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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30. Justin, First Apology, 28 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 28. For among us the prince of the wicked spirits is called the serpent, and Satan, and the devil, as you can learn by looking into our writings. And that he would be sent into the fire with his host, and the men who follow him, and would be punished for an endless duration, Christ foretold. For the reason why God has delayed to do this, is His regard for the human race. For He foreknows that some are to be saved by repentance, some even that are perhaps not yet born. In the beginning He made the human race with the power of thought and of choosing the truth and doing right, so that all men are without excuse before God; for they have been born rational and contemplative. And if any one disbelieves that God cares for these things, he will thereby either insinuate that God does not exist, or he will assert that though He exists He delights in vice, or exists like a stone, and that neither virtue nor vice are anything, but only in the opinion of men these things are reckoned good or evil. And this is the greatest profanity and wickedness. |
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31. Justin, Dialogue With Trypho, 80 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 80. The opinion of Justin with regard to the reign of a thousand years. Several Catholics reject it Trypho: I remarked to you sir, that you are very anxious to be safe in all respects, since you cling to the Scriptures. But tell me, do you really admit that this place, Jerusalem, shall be rebuilt; and do you expect your people to be gathered together, and made joyful with Christ and the patriarchs, and the prophets, both the men of our nation, and other proselytes who joined them before your Christ came? Or have you given way, and admitted this in order to have the appearance of worsting us in the controversies? Justin: I am not so miserable a fellow, Trypho, as to say one thing and think another. I admitted to you formerly, that I and many others are of this opinion, and [believe] that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise. Moreover, I pointed out to you that some who are called Christians, but are godless, impious heretics, teach doctrines that are in every way blasphemous, atheistical, and foolish. But that you may know that I do not say this before you alone, I shall draw up a statement, so far as I can, of all the arguments which have passed between us; in which I shall record myself as admitting the very same things which I admit to you. For I choose to follow not men or men's doctrines, but God and the doctrines [delivered] by Him. For if you have fallen in with some who are called Christians, but who do not admit this [truth], and venture to blaspheme the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; who say there is no resurrection of the dead, and that their souls, when they die, are taken to heaven; do not imagine that they are Christians, even as one, if he would rightly consider it, would not admit that the Sadducees, or similar sects of Genistæ, Meristæ, Galilæans, Hellenists, Pharisees, Baptists, are Jews (do not hear me impatiently when I tell you what I think), but are [only] called Jews and children of Abraham, worshipping God with the lips, as God Himself declared, but the heart was far from Him. But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, [as] the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare. |
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32. Lucian, The Lover of Lies, 12-13, 11 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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33. Anon., The Acts of Paul And Thecla, 6 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
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34. Babylonian Talmud, Qiddushin, None (3rd cent. CE - 6th cent. CE)
| 72b. היום יושב בחיקו של אברהם היום נולד רב יהודה בבבל,דאמר מר כשמת ר' עקיבא נולד רבי כשמת רבי נולד רב יהודה כשמת רב יהודה נולד רבא כשמת רבא נולד רב אשי ללמדך שאין צדיק נפטר מן העולם עד שנברא צדיק כמותו שנאמר (קהלת א, ה) וזרח השמש ובא השמש עד שלא כבתה שמשו של עלי זרחה שמשו של שמואל הרמתי שנאמר (שמואל א ג, ג) ונר אלהים טרם יכבה ושמואל שוכב וגו',(איכה א, יז) צוה ה' ליעקב סביביו צריו רב יהודה אמר כגון הומניא לפום נהרא,(יחזקאל יא, יג) ויהי כהנבאי ופלטיהו בן בניהו מת ואפול על פני ואזעק קול גדול ואומר אהה אדני ה' רב ושמואל חד אמר לטובה וחד אמר לרעה מאן דאמר לטובה כי הא דאיסתנדרא דמישן חתניה דנבוכדנצר הוה שלח ליה מכולי האי שבייה דאייתית לך לא שדרת לן דקאי לקמן,בעי לשדורי ליה מישראל א"ל פלטיהו בן בניהו אנן דחשבינן ניקו מקמך הכא ועבדין ניזלו להתם ואמר נביא מי שעשה טובה בישראל ימות בחצי ימיו,מאן דאמר לרעה דכתיב (יחזקאל יא, א) ותבא אותי אל שער בית ה' הקדמוני הפונה קדימה והנה בפתח השער עשרים וחמשה איש ואראה בתוכם את יאזניה בן עזר ואת פלטיהו בן בניהו שרי העם וכתיב (יחזקאל ח, טז) ויבא אותי אל חצר בית ה' הפנימית והנה פתח היכל ה' בין האולם ובין המזבח כעשרים וחמשה איש אחוריהם אל היכל ה' ופניהם קדמה,ממשמע שנאמר ופניהם קדמה איני יודע שאחוריהם כלפי מערב מה תלמוד לומר [אחוריהם] אל היכל ה' מלמד שהיו מפריעין עצמם ומתריזין עצמם כלפי מעלה וקאמר נביא מי שעשה הרעה הזאת בישראל ימות על מיטתו,תסתיים דשמואל דאמר לרעה דאמר רבי חייא בר אבין אמר שמואל מושכני הרי היא כגולה ליוחסים מישון לא חשו לה לא משום עבדות ולא משום ממזרות אלא כהנים שהיו בה לא הקפידו על הגרושות,לעולם אימא לך שמואל אמר לטובה ושמואל לטעמיה דאמר המפקיר עבדו יצא לחירות ואינו צריך גט שחרור שנא' (שמות יב, מד) כל עבד איש מקנת כסף עבד איש ולא עבד אשה אלא עבד שיש לו רשות לרבו עליו קרוי עבד עבד שאין לרבו רשות עליו אין קרוי עבד,אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל זו דברי ר"מ אבל חכמים אומרים כל ארצות בחזקת כשרות הם עומדות,אמימר שרא ליה לרב הונא בר נתן למינסב איתתא מחוזייתא אמר ליה רב אשי מאי דעתיך דאמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל זו דברי ר' מאיר אבל חכ"א כל ארצות בחזקת כשרות הן עומדות והא בי רב כהנא לא מתני הכי ובי רב פפא לא מתני הכי ובי רב זביד לא מתני הכי אפ"ה לא קיבלה מיניה משום דשמיע ליה מרב זביד דנהרדעא,ת"ר ממזירי ונתיני טהורים לעתיד לבא דברי ר' יוסי ר' מאיר אומר אין טהורים אמר לו ר' יוסי והלא כבר נאמר (יחזקאל לו, כה) וזרקתי עליכם מים טהורים וטהרתם אמר לו ר' מאיר כשהוא אומר מכל טומאותיכם ומכל גלוליכם ולא מן הממזרות אמר לו ר' יוסי כשהוא אומר אטהר אתכם הוי אומר אף מן הממזרות,בשלמא לרבי מאיר היינו דכתיב (זכריה ט, ו) וישב ממזר באשדוד אלא לר' יוסי מאי וישב ממזר באשדוד כדמתרגם רב יוסף יתבון בית ישראל לרוחצן בארעהון דהוו דמו בה לנוכראין,אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל הלכה כרבי יוסי אמר רב יוסף אי לאו דאמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל הלכה כרבי יוסי הוה אתי אליהו מפיק מינן צוורני צוורני קולרין,ת"ר גר נושא ממזרת דברי ר' יוסי ר' יהודה אומר גר לא ישא ממזרת אחד גר אחד עבד משוחרר וחלל מותרים בכהנת מ"ט דרבי יוסי חמשה קהלי כתיבי | 72b. bToday he is sitting in the lap of Abrahamour forefather, since he has just been circumcised. He added: bToday Rav Yehuda was born in Babylonia. /b,The Gemara comments: bAs the Master said: While Rabbi Akiva was dying, RabbiYehuda HaNasi bwas born; while RabbiYehuda HaNasi bwas dying, Rav Yehuda was born; while Rav Yehuda was dying, Rava was born; while Rava was dying, Rav Ashi was born.This bteaches you that a righteous person does not leave the world before an equally righteous person is created, as it is stated: “The sun also rises and the sun also sets”(Ecclesiastes 1:5). The same applies to earlier generations: bBefore Eli’s sun had gone out, Samuel the Ramathite’s sun wasalready brising, as it is stated: “And the lamp of God was not yet gone out, and Samuel was lyingin the Temple of the Lord” (I Samuel 3:3), which teaches that Samuel was already prophesying in the days of Eli.,The Gemara stated above that Homanya is an Ammonite city. The verse states: b“The Lord has commanded concerning Jacob, that they that are round about him should be his adversaries”(Lamentations 1:17), indicating that the Jewish people are surrounded by enemies even in its exile. bRav Yehuda says: Homanyais close to bPum Nahara,which had Jewish residents.,The verse states: b“And it came to pass, when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice, and said: Ah Lord God!”(Ezekiel 11:13). bRav and Shmueldisagreed with regard to the meaning of this verse. bOne saidit should be interpreted bfor good, and one saidit should be interpreted bfor evil.How so? bThe one who saysthat it should be interpreted bfor goodclaims it is blike thatstory involving bthe governor [ ide’istandera /i]of the province bof Meishan, who was the son-in-law of Nebuchadnezzar. He senta message btohis father-in-law: bFrom all those captives you have brought for yourselffrom your wars byou have not sent usanyone bto stand before us. /b,Nebuchadnezzar bwanted to send himcaptives bfrom the Jewsto serve his son-in-law. bPelatiah, son of Benaiah, said toNebuchadnezzar: bWe, who are important, shall standand serve bbefore you here, and our slaves will go there,to your son-in-law. Nebuchadnezzar took his advice. bAndabout him the prophet bEzekiel said: One who didthis bgood for the Jewish people,i.e., Pelatiah ben Benaiah, who spared them this exile, should he bdie at halfof bhis days? /b, bThe one who saysthat the verse should be interpreted bfor evilcites the following verse, bas it is written: “Then a spirit lifted me up, and brought me unto the east gate of the Lord’s House, which looked eastward; and behold, at the door of the gate five and twenty men; and I saw in the midst of them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people”(Ezekiel 11:1), band it is written: “And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s House, and, behold, at the door of the Temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the Temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east”(Ezekiel 8:16).,The second verse is analyzed in light of the first verse, which states that Pelatiah ben Benaiah was among the twenty-five people: bFrom thefact that bit is stated: “And their faces toward the east,” don’t I know that their backs were toward the west,where the Temple was? bWhatis the meaning when bthe verse states: “Their backs toward the Temple of the Lord”?These words hint at another matter, as the verse bteaches that they exposed themselvesfrom behind band dischargedexcrement btowardthe One babove,in the direction of the Temple. bAndthe bprophet is saying:Shall bhe who did this evil in Israel diepeacefully bon his bed? /b,The Gemara comments: bIt may be concludedthat it was bShmuelwho bsaidthis was bfor evil, as Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Avin saysthat bShmuel says: Mushekanei is like the exile with regard to lineage.And even with regard to bMishon, they were not concerned due to slavery nor due to imamzerstatus. Rather, the priests who were there were not particular with regard tothe prohibition against priests marrying bdivorced women.Consequently, Shmuel maintains that the only flaw of lineage in Mishon was that of iḥalalim /i, whereas the opinion that the verse was stated for good maintains that the some of the residents of Mishon were slaves.,The Gemara rejects this: bActually, Icould bsay to youthat bShmuel saidit was bfor good, andthere is no contradiction, since bShmuelconforms bto hisstandard line of breasoning, as he says:With regard to one bwho renounces ownership of his slave,the slave bis emancipated and he does noteven brequire a bill of manumission.Shmuel cited a proof from that bwhich is stated:“But bevery slave man that is bought for money”(Exodus 12:44). Does this apply only to ba slavewho is ba man, and not to a woman slave? Rather,it means: The slave of a man, i.e., ba slave whose master has authorityand control bover him, is called a slave,since he is the slave of a particular man. bA slave whose master does not have authority over him,such as one who has been declared ownerless, bis not called a slavebut a freeman. The slaves who went to Mishon no longer had the status of slaves because their masters remained behind., bRav Yehuda saysthat bShmuel says: Thismishna, which indicates that only the inhabitants of Babylonia have unflawed lineage, is bthe statement of Rabbi Meir. But the Rabbis say: All lands retain a presumptive status of unflawedlineage.,The Gemara comments: bAmeimar permitted Rav Huna bar Natan to marry a woman from Meḥoza,which is outside the borders of Babylonia as pertains to lineage. bRav Ashi said toAmeimar: bWhat is your reasoningin allowing him to do so? Is it because bRav Yehuda saysthat bShmuel says: Thisis bthe statement of Rabbi Meir, but the Rabbis say all lands retain a presumptive status of unflawedlineage. The ihalakhafollows the opinion of the Rabbis, bbut the school of Rav Kahana did not teach like this, and the school of Rav Pappa did not teach like this, and the school of Rav Zevid did not teach like this.The Gemara comments: bNevertheless,despite hearing of all these reports, Ameimar bdid not accept this ihalakhafrom him, because he had heard this ihalakhadirectly from bRav Zevid of Neharde’a,upon whom he relied., bThe Sages taught( iTosefta5:5): iMamzerimand Gibeoniteswill be bpure in the future;this is bthe statement of Rabbi Yosei. Rabbi Meir says: Theywill bnotbe bpure. Rabbi Yosei said to him: But hasn’t it already been stated: “And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleanfrom all your uncleanness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you” (Ezekiel 36:25)? bRabbi Meir said to him: When it says: “From all your uncleanness, and from all your idols,”this emphasizes that God will purify people from these types of impurity, bbut not from imamzerstatus. Rabbi Yosei said to him: When it says: “Will I cleanse you,”at the end of the verse, byou must saythis means beven from imamzerstatus. /b,The Gemara comments: bGranted, according to Rabbi Meir,who maintains that imamzerimwill not be purified, bthis is as it is written: “And a imamzershall dwell in Ashdod”(Zechariah 9:6), indicating that they will have their own isolated living area. bBut according to Rabbi Yosei, whatis the meaning of the phrase b“And a imamzershall dwell in Ashdod”?The Gemara answers: He understands that verse bas Rav Yosef would translateit: bThe Jewish people shall dwell in tranquility in their land, where they wereformerly blike strangers,reading imamzeras ime’am zar /i, from a strange people., bRav Yehuda saysthat bShmuel says:The ihalakha /iis bin accordance withthe opinion of bRabbi Yosei,that imamzerimand Gibeonites will be pure in the future. bRav Yosef says: If it were notfor the fact that bRav Yehuda saidthat bShmuel saidthat the ihalakha /iis bin accordance withthe opinion of bRabbi Yosei, Elijah would comeand bremove from us group after groupof bforbidden people [ ikolarin /i],since he would reveal how many imamzerimthere are among the Jewish people., bThe Sages taught( iTosefta5:3): bA convert may marry a imamzeret /i iab initio /i; this is bthe statement of Rabbi Yosei. Rabbi Yehuda says: A convert may not marry a imamzeret /i. A convert, an emancipated slave, and a iḥalalareall bpermitted tomarry bthe daughter of a priest.The Gemara asks: bWhat is the reason of Rabbi Yosei,who deems it permitted for a convert to marry a imamzeret /i? The Gemara answers: bFive congregations are written,meaning, the word congregation appears five times in the Torah with regard to various people of flawed lineage who are prohibited from entering the congregation of God. |
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35. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of The Philosophers, 7.50 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 7.50. There is a difference between the process and the outcome of presentation. The latter is a semblance in the mind such as may occur in sleep, while the former is the act of imprinting something on the soul, that is a process of change, as is set forth by Chrysippus in the second book of his treatise of the Soul (De anima). For, says he, we must not take impression in the literal sense of the stamp of a seal, because it is impossible to suppose that a number of such impressions should be in one and the same spot at one and the same time. The presentation meant is that which comes from a real object, agrees with that object, and has been stamped, imprinted and pressed seal-fashion on the soul, as would not be the case if it came from an unreal object. |
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36. Iamblichus, Concerning The Mysteries, 5.19 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
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37. Origen, Commentary On John, 20 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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38. Origen, Commentary On Matthew, 15 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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39. Origen, Against Celsus, 2.60 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 2.60. In the next place, as if this were possible, viz., that the image of a man who was dead could appear to another as if he were still living, he adopts this opinion as an Epicurean, and says, That some one having so dreamed owing to a peculiar state of mind, or having, under the influence of a perverted imagination, formed such an appearance as he himself desired, reported that such had been seen; and this, he continues, has been the case with numberless individuals. But even if this statement of his seems to have a considerable degree of force, it is nevertheless only fitted to confirm a necessary doctrine, that the soul of the dead exists in a separate state (from the body); and he who adopts such an opinion does not believe without good reason in the immortality, or at least continued existence, of the soul, as even Plato says in his treatise on the Soul that shadowy phantoms of persons already dead have appeared to some around their sepulchres. Now the phantoms which exist about the soul of the dead are produced by some substance, and this substance is in the soul, which exists apart in a body said to be of splendid appearance. But Celsus, unwilling to admit any such view, will have it that some dreamed a waking dream, and, under the influence of a perverted imagination, formed to themselves such an image as they desired. Now it is not irrational to believe that a dream may take place while one is asleep; but to suppose a waking vision in the case of those who are not altogether out of their senses, and under the influence of delirium or hypochondria, is incredible. And Celsus, seeing this, called the woman half-mad,- a statement which is not made by the history recording the fact, but from which he took occasion to charge the occurrences with being untrue. |
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40. Augustine, Confessions, 7.17.23 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
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41. Augustine, The City of God, 11.13, 20.9, 22.8, 22.29 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
| 11.13. From all this, it will readily occur to any one that the blessedness which an intelligent being desires as its legitimate object results from a combination of these two things, namely, that it uninterruptedly enjoy the unchangeable good, which is God; and that it be delivered from all dubiety, and know certainly that it shall eternally abide in the same enjoyment. That it is so with the angels of light we piously believe; but that the fallen angels, who by their own default lost that light, did not enjoy this blessedness even before they sinned, reason bids us conclude. Yet if their life was of any duration before they fell, we must allow them a blessedness of some kind, though not that which is accompanied with foresight. Or, if it seems hard to believe that, when the angels were created, some were created in ignorance either of their perseverance or their fall, while others were most certainly assured of the eternity of their felicity - if it is hard to believe that they were not all from the beginning on an equal footing, until these who are now evil did of their own will fall away from the light of goodness, certainly it is much harder to believe that the holy angels are now uncertain of their eternal blessedness, and do not know regarding themselves as much as we have been able to gather regarding them from the Holy Scriptures. For what Catholic Christian does not know that no new devil will ever arise among the good angels, as he knows that this present devil will never again return into the fellowship of the good? For the truth in the gospel promises to the saints and the faithful that they will be equal to the angels of God; and it is also promised them that they will go away into life eternal. Matthew 25:46 But if we are certain that we shall never lapse from eternal felicity, while they are not certain, then we shall not be their equals, but their superiors. But as the truth never deceives, and as we shall be their equals, they must be certain of their blessedness. And because the evil angels could not be certain of that, since their blessedness was destined to come to an end, it follows either that the angels were unequal, or that, if equal, the good angels were assured of the eternity of their blessedness after the perdition of the others; unless, possibly, some one may say that the words of the Lord about the devil He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, John 8:44 are to be understood as if he was not only a murderer from the beginning of the human race, when man, whom he could kill by his deceit, was made, but also that he did not abide in the truth from the time of his own creation, and was accordingly never blessed with the holy angels, but refused to submit to his Creator, and proudly exulted as if in a private lordship of his own, and was thus deceived and deceiving. For the dominion of the Almighty cannot be eluded; and he who will not piously submit himself to things as they are, proudly feigns, and mocks himself with a state of things that does not exist; so that what the blessed Apostle John says thus becomes intelligible: The devil sins from the beginning, 1 John 3:8 - that is, from the time he was created he refused righteousness, which none but a will piously subject to God can enjoy. Whoever adopts this opinion at least disagrees with those heretics the Manichees, and with any other pestilential sect that may suppose that the devil has derived from some adverse evil principle a nature proper to himself. These persons are so befooled by error, that, although they acknowledge with ourselves the authority of the gospels, they do not notice that the Lord did not say, The devil was naturally a stranger to the truth, but The devil abode not in the truth, by which He meant us to understand that he had fallen from the truth, in which, if he had abode, he would have become a partaker of it, and have remained in blessedness along with the holy angels. 20.9. But while the devil is bound, the saints reign with Christ during the same thousand years, understood in the same way, that is, of the time of His first coming. For, leaving out of account that kingdom concerning which He shall say in the end, Come, you blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you, Matthew 25:34 the Church could not now be called His kingdom or the kingdom of heaven unless His saints were even now reigning with Him, though in another and far different way; for to His saints He says, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Matthew 28:20 Certainly it is in this present time that the scribe well instructed in the kingdom of God, and of whom we have already spoken, brings forth from his treasure things new and old. And from the Church those reapers shall gather out the tares which He suffered to grow with the wheat till the harvest, as He explains in the words The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered together and burned with fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all offenses. Matthew 13:39-41 Can He mean out of that kingdom in which are no offenses? Then it must be out of His present kingdom, the Church, that they are gathered. So He says, He that breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but he that does and teaches thus shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19 He speaks of both as being in the kingdom of heaven, both the man who does not perform the commandments which He teaches - for to break means not to keep, not to perform - and the man who does and teaches as He did; but the one He calls least, the other great. And He immediately adds, For I say unto you, that unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees,- that is, the righteousness of those who break what they teach; for of the scribes and Pharisees He elsewhere says, For they say and do not; Matthew 23:3 - unless therefore, your righteousness exceed theirs that is, so that you do not break but rather do what you teach, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20 We must understand in one sense the kingdom of heaven in which exist together both he who breaks what he teaches and he who does it, the one being least, the other great, and in another sense the kingdom of heaven into which only he who does what he teaches shall enter. Consequently, where both classes exist, it is the Church as it now is, but where only the one shall exist, it is the Church as it is destined to be when no wicked person shall be in her. Therefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, and the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him, though otherwise than as they shall reign hereafter; and yet, though the tares grow in the Church along with the wheat, they do not reign with Him. For they reign with Him who do what the apostle says, If you be risen with Christ, mind the things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Seek those things which are above, not the things which are on the earth. Colossians 3:1-2 of such persons he also says that their conversation is in heaven. Philippians 3:20 In fine, they reign with Him who are so in His kingdom that they themselves are His kingdom. But in what sense are those the kingdom of Christ who, to say no more, though they are in it until all offenses are gathered out of it at the end of the world, yet seek their own things in it, and not the things that are Christ's? Philippians 2:21 It is then of this kingdom militant, in which conflict with the enemy is still maintained, and war carried on with warring lusts, or government laid upon them as they yield, until we come to that most peaceful kingdom in which we shall reign without an enemy, and it is of this first resurrection in the present life, that the Apocalypse speaks in the words just quoted. For, after saying that the devil is bound a thousand years and is afterwards loosed for a short season, it goes on to give a sketch of what the Church does or of what is done in the Church in those days, in the words, And I saw seats and them that sat upon them, and judgment was given. It is not to be supposed that this refers to the last judgment, but to the seats of the rulers and to the rulers themselves by whom the Church is now governed. And no better interpretation of judgment being given can be produced than that which we have in the words, What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Matthew 18:18 Whence the apostle says, What have I to do with judging them that are without? Do you not judge them that are within? 1 Corinthians 5:12 And the souls, says John, of those who were slain for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God,- understanding what he afterwards says, reigned with Christ a thousand years, Revelation 20:4 - that is, the souls of the martyrs not yet restored to their bodies. For the souls of the pious dead are not separated from the Church, which even now is the kingdom of Christ; otherwise there would be no remembrance made of them at the altar of God in the partaking of the body of Christ, nor would it do any good in danger to run to His baptism, that we might not pass from this life without it; nor to reconciliation, if by penitence or a bad conscience any one may be severed from His body. For why are these things practised, if not because the faithful, even though dead, are His members? Therefore, while these thousand years run on, their souls reign with Him, though not as yet in conjunction with their bodies. And therefore in another part of this same book we read, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth and now, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; for their works do follow them. Revelation 14:13 The Church, then, begins its reign with Christ now in the living and in the dead. For, as the apostle says, Christ died that He might be Lord both of the living and of the dead. Romans 14:9 But he mentioned the souls of the martyrs only, because they who have contended even to death for the truth, themselves principally reign after death; but, taking the part for the whole, we understand the words of all others who belong to the Church, which is the kingdom of Christ. As to the words following, And if any have not worshipped the beast nor his image, nor have received his inscription on their forehead, or on their hand, we must take them of both the living and the dead. And what this beast is, though it requires a more careful investigation, yet it is not inconsistent with the true faith to understand it of the ungodly city itself, and the community of unbelievers set in opposition to the faithful people and the city of God. His image seems to me to mean his simulation, to wit, in those men who profess to believe, but live as unbelievers. For they pretend to be what they are not, and are called Christians, not from a true likeness but from a deceitful image. For to this beast belong not only the avowed enemies of the name of Christ and His most glorious city, but also the tares which are to be gathered out of His kingdom, the Church, in the end of the world. And who are they who do not worship the beast and his image, if not those who do what the apostle says, Be not yoked with unbelievers? 2 Corinthians 6:14 For such do not worship, i.e., do not consent, are not subjected; neither do they receive the inscription, the brand of crime, on their forehead by their profession, on their hand by their practice. They, then, who are free from these pollutions, whether they still live in this mortal flesh, or are dead, reign with Christ even now, through this whole interval which is indicated by the thousand years, in a fashion suited to this time. The rest of them, he says, did not live. For now is the hour when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live; and the rest of them shall not live. The words added, until the thousand years are finished, mean that they did not live in the time in which they ought to have lived by passing from death to life. And therefore, when the day of the bodily resurrection arrives, they shall come out of their graves, not to life, but to judgment, namely, to damnation, which is called the second death. For whosoever has not lived until the thousand years be finished, i.e., during this whole time in which the first resurrection is going on - whosoever has not heard the voice of the Son of God, and passed from death to life - that man shall certainly in the second resurrection, the resurrection of the flesh, pass with his flesh into the second death. For he goes to say This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection, or who experiences it. Now he experiences it who not only revives from the death of sin, but continues in this renewed life. In these the second death has no power. Therefore it has power in the rest, of whom he said above, The rest of them did not live until the thousand years were finished; for in this whole intervening time called a thousand years, however lustily they lived in the body, they were not quickened to life out of that death in which their wickedness held them, so that by this revived life they should become partakers of the first resurrection, and so the second death should have no power over them. 22.8. Why, they say, are those miracles, which you affirm were wrought formerly, wrought no longer? I might, indeed, reply that miracles were necessary before the world believed, in order that it might believe. And whoever now-a-days demands to see prodigies that he may believe, is himself a great prodigy, because he does not believe, though the whole world does. But they make these objections for the sole purpose of insinuating that even those former miracles were never wrought. How, then, is it that everywhere Christ is celebrated with such firm belief in His resurrection and ascension? How is it that in enlightened times, in which every impossibility is rejected, the world has, without any miracles, believed things marvellously incredible? Or will they say that these things were credible, and therefore were credited? Why then do they themselves not believe? Our argument, therefore, is a summary one - either incredible things which were not witnessed have caused the world to believe other incredible things which both occurred and were witnessed, or this matter was so credible that it needed no miracles in proof of it, and therefore convicts these unbelievers of unpardonable scepticism. This I might say for the sake of refuting these most frivolous objectors. But we cannot deny that many miracles were wrought to confirm that one grand and health-giving miracle of Christ's ascension to heaven with the flesh in which He rose. For these most trustworthy books of ours contain in one narrative both the miracles that were wrought and the creed which they were wrought to confirm. The miracles were published that they might produce faith, and the faith which they produced brought them into greater prominence. For they are read in congregations that they may be believed, and yet they would not be so read unless they were believed. For even now miracles are wrought in the name of Christ, whether by His sacraments or by the prayers or relics of His saints; but they are not so brilliant and conspicuous as to cause them to be published with such glory as accompanied the former miracles. For the canon of the sacred writings, which behooved to be closed, causes those to be everywhere recited, and to sink into the memory of all the congregations; but these modern miracles are scarcely known even to the whole population in the midst of which they are wrought, and at the best are confined to one spot. For frequently they are known only to a very few persons, while all the rest are ignorant of them, especially if the state is a large one; and when they are reported to other persons in other localities, there is no sufficient authority to give them prompt and unwavering credence, although they are reported to the faithful by the faithful. The miracle which was wrought at Milan when I was there, and by which a blind man was restored to sight, could come to the knowledge of many; for not only is the city a large one, but also the emperor was there at the time, and the occurrence was witnessed by an immense concourse of people that had gathered to the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius, which had long lain concealed and unknown, but were now made known to the bishop Ambrose in a dream, and discovered by him. By virtue of these remains the darkness of that blind man was scattered, and he saw the light of day. But who but a very small number are aware of the cure which was wrought upon Innocentius, ex-advocate of the deputy prefecture, a cure wrought at Carthage, in my presence, and under my own eyes? For when I and my brother Alypius, who were not yet clergymen, though already servants of God, came from abroad, this man received us, and made us live with him, for he and all his household were devotedly pious. He was being treated by medical men for fistul, of which he had a large number intricately seated in the rectum. He had already undergone an operation, and the surgeons were using every means at their command for his relief. In that operation he had suffered long-continued and acute pain; yet, among the many folds of the gut, one had escaped the operators so entirely, that, though they ought to have laid it open with the knife, they never touched it. And thus, though all those that had been opened were cured, this one remained as it was, and frustrated all their labor. The patient, having his suspicions awakened by the delay thus occasioned, and fearing greatly a second operation, which another medical man - one of his own domestics - had told him he must undergo, though this man had not even been allowed to witness the first operation, and had been banished from the house, and with difficulty allowed to come back to his enraged master's presence - the patient, I say, broke out to the surgeons, saying, Are you going to cut me again? Are you, after all, to fulfill the prediction of that man whom you would not allow even to be present? The surgeons laughed at the unskillful doctor, and soothed their patient's fears with fair words and promises. So several days passed, and yet nothing they tried did him good. Still they persisted in promising that they would cure that fistula by drugs, without the knife. They called in also another old practitioner of great repute in that department, Ammonius (for he was still alive at that time); and he, after examining the part, promised the same result as themselves from their care and skill. On this great authority, the patient became confident, and, as if already well, vented his good spirits in facetious remarks at the expense of his domestic physician, who had predicted a second operation. To make a long story short, after a number of days had thus uselessly elapsed, the surgeons, wearied and confused, had at last to confess that he could only be cured by the knife. Agitated with excessive fear, he was terrified, and grew pale with dread; and when he collected himself and was able to speak, he ordered them to go away and never to return. Worn out with weeping, and driven by necessity, it occurred to him to call in an Alexandrian, who was at that time esteemed a wonderfully skillful operator, that he might perform the operation his rage would not suffer them to do. But when he had come, and examined with a professional eye the traces of their careful work, he acted the part of a good man, and persuaded his patient to allow those same hands the satisfaction of finishing his cure which had begun it with a skill that excited his admiration, adding that there was no doubt his only hope of a cure was by an operation, but that it was thoroughly inconsistent with his nature to win the credit of the cure by doing the little that remained to be done, and rob of their reward men whose consummate skill, care, and diligence he could not but admire when be saw the traces of their work. They were therefore again received to favor; and it was agreed that, in the presence of the Alexandrian, they should operate on the fistula, which, by the consent of all, could now only be cured by the knife. The operation was deferred till the following day. But when they had left, there arose in the house such a wailing, in sympathy with the excessive despondency of the master, that it seemed to us like the mourning at a funeral, and we could scarcely repress it. Holy men were in the habit of visiting him daily; Saturninus of blessed memory, at that time bishop of Uzali, and the presbyter Gelosus, and the deacons of the church of Carthage; and among these was the bishop Aurelius, who alone of them all survives - a man to be named by us with due reverence - and with him I have often spoken of this affair, as we conversed together about the wonderful works of God, and I have found that he distinctly remembers what I am now relating. When these persons visited him that evening according to their custom, he besought them, with pitiable tears, that they would do him the honor of being present next day at what he judged his funeral rather than his suffering. For such was the terror his former pains had produced, that he made no doubt he would die in the hands of the surgeons. They comforted him, and exhorted him to put his trust in God, and nerve his will like a man. Then we went to prayer; but while we, in the usual way, were kneeling and bending to the ground, he cast himself down, as if some one were hurling him violently to the earth, and began to pray; but in what a manner, with what earnestness and emotion, with what a flood of tears, with what groans and sobs, that shook his whole body, and almost prevented him speaking, who can describe! Whether the others prayed, and had not their attention wholly diverted by this conduct, I do not know. For myself, I could not pray at all. This only I briefly said in my heart: O Lord, what prayers of Your people do You hear if You hear not these? For it seemed to me that nothing could be added to this prayer, unless he expired in praying. We rose from our knees, and, receiving the blessing of the bishop, departed, the patient beseeching his visitors to be present next morning, they exhorting him to keep up his heart. The dreaded day dawned. The servants of God were present, as they had promised to be; the surgeons arrived; all that the circumstances required was ready; the frightful instruments are produced; all look on in wonder and suspense. While those who have most influence with the patient are cheering his fainting spirit, his limbs are arranged on the couch so as to suit the hand of the operator; the knots of the bandages are untied; the part is bared; the surgeon examines it, and, with knife in hand, eagerly looks for the sinus that is to be cut. He searches for it with his eyes; he feels for it with his finger; he applies every kind of scrutiny: he finds a perfectly firm cicatrix! No words of mine can describe the joy, and praise, and thanksgiving to the merciful and almighty God which was poured from the lips of all, with tears of gladness. Let the scene be imagined rather than described! In the same city of Carthage lived Innocentia, a very devout woman of the highest rank in the state. She had cancer in one of her breasts, a disease which, as physicians say, is incurable. Ordinarily, therefore, they either amputate, and so separate from the body the member on which the disease has seized, or, that the patient's life may be prolonged a little, though death is inevitable even if somewhat delayed, they abandon all remedies, following, as they say, the advice of Hippocrates. This the lady we speak of had been advised to by a skillful physician, who was intimate with her family; and she betook herself to God alone by prayer. On the approach of Easter, she was instructed in a dream to wait for the first woman that came out from the baptistery after being baptized, and to ask her to make the sign of Christ upon her sore. She did so, and was immediately cured. The physician who had advised her to apply no remedy if she wished to live a little longer, when he had examined her after this, and found that she who, on his former examination, was afflicted with that disease was now perfectly cured, eagerly asked her what remedy she had used, anxious, as we may well believe, to discover the drug which should defeat the decision of Hippocrates. But when she told him what had happened, he is said to have replied, with religious politeness, though with a contemptuous tone, and an expression which made her fear he would utter some blasphemy against Christ, I thought you would make some great discovery to me. She, shuddering at his indifference, quickly replied, What great thing was it for Christ to heal a cancer, who raised one who had been four days dead? When, therefore, I had heard this, I was extremely indigt that so great a miracle wrought in that well-known city, and on a person who was certainly not obscure, should not be divulged, and I considered that she should be spoken to, if not reprimanded on this score. And when she replied to me that she had not kept silence on the subject, I asked the women with whom she was best acquainted whether they had ever heard of this before. They told me they knew nothing of it. See, I said, what your not keeping silence amounts to, since not even those who are so familiar with you know of it. And as I had only briefly heard the story, I made her tell how the whole thing happened, from beginning to end, while the other women listened in great astonishment, and glorified God. A gouty doctor of the same city, when he had given in his name for baptism, and had been prohibited the day before his baptism from being baptized that year, by black woolly-haired boys who appeared to him in his dreams, and whom he understood to be devils, and when, though they trod on his feet, and inflicted the acutest pain he had ever yet experienced, he refused to obey them, but overcame them, and would not defer being washed in the laver of regeneration, was relieved in the very act of baptism, not only of the extraordinary pain he was tortured with, but also of the disease itself, so that, though he lived a long time afterwards, he never suffered from gout; and yet who knows of this miracle? We, however, do know it, and so, too, do the small number of brethren who were in the neighborhood, and to whose ears it might come. An old comedian of Curubis was cured at baptism not only of paralysis, but also of hernia, and, being delivered from both afflictions, came up out of the font of regeneration as if he had had nothing wrong with his body. Who outside of Curubis knows of this, or who but a very few who might hear it elsewhere? But we, when we heard of it, made the man come to Carthage, by order of the holy bishop Aurelius, although we had already ascertained the fact on the information of persons whose word we could not doubt. Hesperius, of a tribunitian family, and a neighbor of our own, has a farm called Zubedi in the Fussalian district; and, finding that his family, his cattle, and his servants were suffering from the malice of evil spirits, he asked our presbyters, during my absence, that one of them would go with him and banish the spirits by his prayers. One went, offered there the sacrifice of the body of Christ, praying with all his might that that vexation might cease. It did cease immediately, through God's mercy. Now he had received from a friend of his own some holy earth brought from Jerusalem, where Christ, having been buried, rose again the third day. This earth he had hung up in his bedroom to preserve himself from harm. But when his house was purged of that demoniacal invasion, he began to consider what should be done with the earth; for his reverence for it made him unwilling to have it any longer in his bedroom. It so happened that I and Maximinus bishop of Synita, and then my colleague, were in the neighborhood. Hesperius asked us to visit him, and we did so. When he had related all the circumstances, he begged that the earth might be buried somewhere, and that the spot should be made a place of prayer where Christians might assemble for the worship of God. We made no objection: it was done as he desired. There was in that neighborhood a young countryman who was paralytic, who, when he heard of this, begged his parents to take him without delay to that holy place. When he had been brought there, he prayed, and immediately went away on his own feet perfectly cured. There is a country-seat called Victoriana, less than thirty miles from Hippo-regius. At it there is a monument to the Milanese martyrs, Protasius and Gervasius. Thither a young man was carried, who, when he was watering his horse one summer day at noon in a pool of a river, had been taken possession of by a devil. As he lay at the monument, near death, or even quite like a dead person, the lady of the manor, with her maids and religious attendants, entered the place for evening prayer and praise, as her custom was, and they began to sing hymns. At this sound the young man, as if electrified, was thoroughly aroused, and with frightful screaming seized the altar, and held it as if he did not dare or were not able to let it go, and as if he were fixed or tied to it; and the devil in him, with loud lamentation, besought that he might be spared, and confessed where and when and how he took possession of the youth. At last, declaring that he would go out of him, he named one by one the parts of his body which he threatened to mutilate as he went out and with these words he departed from the man. But his eye, falling out on his cheek, hung by a slender vein as by a root, and the whole of the pupil which had been black became white. When this was witnessed by those present (others too had now gathered to his cries, and had all joined in prayer for him), although they were delighted that he had recovered his sanity of mind, yet, on the other hand, they were grieved about his eye, and said he should seek medical advice. But his sister's husband, who had brought him there, said, God, who has banished the devil, is able to restore his eye at the prayers of His saints. Therewith he replaced the eye that was fallen out and hanging, and bound it in its place with his handkerchief as well as he could, and advised him not to loose the bandage for seven days. When he did so, he found it quite healthy. Others also were cured there, but of them it were tedious to speak. I know that a young woman of Hippo was immediately dispossessed of a devil, on anointing herself with oil, mixed with the tears of the prebsyter who had been praying for her. I know also that a bishop once prayed for a demoniac young man whom he never saw, and that he was cured on the spot. There was a fellow-townsman of ours at Hippo, Florentius, an old man, religious and poor, who supported himself as a tailor. Having lost his coat, and not having means to buy another, he prayed to the Twenty Martyrs, who have a very celebrated memorial shrine in our town, begging in a distinct voice that he might be clothed. Some scoffing young men, who happened to be present, heard him, and followed him with their sarcasm as he went away, as if he had asked the martyrs for fifty pence to buy a coat. But he, walking on in silence, saw on the shore a great fish, gasping as if just cast up, and having secured it with the good-natured assistance of the youths, he sold it for curing to a cook of the name of Catosus, a good Christian man, telling him how he had come by it, and receiving for it three hundred pence, which he laid out in wool, that his wife might exercise her skill upon, and make into a coat for him. But, on cutting up the fish, the cook found a gold ring in its belly; and immediately, moved with compassion, and influenced, too, by religious fear, gave it up to the man, saying, See how the Twenty Martyrs have clothed you. When the bishop Projectus was bringing the relics of the most glorious martyr Stephen to the waters of Tibilis, a great concourse of people came to meet him at the shrine. There a blind woman entreated that she might be led to the bishop who was carrying the relics. He gave her the flowers he was carrying. She took them, applied them to her eyes, and immediately saw. Those who were present were astounded, while she, with every expression of joy, preceded them, pursuing her way without further need of a guide. Lucillus bishop of Sinita, in the neighborhood of the colonial town of Hippo, was carrying in procession some relics of the same martyr, which had been deposited in the castle of Sinita. A fistula under which he had long labored, and which his private physician was watching an opportunity to cut, was suddenly cured by the mere carrying of that sacred fardel, - at least, afterwards there was no trace of it in his body. Eucharius, a Spanish priest, residing at Calama, was for a long time a sufferer from stone. By the relics of the same martyr, which the bishop Possidius brought him, he was cured. Afterwards the same priest, sinking under another disease, was lying dead, and already they were binding his hands. By the succor of the same martyr he was raised to life, the priest's cloak having been brought from the oratory and laid upon the corpse. There was there an old nobleman named Martial, who had a great aversion to the Christian religion, but whose daughter was a Christian, while her husband had been baptized that same year. When he was ill, they besought him with tears and prayers to become a Christian, but he positively refused, and dismissed them from his presence in a storm of indignation. It occurred to the son-in-law to go to the oratory of St. Stephen, and there pray for him with all earnestness that God might give him a right mind, so that he should not delay believing in Christ. This he did with great groaning and tears, and the burning fervor of sincere piety; then, as he left the place, he took some of the flowers that were lying there, and, as it was already night, laid them by his father's head, who so slept. And lo! Before dawn, he cries out for some one to run for the bishop; but he happened at that time to be with me at Hippo. So when he had heard that he was from home, he asked the presbyters to come. They came. To the joy and amazement of all, he declared that he believed, and he was baptized. As long as he remained in life, these words were ever on his lips: Christ, receive my spirit, though he was not aware that these were the last words of the most blessed Stephen when he was stoned by the Jews. They were his last words also, for not long after he himself also gave up the ghost. There, too, by the same martyr, two men, one a citizen, the other a stranger, were cured of gout; but while the citizen was absolutely cured, the stranger was only informed what he should apply when the pain returned; and when he followed this advice, the pain was at once relieved. Audurus is the name of an estate, where there is a church that contains a memorial shrine of the martyr Stephen. It happened that, as a little boy was playing in the court, the oxen drawing a wagon went out of the track and crushed him with the wheel, so that immediately he seemed at his last gasp. His mother snatched him up, and laid him at the shrine, and not only did he revive, but also appeared uninjured. A religious female, who lived at Caspalium, a neighboring estate, when she was so ill as to be despaired of, had her dress brought to this shrine, but before it was brought back she had gone. However, her parents wrapped her corpse in the dress, and, her breath returning, she became quite well. At Hippo a Syrian called Bassus was praying at the relics of the same martyr for his daughter, who was dangerously ill. He too had brought her dress with him to the shrine. But as he prayed, behold, his servants ran from the house to tell him she was dead. His friends, however, intercepted them, and forbade them to tell him, lest he should bewail her in public. And when he had returned to his house, which was already ringing with the lamentations of his family, and had thrown on his daughter's body the dress he was carrying, she was restored to life. There, too, the son of a man, Iren us, one of our tax-gatherers, took ill and died. And while his body was lying lifeless, and the last rites were being prepared, amidst the weeping and mourning of all, one of the friends who were consoling the father suggested that the body should be anointed with the oil of the same martyr. It was done, and he revived. Likewise Eleusinus, a man of tribunitian rank among us, laid his infant son, who had died, on the shrine of the martyr, which is in the suburb where he lived, and, after prayer, which he poured out there with many tears, he took up his child alive. What am I to do? I am so pressed by the promise of finishing this work, that I cannot record all the miracles I know; and doubtless several of our adherents, when they read what I have narrated, will regret that I have omitted so many which they, as well as I, certainly know. Even now I beg these persons to excuse me, and to consider how long it would take me to relate all those miracles, which the necessity of finishing the work I have undertaken forces me to omit. For were I to be silent of all others, and to record exclusively the miracles of healing which were wrought in the district of Calama and of Hippo by means of this martyr- I mean the most glorious Stephen - they would fill many volumes; and yet all even of these could not be collected, but only those of which narratives have been written for public recital. For when I saw, in our own times, frequent signs of the presence of divine powers similar to those which had been given of old, I desired that narratives might be written, judging that the multitude should not remain ignorant of these things. It is not yet two years since these relics were first brought to Hippo-regius, and though many of the miracles which have been wrought by it have not, as I have the most certain means of knowing, been recorded, those which have been published amount to almost seventy at the hour at which I write. But at Calama, where these relics have been for a longer time, and where more of the miracles were narrated for public information, there are incomparably more. At Uzali, too, a colony near Utica, many signal miracles were, to my knowledge, wrought by the same martyr, whose relics had found a place there by direction of the bishop Evodius, long before we had them at Hippo. But there the custom of publishing narratives does not obtain, or, I should say, did not obtain, for possibly it may now have been begun. For, when I was there recently, a woman of rank, Petronia, had been miraculously cured of a serious illness of long standing, in which all medical appliances had failed, and, with the consent of the above-named bishop of the place, I exhorted her to publish an account of it that might be read to the people. She most promptly obeyed, and inserted in her narrative a circumstance which I cannot omit to mention, though I am compelled to hasten on to the subjects which this work requires me to treat. She said that she had been persuaded by a Jew to wear next her skin, under all her clothes, a hair girdle, and on this girdle a ring, which, instead of a gem, had a stone which had been found in the kidneys of an ox. Girt with this charm, she was making her way to the threshold of the holy martyr. But, after leaving Carthage, and when she had been lodging in her own demesne on the river Bagrada, and was now rising to continue her journey, she saw her ring lying before her feet. In great surprise she examined the hair girdle, and when she found it bound, as it had been, quite firmly with knots, she conjectured that the ring had been worn through and dropped off; but when she found that the ring was itself also perfectly whole, she presumed that by this great miracle she had received somehow a pledge of her cure, whereupon she untied the girdle, and cast it into the river, and the ring along with it. This is not credited by those who do not believe either that the Lord Jesus Christ came forth from His mother's womb without destroying her virginity, and entered among His disciples when the doors were shut; but let them make strict inquiry into this miracle, and if they find it true, let them believe those others. The lady is of distinction, nobly born, married to a nobleman. She resides at Carthage. The city is distinguished, the person is distinguished, so that they who make inquiries cannot fail to find satisfaction. Certainly the martyr himself, by whose prayers she was healed, believed on the Son of her who remained a virgin; on Him who came in among the disciples when the doors were shut; in fine - and to this tends all that we have been retailing - on Him who ascended into heaven with the flesh in which He had risen; and it is because he laid down his life for this faith that such miracles were done by his means. Even now, therefore, many miracles are wrought, the same God who wrought those we read of still performing them, by whom He will and as He will; but they are not as well known, nor are they beaten into the memory, like gravel, by frequent reading, so that they cannot fall out of mind. For even where, as is now done among ourselves, care is taken that the pamphlets of those who receive benefit be read publicly, yet those who are present hear the narrative but once, and many are absent; and so it comes to pass that even those who are present forget in a few days what they heard, and scarcely one of them can be found who will tell what he heard to one who he knows was not present. One miracle was wrought among ourselves, which, though no greater than those I have mentioned, was yet so signal and conspicuous, that I suppose there is no inhabitant of Hippo who did not either see or hear of it, none who could possibly forget it. There were seven brothers and three sisters of a noble family of the Cappadocian C sarea, who were cursed by their mother, a new-made widow, on account of some wrong they had done her, and which she bitterly resented, and who were visited with so severe a punishment from Heaven, that all of them were seized with a hideous shaking in all their limbs. Unable, while presenting this loathsome appearance, to endure the eyes of their fellow citizens, they wandered over almost the whole Roman world, each following his own direction. Two of them came to Hippo, a brother and a sister, Paulus and Palladia, already known in many other places by the fame of their wretched lot. Now it was about fifteen days before Easter when they came, and they came daily to church, and specially to the relics of the most glorious Stephen, praying that God might now be appeased, and restore their former health. There, and wherever they went, they attracted the attention of every one. Some who had seen them elsewhere, and knew the cause of their trembling, told others as occasion offered. Easter arrived, and on the Lord's day, in the morning, when there was now a large crowd present, and the young man was holding the bars of the holy place where the relics were, and praying, suddenly he fell down, and lay precisely as if asleep, but not trembling as he was wont to do even in sleep. All present were astonished. Some were alarmed, some were moved with pity; and while some were for lifting him up, others prevented them, and said they should rather wait and see what would result. And behold! He rose up, and trembled no more, for he was healed, and stood quite well, scanning those who were scanning him. Who then refrained himself from praising God? The whole church was filled with the voices of those who were shouting and congratulating him. Then they came running to me, where I was sitting ready to come into the church. One after another they throng in, the last comer telling me as news what the first had told me already; and while I rejoiced and inwardly gave God thanks, the young man himself also enters, with a number of others, falls at my knees, is raised up to receive my kiss. We go in to the congregation: the church was full, and ringing with the shouts of joy, Thanks to God! Praised be God! every one joining and shouting on all sides, I have healed the people, and then with still louder voice shouting again. Silence being at last obtained, the customary lessons of the divine Scriptures were read. And when I came to my sermon, I made a few remarks suitable to the occasion and the happy and joyful feeling, not desiring them to listen to me, but rather to consider the eloquence of God in this divine work. The man dined with us, and gave us a careful ac count of his own, his mother's, and his family's calamity. Accordingly, on the following day, after delivering my sermon, I promised that next day I would read his narrative to the people. And when I did so, the third day after Easter Sunday, I made the brother and sister both stand on the steps of the raised place from which I used to speak; and while they stood there their pamphlet was read. The whole congregation, men and women alike, saw the one standing without any unnatural movement, the other trembling in all her limbs; so that those who had not before seen the man himself saw in his sister what the divine compassion had removed from him. In him they saw matter of congratulation, in her subject for prayer. Meanwhile, their pamphlet being finished, I instructed them to withdraw from the gaze of the people; and I had begun to discuss the whole matter somewhat more carefully, when lo! As I was proceeding, other voices are heard from the tomb of the martyr, shouting new congratulations. My audience turned round, and began to run to the tomb. The young woman, when she had come down from the steps where she had been standing, went to pray at the holy relics, and no sooner had she touched the bars than she, in the same way as her brother, collapsed, as if falling asleep, and rose up cured. While, then, we were asking what had happened, and what occasioned this noise of joy, they came into the basilica where we were, leading her from the martyr's tomb in perfect health. Then, indeed, such a shout of wonder rose from men and women together, that the exclamations and the tears seemed like never to come to an end. She was led to the place where she had a little before stood trembling. They now rejoiced that she was like her brother, as before they had mourned that she remained unlike him; and as they had not yet uttered their prayers in her behalf, they perceived that their intention of doing so had been speedily heard. They shouted God's praises without words, but with such a noise that our ears could scarcely bear it. What was there in the hearts of these exultant people but the faith of Christ, for which Stephen had shed his blood? 22.29. And now let us consider, with such ability as God may vouchsafe, how the saints shall be employed when they are clothed in immortal and spiritual bodies, and when the flesh shall live no longer in a fleshly but a spiritual fashion. And indeed, to tell the truth, I am at a loss to understand the nature of that employment, or, shall I rather say, repose and ease, for it has never come within the range of my bodily senses. And if I should speak of my mind or understanding, what is our understanding in comparison of its excellence? For then shall be that peace of God which, as the apostle says, passes all understanding, Philippians 4:7 - that is to say, all human, and perhaps all angelic understanding, but certainly not the divine. That it passes ours there is no doubt; but if it passes that of the angels - and he who says all understanding seems to make no exception in their favor - then we must understand him to mean that neither we nor the angels can understand, as God understands, the peace which God Himself enjoys. Doubtless this passes all understanding but His own. But as we shall one day be made to participate, according to our slender capacity, in His peace, both in ourselves, and with our neighbor, and with God our chief good, in this respect the angels understand the peace of God in their own measure, and men too, though now far behind them, whatever spiritual advance they have made. For we must remember how great a man he was who said, We know in part, and we prophesy in part, until that which is perfect has come; 1 Corinthians 13:9-10 and Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12 Such also is now the vision of the holy angels, who are also called our angels, because we, being rescued out of the power of darkness, and receiving the earnest of the Spirit, are translated into the kingdom of Christ, and already begin to belong to those angels with whom we shall enjoy that holy and most delightful city of God of which we have now written so much. Thus, then, the angels of God are our angels, as Christ is God's and also ours. They are God's, because they have not abandoned Him; they are ours, because we are their fellow citizens. The Lord Jesus also said, See that you despise not one of these little ones: for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always see the face of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 18:10 As, then, they see, so shall we also see; but not yet do we thus see. Wherefore the apostle uses the words cited a little ago, Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. This vision is reserved as the reward of our faith; and of it the Apostle John also says, When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2 By the face of God we are to understand His manifestation, and not a part of the body similar to that which in our bodies we call by that name. And so, when I am asked how the saints shall be employed in that spiritual body, I do not say what I see, but I say what I believe, according to that which I read in the psalm, I believed, therefore have I spoken. I say, then, they shall in the body see God; but whether they shall see Him by means of the body, as now we see the sun, moon, stars, sea, earth, and all that is in it, that is a difficult question. For it is hard to say that the saints shall then have such bodies that they shall not be able to shut and open their eyes as they please; while it is harder still to say that every one who shuts his eyes shall lose the vision of God. For if the prophet Elisha, though at a distance, saw his servant Gehazi, who thought that his wickedness would escape his master's observation and accepted gifts from Naaman the Syrian, whom the prophet had cleansed from his foul leprosy, how much more shall the saints in the spiritual body see all things, not only though their eyes be shut, but though they themselves be at a great distance? For then shall be that which is perfect, of which the apostle says, We know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away. Then, that he may illustrate as well as possible, by a simile, how superior the future life is to the life now lived, not only by ordinary men, but even by the foremost of the saints, he says, When I was a child, I understood as a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:11-12 If, then, even in this life, in which the prophetic power of remarkable men is no more worthy to be compared to the vision of the future life than childhood is to manhood, Elisha, though distant from his servant, saw him accepting gifts, shall we say that when that which is perfect has come, and the corruptible body no longer oppresses the soul, but is incorruptible and offers no impediment to it, the saints shall need bodily eyes to see, though Elisha had no need of them to see his servant? For, following the Septuagint version, these are the prophet's words: Did not my heart go with you, when the man came out of his chariot to meet you, and you tooked his gifts? 2 Kings 5:26 Or, as the presbyter Jerome rendered it from the Hebrew, Was not my heart present when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? The prophet said that he saw this with his heart, miraculously aided by God, as no one can doubt. But how much more abundantly shall the saints enjoy this gift when God shall be all in all? Nevertheless the bodily eyes also shall have their office and their place, and shall be used by the spirit through the spiritual body. For the prophet did not forego the use of his eyes for seeing what was before them, though he did not need them to see his absent servant, and though he could have seen these present objects in spirit, and with his eyes shut, as he saw things far distant in a place where he himself was not. Far be it, then, from us to say that in the life to come the saints shall not see God when their eyes are shut, since they shall always see Him with the spirit. But the question arises, whether, when their eyes are open, they shall see Him with the bodily eye? If the eyes of the spiritual body have no more power than the eyes which we now possess, manifestly God cannot be seen with them. They must be of a very different power if they can look upon that incorporeal nature which is not contained in any place, but is all in every place. For though we say that God is in heaven and on earth, as He, Himself says by the prophet, I fill heaven and earth, Jeremiah 23:24 we do not mean that there is one part of God in heaven and another part on earth; but He is all in heaven and all on earth, not at alternate intervals of time, but both at once, as no bodily nature can be. The eye, then, shall have a vastly superior power - the power not of keen sight, such as is ascribed to serpents or eagles, for however keenly these animals see, they can discern nothing but bodily substances, - but the power of seeing things incorporeal. Possibly it was this great power of vision which was temporarily communicated to the eyes of the holy Job while yet in this mortal body, when he says to God, I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You: wherefore I abhor myself, and melt away, and count myself dust and ashes; Job 42:5-6 although there is no reason why we should not understand this of the eye of the heart, of which the apostle says, Having the eyes of your heart illuminated. Ephesians 1:18 But that God shall be seen with these eyes no Christian doubts who believingly accepts what our God and Master says, Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8 But whether in the future life God shall also be seen with the bodily eye, this is now our question. The expression of Scripture, And all flesh shall see the salvation of God, Luke 3:6 may without difficulty be understood as if it were said, And every man shall see the Christ of God. And He certainly was seen in the body, and shall be seen in the body when He judges quick and dead. And that Christ is the salvation of God, many other passages of Scripture witness, but especially the words of the venerable Simeon, who, when he had received into his hands the infant Christ, said, Now let Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word: for my eyes have seen Your salvation. Luke 2:29-30 As for the words of the above-mentioned Job, as they are found in the Hebrew manuscripts, And in my flesh I shall see God, no doubt they were a prophecy of the resurrection of the flesh; yet he does not say by the flesh. And indeed, if he had said this, it would still be possible that Christ was meant by God; for Christ shall be seen by the flesh in the flesh. But even understanding it of God, it is only equivalent to saying, I shall be in the flesh when I see God. Then the apostle's expression, face to face, 1 Corinthians 13:12 does not oblige us to believe that we shall see God by the bodily face in which are the eyes of the body, for we shall see Him without intermission in spirit. And if the apostle had not referred to the face of the inner man, he would not have said, But we, with unveiled face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18 In the same sense we understand what the Psalmist sings, Draw near unto Him, and be enlightened; and your faces shall not be ashamed. For it is by faith we draw near to God, and faith is an act of the spirit, not of the body. But as we do not know what degree of perfection the spiritual body shall attain - for here we speak of a matter of which we have no experience, and upon which the authority of Scripture does not definitely pronounce - it is necessary that the words of the Book of Wisdom be illustrated in us: The thoughts of mortal men are timid, and our fore-castings uncertain. Wisdom 9:14 For if that reasoning of the philosophers, by which they attempt to make out that intelligible or mental objects are so seen by the mind, and sensible or bodily objects so seen by the body, that the former cannot be discerned by the mind through the body, nor the latter by the mind itself without the body - if this reasoning were trustworthy, then it would certainly follow that God could not be seen by the eye even of a spiritual body. But this reasoning is exploded both by true reason and by prophetic authority. For who is so little acquainted with the truth as to say that God has no cognisance of sensible objects? Has He therefore a body, the eyes of which give Him this knowledge? Moreover, what we have just been relating of the prophet Elisha, does this not sufficiently show that bodily things can be discerned by the spirit without the help of the body? For when that servant received the gifts, certainly this was a bodily or material transaction, yet the prophet saw it not by the body, but by the spirit. As, therefore, it is agreed that bodies are seen by the spirit, what if the power of the spiritual body shall be so great that spirit also is seen by the body? For God is a spirit. Besides, each man recognizes his own life - that life by which he now lives in the body, and which vivifies these earthly members and causes them to grow - by an interior sense, and not by his bodily eye; but the life of other men, though it is invisible, he sees with the bodily eye. For how do we distinguish between living and dead bodies, except by seeing at once both the body and the life which we cannot see save by the eye? But a life without a body we cannot see thus. Wherefore it may very well be, and it is thoroughly credible, that we shall in the future world see the material forms of the new heavens and the new earth in such a way that we shall most distinctly recognize God everywhere present and governing all things, material as well as spiritual, and shall see Him, not as now we understand the invisible things of God, by the things which are made, Romans 1:20 and see Him darkly, as in a mirror, and in part, and rather by faith than by bodily vision of material appearances, but by means of the bodies we shall wear and which we shall see wherever we turn our eyes. As we do not believe, but see that the living men around us who are exercising vital functions are alive, though we cannot see their life without their bodies, but see it most distinctly by means of their bodies, so, wherever we shall look with those spiritual eyes of our future bodies, we shall then, too, by means of bodily substances behold God, though a spirit, ruling all things. Either, therefore, the eyes shall possess some quality similar to that of the mind, by which they may be able to discern spiritual things, and among these God - a supposition for which it is difficult or even impossible to find any support in Scripture, - or, which is more easy to comprehend, God will be so known by us, and shall be so much before us, that we shall see Him by the spirit in ourselves, in one another, in Himself, in the new heavens and the new earth, in every created thing which shall then exist; and also by the body we shall see Him in every body which the keen vision of the eye of the spiritual body shall reach. Our thoughts also shall be visible to all, for then shall be fulfilled the words of the apostle, Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart, and then shall every one have praise of God. 1 Corinthians 4:5 |
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42. Augustine, Retractiones, 1.26 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
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43. Jerome, Adversus Jovinianum, 1.3 (5th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
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44. Anon., Avot Derabbi Nathan A, 5 (6th cent. CE - 8th cent. CE)
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45. Anon., Avot Derabbi Nathan B, 10 (6th cent. CE - 8th cent. CE)
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46. Anon., 4 Ezra, 5.1-5.12, 6.21-6.24, 7.70, 12.34
| 5.1. Now concerning the signs: behold, the days are coming when those who dwell on earth shall be seized with great terror, and the way of truth shall be hidden, and the land shall be barren of faith. 5.2. And unrighteousness shall be increased beyond what you yourself see, and beyond what you heard of formerly. 5.3. And the land which you now see ruling shall be waste and untrodden, and men shall see it desolate. 5.4. But if the Most High grants that you live, you shall see it thrown into confusion after the third period; and the sun shall suddenly shine forth at night,and the moon during the day. 5.5. Blood shall drip from wood,and the stone shall utter its voice;the peoples shall be troubled, and the stars shall fall. 5.6. And one shall reign whom those who dwell on earth do not expect, and the birds shall fly away together; 5.7. and the sea of Sodom shall cast up fish; and one whom the many do not know shall make his voice heard by night, and all shall hear his voice. 5.8. There shall be chaos also in many places, and fire shall often break out, and the wild beasts shall roam beyond their haunts, and menstruous women shall bring forth monsters. 5.9. And salt waters shall be found in the sweet, and all friends shall conquer one another; then shall reason hide itself, and wisdom shall withdraw into its chamber 5.10. and it shall be sought by many but shall not be found, and unrighteousness and unrestraint shall increase on earth. 5.11. And one country shall ask its neighbor, `Has righteousness, or any one who does right, passed through you?' And it will answer, `No.' 5.12. And at that time men shall hope but not obtain; they shall labor but their ways shall not prosper. 6.21. Infants a year old shall speak with their voices, and women with child shall give birth to premature children at three and four months, and these shall live and dance. 6.22. Sown places shall suddenly appear unsown, and full storehouses shall suddenly be found to be empty; 6.23. and the trumpet shall sound aloud, and when all hear it, they shall suddenly be terrified. 6.24. At that time friends shall make war on friends like enemies, and the earth and those who inhabit it shall be terrified, and the springs of the fountains shall stand still, so that for three hours they shall not flow. 7.70. He answered me and said, "When the Most High made the world and Adam and all who have come from him, he first prepared the judgment and the things that pertain to the judgment. 12.34. But he will deliver in mercy the remt of my people, those who have been saved throughout my borders, and he will make them joyful until the end comes, the day of judgment, of which I spoke to you at the beginning. |
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47. Anon., Pesikta Rabbati, 43
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