Ante-Nicene Christian Library; Translations Of The Writings Of The Fathers Down To A.D. 325, Volume 2: Justin Martyr and Athenagoras

발행: 1867년

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IIo who was terribis in batile, the atly of Zeus against the Titans, is stlown to bo weaer than Diomedes :

and you teli of his adultery and his bonds:

Immortia Venus to Anchises bore. '

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400 PLEA OF ATHENAGORAS

Nor sor Alcmena fala; . . . , nor for Ceres, gestan-tresiad queen; Noe for Latona bright; nor for thysest. λΗo is created, he is perlahille, With no trace of a god in him. Nari they are even the hired servants of men et

Eschylus is reproaching Apollo for being a salse prophel:

IL then, Zeus is fire, and Hera the earth, and A idoneus theair, and Nestis Water, and these are elementS-fire, mater,air-none os them is a god, netther Zeus, nor Hera, nor

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their constitution and origin:

supremo and uncroated and eternal one, and as many com- pound bodies as there are changes of matter, and say thatino Spirit os God, Which pervades matter, obtains accordingio ita variations a diversity of names, the forma Of. mattermill bocomo the body of God; but When the elementa aredestroyed in tho conflagration, tho names mill necessarib perish along With the forms, the Spirit os God Hono remaining. Who, then, can bellove stat thoso bodies, of ita tho Variation according to matter is allied to corruption, are godsi But to those Who say that Kronos is time, and Rhea thoearth, and that she becomes pregnant by Monos, and bringsforth, Whence she is regarded as the mother of est; and thatho begeis and devoura his offsprim; and that the castrationis the interco se of the male With the female, Whicli cuts est

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402PTEA OF ATHENAGORAS

resolved theso things into nature, or What various writers have thought concerning nature, or What they say concerning

by Typhon his brother Isis milli her son Orus fought after his limbs, and finding them hono ed them With a sepulchre, which sepulchre is to this day called tho tomb of Osiris ' Forwhilst they Wander up and down about the forms of matter, they mlas to find tho God Who can only be belloid by thoreason, Whilo they deisy the elements and their severat paris, applying different names to them at different times : calling the soWing of the corn, for instance, Osiris hence they santhat in the mysteries, on the finding of the members of hisbo , or tho fruits, Isis is thus addressed: We have found, wo Wish theo jπ), the fruit of the vine Dionysus, the vineitself Semele, the heat of the sun the thunderboli. And ye in faci, thoy who refer the fabies to actuat νει, do anythingrather than add to their divino character; for they do notperceive, that by tho very desenes they mahe ior the gods, in confirm the things Which are alleged concerning them.

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404PLEA OF ATHENAGORAS again, whilo Withholaing his assent on other potara, also divides superior MingsJ into ins uncreatia God and thoso

ao change the VieWs of the multitude, Who receive the fabies

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What need is thore, in spoining to you Who have searchedinto every depariment of knowledge, to mention the poets, orto examine opinions of another hind 8 Lot it suffice to saythus much. Is the poets and philosophors did nos achnowlodge that there is ono God, and concerning these gods Wero not of opinion, some that they are demons, others that they

united in essenc'-tho Father, tho Son, the Spirit, becausetho Son is tho Intelligence, Reason, Wisdom ot the Father, and the Spirit an ossiuonce, as light hom fire; so also do me apprehend the existence of other poWers, Whicli eXercise dominion about matter, and by means of it, and one in pa

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406PLEA OF ATHENAGORAS

in opposition to God, it Would have ceased to exist, ita struc

blue),-to the good that is in God, I say, tho spirit Whicli is

about matter, Who Was created by God, just as the oster angels Were created by Him, and entrusted With tho controlos matter and the forms of matter, is opposed. For this istho ossice of the angelf,-to exercise providence for GodoVer tho things created and ordored by Ηim; so that Godmay have the universat and generat providence of the whole, hile the particular paris are provided for by the angelsappoinred over them. Just as With men, ullo have freedom of choico as to both virtus and vico sor you Would not eitherhonour the good or punish the bad, unless vice and virtuo Were in their oWu power; and sonae are diligent in thomatters entrusted to them by you, and others faithless), so isit among the angeis. Some, free agenis, Fou Will observe, such as they Were created by God, continued in those things for whicli God had mado and over Whieli Ho had ordainodihem; but somo outraged both tho constitution of their naturoand tho goverament entrusted to them: namely, this ruter of

placod about this sirst firmament you kn- stat me saynothing Without witnesses, but stato the things which havo been declared by the propheis); these feli into impuro lovo oi virgins, and were subjugaled by the flesti, and ho bocamo negligoni and wiched in the management of tho thingsontrustod to him. Os these lovers of virgins, sterelare, Werebegotten those Who are called gianis. And is something hasbeen said by the poets, tuo, about the gianis, be nos su rised

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Theso angeis, then, Who have fallen hom heaven, and haunt the air and the earth, and are no longer ille to rise toheavenly things, and the fouis of the gianis, Whicli are thedemons Who mander about the Worid, perform actions similar, the One that is, the demons) to the natures they have received, tho other that is, the angels) to the appetites they have indulged. But the prince of matter, as may be seen merebirom What transpires, exercises a controi and managementcontra to the good that is in God:

Tho fame thing ted Aristotio to say that the things bolo the heaven are not under the care of Providence, althoughthe eternat providence of God concerns itseli equalty With us

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408 PLEI OF ATHENAGORIS

and adhesses uself to the deseruing individualin accor ing to truth and not according to opinion; and ali otherstings, according to the generat constitution os nature, are provided for by the law of reason. But because tho demoniacmovemenis and operations proceeding hom the adverso spirit produco these disorderly sallies, and moreOver mo- men, some in one Way and somo in another, as individuals and asnations, separalely and in common, in accordance With thotenden of matter on the ono hand, and of tho amnity fordivino things on the octor, hom Within and hom Without,-Some Who are of no mean reputation have thorosore thoughtthat this universe is constituted Without any definite order, and is drivon histor and thither hy an irrationes chance. Butthey do not understand, that of those things which bolongio tho constitution of the wholo worid there is nothingout os ordor or neglected, but stat eata one of them hasbeen produced by reason, and that, thereiore, they do nottransgress the order proscribed to them; and that man himself, too, so far as He that mado him is concerneri is mollordered, both by his original nature, Which has one commoncharacter for ali, and by the constitution of his boh, whlehdoes not transgress the laW imposed upon it, and by the te mination of his lito, Which romains equat and common to allesiae; but that, according to the character peculiar in himself and tho operation os the resing prince and of the demons his followors, ho is impollud and mouod in this direction or in

that, notWithstanding that ali possess in common the samo origines constitution of m d. CHAP. XXVI.-rie demons allure men to the worahip of imoges. They Who draW men to Hols, then, are the aforesaid demons, who are eager for the blood of the sacrificos, and lia them; but the gods stat plerae the multitude, and whose names aregiven to the images, Were men, as may be learned from their histo . And that it is tho demons who aci under thoirnames, is proved by the nature of their operations. Forsome castrate, as Rhea; othera mound and flaughter, as

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