435 "Id est duae synagogue," referring to the Jews and Gentiles. Some regard the words as a marginal gloss which has crept into the text.
437 Deut. xxxii. 6, LXX. [Let us reflect that this effort to spiritualize this awful passage in the history of Lot is an innocent but unsuccessful attempt to imitate St. Paul's allegory, Gal. iv. 24.]
441 Comp. Clem. Rom., chap. xi. Josephus (Antiq., i. 11, 4) testifies that he had himself seen this pillar.
442 The Latin is "per naturalia," which words, according to Harvey, correspond to di emmhnorroiaj. There is a poem entitled Sodoma preserved among the works of Tertullian and Cyprian which contains the following lines: -"
Dicitur et vivens, alio jam corpore, sexusMunificos solito dispungere sanguine menses."
444 The poem just referred to also says in reference to this pillar: -"
Ipsaque imago sibi formam sine corpore servansDurat adhuc, et enim nuda statione sub aethramNec pluviis dilapsa situ, nec diruta ventis.Quin etiam si quis mutilaverit advena formam,Protinus ex sese suggestu vulnera complet."[That a pillar of salt is still to be seen in this vicinity, is now confirmed by many modern travellers (report of Lieut. Lynch, United States Navy), which accounts for the natural inference of Josephus and others on whom our author relied. The coincidence is noteworthy.]
445 Harvey remarks here, that this can hardly be the same presbyter mentioned before, "who was only a hearer of those who had heard the apostles. Irenaeus may here mean the venerable martyr Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna."
446 "Quassum et futile." The text varies much in the mss.MSS; .
452 We here read "secundum quos" with Massuet, instead of usual "secundum quod."
453 "Concurvans," corresponding to sugkamptwn, which, says Harvey, "would be expressive of those who were brought under the law, as the neck of the steer is bent to the yoke."
454 The Latin is, "per proprium visum."
455 [If this and the former chapter seem to us superfluous, we must reflect that such testimony, from the beginning, has established the unity of Holy Scripture, and preserved to us-The Bible.]
456 1 Cor. ii. 14. [The argument of this chapter hinges on Ps. xxv. 14, and expounds a difficult text of St. Paul. A man who has the mind of God's Spirit is the only judge of spiritual things. Worldly men are incompetent critics of Scripture and of Christian exposition.
468 Matt. iii. 12; Luke iii. 17.
469 Harvey points this sentence interrogatively.
470 "Temperamentum calicis:" on which Harvey remarks that "the mixture of water with the wine in the holy Eucharist was the universal practice of antiquity . . . the wine signifying the mystical Head of the Church, the water the body." [Whatever the significance, it harmonizes with the Paschal chalice, and with 1 John v. 6, and St. John's Gospel, xix. 34, 35.]
472 This sentence is very obscure in the Latin text.
474 The text is obscure, and the construction doubtful.
475 The Latin here is, "quae est ex virgine per fidem regenerationem." According to Massuet, "virgine" here refers not to Mary, but to the Church. Grabe suspects that some words have been lost.
478 Matt. xxii. 29; Luke xi. 21, 22.
479 Literally, "who was strong against men."
480 In fine; lit. "in the end."
481 In semetipsum: lit. "unto Himself."
482 We here follow the reading "proferant:" the passage is difficult and obscure, but the meaning is as above.
484 The Greek text here is skhnobatoun (lit. "to tabernacle:" comp. eskhnwsen, John i. 14) kaq ekasthn genean en toij anqrwpoij: the Latin is, "Secundum quas (dispositiones) aderat generi humano." We have endeavoured to express the meaning of both.
485 The following section is an important one, but very difficult to translate with undoubted accuracy. The editors differ considerably both as to the construction and the interpretation. We have done our best to represent the meaning in English, but may not have been altogether successful.
486 The Greek is susthma: the Latin text has "status."
487 The Latin is, "character corporis."
488 The text here is, "custodita sine fictione scripturarum;" some prefer joining "scripturarum" to the following words.
489 We follow Harvey's text, "tractatione;" others read "tractatio." According to Harvey, the creed of the Church is denoted by "tractatione;" but Massuet rrenders the clause thus: ["True knowledge consists in a very complete tractatio of the Scriptures, which has come down to us by being preserved (`custoditione_0' being read instead of `custodita_0') without falsification."
490 Comp. 2 Cor. viii. 1; 1 Cor. xiii.
498 Luke xviii. 8. There is nothing to correspond with "putas" in the received text.
506 Jer. xvii. 9 (Sept.). Harvey here remarks: "The LXX. read #$wn)
instead of #$n)
. Thus, from a text that teaches us that the heart is deceitful above all things, the Fathers extract a proof of the manhood of Christ."