164 Mr. Dodgson renders "celebrated the Eucharist;" but that rendering appears very doubtful. See Acts xxvii. 35.
165 Mr. Dodgson supposes this word to mean "outward, as contrasted with the inward, `praying always.0'" Oehler interprets, "ex vita communi." But perhaps what Tertullian says lower down in the chapter, "albeit they stand simply without any precept enjoining their observance," may give us the true clue to his meaning; so that "extrinsecus" would = "extrinsic to any direct injunction of our Lord or His apostles."
167 Communitatis omnis (Oehler). Mr. Dodgson renders, "of every sort of common thing." Perhaps, as Routh suggests, we should read "omnium."
168 Vasculo. But in Acts it is, skeu=o/j ti w9j o0qo/nhn mega/lhn [Small is here comparatively used, with reference to Universality of which it was the symbol.]
170 Acts iii. 1: but the man is not said to have been "paralytic," but "lame from his mother's womb."
171 Dan. vi. 10; comp. Ps. lv. 17 (in the LXX. it is liv. 18).
172 I have ventured to turn the first part of the sentence into a question. What "scripture" this may be, no one knows. [It seems to me a clear reference to Matt. xxv. 38, amplified by the 45th verse, in a way not unusual with our author.] Perhaps, in addition to the passages in Gen. xviii. and Heb. xiii. 2, to which the editors naturally refer, Tertullian may allude to such passages as Mark. ix. 37, Matt. xxv. 40, 45. [Christo in pauperibus.]
173 I have followed Routh's conjecture, "feceris" for "fecerit," which Oehler does not even notice.
175 Perhaps "the great Hallelujah," i.e. the last five psalms.
176 [The author seems to have in mind (Hos. xiv. 2) "the calves of our lips."]
180 Sacerdotes; comp. de Ex. Cast. c. 7.
181 1 Cor. xiv. 15; Eph. vi. 18.
183 "Agape," perhaps "the love-feast."
186 Routh would read, "What will God deny?"
189 1 Kings xviii.; Jas. v. 17, 18.
190 i.e. "the angel who preserved in the furnace the three youths besprinkled, as it were, with dewy shower" (Muratori quoted by Oehler). [Apocrypha, The Song, etc., verses 26, 27.]
192 i.e. in brief, its miraculous operations, as they are called, are suspended in these ways.
194 See Apolog. c. 5 (Oehler).
196 [A reference to Jacob's wrestling. Also, probably, to Matt. xi. 12.]
197 Or, "her armour defensive and offensive."
198 1 Cor. xv. 52; 1 Thess. iv. 16.
201 This beautiful passage should be supplemented by a similar one from St. Bernard: "Nonne et aviculas levat, non onerat penarum numerositas ipsa? Tolle eas, et reliquum corpus pondere suo fertur ad ima. Sic disciplinam Christi, sic suave jugum, sic onus leve, quo deponimus, eo deprimimur ipsi: quia portat potius quam portatur." Epistole, ccclxxxv. Bernardi Opp. Tom. i. p. 691. Ed. (Mabillon.) Guame, Paris, 1839. Bearing the cross uplifts the Christian.]
1 Written in his early ministry, and strict orthodoxy. [It may be dated circa A.D. 197, as external evidence will shew.]
2 Eph. iv. 30. [Some differences had risen between these holy sufferers, as to the personal merits of offenders who had appealed to them for their interest in restoring them to communion.
3 [He favours this resource as sanctioned by custom, and gently persuades them, by agreeing as to its propriety, to bestow peace upon others. But, the foresight of thoes who objected was afterwards justified, for in Cyprian's day this practice led to greater evils, and he was obliged to discourage it (ep. xi.) in an epistle to confessors.]
4 [Whom ministered to their fellow-Christians in prison, for the testimony of Jesus. What follows is a sad picture of social life among heathens.]
8 [He is said to have perished circa A.D. 170.]
9 [After the defeat and suicide of Albinus, at Lyons, many persons, some of Senatorial rank, were cruelly put to death.]
10 Cap. lv. He calls her fortissima martyr, and she is one of only two or three contemporary sufferers whom he mentioned by name.
11 [In the De Anima, cap. lv. as see above.]
12 [Yet see the sermons of St. Augustine (if indeed his) on the Passion of these Saints. Sermon 281 and 282, opp. Tom. v. pp. 1284-5.]