| << | Contents | >> |
Irenæus
Show All Footnotes & Jump to 3702
Introductory Note to Irenæus Against Heresies
[3693] The punctuation and exact meaning are very uncertain.
[3694] The construction and sense of this passage are disputed. Grabe, Massuet, and Harvey take different views of it. We have followed the rendering by Massuet.
[3699] Grabe remarks that the word πρέσβυς, here translated “senior,” seems rather to denote a mediator or messenger.
[3702] Irenæus quotes this as from Isaiah on the present occasion; but in book iv. 22, 1, we find him referring the same passage to Jeremiah. It is somewhat remarkable that it is to be found in neither prophet, although Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho, [chap. lxxii. and notes, Dial. with Trypho, in this volume,] brings it forward as an argument against him, and directly accuses the Jews of having fraudulently removed it from the sacred text. It is, however, to be found in no ancient version of Jewish Targum, which fact may be regarded as a decisive proof of its spuriousness.
[3704] Joel iii. 16;Amos i. 2.
[3705] As Massuet observes, we must either expunge “sciut” altogether, or read “sic” as above.
[3707] This quotation from Habakkuk, here commented on by Irenæus, differs both from the Hebrew and the LXX., and comes nearest to the old Italic version of the passage.
[3709] Epiphanius, in his De Mensuris, gives an account of these two men. The former published his version of the Old Testament in the year 181. The latter put forth his translation half a century earlier, about 129 a.d. This reference to the version of Theodotion furnishes a note of date as to the time when Irenæus published his work: it must have been subsequently to a.d. 181.
[3710] The Greek text here is, κρατῦναι τὴν ἀρχὴν αὐτῶν, translated into Latin by “possiderent regnum suum,”—words which are somewhat ambiguous in both languages. Massuet remarks, that “regnum eorum” would have been a better rendering, referring the words to the Jews.
[3711] The Greek text of this narrative has been preserved by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., v. 8). Grabe considers it to be faulty in this passage; so the Latin translation has been adopted here. Eusebius has ποιήσαντος τοῦ Θεοῦ ὄπερ ἐβούλετο— God having accomplished what He intended.
[3712] [See Justin Martyr, To the Greeks, cap. xiii. The testimony of Justin naturalized this Jewish legend among Christians.]
Search Comments
This page has been visited 0428 times.
| << | Contents | >> |
10 per page