Early Church Fathers
203 These hours of daylight, at the winter and summer solstice respectively, correspond to the latitude of Lyons, 45° 45' N., where Irenaeus resided.
204 "Alluding," says Harvey, "to a custom among the ancients, of summing the numbers below 100 by various positions of the left hand its fingers; 100 and upwards being reckoned by corresponding gestures of the right hand. The ninety and nine sheep, therefore, that remained quietly in the fold were summed upon the left hand, and Gnostics professed that they were typical of the true spiritual seed; but Scripture always places the workers of iniquity of the left hand, and in the Gnostic theory the evil principle of matter was sinistral, therefore," etc., as above.
205 "Levamen," corresponding probably to the Greek anapausin.
206 Agaph (a = 1, g = 3, a = 1, p = 80, h = 8) = 93.
207 Alhqeia ( a = 1, l = 30, h = 8, q = 9, e = 5, i = 10, a = 1) = 64.
208 Some read XX., but XXX. is probably correct.
209 Harvey proposes "commentitum" instead of "commentatum," but the alteration seems unnecessary.
210 The syntax is in confusion, and the meaning obscure.
212 "Errantes ab artifice." The whole sentence is most obscure.
213 Alluding to the imaginary Aeon Anthropos, who existed from eternity.
214 1 Cor. viii. 1.
215 "Aut;" h having been thus mistakenly rendered instead of "quam."
216 [This seems anticipatory of the dialects of scholasticism, and of its immense influence in Western Christendom, after St. Bernard's feeble adhesion to the Biblical system of the ancients.]
217 Matt. x. 30.
218 Matt. x. 29.
219 [Illustrated by the history of modern thought in Germany. See the meritorious work of Professor Kahnis, on German Protestantism (translated). Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1856.]
221 We read "veritatis corpus" for "a veritate corpus" in the text.
222 Some such expression of disapproval must evidently be supplied, though wanting in the Latin text.
223 Matt. xxv. 5, etc.
224 The text is here elliptical, and we have supplied what seems necessary to complete the sense.
225 It is doubtful whether "demonstravimus" or "demonstrabimus" be the proper reading: if the former, the reference will be to book i. 22, or ii. 2; if the latter, to book iii. 8.
226 Matt. vii. 25.
227 Or, "to that degree."
228 Comp. Clem. Rom. Ep. to Cor., c. xx.; and August, De. Civit Dei, xvi. 9.
229 1 Cor. xiii. 13.
230 "Permanet firma,"-no doubt corresponding to the menei of the apostle, 1 Cor. xiii. 13. Harvey here remarks, that "the author seems to misapprehend the apostle's meaning. . . . There will be no longer room for hope, when the substance of things hoped for shall have become a matter of fruition; neither will there be any room for faith, when the soul shall be admitted to see God as He is." But the best modern interpreters take the same view of the passage as Irenaeus. They regard the nuni de of St. Paul as not being temporal, but logical, and conclude therefore the meaning to be, that faith and hope, as well as love, will, in a sense, endure for ever. Comp., e.g., Alford, in loc.
231 The Latin text is here untranslateable. Grabe proposes to read, "una consonans melodia in nobis sentietur;" while Stieren and others prefer to exchange aisqhsetai for asqhsetai.
232 "Apotelesticos." This word, says Harvey, "may also refer to the vital energy of nature, whereby its effects are for ever reproduced in unceasing succession." Comp. Hippol., Philos., vii. 24.
233 We here follow Grabe, who understands decet. Harvey less simply explains the vey obscure Latin text.
234 The Greek term logoj, as is well known, denotes both ratio (reason) and sermo (speech). Some deem the above parenthesis an interpolation.
235 Comp. i. 12, 2.
236 "Suffugatur:" some read "suffocatur;" and Harvey proposes "suffragatur," as the representative of the Greek yhfizetai. The meaning in any case is, that while ideas are instantaneously formed in the human mind, they can be expressed through means of words only fractionally, and by successive utterances.
237 Thus: Bythus, Nous, Logos.
238 Isa. liii. 8.
239 Mark xiii. 32. The words, "neither the angels which are in heaven," are here omitted, probably because, as usual, the writer quotes from memory.
240 Comp. Matt. x. 24; Luke xi. 40.
241 Ps. cx. 1.
242 1 Cor. ii. 10.
243 1 Cor. xii. 4, 5, 6.
244 1 Cor. xiii. 9.
245 Massuet proposes to insert these words, and some such supplement seems clearly necessary to complete the sense. But the sentence still remains confused and doubtful.
246 [Gen. xl. 8; Deut. xxix. 29; Ps. cxxxi.]
247 John xiv. 28.
248 [On the great matter of the perixwrhsij, the subordination of the Son, etc., Bull has explored Patristic doctrine, and may well be consulted here. Defens. Fid. Nicaenae, sect. iv.; see also vol. v. 363]
249 1 Cor. xiii. 9.
250 "Altitudines," literally, heights.
251 [Wisdom, ix. 13, 17. A passage of marvellous beauty.]
252 Comp. i. 7, 1.
253 "Refrigerium," place of refreshment.
254 Billius, with great apparent reason, proposes to read "descensio" for the unintelligible "discessio" of the Latin text.
255 Grabe and Massuet read, "Si autem animae perire inciperent, nisi justae fuissent," for "Si autem animae quae periturae essent inciperent nisi justae fuissent,"-words which defy all translation.
256 The text is here uncertain and confused; but, as Harvey remarks, "the argument is this, That if souls are saved qua intellectual substance, then all are saved alike; but if by reason of any moral qualities, then the bodies that have executed the moral purposes of the soul, must also be considered to be heirs of salvation."
257 "De impetu:" it is generally supposed that these words correspond to ek thj epistrofhj (comp. i. 5, 1), but Harvey thinks ec ormhj preferable (i. 4, 1).
258 The syntax of this sentence is in utter confusion, but the meaning is doubtless that given above.
259 Ps. civ. 2, 4.
260 Isa. xl. 12, 22.
261 Irenaeus was evidently familiar with Horace; comp. Ars. Poet., 300.
262 Matt. vii. 7.
263 The punctuation is here doubtful. With Massuet and Stieren we expunge "vel" from the text.