{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/001/0010774.htm","path":"chr/ecf/001/0010774.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/001/0010774.htm","text":"1. As to their affirming that Paul said plainly in the Second [Epistle] to the Corinthians, \u201cIn whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not,\u201d 3358 and maintaining that there is indeed one god of this world, but another who is beyond all principality, and beginning, and power, we are not to blame if they, who give out that they do themselves know mysteries beyond God, know not how to read Paul. For if any one read the passage thus\u2014according to Paul\u2019s custom, as I show elsewhere, and by many examples, that he uses transposition of words\u2014\u201cIn whom God,\u201d then pointing it off, and making a slight interval, and at the same time read also the rest [of the sentence] in one [clause], \u201chath blinded the minds of them of this world that believe not,\u201d he shall find out the true [sense]; that it is contained in the expression, \u201cGod hath blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world.\u201d And this is shown by means of the little interval [between the clause]. For Paul does not say, \u201cthe God of this world,\u201d as if recognising any other beyond Him; but he confessed God as indeed God. And he says, \u201cthe unbelievers of this world,\u201d because they shall not inherit the future age of incorruption. I shall show from Paul himself, how it is that God has blinded the minds of them that believe not, in the course of this work, that we may not just at present distract our mind from the matter in hand, [by wandering] at large.\n2. From many other instances also, we may discover that the apostle frequently uses a transposed order in his sentences, due to the rapidity of his discourses, and the impetus of the Spirit which is in him. An example occurs in the [Epistle] to the Galatians, where he expresses himself as follows: \u201cWherefore then the law of works? 3359 It was added, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made; [and it was] ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator.\u201d 3360 For the order of the words runs thus: \u201cWherefore then the law of works? Ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator, it was added until the seed should come to whom the promise was made,\u201d\u2014 man thus asking the question, and the Spirit making answer. And again, in the Second to the Thessalonians, speaking of Antichrist, he says, \u201cAnd then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus Christ 3361 shall slay with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy him 3362 with the presence of his coming; [even him] whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders.\u201d 3363 Now in these [sentences] the order of the words is this: \u201cAnd then shall be revealed that wicked, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, whom p. 421 the Lord Jesus shall slay with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the presence of His coming.\u201d For he does not mean that the coming of the Lord is after the working of Satan; but the coming of the wicked one, whom we also call Antichrist. If, then, one does not attend to the [proper] reading [of the passage], and if he do not exhibit the intervals of breathing as they occur, there shall be not only incongruities, but also, when reading, he will utter blasphemy, as if the advent of the Lord could take place according to the working of Satan. So therefore, in such passages, the hyperbaton must be exhibited by the reading, and the apostle\u2019s meaning following on, preserved; and thus we do not read in that passage, \u201cthe god of this world,\u201d but, \u201cGod,\u201d whom we do truly call God; and we hear [it declared of] the unbelieving and the blinded of this world, that they shall not inherit the world of life which is to come.\nThis is according to the reading of the old Italic version, for it is not so read in any of our existing manuscripts of the Greek New Testament.\n420:3360 420:3361\nThis world is not found in the second quotation of this passage immediately following.\n420:3362","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I: IREN\u00c6US: Chapter VII.\u2014Reply to an objection...","type":"page"}