{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030442.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030442.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030442.htm","text":"Chapter XLIII.\u2014Conclusions. Jesus as the Christ of the Creator Proved from the Events of the Last Chapter of St. Luke. The Pious Women at the Sepulchre. The Angels at the Resurrection. The Manifold Appearances of Christ After the Resurrection. His Mission of the Apostles Amongst All Nations. All Shown to Be in Accordance with the Wisdom of the Almighty Father, as Indicated in Prophecy. The Body of Christ After Death No Mere Phantom. Marcion\u2019s Manipulation of the Gospel on This Point.\nIt was very meet that the man who buried the Lord should thus be noticed in prophecy, and thenceforth be \u201cblessed;\u201d 5165 since prophecy does not omit the (pious) office of the women who resorted before day-break to the sepulchre with the spices which they had prep. 422 pared. 5166 For of this incident it is said by Hosea: \u201cTo seek my face they will watch till day-light, saying unto me, Come, and let us return to the Lord: for He hath taken away, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up; after two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up.\u201d 5167 For who can refuse to believe that these words often revolved 5168 in the thought of those women between the sorrow of that desertion with which at present they seemed to themselves to have been smitten by the Lord, and the hope of the resurrection itself, by which they rightly supposed that all would be restored to them? But when \u201cthey found not the body (of the Lord Jesus),\u201d 5169 \u201cHis sepulture was removed from the midst of them,\u201d 5170 according to the prophecy of Isaiah. \u201cTwo angels however, appeared there.\u201d 5171 For just so many honorary companions 5172 were required by the word of God, which usually prescribes \u201ctwo witnesses.\u201d 5173 Moreover, the women, returning from the sepulchre, and from this vision of the angels, were foreseen by Isaiah, when he says, \u201cCome, ye women, who return from the vision;\u201d 5174 that is, \u201ccome,\u201d to report the resurrection of the Lord. It was well, however, that the unbelief of the disciples was so persistent, in order that to the last we might consistently maintain that Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples as none other than the Christ of the prophets. For as two of them were taking a walk, and when the Lord had joined their company, without its appearing that it was He, and whilst He dissembled His knowledge of what had just taken place, 5175 they say: \u201cBut we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel,\u201d 5176 \u2014meaning their own, that is, the Creator\u2019s Christ. So far had He been from declaring Himself to them as another Christ! They could not, however, deem Him to be the Christ of the Creator; nor, if He was so deemed by them, could He have tolerated this opinion concerning Himself, unless He were really He whom He was supposed to be. Otherwise He would actually be the author of error, and the prevaricator of truth, contrary to the character of the good God. But at no time even after His resurrection did He reveal Himself to them as any other than what, on their own showing, they had always thought Him to be. He pointedly 5177 reproached them: \u201cO fools, and slow of heart in not believing that which He spake unto you.\u201d 5178 By saying this, He proves that He does not belong to the rival god, but to the same God. For the same thing was said by the angels to the women: \u201cRemember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered up, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.\u201d 5179 \u201cMust be delivered up;\u201d and why, except that it was so written by God the Creator? He therefore upbraided them, because they were offended solely at His passion, and because they doubted of the truth of the resurrection which had been reported to them by the women, whereby (they showed that) they had not believed Him to have been the very same as they had thought Him to be. Wishing, therefore, to be believed by them in this wise, He declared Himself to be just what they had deemed Him to be\u2014the Creator\u2019s Christ, the Redeemer of Israel. But as touching the reality of His body, what can be plainer? When they were doubting whether He were not a phantom\u2014nay, were supposing that He was one\u2014He says to them, \u201cWhy are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See 5180 my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; for a spirit hath not bones, as ye see me have.\u201d 5181 Now Marcion was unwilling to expunge from his Gospel some statements which even made against him\u2014I suspect, on purpose, to have it in his power from the passages which he did not suppress, when he could have done so, either to deny that he had expunged anything, or else to justify his suppressions, if he made any. But he spares only such passages as he can subvert quite as well by explaining them away as by expunging them from the text. Thus, in the passage before us, he would have the words, \u201cA spirit hath not bones, as ye see me have,\u201d so transposed, as to mean, \u201cA spirit, such as ye see me to be, hath not bones;\u201d that is to say, it is not the nature of a spirit to have bones. But what need of so tortuous a construction, when He might have simply said, \u201cA spirit hath not bones, even as you observe that I have not?\u201d Why, moreover, does He offer His hands and His feet for their examination\u2014limbs which consist of bones\u2014if He had no bones? Why, too, does He add, \u201cKnow that p. 423 it is I myself,\u201d 5182 when they had before known Him to be corporeal? Else, if He were altogether a phantom, why did He upbraid them for supposing Him to be a phantom? But whilst they still believed not, He asked them for some meat, 5183 for the express purpose of showing them that He had teeth. 5184\nAnd now, as I would venture to believe, 5185 we have accomplished our undertaking. We have set forth Jesus Christ as none other than the Christ of the Creator. Our proofs we have drawn from His doctrines, maxims, 5186 affections, feelings, miracles, sufferings, and even resurrection\u2014as foretold by the prophets. 5187 Even to the last He taught us (the same truth of His mission), when He sent forth His apostles to preach His gospel \u201camong all nations;\u201d 5188 for He thus fulfilled the psalm: \u201cTheir sound is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.\u201d 5189 Marcion, I pity you; your labour has been in vain. For the Jesus Christ who appears in your Gospel is mine.\nThe first word of the passage just applied to Joseph.\n422:5166 422:5167 422:5168 422:5169 422:5170\nIsa. lvii. 2, according to the Septuagint, \u1f21 \u03c4\u03b1\u03c6\u1f74 \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u1f20\u03c1\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9 \u1f10\u03ba \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03bf\u03c5.\n422:5171 422:5172 422:5173\nDeut. 17:6, Deut. 19:15, Matt. 18:16, 2 Cor. 13:1.\n422:5174\nIsa. xxvii. 11, according to the Septuagint, \u03b3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u1fd6\u03ba\u03b5\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c1\u03c7\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9 \u1f00\u03c0\u1f78 \u03b8\u03ad\u03b1\u03c2, \u03b4\u03b5\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b5.\n422:5175 422:5176 422:5177 422:5178 422:5179 422:5180\nVidete. The original is much stronger \u03c8\u03b7\u03bb\u03b1\u03c6\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03c4\u03ad \u03bc\u03b5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f34\u03b4\u03b5\u03c4\u03b5, \u201chandle me, and see.\u201d Two sentences thrown into one.\n422:5181 423:5182 423:5183 423:5184\nAn additional proof that He was no phantom.\n423:5185 423:5186 423:5187 423:5188 423:5189","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part II: Conclu...","type":"page"}