The Early Christians in RomeSpence-Jones, H. D. M. (Henry Donald Maurice)
History
The Early Christians in Rome
Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Henry Donald Maurice)
Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600; Rome (Italy) -- Church history
From Deuteronomy chap. xxxiv. “Blessed be the Name of the Lord of the
world, who hath taught us His righteous way. He hath taught us to
clothe the naked, as He clothed Adam and Hava (Eve); He hath taught us
to unite the bridegroom and the bride in marriage, as He united Hava
(Eve) to Adam. He hath taught us to visit the sick, as He revealed
Himself to Abraham when he was ill from being circumcised; He hath
taught us to console the mourners, as He revealed Himself again to
Jakob when returning from Padan in the place where his mother had
died. He hath taught us to feed the poor, as He sent Israel bread from
heaven; He hath taught us to bury the dead by (what He did for) Mosheh;
for He revealed Himself in His Word, and with Him the companies of
ministering angels: Michael and Gabriel spread forth the golden bed,
fastened with chrysolites, gems, and beryls, adorned with hangings
of purple silk, and satin, and white linens. Metatron, Jophiel, and
Uriel, and Jephephya, the wise sages, laid him upon it, and by His Word
conducted him four miles, and buried him in the valley opposite Beth
Peor;--that Israel, as oft as they look up to Peor, may have the memory
of their sin; and at the sight of the burying-place of Mosheh may be
humbled; but no man knoweth his sepulchre unto this day.”
[Illustration: He, watch-ing o-ver Is-ra-el, slum-bers not, nor
sleeps.
(_From Mendelssohn’s Oratorio_, “Elijah.”)]
VIII
(_B_) ON THE “HALACHAH” AND “HAGGADAH”
We would add a few words further explanatory of the Halachah. The
Halachic Midrash (or exegesis and development of the passages of the
Law) dealt with the exact purport of the various Divine commands
contained in the Torah, or Law of Moses. It explained in detail how
these precepts were to be carried out in common life. It professed to
be nothing more than an exposition of the original Law; but in reality
it contained vast additions to what was written in the Books of Moses,
and claimed to possess an equal authority with the original charges
contained in the Pentateuch.
Roughly, these so-called Halachic developments were divided into three
classes or categories--
1. Halachah or commands traced back to Moses.
2. A great mass of Halachah--containing _traditional_ ordinances
professedly based on the original Mosaic commands, but in
reality connected with the Mosaic ordinances by the very
slightest of ties.
3. A number of enactments really only emanating from the schools
of the Scribes, but which were taught to be equally binding with
the original Pentateuch ordinances. These Halachah largely dated
from the years which preceded the Christian era; they were,
in the last half of the first century and during the second
century, codified and arranged in the Mishnah.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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