Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
to all after His resurrection from the dead.
Footnote 181:
πλείονα τῇ ἐπινοίᾳ ἦν.
Footnote 182:
οὕτω καὶ ταῖς ὄψεσι πάντως μὲν τῆς ψυχῆς, ἐγὼ δ’ ἡγοῦμαι, ὅτι καὶ τοῦ
σώματος.
Footnote 183:
Matt. xxvi. 48.
Footnote 184:
Matt. xxvi. 55.
Footnote 185:
τὸν μὴ ἀπεκδυσάμενον, etc. Cf. Alford, _in loco_ (Col. ii. 15).
Chapter LXV.
And why do I say “to all?” For even with His own apostles and disciples
He was not perpetually present, nor did He constantly show Himself to
them, because they were not able without intermission[186] to receive
His divinity. For His deity was more resplendent after He had finished
the economy[187] [of salvation]: and this Peter, surnamed Cephas, the
first-fruits as it were of the apostles, was enabled to behold, and
along with him the twelve (Matthias having been substituted in room of
Judas); and after them He appeared to the five hundred brethren at once,
and then to James, and subsequently to all the others besides the twelve
apostles, perhaps to the seventy also, and lastly to Paul, as to one
born out of due time, and who knew well how to say, “Unto me, who am
less than the least of all saints, is this grace given;” and probably
the expression “least of all” has the same meaning with “one born out of
due time.” For as no one could reasonably blame Jesus for not having
admitted all His apostles to the high mountain, but only the three
already mentioned, on the occasion of His transfiguration, when He was
about to manifest the splendour which appeared in His garments, and the
glory of Moses and Elias talking with Him, so none could reasonably
object to the statements of the apostles, who introduce the appearance
of Jesus after His resurrection as having been made not to all, but to
those only whom He knew to have received eyes capable of seeing His
resurrection. I think, moreover, that the following statement regarding
Him has an apologetic value[188] in reference to our subject, viz.: “For
to this end Christ died, and rose again, that He might be Lord both of
the dead and living.”[189] For observe, it is conveyed in these words,
that Jesus died that He might be Lord of the dead; and that He rose
again to be Lord not only of the dead, but also of the living. And the
apostle understands, undoubtedly, by the dead over whom Christ is to be
Lord, those who are so called in the first Epistle to the Corinthians,
“For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible;”[190] and by the living, those who are to be changed, and
who are different from the dead who are to be raised. And respecting the
living the words are these, “And we shall be changed;” an expression
which follows immediately after the statement, “The dead shall be raised
first.”[191] Moreover, in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians,
describing the same change in different words, he says that they who
sleep are not the same as those who are alive; his language being, “I
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