terwards, as was very usual, crept into the text: and this may seem the more probable, he having just before cited these words of Matthew. XVIII. 4 Saying ascribed to Christ in Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom. lib. 1. p. 346. Αἰτεῖσθε γὰρ, φησί, τὰ μεγάλα, καὶ τὰ μικρὰ ὑμῖν προστεθήσεται. Seek those things which are great, and those things which are small shall be added to you. Dr. Grabem and Dr. Milln imagined this passage to be taken out of the Gospel of the Nazarenes; which indeed, if it should be true, would be no credit to this Gospel, because (as I have above proved, Chap. XXVIII.) Clemens absolutely rejects the authority of all gospels, besides those four now received; but the truth is, he could not take it thence, because he did not understand the Hebrew language, in which that Gospel was written, and (as I have shewn) no translation of it was made till Jerome made his. Mr. Fabritius P conjectures more probably, that these were the words of some copies at that time interpolated into Matt. vi. 33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you: but neither is this so, because the same Clemens in another place 9 cites these words of Matthew, as they are in our present copies, and not as they are here. Nothing therefore is more evident than that Clemens, in the passage under consideration, respected the sense of Christ's words, without precisely transcribing them, i. e. rather chose to expound the words, than literally to cite them; and this is most undeniably proved by another place which I find in the same Clemens', where he both produces the text, and these words as an exposition, Ζητεῖτε δὲ πρῶτον τὴν βασιλείαν τῶν οὐρανῶν καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην· ταῦτα γὰρ μεγάλα· τὰ δὲ μικρὰ καὶ περὶ τὸν βίον, ταῦτα προσTelýσetai úμïv· i. e. Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and [its] righteousness, these are the great things, and these things shall be added unto you, these are the small things, and such as concern this life. Hence also Origen, who was one of the scholars of Clemens, does more than once in his works phrase these words of Christ in the same manners. para XIX. A Saying ascribed to Christ, and cited by most of the ancient Fathers. Γίνεσθε δόκιμοι τραπεζίται. Be ye skilful money-changers. It is surprising to observe how many of the primitive writers of Christianity have cited this passage in their works; Clemens Alexandrinus, Apelles ", Origen *, Dionysius Alexandrinus y, Cyril of Jerusalem 2, Pamphilus 2, Athanasius b, Jerome, Cyril of Alexandria 4, besides several more, have cited it; Cotelerius, Usher, Valesius, Dr. Grabe, Mr. Fabritius, Mr. Whiston, Dr. Mill, and others among the moderns, have observed it; though I know not any sufficient remarks that have been yet made concerning its true original; for which reason I design more particularly to discuss it. It is supposed by most to have been taken out of the Hebrew Gospel of the Nazarenes; so Cotelerius, Usher f, Valesius 8: but this must needs be a mistake, because very few of the fathers understood the language of that Gospel, and a version was not made of it till Jerome had made his, as is above proved, Chap. XXVII. That which appears to me most probable upon examining the places of the fathers, where this passage is cited, I shall reduce into the following distinct observations; viz. 1. None of all the writers, who have mentioned it, do cite it as the saying or words of Christ within the first four centuries, except Origen, Jerome, and the heretic Apelles. 2. The meaning of the passage, гiveobe dóxiμos tpateČítai, Be skilful money-changers, is the very same with that exhortation of the apostle, 1 Thess. v. 21. Prove all things, viz. that as money-changers they should be careful to distinguish between that which is good and bad, and, like them, try and prove all. This is evident from the design of every citation, but more clearly from the explications which the fathers themselves have given of these words. Thus Clemens Alexandrinus compares a person ignorant in logic, and not knowing how to distinguish between things, to an ignorant money-changer, who cannot distinguish good money from badh, and elsewhere i expressly calls them the doxíμous тpaπegíτaç, i. e. the skilful moneychangers, τὸ κίβδηλον νόμισμα τοῦ Κυρίου ἀπὸ τοῦ παραχαράγματος Siangívovτas, who can distinguish the bad money (pretending to be the Lord's) by its stamp and character, i. e. heresy from truth; and Jerome, after having cited the passage, Be skilful money-changers, adds for illustration, "like those who reject "that for counterfeit coin, which has not the image of Cæsar "so stamped upon it as it ought to have." Once more, in the Apostolical Constitutions, after the passage produced, in the next paragraph we read, " Be as skilful dealers in money, who "reject that which is bad, and keep that which is good." It is plain therefore, to mention no more instances, the scope of the exhortation is, that we be careful in proving, trying, or examining things (as the money-changers do their money), and this is the very same as St. Paul says, Prove all things. Which being so, I observe, 3. The fathers cite this passage as the saying of the apostle, and do all of them (except Origen and Jerome) cite it instead of this very passage of St. Paul, (1 Thess. v. 21.) Prove all things. This is as evident as any thing can be, by a view of the places: Dionysius Alexandrinus calls it άñoctoλixỳ Qwvý, i. e. the apostle's saying". Cyril of Alexandria in several places calls it the words of Paul. Cyril of Jerusalem °, Pamphilus P, and others, add the following words of Paul in the end of this verse and verse 22. Hold fast that which is good, and abstain from the appearance of evil. 4. It is evident therefore, this was not any saying of Christ, but of Paul; and so not taken out of any apocryphal gospel. There are indeed two difficulties attending this hypothesis, viz. How so many fathers could agree to cite St. Paul's words h Strom. 1. 6. p. 655. i Strom. 1. 7. p. 754. Epist. ad Miner. et Alex. in fine. 1 Lib. 2. c. 36, 37. m Apud Euseb. 1. 7. c. 7. n Apud Coteler. loc. cit. • Catech. 6. in fine. P Apolog. pro Origene in init. thus different from what they are in our present copies, and how Origen, Jerome, and Apelles were so mistaken in citing it as a saying of Christ. As to the first, I frankly own I believe it proceeded from an early interpolation in the text; some one, opposite to St. Paul's words, writing for explication s dóxiμoi τpatečítaι, in the margin, he who transcribed that copy inserted it in the text with the addition of the verb yivers, which he apprehended needful to complete the sense. As to the latter; viz. Origen, Jerome, and Apelles citing it as a saying of Christ, I answer, First, That it is not strange Jerome should do so, when Origen had done it before him, because he so much followed him, and depended upon him. Secondly, Either Origen failed in memory, and wrote down that as a saying of Christ, which, if he had examined, he would have found to be St. Paul's; which is very common: or else, Thirdly, Some scribe made the addition ἐντολὴν Κυρίου, i. e. the command of God, as an introduction to the passage, which they often did; and in doing so were often mistaken. Fourthly, Whereas the heretic Apelles quotes the passage, as being ev Top Evayyeλiw, in the Gospel; we may suppose him either mistaken, or else that he uses the word gospel in a large sense, to denote St. Paul's Epistle; and this cannot seem strange to those who consider, that the word gospel is frequently used not only in the New Testament for the doctrine of the Gospel, but is also by the primitive writers frequently put for any book of the New Testament. Thus Clemens Romanus calls the Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, the Gospel of Paul: or perhaps, Apelles might read these words in the false Gospel which he made use of, and which afterwards went under his name (see Part I. Chap. VII. No. IV.); into which, being so noted a saying, it was inserted out of this place of St. Paul's Epistle. It cannot be improper here to observe, that Mr. Whiston urges this passage, because it is cited by Dionysius Alexandrinus as an άяoσToλixǹ pwvy, i. e. an apostolical saying, (and, as he thinks, out of the Constitutions,) as a strong and almost undeniable attestation to the Constitutions of the Apostles, and imagines this such a citation as cannot fairly be set aside by any. But I suppose even Mr. Whiston himself will allow, that the foregoing remarks do sufficiently overthrow his argument; and I must observe, that ảñoσroλixǹ Qwǹ may as well be translated the words of the apostle in the singular number, as the words of the apostles in the plural. XX. A Saying ascribed to Christ in Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom. lib. 5. p. 578. Οὐ γὰρ φθονῶν, φησί, παρήγγειλεν οἴκου μου. For the [Lord], says he, hath declared without envy in some gospel, My secret is to me, and the children of my house, I do not know any one who has observed this passage besides Mr. Fabritius, who places it among the fragments of the Gospel of the Nazareness, and in his note conjectures, that it was perhaps in the Gospel of the Egyptians; but for want of a more close examination, this learned writer is apparently mistaken in both his conjectures, as will evidently appear by the following remark; viz. that Clemens did not cite these words as the words of Christ, but as the words of the prophet Isaiah; for 1. They are now to be found in several copies of the Septua gint version of Isaiah xxiv. 16. with but little variation. In the scholia of the Greek version I find it asserted, that in some copies are the following words, τὸ μυστήριόν μου ἐμοὶ, τὸ μυ στήριόν μου ἐμοὶ, καὶ τοῖς ἐμοῖς. They are also in Procopius, though noted with an asterisk. Jerome says, they were not originally in the Septuagint, but interpolated out of Theodotion's Greek translation. Chrysostom and Theodoret also read it. (See the Cambridge scholia on the Septuagint.) Agreeable to this the old Latin Vulgate renders it secretum meum mihi, secretum meum mihi; and though our English translators render it my leanness, my leanness, woe unto me, yet in s Cod. Apoc. Nov. Test. p. 361. |