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Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 2.djvu/53

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THE FIRST APOLOGY OF JUSTIN.
39

have forsaken the Lord."[1] And again elsewhere, when the same prophet speaks in like manner from the person of the Father, "What is the house that ye will build for me? saith the Lord. The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool."[2] And again, in another place, "Your new moons and your sabbaths my soul hateth; and the great day of the fast and of ceasing from labour I cannot away with; nor, if ye come to be seen of me, will I hear you: your hands are full of blood; and if ye bring fine flour, incense, it is abomination unto me: the fat of lambs and the blood of bulls I do not desire. For who hath required this at your hands? But loose every bond of wickedness, tear asunder the tight knots of violent contracts, cover the houseless and naked, deal thy bread to the hungry."[3] What kind of things are taught through the prophets from [the person of] God, you can now perceive.


Chap. xxxviii.Utterances of the Son.

And when the Spirit of prophecy speaks from the person of Christ, the utterances are of this sort: "I have spread out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, to those who walk in a way that is not good."[4] And again: "I gave my back to the scourges, and my cheeks to the bufferings; I turned not away my face from the shame of spittings; and the Lord was my helper: therefore was I not confounded: but I set my face as a firm rock; and I knew that I should not be ashamed, for He is near that justifieth me."[5] And again, when he says, "They cast lots upon my vesture, and pierced my hands and my feet. And I lay down and slept, and rose again, because the Lord sustained me."[6] And again, when he says, "They spake with their lips, they wagged the head, saying, Let him deliver himself."[7] And that all these things happened to Christ at the hands of the Jews, you can

  1. Isa. i. 3. This quotation varies only in one word from that of the LXX.
  2. Isa. lxvi. 1.
  3. Isa. i. 14, xviii. 6.
  4. Isa. lxv. 2.
  5. Isa. l. 6.
  6. Ps. xxii 18, iii. 5.
  7. Ps. xxii. 7.