Acts 17:31

I might collect these and many similar arguments, if that year had not already passed by which lying divination has promised, and deceived vanity has believed. But as a few years ago three hundred and sixty-five years were completed since the time when the worship of the name of Christ was established by His presence in the flesh, and by the apostles, what other proof need we seek to refute that falsehood? For, not to place the beginning of this period at the nativity of Christ, because as an infant and boy He had no disciples, yet, when He began to have them, beyond doubt the Christian doctrine and religion then became known through His bodily presence, that is, after He was baptized in the river Jordan by the ministry of John. …

This is, however, in the matter of the two men by one of whom we are sold under sin, by the other redeemed from sins, by the one have been precipitated into death, by the other are liberated unto life; the former of whom has ruined us in himself, by doing his own will instead of His who created him; the latter has saved us in Himself, by not doing His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him: and it is in what concerns these two men that the Christian faith properly consists. …

5. Accordingly it remains that if we are to believe that the Lord Jesus, in this prayer, prayed for all of His own who either then were or should thereafter be in this life, which is a state of trial upon earth, we must so understand the expression, “through their word,” as to believe that it here signified the word of faith itself which they preached in the world, and that it was called their word because it was primarily and principally preached by them. For it was already in the course of being preached by them in the earth when Paul received that same word of theirs by the revelation of Jesus Christ. …

The greater part, however, of this work is occupied with the acts of Paul, who “laboured more abundantly than they all.” ( 1 Cor. xv. 10 .) And the reason is, that the author of this Book, that is, the blessed Luke, was his companion: a man, whose high qualities, sufficiently visible in many other instances, are especially shown in his firm adherence to his Teacher, whom he constantly followed. Thus at a time when all had forsaken him, one gone into Galatia, another into Dalmatia, hear what he says of this disciple: “Only Luke is with me.” ( 2 Tim. iv. 10 .) And giving the Corinthians a charge concerning him, he says, “Whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches.” ( 2 Cor. viii. 18 .) Again, when he says, “He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve,” and, “according to the Gospel which ye received” ( 1 Cor. xv. 5, 1 ), he means the Gospel of this Luke. …

Observe how he meets with greater trials among the Jews than among the Gentiles. Thus in Athens he undergoes nothing of this kind; the thing goes as far as ridicule, and there an end: and yet he did make some converts: whereas among the Jews he underwent many perils; so much greater was their hostility against him. “His spirit,” it says, “was roused within him when he saw the city all full of idols.” Nowhere else were so many objects of worship to be seen. But again “he disputed with the Jews in the synagogue, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain of the philosophers of the Stoics and Epicureans encountered him.” ( v. 18 .) It is a wonder the philosophers did not laugh him to scorn, speaking in the way he did. “And some said, What does this babbler mean to say?” insolently, on the instant: this is far from philosophy. …

For lest, when he says, “Being the offspring of God” ( v. 29 ), they should again say, Thou bringest certain strange things to our ears, he produces the poet. He does not say, “Ye ought not to think the Godhead like to gold or silver,” ye accursed and execrable: but in more lowly sort he says, “We ought not.” For what (says he)? God is above this? No, he does not say this either: but for the present this, “We ought not to think the Godhead like unto such,” for nothing is so opposite to men. “But we do not affirm the Godhead to be like unto this, for who would say that?” Mark how he has introduced the incorporeal (nature of God) when he said, “In Him,” etc., for the mind, when it surmises body, at the same time implies the notion of distance. …

“And wherefore,” saith one, “doth God suffer such men to be rich?” Because He is long-suffering: because He would bring us to repentance; because He hath prepared hell; because “He hath appointed a day in which He is to judge the world.” ( Acts xvii. 31 .) Whereas did He use at once to punish them that are rich and not virtuously, Zacchæus would not have had an appointed time for repentance, so as even to restore fourfold whatever he had unjustly taken, and to add half of his goods; nor Matthew, to be converted and become an Apostle, taken off as he would have been before the due season; nor yet many other such. Therefore doth He bear with them, calling all to repentance. …

[4.] And why dost thou wonder if Peter says this? for Paul, reasoning with the Athenians, calls Him “Man” only, saying, “By that Man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance to all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” ( Acts xvii. 31 .) He speaks nothing concerning “the form of God” ( Philip. ii. 6 ), nor that He was “equal to Him,” nor that He was the “brightness of His glory.” ( Heb. i. 3 .) And with reason. The time for words like these was not yet come; but it would have contented him that they should in the meanwhile admit that He was Man, and that He rose again from the dead. Christ Himself acted in the same manner, from whom Paul having learned, used this reserve. For He did not at once reveal to us His Divinity, but was at first held to be a Prophet and a good man; but afterwards His real nature was shown by His works and words. …

Thou seest what is the cause of his uttering lowly things. So Paul did to the Athenians also, discoursing and saying, “The times of this ignorance God winked at: but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.” ( Acts xvii. 30, 31 .) Therefore, if he says anything lofty, he expresses it briefly, while the lowly statements are scattered about in many parts of the Epistle. And thus too he shows the lofty; since the very lowliness [of what is said] forbids the suspicion that these things relate to the Divine Nature. So here also the safe ground was kept.

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” He then who excuses himself from using the name appointed and preached by the Lord and his Apostles deems himself wiser than even these great instructors, aye, even than the very well-spring of the wisest.

Orth. I would not so say persuaded only by human arguments, for I am not so rash as to say anything concerning which divine Scripture is silent. But I have heard the divine Paul exclaiming “God hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead,” and I have learnt from the holy Angels that He will come in like manner as the disciples saw Him going into heaven. Now they saw His nature not unlimited. For I have heard the words of the Lord, “Ye shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven,” and I acknowledge that what is seen of men is limited, for the unlimited nature is invisible. Furthermore to sit upon a throne of glory and to set the lambs upon the right and the kids upon the left indicates limitation.

That after the Incarnation He is spoken of as Man our Lord Himself teaches in His words to the Jews “Why go ye about to kill me?” “A man that hath told you the truth.” And in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the blessed Paul writes “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead,” and to show of whom he is speaking he explains his words and says, “For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” And writing to Timothy he says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” In the Acts in his speech at Athens “The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; because He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised him from the dead …