Chapter CXXVI.—The various names of Christ according to both natures. It is
shown that He is God, and appeared to the patriarchs.
“But if you knew, Trypho,” continued I, “who He is that is called at one time the Angel
of great counsel,675 and a Man by Ezekiel, and like the Son of man by Daniel, and a Child
by Isaiah, and Christ and God to be worshipped by David, and Christ and a Stone by many,
and Wisdom by Solomon, and Joseph and Judah and a Star by Moses, and the East by
Zechariah, and the Suffering One and Jacob and Israel by Isaiah again, and a Rod, and
Flower, and Corner-Stone, and Son of God, you would not have blasphemed Him who has
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now come, and been born, and suffered, and ascended to heaven; who shall also come again,
and then your twelve tribes shall mourn. For if you had understood what has been written
by the prophets, you would not have denied that He was God, Son of the only, unbegotten,
unutterable God. For Moses says somewhere in Exodus the following: ‘The Lord spoke to
Moses, and said to him, I am the Lord, and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob,
being their God; and my name I revealed not to them, and I established my covenant with
them.’676 And thus again he says, ‘A man wrestled with Jacob,’677 and asserts it was God;
narrating that Jacob said, ‘I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.’ And it is
recorded that he called the place where He wrestled with him, appeared to and blessed him,
the Face of God (Peniel). And Moses says that God appeared also to Abraham near the oak
in Mamre, when he was sitting at the door of his tent at mid-day. Then he goes on to say:
‘And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, three men stood before him; and when
he saw them, he ran to meet them.’678 After a little, one of them promises a son to Abraham:
‘Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, and I am old? Is anything
impossible with God? At the time appointed I will return, according to the time of life, and
Sarah shall have a son. And they went away from Abraham.’679 Again he speaks of them
thus: ‘And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom.’680 Then to Abraham
He who was and is again speaks: ‘I will not hide from Abraham, my servant, what I intend
to do.’ ”681 And what follows in the writings of Moses I quoted and explained; “from which
I have demonstrated,” I said, “that He who is described as God appeared to Abraham, to
Isaac, and to Jacob, and the other patriarchs, was appointed under the authority of the
Father and Lord, and ministers to His will.” Then I went on to say what I had not said before:
675 [By Isaiah. “Counsellor” in English version.]
676 Ex. vi. 2 ff.
677 Gen. xxxii. 24, 30.
678 Gen. xviii. 2.
679 Gen. xviii. 13 f.
680 Gen. xviii. 16.
681 Gen. xviii. 17.
Chapter CXXVI.—The various names of Christ according to both natures. It is shown that He is God, and appeared to the patriarchs.
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Chapter CXXVI.—The various names of Christ according to both natures. It…