voice spake to Him, ‘Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten Thee,’580 is recorded in the
memoirs of the apostles to have come to Him and tempted Him, even so far as to say to
Him, ‘Worship me;’ and Christ answered him, ‘Get thee behind me, Satan: thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.’581 For as he had deceived Adam, so he
hoped582 that he might contrive some mischief against Christ also. Moreover, the statement,
‘All my bones are poured out583 and dispersed like water; my heart has become like wax,
melting in the midst of my belly,’ was a prediction of that which happened to Him on that
night when men came out against Him to the Mount of Olives to seize Him. For in the
memoirs which I say were drawn up by His apostles and those who followed them, [it is
recorded] that His sweat fell down like drops of blood while He was praying, and saying, ‘If
it be possible, let this cup pass:’584 His heart and also His bones trembling; His heart being
like wax melting in His belly:585 in order that we may perceive that the Father wished His
Son really586 to undergo such sufferings for our sakes, and may not say that He, being the
Son of God, did not feel what was happening to Him and inflicted on Him. Further, the
expression, ‘My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue has cleaved to my throat,’
was a prediction, as I previously remarked, of that silence, when He who convicted all your
teachers of being unwise returned no answer at all.
580 Ps. ii. 7; Matt. iii. 17.
581 Matt. iv. 9, 10.
582 Literally, “said.”
583 Maranus says it is hardly to be doubted that Justin read, “I am poured out like water,” etc.
584 Luke xxii. 44, 42.
585 [Breast, rather. The (κοίλη) cavity of the nobler viscera.]
586 Justin refers to the opinion of the Docetes, that Christ suffered in appearance merely, and not in reality.
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Chapter CIII.—The Pharisees are the bulls: the roaring lion is Herod or…