III.
1868
Hippolytus, Bishop and Martyr, in a letter to a
certain queen.
1869
1. He calls Him, then, “the
first-fruits of them that sleep,”
1870
as the “first-begotten of the
dead.”
1871
For He,
having risen, and being desirous to show that that same (body) had been
raised which had also died, when His disciples were in doubt, called
Thomas to Him, and said, “Reach hither; handle me, and see:
for a spirit hath not bone and flesh, as ye see me
have.”
1872
2. In calling Him
the first-fruits
,
he testified to that which we have said, viz., that the Saviour, taking
to Himself the flesh out of the same lump, raised this same flesh, and
made it the first-fruits of the flesh of the righteous, in order that
all we who have believed in the hope of the Risen One may have the
resurrection in expectation.
1868
From a Letter of Hippolytus to a certain queen. In
Theodoret’s Dial. II., bearing the title “Unmixed”
(
ἀσύγχυτος
), and
Dial. III., entitled “Impassible” (
ἀπαθης
) [pp. 238–239
supra
].
1869
On the question as to who this queen was, see Stephen le Moyne,
in notes to the
Varia Sacra
, pp. 1103, 1112. In the marble
monument mention is made of a letter of Hippolytus to Severina.
[Bunsen decides that she was only a princess, a daughter of Alexander
Severus. See his
Hippolytus
, i. p. 276.]
1870
1 Cor. xv. 20
.
1871
Col. i. 18
.
1872
John xx. 27; Luke xxiv.
39
.