XIX.
But seeing now that we must make proof of what is
alleged at greater length, we shall not shrink from the task. For
it is certain that he is destined to spring from the tribe of
Dan,
1936
and to range
himself in opposition like a princely tyrant, a terrible judge and
accuser,
1937
as the prophet
testifies when he says, “Dan shall judge his people, as one tribe
in Israel.”
1938
But
some one may say that this was meant of Samson, who sprang from the
tribe of Dan, and judged his people for twenty years. That,
however, was only partially made good in the case of Samson; but this
shall be fulfilled completely in the case of Antichrist. For
Jeremiah, too, speaks in this manner: “From Dan we shall
hear the sound of the sharpness
1939
of his horses; at the sound of the
neighing
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of his horses the
whole land trembled.”
1941
And again, Moses says:
“Dan is a lion’s whelp, and he shall leap from
Bashan.”
1942
And
that no one may fall into the mistake of thinking that this is spoken
of the Saviour, let him attend to this. “Dan,” says
he, “is a lion’s whelp;” and by thus naming the tribe
of Dan as the one whence the accuser is destined to spring, he made the
matter in hand quite clear. For as Christ is born of the tribe of
Judah, so Antichrist shall be born of the tribe of Dan. And as
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, was spoken of in prophecy as
a
lion
on account or His royalty and glory, in the same manner
also has the Scripture prophetically described the accuser as a lion,
on account of his tyranny and violence.
1936
After Irenæus, book v. ch. xxx. [vol. i. p. 559, this
series], many of the ancients express this opinion. See too
Bellarmine,
De Pontifice
Rom
., iii. 12.
1937
διάβολος
.
1938
Gen. xlix. 16
.
1939
φωνὴν
ὀξύτητος
. There
is another reading,
σπουδήν
= haste.
1940
χρεμετισμοῦ
. [Conf. p. 207,
supra.
]
1941
Jer. viii. 16
.
1942
Deut. xxxiii. 22
.