Sunday 19 December 2010

Chrestomathy

Athanasius On the Cessation of Revelation

When did prophet and vision cease from Israel?  Was it not when Christ came, the Holy One of holies?  It is, in fact a sign and notable proof of the coming of the Word that Jerusalem no longer stands, neither is prophet raised up nor vision revealed among them.  And it is natural that it should be so, for when He that was signified had come, what need was there any longer of any to signify Him?  And when the Truth had come, what further need was there of the shadow?  On His account only the prophesied continually, until such time as Essential Righteousness had come, what was made the Ransom for the sins of all.

For the same reason Jerusalem stood until the same time, in order that there men might premediate the types before the Truth was known.  So, of couse, once the Holy One of holies had come, both vision and prophecy were sealed.  And the kingdom of Jersualem ceased at the same time, because kings were to be anointed among them only until the Holy of holies had been anointed . . . .

The plain fact is, as I say, that there is no longer any king or prophet nor Jerusalem nor sacrifice nor vision among them; yet the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God, and the Gentiles, forsaking atheism, are now taking refuge with the God of Abraham through the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ.
St Athanasius, On the Incarnation, Sister Penelope Lawson, Trans.  (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1946) pp.61ff.

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