Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

to David. If then none of his descendants appeared with a sovereignty so wide, how is not
the word of the prophet true that no one of the seed of Jeconias should any longer sit upon
the throne of David, for none of his descendants appears to have attained this dignity.
Nevertheless, the tribe of Judah did not fail, until He for whom it was destined came. But
even He did not sit upon the material throne. The kingdom of Judæa was transferred to
Herod, the son of Antipater the Ascalonite, and his sons who divided Judæa into four
principalities, when Pilate was Procurator and Tiberius was Master of the Roman Empire.
It is the indestructible kingdom which he calls the throne of David on which the Lord sat.
He is the expectation of the Gentiles 2992 and not of the smallest division of the world, for
it is written, “In that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the
people; to it shall the Gentiles seek.” 2993 “I have called thee…for a covenant of the people
for a light of the Gentiles”; 2994 and thus then God remained a priest although He did not
receive the sceptre of Judah, and King of all the earth; so the blessing of Jacob was fulfilled,
and in Him 2995 “shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” and all the nations shall call
the Christ blessed.
4. And as to the tremendous question put by the facetious Encratites, why we do not
eat everything? Let this answer be given, that we turn with disgust from our excrements.
As far as dignity goes, to us flesh is grass; but as to distinction between what is and what is
not serviceable, just as in vegetables, we separate the unwholesome from the wholesome,
so in flesh we distinguish between that which is good and that which is bad for food.
Hemlock is a vegetable, just as vulture’s flesh is flesh; yet no one in his senses would eat
henbane nor dog’s flesh unless he were in very great straits. If he did, however, he would
not sin.
5. Next as to those who maintain that human affairs are governed by fate, do not ask
information from me, but stab them with their own shafts of rhetoric. The question is too
long for my present infirmity. With regard to emerging in baptism—I do not know how it
came into your mind to ask such a question, if indeed you understood immersion to fulfil
the figure of the three days. It is impossible for any one to be immersed three times, without
emerging three times. We write the word φάγος paroxytone. 2996
6. The distinction between οὐσία and ὑπόστασις is the same as that between the general
and the particular; as, for instance, between the animal and the particular man. Wherefore,
2992 Gen. xlix. 10.
2993 Is. xi. 10. The LXX. is καὶ ὁ ἀνιστάμενος ἄρχειν ἐθνῶν.
2994 Is. xlii. 6, and 2 Kings vii. 13.
2995 Gen. xxii. 18.
2996 Amphilochius’s doubt may have arisen from the fact that φαγός, the Doric form of φηγός, the esculent
oak of Homer, is oxytone.
To the same Amphilochius.
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