NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

To the same Amphilochius.to David. If then none of his descendants appeared with a sovereignty so wide, how is notthe word of the prophet true that no one of the seed of Jeconias should any longer sit uponthe 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. Buteven He did not sit upon the material throne. The kingdom of Judæa was transferred toHerod, the son of Antipater the Ascalonite, and his sons who divided Judæa into fourprincipalities, 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, forit is written, “In that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of thepeople; to it shall the Gentiles seek.” 2993 “I have called thee…for a covenant of the peoplefor a light of the Gentiles”; 2994 and thus then God remained a priest although He did notreceive 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 callthe Christ blessed.4. And as to the tremendous question put by the facetious Encratites, why we do noteat 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 isnot 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 eathenbane nor dog’s flesh unless he were in very great straits. If he did, however, he wouldnot sin.5. Next as to those who maintain that human affairs are governed by fate, do not askinformation from me, but stab them with their own shafts of rhetoric. The question is toolong for my present infirmity. With regard to emerging in baptism—I do not know how itcame into your mind to ask such a question, if indeed you understood immersion to fulfilthe figure of the three days. It is impossible for any one to be immersed three times, withoutemerging three times. We write the word φάγος paroxytone. 29966. The distinction between οὐσία and ὑπόστασις is the same as that between the generaland the particular; as, for instance, between the animal and the particular man. Wherefore,2782992 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 esculentoak of Homer, is oxytone.770