them by God would not take [immediate] effect, when He said, "For in the day that ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die?" And not this merely, but that along with the impunity[1] [attending their sin] the eyes of those should be opened who had not seen until then? But with the opening [of their eyes] referred to, they made entrance upon the path of death.
XV.
When,[2] in times of old, Balaam spake these things in parables, he was not acknowledged; and now, when Christ has appeared and fulfilled them, He was not believed. Wherefore [Balaam], foreseeing this, and wondering at it, exclaimed, "Alas! alas! who shall live when God brings these things to pass?"[3]
XVI.
Expounding again the law to that generation which followed those who were slain in the wilderness, he published Deuteronomy; not as giving to them a different law from that which had been appointed for their fathers, but as recapitulating this latter, in order that they, by hearing what had happened to their fathers, might fear God with their whole heart.
XVII.
By these Christ was typified, and acknowledged, and brought into the world; for He was prefigured in Joseph: then from Levi and Judah He was descended according to the flesh, as King and Priest; and He was acknowledged by
- ↑ The Greek reads the barbarous word ἀθριξίᾳ, which Massuet thinks is a corruption of ἀναθασίᾳ, immortality. We have, however, followed the conjecture of Harvey, who would substitute ἀπληξίᾳ, which seems to agree better with the context.
- ↑ This and the eight following fragments may be referred to the Miscellaneous Dissertations of our author; see note on Frag. ix. They are found in three mss. in the Imperial Collection at Paris, on the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.
- ↑ Num. xxiv. 23.
