First Christian Voices: Practices of the Apostolic Fathers

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First Christian Voices

And I saw the fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly stronger than all the beasts of the earth, and how from it sprang up ten horns, and out of them a little budding horn, and how it subdued three of the great horns by one. ( Dan 7:7–8 ) You must therefore understand. And this also I further implore as being one of you and loving you both individually and collectively more than my own soul. Pay attention now to yourselves. Do not be like some adding largely to your sins and saying, “The covenant is both theirs and ours.” 2 Even so, they ultimately lost it after Moses had already received it. For the Scripture says, “And Moses was fasting in the mount forty days and forty nights, and received the covenant from the Lord, tablets of stone written with the finger of the hand of the Lord” ( Exod 31:18; Exod 34:28 ). However, turning to idols, they lost it. For the Lord says to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves” (Exod 32:7). And Moses understood and cast the two tablets out of his hands. Then their covenant was broken in order that the covenant of the beloved Jesus might be sealed upon our heart in the hope which flows from believing in Him. Superstitions of Greeks T o D iognetus 2 b –4: Is not one of the gods a stone similar to that on which we walk? Is not a second brass in no way greater than those utensils which are made for our ordinary use? Is not a third wood already rotted? Is not a fourth silver, which needs a person to watch it in case it is stolen? Is not a fifth iron consumed by rust? Is not a sixth

2 Source unknown.