The Ancient Witnesses

Chapter 5: The Unfolding of Time, Part 2 • 165

conversion. If we hear, let us believe in Him who said, I will repent of all the evil which I planned to do to them .” 30

The Remnant “This is going more quickly than I expected,” I said, “can we dialogue about the Remnant now?” Neither Mentor nor the witnesses replied. “We have to work for our answers,” Joseph reminded me. “Right,” I agreed, “so where is Remnant mentioned in Scripture?” Joseph checked the concordance at the back of his Bible and read aloud, Grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant. “It’s Ezra 9:8,” he said. “What’s the context?” I asked. “I think it’s Ezra’s prayer of repentance,” he said, turning to the passage and reading aloud, From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today. 31 “He’s talking about the Exile” explained Joseph, “but here’s where he mentions the Remnant…”

30 Here, Origen quotes Jer. 18:8, in John Clark Smith, 5-6.

31 Ezra 9:7.