Skip to content

VI. Neither Is There Straitness with God, nor Anything That Is Not Absolutely Perfect.—From Manuscript of the Writings of Justin · XLIV. It Is Not an Easy Thing for a Soul, Under the Influence of Error, to Be Persuaded of the Contrary Opinion

XLV

Page 821 of 830

"And4889 Balaam the son of Beor they slew with the sword."4890 For, speaking no longer by the Spirit of God, but setting up another law of fornication contrary to the law of God,4891 this man shall no longer be reckoned as a prophet, but as a soothsayer. For, as he did not continue in the commandment of God, he received the just reward of his evil devices.

Notes

  1. 4888

    We give this brief fragment as it appears in the editions of Stieren, Migne, and Harvey, who speculate as to its origin. They seem to have overlooked the fact that it is the Greek original of the old Latin, non facile est ab errore apprehensam resipiscere animam,—a sentence found towards the end of book iii. chap. ii.

  2. 4889

    With the exception of the initial text, this fragment is almost identical with No. xxv.

  3. 4890

    .

  4. 4891

    .

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe (1885–96). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.