God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?"[1] And He added, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to Him." By these arguments He unquestionably made it clear, that He who spake to Moses out of the bush, and declared Himself to be the God of the fathers, He is the God of the living. For who is the God of the living unless He who is God, and above whom there is no other God? Whom also Daniel the prophet, when Cyrus king of the Persians said to him, "Why dost thou not worship Bel?"[2] did proclaim, saying, "Because I do not worship idols made with hands, but the living God, who established the heaven and the earth, and has dominion over all flesh." Again did he say, "I will adore the Lord my God, because He is the living God." He, then, who was adored by the prophets as the living God, He is the God of the living; and His Word is He who also spake to Moses, who also put the Sadducees to silence, who also bestowed the gift of resurrection, thus revealing [both] truths to those who are blind, that is, the resurrection and God [in His true character]. For if He be not the God of the dead, but of the living, yet was called the God of the fathers who were sleeping, they do indubitably live to God, and have not passed out of existence, since they are children of the resurrection. But our Lord is Himself the resurrection, as He does Himself declare, "I am the resurrection and the life."[3] But the fathers are His children; for it is said by the prophet: "Instead of thy fathers, thy children have been made to thee."[4] Christ Himself, therefore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spake to Moses, and w^ho was also manifested to the fathers.
3. And teaching this very thing, He said to the Jews: "Your father Abraham rejoiced that he should see my day;
- ↑ Matt. xxii. 29, etc.; Ex. iii. 6.
- ↑ In the Septuagint and Vulgate versions, this story constitutes the fourteenth chapter of the book of Daniel. It is not extant in Hebrew, and has therefore been removed to the Apocrypha, in the Anglican canon of Scripture, under the title of "Bel and the Dragon."
- ↑ John xi. 25.
- ↑ Ps. xlv. 17.
