Catalogue Entry: THEM00314

Book I: Chapter 14

Author: John Milton

Source: A Treatise on Christian Doctrine, Compiled from the Holy Scriptures Alone, vol. 1 (Boston: 1825).

[Normalized Text] [Diplomatic Text]

[1]

These words are found in fifteen manuscripts, according to Wetstein, and in the Vulgate, two Syriac, Coptic, and Arabic versions. See also Mill on this verse.

[2]

'That his soul should make the trespass offering, expresses that it was with the full consent of his own mind that he made the painful atonement. See Vitringa upon the place.' Horsley's Bibl. Crit. in loc. Quandoquidem semetipsum exposuit, Tremellius. If his soul shall make a propitiatory sacrifice. Lowth's Translation. A different sense is given to the passage in our authorized version: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.

[3]

In whom. Authorized Translation.

[4]

'Assumpsit humanam naturam, non hominem proprie loquendo. Nam λόγος in utero virginis existens, humanam naturam sibi ipse, in seipso, tum corpus ex substantia Mariæ formando, tum animam simul creando, assumpsit; atque ita iliam in seipso, et sibi assumpsit, ut illa natura nunquam per se substiterit, extra λόγον; sed et tum primum, et deinceps semper in λόγῳ tantum substiterit.'

[5]

'Those words ..... are as much against plain equity and the mercy of religion, as those words of "take, eat, this is my body," elementally understood, are against nature and sense.' Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce. Prose Works, II. 37.

[6]

..... he that dwelt above

High thron'd in secret bliss, for us frail dust

Emptied his glory, ev'n to nakedness.

Ode on the Circumcision, 18.

Newton remarks that the expression is taken from Philipp. ii. 7. though not as in our translation, he made himself of no reputation, but as it is in the original, ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσε.

[7]

.... now by some strong motion I am led

Into the wilderness, to what intent

I know not yet, perhaps I need not know;

For what concerns my knowledge God reveals.

Paradise Regained, I. 290.

Several of the expressions in the soliloquy from which these lines are extracted are founded on the supposition, that Christ was not possessed of all the knowledge which his human nature was capable of receiving by virtue of the union of the two natures, and from the first moment of that union. See the authorities by which this opinion is supported, in the note on the above passage in Mr. Hawkins's recent edition of Milton's poetical works.

[8]

See Poole's Synopsis in loc. where, besides the authorities mentioned by Milton, other Jewish commentators are cited as admitting the same interpretation of the passage.

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