Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol 5) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue 'Fragments on commentaries' by reading up to the heading 'On Matthew'.
My summary
Today Hippolytus continues explaining Scripture to us.
He gives us his comments on:
(i) the narrative parts of Daniel;
(ii) the apocalyptic material in Daniel
(iii) some of the apocryphal parts of Daniel (i.e. Susannah).
What grabbed me
Hippolytus is dealing with some very difficult parts of the Bible now, and drawing some strange conclusions.
He even dabbles in some paraphrasing: '16. "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered," etc. These three youths are become an example to all faithful men, inasmuch as they did not fear the crowd of satraps, neither did they tremble when they heard the king's words, nor did they shrink when they saw the flame of the blazing furnace, but deemed all men and the whole world as nought, and kept the fear of God alone before their eyes. Daniel, though he stood at a distance and kept silence, encouraged them to be of good cheer as he smiled to them. And he rejoiced also himself at the witness they bore, understanding, as he did, that the three youths would receive a crown in triumph over the devil.'
Contrary to Hippolytus' assertion, we don't know where Daniel was when this event took place.
Next week's reading
Conclude 'Fragments on commentaries'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
No comments:
Post a Comment