Monday, July 25, 2022

Psalm 110:3 (LXX: 109:3) in First Apology 45

In First Apology, 45, Justin quotes from the psalter, such as Psa 2 and 110:

 

And that God the Father of all would bring Christ to heaven after He had raised Him from the dead, and would keep Him there until He has subdued His enemies the devils, and until the number of those who are foreknown by Him as good and virtuous is complete, on whose account He has still delayed the consummation--hear what was said by the prophet David. These are his words: "The Lord said unto My Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. The Lord shall send to Thee the rod of power out of Jerusalem; and rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies. With Thee is the government in the day of Thy power, in the beauties of Thy saints: from the womb of morning have I begotten Thee." That which he says, "He shall send to Thee the rod of power out of Jerusalem," is predictive of the mighty, word, which His apostles, going forth from Jerusalem, preached everywhere; and though death is decreed against those who teach or at all confess the name of Christ, we everywhere both embrace and teach it. And if you also read these words in a hostile spirit, ye can do no more, as I said before, than kill us; which indeed does no harm to us, but to you and all who unjustly hate us, and do not repent, brings eternal punishment by fire. (ANF 1:178)

 

The quotation from Psa 110:3 (LXX: 109:3) in the Greek of Justin’s First Apology is ἐκ γαστρὸς πρὸ ἑωσφόρου ἐγέννησά σε. As Leslie William Barnard notes:

 

Ps 110:1–3; cf. Mt 22:44; Acts 2:34, 35; 1 Cor 15:25; Heb 1:13, 10:12, 13. This psalm was given a Messianic application in late and rabbinic Judaism (see the Excursus in H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrash, 4 [Munich, 1922–1961], 452–65) and became one of the primary testimonia of the early Church being applied to the exaltation and heavenly session of Jesus Christ. On the theological implications of Ps 110 see J. Daniélou, “La Session à la droite du Père,” in Studia Evangelica (Berlin, 1959), 689–98, and B. Lindars, New Testament Apologetic (London, 1961), 45–51, who argues that Ps 110:1 was originally a comment on Ps 16:11. Ps 110:3, quoted here by Justin, later played a great part in the Arian controversy. (St. Justin Martyr: The First and Second Apologies [trans. Leslie William Barnard; New York: Paulist Press, 1997], Logos Edition)