by their Christian
contemporaries. Tatian was the founder of a sect of extreme
Teetotallers. [383:1] Tertullian, who, in point of learning, vigour, and
genius, stands at the head of the Latin writers of this period, was
connected with a party of gloomy fanatics. Origen, the most voluminous
and erudite of the Greek fathers, was excommunicated as a heretic. If we
estimate these authors, as they were appreciated by the early Church of
Rome, we must pronounce their writings of little value. Tertullian, as a
Montanist, was under the ban of the Roman bishop. Hippolytus could not
have been a favourite with either Zephyrinus or Callistus, for he
denounced both as heretics. Origen was treated by the Roman Church as a
man under sentence of excommunication. Stephen deemed even Cyprian
unworthy of his ecclesiastical fellowship, because the Carthaginian
prelate maintained the propriety of rebaptizing heretics.

Nothing can be more unsatisfactory, or rather childish, than the
explanations of Holy Writ sometimes given by these ancient expositors.
According to Tertullian, the two sparrows mentioned in the New Testament
[383:2] signify the soul and the body; [383:3] and Clemens Alexandrinus
gravely pleads for marriage [383:4] from the promise-"Where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
[383:5] Cyprian produces, as an argument in support of the doctrine of
the Trinity, that the Jews observed "the third, sixth, and ninth hours"
as their "fixed and lawful seasons for prayer." [383:6] Origen
represents the heavenly bodies as literally engaged in acts of devotion.
[386:1] If these authorities are to be credited, the Gihon, one of the
rivers of Paradise, was no other than the Nile. [386:2] Very few of the
fathers of this period were acquainted with Hebrew, so that, as a class,
they were miserably qualified for the interpretation of the Scriptures.
Even Origen himself must have had a very imperfect knowledge of the
language of the Old Testament. [386:3] In consequence of their literary
deficiencies, the fathers of the second and third centuries occasionally
commit the most ridiculous blunders. Thus, Irenaeus tells us that the
name Jesus in Hebrew consists of two letters and a half, and describes
it as signifying "that Lord who contains heaven and earth!" [386:4] This
father asserts also that the Hebrew word _Adonai_, or the Lord, denotes
"utterable and wonderful." [386:5] Clemens Alexandrinus is not