more
successful as an interpreter of the sacred tongue of the chosen people;
for he asserts that Jacob was called _Israel_ "because he had seen the
Lord God," [386:6] and he avers that _Abraham_ means "the elect father
of a sound!" [386:7] Justin Martyr errs egregiously in his references to
the Old Testament; as he cites Isaiah for Jeremiah, [386:8] Zechariah
for Malachi, [386:9] Zephaniah for Zechariah, [386:10] and Jeremiah for
Daniel. [386:11] Irenaeus repeats, as an apostolic tradition, that when
our Lord acted as a public teacher He was between forty and fifty years
of age; [387:1] and Tertullian affirms that He was about thirty years of
age at the time of His crucifixion. [387:2] The opinion of this same
writer in reference to angels is still more extraordinary. He maintains
that some of these beings, captivated by the beauty of the daughters of
men, came down from heaven and married them; and that, out of
complaisance to their brides, they communicated to them the arts of
polishing and setting precious stones, of preparing cosmetics, and of
using other appliances which minister to female vanity. [387:3] His
ideas upon topics of a different character are equally singular. Thus,
he affirms that the soul is corporeal, having length, breadth, height,
and figure. [387:4] He even goes so far as to say that there is no
substance which is not corporeal, and that God himself is a body.
[387:5]

It would seem as if the Great Head of the Church permitted these early
writers to commit the grossest mistakes, and to propound the most
foolish theories, for the express purpose of teaching us that we are not
implicitly to follow their guidance. It might have been thought that
authors, who flourished on the borders of apostolic times, knew more of
the mind of the Spirit than others who appeared in succeeding ages; but
the truths of Scripture, like the phenomena of the visible creation, are
equally intelligible to all generations. If we possess spiritual
discernment, the trees and the flowers will display the wisdom and the
goodness of God as distinctly to us as they did to our first parents;
and, if we have the "unction from the Holy One," we may enter into the
meaning of the Scriptures as fully as did Justin Martyr or Irenaeus. To
assist us in the interpretation of the New Testament, we have at command
a critical apparatus of which they were unable to avail themselves.
Jehovah is jealous of the honour of His Word, and He has insc