controversy,
and is expressly claimed for him in Novatian's treatise "de trinit." 11.
25 ff. (the word was taken from Old Testament passages which were
applied to Christ). As a rule, however, it is not to be understood as a
designation of the nature, but of the office of Christ as such, though
the matter was never very clear. There were Christians who used it as a
designation of the nature, and from the earliest times we find this idea
contradicted (see the Apoc. Sophoniae, ed. Stern, 1886, IV. fragment, p
10: "He appointed no Angel to come to us, nor Archangel, nor any power,
but he transformed himself into a man that he might come to us for our
deliverance." Cf. the remarkable parallel, ep. ad. Diagn. 7. 2: ...
[Greek: ou, kathaper an tis eikaseien anthropos, hypereten tina pempsas
e angelon e archonta e tina ton dieponton ta epigeia he tina ton
pepisteumenon tas en ouranois dioikeseis, all' auton ton techniten kai
demiourgon ton holon. k.t.l.]). Yet it never got the length of a great
controversy and as the Logos doctrine gradually made way, the
designation "Angel" became harmless and then vanished.]

[Footnote 240: [Greek: Pais] (after Isaiah): this designation,
frequently united with [Greek: Iesous] and with the adjectives [Greek:
hagios] and [Greek: egapemenos] (see Barn. 3, 6; 4, 3; 4, 8; Valent. ap.
Clem. Alex., Strom. VI. 6. 52, and the Ascensio Isaiae), seems to have
been at the beginning a usual one. It sprang undoubtedly from the
Messianic circle of ideas, and at its basis lies the idea of election.
It is very interesting to observe how it was gradually put into the
background and finally abolished. It was kept longest in the liturgical
prayers: see 1 Clem. 59. 2; Barn. 61. 9. 2; Acts iii. 13, 26; iv. 27,
30; Didache, 9. 2. 3; Mart. Polyc. 14. 20; Act. Pauli et Theclae, 17, 24;
Sibyl. I. v. 324, 331, 364; Diogn. 8, 9, 10: [Greek: ho hagapetos pais]
9; also Ep. Orig. ad Afric. init; Clem. Strom. VII. 1. 4: [Greek: ho
monogenes pais], and my note on Barn 6. 1. In the Didache (9. 2) Jesus
as well as David is in one statement called "Servant of God." Barnabas,
who calls Christ the "Beloved", uses the same expression for the Church
(4. 1. 9); see also Ignat ad Smyrn. inscr.]

[Footnote 241: See the old Roman Symbol and Acts X. 42; 2 Tim. IV. 1;
Barn. 7. 2; Polyc. Ep. 2. 1; 2 Clem. 2. 1; Hegesipp. in Euseb. H. E.
III. 20, 6: Justin Dial. 118]

[Footnote 242: There could of course be no doubt that Christ meant the