sm taken into
account in the confession; but even he has given the event a turn by
which it has no longer any significance for Jesus himself (just as in
the case of Justin, who concludes from the _resting_ of the Spirit in
his fulness upon Jesus, that there will be no more prophets among the
Jews, spiritual gifts being rather communicated to Christians; compare
also the way in which the baptism of Jesus is treated in Joh. I.).
Finally, we must point out that in the Adoptian Christology, the
parallel between Jesus and all believers who have the Spirit and are
Sons of God, stands out very clearly (Cf. Herm. Sim. V. with Mand. III.
V. 1; X. 2; most important is Sim. V. 6. 7). But this was the very thing
that endangered the whole view. Celsus, I. 57, addressing Jesus, asks;
"If thou sayest that every man whom Divine Providence allows to be born
(this is of course a formulation for which Celsus alone is responsible),
is a son of God, what advantage hast thou then over others?" We can see
already in the Dialogue of Justin, the approach of the later great
controversy, whether Christ is Son of God [Greek: kata gnomen], or
[Greek: kata phusin], that is, had a pre-existence: "[Greek: kai gar
eisi tines], he says, [Greek: apo tou humeterou genous homologountes
auton Christon einai, anthropon de ex anthropon genomenon
apophainomenoi, hois ou suntithemai]" (c. 48).]

[Footnote 255: This Christology which may be traced back to the Pauline,
but which can hardly have its point of departure in Paul alone, is found
also in the Epistle to the Hebrews and in the writings of John,
including the Apocalypse, and is represented by Barnabas, 1 and 2 Clem.,
Ignatius, Polycarp, the author of the Pastoral Epistles, the Authors of
Praed. Petri, and the Altercatio Jasonis et Papisci, etc. The Classic
formulation is in 2 Clem. 9. 5: [Greek: Christos ho kurios ho sosas
hemas on men to proton pneuma egeneto sarx kai houtos hemas ekalesen].
According to Barnabas (5. 3), the pre-existent Christ is [Greek: pantos
tou kosmou kurios]: to him God said, [Greek: apo kataboles kosmou], "Let
us make man, etc." He is (5. 6) the subject and goal of all Old
Testament revelation. He is [Greek: ouxi huios anthropou all: huios tou
theou, tupoi de en sarki phanerotheis] (12. 10); the flesh is merely the
veil of the Godhead, without which man could not have endured the light
(5. 10). According to 1 Clement, Christ is [Greek: to skeptron tes
melagosunes tou theou] (16. 2