ws, further, as a man
acquainted with the Old Testament, how to borrow from it very many
points of view for the significance of Christ's death, (Christ the
sacrifice, the Paschal lamb; the death of Christ the means of redeeming
men; death as the enduring of the curse for us; death as the victory
over the devil; see Dial 44. 90, 91, 111, 134). But in the discussions
which set forth in a more intelligible way the significance of Christ,
definite facts from the history have no place at all, and Justin nowhere
gives any indication of seeing in the death of Christ more than the
mystery of the Old Testament, and the confirmation of its
trustworthiness. On the other hand, it cannot be mistaken that the idea
of an individual righteous man being able effectively to sacrifice
himself for the whole, in order through his voluntary death to deliver
them from evil, was not unknown to antiquity. Origen (c. Celsum 1. 31)
has expressed himself on this point in a very instructive way. The
purity and voluntariness of him who sacrifices himself are here the main
things. Finally, we must be on our guard against supposing that the
expressions [Greek: sortia, apolutrosis] and the like, were as a rule
related to the deliverance from sin. In the superscription of the
Epistle from Lyons, for example, (Euseb. H. E V. 1. 3: [Greek: hoi auten
tes apolutroseos hemin pistin kai elpida echontes]) the future
redemption is manifestly to be understood by [Greek: apolutrosis].]

[Footnote 268: On the Ascension, see my edition of the Apost. Fathers I.
2, p. 138. Paul knows nothing of an Ascension, nor is it mentioned by
Clement, Ignatius, Hermas, or Polycarp. In no case did it belong to the
earliest preaching. Resurrection and sitting at the right hand of God
are frequently united in the formulae (Eph. I. 20; Acts. II. 32 ff.)
According to Luke XXIV. 51, and Barn. 15. 9, the ascension into heaven
took place on the day of the resurrection (probably also according to
Joh. XX. 17; see also the fragment of the Gosp. of Peter), and is hardly
to be thought of as happening but once (Joh. III. 13; VI 62; see also
Rom. X. 6 f.; Eph. IV. 9 f; 1 Pet. III. 19 f.; very instructive for the
origin of the notion). According to the Valentinians and Ophites, Christ
ascended into heaven 18 months after the resurrection (Iren. I. 3. 2;
30. 14); according to the Ascension of Isaiah, 545 days (ed. Dillmann,
pp. 43. 57 etc.); according to Pistis Sophia 11 years after the
resurre