Apocriticus: text - IntraText CT

CHAPTER III. Objection based on S. Matthew's words that the Gospel should be preached in all the world (Matt. xxiv. I4).²⁴⁸

We must mention also that saying which Matthew gave us, in the spirit of a slave who is made to bend himself in a mill-house, when he said, "And the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, and then shall the end come."²⁴⁹ For lo, every quarter of the inhabited world has experience of the Gospel, and all the bounds and ends of the earth possess it complete,²⁵⁰ and nowhere is there an end, nor will it ever come. So let this saying only be spoken in a corner!

248. ¹ The abbreviated form of the quotation is tacitly accepted by Macarius in his answer.

249. ² It is very remarkable that, wherever it is possible, the attack is made on Christ's followers, and not on Himself. Here it is only the Evangelist who is blamed for words which are attributed to Christ. See Introd., p. xv.

250. ³ The previous objection has stated that only 300 years have passed, so that this cannot have been written later than the early part of the fourth century. To speak thus is therefore an exaggeration, as Macarius shows in his answer. But it is very significant that a heathen should regard Christianity as universally spread, even before it became a lawful religion.

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