.... ὅμως Ει δὲ ἐν τοῖς βίβλοις ἑτέραν ἔχουσι τάξιν, θαυμαστὸν οὐδεν επεὶ καὶ οἱ προφῆται οἱ δώδεκα οὐκ ἐφεξῆς ἀλλήλοις ὄντες κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους, ἀλλὰ πολὺ διεστηκότες ἀλλήλων, ἐν τῇ τῶν βιβλίων τάξει ἐφεξῆς εἰσι κείμενοι. συνημμένοι πᾶσίν εἰσιν ἐκείνοις, ὧν τοσοῦτον τῷ χρόνῳ διεστήκασι. Μηδεὶς δὲ πάρεργον τοῦτον ἡγείσθω τὸν πόνον, μηδὲ περιεργίας περιττῆς τὴν τοιαύτην ἔρευναν συντελεῖ γὰρ ἡμῖν πρὸς τὰ ζητούμενα οὐ μικρὸν ὁ τῶν ἐπιστολῶν χρόνος. —Chrysostom. Multo autem dignior consideratu est ordo chronologicus. Eo constituto, et historia apostolica et ipsae epistolae mutuam sibi lucem afferunt: et congruentia noëmatum locutionumque in epistolis uno tempore super eodem rerum statu scriptis cernitur: et incrementum apostoli spirituale cognoscitur.— Bengel. If each Letter look dim, and have little light, after all study;-yet let the Historical reader reflect, such light as it has cannot be disputed at all. The Letter hangs there in the dark abysses of the Past: if like a star almost extinct, yet like a real star ; fixed ; about which there is no cavilling possible. That autograph Letter, it was once all luminous as a burning beacon, every word of it a live coal, in its time; it was once a piece of the general fire and light of Human Life, that Letter! Neither is it yet entirely extinct: well read, there is still in it light enough to exhibit its own self; nay, to diffuse a faint authentic twilight some distance round it. By degrees the combined small twilights may produce a kind of general feeble twilight, rendering the Past credible! Such is the effect of contemporary letters always.-Carlyle. |