---
title: "Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen"
author: "Various Church Fathers"
translator: "S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.)"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Church Fathers"
section: 77 of 199
url: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/77/
cite: "Various Church Fathers, tr. S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.), Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen, section 77. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/77/"
---

# Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian and Origen

*Various Church Fathers, tr. S. Thelwall and others; A. Cleveland Coxe (ed.)*

Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Commodian, and Origen's On First Principles and Against Celsus.

## 77. Of the Harmony of the Fathers of the Old and New Testaments · 4 of 10

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/77/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/church-fathers-tertullian-minucius-felix-commodian-origen/77/#p-N

[¶0] By trump angelic vanquished before

[¶1] Th’ indocile People be deservedly

[¶2] 130 By their own fault left desolate behind,

[¶3] And Gentiles, flourishing in faith, received

[¶4] In praise.

[¶5] Yea, Deborah, a woman far

[¶6] Above all fame, appears; who, having braced

[¶7] Herself for warlike toil, for country’s sake,

[¶8] 135 Beneath the palm-tree sang how victory

[¶9] Had crowned her People; thanks to whom it was

[¶10] That the foes, vanquisht, turned at once their backs,

[¶11] And Sisera their leader fled; whose flight

[¶12] No man, nor any band, arrested: him,

[¶13] 140 Suddenly renegade, a woman’s hand—

[¶14] Jael’s—with wooden weapon vanquished quite,

[¶15] For token of Christ’s victory.

[¶16] With firm faith

[¶17] Jephthah appears, who a deep-wounding vow

[¶18] Dared make—to promise God a grand reward

[¶19] 145 Of war: him then, because he senselessly

[¶20] Had promised what the Lord not wills, first meets

[¶21] The pledge dear to his heart; who suddenly

[¶22] Fell by a lot unhoped by any. He,

[¶23] To keep his promise, broke the sacred laws

[¶24] 150 Of parenthood: the shade of mighty fear

[¶25] Did in his violent mind cover his vow

[¶26] Of sin: as solace of his widowed life

[¶27] For wickedness, renown, and, for crime, praise,

[¶28] He won.

[¶29] Nor Samson’s strength, all corporal might

[¶30] 155 Passing, must we forget; the Spirit’s gift

[¶31] Was this; the power was granted to his head.

[¶32] Alone he for his People, daggerless,

[¶33] Armless, an ass-jaw grasping, prostrated

[¶34] A thousand corpses; and no bonds could keep

[¶35] 160 The hero bound: but after his shorn pride

[¶36] Forsook him thralled, he fell, and, by his death,—

[¶37] Though vanquisht,—bought his foes back ’neath his power.

[¶38] Marvellous Samuel, who first received

[¶39] The precept to anoint kings, to give chrism

[¶40] 165 And show men-Christs, so acted laudably

[¶41] In life’s space as, e’en after his repose,

[¶42] To keep prophetic rights.

[¶43] Psalmographist

[¶44] David, great king and prophet, with a voice