The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

VII. Pitfalls Lurk in Abbreviated Epitome

1. CONTAINS CERTAIN “DUBIOUS PASSAGES” THAT MISLEAD

According to the translator “The authorship of this abridgement [the Epitome] has been questioned in modern times.” ⁷² Fletcher adds that “the greater part of the work was wanting in the earlier editions,” and the entire Epitome was only discovered in the beginning of the nineteenth century in a manuscript at Turin. ⁷³ There are admittedly certain “dubious passages.” ⁷⁵ Bishop Coxe, the American editor, in commenting on such “dubious passages” in the Institutes, states that the most important one is “wanting in twenty-eight Mss., but is found in nineteen.” CFF1 1050.2

2. LACTANTIUS RECOGNIZES HAZARD OF ABRIDGMENT

In the Preface at the very outset of the Epitome Lactantius states that it had been “a long time” since he first wrote his original full Divine Institutes. And he frankly states in his opening chapter that a “compressed” epitome “becomes less clear by its very brevity.” Nevertheless, he will attempt to “contract that which is diffuse and to shorten that which is long.” ⁷⁶ The editor, Coxe, in a footnote is constrained to refer to the reduced Epitome as “a specimen of the abridgements made by authors and editors, owing to the great expense of books in manuscript. They have been sources of great injury to literature.” ⁷⁷ CFF1 1050.3

The precise phrasings of the Epitome should not, therefore, be given too serious consideration. CFF1 1051.1

3. PREPONDERANT VIEW IS CONDITIONALIST

In the light of the foregoing, too much credence cannot be placed on certain expressions in the Epitome that are at variance with the preponderant and repeated emphasis in the text of the full Institutions. But it is to be borne in mind that even in the Epitome Lactantius again and again speaks of the “reward of immortality.” Note a few and the chapter sequence: CFF1 1051.2

“The heavenly reward of immortality from which they fell” (chapter 28).
“Crown the victorious with the reward of immortality” (29).
“That we may obtain that eternal reward” (35).
“Might gain the reward of immortality” (41).
“The befitting reward of immortality” (67).
“That they may receive the reward of immortality” (69).

Of similar intent are the expressions CFF1 1051.3

“They attain to immortality” (68).
“They receive immortality, that they may serve God forever” (69).
“Man may receive from God immortality” (69).

This constant emphasis is not to be offset by the other occasional conflicting expressions of the Epitome, the trustworthiness of which has been impugned. The gist of the case appears in chapter fifty-five. CFF1 1051.4

4. PRESENTED WITH “GARMENT OF IMMORTALITY.”

Answering the questions as to “by whom,” “to whom,” “in what manner,” and “at what time” immortality is to be “given,” Lactantius says it is at “the end of the world.” ⁷⁸ The “heaven shall be opened in a tempest, and Christ shall descend with great power,” in “fiery brightness” and with “a countless host of angels.” Then He “will raise the righteous dead to eternal life.” ⁷⁹ Now comes his climactic statement: CFF1 1051.5

“After these things God will renew the world, and transform the righteous into the form of angels, that, being presented with the garment of immortality, they may serve God forever.” ⁸⁰ CFF1 1052.1

Such is the main Epitome witness of Lactantius. CFF1 1052.2