Chapter 23

Notes

1. 1

   Or, “mortgaged.”

2. 2

   This is, perhaps, the most obscure and difficult passage in the entire treatise. I have followed Oehler’s reading, and given what appears to be his sense; but the readings are widely different, and it is doubtful whether any is correct. I can scarcely, however, help thinking that the “se negant” here, and the “tamen non negavi” below, are to be connected with the “puto autem nec negare” at the end of the former chapter; and that the true rendering is rather: “And [by so doing] deny themselves,” i.e., deny their Christian name and faith. “Doubtless a time of persecution,” such as the present time is—or “of prosecution,” which would make very good sense—“and the place of the tribunal, and the person of the presiding judge, require them to know themselves,” i.e., to have no shuffling or disguise. I submit this rendering with diffidence; but it does seem to me to suit the context better, and to harmonize better with the “Yet I have not denied,” i.e., my name and faith, which follows, and with the “denying letters” which are mentioned at the end of the chapter.—Tr.

3. 3

   Mr. Dodgson renders “conceiveth;” and the word is certainly capable of that meaning.

4. 4

   See Matt. v. 28.

5. 5

   Oehler understands “the lighter crime” or “charge” to be “swearing;” the “heavier,” to be “denying the Lord Christ.”

6. 6

   See Luke i. 20, 22, 62, 63.

7. 7

   This is how Mr. Dodgson renders, and the rendering agrees with Oehler’s punctuation. [So obscure however, is Dodgson’s rendering that I have slightly changed the punctuation, to clarify it, and subjoin Oehler’s text.] But perhaps we may read thus: “He speaks in his pen; he is heard in his waxen tablet: the hand is clearer than every sound; the letter is more vocal than every mouth.” [Oehler reads thus: “Cum manibus suis a corde dictat et nomen filii sine ore pronuntiat:  loquitur in stilo, auditur in cera manus omni sono clarior, littera omni ore vocalior.” I see no difficulty here.]

8. 8

   Elucidation IV.