"
For, ever since the earliest days of Christianity, the identity of
the salt pillar with Lot's wife has been universally held and
supported by passages in Genesis, in St. Luke's Gospel, and in the
Second Epistle of St. Peter--coupled with a passage in the book of
the Wisdom of Solomon, which to this day, by a majority in the
Christian Church, is believed to be inspired, and from which are
specially cited the words, "A standing pillar of salt is a monument
of an unbelieving soul."[[226]]
Never was chain of belief more continuous. In the first century of
the Christian era Josephus refers to the miracle, and declares
regarding the statue, "I have seen it, and it remains at this day";
and Clement, Bishop of Rome, one of the most revered fathers of the
Church, noted for the moderation of his statements, expresses a
similar certainty, declaring the miraculous statue to be still standing.
In the second century that great father of the Church, bishop and
martyr, Irenaeus, not only vouched for it, but gave his approval to
the belief that the soul of Lot's wife still lingered in the
statue, giving it a sort of organic life: thus virtually began in
the Church that amazing development of the legend which we shall
see taking various forms through the Middle Ages--the story that the
salt statue exercised certain physical functions which in these more
delicate days can not be alluded to save under cover of a dead language.
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