The nations allotted to angels, then given to Christ

Nor is it any wonder that in certain generations there have been prophets who, through their more strenuous and vigorous lives, surpassed other prophets in receiving the divine, some of whom lived in their own time and others earlier or later. In the same way it is no wonder that there was also a certain time when something exceptional came to dwell among the human race, something that surpassed those who came before it, or even those after it. But the account of these matters holds something more mystical and deeper, which cannot easily reach the ears of the common crowd.

And to make these things clear, and to answer what is said about Christ’s coming, “So it is only now, after so long an age, that God has remembered to set the human race right, while before he did not care?”, we must touch on the doctrine of the portions and make clear why “when the Most High divided the nations, as he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and his people Jacob became the Lord’s portion, Israel the measured lot of his inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:8–9). We shall need to state the reason for being born into each territory under the one to whom that territory was allotted, and how it was with good reason that “his people Jacob became the Lord’s portion, Israel the measured lot of his inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:9); and why formerly “the Lord’s portion was his people Jacob, Israel the measured lot of his inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:9), whereas of later times the Father says to the Saviour: “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession” (Psalm 2:8). For there are certain connections and sequences, unspeakable and beyond telling, in the varied ordering of human souls.