IRENAEUS AGAINST HERESIES -- BOOK IV (Chap. I to Chap. XX)
BOOK IV.
PREFACE.
- By transmitting to thee, my very dear friend, this fourth book of the work
which is [entitled] The Detection and Refuation of False Knowledge, I shall, as I
have promised, add weight, by means of the words of the Lord, to what I have
already advanced; so that thou also, as thou hast requested, mayest obtain from
me the means of confuting all the heretics everywhere, and not permit them,
beaten back at all points, to launch out further into the deep of error, nor to be
drowned in the sea of ignorance; but that thou, turning them into the haven of
the truth, mayest cause them to attain their salvation.
2. The man, however, who would undertake their conversion, must possess an
accurate knowledge of their systems or schemes of doctrine. For it is
impossible for any one to heal the sick, if he has no knowledge of the disease of the
patients. This was the reason that my predecessors--much superior men to myself,
too--were unable, notwithstanding, to refute the Valentinians satisfactorily,
because they were ignorant of these men's system;(1) which I have with all care
delivered to thee in the first book in which I have also shown that their
doctrine is a recapitulation of all the heretics. For which reason also, in the
second, we have had, as in a mirror, a sight of their entire discomfiture. For
they who oppose these men (the Valentinians) by the right method, do [thereby]
oppose all who are of an evil mind; and they who overthrow them, do in fact
overthrow every kind of heresy.
3. For their system is blasphemous above all [others], since they
represent that the Maker and Framer, who is one God, as I have shown, was produced from
a defect or apostasy. They utter blasphemy, also, against our Lord, by cutting
off and dividing Jesus from Christ, and Christ from the Saviour, and again the
Saviour from the Word, and the Word from the Only-begotten. And since they
allege that the Creator originated from a defect or apostasy, so have they also
taught that Christ and the Holy Spirit were emitted on account of this defect,
and that the Saviour was a product of those Aeons who were produced from a
defect; so that there is nothing but blasphemy to be found among them. In the
preceding book, then, the ideas of the apostles as to all these points have been set
forth, [to the effect] that not only did they, "who from the beginning were
eye-witnesses and ministers of the word"(2) of truth, hold no such opinions, but
that they did also preach to us to shun these doctrines,(3) foreseeing by the
Spirit those weak-minded persons who should be led astray.(4)
4. For as the serpent beguiled Eve, by promising her what he had not
himself,(5) so also do these men, by pretending [to possess] superior knowledge, and
[to be acquainted with] ineffable mysteries; and, by promising that admittance
which they speak of as taking place within the Pleroma, plunge those that
believe them into death, rendering them apostates from Him who made them. And at
that time, indeed, the apostate angel, having effected the disobedience of
mankind by means of the serpent, imagined that he escaped the notice of the Lord;
wherefore God assigned him the form(6) and name [of a serpent]. But now, since the
last times are [come upon us], evil is spread abroad among men, which not only
renders them apostates, but by many machinations does [the devil] raise up
blasphemers against the Creator, namely, by means of all the heretics already
mentioned. For all these, although they issue forth from diverse regions, and
promulgate different [opinions], do nevertheless concur in the same blasphemous
design, wounding [men] unto death, by teaching blasphemy against God our Maker and
Supporter, and derogating from the salvation of man. Now man is a mixed
organization of soul and flesh, who was formed after the likeness of God, and moulded
by His hands, that is, by the Son and Holy Spirit, to whom also He said, "Let
Us make man."(1) This, then, is the aim of him who envies our life, to render
men disbelievers in their own salvation, and blasphemous against God the Creator.
For whatsoever all the heretics may have advanced with the utmost solemnity,
they come to this at last, that they blaspheme the Creator, and disallow the
salvation of God's workmanship, which the flesh truly is; on behalf of which I
have proved, in a variety of ways, that the Son of God accomplished the whole
dispensation [of mercy], and have shown that there is none other called God by the
Scriptures except the Father of all, and the Son, and those who possess the
adoption.
CHAP. I.--THE LORD ACKNOWLEDGED BUT ONE GOD AND FATHER.
1. Since, therefore, this is sure and stedfast, that no other God or Lord
was announced by the Spirit, except Him who, as God, rules over all, together
with His Word, and those who receive the Spirit of adoption,(2) that is, those
who believe in the one and true God, and in Jesus Christ the Son of God; and
likewise that the apostles did Of themselves term no one else as God, or name [no
other] as Lord; and, what is much more important, [since it is true] that our
Lord [acted likewise], who did also command us to confess no one as Father,
except Him who is in the heavens, who is the one God and the one Father;--those
things are clearly shown to be false which these deceivers and most perverse
sophists advance, maintaining that the being whom they have themselves invented is
by nature both God and Father; but that the I Demiurge is naturally neither God
nor Father, but is so termed merely by courtesy (verbo tenus), because of his
ruling the creation, these perverse mythologists state, setting their thoughts
against God; and, putting aside the doctrine of Christ, and of themselves
divining falsehoods, they dispute against the entire dispensation of God. For they
maintain that their Aeons, and gods, and fathers, and lords, are also still
further termed heavens, together with their Mother, whom they do also call "the
Earth," and "Jerusalem," while they also style her many other names.
2. Now to whom is it not clear, that if the Lord had known many fathers
and gods, He would not have taught His disciples to know [only] one God,(3) and
to call Him alone Father? But He did the rather distinguish those who by word
merely (verbo tenus) are termed gods, from Him who is truly God, that they should
not err as to His doctrine, nor understand one [in mistake] for another. And
if He did indeed teach us to call one Being Father and God, while He does from
time to time Himself confess other fathers and gods in the same sense, then He
will appear to enjoin a different course upon His disciples from what He
follows Himself. Such conduct, however, does not bespeak the good teacher, but a
misleading and invidious one. The apostles, too, according to these men's showing,
are proved to be transgressors of the commandment, since they confess the
Creator as God, and Lord, and Father, as I have shown--if He is not alone God and
Father. Jesus, therefore, will be to them the author and teacher of such
transgression, inasmuch as He commanded that one Being should be called Father,(4) thus
imposing upon them the necessity of confessing the Creator as their Father, as
has been pointed out.
CHAP.II.--PROOFS FROM THE PLAIN TESTIMONY OF MOSES, AND OF THE OTHER PROPHETS,
WHOSE WORDS ARE THE WORDS OF CHRIST, THAT THERE IS BUT ONE GOD, THE FOUNDER OF
THE WORLD, WHOM OUR LORD PREACHED, AND WHOM HE CALLED HIS FATHER.
1. Moses, therefore, making a recapitulation of the whole law, which he
had received from the Creator (Demiurge), thus speaks in Deuteronomy: "Give ear,
O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth."(5)
Again, David saying that his help came from the Lord, asserts: "My help is from
the LORD, who made heaven and earth."(6) And Esaias confesses that words were
uttered by God, who made heaven and earth, and governs them. He says: "Hear, O
heavens; and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken."(7) And again: "Thus
saith the LORD God, who made the heaven, and stretched it out; who established
the earth, and the things in it; and who giveth breath to the people upon it,
and spirit to them who walk therein."(8)
2. Again, our Lord Jesus Christ confesses this same Being as His Father,
where He says: "I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth."(1) What
Father will those men have us to understand [by these words], those who are
most perverse sophists of Pandora? Whether shall it be Bythus, whom they have
fabled of themselves; or their Mother; or the Only-begotten? Or shall it be he whom
the Marcionites or the others have invented as god (whom I indeed have amply
demonstrated to be no god at all); or shall it be (what is really the case) the
Maker of heaven and earth, whom also the prophets proclaimed,--whom Christ,
too, confesses as His Father,--whom also the law announces, saying: "Hear, O
Israel; The Lord thy God is one God?"(2)
3. But since the writings (litera) of Moses are the words of Christ, He
does Himself declare to the Jews, as John has recorded in the Gospel: "If ye had
believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye
believe not his writings, neither will ye believe My words."(3) He thus indicates in
the cleareat manner that the writings of Moses are His words. If, then, [this
be the case with regard] to Moses, so also, beyond a doubt, the words of the
other prophets are His [words], as I have pointed out. And again, the Lord Himself
exhibits Abraham as having said to the rich man, with reference to all those
who were still alive: "If they do not obey Moses and the prophets, neither, if
any one were to rise from the dead and go to them, will they believe him."(4)
4. Now, He has not merely related to us a story respecting a poor man and
a rich one; but He has taught us, in the first place, that no one should lead a
luxurious life, nor, living in worldly pleasures and perpetual feastings,
should be the slave of his lusts, and forget God. "For there was," He says, "a rich
man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and delighted himself with
splendid feasts."(5)
Of such persons, too, the Spirit has spoken by Esaias: "They drink wine
with [the accompaniment of] harps, and tablets, and psalteries, and flutes; but
they regard not the works of God, neither do they consider the work of His
hands."(6) Lest, therefore, we should incur the same punishment as these men, the
Lord reveals [to us] their end; showing at the same time, that if they obeyed
Moses and the prophets, they would believe in Him whom these had preached, the Son
of God, who rose from the dead, and bestows life upon us; and He shows that
all are from one essence, that is, Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets, and also
the Lord Himself, who rose from the dead, in whom many believe who are of the
circumcision, who do also hear Moses and the prophets announcing the coming of
the Son of God. But those who scoff [at the truth] assert that these men were
from another essence, and they do not know the first-begotten from the dead;
understanding Christ as a distinct being, who continued as if He were impassible,
and Jesus, who suffered, as being altogether separate [from Him].
5. For they do not receive from the Father the knowledge of the Son;
neither do they learn who the Father is from the Son, who teaches clearly and
without parables Him who truly is God. He says: "Swear not at all; neither by heaven,
for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; neither by
Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King."(7) For these words are
evidently spoken with reference to the Creator, as also Esaias says: "Heaven is my
throne, the earth is my footstool."(8) And besides this Being there is no other
God; otherwise He would not be termed by the Lord either" God" or" the great
King;" for a Being who can be so described admits neither of any other being
compared with nor set above Him. For he who has any superior over him, and is under
the power of another, this being never can be called either "God" or "the great
King."
6. But neither will these men be able to maintain that such words were
uttered in an ironical manner, since it is proved to them by the words themselves
that they were in earnest. For He who uttered them was Truth, and did truly
vindicate His own house, by driving out of it the changers of money, who were
buying and selling, saying unto them: "It is written, My house shall be called the
house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."(9) And what reason had
He for thus doing and saying, and vindicating His house, if He did preach
another God? But [He did so], that He might point out the transgressors of His
Father's law; for neither did He bring any accusation against the house, nor did He
blame the law, which He had come to fulfil; but He reproved those who were
putting His house to an improper use, and those who were transgressing the law. And
therefore the scribes and Pharisees, too, who from the times of the law had
begun to despise God, did not receive His Word, that is, they did not believe on
Christ. Of these Esaias says: "Thy princes are rebellious, companions of
thieves, loving gifts, following after rewards, not judging the fatherless, and
negligent of the cause of the widows."(10) And Jeremiah, in like manner: "They," he
says, "who rule my people did not know me; they are senseless and imprudent
children; they are wise to do evil, but to do well they have no knowledge."(1)
7. But as many as feared God, and were anxious about His law, these ran to
Christ, and were all saved. For He said to His disciples: "Go ye to the sheep
of the house of Israel,(2) which have perished." And many more Samaritans, it
is said, when the Lord had tarried among. them, two days, "believed because of
His words, and said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for
we ourselves have heard [Him], and know that this man is truly the Saviour of
the world."(3) And Paul likewise declares, "And so all Israel shall be
saved;"(4) but he has also said, that the law was our pedagogue [to bring us] to Christ
Jesus.(5) Let them not therefore ascribe to the law the unbelief of certain
[among them]. For the law never hindered them from believing in the Son of God;
nay, but it even exhorted them(6) so to do, saying(7) that men can be saved in
no other way from the old wound of the serpent than by believing in Him who, in
the likeness of sinful flesh, is lifted up from the earth upon the tree of
martyrdom, and draws all things to Himself,(8) and vivifies the dead.
CHAP. III.--ANSWER TO THE CAVILS OF THE GNOS TICS. WE ARE NOT TO SUPPOSE THAT
THE TRUE GOD CAN BE CHANGED, OR COME TO AN END BECAUSE THE HEAVENS, WHICH ARE
HIS THRONE AND THE EARTH, HIS FOOTSTOOL, SHALL PASS AWAY.
1. Again, as to their malignantly asserting that if heaven is indeed the
throne of God, and earth His footstool, and if it is declared that the heaven and
earth shall pass away, then when these pass away the God who sitteth above must
also pass away, and therefore He cannot be the God who is over all; in the
first place, they are ignorant what the expression means, that heaven is [His]
throne and earth [His] footstool. For they do not know what God is, but they
imagine that He sits after the fashion of a man, and is contained within bounds, but
does not contain. And they are also unacquainted with [the meaning of] the
passing away of the heaven and earth; but Paul was not ignorant of it when he
declared, "For the figure of this world passeth away."(9) In the next place, David
explains their question, for he says that when the fashion of this world passes
away, not only shall God remain, but His servants also, expressing himself
thus in the 101st Psalm: "In the beginning, Thou; O LORD, hast founded the earth,
and the heavens are the works of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt
endure, and all shall wax old as a garment; and as a vesture Thou shalt change
them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not
fail. The children of Thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be
established for ever;"(10))pointing out plainly what things they are that pass
away, and who it is that doth endure for ever God, together with His servants. And
in like manner Esaias says: "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon
the earth beneath; for the heaven has been set together as smoke, and the earth
shall wax old like a garment, and they who dwell therein shall die in like
manner. But my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not pass
away."(11)
CHAP. IV.--ANSWER TO ANOTHER OBJECTION, SHOWING THAT THE DESTRUCTION OF
JERUSALEM, WHICH WAS THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING, DIMINISHED NOTHING FROM THE SUPREME
MAJESTY' AND POWER OF GOD, FOR THAT THIS DESTRUCTION WAS PUT IN EXECUTION BY
THE MOST WISE COUNSEL OF THE SAME GOD.
1. Further, also, concerning Jerusalem and the Lord, they venture to
assert that, if it had been "the city of the great King,"(12) it would not have
been deserted.(13) This is just as if any one should say, that if straw were a
creation of God, it would never part company with the wheat; and that the vine
twigs, if made by God, never would be lopped away and deprived of the clusters.
But as these [vine twigs] have not been originally made for their own sake, but
for that of the fruit growing upon them, which being come to maturity and taken
away, they are left behind, and those which do not conduce to fructification
are lopped off altogether; so also [was it with] Jerusalem, which had in herself
borne the yoke of bondage (under which man was reduced, who in former times was
not subject to God when death was reigning, and being subdued, became a fit
subject for liberty), when the fruit of liberty had come, and reached maturity,
and been reaped and stored in the barn, and when those which had the power to
produce fruit had been carried away from her [i.e., from Jerusalem], and
scattered throughout all the world. Even as Esaias saith, "The children of Jacob shall
strike root, and Israel shall flourish, and the whole world shall be filled
with his fruit."(1) The fruit, therefore, having been sown throughout all the
world, she (Jerusalem) was deservedly forsaken, and those things which had
formerly brought forth fruit abundantly were taken away; for from these, according to
the flesh, were Christ and the apostles enabled to bring forth fruit. But now
these are no longer useful for bringing forth fruit. For all things which have a
beginning in time must of course have an end in time also.
2. Since, then, the law originated with Moses, it terminated with John as
a necessary consequence. Christ had come to fulfil it: wherefore "the law and
the prophets were" with them "until John."(2) And therefore Jerusalem, taking
its commencement from David,(3) and fulfilling its own times, must have an end of
legislation(4) when the new covenant was revealed. For God does all things by
measure and in order; nothing is unmeasured with Him, because nothing is out of
order. Well spake he, who said that the unmeasurable Father was Himself
subjected to measure in the Son; for the Son is the measure of the Father, since He
also comprehends Him. But that the administration of them (the Jews) was
temporary, Esaias says: "And the daughter of Zion shall be left as a cottage in a
vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers."(5) And when shall these things
be left behind? Is it not when the fruit shall be taken away, and the leaves
alone shall be left, which now have no power of producing fruit?
3. But why do we speak of Jerusalem, since, indeed, the fashion of the
whole world must also pass away, when the time of its disappearance has come, in
order that the fruit indeed may be gathered into the garner, but the chaff, left
behind, may be consumed by fire? "For the day of the Lord cometh as a burning
furnace, and all sinners shall be stubble, they who do evil things, and the day
shall burn them up."(6) Now, who this Lord is that brings such a day about,
John the Baptist points out, when he says of Christ, "He shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost and with fire, having His fan in His hand to cleanse His floor;
and He will gather His fruit into the garner, but the chaff He will burn up with
unquenchable fire."(7) For He who makes the chaff and He who makes the wheat
are not different persons, but one and the same, who judges them, that is,
separates them. But the wheat and the chaff, being inanimate and irrational, have
been made such by nature. But man, being endowed with reason, and in this respect
like to God, having been made free in his will, and with power over himself,
is himself the cause to himself, that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes
chaff. Wherefore also he shall be justly condemned, because, having been
created a rational being, he lost the true rationality, and living irrationally,
opposed the righteousness of God, giving himself over to every earthly spirit, and
serving all lusts; as says the prophet, "Man, being in honour, did not
understand: he was assimilated to senseless beasts, and made like to them."(8)
CHAP. V.--THE AUTHOR RETURNS TO HIS FORMER ARGUMENT, AND SHOWS THAT THERE WAS
BUT ONE GOD ANNOUNCED BY THE LAW AND PROPHETS, WHOM CHRIST CONFESSES AS HIS
FATHER, AND WHO, THROUGH HIS WORD, ONE LIVING GOD WITH HIM, MADE HIMSELF KNOWN TO
MEN IN BOTH COVENANTS.
1. God, therefore, is one and the same, who rolls up the heaven as a book,
and renews the face of the earth; who made the things of time. for man, so
that coming to maturity in them, he may produce the fruit of immortality; and who,
through His kindness, also bestows [upon him] eternal things, "that in the
ages to come He may show the exceeding riches of His grace;"(9) who was announced
by the law and the prophets, whom Christ confessed as His Father. Now He is
the Creator, and He it is who is God over all, as Esaias says, "I am witness,
saith the LORD God, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know, and
believe, and understand that I AM. Before me there was no other God, neither shall
be after me. I am God, and besides me there is no Saviour. I have proclaimed,
and I have saved."(10) And again: "I myself am the first God, and I am above
things to come."(11) For neither in an ambiguous, nor arrogant, nor boastful
manner, does He say these things; but since it was impossible, without God, to come
to a knowledge of God, He teaches men, through His Word, to know God. To those,
therefore, who are ignorant of these matters, and on this account imagine that
they have discovered another Father, justly does one say, "Ye do err, not
knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God."(12)
2. For our Lord and Master, in the answer which He gave to the Sadducees,
who say that there is no resurrection, and who do therefore dishonour God, and
lower the credit of the law, did both indicate a resurrection, and reveal God,
saying to them, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God."
"For, touching the resurrection of the dead," He says, "have ye not read that
which was spoken by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob?(1) And He added, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the
living; for all live to Him." By these arguments He unquestionably made it
clear, that He who spake to Moses out of the bush, and declared Himself to be the
God of the fathers, He is the God of the living. For who is the God of the
living unless He who is God, and above whom there is no other God? Whom also Daniel
the prophet, when Cyrus king of the Persians said to him, "Why dost thou not
worship Bel?"(2) did proclaim, saying, "Because I do not worship idols made with
hands, but the living God, who established the heaven and the earth and has
dominion over all flesh." Again did he say, "I will adore the Lord my God, because
He is the living God." He, then, who was adored by the prophets as the living
God, He is the God of the living; and His Word is He who also spake to Moses,
who also put the Sadducees to silence, who also bestowed the gift of
resurrection, thus revealing [both] truths to those who are blind, that is, the
resurrection and God [in His true character]. For if He be not the God of the dead, but
of the living, yet was called the God of the fathers who were sleeping, they do
indubitably live to God, and have not passed out of existence, since they are
children of the resurrection. But our Lord is Himself the resurrection, as He
does Himself declare, "I am the resurrection and the life."(3) But the fathers
are His children; for it is said by the prophet: "Instead of thy fathers, thy
children have been made to thee."(4) Christ Hi'mself, therefore, together with the
Father, is the God of the living, who spake to Moses, and who was also
manifested to the fathers.
3. And teaching this very thing, He said to the Jews: "Your father
Abraham rejoiced that he should see my day; and he saw it, and was glad"(5) What is
intended? "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness."(6) In the first place, [he believed] that He was the maker of heaven and
earth, the only God; and in the next place, that He would make his seed as the stars
of heaven. This is what is meant by Paul, [when he says,] "as lights in the
world."(7) Righteously, therefore, having left his earthly kindred, he followed
the Word of God, walking as a pilgrim with the Word, that he might [afterwards]
have his abode with the Word.
4. Righteously also the apostles, being of the race of Abraham, left the
ship and their father, and followed the Word. Righteously also do we, possessing
the same faith as Abraham, and taking up the cross as Isaac did the wood?
follow Him. For in Abraham man had learned beforehand, and had been accustomed to
follow the Word of God. For Abraham, according to his faith, followed the
command of the Word of God, and with a ready mind delivered up, as a sacrifice to
God, his only-begotten and beloved son, in order that God also might be pleased to
offer up for all his seed His own beloved and only-begotten Son, as a
sacrifice for our redemption.
5. Since, therefore, Abraham was a prophet and saw in the Spirit the day
of the Lord's coming, and the dispensation of His suffering, through whom both
he himself and all who, following the example of his faith, trust in God,
should be saved, he rejoiced exceedingly. The Lord, therefore, was not unknown to
Abraham, whose day he desired to see;(9) nor, again, was the Lord's Father, for
he had learned from the Word of the Lord, and believed Him; wherefore it was
accounted to him by the Lord for righteousness. For faith towards God justifies a
man; and therefore he said, "I will stretch forth my hand to the most high God,
who made the heaven and the earth."(10) All these truths, however, do those
holding perverse opinions endeavour to overthrow, because of one passage, which
they certainly do not understand correctly.
CHAP. VI.--EXPLANATION OF THE WORDS OF CHRIST, "NO MAN KNOWETH THE FATHER, BUT
THE SON," ETC.; WHICH WORDS THE HERETICS MISINTERPRET. pROOF THAT, BY THE
FATHER REVEALING THE SON, AND BY THE SON BEING REVEALED, THE FATHER WAS NEVER
UNKNOWN.
1. For the Lord, revealing Himself to His disciples, that He Himself is
the Word, who imparts knowledge of the Father, and reproving the Jews, who
imagined that they, had [the knowledge of] God, while they nevertheless rejected
His Word, through whom God is made known, declared, "No man knoweth the Son,
but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom
the Son has willed to reveal [Him]."(11) Thus hath Matthew set it down, and
Luke in like manner, and Mark(1) the very same; for John omits this passage.
They, however, who would be wiser than the apostles, write [the verse] in the
following manner: "No man knew the Father, but the Son; nor the Son, but the Father,
and he to whom the Son has willed to reveal [Him];" and they explain it as if
the true God were known to none prior to our Lord's advent; and that God who
was announced by the prophets, they allege not to be the Father of Christ.
But if Christ did then [only] begin to have existence when He came [into
the world] as man, and [if] the Father did remember [only] in the times of
Tiberius Caesar to provide for [the wants of] men, and His Word was shown to have
not always coexisted with His creatures; [it may be remarked that] neither then
was it necessary that another God should be proclaimed, but [rather] that the
reasons for so great carelessness and neglect on His part should be made the
subject of investigation. For it is fitting that no such question should arise,
and gather such strength, that it would indeed both change God, and destroy our
faith in that Creator who supports us by means of His creation. For as we do
direct our faith towards the Son, so also should we possess a firm and immoveable
love towards the Father. In his book against Marcion, Justin(2) does well say:
"I would not have believed the Lord Himself, if He had announced any other than
He who is our framer, maker, and nourisher. But because the only-begotten Son
came to us from the one God, who both made this world and formed us, and
contains and administers all things, summing up His own handiwork in Himself, my
faith towards Him is steadfast, and my love to the Father immoveable, God bestowing
both upon us."
3. For no one can know the Father, unless through the Word of God, that
is, unless by the Son revealing [Him]; neither can he have knowledge of the Son,
unless through the good pleasure of the Father. But the Son performs the good
pleasure of the Father; for the Father sends, and the Son is sent, and comes.
And His Word knows that His Father is, as far as regards us, invisible and
infinite; and since He cannot be declared [by any one else], He does Himself declare
Him to us; and, on the other hand, it is the Father alone who knows His own
Word. And both these truths has our Lord declared. Wherefore the Son reveals the
knowledge of the Father through His own manifestation. For the manifestation of
the Son is the knowledge of the Father; for all things are manifested through
the Word. In order, therefore, that we might know that the Son who came is He
who imparts to those believing on Him a knowledge of the Father, He said to His
disciples:(3) "No man knoweth the Son but the Father, nor the Father but the
Son, and those to whomsoever the Son shall reveal Him;" thus setting Himself forth
and the Father as He [really] is, that we may not receive any other Father,
except Him who is revealed by the Son.
4. But this [Father] is the Maker of heaven and earth, as is shown from
His words; and not he, the false father, who has been invented by Marcion, or by
Valentinus, or by Basilides, or by Carpocrates, or by Simon, or by the rest of
the "Gnostics," falsely so called. For none of these was the Son of God; but
Christ Jesus our Lord [was], against whom they set their teaching in opposition,
and have the daring to preach an unknown God. But they ought to hear [this]
against themselves: How is it that He is unknown, who is known by them? for,
whatever is known even by a few, is not unknown. But the Lord did not say that both
the Father and the Son could not be known at all (in tatum), for in that case
His advent would have been superfluous. For why did He come hither? Was it that
He should say to us, "Never mind seeking after God; for He is unknown, and ye
shall not find Him;" as also the disciples of Valentinus falsely declare that
Christ said to their AEons? But this is indeed vain. For the Lord taught us that
no man is capable of knowing God, unless he be taught of God; that is, that God
cannot be known without God: but that this is the express will of the Father,
that God should be known. For they shall know(4) Him to whomsoever the Son has
revealed Him.
5. And for this purpose did the Father reveal the Son, that through His
instrumentality He might be manifested to all, and might receive those righteous
ones who believe in Him into incorruption and everlasting enjoyment (now, to
believe in Him is to do His will); but He shall righteously shut out into the
darkness which they have chosen for themselves, those who do not believe, and who
do consequently avoid His light. The Father therefore has revealed Himself to
all, by making His Word visible to all; and, conversely, the Word has declared
to all the Father and the Son, since He has become visible to all. And therefore
the righteous judgment of God [shall fall] upon all who, like others, have
seen, but have not, like others, believed.
6. For by means of the creation itself, the Word reveals God the Creator;
and by means of the world [does He declare] the Lord the Maker of the world;
and by means of the formation [of man] the Artificer who formed him; and by the
Son that Father who begat the Son: and these things do indeed address all men in
the same manner, but all do not in the same way believe them. But by the law
and the prophets did the Word preach both Himself and the Father alike [to all];
and all the people heard Him alike, but all did not alike believe. And through
the Word Himself who had been made visible and palpable, was the Father shown
forth, although all did not equally believe in Him; but all saw the Father in
the Son: for the Father is the invisible of the Son, but the Son the visible of
the Father. And for this reason all spake with Christ when He was present [upon
earth], and they named Him God. Yea, even the demons exclaimed, on beholding
the Son: "We know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God."' And the devil
looking at Him, and tempting Him, said: "If Thou art the Son of God;"(2)--all thus
indeed seeing and speaking of the Son and the Father, but all not believing [in
them].
7. For it was fitting that the truth should receive testimony from all,
and should become [a means of] judgment for the salvation indeed of those who
believe, but for the condemnation of those who believe not; that all should be
fairly judged, and that the faith in the Father and Son should be approved by
all, that is, that it should be established by all [as the one means of
salvation], receiving testimony from all, both from those belonging to it, since they are
its friends, and by those having no connection with it, though they are its
enemies. For that evidence is true, and cannot be gainsaid, which elicits even
from its adversaries striking a testimonies in its behalf; they being convinced
with respect to the matter in hand by their own plain contemplation of it, and
bearing testimony to it, as well as declaring it.(4) But after a while they
break forth into enmity, and become accusers [of what they had approved], and are
desirous that their own testimony should not be [regarded as] true. He,
therefore, who was known, was not a different being from Him who declared "No man
knoweth the Father," but one and the same, the Father making all things subject to
Him; while He received testimony from all that He was very man, and that He was
very God, from the Father, from the Spirit, from angels, from the creation
itself, from men, from apostate spirits and demons, from the enemy, and last of
all, from death itself. But the Son, administering all things for the Father,
works from the beginning even to the end, and without Him no man can attain the
knowledge of God. For the Son is the knowledge of the Father; but the knowledge of
the Son is in the Father, and has been revealed through the Son; and this was
the reason why the Lord declared: "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; nor
the Father, save the Son, and those to whomsoever the Son shall reveal
[Him]."(5) For "shall reveal" was said not with reference to the future alone, as if
then [only] the Word had begun to manifest the Father when He was born of Mary,
but it applies indifferently throughout all time. For the Son, being present
with His own handiwork from the beginning, reveals the Father to all; to whom He
wills, and when He wills, and as the Father wills. Wherefore, then, in all
things, and through all things, there is one God, the Father, and one Word, and one
Son, and one Spirit, and one salvation to all who believe in Him.
CHAP. VII.--RECAPITULATION OF THE FOREGOING ARGUMENT, SHOWING THAT ABRAHAM,
THROUGH THE REVELATION OF THE WORD, KNEW THE FATHER, AND THE COMING OF THE SON OF
GOD. FOR THIS CAUSE, HE REJOICED TO SEE THE DAY OF CHRIST, WHEN THE PROMISES
MADE TO HIM SHOULD BE FULFILLED. THE FRUIT OF THIS REJOICING HAS FLOWED TO
POSTERITY, VIZ., TO THOSE WHO ARE PARTAKERS IN THE FAITH OF ABRAHAM, BUT NOT TO THE
JEWS WHO REJECT THE WORD OF GOD.
1. Therefore Abraham also, knowing the. Father through the Word, who made
heaven and earth, confessed Him to be God; and having learned, by an
announcement [made to him], that the Son of God would be a man among men, by whose
advent his seed should be as the stars of heaven, he desired to see that day, so
that he might himself also embrace Christ; and, seeing it through the spirit of
prophecy, he rejoiced.(6) Wherefore Simeon also, one of his descendants, carried
fully out the rejoicing of the patriarch, and said: "Lord, now lettest Thou
Thy servant depart in peace. For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou
hast prepared before the face of all people: a light for the revelation of the
Gentiles,(1) and the glory of the people Israel."(2) And the angels, in like
manner, announced tidings of great joy to the shepherds who were keeping watch by
night.(3) Moreover, Mary said, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my salvation;"(4)--the rejoicing of Abraham descending upon
those who sprang from him,--those, namely, who were watching, and who beheld
Christ, and believed in Him; while, on the other hand, there was a reciprocal
rejoicing which passed backwards from the children to Abraham, who did also desire
to see the day of Christ's coming. Rightly, then, did our Lord bear witness to
him, saying, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and
was glad."
2. For not alone upon Abraham's account did He say these things, but also
that He might point out how all who have known God from the beginning, and have
foretold the advent of Christ, have received the revelation from the Son
Himself; who also in the last times was made visible and passable, and spake with
the human race, that He might from the stones raise up children unto Abraham, and
fulfil the promise which God had given him, and that He might make his seed as
the stars of heaven,(5) as John the Baptist says: "For God is able from these
stones to raise up children unto Abraham."(6) Now, this Jesus did by drawing us
off from the religion of stones, and bringing us over from hard and fruitless
cogitations, and establishing in us a faith like to Abraham. As Paul does also
testify, saying that we are children of Abraham because of the similarity of
our faith, and the promise of inheritance.(7)
3. He is therefore one and the same God, who called Abraham and gave him
the promise. But He is the Creator, who does also through Christ prepare lights
in the world, [namely] those who believe from among the Gentiles. And He says,
"Ye are the light of the world;"(8) that is, as the stars of heaven. Him,
therefore, I have rightly shown to be known by no man, unless by the Son, and to
whomsoever the Son shall reveal Him. But the Son reveals the Father to all to whom
He wills that He should be known; and neither without the goodwill of the
Father nor without the agency of the Son, can any man know God. Wherefore did the
Lord say to His disciples, "I am the way, the truth, and the life and no man
cometh unto the Father but by Me. If ye had known Me, ye would have known My
Father also: and from henceforth ye have both known Him, and have seen Him."(9) From
these words it is evident, that He is known by the Son, that is, by the Word.
4. Therefore have the Jews departed from God, in not receiving His Word,
but imagining that they could know the Father [apart] by Himself, without the
Word, that is, without the Son; they being ignorant of that God who spake in
human shape to Abraham,(10) and again to Moses, saying, "I have surely seen the
affliction of My people in Egypt, and I have come down to deliver them."(11) For
the Son, who is the Word of God, arranged these things beforehand from the
beginning, the Father being in no want of angels, in order that He might call the
creation into being, and form man, for whom also the creation was made; nor,
again, standing in need of any instrumentality for the framing of created things,
or for the ordering of those things which had reference to man; while, [at the
same time,] He has a vast and unspeakable number of servants. For His offspring
and His similitude(12) do minister to Him in every respect; that is, the Son
and the Holy Spirit, the Word and Wisdom; whom all the angels serve, and to whom
they are subject. Vain, therefore, ark those who, because of that declaration,
"No man knoweth the Father, but the Son,"(13) do introduce another unknown
Father.
CHAP. VIII.--VAIN AttEMPTS OF MARCION AND HIS FOLLOWERS, WHO EXCLUDE ABRAHAM
FROM THE SALVATION BESTOWED BY CHRIST, WHO LIBERATED NOT ONLY ABRAHAM, BUT THE
SEED OF ABRAHAM, BY FULFILLING AND NOT DESTROYING THE LAW WHEN HE HEALED ON THE
SABBATH-DAY.
1. Vain, too, is [the effort of] Marcion and his followers when they
[seek to] exclude Abraham from the inheritance, to whom the Spirit through many
men, and now by Paul, bears witness, that "he believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness."(14) And the Lord [also bears witness to him,] in the
first place, indeed, by raising up children to him from the stones, and making
his seed as the stars of heaven, saying, "They shall come from the east and
from the west, from the north and from the south, and shall recline with Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven;"(15) and then again by saying to
the Jews, "When ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the
prophets in the kingdom of heaven, but you yourselves cast out."(1) This, then, is a
clear point, that those who disallow his salvation, and frame the idea of
another God besides Him who made the promise to Abraham, are outside the kingdom of
God, and are disinherited from [the gift of] incorruption, setting at naught
and blaspheming God, who introduces, through Jesus Christ, Abraham to the kingdom
of heaven, and his seed, that is, the Church, upon which also is conferred the
adoption and the inheritance promised to Abraham.
2. For the Lord vindicated Abraham's posterity by loosing them from
bondage and calling them to salvation, as He did in the case of the woman whom He
healed, saying openly to those who had not faith like Abraham, "Ye hypocrites,(2)
doth not each one of you on the Sabbath-days loose his ox or his ass, and lead
him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan hath bound these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the
Sabbath-days?"(3) It is clear therefore, that He loosed and vivified those who
believe in Him as Abraham did, doing nothing contrary to the law when He healed upon
the Sabbath-day. For the law did not prohibit men from being healed upon the
Sabbaths; [on the contrary,] it even circumcised them upon that day, and gave
command that the offices should be performed by the priests for the people; yea,
it did not disallow the healing even of dumb animals. Both at Siloam and on
frequent subsequent(4) occasions, did He perform cures upon the Sabbath; and for
this reason many used to resort to Him on the Sabbath-days. For the law
commanded them to abstain from every servile work, that is, from all grasping after
wealth which is procured by trading and by other worldly business; but it exhorted
them to attend to the exercises of the soul, which consist in reflection, and
to addresses of a beneficial kind for their neighbours' benefit. And therefore
the Lord reproved those who unjustly blamed Him for having healed upon the
Sabbath-days. For He did not make void, but fulfilled the law, by performing the
offices of the high priest, propitiating God for men, and cleansing the lepers,
healing the sick, and Himself suffering death, that exiled man might go forth
from condemnation, and might return without fear to his own inheritance.
3. And again, the law did not forbid those who were hungry on the
Sabbath-days to take food lying ready at hand: it did, however, forbid them to reap and
to gather into the barn. And therefore did the Lord say to those who were
blaming His disciples because they plucked and ate the ears of corn, rubbing them
in their hands, "Have ye not read this, what David did, when himself was an
hungered; how he went into the house of God, and ate the shew-bread, and gave to
those who were with him; which it is not lawful to eat, but for the priests
alone?"(5) justifying His disciples by the words of the law, and pointing out that
it was lawful for the priests to act freely. For David had been appointed a
priest by God, although Saul persecuted him. For all the righteous possess the
sacerdotal rank.(6) And all the apostles of the Lord are priests, who do inherit
here neither lands nor houses, but serve God and the altar continually. Of whom
Moses also says in Deuteronomy, when blessing Levi, "Who said unto his father
and to his mother, I have not known thee; neither did he acknowledge his
brethren, and he disinherited his own sons: he kept Thy commandments, and observed Thy
covenant."(7) But who are they that have left father and mother, and have said
adieu to all their neighbours, on account of the word of God and His covenant,
unless the disciples of the Lord? Of whom again Moses says, "They shall have no
inheritance, for the Lord Himself is their inheritance."(8) And again, "The
priests the Levites shall have no part in the whole tribe of Levi, nor substance
with Israel; their substance is the offerings (fructifications) of the Lord:
these shall they eat."(9) Wherefore also Paul says, "I do not seek after a gift,
but I seek after fruit."(10) To His disciples He said, who had a priesthood of
the Lord,(11) to whom it was lawful when hungry to eat the ears of corn,(12)
"For the workman is worthy of his meat."(13) And the priests in the temple
profaned the Sabbath, and were blameless. Wherefore, then, were they blameless?
Because when in the temple they were not engaged in secular affairs, but in the
service of the Lord, fulfilling the law, but not going beyond it, as that man did,
who of his own accord carded dry wood into the camp of God, and was justly
stoned to death.(14) "For every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be
hewn down, and cast into the fire;"(15) and "whosoever shall defile the temple
of God, him shall God defile."(16)
CHAP. IX.--THERE IS BUT ONE AUTHOR, AND ONE END TO BOTH COVENANTS.
1. All things therefore are of one and the same substance, that is, from
one and the same God; as also the Lord says to the disciples "Therefore every
scribe, which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man that
is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and
old."(1) He did not teach that he who brought forth the old was one, and he that
brought forth the new, another; but that they were one and the same. For the Lord
is the good man of the house, who rules the tire house of His Father; and who
delivers a law suited both for slaves and those who are as yet undisciplined;
and gives fitting precepts to those that are free, and have been justified by
faith, as well as throws His own inheritance open to those that are sons. And He
called His disciples "scribes" and "teachers of the kingdom of heaven;" of whom
also He elsewhere says to the Jews: "Behold, I send unto you wise men, and
scribes, and teachers; and some of them ye shall kill, and persecute from city to
city."(2) Now, without contradiction, He means by those things which are brought
forth from the treasure new and old, the two covenants; the old, that giving
of the law which took place formerly; and He points out as the new, that manner
of life required by the Gospel, of which David says, "Sing unto the LORD a new
song;"(3) and Esaias, "Sing unto the LORD a new hymn. His beginning (initium),
His name is glorified from the height of the earth: they declare His powers in
the isles."(4) And Jeremiah says: "Behold, I will make a new covenant, not as I
made with your fathers"(5) in Mount Horeb. But one and the same householder
produced both covenants, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who spake with
both Abraham and Moses, and who has restored us anew to liberty, and has
multiplied that grace which is from Himself.
2. He declares: "For in this place is One greater than the temple."(6) But
[the words] greater and less are not applied to those things which have
nothing in common between themselves, and are of an opposite nature, and mutually
repugnant; but are used in the case of those of the same substance, and which
possess properties in common, but merely differ in number and size; such as water
from water, and light from light, and grace from grace. Greater, therefore, is
that legislation which has been given in order liberty than that given in order
to bondage; and therefore it has also been diffused, not throughout one nation
[only], but over the whole world. For one and the same Lord, who is greater
than the temple, greater than Solomon, and greater than Jonah, confers gifts upon
men, that is, His own presence, and the resurrection from the dead; but He does
not change God, nor proclaim another Father, but that very same one, who
always has more to measure out to those of His household. And as their love towards
God increases, He bestows more and greater [gifts]; as also the Lord said to
His disciples: "Ye shall see greater things than these."(7) And Paul declares:
"Not that I have already attained, or that I am justified, or already have been
made perfect. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which
is perfect has come, the things which are in part shall be done away."(8) As,
therefore, when that which is perfect is come, we shall not see another Father,
but Him whom we now desire to see (for "blessed are the pure in heart: for they
shall see God"(9)); neither shall we look for another Christ and Son of God,
but Him who [was born] of the Virgin Mary, who also suffered, in whom too we
trust, and whom we love; as Esaias says: "And they shall say in that day, Behold
our LORD God, in whom we have trusted, and we have rejoiced in our
salvation;"(10) and Peter says in his Epistle: "Whom, not seeing, ye love; in whom, though
now ye see Him not, ye have believed, ye shall rejoice with joy
unspeakable;"(11) neither do we receive another Holy Spirit, besides Him who is with us, and
who cries, "Abba, Father;"(12) and we shall make increase in the very same things
[as now], and shall make progress, so that no longer through a glass, or by
means of enigmas, but face to face, we shall enjoy the gifts of God;--so also
now, receiving more than the temple, and more than Solomon, that is, the advent of
the Son of God, we have not been taught another God besides the Framer and the
Maker of all, who has been pointed out to us from the beginning; nor another
Christ, the Son of God, besides Him who was foretold by the prophets.
3. For the new covenant having been known and preached by the prophets, He
who was to carry it out according to the good pleasure of the Father was also
preached; having been revealed to men as God pleased; that they might always
make progress through believing in Him, and by means of the [successive]
covenants, should gradually attain to perfect salvation.(1) For there is one salvation
and one God; but the precepts which form the man are numerous, and the steps
which lead man to God are not a few. It is allowable for an earthly and temporal
king, though he is [but] a man, to grant to his subjects greater advantages at
times: shall not this then be lawful for God, since He is [ever] the same, and
is always willing to confer a greater [degree of] grace upon the human race,
and to honour continually with many gifts those who please Him? But if this be to
make progress, [namely,] to find out another Father besides Him who was
preached from the beginning; and again, besides him who is imagined to have been
discovered in the second place, to find out a third other,--then the progress of
this man will consist in his also proceeding from a third to a fourth; and from
this, again, to another and another: and thus he who thinks that he is always
making progress of such a kind, will never rest in one God. For, being driven
away from Him who truly is [God], and being turned backwards, he shall be for ever
seeking, yet shall never find out God;(2) but shall continually swim in an
abyss without limits, unless, being converted by repentance, he return to the
place from which he had been cast out, confessing one God, the Father, the Creator,
and believing [in Him] who was declared by the law and the prophets, who was
borne witness to by Christ, as He did Himself declare to those who were accusing
His disciples of not observing the tradition of the elders: "Why do ye make
void the law of God by reason of your tradition? For God said, Honour thy father
and mother; and, Whosoever curseth father or mother, let him die the death."(3)
And again, He says to them a second time: "And ye have made void the word of
God(4) by reason of your tradition;" Christ confessing in the plainest manner
Him to be Father and God, who said in the law, "Honour thy father and mother;
that it may be well with thee."(5) For the true God did confess the commandment of
the law as the word of God, and called no one else God besides His own Father.
CHAP. X. -- THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES, AND THOSE WRITTEN BY MOSES IN
PARTICULAR, DO EVERYWHERE MAKE MENTION OF THE SON OF GOD, AND FORETELL HIS ADVENT AND
PASSION. FROM THIS FACT IT FOLLOWS THAT THEY WERE INSPIRED BY ONE AND THE SAME
GOD.
- Wherefore also John does appropriately relate that the Lord said to the Jews:
"Ye search the Scriptures, in which ye think ye have eternal life; these are
they which testify of me. And ye are not willing to come unto Me, that ye may
have life."(6) How therefore did the Scriptures testify of Him, unless they were
from one and the same Father, instructing men beforehand as to the advent of
His Son, and foretelling the salvation brought in by Him? "For if ye had believed
Moses, ye would also have believed Me; for he wrote of Me;"(7) [saying this,]
no doubt, because the Son of God is implanted everywhere throughout his
writings: at one time, indeed, speaking with Abraham, when about to eat with him; at
another time with Noah, giving to him the dimensions [of the ark]; at another;
inquiring after Adam; at another, bringing down judgment upon the Sodomites;
and again, when He becomes visible,(8) and directs Jacob on his journey, and
speaks with Moses from the bush.(9) And it would be endless to recount [the
occasions] upon which the Son of God is shown forth by Moses. Of the day of His
passion, too, he was not ignorant; but foretold Him, after a figurative manner, by
the name given to the passover;(10) and at that very festival, which had been
proclaimed such a long time previously by Moses, did our Lord suffer, thus
fulfilling the passover. And he did not describe the day only, but the place also, and
the time of day at which the sufferings ceased,(11) and the sign of the
setting of the sun, saying: "Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any other
of thy cities which the LORD God gives thee; but in the place which the LORD
thy God shall choose that His name be called on there, thou shalt sacrifice the
passover at even, towards the setting of the sun."(12)
2. And already he had also declared His advent, saying, "There shall not
fail a chief in Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until He come for whom it is
laid up, and He is the hope of the nations; binding His foal to the vine, and
His ass's colt to the creeping ivy. He shall wash His stole in wine, and His
upper garment in the blood of the grape; His eyes shall be more joyous than
wine,(1) and His teeth whiter than milk."(2) For, let those who have the reputation
of investigating everything, inquire at what time a prince and leader failed
out of Judah, and who is the hope of the nations, who also is the vine, what was
the ass's colt [referred to as] His, what the clothing, and what the eyes, what
the teeth, and what the wine, and thus let them investigate every one of the
points mentioned; and they shall find that there was none other announced than
our Lord, Christ Jesus. Wherefore Moses, when chiding the ingratitude of the
people, said, "Ye infatuated people, and unwise, do ye thus requite the LORD?"(3)
And again, he indicates that He who from the beginning founded and created
them, the Word, who also redeems and vivifies us in the last times, is shown as
hanging on the tree, and they will not believe on Him. For he says, "And thy life
shall be hanging before thine eyes, and thou wilt not believe thy life."(4) And
again, "Has not this same one thy Father owned thee, and made thee, and
created thee?"(5)
CHAP. XI. --THE OLD PROPHETS AND RIGHTEOUS MEN KNEW BEFOREHAND OF THE ADVENT
OF CHRIST, AND EARNESTLY DESIRED TO SEE AND HEAR HIM, HE REVEALING HIMSELF IN
THE SCRIPTURES BY THE HOLY GHOST, AND WITHOUT ANY CHANGE IN HIMSELF, ENRICHING
MEN DAY BY DAY WITH BENEFITS, BUT CONFERRING THEM IN GREATER ABUNDANCE ON LATER
THAN ON FORMER GENERATIONS.
1. But that it was not only the prophets and many righteous men, who,
foreseeing through the Holy Spirit His advent, prayed that they might attain to
that period in which they should see their Lord face to face, and hear His words,
the Lord has made manifest, when He says to His disciples, "Many prophets and
righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen
them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."(6) In
what way, then, did they desire both to hear and to see, unless they had
foreknowledge of His future advent? But how could they have foreknown it, unless they
had previously received foreknowledge from Himself? And how do the Scriptures
testify of Him, unless all things had ever been revealed and shown to believers
by one and the same God through the Word; He at one time conferring with His
creature, and at another pro-pounding His law; at one time, again, reproving, at
another exhorting, and then setting free His servant, and adopting him as a son
(in filium); and, at the proper time, bestowing an incorruptible inheritance,
for the purpose of bringing man to perfection? For He formed him for growth and
increase, as the Scripture says: "Increase and multiply."(7)
2. And in this respect God differs from man, that God indeed makes, but
man is made; and truly, He who makes is always the same; but that which is made
must receive both beginning, and middle, and addition, and increase. And God
does indeed create after a skilful manner, while, [as regards] man, he is created
skilfully. God also is truly perfect in all things, Himself equal and similar
to Himself, as He is all light, and all mind, and all substance, and the fount
of all good; but man receives advancement and increase towards God. For as God
is always the same, so also man, when found in God, shall always go on towards
God. For neither does God at any time cease to confer benefits upon, or to
enrich man; nor does man ever cease from receiving the benefits, and being enriched
by God. For the receptacle of His goodness, and the instrument of His
glorification, is the man who is grateful to Him that made him; and again, the
receptacle of His just judgment is the ungrateful man, who both despises his Maker and
is not subject to His Word; who has promised that He will give very much to
those always bringing forth fruit, and more [and more] to those who have the Lord's
money. "Well done," He says, "good and faithful servant: because thou hast
been faithful in little, I will appoint thee over many things; enter thou into the
joy of thy Lord."(8) The Lord Himself thus promises very much.
3. As, therefore, He has promised to give very much to those who do now
bring forth fruit, according to the gift of His grace, but not according to the
changeableness of "knowledge;" for the Lord remains the same, and the same
Father is revealed; thus, therefore, has the one and the same Lord granted, by means
of His advent, a greater gift of grace to those of a later period, than what
He had granted to those under the Old Testament dispensation. For they indeed
used to hear, by means of [His] servants, that the King would come, and they
rejoiced to a certain extent, inasmuch as they hoped for His coming; but those who
have beheld Him actually present, and have obtained liberty, and been made
partakers of His gifts, do possess a greater amount of grace, and a higher degree
of exultation, rejoicing because of the King's arrival: as also David says, "My
soul shall rejoice in the LORD; it shall be glad in His salvation."(1) And for
this cause, upon His entrance into Jerusalem, all those who were in the way(2)
recognised David their king in His sorrow of soul, and spread their garments
for Him, and ornamented the way with green boughs, crying out with great joy and
gladness, "Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He that cometh in the name
of the Lord: hosanna in the highest."(3) But to the envious wicked stewards, who
circumvented those under them, and ruled over those that had no great
intelligence,(4) and for this reason were unwilling that the king should come, and who
said to Him, "Hearest thou what these say?" did the Lord reply, "Have ye never
read, Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast Thou perfected
praise?"(5)--thus pointing out that what had been declared by David concerning the Son of
God, was accomplished in His own person; and indicating that they were indeed
ignorant of the meaning of the Scripture and the dispensation of God; but
declaring that it was Himself who was announced by the prophets as Christ, whose name
is praised in all the earth, and who perfects praise to His Father from the
mouth of babes and sucklings; wherefore also His glory has been raised above the
heavens.
4. If, therefore, the self-same person is present who was announced by the
prophets, our Lord Jesus Christ, and if His advent has brought in a fuller
[measure of] grace and greater gifts to those who have received Him, it is plain
that the Father also is Himself the same who was proclaimed by the prophets, and
that the Son, on His coming, did not spread the knowledge of another Father,
but of the same who was preached from the beginning; from whom also He has
brought down liberty to those who, in a lawful manner, and with a willing mind, and
with all the heart, do Him service; whereas to scoffers, and to those not
subject to God, but who follow outward purifications for the praise of men (which
observances had been given as a type of future things, -- the law typifying, as
it were, certain things in a shadow, and delineating eternal things by temporal,
celestial by terrestrial), and to those who pretend that they do themselves
observe more than what has been prescribed, as if preferring their own zeal to
God Himself, while within they are full of hypocrisy, and covetousness, and all
wickedness, -- [to such] has He assigned everlasting perdition by cutting them
off from life.
CHAP.XII.--IT CLEARLY APPEARS THAT THERE WAS BUT ONE AUTHOR OF BOTH THE OLD
AND THE NEW LAW, FROM THE FACT THAT CHRIST CONDEMNED TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS
REPUGNANT TO THE FORMER, WHILE HE CONFIRMED ITS MOST IMPORTANT PRECEPTS, AND TAUGHT
THAT HE WAS HIMSELF THE END OF THE MOSAIC LAW.
1. For the tradition of the elders themselves, which they pretended to
observe from the law, was contrary to the law given by Moses. Wherefore also
Esaias declares: "Thy dealers mix the wine with water,"(6) showing that the elders
were in the habit of mingling a watered tradition with the simple command of
God; that is, they set up a spurious law, and one contrary to the[true] law; as
also the Lord made plain, when He said to them, "Why do ye transgress the
commandment of God, for the sake of your tradition?"(7) For not only by actual
transgression did they set the law of God at nought, mingling the wine with water; but
they also set up their own law in opposition to it, which is termed, even to
the present day, the pharisaical. In this [law] they suppress certain things,
add others, and interpret others, again, as they think proper, which their
teachers use, each one in particular; and desiring to uphold these traditions, they
were unwilling to be subject to the law of God, which prepares them for the
coming of Christ. But they did even blame the Lord for healing on the Sabbath-days,
which, as I have already observed, the law did not prohibit. For they did
themselves, in one sense, perform acts of healing upon the Sabbath-day, when they
circumcised a man [on that day]; but they did not blame themselves for
transgressing the command of God through tradition and the aforesaid pharisaical law,
and for not keeping the commandment of the law, which is the love of God.
2. But that this is the first and greatest commandment, and that the next
[has respect to love] towards our neighbour, the Lord has taught, when He says
that the entire law and the prophets hang upon these two commandments.
Moreover, He did not Himself bring down [from heaven] any other commandment greater
than this one, but renewed this very same one to His disciples, when He enjoined
them to love God with all their heart, and others as themselves. But if He had
descended from another Father, He never would have made use of the first and
greatest commandment of the law; but He would undoubtedly have endeavoured by all
means to bring down a greater one than this from the perfect Father, so as not
to make use of that which had been given by the God of the law. And Paul in
like manner declares, "Love is the fulfilling of the law:"(1) and [he declares]
that when all other things have been destroyed, there shall remain "faith, hope,
and love; but the greatest of all is love;"(2) and that apart from the love of
God, neither knowledge avails anything,(3) nor the understanding of mysteries,
nor faith, nor prophecy, but that without love all are hollow and vain;
moreover, that love makes man perfect; and that he who loves God is perfect, both in
this world and in that which is to come. For we do never cease from loving God;
but in proportion as we continue to contemplate Him, so much the more do we
love Him.
3. As in the law, therefore, and in the Gospel [likewise], the first and
greatest commandment is, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, and then
there follows a commandment like to it, to love one's neighbour as one's self; the
author of the law and the Gospel is shown to be one and the same. For the
precepts of an absolutely perfect life, since they are the same in each Testament,
have pointed out [to us] the same God, who certainly has promulgated particular
laws adapted for each; but the more prominent and the greatest [commandments],
without which salvation cannot [be attained], He has exhorted [us to observe]
the same in both.
4. The Lord, too, does not do away with this [God], when He shows that the
law was not derived from another God, expressing Himself as follows to those
who were being instructed by Him, to the multitude and to His disciples: "The
scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you
observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say,
and do not. For they bind heavy burdens, and lay them upon men's shoulders; but
they themselves will not so much as move them with a finger."(4) He therefore
did not throw blame upon that law which was given by Moses, when He exhorted it
to be observed, Jerusalem being as yet in safety; but He did throw blame upon
those persons, because they repeated indeed the words of the law, yet were
without love. And for this reason were they held as being unrighteous as respects
God, and as respects their neighbours. As also Isaiah says: "This people
honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me: howbeit in vain do they
worship Me, teaching the doctrines and the commandments of men."(5) He does not
call the law given by Moses commandments of men, but the traditions of the
eiders themselves which they had invented, and in upholding which they made the law
of God of none effect, and were on this account also not subject to His Word.
For this is what Paul says concerning these men: "For they, being ignorant of
God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have
not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."(6) And how is Christ
the end of the law, if He be not also the final Cause of it? For He who has
brought in the end has Himself also wrought the beginning; and it is He who does
Himself say to Moses, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which is in
Egypt, and I have come down to deliver them;"(7) it being customary from the
beginning with the Word of God to ascend and descend for the purpose of saving
those who were in affliction.
5. Now, that the law did beforehand teach mankind the necessity of
following Christ, He does Himself make manifest, when He replied as follows to him who
asked Him what he should do that he might inherit eternal life: "If thou wilt
enter into life, keep the commandments."(8) But upon the other asking "Which?""
again the Lord replies: "Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do
not bear false witness, hon-our father and mother, and thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself,"--setting as an ascending series (velut gradus) before those
who wished to follow Him, the precepts of the law, as the entrance into life;
and What He then said to one He said to all. But when the former said, "All
these have I done" (and most likely he had not kept them, for in that case the
Lord would not have said to him, "Keep the commandments"), the Lord, exposing his
covetousness, said to him, "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou
hast, and distribute to the poor; and come, follow me;" promising to those who
would act thus, the portion belonging to the apostles (apostolorum partem). And He
did not preach to His followers another God the Father, besides Him who was
proclaimed by the law from the beginning; nor another Son; nor the Mother, the
enthymesis of the AEon, who existed in suffering and apostasy; nor the Pleroma of
the thirty AEons, which has been proved vain, and incapable of being believed
in; nor that fable invented by the other heretics. But He taught that they
should obey the commandments which God enjoined from the beginning, and do away
with their former covetousness by good works,(9) and follow after Christ. But that
possessions distributed to the poor do annul former covetousness, Zaccheus
made evident, when he said, "Behold, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and
if I have defrauded any one, I restore fourfold."(1)
CHAP. XIII.--CHRIST DID NOT ABROGATE THE NATURAL PRECEPTS OF THE LAW, BUT
RATHER FULFILLED AND EXTENDED THEM. HE REMOVED THE YOKE AND BONDAGE OF THE OLD LAW,
SO THAT MANKIND, BEING NOW SET FREE, MIGHT SERVE GOD WITH THAT TRUSTFUL PIETY
WHICH BECOMETH SONS.
1. And that the Lord did not abrogate the natural [precepts] of the law,
by which man(2) is justified, which also those who were justified by faith, and
who pleased God, did observe previous to the giving of the law, but that He
extended and fulfilled them, is shown from His words. "For," He remarks, "it has
been said to them of old time, Do not commit adultery. But I say unto you, That
every one who hath looked upon a woman to lust after her, hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart."(3) And again: "It has been said, Thou shalt
not kill. But I say unto you, Every one who is angry with his brother without a
cause, shall be in danger of the judgment."(4) And, "It hath been said, Thou
shalt not forswear thyself. But I say unto you, Swear not at all; but let your
conversation be, Yea, yea, and Nay, nay."(5) And other statements of a like
nature. For all these do not contain or imply an opposition to and an overturning
of the [precepts] of the past, as Marcion's followers do strenuously maintain;
but [they exhibit] a fulfilling and an extension of them, as He does Himself
declare: "Unless your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and
Pharisees, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."(6) For what meant the excess
referred to? In the first place, [we must] believe not only in the Father, but
also in His Son now revealed; for He it is who leads man into fellowship and
unity with God. In the next place, [we must] not only say, but we must do; for
they said, but did not. And [we must] not only abstain from evil deeds, but even
from the desires after them. Now He did not teach us these things as being
opposed to the law, but as fulfilling the law, and implanting in us the varied
righteousness of the law. That would have been contrary to the law, if He had
commanded His disciples to do anything which the law had prohibited. But this which
He did command--namely, not only to abstain from things forbidden by the law,
but even from longing after them--is not contrary to [the law], as I have
remarked, neither is it the utterance of one destroying the law, but of one
fulfilling, extending, and affording greater scope to it.
2. For the law, since it was laid down for those in bondage, used to
instruct the soul by means of those corporeal objects which were of an external
nature, drawing it, as by a bond, to obey its commandments, that man might learn
to serve God. But the Word set free the soul, and taught that through it the
body should be willingly purified. Which having been accomplished, it followed as
of course, that the bonds of slavery should be removed, to which man had now
become accustomed, and that he should follow God without fetters: moreover, that
the laws of liberty should be extended, and subjection to the king increased,
so that no one who is convened should appear unworthy to Him who set him free,
but that the piety and obedience due to the Master of the household should be
equally rendered both by servants and children; while the children possess
greater confidence [than the servants], inasmuch as the working of liberty is greater
and more glorious than that obedience which is rendered in [a state of]
slavery.
3. And for this reason did the Lord, instead of that [commandment], "Thou
shalt not commit adultery," forbid even concupiscence; and instead of that
which runs thus, "Thou shalt not kill," He prohibited anger; and instead of the law
enjoining the giving of tithes, [He told us] to share(7) all our possessions
with the poor; and not to love our neighbours only, but even our enemies; and
not merely to be liberal givers and bestowers, but even that we should present a
gratuitous gift to those who take away our goods. For "to him that taketh away
thy coat," He says, "give to him thy cloak also; and from him that taketh away
thy goods, ask them not again; and as ye would that men should do unto you, do
ye unto them:"(8) so that we may not grieve as those who are unwilling to be
defrauded, but may rejoice as those who have given willingly, and as rather
conferring a favour upon our neighbours than yielding to necessity. "And if any
one," He says, "shall compel thee [to go] a mile, go with him twain;"(9) so that
thou mayest not follow him as a slave, but may as a free man go before him,
showing thyself in all things kindly disposed and useful to thy neighbour, not
regarding their evil intentions, but performing thy kind offices, assimilating
thyself to the Father, "who maketh His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and
sendeth rain upon the just and unjust."(1) Now all these [precepts], as I have
already observed, were not the injunctions] of one doing away with the law, but
of one fulfilling, extending, and widening it among us; just as if one should
say, that the more extensive operation of liberty implies that a more complete
subjection and affection towards our Liberator had been implanted within us. For
He did not set us free for this purpose, that we should depart from Him (no
one, indeed, while placed out of reach of the Lord's benefits, has power to
procure for himself the means of salvation), but that the more we receive His grace,
the more we should love Him. Now the more we have loved Him, the more glory
shall we receive from Him, when we are continually in the presence of the Father.
4. Inasmuch, then, as all natural precepts are common to us and to them
(the Jews), they had in them indeed the beginning and origin; but in us they have
received growth and completion. For to yield assent to God, and to follow His
Word, and to love Him above all, and one's neighbour as one's self (now man is
neighbour to man), and to abstain from every evil deed, and all other things of
a like nature which are common to both [covenants], do reveal one and the same
God. But this is our Lord, the Word of God, who in the first instance
certainly drew slaves to God, but afterwards He set those free who were subject to Him,
as He does Himself declare to His disciples: "I will not now call you
servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you
friends, for all things which I have heard from My Father I have made known."(2) For
in that which He says, "I will not now call you servants," He indicates in the
most marked manner that it was Himself who did originally appoint for men that
bondage with respect to God through the law, and then afterwards conferred upon
them freedom. And in that He says, "For the servant knoweth not what his lord
doeth," He points out, by means of His own advent, the ignorance of a people in
a servile condition. But when He terms His disciples "the friends of God," He
plainly declares Himself to be the Word of God, whom Abraham also followed
voluntarily and under no compulsion (sine vinculis), because of the noble nature of
his faith, and so became "the friend of God."(3) But the Word of God did not
accept of the friendship of Abraham, as though He stood in need of it, for He
was perfect from the beginning ("Before Abraham was," He says, "I am"(4)), but
that He in His goodness might bestow eternal life upon Abraham himself, inasmuch
as the friendship of God imparts immortality to those who embrace it.
CHAP. XIV.--IF GOD DEMANDS OBEDIENCE FROM MAN, IF HE FORMED MAN, CALLED HIM
AND PLACED HIM UNDER LAWS, IT WAS MERELY FOR MAN'S WELFARE; NOT THAT GOD STOOD IN
NEED OF MAN, BUT THAT HE GRACIOUSLY CONFERRED UPON MAN HIS FAVOURS IN EVERY
POSSIBLE MANNER.
1. In the beginning, therefore, did God form Adam, not as if He stood in
need of man, but that He might have [some one] upon whom to confer His benefits.
For not alone antecedently to Adam, but also before all creation, the Word
glorified His Father, remaining in Him; and was Himself glorified by the Father,
as He did Himself declare, "Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had
with Thee before the world was."(5) Nor did He stand in need of our service when
He ordered us to follow Him; but He thus bestowed salvation upon ourselves.
For to follow the Saviour is to be a partaker of salvation, and to follow light
is to receive light. But those who are in light do not themselves illumine the
light, but are illumined and revealed by it: they do certainly contribute
nothing to it, but, receiving the benefit, they are illumined by the light. Thus,
also, service [rendered] to God does indeed profit God nothing, nor has God need
of human obedience; but He grants to those who follow and serve Him life and
in-corruption and eternal glory, bestowing benefit upon those who serve [Him],
because they do serve Him, and on His followers, because they do follow Him; but
does not receive any benefit from them: for He is rich, perfect, and in need of
nothing. But for this reason does God demand service from men, in order that,
since He is good and merciful, He may benefit those who continue in His service.
For, as much as God is in want of nothing, so much does man stand in need of
fellowship with God. For this is the glory of man, to continue and remain
permanently in God's service. Wherefore also did the Lord say to His disciples, "Ye
have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you;"(6) indicating that they did not
glorify Him when they followed Him; but that, in following the Son of God, they
were glorified by Him. And again, "I will, that where I am, there they also may
be, that they may behold My glory;"(7) not vainly boasting because of this, but
desiring that His disciples should share in His glory: of whom Esaias also says,
"I will bring thy seed from the east, and will gather thee from the west; and
I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring My
sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth; all, as many as have
been called in My name: for in My glory I have prepared, and formed, and made
him."(1) Inasmuch as then, "wheresoever the carcase is, there shall also the
eagles be gathered together,"(2) we do participate in the glory of the Lord, who
has both formed us, and prepared us for this, that, when we are with Him, we may
partake of His glory.
2. Thus it was, too, that God formed man at the first, because of His
munificence; but chose the patriarchs for the sake of their salvation; and prepared
a people beforehand, teaching the headstrong to follow God; and raised up
prophets upon earth, accustoming man to bear His Spirit [within him], and to hold
communion with God: He Himself, indeed, having need of nothing, but granting
communion with Himself to those who stood in need of it, and sketching out, like
an architect, the plan of salvation to those that pleased Him. And He did
Himself furnish guidance to those who beheld Him not in Egypt, while to those who
became unruly in the desert He promulgated a law very suitable [to their
condition]. Then, on the people who entered into the good land He bestowed a noble
inheritance; and He killed the fatted calf for those converted to the Father, and
presented them with the finest robe.(3) Thus, in a variety of ways, He adjusted
the human race to an agreement with salvation. On this account also does John
declare in the Apocalypse, "And His voice as the sound of many waters."(4) For
the Spirit [of God] is truly [like] many waters, since the Father is both rich
and great. And the Word, passing through all those [men], did liberally confer
benefits upon His subjects, by drawing up in writing a law adapted and applicable
to every class [among them].
3. Thus, too, He imposed upon the [Jewish] people the construction of the
tabernacle, the building of the temple, the election of the Levites, sacrifices
also, and oblations, legal monitions, and all the other service of the law. He
does Himself truly want none of these things, for He is always full of all
good, and had in Himself all the odour of kindness, and every perfume of
sweet-smelling savours, even before Moses existed. Moreover, He instructed the people,
who were prone to turn to idols, instructing them by repeated appeals to
persevere and to serve God, calling them to the things of primary importance by means
of those which were secondary; that is, to things that are real, by means of
those that are typical; and by things temporal, to eternal; and by the carnal to
the spiritual; and by the earthly to the heavenly; as was also said to Moses,
"Thou shalt make all things after the pattern of those things which thou sawest
in the mount."(5) For during forty days He was learning to keep [in his memory]
the words of God, and the celestial patterns, and the spiritual images, and
the types of things to come; as also Paul says: "For they drank of the rock which
followed them: and the rock was Christ."(6) And again, having first mentioned
what are contained in the law, he goes on to say: "Now all these things
happened to them in a figure; but they were written for our admonition, upon whom the
end of the ages is come." For by means of types they learned to fear God, and
to continue devoted to His service.
CHAP.XV.--AT FIRST GOD DEEMED IT SUFFICIENT TO INSCRIBE THE NATURAL LAW, OR
THE DECALOGUE, UPON THE HEARTS OF MEN; BUT AFTERWARDS HE FOUND IT NECESSARY TO
BRIDLE, WITH THE YOKE OF THE MOSAIC LAW, THE DESIRES OF THE JEWS, WHO WERE
ABUSING THEIR LIBERTY; AND EVEN TO ADD SOME SPECIAL COMMANDS, BECAUSE OF THE HARDNESS
OF THEIR HEARTS.
1. They (the Jews) had therefore a law, a course of discipline, and a
prophecy of future things. For God at the first, indeed, warning them by means of
natural precepts, which from the beginning He had implanted in mankind, that is,
by means of the Decalogue (which, if any one does not observe, he has no
salvation), did then demand nothing more of them. As Moses says in Deuteronomy,
"These are all the words which the Lord spake to the whole assembly of the sons of
Israel on the mount, and He added no more; and He wrote them on two tables of
stone, and gave them to me."(7) For this reason [He did so], that they who are
willing to follow Him might keep these commandments. But when they turned
themselves to make a calf, and had gone back in their minds to Egypt, desiring to be
slaves instead of free-men, they were placed for the future in a state of
servitude suited to their wish,--[a slavery] which did not indeed cut them off from
God, but subjected them to the yoke of bondage; as Ezekiel the prophet, when
stating the reasons for the giving of such a law, declares: "And their eyes were
after the desire of their heart; and I gave them statutes that were not good,
and judgments in which they shall not live."(8) Luke also has recorded that
Stephen, who was the first elected into the diaconate by the apostles,(1) and who
was the first slain for the testimony of Christ, spoke regarding Moses as
follows: "This man did indeed receive the commandments of the living God to give to
us, whom your fathers would not obey, but thrust [Him from them], and in their
hearts turned back again into Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go
before us; for we do not know what has happened to [this] Moses, who led us from the
land of Egypt. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifices to
the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their own hands. But God turned,
and gave them up to worship the hosts of heaven; as it is written in the book of
the prophets:(2) O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to Me sacrifices and
oblations for forty years in the wilderness? And ye took up the tabernacle of
Moloch, and the star of the god Remphan,(3) figures which ye made to worship
them;"(4) pointing out plainly, that the law being such, was not given to them by
another God, but that, adapted to their condition of servitude, [it originated]
from the very same [God as we worship]. Wherefore also He says to Moses in
Exodus: "I will send forth My angel before thee; for I will not go up with thee,
because thou art a stiff-necked people."(5)
2. And not only so, but the Lord also showed that certain precepts were
enacted for them by Moses, on account of their hardness [of heart], and because
of their unwillingness to be obedient, when, on their saying to Him, "Why then
did Moses command to give a writing of divorcement, and to send away a wife?" He
said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts he permitted these
things to you; but from the beginning it was not so;"(6) thus exculpating Moses as a
faithful servant, but acknowledging one God, who from the beginning made male
and female, and reproving them as hard-hearted and disobedient. And therefore
it was that they received from Moses this law of divorcement, adapted to their
hard nature. But why say I these things concerning the Old Testament? For in the
New also are the apostles found doing this very thing, on the ground which has
been mentioned, Paul plainly declaring, But these things I say, not the
Lord."(7) And again: "But this I speak by permission, not by commandment."(8) And
again: "Now, as concerning virgins, I have no commandment from the Lord; yet I
give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful."(9)
But further, in another place he says: "That Satan tempt you not for your
incontinence."(10) If, therefore, even in the New Testament, the apostles are found
granting certain precepts in consideration of human infirmity, because of the
incontinence of some, lest such persons, having grown obdurate, and despairing
altogether of their salvation, should become apostates from God,--it ought not
to be wondered at, if also in the Old Testament the same God permitted similar
indulgences for the benefit of His people, drawing them on by means of the
ordinances already mentioned, so that they might obtain the gift of salvation
through them, while they obeyed the Decalogue, and being restrained by Him, should
not revert to idolatry, nor apostatize from God, but learn to love Him with the
whole heart. And if certain persons, because of the disobedient and ruined
Israelites, do assert that the giver (doctor) of the law was limited in power, they
will find in our dispensation, that "many are called, but few chosen;"(11) and
that there are those who inwardly are wolves, yet wear sheep's clothing in the
eyes of the world (foris); and that God has always preserved freedom, and the
power of self-government in man,(12) while at the same time He issued His own
exhortations, in order that those who do not obey Him should be righteously
judged (condemned) because they have not obeyed Him; and that those who have obeyed
and believed on Him should be honoured with immortality.
CHAP. XVI.--PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS WAS CONFERRED NEITHER BY CIRCUMCISION NOR BY
ANY OTHER LEGAL CEREMONIES. THE DECALOGUE, HOWEVER, WAS NOT CANCELLED BY
CHRIST, BUT IS ALWAYS IN FORCE: MEN WERE NEVER RELEASED FROM ITS COMMANDMENTS.
1. Moreover, we learn from the Scripture itself, that God gave
circumcision, not as the completer of righteousness, but as a sign, that the race of
Abraham might continue recognisable. For it declares: "God said unto Abraham, Every
male among you shall be circumcised; and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your
foreskins, as a token of the covenant between Me and you."(13) This same does
Ezekiel the prophet say with regard to the Sabbaths: "Also I gave them My
Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord,
that sanctify them."(14) And in Exodus, God says to Moses: "And ye shall
observe My Sabbaths; for it shall be a sign between Me and you for your
generations."(1) These things, then, were given for a sign; but the signs were not
unsymbolical, that is, neither unmeaning nor to no purpose, inasmuch as they were given
by a wise Artist; but the circumcision after the flesh typified that after the
Spirit. For "we," says the apostle, "have been circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands."(2) And the prophet declares, "Circumcise the hardness of
your heart."(3) But the Sabbaths taught that we should continue day by day in
God's service.(4) "For we have been counted," says the Apostle Paul, "all the
day long as sheep for the slaughter;"(5) that is, consecrated [to God], and
ministering continually to our faith, and persevering in it, and abstaining from
all avarice, and not acquiring or possessing treasures upon earth.(6) Moreover,
the Sabbath of God (requietio Dei), that is, the kingdom, was, as it were,
indicated by created things; in which [kingdom], the man who shall have persevered
in serving God (Deo assistere) shall, in a state of rest, partake of God's table.
2. And that man was not justified by these things, but that they were
given as a sign to the people, this fact shows,--that Abraham himself, without
circumcision and without observance of Sabbaths, "believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God."(7) Then,
again, Lot, without circumcision, was brought out from Sodom, receiving salvation
from God. So also did Noah, pleasing God, although he was uncircumcised, receive
the dimensions [of the ark], of the world of the second race [of men]. Enoch,
too, pleasing God, without circumcision, discharged the office of God's legate
to the angels although he was a man, and was translated, and is preserved until
now as a witness of the just judgment of God, because the angels when they had
transgressed fell to the earth for judgment, but the man who pleased [God] was
translated for salvation.(8) Moreover, all the rest of the multitude of those
righteous men who lived before Abraham, and of those patriarchs who preceded
Moses, were justified independently of the things above mentioned, and without
the law of Moses. As also Moses himself says to the people in Deuteronomy: "The
LORD thy God formed a covenant in Horeb. The LORD formed not this covenant with
your fathers, but for you."(9)
3. Why, then, did the Lord not form the covenant for the fathers? Because
"the law was not established for righteous men."(10) But the righteous fathers
had the meaning of the Decalogue written in their hearts and souls,(11) that
is, they loved the God who made them, and did no injury to their neighbour. There
was therefore no occasion that they should be cautioned by prohibitory
mandates (correptoriis literis),(12) because they had the righteousness of the law in
themselves. But when this righteousness and love to God had passed into
oblivion, and became extinct in Egypt, God did necessarily, because of His great
goodwill to men, reveal Himself by a voice, and led the people with power out of
Egypt, in order that man might again become the disciple and follower of God; and
He afflicted those who were disobedient, that they should not contemn their
Creator; and He fed them with manna, that they might receive food for their souls
(uti rationalem acciperent escam); as also Moses says in Deuteronomy: "And fed
thee with manna, which thy fathers did not know, that thou mightest know that
man cloth not live by bread alone; but by every word of God proceeding out of
His mouth doth man live."(13) And it enjoined love to God, and taught just
dealing towards our neighhour, that we should neither be unjust nor unworthy of God,
who prepares man for His friendship through the medium of the Decalogue, and
likewise for agreement with his neigbbour,--matters which did certainly profit
man himself; God, however, standing in no need of anything from man.
4. And therefore does the Scripture say, "These words the Lord spake to
all the assembly of the children of Israel in the mount, and He added no
more;"(14) for, as I have already observed, He stood in need of nothing from them. And
again Moses says: "And now Israel, what cloth the LORD thy God require of thee,
but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to
serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul?"(15) Now
these things did indeed make man glorious, by supplying what was wanting to him,
namely, the friendship of God; but they profited God nothing, for God did not at
all stand in need of man's love. For the glory of God was wanting to man,
which he could obtain in no other way than by serving God. And therefore Moses says
to them again: "Choose life, that thou mayest live, and thy seed, to love the
LORD thy God, to hear His voice, to cleave unto Him; for this is thy life, and
the length of thy days."(1) Preparing man for this life, the Lord Himself did
speak in His own person to all alike the words of the Decalogue; and therefore,
in like manner, do they remain permanently with us,(2) receiving by means of
His advent in the flesh, extension and increase, but not abrogation.
5. The laws of bondage, however, were one by one promulgated to the people
by Moses, suited for their instruction or for their punishment, as Moses
himself declared: "And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and
judgments."(3) These things, therefore, which were given for bondage, and for a
sign to them, He cancelled by the new covenant of liberty. But He has
increased and widened those laws which are natural, and noble, and common to all,
granting to men largely and without grudging, by means of adoption, to know God the
Father, and to love Him with the whole heart, and to follow His word
unswervingly, while they abstain not only from evil deeds, but even from the desire after
them. But He has also increased the feeling of reverence; for sons should have
more veneration than slaves, and greater love for their father. And therefore
the Lord says, "As to every idle word that men have spoken, they shall render
an account for it in the day of judgment."(4) And, "he who has looked upon a
woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his
heart;"(5) and, "he that is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger
of the judgment."(6) [All this is declared,] that we may know that we shall give
account to God not of deeds only, as slaves, but even of words and thoughts,
as those who have truly received the power of liberty, in which [condition] a
man is more severely tested, whether he will reverence, and fear, and love the
Lord. And for this reason Peter says "that we have not liberty as a cloak of
maliciousness,"(7) but as the means of testing and evidencing faith.
CHAP. XVII.--PROOF THAT GOD DID NOT APPOINT THE LEVITICAL DISPENSATION FOR HIS
OWN SAKE, OR AS REQUIRING SUCH SERVICE; FOR HE DOES, IN FACT, NEED NOTHING
FROM MEN.
1. Moreover, the prophets indicate in the fullest manner that God stood in
no need of their slavish obedience, but that it was upon their own account that
He enjoined certain observances in the law. And again, that God needed not
their oblation, but [merely demanded it], on account of man himself who offers it,
the Lord taught distinctly, as I have pointed out. For when He perceived them
neglecting righteousness, and abstaining from the love of God, and imagining
that God was to be propitiated by sacrifices and the other typical observances,
Samuel did even thus speak to them: "God does not desire whole burnt-offerings
and sacrifices, but He will have His voice to be hearkened to. Behold, a ready
obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."(8)
David also says: "Sacrifice and oblation Thou didst not desire, but mine ears hast
Thou perfected;(9) burnt-offerings also for sin Thou hast not required."(10)
He thus teaches them that God desires obedience, which renders them secure,
rather than sacrifices and holocausts, which avail them nothing towards
righteousness; and [by this declaration] he prophesies the new covenant at the same time.
Still clearer, too, does he speak of these things in the fiftieth Psalm: "For
if Thou hadst desired sacrifice, then would I have given it: Thou wilt not
delight in burnt-offerings. The .sacrifice of God is a broken spirit; a broken and
contrite heart the Lord will not despise."(11) Because, therefore, God stands in
need of nothing, He declares in the preceding Psalm: "I will take no calves
out of thine house, nor he-goats out of thy fold. For Mine are all the beasts of
the earth, the herds and the oxen on the mountains: I know all the fowls of
heaven, and the various tribes(12) of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I
would not tell thee: for the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof. Shall I eat
the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?"(13) Then, lest it might be
supposed that He refused these things in His anger, He continues, giving him (man)
counsel: "Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the Most
High; and call upon Me in the day of thy trouble, and I will deliver thee, and
thou shalt glorify Me;"(14) rejecting, indeed, those things by which sinners
imagined they could propitiate God, and showing that He does Himself stand in
need of nothing; but He exhorts and advises them to those. things by which man is
justified and draws nigh to God. This same declaration does Esaias make: "To
what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord. I am
full."(1) And when He had repudiated holocausts, and sacrifices, and oblations,
as likewise the new moons, and the sabbaths, and the festivals, and all the rest
of the services accompanying these, He continues, exhorting them to what
pertained to salvation: "Wash you, make you clean, take away wickedness from your
hearts from before mine eyes: cease from your evil ways, learn to do well, seek
judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow; and
come, let us reason together, saith the LORD."
2. For it was not because He was angry, like a man, as many venture to
say, that He rejected their sacrifices; but out of compassion to their blindness,
and with the view of suggesting to them the true sacrifice, by offering which
they shall appease God, that they may receive life from Him. As He elsewhere
declares: "The sacrifice to God is an afflicted heart: a sweet savour to God is a
heart glorifying Him who formed it."(2) For if, when angry, He had repudiated
these sacrifices of theirs, as if they were persons unworthy to obtain His
compassion, He would not certainly have urged these same things upon them as those
by which they might be saved. But inasmuch as God is merciful, He did not cut
them off from good counsel. For after He had said by Jeremiah, "To what purpose
bring ye Me incense from Saba, and cinnamon from a far country? Your whole
burnt-offerings and sacrifices are not acceptable to Me;"(3) He proceeds: "Hear the
word of the Lord, all Judah. These things saith the LORD, the God of Israel,
Make straight your ways and your doings, and I will establish you in this place.
Put not your trust in lying words, for they will not at all profit you, saying,
The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, it is [here]."(4)
3. And again, when He points out that it was not for this that He led them
out of Egypt, that they might offer sacrifice to Him, but that, forgetting the
idolatry of the Egyptians, they should be able to hear the voice of the Lord,
which was to them salvation and glory, He declares by this same Jeremiah: "Thus
saith the LORD; Collect together your burnt-offerings with your sacrifices and
eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers nor commanded them in the day that
I brought them out of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: but
this word I commanded them, saying, Hear My voice, and I will be your God, and ye
shall be My people; and walk in all My ways whatsoever I have commanded you,
that it may be well with you. But they obeyed not, nor hearkened; but walked in
the imaginations of their own evil heart, and went backwards, and not
forwards."(5) And again, when He declares by the same man, "But let him that glorieth,
glory in this, to understand and know that I am the LORD, who doth exercise
loving-kindness, and righteousness, and judgment in the earth;"(6) He adds, "For in
these things I delight, says the LORD," but not in sacrifices, nor in
holocausts, nor in oblations. For the people did not receive these precepts as of
primary importance (principaliter), but as secondary, and for the reason already
alleged, as Isaiah again says: "Thou hast not [brought to] Me the sheep of thy
holocaust, nor in thy sacrifices hast thou glorified Me: thou hast not served Me in
sacrifices, nor in [the matter of] frankincense hast thou done anything
laboriously; neither hast thou bought for Me incense with money, nor have I desired
the fat of thy sacrifices; but thou hast stood before Me in thy sins and in
thine iniquities."(7) He says, therefore, "Upon this man will I look, even upon him
that is humble, and meek, and who trembles at My words."(8) "For the fat and
the fat flesh shall not take away from thee thine unrighteousness."(9) "This is
the fast which I have chosen, saith the LORD. Loose every band of wickedness,
dissolve the connections of violent agreements, give rest to those that are
shaken, and cancel every unjust document. Deal thy bread to the hungry willingly,
and lead into thy house the roofless stranger. If thou hast seen the naked,
cover him, and thou shalt not despise those of thine own flesh and blood
(domesticos seminis tui). Then shall thy morning light break forth, and thy health shall
spring forth more speedily; and righteousness shall go before thee, and the
glory of the LoRD shall surround thee: and whilst thou an yet speaking, I will
say, Behold, here I am."(10) And Zechariah also, among the twelve prophets,
pointing out to the people the will of God, says: "These things does the LORD
Omnipotent declare: Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassion each one to
his brother. And oppress not the widow, and the orphan, and the proselyte, and
the poor; and let none imagine evil against your brother in his heart."(11) And
again, he says: "These are the words which ye shall utter. Speak ye the truth
every man to his neighbour, and execute peaceful judgment in your gates, and let
none of you imagine evil in his heart against his brother, and ye shall not
love false swearing: for all these things I hate, saith the LORD Almighty."(1)
Moreover, David also says in like manner: "What man is there who desireth life,
and would fain see good days? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they
speak no guile. Shun evil, and do good: seek peace, and pursue it."(2)
4. From all these it is evident that God did not seek sacrifices and
holocausts from them, but faith, and obedience, and righteousness, because of their
salvation. As God, when teaching them His will in Hosea the prophet, said, "I
desire mercy rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than
burnt-offerings."(3) Besides, our Lord also exhorted them to the same effect, when He
said, "But if ye had known what [this] meaneth, I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless."(4) Thus does He bear witness
to the prophets, that they preached the truth; but accuses these men (His
hearers) of being foolish through their own fault.
5. Again, giving directions to His disciples to offer to God the
first-fruits(5) of His own, created things--not as if He stood in need of them, but that
they might be themselves neither unfruitful nor ungrateful--He took that
created thing, bread, and gave thanks, and said, "This is My body."(6) And the cup
likewise, which is part of that creation to which we belong, He confessed to be
His blood, and taught the new oblation of the new covenant; which the Church
receiving from the apostles, offers to God throughout all the world, to Him who
gives us as the means of subsistence the first-fruits of His own gifts in the
New Testament, concerning which Malachi, among the twelve prophets, thus spoke
beforehand: "I have no pleasure in you, saith the LORD Omnipotent, and I will not
accept sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the sun, unto the going
down [of the same], My name is glorified among the Gentiles, and in every
place incense is offered to My name, and a pure sacrifice; for great is My name
among the Gentiles, saith the LORD Omnipotent;"(7)--indicating in the plainest
manner, by these words, that the former people [the Jews] shall indeed cease to
make offerings to God, but that in every place sacrifice shall be offered to Him,
and that a pure one; and His name is glorified among the Gentiles.(8)
6. But what other name is there which is glorified among the Gentiles than
that of our Lord, by whom the Father is glorified, and man also? And because
it is [the name] of His own Son, who was made man by Him, He calls it His own.
Just as a king, if he himself paints a likeness of his son, is right in calling
this likeness his own, for both these reasons, because it is [the likeness] of
his son, and because it is his own production; so also does the Father confess
the name of Jesus Christ, which is throughout all the world glorified in the
Church, to be His own, both because it is that of His Son, and because He who
thus describes it gave Him for the salvation of men. Since, therefore, the name of
the Son belongs to the Father, and since in the omnipotent God the Church
makes offerings through Jesus Christ, He says well on both these grounds, "And in
every place incense is offered to My name, and a pure sacrifice." Now John, in
the Apocalypse, declares that the "incense" is "the prayers of the saints."(9)
CHAP. XVIII.--CONCERNING SACRIFICES AND OBLATIONS, AND THOSE WHO TRULY OFFER
THEM.
1. The oblation of the Church, therefore, which the Lord gave instructions
to be offered throughout all the world, is accounted with God a pure
sacrifice, and is acceptable to Him; not that He stands in need of a sacrifice from us,
but that he who offers is himself glorified in what he does offer, if his gift
be accepted. For by the gift both honour and affection are shown forth towards
the King; and the Lord, wishing us to offer it in all simplicity and innocence,
did express Himself thus: "Therefore, when thou offerest thy gift upon the
altar, and shalt remember that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave thy gift
before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then
return and offer thy gift."(10) We are bound, therefore, to offer to God the
first-fruits of His creation, as Moses also says, "Thou shalt not appear in the
presence of the Lord thy God empty;"(11) so that man, being accounted as
grateful, by those things in which he has shown his gratitude, may receive that
honour which flows from Him.(12)
2. And the class of oblations in general has not been set aside; for there
were both oblations there [among the Jews], and there are oblations here
[among the Christians]. Sacrifices there were among the people; sacrifices there
are, too, in the Church: but the species alone has been changed, inasmuch as the
offering is now made, not by slaves, but by freemen. For the Lord is [ever] one
and the same; but the character of a servile oblation is peculiar [to itself],
as is also that of freemen, in order that, by the very oblations, the
indication of liberty may be set forth. For with Him there is nothing purposeless, nor
without signification, nor without design. And for this reason they (the Jews)
had indeed the tithes of their goods consecrated to Him, but those who have
received liberty set aside all their possessions for the Lord's purposes, bestowing
joyfully and freely not the less valuable portions of their property, since
they have the hope of better things [hereafter]; as that poor widow acted who
cast all her living into the treasury of God.(1)
3. For at the beginning God had respect to the gifts of Abel, because he
offered with single-mindedness and righteousness; but He had no respect unto the
offering of Cain, because his heart was divided with envy and malice, which he
cherished against his brother, as God says when reproving his hidden
[thoughts], "Though thou offerest rightly, yet, if thou dost not divide rightly, hast
thou not sinned? Be at rest;"(2) since God is not appeased by sacrifice. For if
any one shall endeavour to offer a sacrifice merely to outward appearance,
unexceptionably, in due order, and according to appointment, while in his soul he
does not assign to his neighbour that fellowship with him which is right and
proper, nor is under the fear of God;--he who thus cherishes secret sin does not
deceive God by that sacrifice which is offered correctly as to outward
appearance; nor will such an oblation profit him anything, but [only] the giving up of
that evil which has been conceived within him, so that sin may not the more, by
means of the hypocritical action, render him the destroyer of himself.(3)
Wherefore did the Lord also declare: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for ye are like whited sepulchres. For the sepulchre appears beautiful
outside, but within it is full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness; even so ye
also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of wickedness
and hypocrisy."(4) For while they were thought to offer correctly so far as
outward appearance went, they had in themselves jealousy like to Cain; therefore
they slew the Just One, slighting the counsel of the Word, as did also Cain. For
[God] said to him, "Be at rest;" but he did not assent. Now what else is it to
"be at rest" than to forego purposed violence? And saying similar things to
these men, He declares: "Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse that which is within the
cup, that the outside may be clean also."(5) And they did not listen to Him. For
Jeremiah says, "Behold, neither thine eyes nor thy heart are good; but [they are
turned] to thy covetousness, and to shed innocent blood, and for injustice,
and for man-slaying, that thou mayest do it."(6) And again Isaiah saith, "Ye have
taken counsel, but not of Me; and made covenants, [but] not by My Spirit."(7)
In order, therefore, that their inner wish and thought, being brought to light,
may show that God is without blame, and worketh no evil--that God who reveals
what is hidden [in the heart], but who worketh not evil--when Cain was by no
means at rest, He saith to him: "To thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule
over him."(8) Thus did He in like manner speak to Pilate: "Thou shouldest have
no power at all against Me, unless it were given thee from above;"(9) God
always giving up the righteous one [in this life to suffering], that he, having
been tested by what he suffered and endured, may [at last] be accepted; but that
the evildoer, being judged by the actions he has performed, may be rejected.
Sacrifices, therefore, do not sanctify a man, for God stands in no need of
sacrifice; but it is the conscience of the offerer that sanctifies the sacrifice when
it is pure, and thus moves God to accept [the offering] as from a friend. "But
the sinner," says He, "who kills a calf [in sacrifice] to Me, is as if he slew
a dog."(10)
4. Inasmuch, then, as the Church offers with single-mindedness, her gift
is justly reckoned a pure sacrifice with God. As Paul also says to the
Philippians, "I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things that were sent
from you, the odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, pleasing to
God."(11) For it behoves us to make an oblation to God, and in all things to be found
grateful to God our Maker, in a pure mind, and in faith without hypocrisy, in
well-grounded hope, in fervent love, offering the first-fruits of His own created
things. And the Church alone offers this pure oblation to the Creator,
offering to Him, with giving of thanks, [the things taken] from His creation. But the
Jews do not offer thus: for their hands are full of blood; for they have not
received the Word, through whom it is offered to God.(1) Nor, again, do any of
the conventicles (synagogoe) of the heretics [offer this]. For some, by
maintaining that the Father is different from the Creator, do, when they offer to Him
what belongs to this creation of ours, set Him forth as being covetous of
another's property, and desirous of what is not His own. Those, again, who maintain
that the things around us originated from apostasy, ignorance, and passion, do,
while offering unto Him the fruits of ignorance, passion, and apostasy, sin
against their Father, rather subjecting Him to insult than giving Him thanks. But
how can they be consistent with themselves, [when they say] that the bread over
which thanks have been given is the body of their Lord,(2) and the cup His
blood, if they do not call Himself the Son of the Creator of the world, that is,
His Word, through whom the wood fructifies, and the fountains gush forth, and the
earth gives "first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear."(3)
5. Then, again, how can they say that the flesh, which is nourished with
the body of the Lord and with His blood, goes to corruption, and does not
partake of life? Let them, therefore, either alter their opinion, or cease from
offering the things just mentioned.(4) But our opinion is in accordance with the
Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinion. For we offer to Him
His own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of the flesh and
Spirit.(5) For as the bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the
invocation of God, is no longer common bread,(6) but the Eucharist, consisting
of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our bodies, when they receive
the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of the resurrection
to eternity.
6. Now we make offering to Him, not as though He stood in need of it, but
rendering thanks for His gift,(7) and thus sanctifying what has been created.
For even as God does not need our possessions, so do we need to offer something
to God; as Solomon says: "He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the
Lord."(8) For God, who stands in need of nothing, takes our good works to Himself
for this purpose, that He may grant us a recompense of His own good things, as
our Lord says: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for
you. For I was an hungered, and ye gave Me to eat: I was thirsty, and ye gave
Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: naked, and ye clothed Me; sick,
and ye visited Me; in prison, and ye came to Me."(9) As, therefore, He does not
stand in need of these [services], yet does desire that we should render them
for our own benefit, lest we be unfruitful; so did the Word give to the people
that very precept as to the making of oblations, although He stood in no need
of them, that they might learn to serve God: thus is it, therefore, also His
will that we, too, should offer a gift at the altar, frequently and without
intermission. The altar, then, is in heaven(10) (for towards that place are our
prayers and oblations directed); the temple likewise [is there], as John says in the
Apocalypse, "And the temple of God was opened:"(11) the tabernacle also: "For,
behold," He says, "the tabernacle of God, in which He will dwell with men."
CHAP.XIX.--EARTHLY THINGS MAY BE THE TYPE OF HEAVENLY, BUT THE LATTER CANNOT
BE THE TYPES OF OTHERS STILL SUPERIOR AND UNKNOWN; NOR CAN WE, WITHOUT ABSOLUTE
MADNESS, MAINTAIN THAT GOD IS KNOWN TO US ONLY AS THE TYPE OF A STILL UNKNOWN
AND SUPERIOR BEING.
1. Now the gifts, oblations, and all the sacrifices, did the people
receive in a figure, as was shown to Moses in the mount, from one and the same God,
whose name is now glorified in the Church among all nations. But it is congruous
that those earthly things, indeed, which are spread all around us, should be
types of the celestial, being [both], however, created by the same God. For in
no other way could He assimilate an image of spiritual things [to suit our
comprehension]. But to allege that those things which are super-celestial and
spiritual, and, as far as we are concerned, invisible and ineffable, are in their
turn the types of celestial things and of another Pleroma, and [to say] that God
is the image of another Father, is to play the part both of wanderers from the
truth, and of absolutely foolish and stupid persons. For, as I have repeatedly
shown, such persons will find it necessary to be continually finding out types
of types, and images of images, and will never [be able to] fix their minds on
one and the true God. For their imaginations range beyond God, they having in
their hearts surpassed the Master Himself, being indeed in idea elated and
exalted above [Him], but in reality turning away from the true God.
2. To these persons one may with justice say (as Scripture itself
suggests), To what distance above God do ye lift up your imaginations, O ye rashly
elated men? Ye have heard "that the heavens are meted out in the palm of [His]
hand:"(1) tell me the measure, and recount the endless multitude of cubits, explain
to me the fulness, the breadth, the length, the height, the beginning and end
of the measurement,--things which the heart of man understands not, neither
does it comprehend them. For the heavenly treasuries are indeed great: God cannot
be measured in the heart, and incomprehensible is He in the mind; He who holds
the earth in the hollow of His hand. Who perceives the measure of His right
hand? Who knoweth His finger? Or who doth understand His hand,--that hand which
measures immensity; that hand which, by its own measure, spreads out the measure
of the heavens, and which comprises in its hollow the earth with the abysses;
which contains in itself the breadth, and length, and the deep below, and the
height above of the whole creation; which is seen, which is heard and understood,
and which is invisible? And for this reason God is "above all principality,
and power, and dominion, and every name that is named,"(2) of all things which
have been created and established. He it is who fills the heavens, and views the
abysses, who is also present with every one of us. For he says, "Am I a God at
hand, and not a God afar off? If any man is hid in secret places, shall I not
see him?"(3) For His hand lays hold of all things, and that it is which
illumines the heavens, and lightens also the things which are under the heavens, and
trieth the reins and the hearts, is also present in hidden things, and in our
secret [thoughts], and does openly nourish and preserve us.
3. But if man comprehends not the fulness and the greatness of His hand,
how shall any one be able to understand or know in his heart so great a God?
Yet, as if they had now measured and thoroughly investigated Him, and explored Him
on every side? they feign that beyond Him there exists another Pleroma of
AEons, and another Father; certainly not looking up to celestial things, but truly
descending into a profound abyss (Bythus) of madness; maintaining that their
Father extends only to the border of those things which are beyond the Pleroma,
but that, on the other hand, the Demiurge does not reach so far as the Pleroma;
and thus they represent neither of them as being perfect and comprehending all
things. For the former will be defective in regard to the whole world formed
outside of the Pleroma, and the latter in respect of that [ideal] world which was
formed within the Pleroma; and [therefore] neither of these can be the God of
all. But that no one can fully declare the goodness of God from the things made
by Him, is a point evident to all. And that His greatness is not defective,
but contains all things, and extends even to us, and is with us, every one will
confess who entertains worthy conceptions of God.
CHAP. XX.--THAT ONE GOD FORMED ALL THINGS IN THE WORLD, BY MEANS OF THE WORD
AND THE HOLY SPIRIT: AND THAT ALTHOUGH HE IS TO US IN THIS LIFE INVISIBLE AND
INCOMPREHENSIBLE, NEVERTHELESS HE IS NOT UNKNOWN; INASMUCH AS HIS WORKS DO
DECLARE HIM, AND HIS WORD HAS SHOWN THAT IN MANY MODES HE MAY BE SEEN AND KNOWN.
1. As regards His greatness, therefore, it is not possible to know God,
for it is impossible that the Father can be measured; but as regards His love
(for this it is which leads us to God by His Word), when we obey Him, we do always
learn that there is so great a God, and that it is He who by Himself has
established, and selected, and adorned, and contains all things; and among the all
things, both ourselves and this our world. We also then were made, along with
those things which are contained by Him. And this is He of whom the Scripture
says, "And God formed man, taking clay of the earth, and breathed into his face
the breath of life."(5) It was not angels, therefore, who made us, nor who formed
us, neither had angels power to make an image of God, nor any one else, except
the Word of the Lord, nor any Power remotely distant from the Father of all
things. For God did not stand in need of these [beings], in order to the
accomplishing of what He had Himself determined with Himself beforehand should be done,
as if He did not possess His own hands. For with Him were always present the
Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and
spontaneously, He made all things, to whom also He speaks, saying, "Let Us make man
after Our image and likeness;"(1) He taking from Himself the substance of the
creatures [formed], and the pattern of things made, and the type of all the
adornments in the world.
2. Truly, then, the Scripture declared, which says, "First(2) of all
believe that there is one God, who has established all things, and completed them,
and having caused that from what had no being, all things should come into
existence:" He who contains all things, and is Himself contained by no one. Rightly
also has Malachi said among the prophets: "Is it not one God who hath
established us? Have we not all one Father?"(3) In accordance with this, too, does the
apostle say, "There is one God, the Father, who is above all, and in us all."(4)
Likewise does the Lord also say: "All things are delivered to Me by My
Father;"(5) manifestly by Him who made all things; for He did not deliver to Him the
things of another, but His own. But in all things [it is implied that] nothing
has been kept back [from Him], and for this reason the same person is the Judge
of the living and the dead; "having the key of David: He shall Open, and no man
shall shut: He shall shut, and no man shall open."(6) For no one was able,
either in heaven or in earth, or under the earth, to open the book of the Father,
or to behold Him, with the exception of the Lamb who was slain, and who
redeemed us with His own blood, receiving power over all things from the same God who
made all things by the Word, and adorned them by [His] Wisdom, when "the Word
was made flesh;" that even as the Word of God had the sovereignty in the
heavens, so also might He have the sovereignty in earth, inasmuch as [He was] a
righteous man, "who did no sin, neither was there found guile in His mouth;"(7) and
that He might have the pre-eminence over those things which are under the earth,
He Himself being made "the first-begotten of the dead;"(8) and that all
things, as I have already said, might behold their King; and that the paternal light
might meet with and rest upon the flesh of our Lord, and come to us from His
resplendent flesh, and that thus man might attain to immortality, having been
invested with the paternal light.
3. I have also largely demonstrated, that the Word, namely the Son, was
always with the Father; and that Wisdom also, which is the Spirit, was present
with Him, anterior to all creation, He declares by Solomon: "God by Wisdom
founded the earth, and by understanding hath He established the heaven. By His
knowledge the depths burst forth, and the clouds dropped down the dew."(9) And again:
"The Lord created me the beginning of His ways in His work: He set me up from
everlasting, in the beginning, before He made the earth, before He established
the depths, and before the fountains of waters gushed forth; before the
mountains were made strong, and before all the hills, He brought me forth."(10) And
again: "When He prepared the heaven, I was with Him, and when He established the
fountains of the deep; when He made the foundations of the earth strong, I was
with Him preparing [them]. I was He in whom He rejoiced, and throughout all
time I was daily glad before His face, when He rejoiced at the completion of the
world, and was delighted in the sons of men."(11)
4. There is therefore one God, who by the Word and Wisdom created and
arranged all things; but this is the Creator (Demiurge) who has granted this world
to the human race, and who, as regards His greatness, is indeed unknown to all
who have been made by Him (for no man has searched out His height, either among
the ancients who have gone to their rest, or any of those who are now alive);
but as regards His love, He is always known through Him by whose means He
ordained all things. Now this is His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in the last
times was made a man among men, that He might join the end to the beginning, that
is, man to God. Wherefore the prophets, receiving the prophetic gift from the
same Word, announced His advent according to the flesh, by which the blending
and communion of God and man took place according to the good pleasure of the
Father, the Word of God foretelling from the beginning that God should be seen by
men, and hold converse with them upon earth, should confer with them, and
should be present with His own creation, saving it, and becoming capable of being
perceived by it, and freeing us from the hands of all that hate us, that is,
from every spirit of wickedness; and causing us to serve Him in holiness and
righteousness all our days,(12) in order that man, having embraced the Spirit of
God, might pass into the glory of the Father.
5. These things did the prophets set forth in a prophetical manner; but
they did not, as some allege, [proclaim] that He who was seen by the prophets was
a different [God], the Father of all being invisible. Yet this is what those
[heretics] declare, who are altogether ignorant of the nature of prophecy. For
prophecy is a prediction of things future, that is, a setting forth beforehand
of those things which shall be afterwards. The prophets, then, indicated
beforehand that God should be seen by men; as the Lord also says, "Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God."(1) But in respect to His greatness, and
His wonderful glory, "no man shall see God and live,"(2) for the Father is
incomprehensible; but in regard to His love, and kindness, and as to His infinite
power, even this He grants to those who love Him, that is, to see God, which thing
the prophets did also predict. "For those things that are impossible with men,
are possible with God."(3) For man does not see God by his own powers; but
when He pleases He is seen by men, by whom He wills, and when He wills, and as He
wills. For God is powerful in all things, having been seen at that time indeed,
prophetically through the Spirit, and seen, too, adoptively through the Son;
and He shall also be seen paternally in the kingdom of heaven, the Spirit truly
preparing man in the Son(4) of God, and the Son leading him to the Father,
while the Father, too, confers [upon him] incorruption for eternal life, which
comes to every one from the fact of his seeing God. For as those who see the light
are within the light, and partake of its brilliancy; even so, those who see God
are in God, and receive of His splendour. But [His] splendour vivifies them;
those, therefore, who see God, do receive life. And for this reason, He,
[although] beyond comprehension, and boundless and invisible, rendered Himself
visible, and comprehensible, and within the capacity of those who believe, that He
might vivify those who receive and behold Him through faith.(5) For as His
greatness is past finding out, so also His goodness is beyond expression; by which
having been seen, He bestows life upon those who see Him. It is not possible to
live apart from life, and the means of life is found in fellowship with God; but
fellowship with God is to know God, and to enjoy His goodness.
6. Men therefore shall see God, that they may live, being made immortal by
that sight, and attaining even unto God; which, as I have already said, was
declared figuratively by the prophets, that God should be seen by men who bear
His Spirit [in them], and do always wait patiently for His coming. As also Moses
says in Deuteronomy, "We shall see in that day that God will talk to man, and
he shall live."(6) For certain of these men used to see the prophetic Spirit and
His active influences poured forth for all kinds of gifts; others, again,
[beheld] the advent of the Lord, and that dispensation which obtained from the
beginning, by which He accomplished the will of the Father with regard to things
both celestial and terrestrial; and others [beheld] paternal glories adapted to
the times, and to those who saw and who heard them then, and to all who were
subsequently to hear them. Thus, therefore, was God revealed; for God the Father
is shown forth through all these [operations], the Spirit indeed working, and
the Son ministering, while the Father was approving, and man's salvation being
accomplished. As He also declares through Hosea the prophet: "I," He says, "have
multiplied visions, and have used similitudes by the ministry (in manibus) of
the prophets."(7) But the apostle expounded this very passage, when he said,
"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are
differences of ministrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations,
but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the
Spirit is given to every man to profit withal."(8) But as He who worketh all
things in all is God, [as to the points] of what nature and how great He is,
[God] is invisible and indescribable to all things which have been made by Him, but
He is by no means unknown: for all things learn through His Word that there is
one God the Father, who contains all things, and who grants existence to all,
as is written in the Gospel: "No man hath seen God at any time, except the
only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; He has declared [Him.]"(9)
7. Therefore the Son of the Father declares [Him] from the beginning,
inasmuch as He was with the Father from the beginning, who did also show to the
human race prophetic visions, and diversities of gifts, and His own ministrations,
and the glory of the Father, in regular order and connection, at the fitting
time for the benefit [of mankind]. For where there is a regular succession,
there is also fixedness; and where fixedness, there suitability to the period; and
where suitability, there also utility. And for this reason did the Word become
the dispenser of the paternal grace for the benefit of men, for whom He made
such great dispensations, revealing God indeed to men, but presenting man to God,
and preserving at the same time the invisibility of the Father, lest man
should at any time become a despiser of God, and that he should always possess
something towards which he might advance; but, on the other hand, revealing God to
men through many dispensations, lest man, failing away from God altogether,
should cease to exist. For the glory of God is a living man; and the life of man
consists in beholding God. For if the manifestation of God which is made by means
of the creation, affords life to all living in the earth, much more does that
revelation of the Father which comes through the Word, give life to those who
see God.
8. Inasmuch, then, as the Spirit of God pointed out by the prophets things
to come, forming and adapting us beforehand for the purpose of our being made
subject to God, but it was still a future thing that man, through the good
pleasure of the Holy Spirit, should see [God], it necessarily behoved those through
whose instrumentality future things were announced, to see God, whom they
intimated as to be seen by men; in order that God, and the Son of God, and the Son,
and the Father, should not only be prophetically announced, but that He should
also be seen by all His members who are sanctified and instructed in the
things of God, that man might be disciplined beforehand and previously exercised for
a reception into that glory which shall afterwards be revealed in those who
love God. For the prophets used not to prophesy in word alone, but in visions
also, and in their mode of life, and in the actions which they performed,
according to the suggestions of the Spirit. After this invisible manner, therefore, did
they see God, as also Esaias says, "I have seen with mine eyes the King, the
LORD Of hosts,"(1) pointing out that man should behold God with his eyes, and
hear His voice. In this manner, therefore, did they also see the Son of God as a
man conversant with men, while they prophesied what was to happen, saying that
He who was not come as yet was present proclaiming also the impassible as
subject to suffering, and declaring that He who was then in heaven had descended
into the dust of death.(2) Moreover, [with regard to] the other arrangements
concerning the summing up that He should make, some of these they beheld through
visions, others they proclaimed by word, while others they indicated typically by
means of [outward] action, seeing visibly those things which were to be seen;
heralding by word of mouth those which should be heard; and performing by actual
operation what should take place by action; but [at the same time] announcing
all prophetically. Wherefore also Moses declared that God was indeed a
consuming fire(3) (igneum) to the people that transgressed the law, and threatened that
God would bring upon them a day of fire; but to those who had the fear of God
he said, "The LORD God is merciful and gracious, and long-suffering, and of
great commiseration, and true, and keeps justice and mercy for thousands,
forgiving unrighteousness, and transgressions, and sins."(4)
9. And the Word spake to Moses, appearing before him, "just as any one
might speak to his friend."(5) But Moses desired to see Him openly who was
speaking with him, and was thus addressed: "Stand in the deep place of the rock, and
with My hand I will cover thee. But when My splendour shall pass by, then thou
shalt see My back pans, but My face thou shalt not see: for no man sees My face,
and shall live."(6) Two facts are thus signified: that it is impossible for
man to see God; and that, through the wisdom of God, man shall see Him in the
last times, in the depth of a rock, that is, in His coming as a man. And for this
reason did He [the Lord] confer with him face to face on the top of a mountain,
Elias being also present, as the Gospel relates,(7) He thus making good in the
end the ancient promise.
10. The prophets, therefore, did not openly behold the actual face of God,
but [they saw] the dispensations and the mysteries through which man should
afterwards see God. As was also said to Elias: "Thou shalt go forth tomorrow, and
stand in the presence of the LORD; and, behold, a wind great and strong, which
shall rend the mountains, and break the rocks in pieces before the LORD. And
the LORD [was] not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD
[was] not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord [was]
not in the fire; and after the fire a scarcely audible voice" (vox aurae
tenuis).(8) For by such means was the prophet--very indignant, because of the
transgression of the people and the slaughter of the prophets--both taught to act in
a more gentle manner; and the Lord's advent as a man was pointed out, that it
should be subsequent to that law which was given by Moses, mild and tranquil, in
which He would neither break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax.(9)
The mild and peaceful repose of His kingdom was indicated likewise. For, after
the wind which rends the mountains, and after the earthquake, and after the
fire, come the tranquil and peaceful times of His kingdom, in which the spirit of
God does, in the most gentle manner, vivify and increase mankind. This, too,
was made still clearer by Ezekiel, that the prophets saw the dispensations of
God in part, but not actually God Himself. For when this man had seen the
vision(1) of God, and the cherubim, and their wheels, and when he had recounted the
mystery of the whole of that progression, and had beheld the likeness of a throne
above them, and upon the throne a likeness as of the figure of a man, and the
things which were upon his loins as the figure of amber, and what was below
like the sight of fire, and when he set forth all the rest of the vision of the
thrones, lest any one might happen to think that in those [visions] he had
actually seen God, he added: "This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of
God."(2)
11. If, then, neither Moses, nor Elias, nor Ezekiel, who had all many
celestial visions, did see God; but if what they did see were similitudes of the
splendour of the Lord, And prophecies of things to come; it is manifest that the
Father is indeed invisible, of whom also the Lord said, "No man hath seen God
at any time."(3) But His Word, as He Himself willed it, and for the benefit of
those who beheld, did show the Father's brightness, and explained His purposes
(as also the Lord said: "The only-begotten God,(4) which is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared [Him];" and He does Himself also interpret the Word of
the Father as being rich and great); not in one figure, nor in one character,
did He appear to those seeing Him, but according to the reasons and effects
aimed at in His dispensations, as it is written in Daniel. For at one time He was
seen with those who were around Ananias, Azarias, Misael, as present with them
in the furnace of fire, in the burning, and preserving them from [the effects
of] fire: "And the appearance of the fourth," it is said, "was like to the Son
of God."(5) At another time [He is represented as] "a stone cut out of the
mountain without hands,"(6) and as smiting all temporal kingdoms, and as blowing
them away (ventilans ea), and as Himself filling all the earth. Then, too, is this
same individual beheld as the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, and
drawing near to the Ancient of Days, and receiving from Him all power and glory,
and a kingdom. "His dominion," it is said, "is an everlasting dominion, and
His kingdom shall not perish."(7) John also, the Lord's disciple, when beholding
the sacerdotal and glorious advent of His kingdom, says in the Apocalypse: "I
turned to see the voice that spake with me. And, being turned, I saw seven
golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the candlesticks One like unto the Son of
man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girt about the paps with a
golden girdle; and His head and His hairs were white, as white as wool, and as
snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass,
as if He burned in a furnace. And His voice [was] as the voice of waters; and
He had in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth went a sharp
two-edged sword; and His countenance was as the sun shining in his strength."(8) For
in these words He sets forth something of the glory [which He has received] from
His Father, as [where He makes mention of] the head; something in reference to
the priestly office also, as in the case of the long garment reaching to the
feet. And this was the reason why Moses vested the high priest after this
fashion. Something also alludes to the end [of all things], as [where He speaks of]
the fine brass burning in the fire, which denotes the power of faith, and the
continuing instant in prayer, because of the consuming fire which is to come at
the end of time. But when John could not endure the sight (for he says, "I fell
at his feet as dead;"(9) that what was written might come to pass: "No man sees
God, and shall live"(10)), and the Word reviving him, and reminding him that
it was He upon whose bosom he had leaned at supper, when he put the question as
to who should betray Him, declared: "I am the first and the last, and He who
liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of
death and of hell." And after these things, seeing the same Lord in a second
vision, he says: "For I saw in the midst of the throne, and of the four living
creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as it had been slain,
having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent
forth into all the earth."(11) And again, he says, speaking of this very same Lamb:
"And behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and
True; and in righteousness doth He judge and make war. And His eyes were as a
flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; having a name written, that no
man knoweth but Himself: and He was girded around with a vesture sprinkled with
blood: and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies of heaven followed
Him upon white horses, clothed in pure white linen. And out of His mouth goeth
a sharp sword, that with it He may smite the nations; and He shall rule
(pascet) them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness of
the wrath of God Almighty. And He hath upon His vesture and upon His thigh a
name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS."(1) Thus does the Word of God
always preserve the outlines, as it were, of things to come, and points out to men
the various forms (species), as it were, of the dispensations of the Father,
teaching us the things pertaining to God.
12. However, it was not by means of visions alone which were seen, and
words which were proclaimed, but also in actual works, that He was beheld by the
prophets, in order that through them He might prefigure and show forth future
events beforehand. For this reason did Hosea the prophet take "a wife of
whoredoms," prophesying by means of the action, "that in committing fornication the
earth should fornicate from the LORD,"(2) that is, the men who are upon the earth;
and from men of this stamp it will be God's good pleasure to take out(3) a
Church which shall be sanctified by fellowship with His Son, just as that woman
was sanctified by intercourse with the prophet. And for this reason, Paul
declares that the "unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband."(4) Then
again, the prophet names his children, "Not having obtained mercy," and "Not a
people,"(5) in order that, as says the apostle, "what was not a people may
become a people; and she who did not obtain mercy may obtain mercy. And it shall
come to pass, that in the place where it was said, This is not a people, there
shall they be called the children of the living God."(6) That which had been done
typically through his actions by the prophet, the apostle proves to have been
done truly by Christ in the Church. Thus, too, did Moses also take to wife an
Ethiopian woman, whom he thus made an Israelitish one, showing by anticipation
that the wild olive tree is grafted into the cultivated olive, and made to
partake of its fatness. For as He who was born Christ according to the flesh, had
indeed to be sought after by the people in order to be slain, but was to be set
free in Egypt, that is, among the Gentiles, to sanctify those who were there in a
state of infancy, from whom also He perfected His Church in that place (for
Egypt was Gentile from the beginning, as was Ethiopia also); for this reason, by
means of the marriage of Moses, was shown forth the marriage of the Word;(7)
and by means of the Ethiopian bride, the Church taken from among the Gentiles was
made manifest; and those who do detract from, accuse, and deride it, shall not
be pure. For they shall be full of leprosy, and expelled from the camp of the
righteous. Thus also did Rahab the harlot, while condemning herself, inasmuch
as she was a Gentile, guilty of all sins, nevertheless receive the three
spies,(8) who were spying out all the land, and hid them at her home; [which three
were] doubtless [a type of] the Father and the Son, together with the Holy Spirit.
And when the entire city in which she lived fell to ruins at the sounding of
the seven trumpets, Rahab the harlot was preserved, when all was over [in
ultimis], together with all her house, through faith of the scarlet sign; as the Lord
also declared to those who did not receive His advent,--the Pharisees, no
doubt, nullify the sign of the scarlet thread, which meant the passover, and the
redemption and exodus of the people from Egypt,-- when He said, "The publicans
and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you."(9)