(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)
Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing intially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.
IRENAEUS OF LYONS
AGAINST HERESIES
BOOK V.
PREFACE.
IN the four preceding books, my very dear friend, which I put forth to
thee, all the heretics have been exposed, and their doctrines brought to
light, and these men refuted who have devised irreligious opinions. [I have
accomplished this by adducing] something from the doctrine peculiar to each
of these men, which they have left in their writings, as well as by using
arguments of a more general nature, and applicable to them all.(1) Then I
have pointed out the truth, and shown the preaching of the Church, which
the prophets proclaimed (as I have already demonstrated), but which Christ
brought to perfection, and the apostles have handed down, from whom the
Church, receiving [these truths], and throughout all the world alone
preserving them in their integrity (bene), has transmitted them to her
sons. Then also--having disposed of all questions which the heretics
propose to us, and having explained the doctrine of the apostles, and
clearly set forth many of those things which were said and done by the Lord
in parables--I shall endeavour, in this the fifth book of the entire work
which treats of the exposure and refutation of knowledge falsely so called,
to exhibit proofs from the rest of the Lord's doctrine and the apostolical
epistles: [thus] complying with thy demand, as thou didst request of me
(since indeed I have been assigned a place in the ministry of the word);
and, labouring by every means in my power to furnish thee with large
assistance against the contradictions of the heretics, as also to reclaim
the wanderers and convert them to the Church of God, to confirm at the
same time the minds of the neophytes, that they may preserve stedfast the
faith which they have received, guarded by the Church in its integrity, in
order that they be in no way perverted by those who endeavour to teach them
false doctrines, and lead them away from the truth. It will be incumbent
upon thee, however, and all who may happen to read this writing, to peruse
with great attention what I have already said, that thou mayest obtain a
knowledge of the subjects against which I am contending. For it is thus
that thou wilt both controvert them in a legitimate manner, and wilt be
prepared to receive the proofs brought forward against them, casting away
their doctrines as filth by means of the celestial faith; but following the
only true and stedfast Teacher, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who
did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring
us to be even what He is Himself.
CHAP. I.--CHRIST ALONE IS ABLE TO TEACH DIVINE THINGS, AND TO REDEEM US:
HE, THE SAME, TOOK FLESH OF THE VIRGIN MARY, NOT MERELY IN APPEARANCE, BUT
ACTUALLY, BY THE OPERATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, IN ORDER TO RENOVATE US.
STRICTURES ON THE CONCEITS OF VALENTINUS AND EBION.
1. FOR in no other way could we have learned the things of God, unless
our Master, existing as the Word, had become man. For no other being had
the power of revealing to us the things of the Father, except His own
proper Word. For what other person "knew the mind of the Lord," or who else
"has become His counsellor?"(2) Again, we could have learned in no other
way than by seeing our Teacher, and hearing His voice with our own ears,
that, having become imitators of His works as well as doers of His words,
we may have communion with Him, receiving increase from the perfect One,
and from Him who is prior to all creation. We--who were but lately created
by the only best and good Being, by Him also who has the gift of
immortality, having been formed after His likeness (predestinated,
according to the prescience of the Father, that we, who had as yet no
existence, might come into being), and made the first-fruits of
creation(1)--have received, in the times known beforehand, [the blessings
of salvation] according to the ministration of the Word, who is perfect in
all things, as the mighty Word, and very man, who, redeeming us by His own
blood in a manner consonant to reason, gave Himself as a redemption for
those who had been led into captivity. And since the apostasy tyrannized
over us unjustly, and, though we were by nature the property of the
omnipotent God, alienated us contrary to nature, rendering us its own
disciples, the Word of God, powerful in all things, and not defective with
regard to His own justice, did righteously turn against that apostasy, and
redeem from it His own property, not by violent means, as the [apostasy]
had obtained dominion over us at the beginning, when it insatiably snatched
away what was not its own, but by means of persuasion, as became a God of
counsel, who does not use violent means to obtain what He desires; so that
neither should justice be infringed upon, nor the ancient handiwork of God
go to destruction. Since the Lord thus has redeemed us through His own
blood, giving His soul for our souls, and His flesh for our flesh,(2) and
has also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of
God and man, imparting indeed God to men by means of the Spirit, and, on
the other hand, attaching man to God by His own incarnation, and bestowing
upon us at His coming immortality durably and truly, by means of communion
with God,--all the doctrines of the heretics fall to ruin.
2. Vain indeed are those who allege that He appeared in mere seeming.
For these things were not done in appearance only, but in actual reality.
But if He did appear as a man, when He was not a man, neither could the
Holy Spirit have rested upon Him,--an occurrence which did actually take
place--as the Spirit is invisible; nor, [in that case], was there any
degree of truth in Him, for He was not that which He seemed to be. But I
have already remarked that Abraham and the other prophets beheld Him after
a prophetical manner, foretelling in vision what should come to pass. If,
then, such a being has now appeared in outward semblance different from
what he was in reality, there has been a certain prophetical vision made to
men; and another advent of His must be looked forward to, in which He shall
be such as He has now been seen in a prophetic manner. And I have proved
already, that it is the same thing to say that He appeared merely to
outward seeming, and [to affirm] that He received nothing from Mary. For He
would not have been one truly possessing flesh and blood, by which He
redeemed us, unless He had summed up in Himself the ancient formation of
Adam. Vain therefore are the disciples of Valentinus who put forth this
opinion, in order that they my exclude the flesh from salvation, and cast
aside what God has fashioned.
3. Vain also are the Ebionites, who do not receive by faith into their
soul the union of God and man, but who remain in the old leaven of [the
natural] birth, and who do not choose to understand that the Holy Ghost
came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High did overshadow her:(3)
wherefore also what was generated is a holy thing, and the Son of the Most
High God the Father of all, who effected the incarnation of this being, and
showed forth a new [kind of] generation; that as by the former generation
we inherited death, so by this new generation we might inherit life.
Therefore do these men reject the commixture of the heavenly wine,(4) and
wish it to be water of the world only, not receiving God so as to have
union with Him, but they remain in that Adam who had been conquered and was
expelled from Paradise: not considering that as, at the beginning of our
formation in Adam, that breath of life which proceeded from God, having
been united to what had been fashioned, animated the man, and manifested
him as a being endowed with reason; so also, in [the times of] the end, the
Word of the Father and the Spirit of God, having become united with the
ancient substance of Adam's formation, rendered man living and perfect,
receptive of the perfect Father, in order that as in the natural [Adam] we
all were dead, so in the spiritual we may all be made alive.(5) For never
at any time did Adam escape the harms(6) of God, to whom the Father
speaking, said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." And for
this reason in the last times (fine), not by the will of the flesh, nor by
the will of man, but by the good pleasure of the Father,(7) His hands
formed a living man, in order that Adam might be created [again] after the
image and likeness of God.
CHAP. II.--WHEN CHRIST VISITED US IN HIS GRACE, HE DID NOT COME TO WHAT DID
NOT BELONG TO HIM: ALSO, BY SHEDDING HIS TRUE BLOOD FOR US, AND EXHIBITING
TO US HIS TRUE FLESH IN THE EUCHARIST, HE CONFERRED UPON OUR FLESH THE
CAPACITY OF SALVATION.
1. And vain likewise are those who say that God came to those things
which did not belong to Him, as if covetous of another's property; in order
that He might deliver up that man who had been created by another, to that
God who had neither made nor formed anything, but who also was deprived
from the beginning of His own proper formation of men. The advent,
therefore, of Him whom these men represent as coming to the things of
others, was not righteous; nor did He truly redeem us by His own blood, if
He did not really become man, restoring to His own handiwork what was said
[of it] in the beginning, that man was made after the image and likeness of
God; not snatching away by stratagem the property of another, but taking
possession of His own in a righteous and gracious manner. As far as
concerned the apostasy, indeed, He redeems us righteously from it by His
own blood; but as regards us who have been redeemed, [He does this]
graciously. For we have given nothing to Him previously, nor does He desire
anything from us, as if He stood in need of it; but we do stand in need of
fellowship with Him. And for this reason it was that He graciously poured
Himself out, that He might gather us into the bosom of the Father.
2. But vain in every respect are they who despise the entire
dispensation of God, and disallow the salvation of the flesh, and treat
with contempt its regeneration, maintaining that it is not capable of
incorruption. But if this indeed do not attain salvation, then neither did
the Lord redeem us with His blood, nor is the cup of the Eucharist the
communion of His blood, nor the bread which we break the communion of His
body.(1) For blood can only come from veins and flesh, and whatsoever else
makes up the substance of man, such as the Word of God was actually made.
By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His apostle declares, "In whom we
have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins."(2) And as
we are His members, we are also nourished by means of the creation (and He
Himself grants the creation to us, for He causes His sun to rise, and sends
rain when He wills(3)). He has acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the
creation) as His own blood, from which He bedews our blood; and the bread
(also a part of the creation) He has established as His own body, from
which He gives increase to our bodies.(4)
3. When, therefore, the mingled cup and the manufactured bread receives
the Word of God, and the Eucharist of the blood and the body of Christ is
made,(5) from which things the substance of our flesh is increased and
supported, how can they affirm that the flesh is incapable of receiving the
gift of God, which is life eternal, which [flesh] is nourished from the
body and blood of the Lord, and is a member of Him?--even as the blessed
Paul declares in his Epistle to the Ephesians, that "we are members of His
body, of His flesh, and of His bones."(6) He does not speak these words of
some spiritual and invisible man, for a spirit has not bones nor flesh;(7)
but [he refers to] that dispensation [by which the Lord became] an actual
man, consisting of flesh, and nerves, and bones,--that [flesh] which is
nourished by the cup which is His blood, and receives increase from the
bread which is His body. And just as a cutting from the vine planted in the
ground fructifies in its season, or as a corn of wheat falling into the
earth and becoming decomposed, rises with manifold increase by the Spirit
of God, who contains all things, and then, through the wisdom of God,
serves for the use of men, and having received the Word of God, becomes the
Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ; so also our bodies, being
nourished by it, and deposited in the earth, and suffering decomposition
there, shall rise at their appointed time, the Word of God granting them
resurrection to the glory of God, even the Father, who freely gives to this
mortal immortality, and to this corruptible incorruption,(8) because the
strength of God is made perfect in weakness,(9) in order that we may never
become puffed up, as if we had life from ourselves, and exalted against
God, our minds becoming ungrateful; but learning by experience that we
possess eternal duration from the excelling power of this Being, not from
our own nature, we may neither undervalue that glory which surrounds God as
He is, nor be ignorant of our own nature, but that we may know what God can
effect, and what benefits man receives, and thus never wander from the true
comprehension of things as they are, that is, both with regard to God and
with regard to man. And might it not be the case, perhaps, as I have
already observed, that for this purpose God permitted our resolution into
the common dust of mortality,(10) that we, being instructed by every mode,
may be accurate in all things for the future, being ignorant neither of God
nor of ourselves?
CHAP. III.--HE POWER AND GLORY OF GOD SHINE FORTH IN THE WEAKNESS OF HUMAN
FLESH, AS HE WILL RENDER OUR BODY A PARTICIPATOR OF THE RESURRECTION AND OF
IMMORTALITY, ALTHOUGH HE HAS FORMED IT FROM THE DUST OF THE EARTH; HE WILL
ALSO BESTOW UPON IT THE ENJOYMENT OF IMMORTALITY, JUST AS HE GRANTS IT THIS
SHORT LIFE IN COMMON WITH THE SOUL.
1. The Apostle Paul has, moreover, in the most lucid manner, pointed
out that man has been delivered over to his own infirmity, lest, being
uplifted, he might fall away from the truth. Thus he says in the second
[Epistle] to the Corinthians: "And lest I should be lifted up by the
sublimity of the revelations, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan to buffet me. And upon this I besought the Lord
three times, that it might depart from me. But he said unto me, My grace is
sufficient for thee; for strength is made perfect in weakness. Gladly
therefore shall I rather glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may
dwell in me."(1) What, therefore? (as some may exclaim:) did the Lord wish,
in that case, that His apostles should thus undergo buffering, and that he
should endure such infirmity? Even so it was; the word says it. For
strength is made perfect in weakness, rendering him a better man who by
means of his infirmity becomes acquainted with the power of God. For how
could a man have learned that he is himself an infirm being, and mortal by
nature, but that God is immortal and powerful, unless he had learned by
experience what is in both? For there is nothing evil in learning one's
infirmities by endurance; yea, rather, it has even the beneficial effect of
preventing him from forming an undue opinion of his own nature (non
aberrare in natura sua). But the being lifted up against God, and taking
His glory to one's self, rendering man ungrateful, has brought much evil
upon him. [And thus, I say, man must learn both things by experience],
that he may not be destitute of truth and love either towards himself or
his Creator.(2) But the experience of both confers upon him the true
knowledge as to God and man, and increases his love towards God. Now, where
there exists an increase of love, there a greater glory is wrought out by
the power of God for those who love Him.
2. Those men, therefore, set aside the power of God, and do not
consider what the word declares, when they dwell upon the infirmity of the
flesh, but do not take into consideration the power of Him who raises it up
from the dead. For if He does not vivify what is mortal, and does not bring
back the corruptible to incorruption, He is not a God of power. But that He
is powerful in all these respects, we ought to perceive from our origin,
inasmuch as God, taking dust from the earth, formed man. And surely it is
much more difficult and incredible, from non-existent bones, and nerves,
and veins, and the rest of man's organization, to bring it about that all
this should be, and to make man an animated and rational creature, than to
re-integrate again that which had been created and then afterwards
decomposed into earth (for the reasons already mentioned), having thus
passed into those [elements] from which man, who had no previous existence,
was formed. For He who in the beginning caused him to have being who as yet
was not, just when He pleased, shall much more reinstate again those who
had a former existence, when it is His will [that they should inherit] the
life granted by Him. And that flesh shall also be found fit for and capable
of receiving the power of God, which at the beginning received the skilful
touches of God; so that one part became the eye for seeing; another, the
ear for hearing; another, the hand for feeling and working; another, the
sinews stretched out everywhere, and holding the limbs together; another,
arteries and veins, passages for the blood and the air;(3) another, the
various internal organs; another, the blood, which is the bond of union
between soul and body. But why go [on in this strain]? Numbers would fail
to express the multiplicity of parts in the human frame, which was made in
no other way than by the great wisdom of God. But those things which
partake of the skill and wisdom of God, do also partake of His power.
3. The flesh, therefore, is not destitute [of participation] in the
constructive wisdom and power of God. But if the power of Him who is the
bestower of life is made perfect in weakness--that is, in the flesh--let
them inform us, when they maintain the incapacity of flesh to receive the
life granted by God, whether they do say these things as being living men
at present, and partakers of life, or acknowledge that, having no part in
life whatever, they are at the present moment dead men. And if they really
are dead men, how is it that they move about, and speak, and perform those
other functions which are not the actions of the dead, but of the living?
But if they are now alive, and if their whole body partakes of life, how
can they venture the assertion that the flesh is not qualifled to be a
partaker of life, when they do confess that they have life at the present
moment? It is just as if anybody were to take up a sponge full of water, or
a torch on fire, and to declare that the sponge could not possibly partake
of the water, or the torch of the fire. In this very manner do those men,
by alleging that they are alive and bear life about in their members,
contradict themselves afterwards, when they represent these members as not
being capable of [receiving] life. But if the present temporal life, which
is of such an inferior nature to eternal life, can nevertheless effect so
much as to quicken our mortal members, why should not eternal life, being
much more powerful than this, vivify the flesh, which has already held
converse with, and been accustomed to sustain, life? For that the flesh
can really partake of life, is shown from the fact of it; being alive; for
it lives on, as long as it is God's purpose that it should do so. It is
manifest, too, that God has the power to confer life upon it, inasmuch as
He grants life to us who are in existence. And, therefore, since the Lord
has power to infuse life into what He has fashioned, and since the flesh is
capable of being quickened, what remains to prevent its participating in
incorruption, which is a blissful and never-ending life granted by God?
CHAP. IV.--THOSE PERSONS ARE DECEIVED WHO FEIGN ANOTHER GOD THE FATHER
BESIDES THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD; FOR HE MUST HAVE BEEN FEEBLE AND USELESS,
OR ELSE MALIGNANT AND FULL OF ENVY, IF HE BE EITHER UNABLE OR UNWILLING TO
EXTEND EXTERNAL LIFE TO OUR BODIES.
1. Those persons who feign the existence of another Father beyond the
Creator, and who term him the good God, do deceive themselves; for they
introduce him as a feeble, worthless, and negligent being, not to say
malign and full of envy, inasmuch as they affirm that our bodies are not
quickened by him. For when they say of things which it is manifest to all
do remain immortal, such as the spirit and the soul, and such other things,
that they are quickened by the Father, but that another thing [viz. the
body] which is quickened in no different manner than by God granting [life]
to it, is abandoned by life,--[they must either confess] that this proves
their Father to be weak and powerless, or else envious and malignant. For
since the Creator does even here quicken our mortal bodies, and promises
them resurrection by the prophets, as I have pointed out; who [in that
case] is shown to be more powerful, stronger, or truly good? Whether is it
the Creator who vivifies the whole man, or is it their Father, falsely so
called? He feigns to be the quickener of those things which are immortal by
nature, to which things life is always present by their very nature; but he
does not benevolently quicken those things which required his assistance,
that they might live, but leaves them carelessly to fall under the power of
death. Whether is it the case, then, that their Father does not bestow life
upon them when he has the power of so doing, or is it that he does not
possess the power? If, on the one hand, it is because he cannot, he is,
upon that supposition, not a powerful being, nor is he more perfect than
the Creator; for the Creator grants, as we must perceive, what He is unable
to afford. But if, on the other hand, [it be that he does not grant this]
when he has the power of so doing, then he is proved to be not a good, but
an envious and malignant Father.
2. If, again, they refer to any cause on account of which their Father
does not impart life to bodies, then that cause must necessarily appear
superior to the Father, since it restrains Him from the exercise of His
benevolence; and His benevolence will thus be proved weak, on account of
that cause which they bring forward. Now every one must perceive that
bodies are capable of receiving life. For they live to the extent that God
pleases that they should live; and that being so, the [heretics] cannot
maintain that [these bodies] are utterly incapable of receiving life. If,
therefore, on account of necessity and any other cause, those [bodies]
which are capable of participating in life are not vivified, their Father
shall be the slave of necessity and that cause, and not therefore a free
agent, having His will under His own control.
CHAP. V.--THE PROLONGED LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS, THE TRANSLATION OF ELIJAH AND
OF ENOCH IN THEIR OWN BODIES, AS WELL AS THE PRESERVATION OF JONAH, OF
SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABEDNEGO, IN THE MIDST OF EXTREME PERIL, ARE CLEAR
DEMONSTRATIONS THAT GOD CAN RAISE UP OUR BODIES TO LIFE ETERNAL.
1. [In order to learn] that bodies did continue in existence for a
lengthened period, as long as it was God's good pleasure that they should
flourish, let [these heretics] read the Scriptures, and they will find that
our predecessors advanced beyond seven hundred, eight hundred, and nine
hundred years of age; and that their bodies kept pace with the protracted
length of their days, and participated in life as long as God willed that
they should live. But why do I refer to these men? For Enoch, when he
pleased God, was translated in the same body in which he did please Him,
thus pointing out by anticipation the translation of the just. Elijah, too,
was caught up [when he was yet] in the substance of the [natural] form;
thus exhibiting in prophecy the assumption of those who are spiritual, and
that nothing stood in the way of their body being translated and caught up.
For by means of the very same hands through which they were moulded at the
beginning, did they receive this translation and assumption. For in Adam
the hands of God had become accustomed to set in order, to rule, and to
sustain His own workmanship, and to bring it and place it where they
pleased. Where, then, was the first man placed? In paradise certainly, as
the Scripture declares "And God planted a garden [paradisum] eastward in
Eden, and there He placed the man whom He had formed."(1) And then
afterwards when [man] proved disobedient, he was cast out thence into this
world. Wherefore also the elders who were disciples of the apostles tell us
that those who were translated were transferred to that place (for paradise
has been prepared for righteous men, such as have the Spirit; in which
place also Paul the apostle, when he was caught up, heard words which are
unspeakable as regards us in our present condition(2)), and that there
shall they who have been translated remain until the consummation [of all
things], as a prelude to immortality.
2. If, however, any one imagine it impossible that men should survive
for such a length of time, and that Elias was not caught up in the flesh,
but that his flesh was consumed in the fiery chariot, let him consider that
Jonah, when he had been cast into the deep, and swallowed down into the
whale's belly, was by the command of God again thrown out safe upon the
land.(3) And then, again, when Ananias, Azarias, and Misael were cast into
the furnace of fire sevenfold heated, they sustained no harm whatever,
neither was the smell of fire perceived upon them. As, therefore, the hand
of God was present with them, working out marvellous things in their case--
[things] impossible [to be accomplished] by man's nature--what wonder was
it, if also in the case of those who were translated it performed something
wonderful, working in obedience to the will of God, even the Father? Now
this is the Son of God, as the Scripture represents Nebuchadnezzar the king
as having said, "Did not we cast three men bound into the furnace? and, lo,
I do see four walking in the midst of the fire, and the fourth is like the
Son of God."(4) Neither the nature of any created thing, therefore, nor the
weakness of the flesh, can prevail against the will of God. For God is not
subject to created things, but created things to God; and all things yield
obedience to His will. Wherefore also the Lord declares, "The things which
are impossible with men, are possible with God."(5) As, therefore, it might
seem to the men of the present day, who are ignorant of God's appointment,
to be a thing incredible and impossible that any man could live for such a
number of years, yet those who were before us did live [to such an age],
and those who were translated do live as an earnest of the future length of
days; and [as it might also appear impossible] that from the whale's belly
and from the fiery furnace men issued forth unhurt, yet they nevertheless
did so, led forth as it were by the hand of God, for the purpose of
declaring His power: so also now, although some, not knowing the power and
promise of God, may oppose their own salvation, deeming it impossible for
God, who raises up the dead; to have power to confer upon them eternal
duration, yet the scepticism of men of this stamp shall not render the
faithfulness of God of none effect.
CHAP. VI.--GOD WILL BESTOW SALVATION UPON THE WHOLE NATURE OF MAN,
CONSISTING OF BODY AND SOUL IN CLOSE UNION, SINCE THE WORD TOOK IT UPON
HIM, AND ADORNED WITH THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, OF WHOM OUR BODIES ARE,
AND ARE TERMED, THE TEMPLES.
1. Now God shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it so as to be
conformable to, and modelled after, His own Son. For by the hands of the
Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not [merely] a
part of man, was made in the likeness of God. Now the soul and the spirit
are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect
man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the
spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was
moulded after the image of God. For this reason does the apostle declare,
"We speak wisdom among them that are perfect,"(6) terming those persons
"perfect" who have received the Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit
of God do speak in all languages, as he used Himself also to speak. In like
manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic
gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring
to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the
mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms "spiritual," they being
spiritual because they partake of the Spirit, and not because their flesh
has been stripped off and taken away, and because they have become purely
spiritual. For if any one take away the substance of flesh, that is, of the
handiwork [of God], and understand that which is purely spiritual, such
then would not be a spiritual man but would be the spirit of a man, or the
Spirit of God. But when the spirit here blended with the soul is united to
[God's] handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of the
outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and
likeness of God. But if the Spirit be wanting to the soul, he who is such
is indeed of an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an imperfect
being, possessing indeed the image [of God] in his formation (in plasmate),
but not receiving the similitude through the Spirit; and thus is this being
imperfect. Thus also, if any one take away the image and set aside the
handiwork, he cannot then understand this as being a man, but as either
some part of a man, as I have already said, or as something else than a
man. For that flesh which has been moulded is not a perfect man in itself,
but the body of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the soul itself,
considered apart by itself, the man; but it is the soul of a man, and part
of a man. Neither is the spirit a man, for it is called the spirit, and not
a man; but the commingling and union of all these constitutes the perfect
man. And for this cause does the apostle, explaining himself, make it clear
that the saved man is a complete man as well as a spiritual man; saying
thus in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, "Now the God of peace
sanctify you perfect (perfectos); and may your spirit, and soul, and body
be preserved whole without complaint to the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ."(1) Now what was his object in praying that these three--that is,
soul, body, and spirit-- might be preserved to the coming of the Lord,
unless he was aware of the [future] reintegration and union of the three,
and [that they should be heirs of] one and the same salvation? For this
cause also he declares that those are "the perfect" who present unto the
Lord the three [component parts] without offence. Those, then, are the
perfect who have had the Spirit of God remaining in them, and have
preserved their souls and bodies blameless, holding fast the faith of God,
that is, that faith which is [directed] towards God, and maintaining
righteous dealings with respect to their neighbours.
2. Whence also he says, that this handiwork is "the temple of God,"
thus declaring: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man, therefore, will defile the
temple of God, him will God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which
[temple] ye are."(2) Here he manifestly declares the body to be the temple
in which the Spirit dwells. As also the Lord speaks in reference to
Himself, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He
spake this, however," it is said, "of the temple of His body."(3) And not
only does he (the apostle) acknowledge our bodies to be a temple, but even
the temple of Christ, saying thus to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that
your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ,
and make them the members of an harlot?"(4) He speaks these things, not in
reference to some other spiritual man; for a being of such a nature could
have nothing to do with an harlot: but he declares "our body," that is, the
flesh which continues in sanctity and purity, to be "the members of
Christ;" but that when it becomes one with an harlot, it becomes the
members of an harlot. And for this reason he said, "If any man defile the
temple of God, him will God destroy." How then is it not the utmost
blasphemy to allege, that the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the
Father dwells, and the members of Christ, do not partake of salvation, but
are reduced to perdition? Also, that our bodies are raised not from their
own substance, but by the power of God, he says to the Corinthians, "Now
the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the
body. But God hath both raised up the Lord, and shall raise us up by His
own power."(5)
CHAP. VII.--INASMUCH AS CHRIST DID RISE IN OUR FLESH, IT FOLLOWS THAT WE
SHALL BE ALSO RAISED IN THE SAME; SINCE THE RESURRECTION PROMISED TO US
SHOULD NOT BE REFERRED TO SPIRITS NATURALLY IMMORTAL, BUT TO BODIES IN
THEMSELVES MORTAL.
1. In the same manner, therefore, as Christ did rise in the substance
of flesh, and pointed out to His disciples the mark of the nails and the
opening in His side(6) (now these are the tokens of that flesh which rose
from the dead), so "shall He also," it is said, "raise us up by His own
power."(7) And again to the Romans he says, "But if the Spirit of Him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies."(8) What, then, are mortal
bodies? Can they be souls? Nay, for souls are incorporeal when put in
comparison with mortal bodies; for God "breathed into the face of man the
breath of life, and man became a living soul." Now the breath of life is an
incorporeal thing. And certainly they cannot maintain that the very breath
of life is mortal. Therefore David says, "My soul also shall live to
Him,"(1) just as if its substance were immortal. Neither, on the other
hand, can they say that the spirit is the mortal body. What therefore is
there left to which we may apply the term "mortal body," unless it be the
thing that was moulded, that is, the flesh, of which it is also said that
God will vivify it? For this it is which dies and is decomposed, but not
the soul or the spirit. For to die is to lose vital power, and to become
henceforth breathless, inanimate, and devoid of motion, and to melt away
into those [component parts] from which also it derived the commencement of
[its] substance. But this event happens neither to the soul, for it is the
breath of life; nor to the spirit, for the spirit is simple and not
composite, so that it cannot be decomposed, and is itself the life of those
who receive it. We must therefore conclude that it is in reference to the
flesh that death is mentioned; which [flesh], after the soul's departure,
becomes breathless and inanimate, and is decomposed gradually into the
earth from which it was taken. This, then, is what is mortal. And it is
this of which he also says," He shall also quicken your mortal bodies." And
therefore in reference to it he says, in the first [Epistle] to the
Corinthians: "So also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in
corruption, it rises in incorruption."(2) For he declares, "That which thou
sowest cannot be quickened, unless first it die."(3)
2. But what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is sown in the earth
and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid in the earth, into which
seeds are also cast? And for this reason he said, "It is sown in dishonour,
it rises in glory."(4) For what is more ignoble than dead flesh? Or, on the
other hand, what is more glorious than the same when it arises and partakes
of incorruption? "It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power:"(5) in its
own weakness certainly, because since it is earth it goes to earth; but [it
is quickened] by the power of God, who raises it from the dead. "It is sown
an animal body, it rises a spiritual body."(6) He has taught, beyond all
doubt, that such language was not used by him, either with reference to the
soul or to the spirit, but to bodies that have become corpses. For these
are animal bodies, that is, [bodies] which partake of life, which when they
have lost, they succumb to death; then, rising through the Spirit's
instrumentality, they become spiritual bodies, so that by the Spirit they
possess a perpetual life. "For now," he says, "we know in part, and we
prophesy in part, but then face to face."(7) And this it is which has been
said also by Peter: "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom now also, not
seeing, ye believe; and believing, ye shall rejoice with joy
unspeakable."(8) For our face shall see the face of the Lord? and shall
rejoice with joy unspeakable,--that is to say, when it shall behold its own
Delight.
CHAP. VIII.--THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WHICH WE RECEIVE PREPARE US FOR
INCORRUPTION, RENDER US SPIRITUAL, AND SEPARATE US FROM CARNAL MEN. THESE
TWO CLASSES ARE SIGNIFIED BY THE CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS IN THE LEGAL
DISPENSATION.
1. But we do now receive a certain portion of His Spirit, tending
towards perfection, and preparing us for incorruption, being little by
little accustomed to receive and bear God; which also the apostle terms "an
earnest," that is, a part of the honour which has been promised us by God,
where he says in the Epistle to the Ephesians, "In which ye also, having
heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, believing in which
we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest
of our inheritance."(10) This earnest, therefore, thus dwelling in us,
renders us spiritual even now, and the mortal is swallowed up by
immortality.(11) "For ye," he declares, "are not in the flesh, but in the
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."(12) This, however
does not take place by a casting away of the flesh, but by the impartation
of the Spirit. For those to whom he was writing were not without flesh, but
they were those who had received the Spirit of God, "by which we cry, Abba,
Father."(13) If therefore, at the present time, having the earnest, we do
cry, "Abba, Father," what shall it be when, on rising again, we behold Him
face to face; when all the members shall burst out into a continuous hymn
of triumph, glorifying Him who raised them from the dead, and gave the gift
of eternal life? For if the earnest, gathering man into itself, does even
now cause him to cry, "Abba, Father," what shall the complete grace of the
Spirit effect, which shall be given to men by God? It will render us like
unto Him, and accomplish the will(14) of the Father; for it shall make man
after the image and likeness of God.
2. Those persons, then, who possess the earnest of the Spirit, and who
are not enslaved by the lusts of the flesh, but are subject to the Spirit,
and who in all things walk according to the light of reason, does the
apostle properly term "spiritual," because the Spirit of God dwells in
them. Now, spiritual men shall not be incorporeal spirits; but our
substance, that is, the union of flesh and spirit, receiving the Spirit of
God, makes up the spiritual man. But those who do indeed reject the
Spirit's counsel, and are the slaves of fleshly lusts, and lead lives
contrary to reason, and who, without restraint, plunge headlong into their
own desires, having no longing after the Divine Spirit, do live after the
manner of swine and of dogs; these men, [I say], does the apostle very
properly term "carnal," because they have no thought of anything else
except carnal things.
3. For the same reason, too, do the prophets compare them to irrational
animals, on account of the irrationality of their conduct, saying, "They
have become as horses raging for the females; each one of them neighing
after his neighbour's wife."(1) And again, "Man, when he was in honour, was
made like unto cattle."(2) This denotes that, for his own fault, he is
likened to cattle, by rivalling their irrational life. And we also, as the
custom is, do designate men of this stamp as cattle and irrational beasts.
4. Now the law has figuratively predicted all these, delineating man by
the [various] animals:(3) whatsoever of these, says [the Scripture], have a
double hoof and ruminate, it proclaims as clean; but whatsoever of them do
not possess one or other of these [properties], it sets aside b themselves
as unclean. Who then are the clean? Those who make their way by faith
steadily towards the Father and the Son; for this is denoted by the
steadiness of those which divide the hoof; and they meditate day and night
upon the words of God,(4) that they may be adorned with good works: for
this is the meaning of the ruminants. The unclean, however, are those which
do neither divide the hoof nor ruminate; that is, those persons who have
neither faith in God, nor do meditate on His words: and such is the
abomination of the Gentiles. But as to those animals which do indeed chew
the cud, but have not the double hoof, and are themselves unclean, we have
in them a figurative description of the Jews, who certainly have the words
of God in their mouth, but who do not fix their rooted stedfastness in the
Father and in the Son; wherefore they are an unstable generation. For those
animals which have the hoof all in one piece easily slip; but those which
have it divided are more sure-footed, their cleft hoofs succeeding each
other as they advance, and the one hoof supporting the other. In like
manner, too, those are unclean which have the double hoof but do not
ruminate: this is plainly an indication of all heretics, and of those who
do not meditate on the words of God, neither are adorned with works of
righteousness; to whom also the Lord says, "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and
do not the things which I say to you?"(5) For men of this stamp do indeed
say that they believe in the Father and the Son, but they never meditate as
they should upon the things of God, neither are they adorned with works of
righteousness; but, as I have already observed, they have adopted the lives
of swine and of dogs, giving themselves over to filthiness, to gluttony,
and recklessness of all sorts. Justly, therefore, did the apostle call all
such "carnal" and "animal,"(6)--[all those, namely], who through their own
unbelief and luxury do not receive the Divine Spirit, and in their various
phases east out from themselves the life-giving Word, and walk stupidly
after their own lusts: the prophets, too, spake of them as beasts of burden
and wild beasts; custom likewise has viewed them in the light of cattle and
irrational creatures; and the law has pronounced them unclean.
CHAP. IX.--SHOWING HOW THAT PASSAGE OF THE APOSTLE WHICH THE HERETICS
PERVERT, SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD;VIZ., "FLESH AND BLOOD SHALL NOT POSSESS THE
KINGDOM OF GOD."
1. Among the other [truths] proclaimed by the apostle, there is also
this one, "That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."(7) This
is [the passage] which is adduced by all the heretics in support of their
folly, with an attempt to annoy us, and to point out that the handiwork of
God is not saved. They do not take this fact into consideration, that there
are three things out of which, as I have shown, the complete man is
composed--flesh, soul, and spirit. One of these does indeed preserve and
fashion [the man]--this is the spirit; while as to another it is united and
formed--that is the flesh; then [comes] that which is between these two--
that is the soul, which sometimes indeed, when it follows the spirit, is
raised up by it, but sometimes it sympathizes with the flesh, and falls
into carnal lusts. Those then, as many as they be, who have not that which
saves and forms [us] into life [eternal], shall be, and shall be called,
[mere] flesh and blood; for these are they who have not the Spirit of God
in themselves. Wherefore men of this stamp are spoken of by the Lord as
"dead;" for, says He, "Let the dead bury their dead,"(1) because they have
not the Spirit which quickens man.
2. On the other hand, as many as fear God and trust in His Son's
advent, and who through faith do establish the Spirit of God in their
hearts,--such men as these shall be properly called both "pure," and
"spiritual," and "those living to God," because they possess the Spirit of
the Father, who purifies man, and raises him up to the life of God. For as
the Lord has testified that "the flesh is weak," so [does He also say] that
"the spirit is willing."(2) For this latter is capable of working out its
own suggestions. If, therefore, any one admix the ready inclination of the
Spirit to be, as it were, a stimulus to the infirmity of the flesh, it
inevitably follows that what is strong will prevail over the weak, so that
the weakness of the flesh will be absorbed by the strength of the Spirit;
and that the man in whom this takes place cannot in that case be carnal,
but Spiritual, because of the fellowship of the Spirit. Thus it is,
therefore, that the martyrs bear their witness, and despise death, not
after the infirmity of the flesh, but because of the readiness of the
Spirit. For when the infirmity of the flesh is absorbed, it exhibits the
Spirit as powerful; and again, when the Spirit absorbs the weakness [of the
flesh], it possesses the flesh as an inheritance in itself, and from both
of these is formed a living man,--living, indeed, because he partakes of
the Spirit, but man, because of the substance of flesh.
3. The flesh, therefore, when destitute of the Spirit of God, is dead,
not having life, and cannot possess the kingdom of God: [it is as]
irrational blood, like water poured out upon the ground. And therefore he
says, "As is the earthy, such are they that are earthy."(3) But where the
Spirit of the Father is, there is a living man; [there is] the rational
blood preserved by God for the avenging [of those that shed it]; [there is]
the flesh possessed by the Spirit, forgetful indeed of what belongs to it,
and adopting the quality of the Spirit, being made conformable to the Word
of God. And on this account he (the apostle) declares, "As we have borne
the image of him who is of the earth, we shall also bear the image of Him
who is from heaven."(4) What, therefore, is the earthly? That which was
fashioned. And what is the heavenly? The Spirit. As therefore he says, when
we were destitute of the celestial Spirit, we walked in former times in the
oldness of the flesh, not obeying God; so now let us, receiving the Spirit,
walk in newness of life, obeying God. Inasmuch, therefore, as without the
Spirit of God we cannot be saved, the apostle exhorts us through faith and
chaste conversation to preserve the Spirit of God, lest, having become non-
participators of the Divine Spirit, we lose the kingdom of heaven; and he
exclaims, that flesh in itself, and blood, cannot possess the kingdom God.
4. If, however, we must speak strictly, [we would say that] the flesh
does not inherit, but is inherited; as also the Lord declares, "Blessed are
the meek, for they shall possess the earth by inheritance;"(5) as if in the
[future] kingdom, the earth, from whence exists the substance Of our flesh,
is to be possessed by inheritance. This is the reason for His wishing the
temple (i.e., the flesh) to be clean, that the Spirit of God may take
delight therein, as a bridegroom with a bride. As, therefore, the bride
cannot [be said] to wed, but to be wedded, when the bridegroom comes and
takes her, so also the flesh cannot by itself possess the kingdom of God by
inheritance; but it can be taken for an inheritance into the kingdom of
God. For a living person inherits the goods of the deceased; and it is one
thing to inherit, another to be inherited. The former rules, and exercises
power over, and orders the things inherited at his will; but the latter
things are in a state of subjection, are under order, and are ruled over by
him who has obtained the inheritance. What, therefore, is it that lives?
The Spirit of God, doubtless. What, again, are the possessions of the
deceased? The various parts of the man, surely, which rot in the earth. But
these are inherited by the Spirit when they are translated into the kingdom
of heaven. For this cause, too, did Christ die. that the Gospel covenant
being manifested and known to the whole world, might in the first place set
free His slaves; and then afterwards, as I have already shown, might
constitute them heirs of His property, when the Spirit possesses them by
inheritance. For he who lives inherits, but the flesh is inherited. In
order that we may not lose life by losing that Spirit which possesses us,
the apostle, exhorting us to the communion of the Spirit, has said,
according to reason, in those words already quoted, "That flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God." Just as if he were to say, "Do not err;
for unless the Word of God dwell with, and the Spirit of the Father be in
you, and if ye shall live frivolously and carelessly as if ye were this
only, viz., mere flesh and blood, ye cannot inherit the kingdom of God."
CHAP. X.--BY A COMPARISON DRAWN FROM THE WILD OLIVE-TREE, WHOSE QUALITY BUT
NOT WHOSE NATURE IS CHANGED BY GRAFTING, HE PROVES MORE IMPORTANT THINGS;
HE POINTS OUT ALSO THAT MAN WITHOUT THE SPIRIT IS NOT CAPABLE OF BRINGING
FORTH FRUIT, OR OF INHERITING THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
1. This truth, therefore, [he declares], in order that we may not
reject the engrafting of the Spirit while pampering the flesh. "But thou,
being a wild olive-tree," he says, "hast been grafted into the good olive-
tree, and been made a partaker of the fatness of the olive-tree." As,
therefore, when the wild olive has been engrafted, if it remain in its
former condition, viz., a wild olive, it is "cut off, and cast into the
fire;"(2) but if it takes kindly to the graft, and is changed into the good
olive-tree, it becomes a fruit-bearing olive, planted, as it were, in a
king's park (paradiso): so likewise men, if they do truly progress by faith
towards better things, and receive the Spirit of God, and bring forth the
fruit thereof, shall be spiritual, as being planted in the paradise of God.
But if they cast out the Spirit, and remain in their former condition,
desirous of being of the flesh rather than of the Spirit, then it is very
justly said with regard to men of this stamp, "That flesh and blood shall
not inherit the kingdom of God;"(3) just as if any one were to say that the
wild olive is not received into the paradise of God. Admirably therefore
does the apostle exhibit our nature, and God's universal appointment, in
his discourse about flesh and blood and the wild olive. For as the good
olive, if neglected for a certain time, if left to grow wild and to run to
i wood, does itself become a wild olive; or again, if the wild olive be
carefully tended and grafted, it naturally reverts to its former fruit-
bearing condition: so men also, when they become careless, and bring forth
for fruit the lusts of the flesh like woody produce, are rendered, by their
own fault, unfruitful in righteousness. For when men sleep, the enemy sows
the material of tares;(4) and for this cause did the Lord command His
disciples to be on the watch.(5) And again, those persons who are not
bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, and are, as it were, covered
over and lost among brambles, if they use diligence, and receive the word
of God as a graft,(6) arrive at the pristine nature of man--that which was
created after the image and likeness of God.
2. But as the engrafted wild olive does not certainly lose the
substance of its wood, but changes the quality of its fruit, and receives
another name, being now not a wild olive, but a fruit-bearing olive, and is
called so; so also, when man is grafted in by faith and receives the Spirit
of God, he certainly does not lose the substance of flesh, but changes the
quality of the fruit [brought forth, i.e.,] of his works, and receives
another name,(7) showing that he has become changed for the better, being
now not [mere] flesh and blood, but a spiritual man, and is called such.
Then, again, as the wild olive, if it be not grafted in, remains useless to
its lord because of its woody quality, and is cut down as a tree bearing no
fruit, and cast into the fire; so also man, if he does not receive through
faith the engrafting of the Spirit, remains in his old condition, and being
[mere] flesh and blood, he cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Rightly
therefore does the apostle declare, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God;"(8) and, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God:"(9)
not repudiating [by these words] the substance of flesh, but showing that
into it the Spirit must be infused.(10) And for this reason, he says, "This
mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on
incorruption."(11) And again he declares, "But ye are not in the flesh, but
in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."(12) He sets
this forth still more plainly, where he says, "The body indeed is dead,
because of sin; but the Spirit is life, because of righteousness. But if
the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies,
because of His Spirit dwelling in you."(13) And again he says, in the
Epistle to the Romans, "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die."(14)
[Now by these words] he does not prohibit them from living their lives in
the flesh, for he was himself in the flesh when he wrote to them; but he
cuts away the lusts of the flesh, those which bring death upon a man. And
for this reason he says in continuation, "But if ye through the Spirit do
mortify the works of the flesh, ye shall live. For whosoever are led by the
Spirit of God, these are the sons of God."
CHAP. XI.--TREATS UPON THE ACTIONS OF CARNAL AND OF SPIRITUAL PERSONS;
ALSO, THAT THE SPIRITUAL CLEANSING IS NOT TO BE REFERRED TO THE SUBSTANCE
OF OUR BODIES, BUT TO THE MANNER OF OUR FORMER LIFE.
1. [The apostle], foreseeing the wicked speeches of unbelievers, has
particularized the works which he terms carnal; and he explains himself,
lest any room for doubt be left to those who do dishonestly pervert his
meaning, thus saying in the Epistle to the Galatians: "Now the works of the
flesh are manifest, which are adulteries, fornications, uncleanness,
luxuriousness, idolatries, witchcrafts,(1) hatreds, contentions jealousies,
wraths, emulations, animosities, irritable speeches, dissensions, heresies,
envyings, drunkenness, carousings, and such like; of which I warn you, as
also I have warned you, that they who do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God."(2) Thus does he point out to his hearers in a more
explicit manner what it is [he means when he declares], "Flesh and blood
shall not inherit the kingdom of God." For they who do these things, since
they do indeed walk after the flesh, have not the power of living unto God.
And then, again, he proceeds to tell us the spiritual actions which vivify
a man, that is, the engrafting of the Spirit; thus saying, "But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, benignity,
faith, meekness, continence, chastity: against these there is no law."(3)
As, therefore, he who has gone forward to the better things, and has
brought forth the fruit of the Spirit, is saved altogether because of the
communion of the Spirit; so also he who has continued in the aforesaid
works of the flesh, being truly reckoned as carnal, because he did not
receive the Spirit of God, shall not have power to inherit the kingdom of
heaven. As, again, the same apostle testifies, saying to the Corinthians,
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do
not err," he says: "neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor
covetous, nor revilers, nor rapacious persons, shall inherit the kingdom of
God. And these ye indeed have been; but ye have been washed, but ye have
been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and in the Spirit of our God."(4) He shows in the clearest manner
through what things it is that man goes to destruction, if he has continued
to live after the flesh; and then, on the other hand, [he points out]
through what things he is saved. Now he says that the things which save are
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God.
2. Since, therefore, in that passage he recounts those works of the
flesh which are without the Spirit, which bring death [upon their doers],
he exclaimed at the end of his Epistle, in accordance with what he had
already declared, "And as we have borne the image of him who is of the
earth, we shall also bear the image of Him who is from heaven. For this I
say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."(5)
Now this which he says, "as we have borne the image of him who is of the
earth," is analogous to what has been declared, "And such indeed ye were;
but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been
justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our
God." When, therefore, did we bear the image of him who is of the earth?
Doubtless it was when those actions spoken of as "works of the flesh" used
to be wrought in us. And then, again, when [do we bear] the image of the
heavenly? Doubtless when he says, "Ye have been washed," believing in the
name of the Lord, and receiving His Spirit. Now we have washed away, not
the substance of our body, nor the image of our [primary] formation, but
the former vain conversation. In these members, therefore, in which we were
going to destruction by working the works of corruption, in these very
members are we made alive by working the works of the Spirit.
CHAP. XII.--OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH; OF THE BREATH OF LIFE
AND THE VIVIFYING SPIRIT: ALSO HOW IT IS THAT THE SUBSTANCE OF FLESH
REVIVES WHICH ONCE WAS DEAD.
1. For as the flesh is capable of corruption, so is it also of
incorruption; and as it is of death, so is it also of life. These two do
mutually give way to each other; and both cannot remain in the same place,
but one is driven out by the other, and the presence of the one destroys
that of the other. If, then, when death takes possession of a man, it
drives life away from him, and proves him to be dead, much more does life,
when it has obtained power over the man, drive out death, and restore him
as living unto God. For if death brings mortality, why should not life,
when it comes, vivify man? Just as Esaias the prophet says, "Death devoured
when it had prevailed."(6) And again, "God has wiped away every tear from
every face." Thus that former life is expelled, because it was not given by
the Spirit, but by the breath.
2. For the breath of life, which also rendered man an animated being,
is one thing, and the vivifying Spirit another, which also caused him to
become spiritual. And for this reason Isaiah said, "Thus saith the LORD,
who made heaven and established it, who founded the earth and the things
therein, and gave breath to the people upon it, and Spirit to those walking
upon it;"(1) thus telling us that breath is indeed given in common to all
people upon earth, but that the Spirit is theirs alone who tread down
earthly desires. And therefore Isaiah himself, distinguishing the things
already mentioned, again exclaims, "For the Spirit shall go forth from Me,
and I have made every breath."(2) Thus does he attribute the Spirit as
peculiar to God which in the last times He pours forth upon the human race
by the adoption of sons; but [he shows] that breath was common throughout
the creation, and points it out as something created. Now what has been
made is a different thing from him who makes it. The breath, then, is
temporal, but the Spirit eternal. The breath, too, increases [in strength]
for a short period, and continues for a certain time; after that it takes
its departure, leaving its former abode destitute of breath. But when the
Spirit pervades the man within and without, inasmuch as it continues there,
it never leaves him. "But that is not first which is spiritual," says the
apostle, speaking this as if with reference to us human beings; "but that
is first which is animal, afterwards that which is spiritual,"(3) in
accordance with reason. For there had been a necessity that, in the first
place, a human being should be fashioned, and that what was fashioned
should receive the soul; afterwards that it should thus receive the
communion of the Spirit. Wherefore also "the first Adam was made" by the
Lord "a living soul, the second Adam a quickening spirit."(4) As, then, he
who was made a living soul forfeited life when he turned aside to what was
evil, so, on the other hand, the same individual, when he reverts to what
is good, and receives the quickening Spirit, shall find life.
3. For it is not one thing which dies and another which is quickened,
as neither is it one thing Which is lost and another which is found, but
the Lord came seeking for that same sheep which had been lost. What was it,
then, which was dead? Undoubtedly it was the substance of the flesh; the
same, too, which had lost the breath of life, and had become breathless and
dead. This same, therefore, was what the Lord came to quicken, that as in
Adam we do all die, as being of an animal nature, in Christ we may all
live, as being spiritual, not laying aside God's handiwork, but the lusts
of the flesh, and receiving the Holy Spirit; as the apostle says in the
Epistle to the Colossians: "Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon
the earth." And what these are he himself explains: "Fornication,
uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence; and covetousness,
which is idolatry."(5) The laying aside of these is what the apostle
preaches; and he declares that those who do such things, as being merely
flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. For their soul,
tending towards what is worse, and descending to earthly lusts, has become
a partaker in the same designation which belongs to these [lusts, viz.,
"earthly"], which, when the apostle commands us to lay aside, he says in
the same Epistle, "Cast ye off the old man with his deeds."(6) But when he
said this, he does not remove away the ancient formation [of man]; for in
that case it would be incumbent on us to rid ourselves of its company by
committing suicide.
4. But the apostle himself also, being one who had been formed in a
womb, and had issued thence, wrote to us, and confessed in his Epistle to
the Philippians that "to live in the flesh was the fruit of [his] work;"(7)
thus expressing himself. Now the final result of the work of the Spirit is
the salvation of the flesh.(8) For what other visible fruit is there of the
invisible Spirit, than the rendering of the flesh mature and capable of
incorruption? If then [he says], "To live in the flesh, this is the result
of labour to me," he did not surely contemn the substance of flesh in that
passage where he said, "Put ye off the old man with his works;"(9) but he
points out that we should lay aside our former conversation, that which
waxes old and becomes corrupt; and for this reason he goes on to say, "And
put ye on the new man, that which is renewed in knowledge, after the image
of Him who created him." In this, therefore, that he says, "which is
renewed in knowledge," he demonstrates that he, the selfsame man who was in
ignorance in times past, that is, in ignorance of God, is renewed by that
knowledge which has respect to Him. For the knowledge of God renews man.
And when he says, "after the image of the Creator," he sets forth the
recapitulation of the same man, who was at the beginning made after the
likeness of God.
5. And that he, the apostle, was the very same person who had been born
from the womb, that is, of the ancient substance of flesh, he does himself
declare in the Epistle to the Galatians: "But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal
His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles," (10) it was
not, as I have already observed, one person who had been born from the
womb, and another who preached the Gospel of the Son of God; but that same
individual who formerly was ignorant, and used to persecute the Church,
when the revelation was made to him from heaven, and the Lord conferred
with him, as I have pointed out in the third book,(1) preached the Gospel
of Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, his
former ignorance being driven out by his subsequent knowledge: just as the
blind men whom the Lord healed did certainly lose their blindness, but
received the substance of their eyes perfect, and obtained the power of
vision in the very same eyes with which they formerly did not see; the
darkness being merely driven away by the power of vision, while the
substance of the eyes was retained, in order that, by means of those eyes
through which they had not seen, exercising again the visual power, they
might give thanks to Him who had restored them again to sight. And thus,
also, he whose withered hand was healed, and all who were healed generally,
did not change those parts of their bodies which had at their birth come
forth from the womb, but simply obtained these anew in a healthy condition.
6. For the Maker of all things, the Word of God, who did also from the
beginning form man, when He found His handiwork impaired by wickedness,
performed upon it all kinds of healing. At one time [He did so], as regards
each separate member, as it is found in His own handiwork; and at another
time He did once for all restore man sound and whole in all points,
preparing him perfect for Himself unto the resurrection. For what was His
object in healing [different] portions of the flesh, and restoring them to
their original condition, if those parts which had been healed by Him were
not in a position to obtain salvation? For if it was [merely] a temporary
benefit which He conferred, He granted nothing of importance to those who
were the subjects of His healing. Or how can they maintain that the flesh
is incapable of receiving the life which flows from Him, when it received
healing from Him? For life is brought about through healing, and
incorruption through life. He, therefore, who confers healing, the same
does also confer life; and He [who gives] life, also surrounds His own
handiwork with incorruption.
CHAP. XIII.--IN THE DEAD WHO WERE RAISED BY CHRIST WE POSSESS THE HIGHEST
PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION; AND OUR HEARTS ARE SHOWN TO BE CAPABLE OF LIFE
ETERNAL, BECAUSE THEY CAN NOW RECEIVE THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
1. Let our opponents--that is, they who speak against their own
salvation--inform us [as to this point]: The deceased daughter of the high
priest;(2) the widow's dead son, who was being carded out [to burial] near
the gate [of the city];(3) and Lazarus, who had lain four days in the
tomb,(4)--in what bodies did they rise again? In those same, no doubt, in
which they had also died. For if it were not in the very same, then
certainly those same individuals who had died did not rise again. For [the
Scripture] says, "The Lord took the hand of the dead man, and said to him,
Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And the dead man sat up, and He
commanded that something should be given him to eat; and He delivered him
to his mother."(5) Again, He called Lazarus "with a loud voice, saying,
Lazarus, come forth; and he that was dead came forth bound with bandages,
feet and hands." This was symbolical of that man who had been bound in
sins. And therefore the Lord said, "Loose him, and let him depart." As,
therefore, those who were healed were made whole in those members which had
in times past been afflicted; and the dead rose in the identical bodies,
their limbs and bodies receiving health, and that life which was granted by
the Lord, who prefigures eternal things by temporal, and shows that it is
He who is Himself able to extend both healing and life to His handiwork,
that His words concerning its [future] resurrection may also be believed;
so also at the end, when the Lord utters His voice "by the last
trumpet,"(6) the dead shall be raised, as He Himself declares: "The hour
shall come, in which all the dead which are in the tombs shall hear the
voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth; those that have done good to
the resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to the resurrection
of judgment."(7)
2. Vain, therefore, and truly miserable, are those who do not choose to
see what is so manifest and clear, but shun the light of truth, blinding
themselves like the tragic OEdipus. And as those who are not practised in
wrestling, when they contend with others, laying hold with a determined
grasp of some part of [their opponent's] body, really fall by means of that
which they grasp, yet when they fall, imagine that they are gaining the
victory, because they have obstinately kept their hold upon that part which
they seized at the outset, and besides falling, become subjects of
ridicule; so is it with respect to that [favourite] expression of the
heretics: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" while taking
two expressions of Paul's, without having perceived the apostle's meaning,
or examined critically the force of the terms, but keeping fast hold of the
mere expressions by themselves, they die in consequence of their influence
(peri` auta's), overturning as far as in them lies the entire dispensation
of God.
3. For thus they will allege that this passage refers to the flesh
strictly so called, and not to fleshly works, as I have pointed out, so
representing the apostle as contradicting himself. For immediately
following, in the same Epistle, he says conclusively, speaking thus in
reference to the flesh: "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality. So, when this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying which is written,
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O death,
where is thy victory?"(1) Now these words shall be appropriately said at
the time when this mortal and corruptible flesh, which is subject to death,
which also is pressed down by a certain dominion of death, rising up into
life, shall put on incorruption and immortality. For then, indeed, shall
death be truly vanquished, when that flesh which is held down by it shall
go forth from under its dominion. And again, to the Philippians he says:
"But our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who shall transfigure the body of our humiliation
conformable to the body of His glory, even as He is able (ita ut possit)
according to the working of His own power."(2) What, then, is this "body of
humiliation" which the Lord shall transfigure, [so as to be] conformed to
"the body of His glory?" Plainly it is this body composed of flesh, which
is indeed humbled when it falls into the earth. Now its transformation
[takes place thus], that while it is mortal and corruptible, it becomes
immortal and incorruptible, not after its own proper substance, but after
the mighty working of the Lord, who is able to invest the mortal with
immortality, and the corruptible with incorruption. And therefore he
says,(3) "that mortality may be swallowed up of life. He who has perfected
us for this very thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of
the Spirit."(4) He uses these words most manifestly in reference to the
flesh; for the soul is not mortal, neither is the spirit. Now, what is
mortal shall be swallowed up of life, when the flesh is dead no longer, but
remains living and incorruptible, hymning the praises of God, who has
perfected us for this very thing. In order, therefore, that we may be
perfected for this, aptly does he say to the Corinthians, "Glorify God in
your body."(5) Now God is He who gives rise to immortality.
4. That he uses these words with respect to the body of flesh, and to
none other, he declares to the Corinthians manifestly, indubitably, and
free from all ambiguity: "Always bearing about in our body the dying of
Jesus,(6) that also the life of Jesus Christ might be manifested in our
body. For if we who live are delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, it is
that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh."(7) And
that the Spirit lays hold on the flesh, he says in the same Epistle, "That
ye axe the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, inscribed not with ink, but
with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the
fleshly tables of the heart."(8) If, therefore, in the present time,
fleshly hearts are made partakers of the Spirit, what is there astonishing
if, in the resurrection, they receive that life which is granted by the
Spirit? Of which resurrection the apostle speaks in the Epistle to the
Philippians: "Having been made conformable to His death, if by any means I
might attain to the resurrection which is from the dead."(9) In what other
mortal flesh, therefore, can life be understood as being manifested, unless
in that substance which is also put to death on account of that confession
which is made of God?--as he has himself declared, "If, as a man, I have
fought with beasts(10) at Ephesus, what advantageth it me if the dead rise
not? For if the dead rise not, neither has Christ risen. Now, if Christ
has not risen, our preaching is vain, and your faith is vain. In that case,
too, we are found false witnesses for God, since we have testified that He
raised up Christ, whom [upon that supposition] He did not raise up.(11) For
if the dead rise not, neither has Christ risen. But if Christ be not risen,
your faith is vain, since ye are yet in your sins. Therefore those who have
fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in
Christ, we are more miserable than all men. But now Christ has risen from
the dead, the first-fruits of those that sleep; for as by man [came] death,
by man also [came] the resurrection of the dead."(1)
5. In all these passages, therefore, as I have already said, these men
must either allege that the apostle expresses opinions contradicting
himself, with respect to that statement, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God;" or, on the other hand, they will be forced to make
perverse and crooked interpretations of all the passages, so as to overturn
and alter the sense of the words. For what sensible thing can they say, if
they endeavour to interpret otherwise this which he writes: "For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on
immortality;"(2) and, "That the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our
mortal flesh;"(3) and all the other passages in which the apostle does
manifestly and clearly declare the resurrection and incorruption of the
flesh? And thus shall they be compelled to put a false interpretation upon
passages such as these, they who do not choose to understand one correctly.
CHAP. XIV.--UNLESS THE FLESH WERE TO BE SAVED, THE WORD WOULD NOT HAVE
TAKEN UPON HIM FLESH OF THE SAME SUBSTANCE AS OURS: FROM THIS IT WOULD
FOLLOW THAT NEITHER SHOULD WE HAVE BEEN RECONCILED BY HIM.
1. And inasmuch as the apostle has not pronounced against the very
substance of flesh and blood, that it cannot inherit the kingdom of God,
the same apostle has everywhere adopted the term "flesh and blood" with
regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, partly indeed to establish His human
nature (for He did Himself speak of Himself as the Son of man), and partly
that He might confirm the salvation of our flesh. For if the flesh were not
in a position to be saved, the Word of God would in no wise have become
flesh. And if the blood of the righteous were not to be inquired after, the
Lord would certainly not have had blood [in His composition]. But inasmuch
as blood cries out (vocalis est) from the beginning [of the world], God
said to Cain, when he had slain his brother, "The voice of thy brother's
blood crieth to Me."(4) And as their blood will be inquired after, He said
to those with Noah, "For your blood of your souls will I require, [even]
from the hand of all beasts;"(5) and again, "Whosoever will shed man's
blood,(6) it shall be shed for his blood." In like manner, too, did the
Lord say to those who should afterwards shed His blood, "All righteous
blood shall be required which is shed upon the earth, from the blood of
righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, whom ye slew
between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things
shall come upon this generation."(7) He thus points out the recapitulation
that should take place in his own person of the effusion of blood from the
beginning, of all the righteous men and of the prophets, and that by means
of Himself there should be a requisition of their blood. Now this [blood]
could not be required unless it also had the capability of being saved; nor
would the Lord have summed up these things in Himself, unless He had
Himself been made flesh and blood after the way of the original formation
[of man], saving in his own person at the end that which had in the
beginning perished in Adam.
2. But if the Lord became incarnate for any other order of things, and
took flesh of any other substance, He has not then summed up human nature
in His own person, nor in that case can He be termed flesh. For flesh has
been truly made [to consist in] a transmission of that thing moulded
originally from the dust. But if it had been necessary for Him to draw the
material [of His body] from another substance, the Father would at the
beginning have moulded the material [of flesh] from a different substance
[than from what He actually did]. But now the case stands thus, that the
Word has saved that which really was [created, viz.,] humanity which had
perished, effecting by means of Himself that communion which should be held
with it, and seeking out its salvation. But the thing which had perished
possessed flesh and blood. For the Lord, taking dust from the earth,
moulded man; and it was upon his behalf that all the dispensation of the
Lord's advent took place. He had Himself, therefore, flesh and blood,
recapitulating in Himself not a certain other, but that original handiwork
of the Father, seeking out that thing which had perished. And for this
cause the apostle, in the Epistle to the Colossians, says, "And though ye
were formerly alienated, and enemies to His knowledge by evil works, yet
now ye have been reconciled in the body of His flesh, through His death, to
present yourselves holy and chaste, and without fault in His sight."(8) He
says, "Ye have been reconciled in the body of His flesh," because the
righteous flesh has reconciled that flesh which was being kept under
bondage in sin, and brought it into friendship with God.
3. If, then, any one allege that in this respect the flesh of the Lord
was different from ours, because it indeed did not commit sin, neither was
deceit found in His soul, while we, on the other hand, are sinners, he says
what is the fact. But if he pretends that the, Lord possessed another
substance of flesh, the sayings respecting reconciliation will not agree
with that man. For that thing is reconciled which had formerly been in
enmity. Now, if the Lord had taken flesh from another substance, He would
not, by so doing, have reconciled that one to God which had become inimical
through transgression. But now, by means of communion with Himself, the
Lord has reconciled man to God the Father, in reconciling us to Himself by
the body of His own flesh, and redeeming us by His own blood, as the
apostle says to the Ephesians, "In whom we have redemption through His
blood, the remission of sins;"(1) and again to the same he says, "Ye who
formerly were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ;"(2)
and again, "Abolishing in His flesh the enmities, [even] the law of
commandments [contained] in ordinances."(3) And in every Epistle the
apostle plainly testifies, that through the flesh of our Lord, and through
His blood, we have been saved.
4. If, therefore, flesh and blood are the things which procure for us
life, it has not been declared of flesh and blood, in the literal meaning
(proprie) of the terms, that they cannot inherit the kingdom of God; but
[these words apply] to those carnal deeds already mentioned, which,
perverting man to sin, deprive him of life. And for this reason he says, in
the Epistle to the Romans: "Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal
body, to be under its control: neither yield ye your members instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves to God, as being alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."(4) In
these same members, therefore, in which we used to serve sin, and bring
forth fruit unto death, does He wish us to [be obedient] unto
righteousness, that we may bring forth fruit unto life. Remember,
therefore, my beloved friend, that thou hast been redeemed by the flesh of
our Lord, re-established(5) by His blood; and "holding the Head, from which
the whole body of the Church, having been fitted together, takes
increase"(6)--that is, acknowledging the advent in the flesh of the Son of
God, and [His] divinity (deum), and looking forward with constancy to His
human nature(7) (hominem), availing thyself also of these proofs drawn from
Scripture--thou dost easily overthrow, as I have pointed out, all those
notions of the heretics which were concocted afterwards.
CHAP. XV.--PROOFS OF THE RESURRECTION FROM ISAIAH AND EZEKIEL; THE SAME GOD
WHO CREATED US WILL ALSO RAISE US UP.
1. Now, that He who at the beginning created man, did promise him a
second birth after his dissolution into earth, Esaias thus declares: "The
dead shall rise again, and they who are in the tombs shall arise, and they
who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew which is from Thee is
health to them."(8) And again: "I will comfort you, and ye shall be
comforted in Jerusalem: and ye shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and
your bones shall flourish as the grass; and the hand of the Lord shall be
known to those who worship Him."(9) And Ezekiel speaks as follows: "And the
hand of the LORD came upon me, and the LORD led me forth in the Spirit, and
set me down in the midst of the plain, and this place was full of bones.
And He caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were many
upon the surface of the plain very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live? And I said, Lord, Thou who hast made them dost know.
And He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and thou shalt say to them,
Ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the LORD to these
bones, Behold, I will cause the spirit of life to come upon you, and I will
lay sinews upon you, and bring up flesh again upon you, and I will stretch
skin upon you, and will put my Spirit into you, and ye shall live; and ye
shall know that I am the LORD. And I prophesied as the Lord had commanded
me. And it came to pass, when I was prophesying, that, behold, an
earthquake, and the bones were drawn together, each one to its own
articulation: and I beheld, and, lo, the sinews and flesh were produced
upon them, and the skins rose upon them round about, but there was no
breath in them. And He said unto me, Prophesy to the breath, son of man,
and say to the breath, These things saith the LORD, Come from the four
winds (spiritibus), and breathe upon these dead, that they may live. So I
prophesied as the Lord had commanded me, and the breath entered into them;
and they did live, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great
gathering."(10) And again he says, "Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will set
your graves open, and cause you to come out of your graves, and bring you
into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall
open your sepulchres, that I may bring my people again out of the
sepulchres: and I will put my Spirit into you, and ye shall live; and I
will place you in your land, and ye shall know that I am the LORD. I have
said, and I will do, saith the LORD." (1) As we at once perceive that the
Creator (Demiurgo) is in this passage represented as vivifying our dead
bodies, and promising resurrection to them, and resuscitation from their
sepulchres and tombs, conferring upon them immortality also (He says, "For
as the tree of life, so shall their days be"(2)), He is shown to be the
only God who accomplishes these things, and as Himself the good Father,
benevolently conferring life upon those who have not life from themselves.
2. And for this reason did the Lord most plainly manifest Himself and
the Father to His disciples, lest, forsooth, they might seek after another
God besides Him who formed man, and who gave him the breath of life; and
that men might not rise to such a pitch of madness as to feign another
Father above the Creator. And thus also He healed by a word all the others
who were in a weakly condition because of sin; to whom also He said,
"Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon
thee:"(3) pointing out by this, that, because of the sin of disobedience,
infirmities have come upon men. To that man, however, who had been blind
from his birth, He gave sight, not by means of a word, but by an outward
action; doing this not without a purpose, or because it so happened, but
that He might show forth the hand of God, that which at the beginning had
moulded man. And therefore, when His disciples asked Him for what cause the
man had been born blind, whether for his own or his parents' fault, He
replied, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works
of God should be made manifest in him."(4) Now the work of God is the
fashioning of man. For, as the Scripture says, He made [man] by a kind of
process: "And the Lord took day from the earth, and formed man."(5)
Wherefore also the Lord spat on the ground and made clay, and smeared it
upon the eyes, pointing out the original fashioning [of man], how it was
effected, and manifesting the hand of God to those who can understand by
what [hand] man was formed out of the dust. For that which the artificer,
the Word, had omitted to form in the womb, [viz., the blind man's eyes], He
then supplied in public, that the works of God might be manifested in him,
in order that we might not be seeking out another hand by which man was
fashioned, nor another Father; knowing that this hand of God which formed
us at the beginning, and which does form us in the womb, has in the last
times sought us out who were lost, winning back His own, and taking up the
lost sheep upon His shoulders, and with joy restoring it to the fold of
life.
3. Now, that the Word of God forms us in the womb, He says to Jeremiah,
"Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before thou wentest
forth from the belly, I sanctified thee, and appointed thee a prophet among
the nations." (6) And Paul, too, says in like manner, "But when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb, that I might declare Him among
the nations."(7) As, therefore, we are by the Word formed in the womb, this
very same Word formed the visual power in him who had been blind from his
birth; showing openly who it is that fashions us in secret, since the Word
Himself had been made manifest to men: and declaring the original formation
of Adam, and the manner in which he was created, and by what hand he was
fashioned, indicating the whole from a part. For the Lord who formed the
visual powers is He who made the whole man, carrying out the will of the
Father. And inasmuch as man, with respect to that formation which, was
after Adam, having fallen into transgression, needed the layer of
regeneration, [the Lord] said to him [upon whom He had conferred sight],
after He had smeared his eyes with the clay, "Go to Siloam, and wash;"(8)
thus restoring to him both [his perfect] confirmation, and that
regeneration which takes place by means of the layer. And for this reason
when he was washed he came seeing, that he might both know Him who had
fashioned him, and that man might learn [to know] Him who has conferred
upon him life.
4. All the followers of Valentinus, therefore, lose their case, when
they say that man was not fashioned out of this earth, but from a fluid and
diffused substance. For, from the earth out of which the Lord formed eyes
for that man, from the same earth it is evident that man was also fashioned
at the beginning. For it were incompatible that the eyes should indeed be
formed from one source and the rest of the body from another; as neither
would it be compatible that one [being] fashioned the body, and another the
eyes. But He, the very same who formed Adam at the beginning, with whom
also the Father spake, [saying], "Let Us make man after Our image and
likeness,"(9) revealing Himself in these last times to men, formed visual
organs (visionem) for him who had been blind [in that body which he had
derived] from Adam. Wherefore also the Scripture, pointing out what should
come to pass, says, that when Adam had hid himself because of his
disobedience, the Lord came to him at eventide, called him forth, and said,
"Where art thou?"(1) That means that in the last times the very same Word
of God came to call man, reminding him of his doings, living in which he
had been hidden from the Lord. For just as at that time God spake to Adam
at eventide, searching him out; so in the last times, by means of the same
voice, searching out his posterity, He has visited them.
CHAP. XVI.--SINCE OUR BODIES RETURN TO THE EARTH, IT FOLLOWS THAT THEY HAVE
THEIR SUBSTANCE FROM IT; ALSO, BY THE ADVENT OF THE WORD, THE IMAGE OF GOD
IN US APPEARED IN A CLEARER LIGHT.
1. And since Adam was moulded from this earth to which we belong, the
Scripture tells us that God said to him, "In the sweat of thy face shall
thou eat thy bread, until thou turnest again to the dust from whence thou
weft taken."(2) If then, after death, our bodies return to any other
substance, it follows that from it also they have their substance. But if
it be into this very [earth], it is manifest that it was also from it that
man's frame was created; as also the Lord clearly showed, when from this
very substance He formed eyes for the man [to whom He gave sight]. And thus
was the hand of God plainly shown forth, by which Adam was fashioned, and
we too have been formed; and since there is one and the same Father, whose
voice from the beginning even to the end is present with His handiwork, and
the substance from which we were formed is plainly declared through the
Gospel, we should therefore not seek after another Father besides Him, nor
[look for] another substance from which we have been formed, besides what
was mentioned beforehand, and shown forth by the Lord; nor another hand of
God besides that which, from the beginning even to the end, forms us and
prepares us for life, and is present with His handiwork, and perfects it
after the image and likeness of God.
2. And then, again, this Word was manifested when the Word of God was
made man, assimilating Himself to man, and man to Himself, so that by means
of his resemblance to the Son, man might become precious to the Father. For
in times long past, it was said that man was created after the image of
God, but it was not [actually] shown; for the Word was as yet invisible,
after whose image man was created, Wherefore also he did easily lose the
similitude. When, however, the Word of God became flesh, He confirmed both
these: for He both showed forth the image truly, since He became Himself
what was His image; and He re-established the similitude after a sure
manner, by assimilating man to the invisible Father through means of the
visible Word.
3. And not by the aforesaid things alone has the Lord manifested
Himself, but [He has done this] also by means of His passion. For doing
away with [the effects of] that disobedience of man which had taken place
at the beginning by the occasion of a tree, "He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross;"(3) rectifying that disobedience which had
occurred by reason of a tree, through that obedience which was [wrought
out] upon the tree [of the cross]. Now He would not have come to do away,
by means of that same [image], the disobedience which had been incurred
towards our Maker if He proclaimed another Father. But inasmuch as it was
by these things that we disobeyed God, and did not give credit to His word,
so was it also by these same that He brought in obedience and consent as
respects His Word; by which things He clearly shows forth God Himself, whom
indeed we had offended in the first Adam, when he did not perform His
commandment. In the second Adam, however, we are reconciled, being made
obedient even unto death. For we were debtors to none other but to Him
whose commandment we had transgressed at the beginning.
CHAP. XVII.--THERE IS BUT ONE LORD AND ONE GOD, THE FATHER AND CREATOR OF
ALL THINGS, WHO HAS LOVED US IN CHRIST, GIVEN US COMMANDMENTS, AND REMITTED
OUR SINS; WHOSE SON AND WORD CHRIST PROVED HIMSELF TO BE, WHEN HE FORGAVE
OUR SINS.
1. Now this being is the Creator (Demiurgus), who is, in respect of His
love, the Father; but in respect of His power, He is Lord; and in respect
of His wisdom, our Maker and Fashioner; by transgressing whose commandment
we became His enemies. And therefore in the last times the Lord has
restored us into friendship through His incarnation, having become "the
Mediator between God and men;"(4) propitiating indeed for us the Father
against whom we had sinned, and cancelling (consolatus) our disobedience by
His own obedience; conferring also upon us the gift of communion with, and
subjection to, our Maker. For this reason also He has taught us to say in
prayer, "And forgive us our debts;"(5) since indeed He is our Father, whose
debtors we were, having transgressed His commandments. But who is this
Being? Is He some unknown one, and a Father who gives no commandment to any
one? Or is He the God who is proclaimed in the Scriptures, to whom we were
debtors, having transgressed His commandment? Now the commandment was given
to man by the Word. For Adam, it is said, "heard the voice of the LORD
God."(1) Rightly then does His Word say to man, "Thy sins are forgiven
thee;"(2) He, the same against whom we had sinned in the beginning, grants
forgiveness of sins in the end. But if indeed we had disobeyed the command
of any other, while it was a different being who said, "Thy sins are
forgiven thee;"(2) such an one is neither good, nor true, nor just. For how
can he be good, who does not give from what belongs to himself? Or how can
he be just, who snatches away the goods of another? And in what way can
sins be truly remitted, unless that He against whom we have sinned has
Himself granted remission "through the bowels of mercy of our God," in
which "He has visited us"(3) through His Son?
2. And therefore, when He had healed the man sick of the palsy, [the
evangelist] says "The people upon seeing it glorified God, who gave such
power unto men."(4) What God, then, did the bystanders glorify? Was it
indeed that unknown Father invented by the heretics? And how could they
glorify him who was altogether unknown to them? It is evident, therefore,
that the Israelites glorified Him who has been proclaimed as God by the law
and the prophets, who is also the Father of our Lord; and therefore He
taught men, by the evidence of their senses through those signs which He
accomplished, to give glory to God. If, however, He HimSelf had come from
another Father, and men glorified a different Father when they beheld His
miracles, He [in that case] rendered the mungrateful to that Father who had
sent the gift of healing. But as the only-begotten Son had come for man's
salvation from Him who is God, He did both stir up the incredulous by the
miracles which He was in the habit of working, to give glory to the Father;
and to the Pharisees, who did not admit the advent of His Son, and who
consequently did not believe in the remission [of sins] which was conferred
by Him, He said, "That ye may know that the Son of man hath power to
forgive sins."(5) And when He had said this, He commanded the paralytic man
to take up the pallet upon which he was lying, and go into his house. By
this work of His He confounded the unbelievers, and showed that He is
Himself the voice of God, by which man received commandments, which he
broke, and became a sinner; for the paralysis followed as a consequence of
sins.
3. Therefore, by remitting sins, He did indeed heal man, while He also
manifested Himself who He was. For if no one can forgive sins but God
alone, while the Lord remitted them and healed men, it is plain that He was
Himself the Word of God made the Son of man, receiving from the Father the
power of remission of sins; since He was man, and since He was God, in
order that since as man He suffered for us, so as God He might have
compassion on us, and forgive us our debts, in which we were made debtors
to God our Creator. And therefore David said beforehand, "Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the
man to whom the LORD has not imputed sin;"(6) pointing out thus that
remission of sins which follows upon His advent, by which "He has destroyed
the handwriting" of our debt, and "fastened it to the cross;"(7) so that as
by means of a tree we were made debtors to God, [so also] by means of a
tree we may obtain the remission of our debt.
4. This fact has been strikingly set forth by many others, and
especially through means of Elisha the prophet. For when his fellow-
prophets were hewing wood for the construction of a tabernacle, and when
the iron [head], shaken loose from the axe, had fallen into the Jordan and
could not be found by them, upon Elisha's coming to the place, and learning
what had happened, he threw some wood into the water. Then, when he had
done this, the iron part of the axe floated up, and they took up from the
surface of the water what they had previously lost.(8) By this action the
prophet pointed out that the sure word of God, which we had negligently
lost by means of a tree, and were not in the way of finding again, we
should receive anew by the dispensation of a tree, [viz., the cross of
Christ]. For that the word of God is likened to an axe, John the Baptist
declares [when he says] in reference to it, "But now also is the axe laid
to the root of the trees."(9) Jeremiah also says to the same purport: "The
word of God cleaveth the rock as an axe."(10) This word, then, what was
hidden from us, did the dispensation of the tree make manifest, as I have
already remarked. For as we lost it by means of a tree, by means of a tree
again was it made manifest to all, showing the height, the length, the
breadth, the depth in itself; and, as a certain man among our predecessors
observed, "Through the extension of the hands of a divine person,(11)
gathering together the two peoples to one God." For these were two hands,
because there were two peoples scattered to the ends of the earth; but
there was one head in the middle, as there is but one God, who is above
all, and through all, and in us all.
CHAP. XVIII.--GOD THE FATHER AND HIS WORD HAVE FORMED ALL CREATED THINGS
(WHICH THEY USE) BY THEIR OWN POWER AND WISDOM, NOT OUT OF DEFECT OR
IGNORANCE. THE SON OF GOD, WHO RECEIVED ALL POWER FROM THE FATHER, WOULD
OTHERWISE NEVER HAVE TAKEN FLESH UPON HIM.
1. And such or so important a dispensation He did not bring about by
means of the creations of others, but by His own; neither by those things
which were created out of ignorance and defect, but by those which had
their substance from the wisdom and power of His Father. For He was neither
unrighteous, so that He should covet the property of another; nor needy,
that He could not by His own means impart life to His own, and make use of
His own creation for the salvation of man. For indeed the creation could
not have sustained Him [on the cross], if He had sent forth [simply by
commission] what was the fruit of ignorance and defect. Now we have
repeatedly shown that the incarnate Word of God was suspended upon a tree,
and even the very heretics do acknowledge that He was crucified. How, then,
could the fruit of ignorance and defect sustain Him who contains the
knowledge of all things, and is true and perfect? Or how could that
creation which was concealed from the Father, and far removed from Him,
have sustained His Word? And if this world were made by the angels (it
matters not whether we suppose their ignorance or their cognizance of the
Supreme God), when the Lord declared, "For I am in the Father, and the
Father in Me,"(1) how could this workmanship of the angels have borne to be
burdened at once with the Father and the Son? How, again, could that
creation which is beyond the Pleroma have contained Him who contains the
entire Pleroma? Inasmuch, then, as all these things are impossible and
incapable of proof, that preaching of the Church is alone true [which
proclaims] that His own creation bare Him, which subsists by the power, the
skill, and the wisdom of God; which is sustained, indeed, after an
invisible manner by the Father, but, on the contrary, after a visible
manner it bore His Word: and this is the true [Word].
2. For the Father bears the creation and His own Word simultaneously,
and the Word borne by the Father grants the Spirit to all as the Father
wills.(2) To some He gives after the manner of creation what is made;(3)
but to others [He gives] after the manner of adoption, that is, what is
from God, namely generation. And thus one God the Father is declared, who
is above all, and through all, and in all. The Father is indeed above all,
and He is the Head of Christ; but the Word is through all things, and is
Himself the Head of the Church; while the Spirit is in us all, and He is
the living water,(4) which the Lord grants to those who rightly believe in
Him, and love Him, and who know that "there is one Father, who is above
all, and through all, and in us all."(5) And to these things does John
also, the disciple of the Lord, bear witness, when he speaks thus in the
Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made by
Him, and without Him was nothing made."(6) And then he said of the Word
Himself: "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world
knew Him not. To His own things He came, and His own people received Him
not. However, as many as did receive Him, to these gave He power to become
the sons of God, to those that believe in His name."(7) And again, showing
the dispensation with regard to His human nature, John said: "And the Word
was made flesh, and dwelt among us."(8) And in continuation he says, "And
we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten by the Father, full
of grace and truth." He thus plainly points out to those willing to hear,
that is, to those having ears, that there is one God, the Father over all,
and one Word of God, who is through all, by whom all things have been made;
and that this world belongs to Him, and was made by Him, according to the
Father's will, and not by angels; nor by apostasy, defect, and ignorance;
nor by any power of Prunicus, whom certain of them also call "the Mother;"
nor by any other maker of the world ignorant of the Father.
3. For the Creator of the world is truly the Word of God: and this is
our Lord, who in the last times was made man, existing in this world, and
who in an invisible manner contains all things created, and is inherent in
the entire creation, since the Word of God governs and arranges all things;
and therefore He came to His own in a visible(1) manner, and was made
flesh, and hung upon the tree, that He might sum up all things in Himself.
"And His own peculiar people did not receive Him," as Moses declared this
very thing among the people: "And thy life shall be hanging before thine
eyes, and thou wilt not believe thy life."(2) Those therefore who did not
receive Him did not receive life. "But to as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God."(3) For it is He who has power
from the Father over all things, since He is the Word of God, and very man,
communicating with invisible beings after the manner of the intellect, and
appointing a law observable to the outward senses, that all things should
continue each in its own order; and He reigns manifestly over things
visible and pertaining to men; and brings in just judgment and worthy upon
all; as David also, clearly pointing to this, says, "Our God shall openly
come, and will not keep silence."(4) Then he shows also the judgment which
is brought in by Him, saying, "A fire shall burn in His sight, and a strong
tempest shall rage round about Him. He shall call upon the heaven from
above, and the earth, to judge His people."
CHAP. XIX.--A COMPARISON IS INSTITUTED BETWEEN THE DISOBEDIENT AND SINNING
EVE AND THE VIRGIN MARY, HER PATRONESS. VARIOUS AND DISCORDANT HERESIES ARE
MENTIONED.
1. That the Lord then was manifestly coming to His own things, and was
sustaining them by means of that creation which is supported by Himself,
and was making a recapitulation of that disobedience which had occurred in
connection with a tree, through the obedience which was [exhibited by
Himself when He hung] upon a tree, [the effects] also of that deception
being done away with, by which that virgin Eve, who was already espoused to
a man, was unhappily misled,--was happily announced, through means of the
truth [spoken] by the angel to the Virgin Mary, who was [also espoused] to
a man.(5) For just as the former was led astray by the word of an angel, so
that she fled from God when she had transgressed His word; so did the
latter, by an angelic communication, receive the glad tidings that she
should sustain (portaret) God, being obedient to His word. And if the
former did disobey God, yet the latter was persuaded to be obedient to God,
in order that the Virgin Mary might become the patroness(6) (advocata) of
the virgin Eve. And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by
means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin; virginal disobedience
having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. For in
the same way the sin of the first created man (protoplasti) receives
amendment by the correction of the First-begotten, and the coming of the
serpent is conquered by the harmlessness of the dove, those bonds being
unloosed by which we had been fast bound to death.
2. The heretics being all unlearned and ignorant of God's arrangements,
and not acquainted with that dispensation by which He took upon Him human
nature (inscii ejus quoe est secundum hominem dispensationis), inasmuch as
they blind themselves with regard to the truth, do in fact speak against
their own salvation. Some of them introduce another Father besides the
Creator; some, again, say that the world and its substance was made by
certain angels; certain others [maintain] that it was widely separated by
Horos(7) from him whom they represent as being the Father--that it sprang
forth (floruisse) of itself, and from itself was born. Then, again, others
[of them assert] that it obtained substance in those things which are
contained by the Father, from defect and ignorance; others still, despise
the advent of the Lord manifest [to the senses], for they do not admit His
incarnation; while others, ignoring the arrangement [that He should be
born] of a virgin, main-rain that He was begotten by Joseph. And still
further, some affirm that neither their soul nor their body can receive
eternal life, but merely the inner man. Moreover, they will have it that
this [inner man] is that which is the understanding (sensum) in them, and
which they decree as being the only thing to ascend to "the perfect."
Others [maintain], as I have said in the first book, that while the soul is
saved, their body does not participate in the salvation which comes from
God; in which [book] I have also set forward the hypotheses of all these
men, and in the second have pointed out their weakness and inconsistency.
CHAP. XX.--THOSE PASTORS ARE TO BE HEARD TO WHOM THE APOSTLES COMMITTED THE
CHURCHES, POSSESSING ONE AND THE SAME DOCTRINE OF SALVATION; THE HERETICS,
ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE TO BE AVOIDED. WE MUST THINK SOBERLY WITH REGARD TO
THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH.
1. Now all these [heretics] are of much later date than the bishops to
whom the apostles committed the Churches; which fact I have in the third
book taken all pains to demonstrate. It follows, then, as a matter of
course, that these heretics aforementioned, since they are blind to the
truth, and deviate from the [right] way, will walk in various roads; and
therefore the footsteps of their doctrine are scattered here and there
without agreement or connection. But the path of those belonging to the
Church circumscribes the whole world, as possessing the sure tradition from
the apostles, and gives unto us to see that the faith of all is one and the
same, since all receive one and the same God the Father, and believe in the
same dispensation regarding the incarnation of the Son of God, and are
cognizant of the same gift of the Spirit, and are conversant with the same
commandments, and preserve the same form of ecclesiastical constitution,(1)
and expect the same advent of the Lord, and await the same salvation of the
complete man, that is, of the soul and body. And undoubtedly the preaching
of the Church is true and stedfast, in which one and the same way of
salvation is shown throughout the whole world. For to her is entrusted the
light of God; and therefore the "wisdom" of God, by means of which she
saves all men, "is declared in [its] going forth; it uttereth [its voice]
faithfully in the streets, is preached on the tops of the walls, and speaks
continually in the gates of the city."(3) For the Church preaches the truth
everywhere, and she is the seven-branched candlestick which bears the light
of Christ.
2. Those, therefore, who desert the preaching of the Church, call in
question the knowledge of the holy presbyters, not taking into
consideration of how much greater consequence is a religious man, even in a
private station, than a blasphemous and impudent sophist.(4) Now, such are
all the heretics, and those who imagine that they have hit upon something
more beyond the truth, so that by following those things already mentioned,
proceeding on their way variously, in harmoniously, and foolishly, not
keeping always to the same opinions with regard to the same things, as
blind men are led by the blind, they shall deservedly fall into the ditch
of ignorance lying in their path, ever seeking and never finding out the
truth.(5) It behoves us, therefore, to avoid their doctrines, and to take
careful heed lest we suffer any injury from them; but to flee to the
Church, and be brought up in her bosom, and be nourished with the Lord's
Scriptures. For the Church has been planted as a garden (paradisus) in this
world; therefore says the Spirit of God, "Thou mayest freely eat from every
tree of the garden,"(6) that is, Eat ye from every Scripture of the Lord;
but ye shall not eat with an uplifted mind, nor touch any heretical
discord. For these men do profess that they have themselves the knowledge
of good and evil; and they set their own impious minds above the God who
made them. They therefore form opinions on what is beyond the limits of the
understanding. For this cause also the apostle says, "Be not wise beyond
what it is fitting to be wise, but be wise prudently,"(7) that we be not
east forth by eating of the "knowledge" of these men (that knowledge which
knows more than it should do) from the paradise of life. Into this paradise
the Lord has introduced those who obey His call, "summing up in Himself all
things which are in heaven, and which are on earth;"(8) but the things in
heaven are spiritual, while those on earth constitute the dispensation in
human nature (secundum hominem est dispositio). These things, therefore, He
recapitulated in Himself: by uniting man to the Spirit, and causing the
Spirit to dwell in man, He is Himself made the head of the Spirit, and
gives the Spirit to be the head of man: for through Him (the Spirit) we
see, and hear, and speak.
CHAP. XXI.--CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF ALL THINGS ALREADY MENTIONED. IT WAS
FITTING THAT HE SHOULD BE SENT BY THE FATHER, THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS, TO
ASSUME HUMAN NATURE, AND SHOULD BE TEMPTED BY SATAN, THAT HE MIGHT FULFIL
THE PROMISES, AND CARRY OFF A GLORIOUS AND PERFECT VICTORY.
1. He has therefore, in His work of recapitulation, summed up all
things, both waging war against our enemy, and crushing him who had at the
beginning led us away captives in Adam, and trampled upon his head, as thou
canst perceive in Genesis that God said to the serpent, "And I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He
shall be on the watch for (observabit(9)) thy head, and thou on the watch
for His heel."(10) For from that time, He who should be born of a woman,
[namely] from the Virgin, after the likeness of Adam, was preached as
keeping watch for the head of the serpent. This is the seed of which the
apostle says in the Epistle to the Galatians, "that the law of works was
established until the seed should come to whom the promise was made."(11)
This fact is exhibited in a still clearer light in the same Epistle, where
he thus speaks: "But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman."(1) For indeed the enemy would not have been fairly
vanquished, unless it had been a man [born] of a woman who conquered him.
For it was by means of a woman that he got the advantage over man at first,
setting himself up as man's opponent. And therefore does the Lord profess
Himself to be the Son of man, comprising in Himself that original man out
of whom the woman was fashioned (ex quo ea quae secundum mulierem est
plasmatio facta est), in order that, as our species went down to death
through a vanquished man, so we may ascend to life again through a
victorious one; and as through a man death received the palm [of victory]
against us, so again by a man we may receive the palm against death.
2. Now the Lord would not have recapitulated in Himself that ancient
and primary enmity against the serpent, fulfilling the promise of the
Creator (Demiurgi), and performing His command, if He had come from another
Father. But as He is one and the same, who formed us at the beginning, and
sent His Son at the end, the Lord did perform His command, being made of a
woman, by both destroying our adversary, and perfecting man after the image
and likeness of God. And for this reason He did not draw the means of
confounding him from any other source than from the words of the law, and
made use of the Father's commandment as a help towards the destruction and
confusion of the apostate angel. Fasting forty days, like Moses and Elias,
He afterwards hungered, first, in order that we may perceive that He was a
real and substantial man--for it belongs to a man to suffer hunger when
fasting; and secondly, that His opponent might have an opportunity of
attacking Him. For as at the beginning it was by means of food that [the
enemy] persuaded man, although not suffering hunger, to transgress God's
commandments, so in the end he did not succeed in persuading Him that was
an hungered to take that food which proceeded from God. For, when tempting
Him, he said, "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made
bread."(2) But the Lord repulsed him by the commandment of the law, saying,
"It is written, Man doth not live by bread alone."(3) As to those words
'[of His enemy,] "If thou be the Son of God," [the Lord] made no remark;
but by thus acknowledging His human nature He baffled His adversary, and
exhausted the force of his first attack by means of His Father's word. The
corruption of man, therefore, which occurred in paradise by both [of our
first parents] eating, was done away with by [the Lord's] want of food in
this world.(4) But he, being thus vanquished by the law, endeavoured again
to make an assault by himself quoting a commandment of the law. For,
bringing Him to the highest pinnacle of the temple, he said to Him, "If
thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down. For it is written, That God
shall give His angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall
bear thee up, lest perchance thou dash thy foot against a stone;"(5) thus
concealing a falsehood under the guise of Scripture, as is done by all the
heretics. For that was indeed written, [namely], "That He hath given His
angels charge concerning Him;" but "east thyself down from hence" no
Scripture said in reference to Him: this kind of persuasion the devil
produced from himself. The Lord therefore confuted him out of the law, when
He said, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy God;"(6)
pointing out by the word contained in the law that which is the duty of
man, that he should not tempt God; and in regard to Himself, since He
appeared in human form, [declaring] that He would not tempt the LORD his
God.(7) The pride of reason, therefore, which was in the serpent, was put
to nought by the humility found in the man [Christ], and now twice was the
devil conquered from Scripture, when he was detected as advising things
contrary to God's commandment, and was shown to be the enemy of God by [the
expression of] his thoughts. He then, having been thus signally defeated,
and then, as it were, concentrating his forces, drawing up in order all his
available power for falsehood, in the third place "showed Him all the
kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them,"(8) saying, as Luke relates,
"All these will I give thee,--for they are delivered to me; and to whom I
will, I give them,--if thou wilt fall down and worship me." The Lord then,
exposing him in his true character, says, "Depart, Satan; for it is
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou
serve."(9) He both revealed him by this name, and showed [at the same time]
who He Himself was. For the Hebrew word "Satan" signifies an apostate. And
thus, vanquishing him for the third time, He spurned him from Him finally
as being conquered out of the law; and there was done away with that
infringement of God's commandment which had occurred in Adam, by means of
the precept of the law, which the Son of man observed, who did not
transgress the commandment of God.
3. Who, then, is this Lord God to whom Christ bears witness, whom no
man shall tempt, whom all should worship, and serve Him alone? It is,
beyond all manner of doubt, that God who also gave the law. For these
things had been predicted in the law, and by the words (sententiam) of the
law the Lord showed that the law does indeed declare the Word of God from
the Father; and the apostate angel of God is destroyed by its voice, being
exposed in his true colours, and vanquished by the Son of man keeping the
commandment of God. For as in the beginning he enticed man to transgress
his Maker's law, and thereby got him into his power; yet his power consists
in transgression and apostasy, and with these he bound man [to himself]; so
again, on the other hand, it was necessary that through man himself he
should, when conquered, be bound with the same chains with which he had
bound man, in order that man, being set free, might return to his Lord,
leaving to him (Satan) those bonds by which he himself had been fettered,
that is, sin. For when Satan is bound, man is set free; since "none can
enter a strong man's house and spoil his goods, unless he first bind the
strong man himself."(1) The Lord therefore exposes him as speaking contrary
to the word of that God who made all things, and subdues him by means of
the commandment. Now the law is the commandment of God. The Man proves him
to be a fugitive from and a transgressor of the law, an apostate also from
God. After [the Man had done this], the Word bound him securely as a
fugitive from Himself, and made spoil of his goods,--namely, those men whom
he held in bondage, and whom he unjustly used for his own purposes. And
justly indeed is he led captive, who had led men unjustly into bondage;
while man, who had been led captive in times past, was rescued from the
grasp of his possessor, according to the tender mercy of God the Father,
who had compassion on His own handiwork, and gave to it salvation,
restoring it by means of the Word--that is, by Christ--in order that men
might learn by actual proof that he receives incorruptibility not of
himself, but by the free gift of God.
CHAP. XXII.--THE TRUE LORD AND THE ONE GOD IS DECLARED BY THE LAW, AND
MANIFESTED BY CHRIST HIS SON IN THE GOSPEL; WHOM ALONE WE SHOULD ADORE, AND
FROM HIM WE MUST LOOK FOR ALL GOOD THINGS, NOT FROM SATAN.
1. Thus then does the Lord plainly show that it was the true Lord and
the one God who had been set forth by the law; for Him whom the law
proclaimed as God, the same did Christ point out as the Father, whom also
it behoves the disciples of Christ alone to serve. By means of the
statements of the law, He put our adversary to utter confusion; and the law
directs us to praise God the Creator (Demiurgum), and to serve Him alone.
Since this is the case, we must not seek for another Father besides Him, or
above Him, since there is one God who justifies the circumcision by faith,
and the uncircumcision through faith.(2) For if there were any other
perfect Father above Him, He (Christ) would by no means have overthrown
Satan by means of His words and commandments. For one ignorance cannot be
done away with by means of another ignorance, any more than one defect by
another defect. If, therefore, the law is due to ignorance and defect, how
could the statements contained therein bring to nought the ignorance of the
devil, and conquer the strong man? For a strong man can be conquered
neither by an inferior nor by an equal, but by one possessed of greater
power. But the Word of God is the superior above all, He who is loudly
proclaimed in the law: "Hear, O Israel, the LORD thy God is one God;" and,
"Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart;" and, "Him shall thou
adore, and Him alone shall thou serve."(3) Then in the Gospel, casting down
the apostasy by means of these expressions, He did both overcome the strong
man by His Father's voice, and He acknowledges the commandment of the law
to express His own sentiments, when He says, "Thou shall not tempt the LORD
thy God."(4) For He did not confound the adversary by the saying of any
other, but by that belonging to His own Father, and thus overcame the
strong man.
2. He taught by His commandment that we who have been set free should,
when hungry, take that food which is given by God; and that, when placed in
the exalted position of every grace [that can be received], we should not,
either by trusting to works of righteousness, or when adorned with super-
eminent [gifts of] ministration, by any means be lifted up with pride, nor
should we tempt God, but should feel humility in all things, and have ready
to hand [this saying], "Thou shall not tempt the LORD thy God."(5) As also
the apostle taught, saying, "Minding not high things, but consenting to
things of low estate;"(6) that we should neither be ensnared with riches,
nor mundane glory, nor present fancy, but should know that we must "worship
the LORD thy God, and serve Him alone," and give no heed to him who falsely
promised things not his own, when he said, "All these will I give thee, if,
falling down, thou wilt worship me." For he himself confesses that to adore
him, and to do his will, is to fall from the glory of God. And in what
thing either pleasant or good can that man who has fallen participate? Or
what else can such a person hope for or expect, except death? For death is
next neighbour to him who has fallen. Hence also it follows that he will
not give what he has promised. For how can he make grants to him who has
fallen? Moreover, since God rules over men and him too, and without the
will of our Father in heaven not even a sparrow falls to the ground,(1) it
follows that his declaration, "All these things are delivered unto me, and
to whomsoever I will I give them," proceeds from him when puffed up with
pride. For the creation is not subjected to his power, since indeed he is
himself but one among created things. Nor shall he give away the rule over
men to men; but both all other things, and all human affairs, are arranged
according to God the Father's disposal. Besides, the Lord declares that
"the devil is a liar from the beginning, and the truth is not in him."(2)
If then he be a liar and the truth be not in him, he certainly did not
speak truth, but a lie, when he said, "For all these things are delivered
to me, and to whomsoever I will I give them."(3)
CHAP. XXIII.--THE DEVIL IS WELL PRACTISED IN FALSEHOOD, BY WHICH ADAM
HAVING BEEN LED ASTRAY, SINNED ON THE SIXTH DAY OF THE CREATION, IN WHICH
DAY ALSO HE HAS BEEN RENEWED BY CHRIST.
1. He had indeed been already accustomed to lie against God, for the
purpose of leading men astray. For at the beginning, when God had given to
man a variety of things for food, while He commanded him not to eat of one
tree only, as the Scripture tells us that God said to Adam: "From every
tree which is in the garden thou shalt eat food; but from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil, from this ye shall not eat: for in the day that
ye shall eat of it, ye shall die by death;"(4) he then, lying against the
Lord, tempted man, as the Scripture says that the serpent said to the
woman: "Has God indeed said this, Ye shall not eat from every tree of the
garden?"(5) And when she had exposed the falsehood, and simply related the
command, as He had said, "From every tree of the garden we shall eat; but
of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath
said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die:"(6)
when he had [thus] learned from the woman the command of God, having
brought his cunning into play, he finally deceived her by a falsehood,
saying, "Ye shall not die by death; for God knew that in the day ye shall
eat of it your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil."(7) In the first place, then, in the garden of God he disputed
about God, as if God was not there, for he was ignorant of the greatness of
God; and then, in the next place, after he had learned from the woman that
God had said that they should die if they tasted the aforesaid tree,
opening his mouth, he uttered the third falsehood," Ye shall not die by
death." But that God was true, and the serpent a liar, was proved by the
result, death having passed upon them who had eaten. For along with the
fruit they did also fall under the power of death, because they did eat in
disobedience; and disobedience to God entails death. Wherefore, as they
became forfeit to death, from that [moment] they were handed over to it.
2. Thus, then, in the day that they did eat, in the same did they die,
and became death's debtors, since it was one day of the creation. For it is
said, "There was made in the evening, and there was made in the morning,
one day." Now in this same day that they did eat, in that also did they
die. But according to the cycle and progress of the days, after which one
is termed first, another second, and another third, if anybody seeks
diligently to learn upon what day out of the seven it was that Adam died,
he will find it by examining the dispensation of the Lord. For by summing
up in Himself the whole human race from the beginning to the end, He has
also summed up its death. From this it is clear that the Lord suffered
death, in obedience to His Father, upon that day on which Adam died while
he disobeyed God. Now he died on the same day in which he did eat. For God
said, "In that day on which ye shall eat of it, ye shall die by death." The
Lord, therefore, recapitulating in Himself this day, underwent His
sufferings upon the day preceding the Sabbath, that is, the sixth day of
the creation, on which day man was created; thus granting him a second
creation by means of His passion, which is that [creation] out of death.
And there are some, again, who relegate the death of Adam to the thousandth
year; for since "a day of the Lord is as a thousand years,"(8) he did not
overstep the thousand years, but died within them, thus bearing out the
sentence of his sin. Whether, therefore, with respect to disobedience,
which is death; whether [we consider] that, on account of that, they were
delivered over to death, and made debtors to it; whether with respect to
[the fact that on] one and the same day on which they ate they also died
(for it is one day of the creation); whether [we regard this point], that,
with respect to this cycle of days, they died on the day in which they did
also eat, that is, the day] of the preparation, which is termed "the pure
supper," that is, the sixth day of the feast, which the Lord also
exhibited when He suffered on that day; or whether [we reflect] that he
(Adam) did not overstep the thousand years, but died within their limit,--
it follows that, in regard to all these significations, God is indeed true.
For they died who tasted of the tree; and the serpent is proved a liar and
a murderer, as the Lord said of him: "For he is a murderer from the
beginning, and the truth is not in him."(1)
CHAP. XXIV.--OF THE CONSTANT FALSEHOOD OF THE DEVIL, AND OF THE POWERS AND
GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD, WHICH WE OUGHT TO OBEY, INASMUCH AS THEY ARE
APPOINTED OF GOD, NOT OF THE DEVIL.
1. As therefore the devil lied at the beginning, so did he also in the
end, when he said, "All these are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I
will I give them."(2) For it is not he who has appointed the kingdoms of
this world, but God; for "the heart of the king is in the hand of God."(3)
And the Word also says by Solomon, "By me kings do reign, and princes
administer justice. By me chiefs are raised up, and by me kings rule the
earth."(4) Paul the apostle also says upon this same subject: "Be ye
subject to all the higher powers; for there is no power but of God: now
those which are have been ordained of God."(5) And again, in reference to
them he says, "For he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister
of God, the avenger for wrath to him who does evil."(6) Now, that he spake
these words, not in regard to angelical powers, nor of invisible rulers--as
some venture to expound the passage--but of those of actual human
authorities, [he shows when] he says, "For this cause pay ye tribute also:
for they are God's ministers, doing service for this very thing."(7) This
also the Lord confirmed, when He did not do what He was tempted to by the
devil; but He gave directions that tribute should be paid to the tax-
gatherers for Himself and Peter;(8) because "they are the ministers of God,
serving for this very thing."
2. For since man, by departing from God, reached such a pitch of fury
as even to look upon his brother as his enemy, and engaged without fear in
every kind of restless conduct, and murder, and avarice; God imposed upon
mankind the fear of man, as they did not acknowledge the fear of God, in
order that, being subjected to the authority of men, and kept under
restraint by their laws, they might attain to some degree of justice, and
exercise mutual forbearance through dread of the sword suspended full in
their view, as the apostle says: "For he beareth not the sword in vain; for
he is the minister of God, the avenger for wrath upon him who does evil."
And for this reason too, magistrates themselves, having laws as a clothing
of righteousness whenever they act in a just and legitimate manner, shall
not be called in question for their conduct, nor be liable to punishment.
But whatsoever they do to the subversion of justice, iniquitously, and
impiously, and illegally, and tyrannically, in these things shall they also
perish; for the just judgment of God comes equally upon all, and in no case
is defective. Earthly rule, therefore, has been appointed by God for the
benefit of nations,(9) and not by the devil, who is never at rest at all,
nay, who does not love to see even nations conducting themselves after a
quiet manner, so that under the fear of human rule, men may not eat each
other up like fishes; but that, by means of the establishment of laws, they
may keep down an excess of wickedness among the nations. And considered
from this point of view, those who exact tribute from us are "God's
ministers, serving for this very purpose."
3. As, then, "the powers that be are ordained of God," it is clear that
the devil lied when he said, "These are delivered unto me; and to
whomsoever I will, I give them." For by the law of the same Being as calls
men into existence are kings also appointed, adapted for those men who are
at the time placed under their government. Some of these [rulers] are given
for the correction and the benefit of their subjects, and for the
preservation of justice; but others, for the purposes of fear and
punishment and rebuke: others, as [the subjects] deserve it, are for
deception, disgrace, and pride; while the just judgment of God, as I have
observed already, passes equally upon all. The devil, however, as he is the
apostate angel, can only go to this length, as he did at the beginning,
[namely] to deceive and lead astray the mind of man into disobeying the
commandments of God, and gradually to darken the hearts of those who would
endeavour to serve him, to the forgetting of the true God, but to the
adoration of himself as God.
4. Just as if any one, being an apostate, and seizing in a hostile
manner another man's territory, should harass the inhabitants of it, in
order that he might claim for himself the glory of a king among those
ignorant of his apostasy and robbery; so likewise also the devil, being one
among those angels who are placed over the spirit of the air, as the
Apostle Paul has declared in his Epistle to the Ephesians,(1) becoming
envious of man, was rendered an apostate from the divine law: for envy is a
thing foreign to God. And as his apostasy was exposed by man, and man
became the [means of] searching out his thoughts (et examinatio sententioe
ejus, homo factus est), he has set himself to this with greater and greater
determination, in opposition to man, envying his life, and wishing to
involve him in his own apostate power. The Word of God, however, the Maker
of all things, conquering him by means of human nature, and showing him to
be an apostate, has, on the contrary, put him under the power of man. For
He says, "Behold, I confer upon you the power of treading upon serpents and
scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy,"(2) in order that, as he
obtained dominion over man by apostasy, so again his apostasy might be
deprived of power by means of man turning back again to God.
CHAP. XXV.--THE FRAUD, PRIDE, AND TYRANNICAL KINGDOM OF ANTICHRIST, AS
DESCRIBED BY DANIEL AND PAUL.
1. And not only by the particulars already mentioned, but also by means
of the events which shall occur in the time of Antichrist is it shown that
he, being an apostate and a robber, is anxious to be adored as God; and
that, although a mere slave, he wishes himself to be proclaimed as a king.
For he (Antichrist) being endued with all the power of the devil, shall
come, not as a righteous king, nor as a legitimate king, [i.e., one] in
subjection to God, but an impious, unjust, and lawless one; as an apostate,
iniquitous and murderous; as a robber, concentrating in himself [all]
satanic apostasy, and setting aside idols to persuade [men] that he himself
is God, raising up himself as the only idol, having in himself the
multifarious errors of the other idols. This he does, in order that they
who do [now] worship the devil by means of many abominations, may serve
himself by this one idol, of whom the apostle thus speaks in the second
Epistle to the Thessalonians: "Unless there shall come a failing away
first, and the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition, who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if
he were God." The apostle therefore clearly points out his apostasy, and
that he is lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped--
that is, above every idol--for these are indeed so called by men, but are
not [really] gods; and that he will endeavour in a tyrannical manner to set
himself forth as God.
2. Moreover, he (the apostle) has also pointed out this which I have
shown in many ways, that the temple in Jerusalem was made by the direction
of the true God. For the apostle himself, speaking in his own person,
distinctly called it the temple of God. Now I have shown in the third book,
that no one is termed God by the apostles when speaking for themselves,
except Him who truly is God, the Father of our Lord, by whose directions
the temple which is at Jerusalem was constructed for those purposes which I
have already mentioned; in which [temple] the enemy shall sit, endeavouring
to show himself as Christ, as the Lord also declares: "But when ye shall
see the abomination of desolation, which has been spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, standing in the holy place (let him that readeth understand), then
let those who are in Judea flee into the mountains; and he who is upon the
house-top, let him not come down to take anything out of his house: for
there shall then be great hardship, such as has not been from the beginning
of the world until now, nor ever shall be."(3)
3. Daniel too, looking forward to the end of the last kingdom, i.e.,
the ten last kings, amongst whom the kingdom of those men shall be
partitioned, and upon whom the son of perdition shall come, declares that
ten horns shall spring from the beast, and that another little horn shall
arise in the midst of them, and that three of the former shall be rooted up
before his face. He says: "And, behold, eyes were in this horn as the eyes
of a man, and a mouth speaking great things, and his look was more stout
than his fellows. I was looking, and this horn made war against the saints,
and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days came and gave
judgment to the saints of the most high God, and the time came, and the
saints obtained the kingdom."(4) Then, further on, in the interpretation of
the vision, there was said to him: "The fourth beast shall be the fourth
kingdom upon earth, which shall excel all other kingdoms, and devour the
whole earth, and tread it down, and cut it in pieces. And its ten horns are
ten kings which shall arise; and after them shall arise another, who shall
surpass in evil deeds all that were before him, and shall overthrow three
kings; and he shall speak words against the most high God, and wear out the
saints of the most high God, and shall purpose to change times and laws;
and [everything] shall be given into his hand until a time of times and a
half time,"(1) that is, for three years and six months, during which time,
when he comes, he shall reign over the earth. Of whom also the Apostle Paul
again, speaking in the second [Epistle] to the Thessalonians, and at the
same time proclaiming the cause of his advent, thus says: "And then shall
the wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the spirit
of His mouth, and destroy by the presence of His coming; whose coming
[i.e., the wicked one's] is after the working of Satan, in all power, and
signs, and portents of lies, and with all deceivableness of wickedness for
those who perish; because they did not receive the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. And therefore God will send them the working of error,
that they may believe a lie; that they all may be judged who did not
believe the truth, but gave consent to iniquity,"(2)
4. The Lord also spoke as follows to those who did not believe in Him:
"I have come in my Father's name, and ye have not received Me: when another
shall come in his own name, him ye will receive,"(3) calling Antichrist
"the other," because he is alienated from the Lord. This is also the unjust
judge, whom the Lord mentioned as one "who feared not God, neither regarded
man,"(4) to whom the widow fled in her forgetfulness of God,--that is, the
earthly Jerusalem,--to be avenged of her adversary. Which also he shall do
in the time of his kingdom: he shall remove his kingdom into that [city],
and shall sit in the temple of God, leading astray those who worship him,
as if he were Christ. To this purpose Daniel says again: "And he shall
desolate the holy place; and sin has been given for a sacrifice,(5) and
righteousness been cast away in the earth, and he has been active (fecit),
and gone on prosperously."(6) And the angel Gabriel, when explaining his
vision, states with regard to this person: "And towards the end of their
kingdom a king of a most fierce countenance shall arise, one understanding
[dark] questions, and exceedingly powerful, full of wonders; and he shall
corrupt, direct, influence (faciet), and put strong men down, the holy
people likewise; and his yoke shall be directed as a wreath [round their
neck]; deceit shall be in his hand, and he shall be lifted up in his heart:
he shall also ruin many by deceit, and lead many to perdition, bruising
them in his hand like eggs."(7) And then he points out the time that his
tyranny shall last, during which the saints shall be put to flight, they
who offer a pure sacrifice unto God: "And in the midst of the week," he
says, "the sacrifice and the libation shall be taken away, and the
abomination of desolation [shall be brought] into the temple: even unto the
consummation of the time shall the desolation be complete."(8) Now three
years and six months constitute the half-week.
5. From all these passages are revealed to us, not merely the
particulars of the apostasy, and [the doings] of him who concentrates in
himself every satanic error, but also, that there is one and the same God
the Father, who was declared by the prophets, but made manifest by Christ.
For if what Daniel prophesied concerning the end has been confirmed by the
Lord, when He said, "When ye shall see the abomination of desolation, which
has been spoken of by Daniel the prophet"(9) (and the angel Gabriel gave
the interpretation of the visions to Daniel, and he is the archangel of the
Creator (Demiurgi), who also proclaimed to Mary the visible coining and the
incarnation of Christ), then one and the same God is most manifestly
pointed out, who sent the prophets, and made promise(10) of the Son, and
called us into His knowledge.
CHAP. XXVI.--JOHN AND DANIEL HAVE PREDICTED THE DISSOLUTION AND DESOLATION
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, WHICH SHALL PRECEDE THE END OF THE WORLD AND THE
ETERNAL KINGDOM OF CHRIST. THE GNOSTICS ARE REFUTED, THOSE TOOLS OF SATAN,
WHO INVENT ANOTHER FATHER DIFFERENT FROM THE CREATOR.
1. In a still clearer light has John, in the Apocalypse, indicated to
the Lord's disciples what shall happen in the last times, and concerning
the ten kings who shall then arise, among whom the empire which now rules
[the earth] shall be partitioned. He teaches us what the ten horns shall be
which were seen by Daniel, telling us that thus it had been said to him:
"And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no
kingdom as yet, but shall receive power as if kings one hour with the
beast. These have one mind, and give their strength and power to the beast.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them,
because He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings."(11) It is manifest,
therefore, that of these [potentates], he who is to come shall slay three,
and subject the remainder to his power, and that he shall be himself the
eighth among them. And they shall lay Babylon waste, and burn her with
fire, and shall give their kingdom to the beast, and put the Church to
flight. After that they shall be destroyed by the coming of our Lord. For
that the kingdom must be divided, and thus come to ruin, the Lord [declares
when He] says: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to
desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not
stand."(1) It must be, therefore, that the kingdom, the city, and the house
be divided into ten; and for this reason He has already foreshadowed the
partition and division [which shall take place]. Daniel also says
particularly, that the end of the fourth kingdom consists in the toes of
the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar, upon which came the stone cut out without
hands; and as he does himself say: "The feet were indeed the one part iron,
the other part clay, until the stone was cut out without hands, and struck
the image upon the iron and clay feet, and dashed them into pieces, even to
the end."(2) Then afterwards, when interpreting this, he says: "And as thou
sawest the feet and the toes, partly indeed of clay, and partly of iron,
the kingdom shall be divided, and there shall be in it a root of iron, as
thou sawest iron mixed with baked clay. And the toes were indeed the one
part iron, but the other part clay."(3) The ten toes, therefore, are these
ten kings, among whom the kingdom shall be partitioned, of whom some indeed
shall be strong and active, or energetic; others, again, shall be sluggish
and useless, and shall not agree; as also Daniel says: "Some part of the
kingdom shall be strong, and part shall be broken from it. As thou sawest
the iron mixed with the baked clay, there shall be minglings among the
human race, but no cohesion one with the other, just as iron cannot be
welded on to pottery ware."(4) And since an end shall take place, he says:
"And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven raise up a kingdom
which shall never decay, and His kingdom shall not be left to another
people. It shall break in pieces and shatter all kingdoms, and shall itself
be exalted for ever. As thou sawest that the stone was cut without hands
from the mountain, and brake in pieces the baked clay, the iron, the brass,
the silver, and the gold, God has pointed out to the king what shall come
to pass after these things; and the dream is true, and the interpretation
trustworthy."(5)
2. If therefore the great God showed future things by Daniel, and
confirmed them by His Son; and if Christ is the stone which is cut out
without hands, who shall destroy temporal kingdoms, and introduce an
eternal one, which is the resurrection of the just; as he declares, "The
God of heaven shall raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed,"--
let those thus confuted come to their senses, who reject the Creator
(Demiurgum), and do not agree that the prophets were sent beforehand from
the same Father from whom also the Lord came, but who assert that
prophecies originated from diverse powers. For those things which have been
predicted by the Creator alike through all the prophets has Christ
fulfilled in the end, ministering to His Father's will, and completing His
dispensations with regard to the human race. Let those persons, therefore,
who blaspheme the Creator, either by openly expressed words, such as the
disciples of Marcion, or by a perversion of the sense [of Scripture], as
those of Valentinus and all the Gnostics falsely so called, be recognised
as agents of Satan by all those who worship God; through whose agency Satan
now, and not before, has been seen to speak against God, even Him who has
prepared eternal fire for every kind of apostasy. For he did not venture to
blaspheme his Lord openly of himself; as also in the beginning he led man
astray through the instrumentality of the serpent, concealing himself as it
were from God. Truly has Justin remarked:(6) That before the Lord's
appearance Satan never dared to blaspheme God, inasmuch as he did not yet
know his own sentence, because it was contained in parables and allegories;
but that after the Lord's appearance, when he had clearly ascertained from
the words of Christ and His apostles that eternal fire has been prepared
for him as he apostatized from God of his own free-will, and likewise for
all who unrepentant continue in the apostasy, he now blasphemes, by means
of such men, the Lord who brings judgment [upon him] as being already
condemned, and imputes the guilt of his apostasy to his Maker, not to his
own voluntary disposition. Just as it is with those who break the laws,
when punishment overtakes them: they throw the blame upon those who frame
the laws, but not upon themselves. In like manner do those men, filled with
a satanic spirit, bring innumerable accusations against our Creator, who
has both given to us the spirit of life, and established a law adapted for
all; and they will not admit that the judgment of God is just. Wherefore
also they set about imagining some other Father who neither cares about nor
exercises a providence over our affairs, nay, one who even approves of all
sins.
CHAP. XXVII.--THE FUTURE JUDGMENT BY CHRIST. COMMUNION WITH AND SEPARATION
FROM THE DIVINE BEING. THE ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OF UNBELIEVERS.
1. If the Father, then, does not exercise judgment, [it follows] that
judgment does not belong to Him, or that He consents to all those actions
which take place; and if He does not judge, all persons will be equal, and
accounted in the same condition. The advent of Christ will therefore be
without an object, yea, absurd, inasmuch as [in that case] He exercises no
judicial power. For "He came to divide a man against his father, and the
daughter against the mother, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-
law;"(1) and when two are in one bed, to take the one, and to leave the
other; and of two women grinding at the mill, to take one and leave the
other:(2) [also] at the time of the end, to order the reapers to collect
first the tares together, and bind them in bundles, and burn them with
unquenchable fire, but to gather up the wheat into the barn;(3) and to call
the lambs into the kingdom prepared for them, but to send the goats into
everlasting fire, which has been prepared by His Father for the devil and
his angels.(4) And why is this? Has the Word come for the ruin and for the
resurrection of many? For the ruin, certainly, of those who do not believe
Him, to whom also He has threatened a greater damnation in the judgment-day
than that of Sodom and Gomorrah;(5) but for the resurrection of believers,
and those who do the will of His Father in heaven. If then the advent of
the Son comes indeed alike to all, but is for the purpose of judging, and
separating the believing from the unbelieving, since, as those who believe
do His will agreeably to their own choice, and as, [also] agreeably to
their own choice, the disobedient do not consent to His doctrine; it is
manifest that His Father has made all in a like condition, each person
having a choice of his own, and a free understanding; and that He has
regard to all things, and exercises a providence over all, "making His sun
to rise upon the evil and on the good, and sending rain upon the just and
unjust."(6)
2. And to as many as continue in their love towards God, does He grant
communion with Him. But communion with God is life and light, and the
enjoyment of all the benefits which He has in store. But on as many as,
according to their own choice, depart from God. He inflicts that separation
from Himself which they have chosen of their own accord. But separation
from God is death, and separation from light is darkness; and separation
from God consists in the loss of all the benefits which He has in store.
Those, therefore, who cast away by apostasy these forementioned things,
being in fact destitute of all good, do experience every kind of
punishment. God, however, does not punish them immediately of Himself, but
that punishment falls upon them because they are destitute of all that is
good. Now, good things are eternal and without end with God, and therefore
the loss of these is also eternal and never-ending. It is in this matter
just as occurs in the case of a flood of light: those who have blinded
themselves, or have been blinded by others, are for ever deprived of the
enjoyment of light. It is not, [however], that the light has inflicted upon
them the penalty of blindness, but it is that the blindness itself has
brought calamity upon them: and therefore the Lord declared, "He that
believeth in Me is not condemned,"(7) that is, is not separated from God,
for he is united to God through faith. On the other hand, He says, "He that
believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name
of the only-begotten Son of God;" that is, he separated himself from God of
his own accord. "For this is the condemnation, that light is come into this
world, and men have loved darkness rather than light. For every one who
doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his
deeds may be made manifest, that he has wrought them in God."
CHAP. XXVIII.--THE DISTINCTION TO BE MADE BETWEEN THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE
WICKED. THE FUTURE APOSTASY IN THE TIME OF ANTI-CHRIST, AND THE END OF THE
WORLD.
1. Inasmuch, then, as in this world (aiw^ni) some persons betake
themselves to the light, and by faith unite themselves with God, but others
shun the light, and separate themselves from God, the Word of God comes
preparing a fit habitation for both. For those indeed who are in the light,
that they may derive enjoyment from it, and from the good things contained
in it; but for those in darkness, that they may partake in its calamities.
And on this account He says, that those upon the right hand are called into
the kingdom of heaven, but that those on the left He will send into eternal
fire for they have deprived themselves of all good.
2. And for this reason the apostle says: "Because they received not the
love of God, that they might be saved, therefore God shall also send them
the operation of error, that they may believe a lie, that they all may be
judged who have not believed the truth, but consented to
unrighteousness."(1) For when he (Antichrist) is come, and of his own
accord concentrates in his own person the apostasy, and accomplishes
whatever he shall do according to his own will and choice, sitting also in
the temple of God, so that his dupes may adore him as the Christ; wherefore
also shall he deservedly "be cast into the lake of fire:"(2) [this will
happen according to divine appointment], God by His prescience foreseeing
all this, and at the proper time sending such a man, "that they may believe
a lie, that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but
consented to unrighteousness;" whose coming John has thus described in the
Apocalypse: "And the beast which I had seen was like unto a leopard, and
his feet as of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion; and the dragon
conferred his own power upon him, and his throne, and great might. And one
of his heads was as it were slain unto death; and his deadly wound was
healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the
dragon because he gave power to the beast; and they worshipped the beast,
saying, Who is like unto this beast, and who is able to make war with him?
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemy
and power was given to him during forty and two months. And he opened his
mouth for blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle,
and those who dwell in heaven. And power was given him over every tribe,
and people, and tongue, and nation. And all who dwell upon the earth
worshipped him, [every one] whose name was not written in the book of the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any one have ears, let him
hear. If any one shall lead into captivity, he shall go into captivity. If
any shall slay with the sword, he must be slain with the sword. Here is the
endurance and the faith of the saints."(3) After this he likewise describes
his armour-bearer, whom he also terms a false prophet: "He spake as a
dragon, and exercised all the power of the first beast in his sight, and
caused the earth, and those that dwell therein, to adore the first beast,
whose deadly wound was healed. And he shall perform great wonders, so that
he can even cause fire to descend from heaven upon the earth in the sight
of men, and he shall lead the inhabitants of the earth astray."(4) Let no
one imagine that he performs these wonders by divine power, but by the
working of magic. And we must not be surprised if, since the demons and
apostate spirits are at his service, he through their means performs
wonders, by which he leads the inhabitants of the earth astray. John says
further: "And he shall order an image of the beast to be made, and he shall
give breath to the image, so that the image shall speak; and he shall cause
those to be slain who will not adore it." He says also: "And he will cause
a mark [to be put] in the forehead and in the fight hand, that no one may
be able to buy or sell, unless he who has the mark of the name of the beast
or the number of his name; and the number is six hundred and sixty-six,"(5)
that is, six times a hundred, six times ten, and six units. [He gives this]
as a summing up of the whole of that apostasy which has taken place during
six thousand years.
3. For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand
years shall it be concluded. And for this reason the Scripture says: "Thus
the heaven and the earth were finished, and all their adornment. And God
brought to a conclusion upon the sixth day the works that He had made; and
God rested upon the seventh day from all His works."(6) This is an account
of the things formerly created, as also it is a prophecy of what is to
come. For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years;(7) and in six days
created things were completed: it is evident, therefore, that they will
come to an end at the sixth thousand year.
4. And therefore throughout all time, man, having been moulded at the
beginning by the hands of God, that is, of the Son and of the Spirit, is
made after the image and likeness of God: the chaff, indeed, which is the
apostasy, being cast away; but the wheat, that is, those who bring forth
fruit to God in faith, being gathered into the barn. And for this cause
tribulation is necessary for those who are saved, that having been after a
manner broken up, and rendered fine, and sprinkled over by the patience of
the Word of God, and set on fire [for purification], they may be fitted for
the royal banquet. As a certain man of ours said, when he was condemned to
the wild beasts because of his testimony with respect to God: "I am the
wheat of Christ, and am ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may
be found the pure bread of God."(8)
CHAP.XXIX.--ALL THINGS HAVE BEEN CREATED FOR THE SERVICE OF MAN. THE
DECEITS, WICKEDNESS, AND APOSTATE POWER OF ANTICHRIST. THIS WAS PREFIGURED
AT THE DELUGE, AS AFTERWARDS BY THE PERSECUTION OF SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND
ABEDNEGO.
1. In the previous books I have set forth the causes for which God
permitted these things to be made, and have pointed out that all such have
been created for the benefit of that human nature which is saved, ripening
for immortality that which is [possessed] of its own free will and its own
power, and preparing and rendering it more adapted for eternal subjection
to God. And therefore the creation is suited to [the wants of] man; for man
was not made for its sake, but creation for the sake of man. Those nations
however, who did not of themselves raise up their eyes unto heaven, nor
returned thanks to their Maker, nor wished to behold the light of truth,
but who were like blind mice concealed in the depths of ignorance, the word
justly reckons "as waste water from a sink, and as the turning-weight of a
balance--in fact, as nothing;"(1) so far useful and serviceable to the
just, as stubble conduces towards the growth of the wheat, and its straw,
by means of combustion, serves for working gold. And therefore, when in the
end the Church shall be suddenly caught up from this, it is said, "There
shall be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning, neither
shall be."(2) For this is the last contest of the righteous, in which, when
they overcome they are crowned with incorruption.
2. And there is therefore in this beast, when he comes, a
recapitulation made of all sorts of iniquity and of every deceit, in order
that all apostate power, flowing into and being shut up in him, may be sent
into the furnace of fire. Fittingly, therefore, shall his name possess the
number six hundred and sixty-six, since he sums up in his own person all
the commixture of wickedness which took place previous to the deluge, due
to the apostasy of the angels. For Noah was six hundred years old when the
deluge came upon the earth, sweeping away the rebellious world, for the
sake of that most infamous generation which lived in the times of Noah. And
[Antichrist] also sums up every error of devised idols since the flood,
together with the slaying of the prophets and the cutting off of the just.
For that image which was set up by Nebuchadnezzar had indeed a height of
sixty cubits, while the breadth was six cubits; on account of which
Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, when they did not worship it, were cast into
a furnace of fire, pointing out prophetically, by what happened to them,
the wrath against the righteous which shall arise towards the [time of the]
end. For that image, taken as a whole, was a prefiguring of this man's
coming, decreeing that he should undoubtedly himself alone be worshipped by
all men. Thus, then, the six hundred years of Noah, in whose time the
deluge occurred because of the apostasy, and the number of the cubits of
the image for which these just men were sent into the fiery furnace, do
indicate the number of the name of that man in whom is concentrated the
whole apostasy of six thousand years, and unrighteousness, and wickedness,
and false prophecy, and deception; for which things' sake a cataclysm of
fire shall also come [upon the earth].
CHAP. XXX.--ALTHOUGH CERTAIN AS TO THE NUMBER OF THE NAME OF ANTICHRIST,
YET WE SHOULD COME TO NO RASH CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE NAME ITSELF, BECAUSE
THIS NUMBER IS CAPABLE OF BEING FITTED TO MANY NAMES. REASONS FOR THIS
POINT BEING RESERVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. ANTICHRIST'S REIGN AND DEATH.
1. Such, then, being the state of the case, and this number being found
in all the most approved and ancient copies(3) [of the Apocalypse], and
those men who saw John face to face bearing their testimony [to it]; while
reason also leads us to conclude that the number of the name of the beast,
[if reckoned] according to the Greek mode of calculation by the [value of]
the letters contained in it, will amount to six hundred and sixty and six;
that is, the number of tens shall be equal to that of the hundreds, and the
number of hundreds equal to that of the units (for that number which
[expresses] the digit six being adhered to throughout, indicates the
recapitulations of that apostasy, taken in its full extent, which occurred
at the beginning, during the intermediate periods, and which shall take
place at the end),--I do not know how it is that some have erred following
the ordinary mode of speech, and have vitiated the middle number in the
name, deducting the amount of fifty from it, so that instead of six decads
they will have it that there is but one. [I am inclined to think that this
occurred through the fault of the copyists, as is wont to happen, since
numbers also are expressed by letters; so that the Greek letter which
expresses the number sixty was easily expanded into the letter Iota of the
Greeks.](4) Others then received this reading without examination; some in
their simplicity, and upon their own responsibility, making use of this
number expressing one decad; while some, in their inexperience, have
ventured to seek out a name which should contain the erroneous and spurious
number. Now, as regards those who have done this in simplicity, and without
evil intent, we are at liberty to assume that pardon will be granted them
by God. But as for those who, for the sake of vainglory, lay it down for
certain that names containing the spurious number are to be accepted, and
affirm that this name, hit upon by themselves, is that of him who is to
come; such persons shall not come forth without loss, because they have led
into error both themselves and those who confided in them. Now, in the
first place, it is loss to wander from the truth, and to imagine that as
being the case which is not; then again, as there shall be no light
punishment [inflicted] upon him who either adds or subtracts anything from
the Scripture,(1) under that such a person must necessarily fall. Moreover,
another danger, by no means trifling, shall overtake those who falsely
presume that they know the name of Antichrist. For if these men assume one
[number], when this [Antichrist] shall come having another, they will be
easily led away by him, as supposing him not to be the expected one, who
must be guarded against.
2. These men, therefore, ought to learn [what really is the state of
the case], and go back to the true number of the name, that they be not
reckoned among false prophets. But, knowing the sure number declared by
Scripture, that is, six hundred sixty and six, let them await, in the first
place, the division of the kingdom into ten; then, in the next place, when
these kings are reigning, and beginning to set their affairs in order, and
advance their kingdom, [let them learn] to acknowledge that he who shall
come claiming the kingdom for himself, and shall terrify those men of whom
we have been speaking, having a name containing the aforesaid number, is
truly the abomination of desolation. This, too, the apostle affirms: "When
they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon
them."(2) And Jeremiah does not merely point out his sudden coming, but he
even indicates the tribe from which he shall come, where he says, "We shall
hear the voice of his swift horses from Dan; the whole earth shall be moved
by the voice of the neighing of his galloping horses: he shall also come
and devour the earth, and the fulness thereof, the city also, and they that
dwell therein."(3) This, too, is the reason that this tribe is not reckoned
in the Apocalypse along with those which are saved.(4)
3. It is therefore more certain, and less hazardous, to await the
fulfilment of the prophecy, than to be making surmises, and casting about
for any names that may present themselves, inasmuch as many names can be
found possessing the number mentioned; and the same question will, after
all, remain unsolved. For if there are many names found possessing this
number, it will be asked which among them shall the coming man bear. It is
not through a want of names containing the number of that name that I say
this, but on account of the fear of God, and zeal for the truth: for the
name Evanthas (EUANTHAS) contains the required number, but I make no
allegation regarding it. Then also Lateinos (LATEINOS) has the number six
hundred and sixty-six; and it is a very probable [solution], this being the
name of the last kingdom [of the four seen by Daniel]. For the Latins are
they who at present bear rule:(5) I will not, however, make any boast over
this [coincidence]. Teitan too, (TEITAN, the first syllable being written
with the two Greek vowels e and i), among all the names which are found
among us, is rather worthy of credit. For it has in itself the predicted
number, and is composed of six letters, each syllable containing three
letters; and [the word itself] is ancient, and removed from ordinary use;
for among our kings we find none bearing this name Titan, nor have any of
the idols which are worshipped in public among the Greeks and barbarians
this appellation. Among many persons, too, this name is accounted divine,
so that even the sun is termed "Titan" by those who do now possess [the
rule]. This word, too, contains a certain outward appearance of vengeance,
and of one inflicting merited punishment because he (Antichrist) pretends
that he vindicates the oppressed.(6) And besides this, it is an ancient
name, one worthy of credit, of royal dignity, and still further, a name
belonging to a tyrant. Inasmuch, then, as this name "Titan" has so much to
recommend it, there is a strong degree of probability, that from among the
many [names suggested], we infer, that perchance he who is to come shall be
called "Titan." We will not, however, incur the risk of pronouncing
positively as to the name of Antichrist; for if it were necessary that his
name should be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would have been
announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision. For that was seen no
very long time since, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian's
reign.
4. But he indicates the number of the name now, that when this man
comes we may avoid him, being aware who he is: the name, however, is
suppressed, because it is not worthy of being proclaimed by the Holy
Spirit. For if it had been declared by Him, he (Antichrist) might perhaps
continue for a long period. But now as "he was, and is not, and shall
ascend out of the abyss, and goes into perdition,"(1) as one who has no
existence; so neither has his name been declared, for the name of that
which does not exist is not proclaimed. But when this Antichrist shall have
devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six
months, and sit in the temple at Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come
from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father, sending this man and
those who follow him into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the
righteous the times of the kingdom, that is, the rest, the hallowed seventh
day; and restoring to Abraham the promised inheritance, in which kingdom
the Lord declared, that "many coming from the east and from the west should
sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."(2)
CHAP. XXXI.--THE PRESERVATION OF OUR BODIES IS CONFIRMED BY THE
RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST: THE SOULS OF THE SAINTS DURING THE
INTERMEDIATE PERIOD ARE IN A STATE OF EXPECTATION OF THAT TIME WHEN THEY
SHALL RECEIVE THEIR PERFECT AND CONSUMMATED GLORY.
1. Since, again, some who are reckoned among the orthodox go beyond the
pre-arranged plan for the exaltation of the just, and are ignorant of the
methods by which they are disciplined beforehand for incorruption, they
thus entertain heretical opinions. For the heretics, despising the
handiwork of God, and not admitting the salvation of their flesh, while
they also treat the promise of God contemptuously, and pass beyond God
altogether in the sentiments they form, affirm that immediately upon their
death they shall pass above the heavens and the Demiurge, and go to the
Mother (Achamoth) or to that Father whom they have feigned. Those persons,
therefore, who disallow a resurrection affecting the whole man (universam
reprobant resurrectionem), and as far as in them lies remove it from the
midst [of the Christian scheme], how can they be wondered at, if again they
know nothing as to the plan of the resurrection? For they do not choose to
understand, that if these things are as they say, the Lord Himself, in whom
they profess to believe, did not rise again upon the third day; but
immediately upon His expiring on the cross, undoubtedly departed on high,
leaving His body to the earth. But the case was, that for three days He
dwelt in the place where the dead were, as the prophet says concerning Him:
"And the Lord remembered His dead saints who slept formerly in the land of
sepulture; and He descended to them, to rescue and save them."(3) And the
Lord Himself says, "As Jonas remained three days and three nights in the
whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth."(4)
Then also the apostle says, "But when He ascended, what is it but that He
also descended into the lower parts of the earth?"(5) This, too, David says
when prophesying of Him, "And thou hast delivered my soul from the
nethermost hell;"(6) and on His rising again the third day, He said to
Mary, who was the first to see and to worship Him, "Touch Me not, for I
have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to the disciples, and say unto
them, I ascend unto My Father, and unto your Father."(7)
2. If, then, the Lord observed the law of the dead, that He might
become the first-begotten from the dead, and tarried until the third day
"in the lower parts of the earth;"(8) then afterwards rising in the flesh,
so that He even showed the print of the nails to His disciples,(9) He thus
ascended to the Father;--[if all these things occurred, I say], how must
these men not be put to confusion, who allege that "the lower parts" refer
to this world of ours, but that their tuner man, leaving the body here,
ascends into the super-celestial place? For as the Lord "went away in the
midst of the shadow of death,"(10) where the souls of the dead were, yet
afterwards arose in the body, and after the resurrection was taken up [into
heaven], it is manifest that the souls of His disciples also, upon whose
account the Lord underwent these things, shall go away into the invisible
place allotted to them by God, and there remain until the resurrection,
awaiting that event; then receiving their bodies, and rising in their
entirety, that is bodily, just as the Lord arose, they shall come thus into
the presence of God. "For no disciple is above the Master, but every one
that is perfect shall be as his Master."(11) As our Master, therefore, did
not at once depart, taking flight [to heaven], but awaited the time of His
resurrection prescribed by the Father, which had been also shown forth
through Jonas, and rising again after three days was taken up [to heaven];
so ought we also to await the time of our resurrection prescribed by God
and foretold by the prophets, and so, rising, be taken up, as many as the
Lord shall account worthy of this [privilege].(1)
CHAP. XXXII.--IN THAT FLESH IN WHICH THE SAINTS HAVE SUFFERED SO MANY
AFFLICTIONS, THEY SHALL RECEIVE THE FRUITS OF THEIR LABOURS; ESPECIALLY
SINCE ALL CREATION WAITS FOR THIS, AND GOD PROMISES IT TO ABRAHAM AND HIS
SEED.
1. Inasmuch, therefore, as the opinions of certain [orthodox persons]
are derived from heretical discourses, they are both ignorant of God's
dispensations, and of the mystery of the resurrection of the just, and of
the [earthly] kingdom which is the commencement of incorruption, by means
of which kingdom those who shall be worthy are accustomed gradually to
partake of the divine nature (capere Deum(2)); and it is necessary to tell
them respecting those things, that it behoves the righteous first to
receive the promise of the inheritance which God promised to the fathers,
and to reign in it, when they rise again to behold God in this creation
which is renovated, and that the judgment should take place afterwards. For
it is just that in that very creation in which they toiled or were
afflicted, being proved in every way by suffering, they should receive the
reward of their suffering; and that in the creation in which they were
slain because of their love to God, in that they should be revived again;
and that in the creation in which they endured servitude, in that they
should reign. For God is rich in all things, and all things are His. It is
fitting, therefore, that the creation itself, being restored to its
primeval condition, should without restraint be under the dominion of the
righteous; and the apostle has made this plain in the Epistle to the
Romans, when he thus speaks: "For the expectation of the creature waiteth
for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature has been
subjected to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected
the same in hope; since the creature itself shall also be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God."(3)
2. Thus, then, the promise of God, which He gave to Abraham, remains
stedfast. For thus He said: "Lift up thine eyes, and look from this place
where now thou art, towards the north and south, and east and west. For all
the earth which thou seest, I will give to thee and to thy seed, even for
ever."(4) And again He says, "Arise, and go through the length and breadth
of the land, since I will give it unto thee;"(5) and [yet] he did not
receive an inheritance in it, not even a footstep, but was always a
stranger and a pilgrim therein.(6) And upon the death of Sarah his wife,
when the Hittites were willing to bestow upon him a place where he might
bury her, he declined it as a gift, but bought the burying-place (giving
for it four hundred talents of silver) from Ephron the son of Zohar the
Hittite.(7) Thus did he await patiently the promise of God, and was
unwilling to appear to receive from men, what God had promised to give him,
when He said again to him as follows: "I will give this land to thy seed,
from the river of Egypt even unto the great river Euphrates."(8) If, then,
God promised him the inheritance of the land, yet he did not receive it
during all the time of his sojourn there, it must be, that together with
his seed, that is, those who fear God and believe in Him, he shall receive
it at the resurrection of the just. For his seed is the Church, which
receives the adoption to God through the Lord, as John the Baptist said:
"For God is able from the stones to raise up children to Abraham."(9) Thus
also the apostle says in the Epistle to the Galatians: "But ye, brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of the promise."(10) And again, in the same
Epistle, he plainly declares that they who have believed in Christ do
receive Christ, the promise to Abraham thus saying, "The promises were
spoken to Abraham, and to his seed. Now He does not say, And of seeds, as
if [He spake] of many, but as of one, And to thy seed, which is
Christ."(11) And again, confirming his former words, he says, "Even as
Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know
ye therefore, that they which are of faith are the children of Abraham. But
the Scripture, fore-seeing that God would justify the heathen through
faith, declared to Abraham beforehand, That in thee shall all nations be
blessed. So then they which are of faith shall be blessed with faithful
Abraham."(12) Thus, then, they who are of faith shall be blessed with
faithful Abraham, and these are the children of Abraham. Now God made
promise of the earth to Abraham and his seed; yet neither Abraham nor his
seed, that is, those who are justified by faith, do now receive any
inheritance in it; but they shall receive it at the resurrection of the
just. For God is true and faithful; and on this account He said, "Blessed
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."(1)
CHAP. XXXIII.--FURTHER PROOFS OF THE SAME PROPOSITION, DRAWN FROM THE
PROMISES MADE BY CHRIST, WHEN HE DECLARED THAT HE WOULD DRINK OF THE FRUIT
OF THE VINE WITH HIS DISCIPLES IN HIS FATHER'S KINGDOM, WHILE AT THE SAME
TIME HE PROMISED TO REWARD THEM AN HUNDRED-FOLD, AND TO MAKE THEM PARTAKE
OF BANQUETS. THE BLESSING PRONOUNCED BY JACOB HAD POINTED OUT THIS ALREADY,
AS PAPIAS AND THE ELDERS HAVE INTERPRETED IT.
1. For this reason, when about to undergo His sufferings, that He might
declare to Abraham and those with him the glad tidings of the inheritance
being thrown open, [Christ], after He had given thanks while holding the
cup, and had drunk of it, and given it to the disciples, said to them:
"Drink ye all of it: this is My blood of the new covenant, which shall be
shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not
drink henceforth of the fruit of this vine, until that day when I will
drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."(2) Thus, then, He will
Himself renew the inheritance of the earth, and will re-organize the
mystery of the glory of [His] sons; as David says, "He who hath renewed the
face of the earth."(3) He promised to drink of the fruit of the vine with
His disciples, thus indicating both these points: the inheritance of the
earth in which the new fruit of the vine is drunk, and the resurrection of
His disciples in the flesh. For the new flesh which rises again is the same
which also received the new cup. And He cannot by any means be understood
as drinking of the fruit of the vine when settled down with his [disciples]
above in a super-celestial place; nor, again, are they who drink it devoid
of flesh, for to drink of that which flows from the vine pertains to flesh,
and not spirit.
2. And for this reason the Lord declared, "When thou makest a dinner or
a supper, do not call thy friends, nor thy neighbours, nor thy kinsfolk,
lest they ask thee in return, and so repay thee. But call the lame, the
blind, and the poor, and thou shall be blessed, since they cannot
recompense thee, but a recompense shall be made thee at the resurrection of
the just."(4) And again He says, "Whosoever shall have left lands, or
houses, or parents, or brethren, or children because of Me, he shall
receive in this world an hundred-fold, and in that to come he shall inherit
eternal life."(5) For what are the hundred-fold [rewards] in this word, the
entertainments given to the poor, and the suppers for which a return is
made? These are [to take place] in the times of the kingdom, that is, upon
the seventh day, which has been sanctified, in which God rested from all
the works which He created, which is the true Sabbath of the righteous,
which they shall not be engaged in any earthly occupation; but shall have a
table at hand prepared for them by God, supplying them with all sorts of
dishes.
3. The blessing of Isaac with which he blessed his younger son Jacob
has the same meaning, when he says, "Behold, the smell of my son is as the
smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed."(6) But "the field is the
world."(7) And therefore he added, "God give to thee of the dew of heaven,
and of the fatness of the earth, plenty of corn and wine. And let the
nations serve thee, and kings bow down to thee; and be thou lord over thy
brother, and thy father's sons shall bow down to thee: cursed shall be he
who shall curse thee, and blessed shall be he who shall bless thee."(8) If
any one, then, does not accept these things as referring to the appointed
kingdom, he must fall into much contradiction and contrariety, as is the
case with the Jews, who are involved in absolute perplexity. For not only
did not the nations in this life serve this Jacob; but even after he had
received the blessing, he himself going forth [from his home], served his
uncle Laban the Syrian for twenty years;(9) and not only was he not made
lord of his brother, but he did himself bow down before his brother Esau,
upon his return from Mesopotamia to his father, and offered many gifts to
him.(10) Moreover, in what way did he inherit much corn and wine here, he
who emigrated to Egypt because of the famine which possessed the land in
which he was dwelling, and became Subject to Pharaoh, who was then ruling
over Egypt? The predicted blessing, therefore, belongs unquestionably to
the times of the kingdom, when the righteous shall bear rule upon their
rising from the dead;(11) when also the creation, having been renovated and
set free, shall fructify with an abundance of all kinds of food, from the
dew of heaven, and from the fertility of the earth: as the elders who saw
John, the disciple of the Lord, related that they had heard from him how
the Lord used to teach in regard to these times, and say: The days will
come, in which vines shall grow, each having ten thousand branches, and in
each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each true(1) twig ten thousand
shoots, and in each one of the shoots ten thousand dusters, and on every
one of the clusters ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will
give five and twenty metretes of wine. And when any one of the saints shall
lay hold of a cluster,(2) another shall cry out, "I am a better cluster,
take me; bless the Lord through me." In like manner [the Lord declared]
that a grain of wheat would produce ten thousand ears, and that every ear
should have ten thousand grains, and every grain would yield ten pounds
(quinque bilibres) of clear, pure, fine flour; and that all other fruit-
bearing trees,(3) and seeds and grass, would produce in similar proportions
(secundum congruentiam iis consequentem); and that all animals feeding
[only] on the productions of the earth, should [in those days] become
peaceful and harmonious among each other, and be in perfect subjection to
man.
4. And these things are bone witness to in writing by Papias, the
hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp, in his fourth book; for there
were five books compiled (suntetagme'na) by him.(4) And he says in
addition, "Now these things are credible to believers." And he says that,
"when the traitor Judas did not give credit to them, and put the question,
'How then can things about to bring forth so abundantly be wrought by the
Lord?' the Lord declared, 'They who shall come to these [times] shall
see.'" When prophesying of these times, therefore, Esaias says: "The wolf
also shall feed with the lamb, and the leopard shall take his rest with the
kid; the calf also, and the bull, and the lion shall eat together; and a
little boy shall lead them. The ox and the bear shall feed together, and
their young ones shall agree together; and the lion shall eat straw as well
as the ox. And the infant boy shall thrust his hand into the asp's den,
into the nest also of the adder's brood; and they shall do no harm, nor
have power to hurt anything in my holy mountain." And again he says, in
recapitulation, "Wolves and lambs shall then browse together, and the lion
shall eat straw like the ox, and the serpent earth as if it were bread; and
they shall neither hurt nor annoy anything in my holy mountain, saith the
Lord."(5) I am quite aware that some persons endeavour to refer these words
to the case of savage men, both of different nations and various habits,
who come to believe, and when they have believed, act in harmony with the
righteous. But although this is [true] now with regard to some men coming
from various nations to the harmony of the faith, nevertheless in the
resurrection of the just [the words shall also apply] to those animals
mentioned. For God is non in all things. And it is right that when the
creation is restored, all the animals should obey and be in subjection to
man, and revert to the food originally given by God (for they had been
originally subjected in obedience to Adam), that is, the productions of the
earth. But some other occasion, and not the present, is [to be sought] for
showing that the lion shall [then] feed on straw. And this indicates the
large size and rich quality of the fruits. For if that animal, the lion,
feeds upon straw [at that period], of what a quality must the wheat itself
be whose straw shall serve as suitable food for lions?
CHAP. XXXIV.--HE FORTIFIES HIS OPINIONS WITH REGARD TO THE TEMPORAL AND
EARTHLY KINGDOM OF THE SAINTS AFTER THEIR RESURRECTION, BY THE VARIOUS
TESTIMONIES OF ISAIAH, EZEKIEL, JEREMIAH, AND DANIEL; ALSO BY THE PARABLE
OF THE SERVANTS WATCHING, TO WHOM THE LORD PROMISED THAT HE WOULD MINISTER.
1. Then, too, Isaiah himself has plainly declared that there shall be
joy of this nature at the resurrection of the just, when he says: "The dead
shall rise again; those, too, who are in the tombs shall arise, and those
who are in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew from Thee is health to
them."(6) And this again Ezekiel also says: "Behold, I will open your
tombs, and will bring you forth out of your graves; when I will draw my
people from the sepulchres, and I will put breath in you, and ye shall
live; and I will place you on your own land, and ye shall know that I am
the LORD."(7) And again the same speaks thus: "These things saith the LORD,
I will gather Israel from all nations whither they have been driven, and I
shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the sons of the nations: and
they shall dwell in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. And
they shall dwell in it in peace; and they shall build houses, and plant
vineyards, and dwell in hope, when I shall cause judgment to fall among all
who have dishonoured them, among those who encircle them round about; and
they shall know that I am the LORD their God, and the God of their
fathers."(8) Now I have shown a short time ago that the church is the seed
of Abraham; and for this reason, that we may know that He who in the New
Testament "raises up from the stones children unto Abraham,"(1) is He who
will gather, according to the Old Testament, those that shall be saved from
all the nations, Jeremiah says: "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD,
that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, who led the children of
Israel from the north, and from every region whither they had been driven;
He will restore them to their own land which He gave to their fathers."(2)
2. That the whole creation shall, according to God's will, obtain a
vast increase, that it may bring forth and sustain fruits such [as we have
mentioned], Isaiah declares: "And there shall be upon every high mountain,
and upon every prominent hill, water running everywhere in that day, when
many shall perish, when walls shall fall. And the light of the moon shall
be as the light of the sun, seven times that of the day, when He shall heal
the anguish of His people, and do away with the pain of His stroke."(3) Now
"the pain of the stroke" means that inflicted at the beginning upon
disobedient man in Adam, that is, death; which [stroke] the Lord will heal
when He raises us from the dead, and restores the inheritance of the
fathers, as Isaiah again says: "And thou shall be confident in the LORD,
and He will cause thee to pass over the whole earth, and feed thee with the
inheritance of Jacob thy father."(4) This is what the Lord declared: "Happy
are those servants whom the Lord when He cometh shall find watching. Verily
I say unto you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down [to
meat], and will come forth and serve them. And if He shall come in the
evening watch, and find them so, blessed are they, because He shall make
them sit down, and minister to them; or if this be in the second, or it be
in the third, blessed are they."(5) Again John also says the very same in
the Apocalypse: "Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first
resurrection."(6) Then, too, Isaiah has declared the time when these events
shall occur; he says: "And I said, Lord, how long? Until the cities be
wasted without inhabitant, and the houses be without men, and the earth be
left a desert. And after these things the LORD shall remove us men far away
(longe nos faciet Deus homines), and those who shall remain shall multiply
upon the earth."(7) Then Daniel also says this very thing: "And the kingdom
and dominion, and the greatness of those under the heaven, is given to the
saints of the Most High God, whose kingdom is everlasting, and all
dominions shall serve and obey Him."(8) And lest the promise named should
be understood as referring to this time, it was declared to the prophet:
"And come thou, and stand in thy lot at the consummation of the days."(9)
3. Now, that the promises were not announced to the prophets and the
fathers alone, but to the Churches united to these from the nations, whom
also the Spirit terms "the islands" (both because they are established in
the midst of turbulence, suffer the storm of blasphemies, exist as a
harbour of safety to those in peril, and are the refuge of those who love
the height [of heaven], and strive to avoid Bythus, that is, the depth of
error), Jeremiah thus declares: "Hear the word of the LORD, ye nations, and
declare it to the isles afar off; say ye, that the LORD will scatter
Israel, He will gather him, and keep him, as one feeding his flock of
sheep. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and rescued him from the hand of
one stronger than he. And they shall come and rejoice m Mount Zion, and
shall come to what is good, and into a land of wheat, and wine, and fruits,
of animals and of sheep; and their soul shall be as a tree bearing fruit,
and they shall hunger no more. At that time also shall the virgins rejoice
in the company of the young men: the old men, too, shall be glad, and I
will turn their sorrow into joy; and I will make them exult, and will
magnify them, and satiate the souls of the priests the sons of Levi; and my
people shall be satiated with my goodness."(10) Now, in the preceding
book(11) I have shown that all the disciples of the Lord are Levites and
priests, they who used in the temple to profane the Sabbath, but are
blameless.(12) Promises of such a nature, therefore, do indicate in the
clearest manner the feasting of that creation in the kingdom of the
righteous, which God promises that He will Himself serve.
4. Then again, speaking of Jerusalem, and of Him reigning there, Isaiah
declares, "Thus saith the LORD, Happy is he who hath seed in Zion, and
servants in Jerusalem. Behold, a righteous king shall reign, and princes
shall rule with judgment"(13) And with regard to the foundation on which it
shall be rebuilt, he says: "Behold, I will lay in order for thee a
carbuncle stone, and sapphire for thy foundations; and I will lay thy
ramparts with jasper, and thy gates with crystal, and thy wall with choice
stones: and all thy children shall be taught of God, and great shall be the
peace of thy children; and in righteousness shalt thou be built up."(14)
And yet again does he say the same thing: "Behold, I make Jerusalem a
rejoicing, and my people [a joy]; for the voice of weeping shall be no more
heard in her, nor the voice of crying. Also there shall not be there any
immature [one], nor an old man who does not fulfil his time: for the youth
shall be of a hundred years; and the sinner shall die a hundred years old,
yet shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them
themselves; and shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them
themselves, and shall drink wine. And they shall not build, and others
inhabit; neither shall they prepare the vineyard, and others eat. For as
the days of the tree of life shall be the days of the people in thee; for
the works of their hands shall endure."(1)
CHAP. XXXV.--HE CONTENDS THAT THESE TESTIMONIES ALREADY ALLEGED CANNOT BE
UNDERSTOOD ALLEGORICALLY OF CELESTIAL BLESSINGS, BUT THAT THEY SHALL HAVE
THEIR FULFILMENT AFTER THE COMING OF ANTICHRIST, AND THE RESURRECTION, IN
THE TERRESTRIAL JERUSALEM. TO THE FORMER PROPHECIES HE SUBJOINS OTHERS
DRAWN FROM ISAIAH, JEREMIAH, AND THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN.
1. If, however, any shall endeavour to allegorize [prophecies] of this
kind, they shall not be found consistent with themselves in all points, and
shall be confuted by the teaching of the very expressions [in question].
For example: "When the cities" of the Gentiles "shall be desolate, so that
they be not inhabited, and the houses so that there shall be no men in them
and the land shall be left desolate."(2) "For, behold," says Isaiah, "the
day of the LORD cometh past remedy, full of fury and wrath, to lay waste
the city of the earth, and to root sinners out of it."(3) And again he
says, "Let him be taken away, that he behold not the glory of God."(4) And
when these things are done, he says, "God will remove men far away, and
those that are left shall multiply in the earth."(5) "And they shall build
houses, and shall inhabit them themselves: and plant vineyards, and eat of
them themselves."(6) For all these and other words were unquestionably
spoken in reference to the resurrection of the just, which takes place
after the coming of Antichrist, and the destruction of all nations under
his rule; in [the times of] which [resurrection] the righteous shall reign
in the earth, waxing stronger by the sight of the Lord: and through Him
they shall become accustomed to partake in the glory of God the Father, and
shall enjoy in the kingdom intercourse and communion with the holy angels,
and union with spiritual beings; and [with respect to] those whom the Lord
shall find in the flesh, awaiting Him from heaven, and who have suffered
tribulation, as well as escaped the hands of the Wicked one. For it is in
reference to them that the prophet says: "And those that are left shall
multiply upon the earth," And Jeremiah(7) the prophet has pointed out, that
as many believers as God has prepared for this purpose, to multiply those
left upon earth, should both be under the rule of the saints to minister to
this Jerusalem, and that [His] kingdom shall be in it, saying, "Look around
Jerusalem towards the east, and behold the joy which comes to thee from God
Himself. Behold, thy sons shall come whom thou hast sent forth: they shall
come in a band from the east even unto the west, by the word of that Holy
One, rejoicing in that splendour which is from thy God. O Jerusalem, put
off thy robe of mourning and of affliction, and put on that beauty of
eternal splendour from thy God. Gird thyself with the double garment of
that righteousness proceeding from thy God; place the mitre of eternal
glory upon thine head. For God will show thy glory to the whole earth under
heaven. For thy name shall for ever be called by God Himself, the peace of
righteousness and glory to him that worships God. Arise, Jerusalem, stand
on high, and look towards the east, and behold thy sons from the rising of
the sun, even to the west, by the Word of that Holy One, rejoicing in the
very remembrance of God. For the footmen have gone forth from thee, while
they were drawn away by the enemy. God shall bring them in to thee, being
borne with glory as the throne of a kingdom. For God has decreed that every
high mountain shall be brought low, and the eternal hills, and that the
valleys be filled, so that the surface of the earth be rendered smooth,
that Israel, the glory of God, may walk in safety. The woods, too, shall
make shady places, and every sweet-smelling tree shall be for Israel itself
by the command of God. For God shall go before with joy in the light of His
splendour, with the pity and righteousness which proceeds from Him."
2. Now all these things being such as they are, cannot be understood in
reference to super-celestial matters; "for God," it is said, "will show to
the whole earth that is under heaven thy glory." But in the times of the
kingdom, the earth has been called again by Christ [to its pristine
condition], and Jerusalem rebuilt after the pattern of the Jerusalem above,
of which the prophet Isaiah says, "Behold, I have depicted thy walls upon
my hands, and thou art always in my sight,"(1) And the apostle, too,
writing to the Galatians, says in like manner, "But the Jerusalem which is
above is free, which is the mother of us all."(2) He does not say this with
any thought of an erratic AEon, or of any other power which departed from
the Pleroma, or of Prunicus, but of the Jerusalem which has been delineated
on [God's] hands. And in the Apocalypse John saw this new [Jerusalem]
descending upon the new earth.(3) For after the times of the kingdom, he
says, "I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat upon it, from whose face
the earth fled away, and the heavens; and there was no more place for
them."(4) And he sets forth, too, the things connected with the general
resurrection and the judgment, mentioning "the dead, great and small." "The
sea," he says, "gave up the dead which it had in it, and death and hell
delivered up the dead that they contained; and the books were opened.
Moreover," he says, "the book of life was opened, and the dead were judged
out of those things that were written in the books, according to their
works; and death and hell were sent into the lake of fire, the second
death."(5) Now this is what is called Gehenna, which the Lord styled
eternal fire.(6) "And if any one," it is said, "was not found written in
the book of life, he was sent into the lake of fire."(7) And after this, he
says, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth
have passed away; also there was no more sea. And I saw the holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, as a bride adorned for her husband."
"And I heard," it is said, "a great voice from the throne, saying, Behold,
the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them; and they
shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them as their God. And
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, because
the former things have passed away."(8) Isaiah also declares the very same:
"For there shall be a new heaven and a new earth; and there shall be no
remembrance of the former, neither shall the heart think about them, but
they shall find in it joy and exultation."(9) Now this is what has been
said by the apostle: "For the fashion of this world passeth away."(10) To
the same purpose did the Lord also declare, "Heaven and earth shall pass
away."(11) When these things, therefore, pass away above the earth, John,
the Lord's disciple, says that the new Jerusalem above shall [then]
descend, as a bride adorned for her husband; and that this is the
tabernacle of God, in which God will dwell with men. Of this Jerusalem the
former one is an image--that Jerusalem of the former earth in which the
righteous are disciplined beforehand for incorruption and prepared for
salvation. And of this tabernacle Moses received the pattern in the
mount;(12) and nothing is capable of being allegorized, but all things are
stedfast, and true, land substantial, having been made by God for righteous
men's enjoyment. For as it is God truly who raises up man, so also does man
truly rise from the dead, and not allegorically, as I have shown
repeatedly. And as he rises actually, so also shall he be actually
disciplined beforehand for incorruption, and shall go forwards and flourish
in the times of the kingdom, in order that he may be capable of receiving
the glory of the Father. Then, when all things are made new, he shall truly
dwell in the city of God. For it is said, "He that sitteth on the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And the Lord says, Write all this; for
these words are faithful and true. And He said to me, They are done."(13)
And this is the truth of the matter.
CHAP. XXXVI.--MEN SHALL BE ACTUALLY RAISED: THE WORLD SHALL NOT BE
ANNIHILATED; BUT THERE SHALL BE VARIOUS MANSIONS FOR THE SAINTS, ACCORDING
TO THE RANK ALLOTTED TO EACH INDIVIDUAL. ALL THINGS SHALL BE SUBJECT TO GOD
THE FATHER, AND SO SHALL HE BE ALL IN ALL.
1. For since there are real men, so must there also be a real
establishment (plantationem), that they vanish not away among non-existent
things, but progress among those which have an actual existence. For
neither is the substance nor the essence of the creation annihilated (for
faithful and true is He who has established it), but "the fashion of the
world passeth away;"(14) that is, those things among which transgression
has occurred, since man has grown old in them. And therefore this [present]
fashion has been formed temporary, God foreknowing all things; as I have
pointed out in the preceding book,(15) and have also shown, as far as was
possible, the cause of the creation of this world of temporal things. But
when this [present] fashion [of things] passes away, and man has been
renewed, and flourishes in an incorruptible state, so as to preclude the
possibility of becoming old, [then] there shall be the new heaven and the
new earth, in which the new man shall remain [continually], always holding
fresh converse with God. And since (or, that) these things shall ever
continue without end, Isaiah declares, "For as the new heavens and the new
earth which I do make, continue in my sight, saith the LORD, so shall your
seed and your name remain."(1) And as the presbyters say, Then those who
are deemed worthy of an abode in heaven shall go there, others shall enjoy
the delights of paradise, and others shall possess the splendour of the
city; for everywhere the Saviour(2) shall be seen according as they who see
Him shall be worthy.
2. [They say, moreover], that there is this distinction between the
habitation of those who produce an hundred-fold, and that of those who
produce sixty-fold, and that of those who produce thirty-fold: for the
first will be taken up into the heavens, the second will dwell in paradise,
the last will inhabit the city; and that was on this account the Lord
declared, "In My Father's house are many mansions."(3) For all things
belong to God, who supplies all with a suitable dwelling-place; even as His
Word says, that a share is allotted to all by the Father, according as each
person is or shall be worthy. And this is the couch on which the guests
shall recline, having been invited to the wedding.(4) The presbyters, the
disciples of the apostles, affirm that this is the gradation and
arrangement of those who are saved, and that they advance through steps of
this nature; also that they ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and
through the Son to the Father, and that in due time the Son will yield up
His work to the Father, even as it is said by the apostle, "For He must
reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death."(5) For in the times of the kingdom, the
righteous man who is upon the earth shall then forget to die. "But when He
saith, All things shall be subdued unto Him, it is manifest that He is
excepted who did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be
subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him who
put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."(6)
3. John, therefore, did distinctly foresee the first "resurrection of
the just,"(7) and the inheritance in the kingdom of the earth; and what the
prophets have prophesied concerning it harmonize [with his vision]. For the
Lord also taught these things, when He promised that He would have the
mixed cup new with His disciples in the kingdom. The apostle, too, has
confessed that the creation shall be free from the bondage of corruption,
[so as to pass] into the liberty of the sons of God.(8) And in all these
things, and by them all, the same God the Father is manifested, who
fashioned man, and gave promise of the inheritance of the earth to the
fathers, who brought it (the creature) forth [from bondage] at the
resurrection of the just, and fulfils the promises for the kingdom of His
Son; subsequently bestowing in a paternal manner those things which neither
the eye has seen, nor the ear has heard, nor has [thought concerning them]
arisen within the heart of man,(9) For there is the one Son, who
accomplished His Father's will; and one human race also in which the
mysteries of God are wrought, "which the angels desire to look into;"(10)
and they are not able to search out the wisdom of God, by means of Which
His handiwork, confirmed and incorporated with His Son, is brought to
perfection; that His offspring, the First-begotten Word, should descend to
the creature (facturam), that is, to what had been moulded (plasma), and
that it should be contained by Him; and, on the other hand, the creature
should contain the Word, and ascend to Him, passing beyond the angels, and
be made after the image and likeness of God.(11)
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 1, Roberts and Donaldson.) The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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