Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XV.—Refutation of the Ebionites, who disparaged the authority of St. Paul, from the writings of St. Luke, which must be received as a whole. Exposure of the hypocrisy, deceit, and pride of the Gnostics. The apostles and their disciples knew and preached one God, the Creator of the world.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XV.—Refutation of the
Ebionites, who disparaged the authority of St. Paul, from the writings of St.
Luke, which must be received as a whole. Exposure of the hypocrisy, deceit, and
pride of the Gnostics. The apostles and their disciples knew and preached one
God, the Creator of the world.
1. But
again, we allege the same against those who do not recognise Paul as an
apostle: that they should either reject the other words of the Gospel
which we have come to know through Luke alone, and not make use of them;
or else, if they do receive all these, they must necessarily admit also
that testimony concerning Paul, when he (Luke) tells us that the Lord
spoke at first to him from heaven: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou Me? I am Jesus Christ, whom thou persecutest;”3564
and then to
Ananias, saying regarding him: “Go thy way; for he is a chosen
vessel unto Me, to bear My name among the Gentiles, and kings, and the
children of Israel. For I will show him, from this time, how great things
he must suffer for My name’s sake.”3565
Those, therefore, who do not accept of him [as a teacher], who
was chosen by God for this purpose, that he might boldly bear His name,
as being sent to the forementioned nations, do despise the election of
God, and separate themselves from the company of the apostles. For
neither can they contend that Paul was no apostle, when he was chosen for
this purpose; nor can they prove Luke guilty of falsehood, when he
proclaims the truth to us with all diligence. It may be, indeed, that it
was with this view that God set forth very many Gospel truths, through
Luke’s instrumentality, which all should esteem it necessary to
use, in order that all persons, following his subsequent testimony, which
treats upon the acts and the doctrine of the apostles, and holding the
unadulterated rule of truth, may be saved. His testimony, therefore, is
true, and the doctrine of the apostles is open and stedfast, holding
nothing in reserve; nor did they teach one set of doctrines in private,
and another in public.
2. For this is the
subterfuge of false persons, evil seducers, and hypocrites, as they act
who are from Valentinus. These men discourse to the multitude about those
who belong to the Church, whom they do themselves term
“vulgar,” and “ecclesiastic.”3566
| 3566 Latin, “communes et
ecclesiasticos:” καθολικούς is
translated here “communes,” as for some time after the word
catholicus had not been added to the Latin language in its
ecclesiastical sense. [The Roman Creed was remarkable for its omission of
the word Catholic. See Bingham, Antiquities, book x. cap.
iv. sect 11.] | By these words they entrap the more simple, and
entice them, imitating our phraseology, that these [dupes] may listen to
them the oftener; and then these are asked3567
| 3567 We here follow the text of Harvey, who
prints, without remark, quæruntur, instead of queruntur,
as in Migne’s edition. | regarding us, how it is, that
when they hold doctrines similar to ours, we, without cause, keep
ourselves aloof from their company; and [how it is, that] when they say
the same things, and hold the same doctrine, we call them heretics? When
they have thus, by means of questions, overthrown the faith of any, and
rendered them uncontradicting hearers of their own, they describe to them
in private the unspeakable mystery of their Pleroma. But they are
altogether deceived, who imagine that they may learn from the Scriptural
texts adduced by heretics, that [doctrine] which their words plausibly
teach.3568
| 3568 Such is the sense
educed by Harvey from the old Latin version, which thus runs:
“Decipiuntur autem omnes, qui quod est in verbis verisimile, se
putant posse discere a veritate.” For “omnes” he would
read “omnino,” and he discards the emendation proposed by the
former editors, viz., “discernere” for
“discere.” | For error is plausible, and bears a
resemblance
to the truth, but requires to be disguised;
while truth is without disguise, and therefore has been entrusted to
children. And if any one of their auditors do indeed demand explanations,
or start objections to them, they affirm that he is one not capable of
receiving the truth, and not having from above the seed [derived] from
their Mother; and thus really give him no reply, but simply declare that
he is of the intermediate regions, that is, belongs to animal natures.
But if any one do yield himself up to them like a little sheep, and
follows out their practice, and their “redemption,” such an
one is puffed up to such an extent, that he thinks he is neither in
heaven nor on earth, but that he has passed within the Pleroma; and
having already embraced his angel, he walks with a strutting gait and a
supercilious countenance, possessing all the pompous air of a cock. There
are those among them who assert that that man who comes from above ought
to follow a good course of conduct; wherefore they do also pretend a
gravity [of demeanour] with a certain superciliousness. The majority,
however, having become scoffers also, as if already perfect, and living
without regard [to appearances], yea, in contempt [of that which is
good], call themselves “the spiritual,” and allege that they
have already become acquainted with that place of refreshing which is
within their Pleroma.
3. But let us revert to the same line of argument
[hitherto pursued]. For when it has been manifestly declared, that they
who were the preachers of the truth and the apostles of liberty termed no
one else God, or named him Lord, except the only true God the Father, and
His Word, who has the pre-eminence in all things; it shall then be
clearly proved, that they (the apostles) confessed as the Lord God Him
who was the Creator of heaven and earth, who also spoke with Moses, gave
to him the dispensation of the law, and who called the fathers; and that
they knew no other. The opinion of the apostles, therefore, and of those
(Mark and Luke) who learned from their words, concerning God, has been
made manifest. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
