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| Chapter XII.—It clearly appears that there was but one author of both the old and the new law, from the fact that Christ condemned traditions and customs repugnant to the former, while He confirmed its most important precepts, and taught that He was Himself the end of the Mosaic law.
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Chapter XII.—It clearly appears that
there was but one author of both the old and the new law, from the fact that
Christ condemned traditions and customs repugnant to the former, while He
confirmed its most important precepts, and taught that He was Himself the end
of the Mosaic law.
1. reproof of customs repugnant to the former" title="475" id="ix.vi.xiii-p1.2"/>For
the tradition of the elders themselves, which they pretended to observe
from the law, was contrary to the law given by Moses. Wherefore also
Esaias declares: “Thy dealers mix the wine with water,”3936
showing that the elders were in the habit of
mingling a watered tradition with the simple command of God; that is,
they set up a spurious law, and one contrary to the [true] law; as also
the Lord made plain, when He said to them, “Why do ye transgress
the commandment of God, for the sake of your tradition?”3937
For not only by actual transgression did they
set the law of God at nought, mingling the wine with water; but they also
set up their own law in opposition to it, which is termed, even to the
present day, the pharisaical. In this [law] they suppress certain things,
add others, and interpret others, again, as they think proper, which
their teachers use, each one in particular; and desiring to uphold these
traditions, they were unwilling to be subject to the law of God, which
prepares them for the coming of Christ. But they did even blame the Lord
for healing on the Sabbath-days, which, as I have already observed, the
law did not prohibit. For they did themselves, in one sense, perform acts
of healing upon the Sabbath-day, when they circumcised a man [on that
day]; but they did not blame themselves for transgressing the command of
God through tradition and the aforesaid pharisaical law, and for not
keeping the commandment of the law, which is the love of God.
2. But that this is the first and greatest commandment,
and that the next [has respect to love] towards our neighbour, the Lord
has taught, when He says that the entire law and the prophets hang upon
these two commandments. Moreover, He did not Himself bring down [from
heaven] any other commandment greater than this one, but renewed this
very same one to His disciples, when He enjoined them to love God with
all their heart, and others as themselves. But if He had descended from
another Father, He never would have made use of the first and greatest
commandment of the law; but He would undoubtedly have endeavoured by all
means to bring down a greater one than this from the perfect Father, so
as not to make use of that which had been given by the
God
of the law. And Paul in like manner declares,
“Love is the fulfilling of the law:”3938
and [he declares] that when all other things have been destroyed,
there shall remain “faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of all
is love;”3939
and that apart from the
love of God, neither knowledge avails anything,3940
nor the understanding of mysteries, nor faith, nor prophecy, but
that without love all are hollow and vain; moreover, that love makes man
perfect; and that he who loves God is perfect, both in this world and in
that which is to come. For we do never cease from loving God; but in
proportion as we continue to contemplate Him, so much the more do we love
Him.
3. As in the law, therefore,
and in the Gospel [likewise], the first and greatest commandment is, to
love the Lord God with the whole heart, and then there follows a
commandment like to it, to love one’s neighbour as one’s
self; the author of the law and the Gospel is shown to be one and the
same. For the precepts of an absolutely perfect life, since they are the
same in each Testament, have pointed out [to us] the same God, who
certainly has promulgated particular laws adapted for each; but the more
prominent and the greatest [commandments], without which salvation cannot
[be attained], He has exhorted [us to observe] the same in both.
4. The Lord, too, does not do away with this [God],
when He shows that the law was not derived from another God, expressing
Himself as follows to those who were being instructed by Him, to the
multitude and to His disciples: “The scribes and Pharisees sit in
Moses’ seat. All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that
observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do
not. For they bind heavy burdens, and lay them upon men’s
shoulders; but they themselves will not so much as move them with a
finger.”3941
He therefore did
not throw blame upon that law which was given by Moses, when He exhorted
it to be observed, Jerusalem being as yet in safety; but He did
throw blame upon those persons, because they repeated indeed the words of
the law, yet were without love. And for this reason were they held as
being unrighteous as respects God, and as respects their neighbours. As
also Isaiah says: “This people honoureth Me with their lips, but
their heart is far from Me: howbeit in vain do they worship Me, teaching
the doctrines and the commandments of men.”3942
He does not call the law given by Moses commandments of men, but
the traditions of the elders themselves which they had invented, and in
upholding which they made the law of God of none effect, and were on this
account also not subject to His Word. For this is what Paul says concerning
these men: “For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness,
and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to every one that believeth.”3943
And how is Christ the end of the law, if He be not also the final
cause of it? For He who has brought in the end has Himself also wrought
the beginning; and it is He who does Himself say to Moses, “I have
surely seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have
come down to deliver them;”3944
it being
customary from the beginning with the Word of God to ascend and descend
for the purpose of saving those who were in affliction.
5. Now, that the law did beforehand teach mankind the
necessity of following Christ, He does Himself make manifest, when He
replied as follows to him who asked Him what he should do that he might
inherit eternal life: “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the
commandments.”3945
But upon the
other asking “Which?” again the Lord replies: “Do not
commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness,
honour father and mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself,”—setting as an ascending series (velut
gradus) before those who wished to follow Him, the precepts of the
law, as the entrance into life; and what He then said to one He said to
all. But when the former said, “All these have I done” (and
most likely he had not kept them, for in that case the Lord would not
have said to him, “Keep the commandments”), the Lord,
exposing his covetousness, said to him, “If thou wilt be perfect,
go, sell all that thou hast, and distribute to the poor; and come, follow
me;” promising to those who would act thus, the portion belonging
to the apostles (apostolorum partem). And He did not preach to His
followers another God the Father, besides Him who was proclaimed by the
law from the beginning; nor another Son; nor the Mother, the enthymesis
of the Æon, who existed in suffering and apostasy; nor the Pleroma of
the thirty Æons, which has been proved vain, and incapable of being
believed in; nor that fable invented by the other heretics. But He taught
that they should obey the commandments which God enjoined from the
beginning, and do away with their former covetousness by good works,3946
| 3946 Harvey here remarks:
“In a theological point of view, it should be observed, that no
saving merit is ascribed to almsgiving: it is spoken of here as the
negation of the vice of covetousness, which is wholly inconsistent with
the state of salvation to which we are called.” | and
follow after Christ. But that
possessions distributed to the
poor do annul former covetousness, Zaccheus made evident, when he said,
“Behold, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have
defrauded any one, I restore fourfold.”3947
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