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| Chapter XXX.—Refutation of another argument adduced by the Marcionites, that God directed the Hebrews to spoil the Egyptians.
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Chapter XXX.—Refutation of another
argument adduced by the Marcionites, that God directed the Hebrews to spoil the
Egyptians.
1. Those,
again, who cavil and find fault because the people did, by God’s
command, upon the eve of their departure, take vessels of all kinds and
raiment from the Egyptians,4214
| 4214 Ex. iii. 22, Ex. xi.
2. [Our English translation “borrow” is a
gratuitous injury to the text. As “King of kings” the Lord
enjoins a just tax, which any earthly sovereign might have imposed
uprightly. Our author argues well.] | and so went away, from
which [spoils], too, the tabernacle was constructed in the wilderness,
prove themselves ignorant of the righteous dealings of God, and of His
dispensations; as also the presbyter remarked: For if God had not
accorded this in the typical exodus, no one could now be saved in our
true exodus; that is, in the faith in which we have been established, and
by which we have been brought forth from among the number of the
Gentiles. For in some cases there follows us a small, and in others a
large
amount of property, which we have acquired from the
mammon of unrighteousness. For from what source do we derive the houses
in which we dwell, the garments in which we are clothed, the vessels
which we use, and everything else ministering to our every-day life,
unless it be from those things which, when we were Gentiles, we acquired
by avarice, or received them from our heathen parents, relations, or
friends who unrighteously obtained them?—not to mention that even
now we acquire such things when we are in the faith. For who is there
that sells, and does not wish to make a profit from him who buys? Or who
purchases anything, and does not wish to obtain good value from the
seller? Or who is there that carries on a trade, and does not do so that
he may obtain a livelihood thereby? And as to those believing ones who
are in the royal palace, do they not derive the utensils they employ from
the property which belongs to Cæsar; and to those who have not, does not
each one of these [Christians] give according to his ability? The
Egyptians were debtors to the [Jewish] people, not alone as to property,
but as their very lives, because of the kindness of the patriarch Joseph
in former times; but in what way are the heathen debtors to us, from whom
we receive both gain and profit? Whatsoever they amass with labour, these
things do we make use of without labour, although we are in the
faith.
2. Up to that time the people served the Egyptians in
the most abject slavery, as saith the Scripture: “And the Egyptians
exercised their power rigorously upon the children of Israel; and they
made life bitter to them by severe labours, in mortar and in brick, and
in all manner of service in the field which they did, by all the works in
which they oppressed them with rigour.”4215
And with immense labour they built for them fenced cities,
increasing the substance of these men throughout a long course of years,
and by means of every species of slavery; while these [masters] were not
only ungrateful towards them, but had in contemplation their utter
annihilation. In what way, then, did [the Israelites] act unjustly, if
out of many things they took a few, they who might have possessed much
property had they not served them, and might have gone forth wealthy,
while, in fact, by receiving only a very insignificant recompense for
their heavy servitude, they went away poor? It is just as if any free
man, being forcibly carried away by another, and serving him for many
years, and increasing his substance, should be thought, when he
ultimately obtains some support, to possess some small portion of his
[master’s] property, but should in reality depart, having obtained
only a little as the result of his own great labours, and out of vast
possessions which have been acquired, and this should be made by any one
a subject of accusation against him, as if he had not acted
properly.4216
| 4216 This perplexed
sentence is pointed by Harvey interrogatively, but we prefer the
above. | He (the accuser) will rather appear as an unjust judge
against him who had been forcibly carried away into slavery. Of this
kind, then, are these men also, who charge the people with blame, because
they appropriated a few things out of many, but who bring no charge
against those who did not render them the recompense due to their
fathers’ services; nay, but even reducing them to the most irksome
slavery, obtained the highest profit from them. And [these objectors]
allege that [the Israelites] acted dishonestly, because, forsooth, they
took away for the recompense of their labours, as I have observed,
unstamped gold and silver in a few vessels; while they say that they
themselves (for let truth be spoken, although to some it may seem
ridiculous) do act honestly, when they carry away in their girdles from
the labours of others, coined gold, and silver, and brass, with
Cæsar’s inscription and image upon it.
3. If, however, a comparison be instituted between us
and them, [I would ask] which party shall seem to have received [their
worldly goods] in the fairer manner? Will it be the [Jewish] people, [who
took] from the Egyptians, who were at all points their debtors; or we,
[who receive property] from the Romans and other nations, who are under
no similar obligation to us? Yea, moreover, through their instrumentality
the world is at peace, and we walk on the highways without fear, and sail
where we will.4217
Therefore, against men of this kind (namely,
the heretics) the word of the Lord applies, which says: “Thou
hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine eye, and then shalt thou see
clearly to pull out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”4218
For if he who lays these things to thy charge,
and glories in his own wisdom, has been separated from the company of the
Gentiles, and possesses nothing [derived from] other people’s
goods, but is literally naked, and barefoot, and dwells homeless among
the mountains, as any of those animals do which feed on grass, he will
stand excused [in using such language], as being ignorant of the
necessities of our mode of life. But if he do partake of what, in the
opinion of men, is the property of others, and if [at the same time] he
runs down their type,4219
| 4219
This is, if he inveighs against the Israelites for spoiling the
Egyptians; the former being a type of the Christian Church in relation to
the Gentiles. | he proves himself
most unjust,
turning this kind of accusation against himself. For he will be found
carrying about property not belonging to him, and coveting goods which
are not his. And therefore has the Lord said: “Judge not, that ye
be not judged: for with what judgment ye shall judge, ye shall be
judged.”4220
[The meaning is] not
certainly that we should not find fault with sinners, nor that we should
consent to those who act wickedly; but that we should not pronounce an
unfair judgment on the dispensations of God, inasmuch as He has Himself
made provision that all things shall turn out for good, in a way
consistent with justice. For, because He knew that we would make a good
use of our substance which we should possess by receiving it from
another, He says, “He that hath two coats, let him impart to him
that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.”4221
And, “For I was an hungered, and ye gave
Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was naked and ye clothed
Me.”4222
And, “When thou
doest thine alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand
doeth.”4223
And we are proved to be
righteous by whatsoever else we do well, redeeming, as it were, our
property from strange hands. But thus do I say, “from strange
hands,” not as if the world were not God’s possession, but
that we have gifts of this sort, and receive them from others, in the
same way as these men had them from the Egyptians who knew not God; and
by means of these same do we erect in ourselves the tabernacle of God:
for God dwells in those who act uprightly, as the Lord says: “Make
to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that they, when
ye shall be put to flight,4224
| 4224 As Harvey remarks, this is “a strange translation
for ἐκλίπητε”
of the text. rec., and he adds that “possibly the translator
read ἐκτράπητε.”
| may receive you into eternal tabernacles.”4225
For whatsoever we acquired from unrighteousness when we were
heathen, we are proved righteous, when we have become believers, by
applying it to the Lord’s advantage.
4. As a matter of course, therefore, these things were
done beforehand in a type, and from them was the tabernacle of God
constructed; those persons justly receiving them, as I have shown, while
we were pointed out beforehand in them,—[we] who should
afterwards serve God by the things of others. For the whole exodus of the
people out of Egypt, which took place under divine guidance,4226
| 4226 We here follow the
punctuation of Massuet in preference to that of Harvey. | was a
type and image of the exodus of the Church which should take place from
among the Gentiles;4227
| 4227 [The
Fathers regarded the whole Mosaic system, and the history of the faithful
under it, as one great allegory. In everything they saw
“similitudes,” as we do in the Faery Queen of Spenser,
or the Pilgrim’s Progress. The ancients may have carried
this principle too far, but as a principle it receives countenance from
our Lord Himself and His apostles. To us there is often a barren bush,
where the Fathers saw a bush that burned with fire.] | and for
this cause He leads it out at last from this world into His own
inheritance, which Moses the servant of God did not [bestow], but which
Jesus the Son of God shall give for an inheritance. And if any one will
devote a close attention to those things which are stated by the prophets
with regard to the [time of the] end, and those which John the disciple
of the Lord saw in the Apocalypse,4228
he will find that the nations [are to]
receive the same plagues universally, as Egypt then did particularly.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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