Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XXXIII.—Whosoever confesses that one God is the author of both Testaments, and diligently reads the Scriptures in company with the presbyters of the Church, is a true spiritual disciple; and he will rightly understand and interpret all that the prophets have declared respecting Christ and the liberty of the New Testament.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XXXIII.—Whosoever confesses
that one God is the author of both Testaments, and diligently reads the Scriptures
in company with the presbyters of the Church, is a true spiritual disciple; and
he will rightly understand and interpret all that the prophets have declared
respecting Christ and the liberty of the New Testament.
1. A spiritual disciple of this
sort truly receiving the Spirit of God, who was from the beginning, in
all the dispensations of God, present with mankind, and announced things
future, revealed things present, and narrated things past—[such a
man] does indeed “judge all men, but is himself judged by no
man.”4253
For he judges the Gentiles, “who
serve the creature more than the Creator,”4254
and with a reprobate mind spend all their labour on vanity. And
he also judges the Jews, who do not accept of the word of liberty, nor
are willing to go forth free, although they have a Deliverer present
[with them]; but they pretend, at a time unsuitable [for such conduct],
to serve, [with observances] beyond [those required by] the law, God who
stands in need of nothing, and do not recognise the advent of Christ,
which He accomplished for the salvation of men, nor are willing to
understand that all the prophets announced His two advents: the one,
indeed, in which He became a man subject to stripes, and knowing what it
is to bear infirmity,4255
and sat upon the foal of
an ass,4256
and was a stone rejected by the
builders,4257
and was led as a sheep to the
slaughter,4258
and by the stretching
forth of His hands destroyed Amalek;4259
while He
gathered from the ends of the earth into His Father’s fold the
children who were scattered abroad,4260
and
remembered His own dead ones who had formerly fallen asleep,4261
| 4261 Comp. book iii. 20, 4.
| and came down to them that He might deliver them: but the second
in which He will come on the clouds,4262
bringing
on the day which burns as a furnace,4263
and smiting
the earth with the word of His mouth,4264
and slaying
the impious with the breath of His lips, and having a fan in His hands,
and cleansing His floor, and gathering the wheat indeed into His barn,
but burning the chaff with unquenchable fire.4265
2. Moreover, he shall also examine the doctrine
of Marcion, [inquiring] how he holds that there are two gods,
separated from each other by an infinite distance.4266
| 4266 Harvey points this sentence
interrogatively. | Or how can he be good who draws away men
that do not belong to him from him who made them, and calls them into his
own kingdom? And why is his goodness, which does not save all [thus],
defective? Also, why does he, indeed, seem to be good as respects men,
but most unjust with regard to him who made men, inasmuch as he deprives
him of his possessions? Moreover, how could the Lord, with any justice,
if He belonged to another father, have acknowledged the bread to be His
body, while He took it from that creation to which we belong, and
affirmed the mixed cup to be His blood?4267
And why did He
acknowledge Himself to be the Son of man, if He had not gone through that
birth which belongs to a human being? How, too, could He forgive us those
sins for which we are answerable to our Maker and God? And how, again,
supposing that He was not flesh, but was a man merely in appearance,
could He have been crucified, and could blood and water have issued from
His pierced side?4268
What body, moreover, was
it that those who buried Him consigned to the tomb? And what was that
which rose again from the dead?
3. [This spiritual man] shall also judge all the
followers of Valentinus, because they do indeed confess with the tongue
one God the Father, and that all things derive their existence from Him,
but do at the same time maintain that He who formed all things is the
fruit of an apostasy or defect. [He shall judge them, too, because] they
do in like manner confess with the tongue one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, but assign in their [system of] doctrine a production of his own
to the Only-begotten, one of his own also to the Word, another to Christ,
and yet another to the Saviour; so that, according to them, all these
beings are indeed said [in Scripture to be], as it were, one; [while they
maintain], notwithstanding, that each one of them should be understood
[to exist] separately [from the rest], and to have [had] his own special
origin, according to his peculiar conjunction. [It appears], then4269
| 4269 This sentence is very obscure
in the Latin text. | that their tongues alone, forsooth, have
conceded the unity [of God], while their [real] opinion and their
understanding (by their habit of investigating profundities) have fallen
away from [this doctrine of] unity, and taken up the notion of manifold
deities,—[this, I say, must appear] when they shall be examined
by Christ as to the points [of doctrine] which they have invented. Him,
too, they affirm to have been born at a later period than the Pleroma of
the Æons, and that His production took place after [the occurrence of] a
degeneracy or apostasy; and they maintain that, on account of the passion
which was experienced by Sophia, they themselves were brought to the
birth. But their own special prophet Homer, listening to whom they have
invented such doctrines, shall himself reprove them, when he expresses
himself as follows:—
“Hateful to me that man as Hades’ gates,
Who one thing thinks, while he another states.”4270
| 4270 Iliad, ix. 312,
313.
|
[This spiritual man] shall also judge the vain speeches
of the perverse Gnostics, by showing that they are the disciples of Simon
Magus.
4. He will judge also the Ebionites; [for] how can they
be saved unless it was God who wrought out their salvation upon earth? Or
how shall man pass into God, unless God has [first] passed into man? And
how shall he (man) escape from the generation subject to death, if not by
means4271
| 4271 The text is
obscure, and the construction doubtful. | of a new generation,
given in a wonderful and unexpected manner (but as a sign of salvation)
by God—[I mean] that regeneration which flows from the virgin
through faith?4272
| 4272 The Latin
here is, “quæ est ex virgine per fidem regenerationem.”
According to Massuet, “virgine” here refers not to Mary, but
to the Church. Grabe suspects that some words have been lost. |
Or how shall they receive adoption from God if they remain in this [kind
of] generation, which is naturally possessed by man in this world? And
how could He (Christ) have been greater than Solomon,4273
or greater than Jonah, or have been the Lord
of David,4274
who was of the same
substance as they were? How, too, could He have subdued4275
him who was stronger
than men,4276
| 4276 Literally,
“who was strong against men.” | who had not only
overcome man, but also retained him under his power, and conquered him
who had conquered, while he set free mankind who had been conquered,
unless He had been greater than man who had thus been vanquished? But who
else is superior to, and more eminent than, that man who was formed after
the likeness of God, except the Son of God, after whose image man was
created? And for this reason He did in these last days4277
| 4277 In fine; lit. “in the
end.” | exhibit the similitude; [for] the Son of God was
made man, assuming the ancient production [of His hands] into His own
nature,4278
| 4278 In semetipsum:
lit. “unto Himself.” | as I have shown in the
immediately preceding book.
5. He shall also judge those who describe
Christ as [having become man] only in [human] opinion. For how can they
imagine that they do themselves carry on a real discussion, when their
Master was a mere imaginary being? Or how can they receive anything
stedfast from Him, if He was a merely imagined being, and not a verity?
And how can these men really be partaken of salvation, if He in whom they
profess to believe, manifested Himself as a merely imaginary being?
Everything, therefore, connected with these men is unreal, and nothing
[possessed of the character of] truth; and, in these circumstances, it
may be made a question whether (since, perchance, they themselves in like
manner are not men, but mere dumb animals) they do not present,4279
| 4279 We here follow the reading
“proferant:” the passage is difficult and obscure, but the
meaning is as above. | in most cases, simply a shadow of
humanity.
6. He shall also judge false prophets, who, without
having received the gift of prophecy from God, and not possessed of the
fear of God, but either for the sake of vainglory, or with a view to some
personal advantage, or acting in some other way under the influence of a
wicked spirit, pretend to utter prophecies, while all the time they lie
against God.
7. He shall also judge those who give rise to schisms,
who are destitute of the love of God, and who look to their own special
advantage rather than to the unity of the Church; and who for trifling
reasons, or any kind of reason which occurs to them, cut in pieces and
divide the great and glorious body of Christ, and so far as in them lies,
[positively] destroy it,—men who prate of peace while they give
rise to war, and do in truth strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel.4280
For no reformation of so great importance can
be effected by them, as will compensate for the mischief arising from
their schism. He shall also judge all those who are beyond the pale of
the truth, that is, who are outside the Church; but he himself shall be
judged by no one. For to him all things are consistent: he has a full
faith in one God Almighty, of whom are all things; and in the Son of God,
Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom are all things, and in the dispensations
connected with Him, by means of which the Son of God became man; and a
firm belief in the Spirit of God, who furnishes us with a knowledge of
the truth, and has set forth the dispensations of the Father and the Son,
in virtue of which He dwells with every generation of men,4281
| 4281 The Greek text here is
σκηνοβατοῦν (lit.
“to tabernacle:” comp. ἐσκήνωσεν,
John i. 14) καθ’ ἐκάστην
γενεὰν ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις: the
Latin is, “Secundum quas (dispositiones) aderat generi
humano.” We have endeavoured to express the meaning of both.
| according to the will of the Father.
8. True knowledge4282
| 4282 The following section is an important one, but very
difficult to translate with undoubted accuracy. The editors differ
considerably both as to the construction and the interpretation. We have
done our best to represent the meaning in English, but may not have been
altogether successful. | is [that which consists in] the
doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution4283
| 4283 The Greek is σύστημα: the
Latin text has “status.” | of the Church throughout
all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body4284
| 4284 The Latin is,
“character corporis.” | of Christ according to the
successions of the bishops, by which they have handed down that Church
which exists in every place, and has come even unto us, being guarded and
preserved4285
| 4285 The text here
is, “custodita sine fictione scripturarum;” some prefer
joining “scripturarum” to the following words. |
without any forging of Scriptures, by a very complete system4286
| 4286 We follow Harvey’s
text, “tractatione;” others read “tractatio.”
According to Harvey, the creed of the Church is denoted by
“tractatione;” but Massuet renders the clause thus:
[“True knowledge consists in] a very complete tractatio of
the Scriptures, which has come down to us by being preserved
(‘custoditione’ being read instead of
‘custodita’) without falsification.” | of
doctrine, and neither receiving addition nor [suffering] curtailment [in
the truths which she believes]; and [it consists in] reading [the word of
God] without falsification, and a lawful and diligent exposition in
harmony with the Scriptures, both without danger and without blasphemy;
and [above all, it consists in] the pre-eminent gift of love,4287
which is more
precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, and which excels
all the other gifts [of God].
9. Wherefore the Church does in every place, because of
that love which she cherishes towards God, send forward, throughout all
time, a multitude of martyrs to the Father; while all others4288
not only have nothing of this kind to point to among themselves,
but even maintain that such witness-bearing is not at all necessary, for
that their system of doctrines is the true witness [for Christ], with the
exception, perhaps, that one or two among them, during the whole time
which has elapsed since the Lord appeared on earth, have occasionally,
along with our martyrs, borne the reproach of the name (as if he too [the
heretic] had obtained mercy), and have been led forth with them [to
death], being, as it were, a sort of retinue granted unto them. For the
Church alone sustains with purity the reproach of those who suffer
persecution for righteousness’ sake, and endure all sorts of
punishments, and are put to death because of the love which they bear to
God, and their confession of His Son; often weakened indeed, yet
immediately increasing her members, and becoming whole again, after the
same manner as her type,4289
| 4289
Comp. above, xxxi. 2. | Lot’s wife, who became a pillar
of salt. Thus, too, [she passes through an experience] similar to that of
the ancient prophets, as the Lord declares, “For so persecuted they
the prophets who were before you;”4290
inasmuch as she does indeed, in a new fashion, suffer persecution
from those who do not receive the word of God, while the self-same spirit
rests upon her4291
[as upon these ancient
prophets].
10. And indeed the
prophets, along with other things which they predicted, also foretold
this, that all those on whom the Spirit of God should rest, and who would
obey the word of the Father, and serve Him according to their ability,
should suffer persecution, and be stoned and slain. For the prophets
prefigured in themselves all these things, because of their love to God,
and on account of His word. For since they
themselves were members of Christ, each one of them in his place as a
member did, in accordance with this, set forth the prophecy [assigned
him]; all of them, although many, prefiguring only one, and proclaiming
the things which pertain to one. For just as the working of the whole
body is exhibited through means of our members, while the figure of a
complete man is not displayed by one member, but through means of all
taken together, so also did all the prophets prefigure the one [Christ];
while every one of them, in his special place as a member, did, in
accordance with this, fill up the [established] dispensation, and
shadowed forth beforehand that particular working of Christ which was
connected with that member.
11. For some of them, beholding Him in glory, saw His
glorious life (conversationem) at the Father’s right
hand;4292
others beheld
Him coming on the clouds as the Son of man;4293
and those who declared regarding Him, “They shall look on
Him whom they have pierced,”4294
indicated His [second] advent, concerning which He Himself says,
“Thinkest thou that when the Son of man cometh, He shall find faith
on the earth?”4295
| 4295
Luke xviii. 8. There is nothing to correspond with
“putas” in the received text. | Paul also refers to
this event when he says, “If, however, it is a righteous thing with
God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you that
are troubled rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from
heaven, with His mighty angels, and in a flame of fire.”4296
Others again, speaking of Him as a
judge, and [referring], as if it were a burning furnace, [to] the day of
the Lord, who “gathers the wheat into His barn, but will burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire,”4297
were
accustomed to threaten those who were unbelieving, concerning whom also
the Lord Himself declares, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, which my Father has prepared for the devil and his
angels.”4298
And the apostle in like
manner says [of them], “Who shall be punished with everlasting
death from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He
shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in those who
believe in Him.”4299
There are also some
[of them] who declare, “Thou art fairer than the children of
men;”4300
and, “God, Thy God,
hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy
fellows;”4301
and, “Gird Thy sword
upon Thy thigh, O Most Mighty, with Thy beauty and Thy fairness, and go
forward and proceed prosperously; and rule Thou because of truth, and
meekness, and righteousness.”4302
And
whatever other things of a like nature are spoken regarding Him, these
indicated that beauty and splendour which exist in His kingdom, along
with the transcendent and pre-eminent exaltation [belonging] to all who
are under His sway, that those who hear might desire to be found there,
doing such things as are pleasing to God. Again, there are those who say,
“He is a man, and who shall know him?”4303
| 4303 Jer. xvii. 9 (LXX.).
Harvey here remarks: “The LXX. read אֱנֹושׁ instead
of אָנֹושׁ. Thus, from a text
that teaches us that the heart is deceitful above all things, the
Fathers extract a proof of the manhood of Christ.” | and,
“I came unto the prophetess, and she bare a son, and His name is
called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God;”4304
and those [of them] who proclaimed Him
as Immanuel, [born] of the Virgin, exhibited the union of the Word of God
with His own workmanship, [declaring] that the Word should become flesh,
and the Son of God the Son of man (the pure One opening purely that pure
womb which regenerates men unto God, and which He Himself made pure); and
having become this which we also are, He [nevertheless] is the Mighty
God, and possesses a generation which cannot be declared. And there are
also some of them who say, “The Lord hath spoken in Zion, and
uttered His voice from Jerusalem;”4305
and,
“In Judah is God known;”4306
—
these indicated His advent which took place in Judea. Those, again, who
declare that “God comes from the south, and from a mountain thick
with foliage,”4307
announced His advent at
Bethlehem, as I have pointed out in the preceding book.4308
From that
place, also, He who rules, and who feeds the people of His Father, has
come. Those, again, who declare that at His coming “the lame man
shall leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall
[speak] plainly, and the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and
the ears of the deaf shall hear,”4309
and
that “the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, shall be
strengthened,”4310
and that “the dead
which are in the grave shall arise,”4311
and that He Himself “shall take [upon Him] our weaknesses,
and bear our sorrows,”4312
—
[all these] proclaimed those works of healing which were accomplished by
Him.
12. Some of them, moreover—[when they predicted
that] as a weak and inglorious man, and as one who knew what it was to
bear infirmity,4313
and sitting upon the foal
of an ass,4314
He should come to
Jerusalem; and that He should give His back to stripes,4315
and His cheeks to palms [which struck Him]; and that He should be
led as a sheep to the slaughter;4316
and that
He should have vinegar and gall given Him to drink;4317
and that He should be forsaken by His friends and those nearest
to Him;4318
and that He should stretch forth His
hands the whole day long;4319
and that
He should be mocked and maligned by those who looked upon Him;4320
and that His garments should be parted, and
lots cast upon His raiment;4321
and that
He should be brought down to the dust of death4322
with all [the other] things of a like nature—prophesied
His coming in the character of a man as He entered Jerusalem, in which by
His passion and crucifixion He endured all the things which have been
mentioned. Others, again, when they said, “The holy Lord remembered
His own dead ones who slept in the dust, and came down to them to raise
them up, that He might save them,”4323
| 4323 Comp. book iii. cap. xx. 4 and book iv. cap xxii. 1.
| furnished us with the reason on account of which He suffered all
these things. Those, moreover, who said, “In that day, saith the
Lord, the sun shall go down at noon, and there shall be darkness over the
earth in the clear day; and I will turn your feast days into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation,”4324
plainly announced that obscuration of the sun
which at the time of His crucifixion took place from the sixth hour
onwards, and that after this event, those days which were their festivals
according to the law, and their songs, should be changed into grief and
lamentation when they were handed over to the Gentiles. Jeremiah, too,
makes this point still clearer, when he thus speaks concerning Jerusalem:
“She that hath born [seven] languisheth; her soul hath become
weary; her sun hath gone down while it was yet noon; she hath been
confounded, and suffered reproach: the remainder of them will I give to
the sword in the sight of their enemies.”4325
13. Those of them, again, who spoke of His having
slumbered and taken sleep, and of His having risen again because the Lord
sustained Him,4326
and who enjoined the
principalities of heaven to set open the everlasting doors, that the King
of glory might go in,4327
proclaimed beforehand His
resurrection from the dead through the Father’s power, and His
reception into heaven. And when they expressed themselves thus,
“His going forth is from the height of heaven, and His returning
even to the highest heaven; and there is no one who can hide himself from
His heat,”4328
they announced that very
truth of His being taken up again to the place from which He came down,
and that there is no one who can escape His righteous judgment. And those
who said, “The Lord hath reigned; let the people be enraged: [even]
He who sitteth upon the cherubim; let the earth be moved,”4329
were thus predicting partly that wrath from all
nations which after His ascension came upon those who believed in Him,
with the movement of the whole earth against the Church; and partly the
fact that, when He comes from heaven with His mighty angels, the whole
earth shall be shaken, as He Himself declares, “There shall be a
great earthquake, such as has not been from the beginning.”4330
And again, when one says, “Whosoever is
judged, let him stand opposite; and whosoever is justified, let him draw
near to the servant4331
of God;”4332
and, “Woe unto you, for ye shall wax
old as doth a garment, and the moth shall eat you up;” and,
“All flesh shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in
the highest,”4333
—it is thus
indicated that, after His passion and ascension, God shall cast down
under His feet all who were opposed to Him, and He shall be exalted above
all, and there shall be no one who can be justified or compared to
Him.
14. And those of them who declare that God would make a
new covenant4334
with men, not such as
that which He made with the fathers at Mount Horeb, and would give to men
a new heart and a new spirit;4335
and
again, “And remember ye not the things of old: behold, I
make new things which shall now arise, and ye shall know it; and
I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in a dry land, to give drink
to my chosen people, my people whom I have acquired, that they may show
forth my praise,”4336
—plainly
announced that liberty which distinguishes the new covenant, and the new
wine which is put into new bottles,4337
[that
is], the faith which is in Christ, by which He has proclaimed the way of
righteousness sprung up in the desert, and the streams of the Holy Spirit
in a dry land, to give water to the elect people of God, whom He has
acquired, that they might show forth His praise, but not that they might
blaspheme Him who made these things, that is, God.
15. And all those other points which I have shown the
prophets to have uttered by means of so long a series of Scriptures, he
who is truly spiritual will interpret by pointing out, in regard to every
one of the things which have been spoken, to what special point in the
dispensation of the Lord is referred, and [by thus exhibiting] the entire
system of the work of the Son of God, knowing always the same God, and
always acknowledging the same Word of God, although He has [but] now been
manifested to us; acknowledging also at all times the same Spirit of God,
although He has been poured out upon us after a new fashion in these last
times, [knowing that He descends] even from the creation of the world to
its end upon the human race simply as such, from whom those who believe
God and follow His word receive that salvation which flows from Him.
Those, on the other hand, who depart from Him, and despise His precepts,
and by their deeds bring dishonour on Him who made them, and by their
opinions blaspheme Him who nourishes them, heap up against themselves
most righteous judgment.4338
He therefore (i.e., the
spiritual man) sifts and tries them all, but he himself is tried by no
man:4339
he neither blasphemes his Father, nor sets
aside His dispensations, nor inveighs against the fathers, nor dishonours
the prophets, by maintaining that they were [sent] from another God [than
he worships], or again, that their prophecies were derived from different
sources.4340
| 4340 “Ex alia
et alia substantia fuisse prophetias.” | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
