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| Jesus Christ, the Revealer of the Creator, Could Not Be the Same as Marcion's God, Who Was Only Made Known by the Heretic Some CXV. Years After Christ, and That, Too, on a Principle Utterly Unsuited to the Teaching of Jesus Christ, I.e., the Opposition Between the Law and the Gospels. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XIX.—Jesus
Christ, the Revealer of the Creator, Could Not Be the Same as
Marcion’s God, Who Was Only Made Known by the Heretic Some CXV.
Years After Christ, and That, Too, on a Principle Utterly Unsuited to
the Teaching of Jesus Christ, I.e., the Opposition Between the Law and
the Gospels.
Well, but our god, say the Marcionites, although
he did not manifest himself from the beginning and by means of the
creation, has yet revealed himself in Christ Jesus. A book will be
devoted2545
2545 The third of these
books against Marcion. | to Christ, treating
of His entire state; for it is desirable that these subject-matters
should be distinguished one from another, in order that they may
receive a fuller and more methodical treatment. Meanwhile it will be
sufficient if, at this stage of the question, I show—and that but
briefly—that Christ Jesus is the revealer2546 of
none other god but the Creator. In the fifteenth year of
Tiberius,2547
2547 The author says this,
not as his own, but as Marcion’s opinion; as is clear from his
own words in his fourth book against Marcion, c. 7, (Pamelius). | Christ Jesus
vouchsafed to come down from heaven, as the spirit of saving
health.2548 I cared not to
inquire, indeed, in what particular year of the elder Antoninus.
He who had so gracious a purpose did rather, like a pestilential
sirocco,2549 exhale this health
or salvation, which Marcion teaches from his Pontus. Of this teacher
there is no doubt that he is a heretic of the Antonine period, impious
under the pious. Now, from Tiberius to Antoninus Pius, there are about
115 years and 6-1/2 months. Just such an interval do they place
between Christ and Marcion. Inasmuch, then, as Marcion, as we have
shown, first
introduced this god to notice in the time of Antoninus, the matter
becomes at once clear, if you are a shrewd observer. The dates already
decide the case, that he who came to light for the first time2550 in the reign of Antoninus, did not appear in
that of Tiberius; in other words, that the God of the Antonine period
was not the God of the Tiberian; and consequently, that he whom Marcion
has plainly preached for the first time, was not revealed by Christ
(who announced His revelation as early as the reign of Tiberius). Now,
to prove clearly what remains of the argument, I shall draw materials
from my very adversaries. Marcion’s special and principal work is
the separation of the law and the gospel; and his disciples will not
deny that in this point they have their very best pretext for
initiating and confirming themselves in his heresy. These are
Marcion’s Antitheses, or contradictory propositions, which
aim at committing the gospel to a variance with the law, in order that
from the diversity of the two documents which contain them,2551
2551 Utriusque
instrumenti. | they may contend for a diversity of gods
also. Since, therefore, it is this very opposition between the
law and the gospel which has suggested that the God of the gospel is
different from the God of the law, it is clear that, before the said
separation, that god could not have been known who became
known2552 from the argument of the separation
itself. He therefore could not have been revealed by Christ, who
came before the separation, but must have been devised by Marcion, the
author of the breach of peace between the gospel and the law. Now
this peace, which had remained unhurt and unshaken from Christ’s
appearance to the time of Marcion’s audacious doctrine, was no
doubt maintained by that way of thinking, which firmly held that the
God of both law and gospel was none other than the Creator, against
whom after so long a time a separation has been introduced by the
heretic of Pontus.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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