29. Manes said:
Is not that word also to the same effect which Jesus spake to the
disciples, when He was demonstrating those men to be unbelieving:
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye
will do?”1706
By this
He means, in sooth, that whatever the
wicked prince of this
world desired, and
whatever he
lusted after, he
committed to writing through
Moses, and by
that medium gave it to men for their doing. For “he was a
murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the
truth, because there
is no
truth in him. When he speaketh a
lie, he speaketh of his
own: for he is a
liar, and the
father of it.”
1707
Archelaus said: Are you satisfied
1708
| 1708 The
text is “sufficit tibi hæc sunt an habes et
alia.” Routh proposes “sufficientia tibi hæc
sunt,” etc. |
with what you have already adduced, or
have you other statements still to make?
Manes said:
I have, indeed, many things to say, and things of greater weight even
than these. But with these I shall content myself.
Archelaus said: By all means. Now let us select some
instance from among those statements which you allege to be on your
side; so that if these be once found to have been properly dealt with,
other
questions may also be held to rank with them; and if the case
goes otherwise, I shall come under the condemnation of the judges, that
is to say, I shall have to bear the
shame of defeat.
1709
| 1709
Routh would make it = You will come under the
condemnation…you will have to bear: he
suggests eris ergo for ero ego, and feras
for feram. |
You say, then, that the
law is a
ministration of
death, and you admit that “
death, the
prince of
this
world,
reigned from
Adam even to
Moses;”
1710
for the word of Scripture is this:
“even over them that did not
sin.”
1711
Manes said: Without
doubt
death did
reign thus, for there is a duality, and these two
antagonistic powers were nothing else than both unbegotten.
1712
| 1712
Nec aliter nisi essent ingenita. Routh, however, would
read esset for essent, making it = and that death could
be nothing else than unbegotten. |
Archelaus said: Tell me this then,—how can an
unbegotten
death take a beginning at a certain time? For
“from
Adam” is the word of Scripture, and not “before
Adam.”
Manes said: But tell me, I ask you in
turn, how it obtained its
kingdom over both the
righteous and the
sinful.
Archelaus said: When you have first admitted
that it has had that
kingdom from a determinate time and not from
eternity, I shall tell you that.
Manes said: It is
written, that “
death reigned from
Adam to
Moses.”
Archelaus said: And consequently it has an end, because it
has had a beginning in time.
1713
| 1713
Reading ex tempore for the corrupt exemplo re of the
codex. |
And this saying is also true, that
“
death is
swallowed up in
victory.”
1714
It is apparent, then, that
death
cannot be unbegotten, seeing that it is shown to have both a beginning
and an end.
Manes said: But in that way it would
also follow that
God was its
maker.
Archelaus said:
By no means; away with such a supposition! “For
God made
not
death; neither hath He
pleasure in the
destruction of the
living.”
1715
Manes
said:
God made it not; nevertheless it was made, as you
admit. Tell us, therefore, from whom it received its empire, or
by whom it was
created.
Archelaus said: If I give
the most ample
proof of the fact that
death cannot have the substance
of an unbegotten
nature, will you not confess that there is but one
God, and that an unbegotten
God?
Manes said:
Continue your
discourse, for your aim is to speak
1716
| 1716 The
text gives discere, to learn; but dicere seems the
probable reading. |
with subtlety.
Archelaus
said: Nay, but you have put forward those allegations in such
a manner, as if they were to serve you for a demonstration of an
unbegotten root. Nevertheless the positions which we have
discussed above may suffice us, for by these we have shown most fully
that it is impossible for the substances of two unbegotten natures to
exist together.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
