Anf-03 v.iv.v.ix Pg 8
Luke v. 12–14.
I shall not be sorry to meet him, and before anything else to point out to him the force of the law figuratively interpreted, which, in this example of a leper (who was not to be touched, but was rather to be removed from all intercourse with others), prohibited any communication with a person who was defiled with sins, with whom the apostle also forbids us even to eat food,3717 3717
Anf-03 v.iv.v.ix Pg 33
Luke v. 14.
For the figurative signs of the law in its types He still would have observed, because of their prophetic import.3742 3742 Utpote prophetatæ.
These types signified that a man, once a sinner, but afterwards purified3743 3743 Emaculatum.
from the stains thereof by the word of God, was bound to offer unto God in the temple a gift, even prayer and thanksgiving in the church through Christ Jesus, who is the Catholic Priest of the Father.3744 3744 [i.e., the Great High Priest whose sacrifice is accepted of the Father, for the sins of the whole world.]
Accordingly He added: “that it may be for a testimony unto you”—one, no doubt, whereby He would testify that He was not destroying the law, but fulfilling it; whereby, too, He would testify that it was He Himself who was foretold as about to undertake3745 3745 Suscepturus: to carry or take away.
their sicknesses and infirmities. This very consistent and becoming explanation of “the testimony,” that adulator of his own Christ, Marcion seeks to exclude under the cover of mercy and gentleness. For, being both good (such are his words), and knowing, besides, that every man who had been freed from leprosy would be sure to perform the solemnities of the law, therefore He gave this precept. Well, what then? Has He continued in his goodness (that is to say, in his permission of the law) or not? For if he has persevered in his goodness, he will never become a destroyer of the law; nor will he ever be accounted as belonging to another god, because there would not exist that destruction of the law which would constitute his claim to belong to the other god. If, however, he has not continued good, by a subsequent destruction of the law, it is a false testimony which he has since imposed upon them in his cure of the leper; because he has forsaken his goodness, in destroying the law. If, therefore, he was good whilst upholding the law,3746 3746 Legis indultor.
he has now become evil as a destroyer of the law. However, by the support which he gave to the law, he affirmed that the law was good. For no one permits himself in the support of an evil thing. Therefore he is not only bad if he has permitted obedience to a bad law; but even worse still, if he has appeared3747 3747 Advenit.
as the destroyer of a good law. So that if he commanded the offering of the gift because he knew that every cured leper would be sure to bring one; he possibly abstained from commanding what he knew would be spontaneously done. In vain, therefore, was his coming down, as if with the intention of destroying the law, when he makes concessions to the keepers of the law. And yet,3748 3748 Atquin.
because he knew their disposition,3749 3749 Formam.
he ought the more earnestly to have prevented their neglect of the law,3750 3750 Ab ea avertendos.
since he had come for this purpose. Why then did he not keep silent, that man might of his own simple will obey the law? For then might he have seemed to some extent3751 3751 Aliquatenus.
to have persisted in his patience. But he adds also his own authority increased by the weight of this “testimony.” Of what testimony, I ask,3752 3752 Jam.
if not that of the assertion of the law? Surely it matters not in what way he asserted the law—whether as good, or as supererogatory,3753 3753 Supervacuus.
or as patient, or as inconstant—provided, Marcion, I drive you from your position.3754 3754 Gradu.
Observe,3755 3755 Ecce.
he commanded that the law should be fulfilled. In whatever way he commanded it, in the same way might he also have first uttered that sentiment:3756 3756 Sententiam.
“I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it.”3757 3757
Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge, Chapter 5
VERSE (12) - Mt 8:2-4 Mr 1:40-45
