|
526
IRENAEUS AGAINST HERESIES
BOOK V.
PREFACE.
IN the four preceding books, my very dear friend, which I
put forth to thee, all the heretics have been exposed, and their
doctrines brought to light, and these men refuted who have devised
irreligious opinions. [I have accomplished this by adducing] something
from the doctrine peculiar to each of these men, which they have
left in their writings, as well as by using arguments of a more
general nature, and applicable to them all.(1) Then I have pointed
out the truth, and shown the preaching of the Church, which the
prophets proclaimed (as I have already demonstrated), but which
Christ brought to perfection, and the apostles have handed down,
from whom the Church, receiving [these truths], and throughout
all the world alone preserving them in their integrity (bene),
has transmitted them to her sons. Then also--having disposed of
all questions which the heretics propose to us, and having explained
the doctrine of the apostles, and clearly set forth many of those
things which were said and done by the Lord in parables--I shall
endeavour, in this the fifth book of the entire work which treats
of the exposure and refutation of knowledge falsely so called,
to exhibit proofs from the rest of the Lord's doctrine and the
apostolical epistles: [thus] complying with thy demand, as thou
didst request of me (since indeed I have been assigned a place
in the ministry of the word); and, labouring by every means in
my power to furnish thee with large assistance against the contradictions
of the heretics, as also to reclaim the wanderers
and convert them to the Church of God, to confirm at the same
time the minds of the neophytes, that they may preserve stedfast
the faith which they have received, guarded by the Church in its
integrity, in order that they be in no way perverted by those
who endeavour to teach
them false doctrines, and lead them away from the truth. It will
be incumbent upon thee, however, and all who may happen to read
this writing, to peruse with great attention what I have already
said, that thou mayest obtain a knowledge of the subjects against
which I am contending. For it is thus that thou wilt both controvert
them in a legitimate manner, and wilt be prepared to receive the
proofs brought forward against them, casting away their doctrines
as filth by means of the celestial faith; but following the only
true and stedfast Teacher, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ,
who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that
He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.
CHAP. I.--CHRIST ALONE IS ABLE TO TEACH DIVINE THINGS, AND
TO REDEEM US: HE, THE SAME, TOOK FLESH OF THE VIRGIN MARY, NOT
MERELY IN APPEARANCE, BUT ACTUALLY, BY THE OPERATION OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT, IN ORDER TO RENOVATE US. STRICTURES ON THE CONCEITS OF
VALENTINUS AND EBION.
1. FOR in no other way could we have learned the things of
God, unless our Master, existing as the Word, had become man.
For no other being had the power of revealing to us the things
of the Father, except His own proper Word. For what other person
"knew the mind of the Lord," or who else "has become
His counsellor?"(2) Again, we could have learned in no other
way than by seeing our Teacher, and hearing His voice with our
own ears, that, having become imitators of His works as well as
doers of His words, we may have communion with Him, receiving
increase from the perfect One, and from Him who is prior to all
creation. We--who were but lately created by the only best and
good Being, by Him also who has the gift of immortality, having
been formed after
527
His likeness (predestinated, according to the prescience of the
Father, that we, who had as yet no existence, might come into
being), and made the first-fruits of creation(1)--have received,
in the times known beforehand, [the blessings of salvation] according
to the ministration of the Word, who is perfect in all things,
as the mighty Word, and very man, who, redeeming us by His own
blood in a manner consonant to reason, gave Himself as a redemption
for those who had been led into captivity. And since the apostasy
tyrannized over us unjustly, and, though we were by nature the
property of the omnipotent God, alienated us contrary to nature,
rendering us its own disciples, the Word of God, powerful in all
things, and not defective with regard to His own justice, did
righteously turn against that apostasy, and redeem from it His
own property, not by violent means, as the [apostasy] had obtained
dominion over us at the beginning, when it insatiably snatched
away what was not its own, but by means of persuasion, as became
a God of counsel, who does not use violent means to obtain what
He desires; so that neither should justice be infringed upon,
nor the ancient handiwork of God go to destruction. Since the
Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul
for our souls, and His flesh for our flesh,(2) and has also poured
out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God
and man, imparting indeed God to men by means of the Spirit, and,
on the other hand, attaching man to God by His own incarnation,
and bestowing upon us at His coming immortality durably and truly,
by means of communion with God,--all the doctrines of the heretics
fall to ruin.
2. Vain indeed are those who allege that He appeared in mere
seeming. For these things were not done in appearance only, but
in actual reality. But if He did appear as a man, when He was
not a man, neither could the Holy Spirit have rested upon Him,--an
occurrence which did actually take place--as the Spirit is invisible;
nor, [in that case], was there any degree of truth in Him, for
He was not that which He seemed to be. But I have already remarked
that Abraham and the other prophets beheld Him after a prophetical
manner, foretelling in vision what should come to pass. If, then,
such a being has now appeared in outward semblance different from
what he was in reality, there has been a certain prophetical vision
made to men; and another advent of His must be looked forward
to, in which He shall be such as He has now been seen in a prophetic
manner. And I have proved already, that it is the same thing to
say that He appeared merely to outward seeming,
and [to affirm] that He received nothing from Mary. For He would
not have been one truly possessing flesh and blood, by which He
redeemed us, unless He had summed up in Himself the ancient formation
of Adam. Vain therefore are the disciples of Valentinus who put
forth this opinion,
in order that they my exclude the flesh from salvation, and cast
aside what God has fashioned.
3. Vain also are the Ebionites, who do not receive by faith
into their soul the union of God and man, but who remain in the
old leaven of [the natural] birth, and who do not choose to understand
that the Holy Ghost came upon Mary, and the power of the Most
High did overshadow her:(3) wherefore also what was generated
is a holy thing, and the Son of the Most High God the Father of
all, who effected the incarnation of this being, and showed forth
a new [kind of] generation; that as by the former generation we
inherited death, so by this new generation we might inherit life.
Therefore do these men reject the commixture of the heavenly wine,(4)
and wish it to be water of the world only, not receiving God so
as to have union with Him, but they remain in that Adam who had
been conquered and was expelled from Paradise: not considering
that as, at the beginning of our formation in Adam, that breath
of life which proceeded from God, having been united to what had
been fashioned, animated the man, and manifested him as a being
endowed with reason; so also, in [the times of] the end, the Word
of the Father and the Spirit of God, having become united with
the ancient substance of Adam's formation, rendered man living
and perfect, receptive of the perfect Father, in order that as
in the natural [Adam] we all were dead, so in the spiritual we
may all be made alive.(5) For never at any time did Adam escape
the harms(6) of God, to whom the Father speaking, said, "Let
Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." And for this
reason in the last times (fine), not by the will of the flesh,
nor by the will of man, but by the good pleasure of the Father,(7)
His hands formed a living man, in order that Adam might be created
[again] after the image and likeness of God.
CHAP. II.--WHEN CHRIST VISITED US IN HIS GRACE, HE DID NOT
COME TO WHAT DID NOT BELONG TO HIM: ALSO, BY SHEDDING HIS TRUE
BLOOD FOR US, AND EXHIBITING TO US HIS TRUE FLESH IN THE EUCHARIST,
HE CONFERRED UPON OUR FLESH THE CAPACITY OF SALVATION.
1. And vain likewise are those who say that
528
God came to those things which did not belong to Him, as if covetous
of another's property; in order that He might deliver up that
man who had been created by another, to that God who had neither
made nor formed anything, but who also was deprived from the beginning
of His own proper formation of men. The advent, therefore, of
Him whom these men represent as coming to the things of others,
was not righteous; nor did He truly redeem us by His own blood,
if He did not really become man, restoring to His own handiwork
what was said [of it] in the beginning, that man was made after
the image and likeness of God; not snatching away by stratagem
the property of another, but taking possession of His own in a
righteous and gracious manner. As far as concerned the apostasy,
indeed, He redeems us righteously from it by His own blood; but
as regards us who have been redeemed, [He does this] graciously.
For we have given nothing to Him previously, nor does He desire
anything from us, as if He stood in need of it; but we do stand
in need of fellowship with Him. And for this reason it was that
He graciously poured Himself out, that He might gather us into
the bosom of the Father.
2. But vain in every respect are they who despise the entire
dispensation of God, and disallow the salvation of the flesh,
and treat with contempt its regeneration, maintaining that it
is not capable of incorruption. But if this indeed do not attain
salvation, then neither did the Lord redeem us with His blood,
nor is the cup of the Eucharist the communion of His blood, nor
the bread which we break the communion of His body.(1) For blood
can only come from veins and flesh, and whatsoever else makes
up the substance of man, such as the Word of God was actually
made. By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His apostle declares,
"In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the remission
of sins."(2) And as we are His members, we are also nourished
by means of the creation (and He Himself grants the creation to
us, for He causes His sun to rise, and sends rain when He wills(3)).
He has acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the creation)
as His own blood, from which He bedews our blood; and the bread
(also a part of the creation) He has established as His own body,
from which He gives increase to our bodies.(4)
3. When, therefore, the mingled cup and the manufactured bread
receives the Word of God, and the Eucharist of the blood and the
body of
Christ is made,(5) from which things the substance of our flesh
is increased and supported, how can they affirm that the flesh
is incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal,
which [flesh] is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord,
and is a member of Him?--even as the blessed Paul declares in
his Epistle to the Ephesians, that "we are members of His
body, of His flesh, and of His bones."(6) He does not speak
these words of some spiritual and invisible man, for a spirit
has not bones nor flesh;(7) but [he refers to] that dispensation
[by which the Lord became] an actual man, consisting of flesh,
and nerves, and bones,--that [flesh] which is nourished by the
cup which is His blood, and receives increase from the bread which
is His body. And just as a cutting from the vine planted in the
ground fructifies in its season, or as a corn of wheat falling
into the earth and becoming decomposed, rises with manifold increase
by the Spirit of God, who contains all things, and then, through
the wisdom of God, serves for the use of men, and having received
the Word of God, becomes the Eucharist, which is the body and
blood of Christ; so also our bodies, being nourished by it, and
deposited in the earth, and suffering decomposition there, shall
rise at their appointed time, the Word of God granting them resurrection
to the glory of God, even the Father, who freely gives to this
mortal immortality, and to this corruptible incorruption,(8) because
the strength of God is made perfect in weakness,(9) in order that
we may never become puffed up, as if we had life from ourselves,
and exalted against God, our minds becoming ungrateful; but learning
by experience that we possess eternal duration from the excelling
power of this Being, not from our own nature, we may neither undervalue
that glory which surrounds God as He is, nor be ignorant of our
own nature, but that we may know what God can effect, and what
benefits man receives, and thus never wander from the true comprehension
of things as they are, that is, both with regard to God and with
regard to man. And might it not be the case, perhaps, as I have
already observed, that for this purpose God permitted our resolution
into the common dust of mortality,(10) that we, being instructed
by every mode, may be accurate in all things for the future, being
ignorant neither of God nor of ourselves?
529
CHAP. III.--HE POWER AND GLORY OF GOD SHINE FORTH IN THE WEAKNESS
OF HUMAN FLESH, AS HE WILL RENDER OUR BODY A PARTICIPATOR OF THE
RESURRECTION AND OF IMMORTALITY, ALTHOUGH HE HAS FORMED IT FROM
THE DUST OF THE EARTH; HE WILL ALSO BESTOW UPON IT THE ENJOYMENT
OF IMMORTALITY, JUST AS HE GRANTS IT THIS SHORT LIFE IN COMMON
WITH THE SOUL.
1. The Apostle Paul has, moreover, in the most lucid manner,
pointed out that man has been delivered over to his own infirmity,
lest, being uplifted, he might fall away from the truth. Thus
he says in the second [Epistle] to the Corinthians: "And
lest I should be lifted up by the sublimity of the revelations,
there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of
Satan to buffet me. And upon this I besought the Lord three times,
that it might depart from me. But he said unto me, My grace is
sufficient for thee; for strength is made perfect in weakness.
Gladly therefore shall I rather glory in infirmities, that the
power of Christ may dwell in me."(1) What, therefore? (as
some may exclaim:) did the Lord wish, in that case, that His apostles
should thus undergo buffering, and that he should endure such
infirmity? Even so it was; the word says it. For strength is made
perfect in weakness, rendering him a better man who by means of
his infirmity becomes acquainted with the power of God. For how
could a man have learned that he is himself an infirm being, and
mortal by nature, but that God is immortal and powerful, unless
he had learned by experience what is in both? For there is nothing
evil in learning one's infirmities by endurance; yea, rather,
it has even the beneficial effect of preventing him from forming
an undue opinion of his own nature (non aberrare in natura sua).
But the being lifted up against God, and taking His glory to one's
self, rendering man ungrateful, has brought much evil upon him.
[And thus, I say, man must learn both things by experience], that
he may not be destitute of truth and love either towards himself
or his Creator.(2) But the experience of both confers upon him
the true knowledge as to God and man, and increases his love towards
God. Now, where there exists an increase of love, there a greater
glory is wrought out by the power of God for those who love Him.
2. Those men, therefore, set aside the power of God, and do
not consider what the word declares, when they dwell upon the
infirmity of the flesh, but do not take into consideration the
power of Him who raises it up from the dead. For if He does not
vivify what is mortal, and does not bring back the corruptible
to incorruption, He is not a God of power. But that He is powerful
in all these respects, we ought to perceive from our origin, inasmuch
as God, taking dust from the earth, formed man. And surely it
is much more difficult and incredible, from non-existent bones,
and nerves, and veins, and the rest of man's organization, to
bring it about that all this should be, and to make man an animated
and rational creature, than to re-integrate again that which had
been created and then afterwards decomposed into earth (for the
reasons already mentioned), having thus passed into those [elements]
from which man, who had no previous existence, was formed. For
He who in the beginning caused him to have being who as yet was
not, just when He pleased, shall much more reinstate again those
who had a former existence, when it is His will [that they should
inherit] the life granted by Him. And that flesh shall also be
found fit for and capable of receiving the power of God, which
at the beginning received the skilful touches of God; so that
one part became the eye for seeing; another, the ear for hearing;
another, the hand for feeling and working; another, the sinews
stretched out everywhere, and holding the limbs together; another,
arteries and veins, passages for the blood and the air;(3) another,
the various internal organs; another, the blood, which is the
bond of union between soul and body. But why go [on in this strain]?
Numbers would fail to express the multiplicity of parts in the
human frame, which was made in no other way than by the great
wisdom of God. But those things which partake of the skill and
wisdom of God, do also partake of His power.
3. The flesh, therefore, is not destitute [of participation]
in the constructive wisdom and power of God. But if the power
of Him who is the bestower of life is made perfect in weakness--that
is, in the flesh--let them inform us, when they maintain the incapacity
of flesh to receive the life granted by God, whether they do say
these things as being living men at present, and partakers of
life, or acknowledge that, having no part in life whatever, they
are at the present moment dead men. And if they really are dead
men, how is it that they move about, and speak, and perform those
other functions which are not the actions of the dead, but of
the living? But if they are now alive, and if their whole body
partakes of life, how can they venture the assertion that the
flesh is not quali-
530
fled to be a partaker of life, when they do confess that they
have life at the present moment? It is just as if anybody were
to take up a sponge full of water, or a torch on fire, and to
declare that the sponge could not possibly partake of the water,
or the torch of the fire. In this very manner do those men, by
alleging that they are alive and bear life about in their members,
contradict themselves afterwards, when they represent these members
as not being capable of [receiving] life. But if the present temporal
life, which is of such an inferior nature to eternal life, can
nevertheless effect so much as to quicken our mortal members,
why should not eternal life, being much more powerful than this,
vivify the flesh, which has already held converse with, and been
accustomed to sustain, life? For that the flesh can really partake
of life, is shown from the fact of it; being alive; for it lives
on, as long as it is God's purpose that it should do so. It is
manifest, too, that God has the power to confer life upon it,
inasmuch as He grants life to us who are in existence. And, therefore,
since the Lord has power to infuse life into what He has fashioned,
and since the flesh is capable of being quickened, what remains
to prevent its participating in incorruption, which is a blissful
and never-ending life granted by God?
CHAP. IV.--THOSE PERSONS ARE DECEIVED WHO FEIGN ANOTHER GOD
THE FATHER BESIDES THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD; FOR HE MUST HAVE
BEEN FEEBLE AND USELESS, OR ELSE MALIGNANT AND FULL OF ENVY, IF
HE BE EITHER UNABLE OR UNWILLING TO EXTEND EXTERNAL LIFE TO OUR
BODIES.
1. Those persons who feign the existence of another Father
beyond the Creator, and who term him the good God, do deceive
themselves; for they introduce him as a feeble, worthless, and
negligent being, not to say malign and full of envy, inasmuch
as they affirm that our bodies are not quickened by him. For when
they say of things which it is manifest to all do remain immortal,
such as the spirit and the soul, and such other things, that they
are quickened by the Father, but that another thing [viz. the
body] which is quickened in no different manner than by God granting
[life] to it, is abandoned by life,--[they must either confess]
that this proves their Father to be weak and powerless, or else
envious and malignant. For since the Creator does even here quicken
our mortal bodies, and promises them resurrection by the prophets,
as I have pointed out; who [in that case] is shown to be more
powerful, stronger, or truly good? Whether is it the Creator who
vivifies the whole man, or is it their Father, falsely so called?
He feigns to be the quickener of those things which are immortal
by nature, to which things life is always present by their very
nature; but he does not benevolently quicken those things which
required his assistance, that they might live, but leaves them
carelessly to fall under the power of death. Whether is it the
case, then, that their Father does not bestow life upon them when
he has the power of so doing, or is it that he does not possess
the power? If, on the one hand, it is because he cannot, he is,
upon that supposition, not a powerful being, nor is he more perfect
than the Creator; for the Creator grants, as we must perceive,
what He is unable to afford. But if, on the other hand, [it be
that he does not grant this] when he has the power of so doing,
then he is proved to be not a good, but an envious and malignant
Father.
2. If, again, they refer to any cause on account of which
their Father does not impart life to bodies, then that cause must
necessarily appear superior to the Father, since it restrains
Him from the exercise of His benevolence; and His benevolence
will thus be proved weak, on account of that cause which they
bring forward. Now every one must perceive that bodies are capable
of receiving life. For they live to the extent that God pleases
that they should live; and that being so, the [heretics] cannot
maintain that [these bodies] are utterly incapable of receiving
life. If, therefore, on account of necessity and any other cause,
those [bodies] which are capable of participating in life are
not vivified, their Father shall be the slave of necessity and
that cause, and not therefore a free agent, having His will under
His own control.
CHAP. V.--THE PROLONGED LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS, THE TRANSLATION
OF ELIJAH AND OF ENOCH IN THEIR OWN BODIES, AS WELL AS THE PRESERVATION
OF JONAH, OF SHADRACH, MESHACH, AND ABEDNEGO, IN THE MIDST OF
EXTREME PERIL, ARE CLEAR DEMONSTRATIONS THAT GOD CAN RAISE UP
OUR BODIES TO LIFE ETERNAL.
1. [In order to learn] that bodies did continue in existence
for a lengthened period, as long as it was God's good pleasure
that they should flourish, let [these heretics] read the Scriptures,
and they will find that our predecessors advanced beyond seven
hundred, eight hundred, and nine hundred years of age; and that
their bodies kept pace with the protracted length of their days,
and participated in life as long as God willed that they should
live. But why do I refer to these men? For Enoch, when he pleased
God, was translated in the same body in which he did please Him,
thus pointing out by anticipation the translation of the just.
Elijah, too, was caught up [when he was yet] in the substance
of the [natural] form; thus exhibiting in prophecy the
531
assumption of those who are spiritual, and that nothing stood
in the way of their body being translated and caught up. For by
means of the very same hands through which they were moulded at
the beginning, did they receive this translation and assumption.
For in Adam the hands of God had become accustomed to set in order,
to rule, and to sustain His own workmanship, and to bring it and
place it where they pleased. Where, then, was the first man placed?
In paradise certainly, as the Scripture declares "And God
planted a garden [paradisum] eastward in Eden, and there He placed
the man whom He had formed."(1) And then afterwards when
[man] proved disobedient, he was cast out thence into this world.
Wherefore also the elders who were disciples of the apostles tell
us that those who were translated were transferred to that place
(for paradise has been prepared for righteous men, such as have
the Spirit; in which place also Paul the apostle, when he was
caught up, heard words which are unspeakable as regards us in
our present condition(2)), and that there shall they who have
been translated remain until the consummation [of all things],
as a prelude to immortality.
2. If, however, any one imagine it impossible that men should
survive for such a length of time, and that Elias was not caught
up in the flesh, but that his flesh was consumed in the fiery
chariot, let him consider that Jonah, when he had been cast into
the deep, and swallowed down into the whale's belly, was by the
command of God again thrown out safe upon the land.(3) And then,
again, when Ananias, Azarias, and Misael were cast into the furnace
of fire sevenfold heated, they sustained no harm whatever, neither
was the smell of fire perceived upon them. As, therefore, the
hand of God was present with them, working out marvellous things
in their case--[things] impossible [to be accomplished] by man's
nature--what wonder was it, if also in the case of those who were
translated it performed something wonderful, working in obedience
to the will of God, even the Father? Now this is the Son of God,
as the Scripture represents Nebuchadnezzar the king as having
said, "Did not we cast three men bound into the furnace?
and, lo, I do see four walking in the midst of the fire, and the
fourth is like the Son of God."(4) Neither the nature of
any created thing, therefore, nor the weakness of the flesh, can
prevail against the will of God. For God is not subject to created
things, but created things to God; and all things yield obedience
to His will. Wherefore also the Lord declares, "The things
which are impossible with men, are possible with God."(5)
As, therefore, it might seem to the men of the present day, who
are ignorant of God's appointment, to be a thing incredible and
impossible that any man could live for such a number of years,
yet those who were before us did live [to such an age], and those
who were translated do live as an earnest of the future length
of days; and [as it might also appear impossible] that from the
whale's belly and from the fiery furnace men issued forth unhurt,
yet they nevertheless did so, led forth as it were by the hand
of God, for the purpose of declaring His power: so also now, although
some, not knowing the power and promise of God, may oppose their
own salvation, deeming it impossible for God, who raises up the
dead; to have power to confer upon them eternal duration, yet
the scepticism of men of this stamp shall not render the faithfulness
of God of none effect.
CHAP. VI.--GOD WILL BESTOW SALVATION UPON THE WHOLE NATURE OF
MAN, CONSISTING OF BODY AND SOUL IN CLOSE UNION, SINCE THE WORD
TOOK IT UPON HIM, AND ADORNED WITH THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,
OF WHOM OUR BODIES ARE, AND ARE TERMED, THE TEMPLES.
1. Now God shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it
so as to be conformable to, and modelled after, His own Son. For
by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit,
man, and not [merely] a part of man, was made in the likeness
of God. Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the
man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists in
the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit
of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which
was moulded after the image of God. For this reason does the apostle
declare, "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect,"(6)
terming those persons "perfect" who have received the
Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit of God do speak in all
languages, as he used Himself also to speak. In like manner we
do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic
gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages,
and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of
men, and declare the mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms
"spiritual," they being spiritual because they partake
of the Spirit, and not because their flesh has been stripped off
and taken away, and because they have become purely spiritual.
For if any one take away the sub-
532
stance of flesh, that is, of the handiwork [of God], and understand
that which is purely spiritual, such then would not be a spiritual
man but would be the spirit of a man, or the Spirit of God. But
when the spirit here blended with the soul is united to [God's]
handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of
the outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the
image and likeness of God. But if the Spirit be wanting to the
soul, he who is such is indeed of an animal nature, and being
left carnal, shall be an imperfect being, possessing indeed the
image [of God] in his formation (in plasmate), but not receiving
the similitude through the Spirit; and thus is this being imperfect.
Thus also, if any one take away the image and set aside the handiwork,
he cannot then understand this as being a man, but as either some
part of a man, as I have already said, or as something else than
a man. For that flesh which has been moulded is not a perfect
man in itself, but the body of a man, and part of a man. Neither
is the soul itself, considered apart by itself, the man; but it
is the soul of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit
a man, for it is called the spirit, and not a man; but the commingling
and union of all these constitutes the perfect man. And for this
cause does the apostle, explaining himself, make it clear that
the saved man is a complete man as well as a spiritual man; saying
thus in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, "Now the
God of peace sanctify you perfect (perfectos); and may your spirit,
and soul, and body be preserved whole without complaint to the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ."(1) Now what was his object
in praying that these three--that is, soul, body, and spirit--
might be preserved to the coming of the Lord, unless he was aware
of the [future] reintegration and union of the three, and [that
they should be heirs of] one and the same salvation? For this
cause also he declares that those are "the perfect"
who present unto the Lord the three [component parts] without
offence. Those, then, are the perfect who have had the Spirit
of God remaining in them, and have preserved their souls and bodies
blameless, holding fast the faith of God, that is, that faith
which is [directed] towards God, and maintaining righteous dealings
with respect to their neighbours.
2. Whence also he says, that this handiwork is "the temple
of God," thus declaring: "Know ye not that ye are the
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If
any man, therefore, will defile the temple of God, him will God
destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are."(2)
Here he manifestly declares the body to be the temple in which
the Spirit dwells. As also the Lord speaks in reference to Himself,
"Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
He spake this, however," it is said, "of the temple
of His body."(3) And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge
our bodies to be a temple, but even the temple of Christ, saying
thus to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that your bodies are
members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and
make them the members of an harlot?"(4) He speaks these things,
not in reference to some other spiritual man; for a being of such
a nature could have nothing to do with an harlot: but he declares
"our body," that is, the flesh which continues in sanctity
and purity, to be "the members of Christ;" but that
when it becomes one with an harlot, it becomes the members of
an harlot. And for this reason he said, "If any man defile
the temple of God, him will God destroy." How then is it
not the utmost blasphemy to allege, that the temple of God, in
which the Spirit of the Father dwells, and the members of Christ,
do not partake of salvation, but are reduced to perdition? Also,
that our bodies are raised not from their own substance, but by
the power of God, he says to the Corinthians, "Now the body
is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the
body. But God hath both raised up the Lord, and shall raise us
up by His own power."(5)
CHAP. VII.--INASMUCH AS CHRIST DID RISE IN OUR FLESH, IT FOLLOWS
THAT WE SHALL BE ALSO RAISED IN THE SAME; SINCE THE RESURRECTION
PROMISED TO US SHOULD NOT BE REFERRED TO SPIRITS NATURALLY IMMORTAL,
BUT TO BODIES IN THEMSELVES MORTAL.
1. In the same manner, therefore, as Christ did rise in the
substance of flesh, and pointed out to His disciples the mark
of the nails and the opening in His side(6) (now these are the
tokens of that flesh which rose from the dead), so "shall
He also," it is said, "raise us up by His own power."(7)
And again to the Romans he says, "But if the Spirit of Him
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies."(8)
What, then, are mortal bodies? Can they be souls? Nay, for souls
are incorporeal when put in comparison with mortal bodies; for
God "breathed into the face of man the breath of life, and
man became a living soul." Now the breath of life is an incorporeal
533
thing. And certainly they cannot maintain that the very breath
of life is mortal. Therefore David says, "My soul also shall
live to Him,"(1) just as if its substance were immortal.
Neither, on the other hand, can they say that the spirit is the
mortal body. What therefore is there left to which we may apply
the term "mortal body," unless it be the thing that
was moulded, that is, the flesh, of which it is also said that
God will vivify it? For this it is which dies and is decomposed,
but not the soul or the spirit. For to die is to lose vital power,
and to become henceforth breathless, inanimate, and devoid of
motion, and to melt away into those [component parts] from which
also it derived the commencement of [its] substance. But this
event happens neither to the soul, for it is the breath of life;
nor to the spirit, for the spirit is simple and not composite,
so that it cannot be decomposed, and is itself the life of those
who receive it. We must therefore conclude that it is in reference
to the flesh that death is mentioned; which [flesh], after the
soul's departure, becomes breathless and inanimate, and is decomposed
gradually into the earth from which it was taken. This, then,
is what is mortal. And it is this of which he also says,"
He shall also quicken your mortal bodies." And therefore
in reference to it he says, in the first [Epistle] to the Corinthians:
"So also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption,
it rises in incorruption."(2) For he declares, "That
which thou sowest cannot be quickened, unless first it die."(3)
2. But what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is sown
in the earth and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid
in the earth, into which seeds are also cast? And for this reason
he said, "It is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory."(4)
For what is more ignoble than dead flesh? Or, on the other hand,
what is more glorious than the same when it arises and partakes
of incorruption? "It is sown in weakness, it is raised in
power:"(5) in its own weakness certainly, because since it
is earth it goes to earth; but [it is quickened] by the power
of God, who raises it from the dead. "It is sown an animal
body, it rises a spiritual body."(6) He has taught, beyond
all doubt, that such language was not used by him, either with
reference to the soul or to the spirit, but to bodies that have
become corpses. For these are animal bodies, that is, [bodies]
which partake of life, which when they have lost, they succumb
to death; then, rising through the Spirit's instrumentality, they
become spiritual bodies, so that by the Spirit they possess a
perpetual life. "For now," he says, "we know in
part, and we prophesy in part, but then face to face."(7)
And this it is which has been said also by Peter: "Whom having
not seen, ye love; in whom now also, not seeing, ye believe; and
believing, ye shall rejoice with joy unspeakable."(8) For
our face shall see the face of the Lord? and shall rejoice with
joy unspeakable,--that is to say, when it shall behold its own
Delight.
CHAP. VIII.--THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WHICH WE RECEIVE PREPARE
US FOR INCORRUPTION, RENDER US SPIRITUAL, AND SEPARATE US FROM
CARNAL MEN. THESE TWO CLASSES ARE SIGNIFIED BY THE CLEAN AND
UNCLEAN ANIMALS IN THE LEGAL DISPENSATION.
1. But we do now receive a certain portion of His Spirit,
tending towards perfection, and preparing us for incorruption,
being little by little accustomed to receive and bear God; which
also the apostle terms "an earnest," that is, a part
of the honour which has been promised us by God, where he says
in the Epistle to the Ephesians, "In which ye also, having
heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, believing
in which we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance."(10) This earnest,
therefore, thus dwelling in us, renders us spiritual even now,
and the mortal is swallowed up by immortality.(11) "For ye,"
he declares, "are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if
so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."(12) This, however
does not take place by a casting away of the flesh, but by the
impartation of the Spirit. For those to whom he was writing were
not without flesh, but they were those who had received the Spirit
of God, "by which we cry, Abba, Father."(13) If therefore,
at the present time, having the earnest, we do cry, "Abba,
Father," what shall it be when, on rising again, we behold
Him face to face; when all the members shall burst out into a
continuous hymn of triumph, glorifying Him who raised them from
the dead, and gave the gift of eternal life? For if the earnest,
gathering man into itself, does even now cause him to cry, "Abba,
Father," what shall the complete grace of the Spirit effect,
which shall be given to men by God? It will render us like unto
Him, and accomplish the will(14) of the Father; for it shall make
man after the image and likeness of God.
534
2. Those persons, then, who possess the earnest of the Spirit,
and who are not enslaved by the lusts of the flesh, but are subject
to the Spirit, and who in all things walk according to the light
of reason, does the apostle properly term "spiritual,"
because the Spirit of God dwells in them. Now, spiritual men shall
not be incorporeal spirits; but our substance, that is, the union
of flesh and spirit, receiving the Spirit of God, makes up the
spiritual man. But those who do indeed reject the Spirit's counsel,
and are the slaves of fleshly lusts, and lead lives contrary to
reason, and who, without restraint, plunge headlong into their
own desires, having no longing after the Divine Spirit, do live
after the manner of swine and of dogs; these men, [I say], does
the apostle very properly term "carnal," because they
have no thought of anything else except carnal things.
3. For the same reason, too, do the prophets compare them
to irrational animals, on account of the irrationality of their
conduct, saying, "They have become as horses raging for the
females; each one of them neighing after his neighbour's wife."(1)
And again, "Man, when he was in honour, was made like unto
cattle."(2) This denotes that, for his own fault, he is likened
to cattle, by rivalling their irrational life. And we also, as
the custom is, do designate men of this stamp as cattle and irrational
beasts.
4. Now the law has figuratively predicted all these, delineating
man by the [various] animals:(3) whatsoever of these, says [the
Scripture], have a double hoof and ruminate, it proclaims as clean;
but whatsoever of them do not possess one or other of these [properties],
it sets aside b themselves as unclean. Who then are the clean?
Those who make their way by faith steadily towards the Father
and the Son; for this is denoted by the steadiness of those which
divide the hoof; and they meditate day and night upon the words
of God,(4) that they may be adorned with good works: for this
is the meaning of the ruminants. The unclean, however, are those
which do neither divide the hoof nor ruminate; that is, those
persons who have neither faith in God, nor do meditate on His
words: and such is the abomination of the Gentiles. But as to
those animals which do indeed chew the cud, but have not the double
hoof, and are themselves unclean, we have in them a figurative
description of the Jews, who certainly have the words of God in
their mouth, but who do not fix their rooted stedfastness in the
Father and in the Son; wherefore they are an unstable generation.
For those animals which have the hoof all in one piece easily
slip; but those which have it divided are more sure-footed, their
cleft hoofs succeeding each other as they advance, and the one
hoof supporting the other. In like manner, too, those are unclean
which have the double hoof but do not ruminate: this is plainly
an indication of all heretics, and of those who do not meditate
on the words of God, neither are adorned with works of righteousness;
to whom also the Lord says, "Why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and
do not the things which I say to you?"(5) For men of this
stamp do indeed say that they believe in the Father and the Son,
but they never meditate as they should upon the things of God,
neither are they adorned with works of righteousness; but, as
I have already observed, they have adopted the lives of swine
and of dogs, giving themselves over to filthiness, to gluttony,
and recklessness of all sorts. Justly, therefore, did the apostle
call all such "carnal" and "animal,"(6)--[all
those, namely], who through their own unbelief and luxury do not
receive the Divine Spirit, and in their various phases east out
from themselves the life-giving Word, and walk stupidly after
their own lusts: the prophets, too, spake of them as beasts of
burden and wild beasts; custom likewise has viewed them in the
light of cattle and irrational creatures; and the law has pronounced
them unclean.
CHAP. IX.--SHOWING HOW THAT PASSAGE OF THE APOSTLE WHICH THE HERETICS
PERVERT, SHOULD BE UNDERSTOOD;VIZ., "FLESH AND BLOOD SHALL
NOT POSSESS THE KINGDOM OF GOD."
1. Among the other [truths] proclaimed by the apostle, there
is also this one, "That flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God."(7) This is [the passage] which is adduced
by all the heretics in support of their folly, with an attempt
to annoy us, and to point out that the handiwork of God is not
saved. They do not take this fact into consideration, that there
are three things out of which, as I have shown, the complete man
is composed--flesh, soul, and spirit. One of these does indeed
preserve and fashion [the man]--this is the spirit; while as to
another it is united and formed--that is the flesh; then [comes]
that which is between these two--that is the soul, which sometimes
indeed, when it follows the spirit, is raised up by it, but sometimes
it sympathizes with the flesh, and falls into carnal lusts. Those
then, as many as they be, who have not that which saves and forms
[us] into life [eternal], shall be, and shall be called, [mere]
flesh and blood; for these are they
535
who have not the Spirit of God in themselves. Wherefore men of
this stamp are spoken of by the Lord as "dead;" for,
says He, "Let the dead bury their dead,"(1) because
they have not the Spirit which quickens man.
2. On the other hand, as many as fear God and trust in His
Son's advent, and who through faith do establish the Spirit of
God in their hearts,--such men as these shall be properly called
both "pure," and "spiritual," and "those
living to God," because they possess the Spirit of the Father,
who purifies man, and raises him up to the life of God. For as
the Lord has testified that "the flesh is weak," so
[does He also say] that "the spirit is willing."(2)
For this latter is capable of working out its own suggestions.
If, therefore, any one admix the ready inclination of the Spirit
to be, as it were, a stimulus to the infirmity of the flesh, it
inevitably follows that what is strong will prevail over the weak,
so that the weakness of the flesh will be absorbed by the strength
of the Spirit; and that the man in whom this takes place cannot
in that case be carnal, but Spiritual, because of the fellowship
of the Spirit. Thus it is, therefore, that the martyrs bear their
witness, and despise death, not after the infirmity of the flesh,
but because of the readiness of the Spirit. For when the infirmity
of the flesh is absorbed, it exhibits the Spirit as powerful;
and again, when the Spirit absorbs the weakness [of the flesh],
it possesses the flesh as an inheritance in itself, and from both
of these is formed a living man,--living, indeed, because he partakes
of the Spirit, but man, because of the substance of flesh.
3. The flesh, therefore, when destitute of the Spirit of God,
is dead, not having life, and cannot possess the kingdom of God:
[it is as] irrational blood, like water poured out upon the ground.
And therefore he says, "As is the earthy, such are they that
are earthy."(3) But where the Spirit of the Father is, there
is a living man; [there is] the rational blood preserved by God
for the avenging [of those that shed it]; [there is] the flesh
possessed by the Spirit, forgetful indeed of what belongs to it,
and adopting the quality of the Spirit, being made conformable
to the Word of God. And on this account he (the apostle) declares,
"As we have borne the image of him who is of the earth, we
shall also bear the image of Him who is from heaven."(4)
What, therefore, is the earthly? That which was fashioned. And
what is the heavenly? The Spirit. As therefore he says, when we
were destitute of the celestial Spirit, we walked in former times
in the oldness of the flesh, not obeying God; so now let us, receiving
the Spirit, walk in newness of life, obeying God. Inasmuch, therefore,
as without the Spirit of God we cannot be saved, the apostle exhorts
us through faith and chaste conversation to preserve the Spirit
of God, lest, having become non-participators of the Divine Spirit,
we lose the kingdom of heaven; and he exclaims, that flesh in
itself, and blood, cannot possess the kingdom God.
4. If, however, we must speak strictly, [we would say that]
the flesh does not inherit, but is inherited; as also the Lord
declares, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the
earth by inheritance;"(5) as if in the [future] kingdom,
the earth, from whence exists the substance Of our flesh, is to
be possessed by inheritance. This is the reason for His wishing
the temple (i.e., the flesh) to be clean, that the Spirit of God
may take delight therein, as a bridegroom with a bride. As, therefore,
the bride cannot [be said] to wed, but to be wedded, when the
bridegroom comes and takes her, so also the flesh cannot by itself
possess the kingdom of God by inheritance; but it can be taken
for an inheritance into the kingdom of God. For a living person
inherits the goods of the deceased; and it is one thing to inherit,
another to be inherited. The former rules, and exercises power
over, and orders the things inherited at his will; but the latter
things are in a state of subjection, are under order, and are
ruled over by him who has obtained the inheritance. What, therefore,
is it that lives? The Spirit of God, doubtless. What, again, are
the possessions of the deceased? The various parts of the man,
surely, which rot in the earth. But these are inherited by the
Spirit when they are translated into the kingdom of heaven. For
this cause, too, did Christ die. that the Gospel covenant being
manifested and known to the whole world, might in the first place
set free His slaves; and then afterwards, as I have already shown,
might constitute them heirs of His property, when the Spirit possesses
them by inheritance. For he who lives inherits, but the flesh
is inherited. In order that we may not lose life by losing that
Spirit which possesses us, the apostle, exhorting us to the communion
of the Spirit, has said, according to reason, in those words already
quoted, "That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God." Just as if he were to say, "Do not err; for
unless the Word of God dwell with, and the Spirit of the Father
be in you, and if ye shall live frivolously and carelessly as
if ye were this only, viz., mere flesh and blood, ye cannot inherit
the kingdom of God."
536
CHAP. X.--BY A COMPARISON DRAWN FROM THE WILD OLIVE-TREE, WHOSE
QUALITY BUT NOT WHOSE NATURE IS CHANGED BY GRAFTING, HE PROVES
MORE IMPORTANT THINGS; HE POINTS OUT ALSO THAT MAN WITHOUT THE
SPIRIT IS NOT CAPABLE OF BRINGING FORTH FRUIT, OR OF INHERITING
THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
1. This truth, therefore, [he declares], in order that we
may not reject the engrafting of the Spirit while pampering the
flesh. "But thou, being a wild olive-tree," he says,
"hast been grafted into the good olive-tree, and been made
a partaker of the fatness of the olive-tree." As, therefore,
when the wild olive has been engrafted, if it remain in its former
condition, viz., a wild olive, it is "cut off, and cast into
the fire;"(2) but if it takes kindly to the graft, and is
changed into the good olive-tree, it becomes a fruit-bearing olive,
planted, as it were, in a king's park (paradiso): so likewise
men, if they do truly progress by faith towards better things,
and receive the Spirit of God, and bring forth the fruit thereof,
shall be spiritual, as being planted in the paradise of God. But
if they cast out the Spirit, and remain in their former condition,
desirous of being of the flesh rather than of the Spirit, then
it is very justly said with regard to men of this stamp, "That
flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God;"(3)
just as if any one were to say that the wild olive is not received
into the paradise of God. Admirably therefore does the apostle
exhibit our nature, and God's universal appointment, in his discourse
about flesh and blood and the wild olive. For as the good olive,
if neglected for a certain time, if left to grow wild and to
run to i wood, does itself become a wild olive; or again, if the
wild olive be carefully tended and grafted, it naturally reverts
to its former fruit-bearing condition: so men also, when they
become careless, and bring forth for fruit the lusts of the flesh
like woody produce, are rendered, by their own fault, unfruitful
in righteousness. For when men sleep, the enemy sows the material
of tares;(4) and for this cause did the Lord command His disciples
to be on the watch.(5) And again, those persons who are not bringing
forth the fruits of righteousness, and are, as it were, covered
over and lost among brambles, if they use diligence, and receive
the word of God as a graft,(6) arrive at the pristine nature of
man--that which was created after the image and likeness of God.
2. But as the engrafted wild olive does not certainly lose
the substance of its wood, but changes the quality of its fruit,
and receives another name, being now not a wild olive, but a fruit-bearing
olive, and is called so; so also, when man is grafted in by faith
and receives the Spirit of God, he certainly does not lose the
substance of flesh, but changes the quality of the fruit [brought
forth, i.e.,] of his works, and receives another name,(7) showing
that he has become changed for the better, being now not [mere]
flesh and blood, but a spiritual man, and is called such. Then,
again, as the wild olive, if it be not grafted in, remains useless
to its lord because of its woody quality, and is cut down as a
tree bearing no fruit, and cast into the fire; so also man, if
he does not receive through faith the engrafting of the Spirit,
remains in his old condition, and being [mere] flesh and blood,
he cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Rightly therefore does the
apostle declare, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God;"(8) and, "Those who are in the flesh cannot
please God:"(9) not repudiating [by these words] the substance
of flesh, but showing that into it the Spirit must be infused.(10)
And for this reason, he says, "This mortal must put on immortality,
and this corruptible must put on incorruption."(11) And again
he declares, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,
if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."(12) He sets
this forth still more plainly, where he says, "The body indeed
is dead, because of sin; but the Spirit is life, because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit dwelling in you."(13)
And again he says, in the Epistle to the Romans, "For if
ye live after the flesh, ye shall die."(14) [Now by these
words] he does not prohibit them from living their lives in the
flesh, for he was himself in the flesh when he wrote to them;
but he cuts away the lusts of the flesh, those which bring death
upon a man. And for this reason he says in continuation, "But
if ye through the Spirit do mortify the works of the flesh, ye
shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, these
are the sons of God."
CHAP. XI.--TREATS UPON THE ACTIONS OF CARNAL AND OF SPIRITUAL
PERSONS; ALSO, THAT THE SPIRITUAL CLEANSING IS NOT TO BE REFERRED
TO THE SUBSTANCE OF OUR BODIES, BUT TO THE MANNER OF OUR FORMER
LIFE.
1. [The apostle], foreseeing the wicked speeches of unbelievers,
has particularized the
537
works which he terms carnal; and he explains himself, lest any
room for doubt be left to those who do dishonestly pervert his
meaning, thus saying in the Epistle to the Galatians: "Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are adulteries, fornications,
uncleanness, luxuriousness, idolatries, witchcrafts,(1) hatreds,
contentions jealousies, wraths, emulations, animosities, irritable
speeches, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, carousings,
and such like; of which I warn you, as also I have warned you,
that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God."(2) Thus does he point out to his hearers in a more
explicit manner what it is [he means when he declares], "Flesh
and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God." For they
who do these things, since they do indeed walk after the flesh,
have not the power of living unto God. And then, again, he proceeds
to tell us the spiritual actions which vivify a man, that is,
the engrafting of the Spirit; thus saying, "But the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, benignity,
faith, meekness, continence, chastity: against these there is
no law."(3) As, therefore, he who has gone forward to the
better things, and has brought forth the fruit of the Spirit,
is saved altogether because of the communion of the Spirit; so
also he who has continued in the aforesaid works of the flesh,
being truly reckoned as carnal, because he did not receive the
Spirit of God, shall not have power to inherit the kingdom of
heaven. As, again, the same apostle testifies, saying to the Corinthians,
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Do not err," he says: "neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor revilers,
nor rapacious persons, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And these
ye indeed have been; but ye have been washed, but ye have been
sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God."(4) He shows
in the clearest manner through what things it is that man goes
to destruction, if he has continued to live after the flesh; and
then, on the other hand, [he points out] through what things he
is saved. Now he says that the things which save are the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God.
2. Since, therefore, in that passage he recounts those works
of the flesh which are without the Spirit, which bring death [upon
their doers], he exclaimed at the end of his Epistle, in accordance
with what he had already declared, "And as we have borne
the image of him who is of the earth, we shall also bear the image
of Him who is from heaven. For this I say, brethren, that flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."(5) Now this
which he says, "as we have borne the image of him who is
of the earth," is analogous to what has been declared, "And
such indeed ye were; but ye have been washed, but ye have been
sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." When, therefore,
did we bear the image of him who is of the earth? Doubtless it
was when those actions spoken of as "works of the flesh"
used to be wrought in us. And then, again, when [do we bear] the
image of the heavenly? Doubtless when he says, "Ye have been
washed," believing in the name of the Lord, and receiving
His Spirit. Now we have washed away, not the substance of our
body, nor the image of our [primary] formation, but the former
vain conversation. In these members, therefore, in which we were
going to destruction by working the works of corruption, in these
very members are we made alive by working the works of the Spirit.
CHAP. XII.--OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH; OF THE BREATH
OF LIFE AND THE VIVIFYING SPIRIT: ALSO HOW IT IS THAT THE SUBSTANCE
OF FLESH REVIVES WHICH ONCE WAS DEAD.
1. For as the flesh is capable of corruption, so is it also
of incorruption; and as it is of death, so is it also of life.
These two do mutually give way to each other; and both cannot
remain in the same place, but one is driven out by the other,
and the presence of the one destroys that of the other. If, then,
when death takes possession of a man, it drives life away from
him, and proves him to be dead, much more does life, when it has
obtained power over the man, drive out death, and restore him
as living unto God. For if death brings mortality, why should
not life, when it comes, vivify man? Just as Esaias the prophet
says, "Death devoured when it had prevailed."(6) And
again, "God has wiped away every tear from every face."
Thus that former life is expelled, because it was not given by
the Spirit, but by the breath.
2. For the breath of life, which also rendered man an animated
being, is one thing, and the vivifying Spirit another, which also
caused him to become spiritual. And for this reason Isaiah said,
"Thus saith the LORD, who made heaven and established it,
who founded the earth and the things therein, and gave breath
to the people
538
upon it, and Spirit to those walking upon it;"(1) thus telling
us that breath is indeed given in common to all people upon earth,
but that the Spirit is theirs alone who tread down earthly desires.
And therefore Isaiah himself, distinguishing the things already
mentioned, again exclaims, "For the Spirit shall go forth
from Me, and I have made every breath."(2) Thus does he attribute
the Spirit as peculiar to God which in the last times He pours
forth upon the human race by the adoption of sons; but [he shows]
that breath was common throughout the creation, and points it
out as something created. Now what has been made is a different
thing from him who makes it. The breath, then, is temporal, but
the Spirit eternal. The breath, too, increases [in strength] for
a short period, and continues for a certain time; after that it
takes its departure, leaving its former abode destitute of breath.
But when the Spirit pervades the man within and without, inasmuch
as it continues there, it never leaves him. "But that is
not first which is spiritual," says the apostle, speaking
this as if with reference to us human beings; "but that is
first which is animal, afterwards that which is spiritual,"(3)
in accordance with reason. For there had been a necessity that,
in the first place, a human being should be fashioned, and that
what was fashioned should receive the soul; afterwards that it
should thus receive the communion of the Spirit. Wherefore also
"the first Adam was made" by the Lord "a living
soul, the second Adam a quickening spirit."(4) As, then,
he who was made a living soul forfeited life when he turned aside
to what was evil, so, on the other hand, the same individual,
when he reverts to what is good, and receives the quickening Spirit,
shall find life.
3. For it is not one thing which dies and another which is
quickened, as neither is it one thing Which is lost and another
which is found, but the Lord came seeking for that same sheep
which had been lost. What was it, then, which was dead? Undoubtedly
it was the substance of the flesh; the same, too, which had lost
the breath of life, and had become breathless and dead. This same,
therefore, was what the Lord came to quicken, that as in Adam
we do all die, as being of an animal nature, in Christ we may
all live, as being spiritual, not laying aside God's handiwork,
but the lusts of the flesh, and receiving the Holy Spirit; as
the apostle says in the Epistle to the Colossians: "Mortify,
therefore, your members which are upon the earth." And what
these are he himself explains: "Fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, evil concupiscence; and covetousness, which
is idolatry."(5) The laying aside of these is what the apostle
preaches; and he declares that those who do such things, as being
merely flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven.
For their soul, tending towards what is worse, and descending
to earthly lusts, has become a partaker in the same designation
which belongs to these [lusts, viz., "earthly"], which,
when the apostle commands us to lay aside, he says in the same
Epistle, "Cast ye off the old man with his deeds."(6)
But when he said this, he does not remove away the ancient formation
[of man]; for in that case it would be incumbent on us to rid
ourselves of its company by committing suicide.
4. But the apostle himself also, being one who had been formed
in a womb, and had issued thence, wrote to us, and confessed in
his Epistle to the Philippians that "to live in the flesh
was the fruit of [his] work;"(7) thus expressing himself.
Now the final result of the work of the Spirit is the salvation
of the flesh.(8) For what other visible fruit is there of the
invisible Spirit, than the rendering of the flesh mature and capable
of incorruption? If then [he says], "To live in the flesh,
this is the result of labour to me," he did not surely contemn
the substance of flesh in that passage where he said, "Put
ye off the old man with his works;"(9) but he points out
that we should lay aside our former conversation, that which waxes
old and becomes corrupt; and for this reason he goes on to say,
"And put ye on the new man, that which is renewed in knowledge,
after the image of Him who created him." In this, therefore,
that he says, "which is renewed in knowledge," he demonstrates
that he, the selfsame man who was in ignorance in times past,
that is, in ignorance of God, is renewed by that knowledge which
has respect to Him. For the knowledge of God renews man. And when
he says, "after the image of the Creator," he sets forth
the recapitulation of the same man, who was at the beginning made
after the likeness of God.
5. And that he, the apostle, was the very same person who
had been born from the womb, that is, of the ancient substance
of flesh, he does himself declare in the Epistle to the Galatians:
"But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that
I might preach Him among the Gentiles," (10) it was not,
as I have already observed, one person who had
539
been born from the womb, and another who preached the Gospel of
the Son of God; but that same individual who formerly was ignorant,
and used to persecute the Church, when the revelation was made
to him from heaven, and the Lord conferred with him, as I have
pointed out in the third book,(1) preached the Gospel of Jesus
Christ the Son of God, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
his former ignorance being driven out by his subsequent knowledge:
just as the blind men whom the Lord healed did certainly lose
their blindness, but received the substance of their eyes perfect,
and obtained the power of vision in the very same eyes with which
they formerly did not see; the darkness being merely driven away
by the power of vision, while the substance of the eyes was retained,
in order that, by means of those eyes through which they had not
seen, exercising again the visual power, they might give thanks
to Him who had restored them again to sight. And thus, also, he
whose withered hand was healed, and all who were healed generally,
did not change those parts of their bodies which had at their
birth come forth from the womb, but simply obtained these anew
in a healthy condition.
6. For the Maker of all things, the Word of God, who did also
from the beginning form man, when He found His handiwork impaired
by wickedness, performed upon it all kinds of healing. At one
time [He did so], as regards each separate member, as it is found
in His own handiwork; and at another time He did once for all
restore man sound and whole in all points, preparing him perfect
for Himself unto the resurrection. For what was His object in
healing [different] portions of the flesh, and restoring them
to their original condition, if those parts which had been healed
by Him were not in a position to obtain salvation? For if it was
[merely] a temporary benefit which He conferred, He granted nothing
of importance to those who were the subjects of His healing. Or
how can they maintain that the flesh is incapable of receiving
the life which flows from Him, when it received healing from Him?
For life is brought about through healing, and incorruption through
life. He, therefore, who confers healing, the same does also confer
life; and He [who gives] life, also surrounds His own handiwork
with incorruption.
CHAP. XIII.--IN THE DEAD WHO WERE RAISED BY CHRIST WE POSSESS
THE HIGHEST PROOF OF THE RESURRECTION; AND OUR HEARTS ARE SHOWN
TO BE CAPABLE OF LIFE ETERNAL, BECAUSE THEY CAN NOW RECEIVE THE
SPIRIT OF GOD.
1. Let our opponents--that is, they who speak against their
own salvation--inform us [as to this point]: The deceased daughter
of the high priest;(2) the widow's dead son, who was being carded
out [to burial] near the gate [of the city];(3) and Lazarus, who
had lain four days in the tomb,(4)--in what bodies did they rise
again? In those same, no doubt, in which they had also died. For
if it were not in the very same, then certainly those same individuals
who had died did not rise again. For [the Scripture] says, "The
Lord took the hand of the dead man, and said to him, Young man,
I say unto thee, Arise. And the dead man sat up, and He commanded
that something should be given him to eat; and He delivered him
to his mother."(5) Again, He called Lazarus "with a
loud voice, saying, Lazarus, come forth; and he that was dead
came forth bound with bandages, feet and hands." This was
symbolical of that man who had been bound in sins. And therefore
the Lord said, "Loose him, and let him depart." As,
therefore, those who were healed were made whole in those members
which had in times past been afflicted; and the dead rose in the
identical bodies, their limbs and bodies receiving health, and
that life which was granted by the Lord, who prefigures eternal
things by temporal, and shows that it is He who is Himself able
to extend both healing and life to His handiwork, that His words
concerning its [future] resurrection may also be believed; so
also at the end, when the Lord utters His voice "by the last
trumpet,"(6) the dead shall be raised, as He Himself declares:
"The hour shall come, in which all the dead which are in
the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come
forth; those that have done good to the resurrection of life,
and those that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment."(7)
2. Vain, therefore, and truly miserable, are those who do
not choose to see what is so manifest and clear, but shun the
light of truth, blinding themselves like the tragic OEdipus. And
as those who are not practised in wrestling, when they contend
with others, laying hold with a determined grasp of some part
of [their opponent's] body, really fall by means of that which
they grasp, yet when they fall, imagine that they are gaining
the victory, because they have obstinately kept their hold upon
that part which they seized at the outset, and besides falling,
become
540
subjects of ridicule; so is it with respect to that [favourite]
expression of the heretics: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God;" while taking two expressions of Paul's,
without having perceived the apostle's meaning, or examined critically
the force of the terms, but keeping fast hold of the mere expressions
by themselves, they die in consequence of their influence (<greek>periautas</greek>),
overturning as far as in them lies the entire dispensation of
God.
3. For thus they will allege that this passage refers to the
flesh strictly so called, and not to fleshly works, as I have
pointed out, so representing the apostle as contradicting himself.
For immediately following, in the same Epistle, he says conclusively,
speaking thus in reference to the flesh: "For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So, when this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall
be brought to pass the saying which is written, Death is swallowed
up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O death, where is
thy victory?"(1) Now these words shall be appropriately said
at the time when this mortal and corruptible flesh, which is subject
to death, which also is pressed down by a certain dominion of
death, rising up into life, shall put on incorruption and immortality.
For then, indeed, shall death be truly vanquished, when that flesh
which is held down by it shall go forth from under its dominion.
And again, to the Philippians he says: "But our conversation
is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord
Jesus, who shall transfigure the body of our humiliation conformable
to the body of His glory, even as He is able (ita ut possit) according
to the working of His own power."(2) What, then, is this
"body of humiliation" which the Lord shall transfigure,
[so as to be] conformed to "the body of His glory?"
Plainly it is this body composed of flesh, which is indeed humbled
when it falls into the earth. Now its transformation [takes place
thus], that while it is mortal and corruptible, it becomes immortal
and incorruptible, not after its own proper substance, but after
the mighty working of the Lord, who is able to invest the mortal
with immortality, and the corruptible with incorruption. And therefore
he says,(3) "that mortality may be swallowed up of life.
He who has perfected us for this very thing is God, who also
has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit."(4) He uses
these words most manifestly in reference to the flesh; for the
soul is not mortal, neither is the spirit. Now, what is mortal
shall be swallowed up of life, when the flesh is dead no longer,
but remains living and incorruptible, hymning the praises of God,
who has perfected us for this very thing. In order, therefore,
that we may be perfected for this, aptly does he say to the Corinthians,
"Glorify God in your body."(5) Now God is He who gives
rise to immortality.
4. That he uses these words with respect to the body of flesh,
and to none other, he declares to the Corinthians manifestly,
indubitably, and free from all ambiguity: "Always bearing
about in our body the dying of Jesus,(6) that also the life of
Jesus Christ might be manifested in our body. For if we who live
are delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, it is that the life
of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh."(7)
And that the Spirit lays hold on the flesh, he says in the same
Epistle, "That ye axe the epistle of Christ, ministered by
us, inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living
God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the
heart."(8) If, therefore, in the present time, fleshly hearts
are made partakers of the Spirit, what is there astonishing if,
in the resurrection, they receive that life which is granted by
the Spirit? Of which resurrection the apostle speaks in the Epistle
to the Philippians: "Having been made conformable to His
death, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection which
is from the dead."(9) In what other mortal flesh, therefore,
can life be understood as being manifested, unless in that substance
which is also put to death on account of that confession which
is made of God?--as he has himself declared, "If, as a man,
I have fought with beasts(10) at Ephesus, what advantageth it
me if the dead rise not? For if the dead rise not, neither has
Christ risen. Now, if Christ has not risen, our preaching is vain,
and your faith is vain. In that case, too, we are found false
witnesses for God, since we have testified that He raised up Christ,
whom [upon that supposition] He did not raise up.(11) For if the
dead rise not, neither has Christ risen. But if Christ be not
risen, your faith is vain, since ye are yet in your sins. Therefore
those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this
life only we have hope in Christ, we are more miserable than all
men. But now Christ has
541
risen from the dead, the first-fruits of those that sleep; for
as by man [came] death, by man also [came] the resurrection of
the dead."(1)
5. In all these passages, therefore, as I have already said,
these men must either allege that the apostle expresses opinions
contradicting himself, with respect to that statement, "Flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" or, on the
other hand, they will be forced to make perverse and crooked interpretations
of all the passages, so as to overturn and alter the sense of
the words. For what sensible thing can they say, if they endeavour
to interpret otherwise this which he writes: "For this corruptible
must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality;"(2)
and, "That the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our
mortal flesh;"(3) and all the other passages in which the
apostle does manifestly and clearly declare the resurrection and
incorruption of the flesh? And thus shall they be compelled to
put a false interpretation upon passages such as these, they who
do not choose to understand one correctly.
CHAP. XIV.--UNLESS THE FLESH WERE TO BE SAVED, THE WORD WOULD
NOT HAVE TAKEN UPON HIM FLESH OF THE SAME SUBSTANCE AS OURS: FROM
THIS IT WOULD FOLLOW THAT NEITHER SHOULD WE HAVE BEEN RECONCILED
BY HIM.
1. And inasmuch as the apostle has not pronounced against
the very substance of flesh and blood, that it cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, the same apostle has everywhere adopted the
term "flesh and blood" with regard to the Lord Jesus
Christ, partly indeed to establish His human nature (for He did
Himself speak of Himself as the Son of man), and partly that He
might confirm the salvation of our flesh. For if the flesh were
not in a position to be saved, the Word of God would in no wise
have become flesh. And if the blood of the righteous were not
to be inquired after, the Lord would certainly not have had blood
[in His composition]. But inasmuch as blood cries out (vocalis
est) from the beginning [of the world], God said to Cain, when
he had slain his brother, "The voice of thy brother's blood
crieth to Me."(4) And as their blood will be inquired after,
He said to those with Noah, "For your blood of your souls
will I require, [even] from the hand of all beasts;"(5) and
again, "Whosoever will shed man's blood,(6) it shall be shed
for his blood." In like manner, too, did the Lord say to
those who should afterwards shed His blood, "All righteous
blood shall be required which is shed upon the earth, from the
blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias,
whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto
you, All these things shall come upon this generation."(7)
He thus points out the recapitulation that should take place in
his own person of the effusion of blood from the beginning, of
all the righteous men and of the prophets, and that by means of
Himself there should be a requisition of their blood. Now this
[blood] could not be required unless it also had the capability
of being saved; nor would the Lord have summed up these things
in Himself, unless He had Himself been made flesh and blood after
the way of the original formation [of man], saving in his own
person at the end that which had in the beginning perished in
Adam.
2. But if the Lord became incarnate for any other order of
things, and took flesh of any other substance, He has not then
summed up human nature in His own person, nor in that case can
He be termed flesh. For flesh has been truly made [to consist
in] a transmission of that thing moulded originally from the dust.
But if it had been necessary for Him to draw the material [of
His body] from another substance, the Father would at the beginning
have moulded the material [of flesh] from a different substance
[than from what He actually did]. But now the case stands thus,
that the Word has saved that which really was [created, viz.,]
humanity which had perished, effecting by means of Himself that
communion which should be held with it, and seeking out its salvation.
But the thing which had perished possessed flesh and blood. For
the Lord, taking dust from the earth, moulded man; and it was
upon his behalf that all the dispensation of the Lord's advent
took place. He had Himself, therefore, flesh and blood, recapitulating
in Himself not a certain other, but that original handiwork of
the Father, seeking out that thing which had perished. And for
this cause the apostle, in the Epistle to the Colossians, says,
"And though ye were formerly alienated, and enemies to His
knowledge by evil works, yet now ye have been reconciled in the
body of His flesh, through His death, to present yourselves holy
and chaste, and without fault in His sight."(8) He says,
"Ye have been reconciled in the body of His flesh,"
because the righteous flesh has reconciled that flesh which was
being kept under bondage in sin, and brought it into friendship
with God.
3. If, then, any one allege that in this respect the flesh
of the Lord was different from ours, because it indeed did not
commit sin, neither
542
was deceit found in His soul, while we, on the other hand, are
sinners, he says what is the fact. But if he pretends that the,
Lord possessed another substance of flesh, the sayings respecting
reconciliation will not agree with that man. For that thing is
reconciled which had formerly been in enmity. Now, if the Lord
had taken flesh from another substance, He would not, by so doing,
have reconciled that one to God which had become inimical through
transgression. But now, by means of communion with Himself, the
Lord has reconciled man to God the Father, in reconciling us to
Himself by the body of His own flesh, and redeeming us by His
own blood, as the apostle says to the Ephesians, "In whom
we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins;"(1)
and again to the same he says, "Ye who formerly were far
off have been brought near in the blood of Christ;"(2) and
again, "Abolishing in His flesh the enmities, [even] the
law of commandments [contained] in ordinances."(3) And in
every Epistle the apostle plainly testifies, that through the
flesh of our Lord, and through His blood, we have been saved.
4. If, therefore, flesh and blood are the things which procure
for us life, it has not been declared of flesh and blood, in the
literal meaning (proprie) of the terms, that they cannot inherit
the kingdom of God; but [these words apply] to those carnal deeds
already mentioned, which, perverting man to sin, deprive him of
life. And for this reason he says, in the Epistle to the Romans:
"Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body, to be
under its control: neither yield ye your members instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves to God, as being
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God."(4) In these same members, therefore, in which
we used to serve sin, and bring forth fruit unto death, does He
wish us to [be obedient] unto righteousness, that we may bring
forth fruit unto life. Remember, therefore, my beloved friend,
that thou hast been redeemed by the flesh of our Lord, re-established(5)
by His blood; and "holding the Head, from which the whole
body of the Church, having been fitted together, takes increase"(6)--that
is, acknowledging the advent in the flesh of the Son of God, and
[His] divinity (deum), and looking forward with constancy to His
human nature(7) (hominem), availing thyself also of these proofs
drawn from Scripture--thou dost easily overthrow, as I have pointed
out, all those notions of the heretics which were concocted afterwards.
CHAP. XV.--PROOFS OF THE RESURRECTION FROM ISAIAH AND EZEKIEL;
THE SAME GOD WHO CREATED US WILL ALSO RAISE US UP.
1. Now, that He who at the beginning created man, did promise
him a second birth after his dissolution into earth, Esaias thus
declares: "The dead shall rise again, and they who are in
the tombs shall arise, and they who are in the earth shall rejoice.
For the dew which is from Thee is health to them."(8) And
again: "I will comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in
Jerusalem: and ye shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and
your bones shall flourish as the grass; and the hand of the Lord
shall be known to those who worship Him."(9) And Ezekiel
speaks as follows: "And the hand of the LORD came upon me,
and the LORD led me forth in the Spirit, and set me down in the
midst of the plain, and this place was full of bones. And He caused
me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were many upon
the surface of the plain very dry. And He said unto me, Son of
man, can these bones live ? And I said, Lord, Thou who hast made
them dost know. And He said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones,
and thou shalt say to them, Ye dry bones, hear the word of the
LORD. Thus saith the LORD to these bones, Behold, I will cause
the spirit of life to come upon you, and I will lay sinews upon
you, and bring up flesh again upon you, and I will stretch skin
upon you, and will put my Spirit into you, and ye shall live;
and ye shall know that I am the LORD. And I prophesied as the
Lord had commanded me. And it came to pass, when I was prophesying,
that, behold, an earthquake, and the bones were drawn together,
each one to its own articulation: and I beheld, and, lo, the sinews
and flesh were produced upon them, and the skins rose upon them
round about, but there was no breath in them. And He said unto
me, Prophesy to the breath, son of man, and say to the breath,
These things saith the LORD, Come from the four winds (spiritibus),
and breathe upon these dead, that they may live. So I prophesied
as the Lord had commanded me, and the breath entered into them;
and they did live, and stood upon their feet, an exceeding great
gathering."(10) And again he says, "Thus saith the LORD,
Behold, I will set your graves open, and cause you to come out
of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel; and ye
shall know that I am the LORD,
543
when I shall open your sepulchres, that I may bring my people
again out of the sepulchres: and I will put my Spirit into you,
and ye shall live; and I will place you in your land, and ye shall
know that I am the LORD. I have said, and I will do, saith the
LORD." (1) As we at once perceive that the Creator (Demiurgo)
is in this passage represented as vivifying our dead bodies, and
promising resurrection to them, and resuscitation from their sepulchres
and tombs, conferring upon them immortality also (He says, "For
as the tree of life, so shall their days be"(2)), He is shown
to be the only God who accomplishes these things, and as Himself
the good Father, benevolently conferring life upon those who have
not life from themselves.
2. And for this reason did the Lord most plainly manifest
Himself and the Father to His disciples, lest, forsooth, they
might seek after another God besides Him who formed man, and who
gave him the breath of life; and that men might not rise to such
a pitch of madness as to feign another Father above the Creator.
And thus also He healed by a word all the others who were in a
weakly condition because of sin; to whom also He said, "Behold,
thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon
thee:"(3) pointing out by this, that, because of the sin
of disobedience, infirmities have come upon men. To that man,
however, who had been blind from his birth, He gave sight, not
by means of a word, but by an outward action; doing this not without
a purpose, or because it so happened, but that He might show forth
the hand of God, that which at the beginning had moulded man.
And therefore, when His disciples asked Him for what cause the
man had been born blind, whether for his own or his parents' fault,
He replied, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents,
but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."(4)
Now the work of God is the fashioning of man. For, as the Scripture
says, He made [man] by a kind of process: "And the Lord took
day from the earth, and formed man."(5) Wherefore also the
Lord spat on the ground and made clay, and smeared it upon the
eyes, pointing out the original fashioning [of man], how it was
effected, and manifesting the hand of God to those who can understand
by what [hand] man was formed out of the dust. For that which
the artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb, [viz.,
the blind man's eyes], He then supplied in public, that the works
of God might be manifested in him, in order that we might not
be seeking out another hand by which man was fashioned, nor another
Father; knowing that this hand of God which formed us at the beginning,
and which does form us in the womb, has in the last times sought
us out who were lost, winning back His own, and taking up the
lost sheep upon His shoulders, and with joy restoring it to the
fold of life.
3. Now, that the Word of God forms us in the womb, He says
to Jeremiah, "Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee;
and before thou wentest forth from the belly, I sanctified thee,
and appointed thee a prophet among the nations." (6) And
Paul, too, says in like manner, "But when it pleased God,
who separated me from my mother's womb, that I might declare Him
among the nations."(7) As, therefore, we are by the Word
formed in the womb, this very same Word formed the visual power
in him who had been blind from his birth; showing openly who it
is that fashions us in secret, since the Word Himself had been
made manifest to men: and declaring the original formation of
Adam, and the manner in which he was created, and by what hand
he was fashioned, indicating the whole from a part. For the Lord
who formed the visual powers is He who made the whole man, carrying
out the will of the Father. And inasmuch as man, with respect
to that formation which, was after Adam, having fallen into transgression,
needed the layer of regeneration, [the Lord] said to him [upon
whom He had conferred sight], after He had smeared his eyes with
the clay, "Go to Siloam, and wash;"(8) thus restoring
to him both [his perfect] confirmation, and that regeneration
which takes place by means of the layer. And for this reason when
he was washed he came seeing, that he might both know Him who
had fashioned him, and that man might learn [to know] Him who
has conferred upon him life.
4. All the followers of Valentinus, therefore, lose their
case, when they say that man was not fashioned out of this earth,
but from a fluid and diffused substance. For, from the earth out
of which the Lord formed eyes for that man, from the same earth
it is evident that man was also fashioned at the beginning. For
it were incompatible that the eyes should indeed be formed from
one source and the rest of the body from another; as neither would
it be compatible that one [being] fashioned the body, and another
the eyes. But He, the very same who formed Adam at the beginning,
with whom also the Father spake, [saying], "Let Us make man
after Our image and likeness,"(9) revealing Himself in these
last times to men, formed visual organs (visionem) for him who
had been blind [in
544
that body which he had derived] from Adam. Wherefore also the
Scripture, pointing out what should come to pass, says, that when
Adam had hid himself because of his disobedience, the Lord came
to him at eventide, called him forth, and said, "Where art
thou?"(1) That means that in the last times the very same
Word of God came to call man, reminding him of his doings, living
in which he had been hidden from the Lord. For just as at that
time God spake to Adam at eventide, searching him out; so in the
last times, by means of the same voice, searching out his posterity,
He has visited them.
CHAP. XVI.--SINCE OUR BODIES RETURN TO THE EARTH, IT FOLLOWS THAT
THEY HAVE THEIR SUBSTANCE FROM IT; ALSO, BY THE ADVENT OF THE
WORD, THE IMAGE OF GOD IN US APPEARED IN A CLEARER LIGHT.
1. And since Adam was moulded from this earth to which we
belong, the Scripture tells us that God said to him, "In
the sweat of thy face shall thou eat thy bread, until thou turnest
again to the dust from whence thou weft taken."(2) If then,
after death, our bodies return to any other substance, it follows
that from it also they have their substance. But if it be into
this very [earth], it is manifest that it was also from it that
man's frame was created; as also the Lord clearly showed, when
from this very substance He formed eyes for the man [to whom He
gave sight]. And thus was the hand of God plainly shown forth,
by which Adam was fashioned, and we too have been formed; and
since there is one and the same Father, whose voice from the beginning
even to the end is present with His handiwork, and the substance
from which we were formed is plainly declared through the Gospel,
we should therefore not seek after another Father besides Him,
nor [look for] another substance from which we have been formed,
besides what was mentioned beforehand, and shown forth by the
Lord; nor another hand of God besides that which, from the beginning
even to the end, forms us and prepares us for life, and is present
with His handiwork, and perfects it after the image and likeness
of God.
2. And then, again, this Word was manifested when the Word
of God was made man, assimilating Himself to man, and man to Himself,
so that by means of his resemblance to the Son, man might become
precious to the Father. For in times long past, it was said that
man was created after the image of God, but it was not [actually]
shown; for the Word was as yet invisible, after whose image man
was created, Wherefore also he did easily lose the similitude.
When, however, the Word of God became flesh, He confirmed both
these: for He both showed forth the image truly, since He became
Himself what was His image; and He re-established the similitude
after a sure manner, by assimilating man to the invisible Father
through means of the visible Word.
3. And not by the aforesaid things alone has the Lord manifested
Himself, but [He has done this] also by means of His passion.
For doing away with [the effects of] that disobedience of man
which had taken place at the beginning by the occasion of a tree,
"He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;"(3)
rectifying that disobedience which had occurred by reason of a
tree, through that obedience which was [wrought out] upon the
tree [of the cross]. Now He would not have come to do away, by
means of that same [image], the disobedience which had been incurred
towards our Maker if He proclaimed another Father. But inasmuch
as it was by these things that we disobeyed God, and did not give
credit to His word, so was it also by these same that He brought
in obedience and consent as respects His Word; by which things
He clearly shows forth God Himself, whom indeed we had offended
in the first Adam, when he did not perform His commandment. In
the second Adam, however, we are reconciled, being made obedient
even unto death. For we were debtors to none other but to Him
whose commandment we had transgressed at the beginning.
CHAP. XVII.--THERE IS BUT ONE LORD AND ONE GOD, THE FATHER AND
CREATOR OF ALL THINGS, WHO HAS LOVED US IN CHRIST, GIVEN US COMMANDMENTS,
AND REMITTED OUR SINS; WHOSE SON AND WORD CHRIST PROVED HIMSELF
TO BE, WHEN HE FORGAVE OUR SINS.
1. Now this being is the Creator (Demiurgus), who is, in respect
of His love, the Father; but in respect of His power, He is Lord;
and in respect of His wisdom, our Maker and Fashioner; by transgressing
whose commandment we became His enemies. And therefore in the
last times the Lord has restored us into friendship through His
incarnation, having become "the Mediator between God and
men;"(4) propitiating indeed for us the Father against whom
we had sinned, and cancelling (consolatus) our disobedience by
His own obedience; conferring also upon us the gift of communion
with, and subjection to, our Maker. For this reason also He has
taught us to say in prayer, "And forgive us our debts;"(5)
since indeed He is our Father, whose debtors we were, having transgressed
His commandments. But who is this Being? Is He some unknown one,
and a Father who gives no com-
545
mandment to any one? Or is He the God who is proclaimed in the
Scriptures, to whom we were debtors, having transgressed His commandment?
Now the commandment was given to man by the Word. For Adam, it
is said, "heard the voice of the LORD God."(1) Rightly
then does His Word say to man, "Thy sins are forgiven thee;"(2)
He, the same against whom we had sinned in the beginning, grants
forgiveness of sins in the end. But if indeed we had disobeyed
the command of any other, while it was a different being who said,
"Thy sins are forgiven thee;"(2) such an one is neither
good, nor true, nor just. For how can he be good, who does not
give from what belongs to himself? Or how can he be just, who
snatches away the goods of another? And in what way can sins be
truly remitted, unless that He against whom we have sinned has
Himself granted remission "through the bowels of mercy of
our God," in which "He has visited us"(3) through
His Son?
2. And therefore, when He had healed the man sick of the palsy,
[the evangelist] says "The people upon seeing it glorified
God, who gave such power unto men."(4) What God, then, did
the bystanders glorify? Was it indeed that unknown Father invented
by the heretics? And how could they glorify him who was altogether
unknown to them? It is evident, therefore, that the Israelites
glorified Him who has been proclaimed as God by the law and the
prophets, who is also the Father of our Lord; and therefore He
taught men, by the evidence of their senses through those signs
which He accomplished, to give glory to God. If, however, He HimSelf
had come from another Father, and men glorified a different Father
when they beheld His miracles, He [in that case] rendered the
mungrateful to that Father who had sent the gift of healing. But
as the only-begotten Son had come for man's salvation from Him
who is God, He did both stir up the incredulous by the miracles
which He was in the habit of working, to give glory to the Father;
and to the Pharisees, who did not admit the advent of His Son,
and who consequently did not believe in the remission [of sins]
which was conferred by Him, He said, "That ye may know that
the Son of man hath power to forgive sins."(5) And when He
had said this, He commanded the paralytic man to take up the pallet
upon which he was lying, and go into his house. By this work of
His He confounded the unbelievers, and showed that He is Himself
the voice of God, by which man received commandments, which he
broke, and became a sinner; for the paralysis followed as a consequence
of sins.
3. Therefore, by remitting sins, He did indeed heal man, while
He also manifested Himself who He was. For if no one can forgive
sins but God alone, while the Lord remitted them and healed men,
it is plain that He was Himself the Word of God made the Son of
man, receiving from the Father the power of remission of sins;
since He was man, and since He was God, in order that since as
man He suffered for us, so as God He might have compassion on
us, and forgive us our debts, in which we were made debtors to
God our Creator. And therefore David said beforehand, "Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the LORD has not imputed sin;"(6)
pointing out thus that remission of sins which follows upon His
advent, by which "He has destroyed the handwriting"
of our debt, and "fastened it to the cross;"(7) so that
as by means of a tree we were made debtors to God, [so also] by
means of a tree we may obtain the remission of our debt.
3. This fact has been strikingly set forth by many others,
and especially through means of Elisha the prophet. For when his
fellow-prophets were hewing wood for the construction of a tabernacle,
and when the iron [head], shaken loose from the axe, had fallen
into the Jordan and could not be found by them, upon Elisha's
coming to the place, and learning what had happened, he threw
some wood into the water. Then, when he had done this, the iron
part of the axe floated up, and they took up from the surface
of the water what they had previously lost.(8) By this action
the prophet pointed out that the sure word of God, which we had
negligently lost by means of a tree, and were not in the way of
finding again, we should receive anew by the dispensation of a
tree, [viz., the cross of Christ]. For that the word of God is
likened to an axe, John the Baptist declares [when he says] in
reference to it, "But now also is the axe laid to the root
of the trees."(9) Jeremiah also says to the same purport:
"The word of God cleaveth the rock as an axe."(10) This
word, then, what was hidden from us, did the dispensation of the
tree make manifest, as I have already remarked. For as we lost
it by means of a tree, by means of a tree again was it made manifest
to all, showing the height, the length, the breadth, the depth
in itself; and, as a certain man among our predecessors observed,
"Through the extension of the hands of a divine person,(11)
gathering together the two peoples to one God."
546
For these were two hands, because there were two peoples scattered
to the ends of the earth; but there was one head in the middle,
as there is but one God, who is above all, and through all, and
in us all.
CHAP. XVIII.--GOD THE FATHER AND HIS WORD HAVE FORMED ALL CREATED
THINGS (WHICH THEY USE) BY THEIR OWN POWER AND WISDOM, NOT OUT
OF DEFECT OR IGNORANCE. THE SON OF GOD, WHO RECEIVED ALL POWER
FROM THE FATHER, WOULD OTHERWISE NEVER HAVE TAKEN FLESH UPON HIM.
1. And such or so important a dispensation He did not bring
about by means of the creations of others, but by His own; neither
by those things which were created out of ignorance and defect,
but by those which had their substance from the wisdom and power
of His Father. For He was neither unrighteous, so that He should
covet the property of another; nor needy, that He could not by
His own means impart life to His own, and make use of His own
creation for the salvation of man. For indeed the creation could
not have sustained Him [on the cross], if He had sent forth [simply
by commission] what was the fruit of ignorance and defect. Now
we have repeatedly shown that the incarnate Word of God was suspended
upon a tree, and even the very heretics do acknowledge that He
was crucified. How, then, could the fruit of ignorance and defect
sustain Him who contains the knowledge of all things, and is true
and perfect? Or how could that creation which was concealed from
the Father, and far removed from Him, have sustained His Word?
And if this world were made by the angels (it matters not whether
we suppose their ignorance or their cognizance of the Supreme
God), when the Lord declared, "For I am in the Father, and
the Father in Me,"(1) how could this workmanship of the angels
have borne to be burdened at once with the Father and the Son?
How, again, could that creation which is beyond the Pleroma have
contained Him who contains the entire Pleroma? Inasmuch, then,
as all these things are impossible and incapable of proof, that
preaching of the Church is alone true [which proclaims] that His
own creation bare Him, which subsists by the power, the skill,
and the wisdom of God; which is sustained, indeed, after an invisible
manner by the Father, but, on the contrary, after a visible manner
it bore His Word: and this is the true [Word].
2. For the Father bears the creation and His own Word simultaneously,
and the Word borne by the Father grants the Spirit to all as the
Father wills.(2) To some He gives after the manner of creation
what is made;(3) but to others [He gives] after the manner of
adoption, that is, what is from God, namely generation. And thus
one God the Father is declared, who is above all, and through
all, and in all. The Father is indeed above all, and He is the
Head of Christ; but the Word is through all things, and is Himself
the Head of the Church; while the Spirit is in us all, and He
is the living water,(4) which the Lord grants to those who rightly
believe in Him, and love Him, and who know that "there is
one Father, who is above all, and through all, and in us all."(5)
And to these things does John also, the disciple of the Lord,
bear witness, when he speaks thus in the Gospel: "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made
by Him, and without Him was nothing made."(6) And then he
said of the Word Himself: "He was in the world, and the world
was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. To His own things
He came, and His own people received Him not. However, as many
as did receive Him, to these gave He power to become the sons
of God, to those that believe in His name."(7) And again,
showing the dispensation with regard to His human nature, John
said: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."(8)
And in continuation he says, "And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the Only-begotten by the Father, full of grace and
truth." He thus plainly points out to those willing to hear,
that is, to those having ears, that there is one God, the Father
over all, and one Word of God, who is through all, by whom all
things have been made; and that this world belongs to Him, and
was made by Him, according to the Father's will, and not by angels;
nor by apostasy, defect, and ignorance; nor by any power of Prunicus,
whom certain of them also call "the Mother;" nor by
any other maker of the world ignorant of the Father.
3. For the Creator of the world is truly the Word of God:
and this is our Lord, who in the last times was made man, existing
in this world, and who in an invisible manner contains all things
created, and is inherent in the entire creation, since the Word
of God governs and arranges all
547
things; and therefore He came to His own in a visible(1) manner,
and was made flesh, and hung upon the tree, that He might sum
up all things in Himself. "And His own peculiar people did
not receive Him," as Moses declared this very thing among
the people: "And thy life shall be hanging before thine eyes,
and thou wilt not believe thy life."(2) Those therefore who
did not receive Him did not receive life. "But to as many
as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God."(3)
For it is He who has power from the Father over all things, since
He is the Word of God, and very man, communicating with invisible
beings after the manner of the intellect, and appointing a law
observable to the outward senses, that all things should continue
each in its own order; and He reigns manifestly over things visible
and pertaining to men; and brings in just judgment and worthy
upon all; as David also, clearly pointing to this, says, "Our
God shall openly come, and will not keep silence."(4) Then
he shows also the judgment which is brought in by Him, saying,
"A fire shall burn in His sight, and a strong tempest shall
rage round about Him. He shall call upon the heaven from above,
and the earth, to judge His people."
CHAP. XIX.--A COMPARISON IS INSTITUTED BETWEEN THE DISOBEDIENT
AND SINNING EVE AND THE VIRGIN MARY, HER PATRONESS. VARIOUS AND
DISCORDANT HERESIES ARE MENTIONED.
1. That the Lord then was manifestly coming to His own things,
and was sustaining them by means of that creation which is supported
by Himself, and was making a recapitulation of that disobedience
which had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience
which was [exhibited by Himself when He hung] upon a tree, [the
effects] also of that deception being done away with, by which
that virgin Eve, who was already espoused to a man, was unhappily
misled,--was happily announced, through means of the truth [spoken]
by the angel to the Virgin Mary, who was [also espoused] to a
man.(5) For just as the former was led astray by the word of an
angel, so that she fled from God when she had transgressed His
word; so did the latter, by an angelic communication, receive
the glad tidings that she should sustain (portaret) God, being
obedient to His word. And if the former did disobey God, yet the
latter was persuaded to be obedient to God, in order that the
Virgin Mary might become the patroness(6) (advocata) of the virgin
Eve. And thus, as the human race fell into bondage to death by
means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin; virginal disobedience
having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience.
For in the same way the sin of the first created man (protoplasti)
receives amendment by the correction of the First-begotten, and
the coming of the serpent is conquered by the harmlessness of
the dove, those bonds being unloosed by which we had been fast
bound to death.
2. The heretics being all unlearned and ignorant of God's
arrangements, and not acquainted with that dispensation by which
He took upon Him human nature (inscii ejus quoe est secundum hominem
dispensationis), inasmuch as they blind themselves with regard
to the truth, do in fact speak against their own salvation. Some
of them introduce another Father besides the Creator; some, again,
say that the world and its substance was made by certain angels;
certain others [maintain] that it was widely separated by Horos(7)
from him whom they represent as being the Father--that it sprang
forth (floruisse) of itself, and from itself was born. Then, again,
others [of them assert] that it obtained substance in those things
which are contained by the Father, from defect and ignorance;
others still, despise the advent of the Lord manifest [to the
senses], for they do not admit His incarnation; while others,
ignoring the arrangement [that He should be born] of a virgin,
main-rain that He was begotten by Joseph. And still further, some
affirm that neither their soul nor their body can receive eternal
life, but merely the inner man. Moreover, they will have it that
this [inner man] is that which is the understanding (sensum) in
them, and which they decree as being the only thing to ascend
to "the perfect." Others [maintain], as I have said
in the first book, that while the soul is saved, their body does
not participate in the salvation which comes from God; in which
[book] I have also set forward the hypotheses of all these men,
and in the second have pointed out their weakness and inconsistency.
CHAP. XX.--THOSE PASTORS ARE TO BE HEARD TO WHOM THE APOSTLES
COMMITTED THE CHURCHES, POSSESSING ONE AND THE SAME DOCTRINE OF
SALVATION; T |
