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 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 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?
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 qualified 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 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
substance 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
1make 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 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.
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 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."
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 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 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 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 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 (periautas), 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 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 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,
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
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
commandment 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."
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
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; THE HERETICS, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE TO BE AVOIDED. WE MUST
THINK SOBERLY WITH REGARD TO THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH.
1. Now all these [heretics] are of much later date than the bishops to whom the apostles committed
the Churches; which fact I have in the third book taken all pains to demonstrate. It follows, then, as a
matter of course, that these heretics aforementioned, since they are blind to the truth, and deviate
from the [right] way, will walk in various roads; and therefore the footsteps of their doctrine are
scattered here and there without agreement or connection. But the path of those belonging to the
Church circumscribes the whole world, as possessing the sure tradition from the apostles, and gives
unto us to see that the faith of all is one and the same, since all receive one and the same God the
Father, and believe in the same dispensation regarding the incarnation of the Son of God, and are
cognizant of the same gift of the Spirit, and are conversant with the same commandments, and
preserve the same form of ecclesiastical constitution,(1) and expect the same advent of the Lord, and
await the same salvation of the complete man, that is, of the soul and body. And undoubtedly the
preaching of the Church is true and stedfast, in which one and the same way of salvation is shown
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