The Ancoratus (The Well-Anchored Man) (chapters 71–109)
The Ancoratus (The Well-Anchored Man)
continued
Chapter 71
1 But someone will say, “Then are we saying there are two sons? And how can he be only-begotten?” Not at all. Who are you, who argue back against God? For he calls the Son the one who is from himself, and the Holy Spirit the one who is from both. These are understood by the saints by faith alone. They are bright and give light; their working is full of light, and they act in harmony with the “Father” himself, the Father of light. So listen in faith, my friend, 2 that the Father is the Father of a true Son, and is wholly light. The Son is the Son of a true Father, light from light, not a son in name only, as created or made things are. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, a third light, from the Father and the Son. 3 All other things are called sons by appointment or by title, and are not like these in working, power, light or understanding. It is as when someone says, “I have begotten sons and raised them high”; or “I said, You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High”; or the words, “he who has begotten the drops of dew”; or “from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named”; or “I who establish thunder and create wind.”
4 For the true Father is not like other fathers or patriarchs, as if he began at some point to be a Father, or at some time would cease to be a Father. If he began to be a Father, then he was once the son of another father, before he became the Father of the only-begotten. And by that likeness, fathers would be understood as children of fathers, and the search for the origin would go on without end before one found the one who is truly Father. 5 Nor is the true Son like the other children, who are sons by appointment, as one new to being a Son. For if he were new to being a Son, there was once a time when the Father was not the Father of the only-begotten. 6 Nor is the Spirit of truth created or made like the other spirits, nor is he called “the angel of great counsel” in the way the other angels are.
7 For the one kind has a beginning and an end; the other has a beginning and a power beyond thought. The one creates all things for unending ages, working together with the Father; the other is created by them, as they wish. The one serves these; the other is worshipped by all creatures. The one cares for what has been made; the other receives that care from them. The one is judged according to what it deserves; the other holds the just judgment. 8 The one exists in time; the other is not in time. The one gives light to all things; the other is given light by them. The one calls infants up to the heights; the other is called by the perfect one. The one gives gifts to all; the other receives gifts. In short, the one sings praise of holiness in the heaven of heavens and the other unseen places; the other, though praised, gives gifts worthily to those who are worthy.
Chapter 72
1 Scripture speaks of very many spirits: “He who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire,” and, “All you spirits, praise the Lord.” 2 The gift of “discerning of spirits” is given to those who are worthy. For some spirits are heavenly, “rejoicing in the truth.” Others are earthly, suited to deceit and error. Others are under the earth, children of the abyss and of darkness. For the Gospel says, “They begged him not to send them away into the abyss.” In the same way he gave orders to the spirits, drove spirits out by a word, and “would not allow them to speak.” 3 There is also said to be a “spirit of judgment” and a “spirit of burning.” There is a spirit of the world (“We have not received the spirit of the world,” it says). There is also a spirit of man: “For who among men knows the things of the man, except the spirit of the man?” And there is “a spirit that goes and does not return”; “for a spirit passed through him, and he will not exist”; and, “You will take away their spirit and they will fail.” And there is a spirit of the prophets.
4 “The spirits of the prophets,” it says, “are subject to the prophets.” And: “Behold, a lying spirit stood before the Lord and said to him, By what means will you deceive Ahab?” And, it says, “I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophets.” 5 There is also said to be a “spirit of compunction,” a “spirit of cowardice,” a “spirit of Python,” a “spirit of fornication,” a “spirit of storm,” a “spirit of much talking,” a “spirit of weakness,” an “unclean spirit,” a deaf spirit, a mute spirit, a spirit that speaks with difficulty, a “spirit exceedingly harsh” which is called Legion, and “the spiritual forces of wickedness.” 6 The sayings about spirits are endless, for those who are wise. But just as many are sons by appointment or by name and not in truth, because they have a beginning and an end [text defective: sinfully], so too there are very many spirits by appointment or by name, even if they are sinful. The Holy Spirit alone is called the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, the “Spirit of truth,” the Spirit of the Mind, the “Spirit of Christ,” and the “Spirit of grace.”
7 For the good is given to each person in different ways: “to one a spirit of wisdom, to another a spirit of knowledge, to another a spirit of strength, to another a spirit of healings, to another a spirit of prophecy, to another a spirit of discernment, to another of tongues, to another of interpretations,” and the rest of the gifts. As he says, “but one and the same Spirit distributes to each as he wills.” 8 David says, “Your good Spirit will lead me, O God.” And there is the saying, “The Spirit blows where he wills,” by which he shows us that the Holy Spirit is a real, personal being. It goes on: “and you hear his voice, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” And also: “Unless you are born of water and Spirit.” This is like what Paul said: “For in Christ Jesus I fathered you.”
9 Concerning this, the Lord says: “When the Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” And: “I still have many things to say, but you cannot bear them now. When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will announce to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and announce everything to you.”
Chapter 73
1 73. If, then, he proceeds from the Father and, as the Lord says, “will take from what is mine,” then just as “no one knew the [Father] except the [Son], nor the Son except the Father,” so I dare to say this: no one knows the Spirit except the Son, from whom he receives, and the Father, from whom he proceeds. And no one knows the Son and the Father 2 except the Holy Spirit. He is the one who truly glorifies, who teaches all things, who bears witness about the Son, who is from the Father and from the Son. He is the only guide of truth, the interpreter of the holy laws, the guide into the spiritual law, the teacher of the prophets, the instructor of the apostles, the light-giver of the doctrines of the gospel, the one who chooses out the saints, true light from true light. 3 The Son is Son by nature, true Son, genuine Son, alone from the Alone. With him is the Spirit as well, who is not a son but is named Spirit.
4 This is the God who is glorified in the church: Father always, Son always, and Holy Spirit always. He is exalted, from the Exalted, and he is spiritual, spiritual in mind. He has a glory beneath which lie all created and made things, and in short everything that is measured and each thing that is contained. 5 One Godhead is proclaimed above all in Moses. A duality is strongly preached in the prophets. A trinity is made plain in the gospels. As times and generations went on, this was more and more fitted to the righteous person for knowledge and faith. The knowledge of it is immortality, and from faith in it comes adoption as sons. 6 But first it sets out the ordinances of the flesh, building up in Moses, as it were, the outer court around the temple. Second, it describes the ordinances of the soul, adorning the holy place in the remaining prophecies. Third come the ordinances of the spirit, setting in order, in the writings of the gospel, the mercy seat and the Holy of Holies as a dwelling for itself. It is a holy tent and a holy temple, which is
7 the righteous man, righteous only [text uncertain: the one] who is joined to these things. In him dwells one Godhead: one Godhead without limit, one Godhead incorruptible, one Godhead beyond all thought, beyond grasping, beyond description, invisible. It alone knows itself, and it shows itself to those it chooses. It raises up, calls, appoints beforehand and glorifies witnesses for itself. It lifts them out of Hades, makes them holy, and unites them again for its own glory and faith. These three things are heavenly, earthly and under the earth: spirit, soul and flesh; faith, hope and love; past, present and future; age of age, ages of ages; sabbaths of sabbaths; circumcision of the flesh, circumcision of the heart, “the circumcision of Christ in the stripping off of the body of sins.” And in general it purifies for itself 8 all things, the invisible and the visible: thrones, lordships, rulers, authorities, powers. In all of them there is the same holy voice, crying from glory to glory, “Holy, holy, holy.” It glorifies the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father, together with the Holy [Spirit]. To him be glory and power forever and ever, amen. And the one who believes this way will say, “So be it, so be it.”
Chapter 74
1 74. Concerning the Trinity and the one substance of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we are weak and untrained men. We use no clever sophistry, and we do not stake ourselves on the dice-play of men. Instead we have gathered testimonies from the divine Scriptures, in part, for those who wish to use them: to help believers find the truth, and to answer those whose faith is bad and whose pride is empty. For the power of faith in the Holy Spirit is great, 2 and it is proclaimed in many ways throughout all the divine Scriptures. Now the security of our salvation lies in what is certain about the incarnation of our Savior and his coming in the flesh. It also lies in the confirmation of our hope concerning the resurrection of the dead and our new birth. So we add a little more to this labor of ours, for those who want to read more carefully. We stay with the same divine Scriptures, gathering from them and adding to our discourse.
3 For, as we were already taught in what is written above, our Lord himself said in his gospel to his disciples, “Go and baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep the commandments that I commanded you.” He is the holy Word himself, the Word with his own real existence, who came forth from the Father, through whom the ages came to be, and through whom times and seasons came to be. 4 For there was no season and no time before the Son. If there were time before the Son, then time would be greater than the Son. And how then could it be that “all things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be that has come to be”? For if anything has come to be, it has come to be through him. But he himself is uncreated and always existing, because the Father always was, and his Holy Spirit always was.
5 For if there were time before the Son, we would then have to look for yet another through whom the time before the Son came to be. And countless further questions would turn our reasoning toward an imagination lurking in human supposition, or rather toward a fornication of thoughts, and not toward [sound-mindedness] [text corrupt]. 6 So there was no time before the Son. The Son did not come to be through times; rather, through the Son came times, [the ages] and all the other created things. There was never a time when the Son was not, and never a time when the Spirit was not.
Chapter 75
1 75. Some, reading wrongly and not understanding, think they can divide the passage where it says, “All things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be.” They put a stop at this point, and so take the saying to carry a suspicion of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. But they are mistaken in the reading, and from the mistake in their reading they limp along, turning aside into blasphemy. 2 The reading is this: “All things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be. What has come to be in him...” That is to say, if anything has come to be, it came to be through him. 3 Therefore the Father always was, and the Son always was, and the Spirit breathes out from the Father and the Son. Neither the Son nor the Spirit is created. But everything that comes after the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is created and made. These things did not exist and then came to be, from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, through the ever-existing Word together with the ever-existing Spirit.
4 So all created things came to be through the Word himself, the heavenly King, the Word with his own real existence, our Savior and benefactor. 5 For the Savior himself, the holy one, came down from the heaven of heavens. In the virgin’s workshop he deigned to work out our salvation. He was born again from Mary, conceived through the Holy Spirit. He took flesh; he is the Word who became flesh, not changed in his nature. Together with the deity he took humanity. He is perfect from the Father, and he fulfilled the perfect plan of salvation. He came into the world for us and for our [text corrupt]. He took human flesh and a human soul, 6 being perfect from the Father. He became man among us, not in appearance but in truth, forming for himself a perfect man from Mary, the God-bearer, through the Holy Spirit. 7 He did not simply live in a man, as he used to speak in the prophets and dwell and work in them by power. Rather, the Word himself became flesh. He did not cease to be God, and he did not change his deity into humanity. With the full measure of his own deity, and with the very own subsistence of God the Word, a subsistence that is real in itself, he took into himself being man, and whatever belongs to being a man.
8 He took a perfect man, having all that is in a man and everything that belongs to a man. The only-begotten came and took this man so that, being God, he might work the whole of salvation perfectly in a perfect man. He left nothing of the man out, so that the part left out would not, in its turn, become food for the devil.
Chapter 76
1 76. Some may say that he took flesh only and not a soul. They twist things into fables and turn Scripture aside into myths, appealing to the saying, “We have the mind of Christ.” But from that very saying they should understand that those who said “We have the mind of Christ” had their own mind and had not spat it out. And if they had their own mind together with the mind of Christ, then the mind of Christ was able to improve both, while their own mind was thinking rightly. 2 Let them understand the same about Christ himself. Being God, and having mind in himself, he also had the mind of a man, and together with the flesh he took a soul. 3 So he did not turn the mind aside, as a man might. Rather, he himself became the mind’s adorner, straightener and improver. For just as he took flesh without being overcome by the flesh, so also, having taken a mind, he was not overcome by the mind.
4 On the contrary, and more seriously, such people fall into self-contradiction. For the divine Scriptures cry out plainly, here and there, and speak their harsh words not against the mind but against the flesh. 5 For he says, “The fruits of the flesh are fornication, adultery, licentiousness, and things like these.” And, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” And, “The flesh desires against the Spirit.” But concerning the mind he says, “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the mind also.” And, “My mind is unfruitful,” or fruitful. For God established the mind, which Scripture usually calls the heart, as the leader, so to speak, and the charioteer of the whole vessel. It is the judge of good and bad, and the examiner of what arises within us. “For the mind distinguishes words, as the throat tastes food.” The mind in man is able to discern, but it does not yet give consent, unless it hands itself over to a turning aside.
Chapter 77
1 77. Why then did it seem right to some to throw the mind out of the Lord’s becoming man? What good have they done, when they have turned life toward disorder rather than order? Or what harm or good, if I may put it so, has this done to us, that they should be helping Christ? Or is it to do him a great favor, and to say of him that he did not take a mind? 2 “Galatians are senseless,” and “Cretans are always liars,” and “Ephraim is a dove without sense.” But our Lord, when he became man in this life, took up everything perfectly. Or rather, he took it himself, having become the maker of his own body, and having taken a soul for himself, or rather having put it in. 3 Some, wishing to make the coming of Christ in the flesh defective, and the economy of salvation in him incomplete, said, I do not know with what thought, and wrongly, that Christ did not take a mind.
4 But [it does not appear that they say this because of the mind]. For these people suppose the mind to be a subsistence, and they dare to say that by nature it is what Scripture usually calls the spirit in man, as the apostle says: “that your spirit and soul and body may be kept whole at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 5 So they are mistaken. For if the mind is the spirit and the spirit is the mind, as they themselves think, and the soul is another [subsistence] apart from the mind and the spirit, then there are no longer two things in man joined together in one subsistence, no longer a soul alone with its own subsistence and a body with its own subsistence. Instead we have found four: mind as one subsistence, soul as another, spirit as another, and body as another. 6 If we search again, there is still more. Man has many names, such as “the inner man” and “the outer man.” Scripture says all of this in terms of thought, binding our understanding tightly, so that we leave out nothing that concerns salvation and have no excuse to wander from the subject before us. These things are all in man, but we should not pry into them further.
7 Even so, by their own argument, if the mind is the spirit and the spirit is the mind, and these are something apart from the soul [text uncertain], then why does the apostle say, “I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the mind also”? By saying this he showed that the spirit is not the mind, and the mind is not the spirit.
Chapter 78
1 Then again, “the soul that sins shall die” was not said of a soul apart from the body. Or take “there were seventy souls.” Surely those were not souls without bodies, but bodies with souls. Custom also calls a man by a single name, as when he is master of eighty bodies [that is, eighty persons]. Surely these were not without souls either. 2 So the Word who became flesh was not without a soul, just as he was not without anything else that belongs to the whole reality of man. When Scripture says “soul,” it does not mean a soul without a body. And when we say “body,” we do not think of it as being without a soul. 3 What, then, did those people have in mind who want to say that the mind was cast aside? What good has this done the church? Or rather, how has it not troubled the church? And how does the man who thinks such things not make our salvation incomplete?
4 We cannot conceive of the mind as something different from the man, and we cannot speak of it as a separate substance on its own. Rather, in each one of those who are [not] led astray [text uncertain], it is the composite, rational and thinking part. As the eyes are in the body, so the mind is in the soul. Again, we do not say this to quarrel, but simply to name the thinking faculty of human beings. 5 What, then, is a man? Soul, body, mind, and whatever else there may be. What then did the Lord come to save? Plainly, the complete man. Therefore he took on everything in man completely. 6 Otherwise, how could these things be fulfilled in him, which were both prophesied and reckoned to belong to man, out of mind, body, soul and the whole of becoming man, without sin? 7 The divine word plainly sets this before us, saying, “Behold, my beloved servant will understand, whom I have chosen, in whom my soul is well pleased; I will put my Spirit upon him,” and so on. Now, where does this “will understand” apply? If it applies to the deity, is the deity then in need of understanding? God forbid. This is fulfilled in the Lord’s man. But if it is fulfilled in the Lord’s man, how will an incarnation that exists without a mind “understand”? That is impossible.
8 If “will understand” refers to Christ at all, and Christ is the Word from above, who became flesh from Mary, and who “became man and lived among us,” as it is written, then without any doubt he received the whole dispensation together with a mind, since understanding belongs to it. 9 This is why the Gospel says of him, “he advanced in wisdom and in stature.” The deity does not admit growth in stature, nor is it lacking in wisdom, since it is wisdom itself [text uncertain]. It was the Savior’s incarnation that advanced in wisdom. It could not have done so if it had been without a mind. And it advanced in stature as the child grew strong, as is true.
Chapter 79
1 But suppose this is thought to be sin because he took a mind [text uncertain]. Then it would be much more so if we grant that he took flesh, since sin is not carried out apart from flesh: “for the works of the flesh are plain.” On that reasoning we would have to grant that he also sinned in the flesh, since he took the flesh. The apostle says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” 2 But who will dare to say that, because the Savior took flesh, he was carried off along with the flesh, and carried out the works of the flesh, following the course of his whole vessel [text uncertain]? His flesh was indeed human flesh, but it failed in nothing. 3 For God the Word came forth from above, from the Father, and was pleased to become [incarnate] in flesh. He held the vessel in check with a bridle. If he wished to restrain it from every useless fleshly action, he was able to. And if he wished, he gave it rein. He gave it rein for the reasonable bodily needs that were fitting to his deity.
4 For the mind was not stretched out toward irrational desires, since he had a mind in truth, just as he had the whole incarnation in truth. Nor did he do or reason the things of the flesh just as we do. He was God, become true flesh from the virgin Mary, and he acted [. . .] with flesh and soul and mind and the whole vessel. He is God the Word, subsisting in himself, who came from above from the Father and took up residence among the human race. 5 But let no one twist this by saying it was spoken loosely, like the words “give heed to my cry.” That was spoken loosely, for the sake of prayer, and it is clear that its use was prophesied [as] a pattern of his coming in the flesh. But the words “and he advanced in [stature/age]” are true.
Chapter 80
1 80. But what do such people think we are saying, if we say that Christ became a perfect man from Mary, or that he had a [mind]? Do they think we suppose he fell into sins? Never! “He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.” 2 He breathed his power into the saints, and those into whom he breathed are attested to have been holy and righteous, and to have advanced blameless in their days. How much more, then, is this true of the Word himself, in whom “all the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell bodily”! Suppose he took true flesh from Mary the ever-virgin, and a truly human soul and mind, and whatever else is in a human being. Being God, he held all of it within himself. None of it was divided toward evil, none of it was crumbled by the evil one, none of it was caught in pleasure, and none of it fell under the transgression of Adam.
3 This is why the apostle says, “born of a woman, born under the law,” and again, “found in form as a man.” The words “in form,” “as a man,” “born,” and “under the law,” taken together, point to perfection and freedom from passion. “Born” shows that he was perfect. “Under the law” shows that it was not mere appearance. “In form,” as to his outward look, shows that it was firm. “As a man” shows that he was without sin. 4 So, with all this being so, let no one be deceived by empty myths. If he was truly begotten from above by the Father, and was truly born of Mary also, then he is true above and true below. If he is imperfect below, he is imperfect above. But if he is perfect above, he is perfect below. He did not dwell in some other perfect man; he brought all things to perfection in himself.
5 And he rose from the dead. He was no longer divided in the tomb, with the body in one place, the deity in another, and the soul in the underworld. He was no longer subject to touch and no longer held. He entered through closed doors, and yet he was handled by Thomas, so that he might be represented not by appearance but in truth. 6 He was believed by Thomas after what was foretold was fulfilled: “With my hands I sought God, and I was not deceived.” He is the same God and the same man. He produced no confusion, but blended the two into one. 7 He did not pass into non-existence. Rather, he joined the earthly body in power with the deity, united it into one power, and brought it together into one deity. He is one Lord and one Christ, not two Christs, nor two [Lords]. 8 In him is a spiritual body, and in him is incomprehensible deity. What suffered was not corrupted, and the one who cannot suffer is incorruptible; the whole is incorruption. He is God the Lord, seated at the right hand of the Father. He has not left the flesh behind. He has united it in one, the whole in one deity, and he is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Chapter 81
1 81. This, then, is the only-begotten: perfect, uncreated, unchangeable, unalterable, beyond understanding, invisible. He became man and rose spiritually, and he “dies no more.” He is no longer poor, he who “for our sake became poor, though he was rich.” He is wholly spirit, uniting the fleshly and the divine. He is one Lord, King Christ, the Son of God, seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father “far above all rule and authority, power, and every name that is named.” He says in the gospel, “Go and baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 2 And this [. . .] in the midst [of the text] did not signify that the Son is blended with the Father, nor that the Holy Spirit is blended with the Father and the Son. Rather, he knows a true Father, and he showed himself to be the true Word, subsisting in himself, and his Holy Spirit to be a Spirit subsisting in himself, and “Spirit of truth,” uncreated, unchangeable, unalterable. Not
3 This is not said so that anyone might suppose a man is moving deceitfully toward the faith, hiding his tracks and playing false with the truth, “for God examines hearts and kidneys.” 4 The heretic says, “Of course I believe that the Father is Father, the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit, and I confess three subsistences in one essence. I do not speak of an essence other than the Godhead, nor of a Godhead other than the essence. We call it one essence for the sake of precision, so that we do not speak of some other kind or form of the Godhead of the Trinity.” 5 A man like this, as I said, keeps his real view hidden and speaks cunningly and deceitfully again: “I believe that the Father is Father, the Son is Son, the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit.” But he holds a hidden notion of this kind. He has pictured the divine on the model of ourselves, and says within himself: “As I have a human body, soul and spirit, so also the Godhead.”
6 The Father is, so to speak, the outward form; the Son is like the soul in a man; and the Spirit is like what breathes through the man. 7 Some people practice deceit in this way and think of the Godhead like this. But we have not learned it so. Look: the Father bears witness in heaven by a voice; look, the Son is at the Jordan; look, the Spirit came down and took shape in the form of a dove. But he took shape in himself, being a subsistence in himself, not different from that of the Father and the Son, but of the same essence: a subsistence from the same subsistence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. 8 And again: look, the Father sits in heaven. [text defective here] But do not take “sits” in a human way. Hold it as beyond description and beyond grasp. And Scripture did not say, “The Son went up to the Father,” but, “he sat down at the right hand of the Father.”
9 Again, speaking about the Holy Spirit, the Only-begotten taught: “I am going away, and that one will come, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth. If I do not go away, that one does not come.” But if the Spirit were fused together with the Son himself, he would not have said, “I am going away and that one is coming.” He said it to show one subsistence and another subsistence. Yet there is one Godhead, one God, one truth.
Chapter 82
1 So I have written, for anyone who wishes it, the order of our life and our firm confession. It comes from the law, the prophets, the gospels and the apostles. From the time of the apostles down to our own time it has been kept unstained in the catholic church. 2 But out of envy at the peace of the one true faith, again and again, time after time, this same faith, hope and salvation of ours has been persecuted through the heresies. It has endured in its own truth, while the heresies in every age defile themselves and are cut off from the church. 3 So it is again just now. We hear of some who are thought to hold first rank among certain ascetics in Egypt, in the Thebaid, and in other regions elsewhere. They think like the Hieracites. They speak of a resurrection of our flesh, but not of this flesh; they say it is some other flesh in its place. They are men who have turned aside, and they have turned the truth of God and our firm hope aside into myths. So we are compelled to speak about this again.
Chapter 83
1 Unbelievers deny the resurrection altogether. But those of corrupt faith, in a confused and senseless way, have fallen away from the true hope by thinking this way about the resurrection. 2 The Greeks deny the resurrection completely because of the ungodliness of the many lawless deeds among them. They hate the resurrection because of the shame they will have to face in it. They do not know God or his commandments. Yet they will rise, even if they do not want to. 3 For creation itself plainly refutes them, showing every day the pattern of resurrection. The day sets, and we picture the way of the dead, since the night suggests sleep. The day rises and wakes us, and points out the sign of resurrection. 4 Fruits are gathered, and the standing crop is cut down, which marks out our own departure from here. The earth is sown and sprouts, [text defective here] because what has been buried will rise after the cutting. The locust dies after burying in the earth the offspring she has laid, and after a time the earth gives up what was buried. The seeds of crops are sown; first they die, and then they come to full fruit.
5 “For unless it dies, it is not made alive.” God has made seals of the resurrection in us, in the ten nails on our hands and the ten on our feet, bearing witness to our hope. He has also proclaimed our resurrection through the hair on our head, as though through a crown. For what seems to be dead matter in us, that is, hair and nails, is cut every day, and yet it grows again, pointing to the hope of the resurrection.
Chapter 84
1 84. There are countless examples that could be given to convince unbelievers. But neither the wood pigeon, that bird, nor the shrew-mouse, that animal, has persuaded them. For such a creature dies for six months, and the wood pigeon for forty days, and then, when their times are over, they come to life again. 2 Dung beetles, when they are about to die, hide themselves in a ball of dung. They bury the ball in the ground and cover it over, and so, from its moisture, they are found again, coming back to life out of their own remains. 3 About the phoenix, the Arabian bird, it is needless for me to say much, for the account has already reached the ears of many, both believers and unbelievers. The story about it appears to be this. When it has lived five hundred years and knows that the time of its death has come, it makes a nest of spices and carries it to the city of the Egyptians called Heliopolis. The name means “On” in the Egyptian and Hebrew language. There it beats its own breast many times with its feet.
4 It brings fire out of its own body and sets alight the material laid in the place, and so it burns itself up completely, and all of its flesh, along with its bones, is reduced to ashes. 5 Then, by God’s arrangement, a cloud is sent, and it rains and puts out the flame that consumed the bird’s body. By then the bird is dead and thoroughly burnt. 6 When the flame is put out, some remains of its flesh are left, still raw. Within one day they disappear, and it produces a worm. The worm grows feathers and becomes a young bird. On the third day it is full grown, and it shows itself to those who serve at that place. Then it flies back to its own homeland and rests.
Chapter 85
1 85. I am astonished at the mind of the unbelieving Greeks and other barbarians, so deceived in every way. In their own myths they are not ashamed to point to resurrection everywhere, and they often sing about resurrection. 2 Their myths record that Alcestis, the daughter of Pelias, died on behalf of her husband Admetus and after three days was raised by Heracles and brought up from the inner chambers of the dead. They tell also of Pelops, the son of Tantalus, after he was served up as meat by his own father to their falsely named gods. 3 Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles, was brought back to life by Asclepius. Glaucus, the son of Minos, was brought back to life by Polyidus, son of Coeranus, with a certain herb. Castor was restored through his brother Polydeuces, who chose of his own will to exchange life with him every other day. And Protesilaus was restored through Laodameia.
4 They also say that Sisyphus and Tantalus, and the daughters of Caucasus whom they call the Erinyes, and Tiresias along with them, are cast into Tartarus to pay the penalty there: one by a rock, another by a wheel, and others punished in other ways, and that they are still in punishment. So they have not passed into nonexistence, but exist in bodies. 5 For if they did not have bodies, how could they be handed over to punishments by a rock and a wheel? There is much more to say about these things, to establish the faith that is in us, and as a refutation of them.
Chapter 86
1 86. But those who come from the heresies sing songs akin to these, in harmony with their unbelief. Some of the heretics, I mean the Manichaeans, say that there will be a resurrection not of the body but of the soul. The Greeks I mentioned before hold and share the same opinion. Their argument is more like nonsense than something put forward with understanding. 2 For if the heresies speak of a resurrection, and truly regard it as a resurrection, but define it as being about souls, that is foolish. How can a soul rise that has not fallen? For we do not bury souls in tombs, but bodies. 3 For souls do not fall; flesh does. Even common usage is accustomed to call dead bodies “fallen” bodies. So if a resurrection is agreed on among them, it is plain to anyone that 4 It is the body that has fallen, not the soul. Again, the Greeks who deny the resurrection are refuted. On their public festival days they carry food and drink to the tombs. They burn the foods whole and pour out wine as an offering. This does the dead no good at all, and it does the offerers more harm.
5 Yet their own custom forces them to confess the resurrection of the dead. They come to the place where the bodies of the departed were laid, and they call out to the buried dead by name. 6 “Rise up, so-and-so,” they say, “eat and drink and be glad.” Suppose they think the souls stay there, where the remains of the departed are buried. Then there is some good hope in this for them. For the souls would be waiting for the coming day and the resurrection of the new birth, until they receive back the bodies that were composed with them and yoked to them. This would be so even though the sons of the Greeks loathe the flesh as worthless, as something wholly destroyed, with no hope of coming back to life. 7 But if they do not do this in that way, what is their reason? They bind souls, which are better than the substance of bodies, to tombs, and by this assumption they bring them under a kind of sentence, since they declare that the souls wait beside the dead remains. Or let them say what expectation of hope brings them there.
8 No. The truth is that they do not think the souls are in tombs. They think the souls are in certain storehouses assigned by God to each soul, according to what each did and how each lived in this life. But each man laid the bodies of his neighbor, that is, the bones, in the burial places with his own hands. It would be foolish if this one view and its consequence were agreed everywhere, and yet among unbelievers the opposite happened: that they deny the true things, and the things that are possible with God are not held firm among them as grounds for hope.
Chapter 87
1 87. I think enough has been said about these matters, since from the many examples we have set out only a few. 2 Now consider those who seem to be Christians but are persuaded by Origen. They confess the resurrection of the dead, of our flesh and of the body of that holy Lord taken from Mary. But they say that this flesh is not raised, and that another is given by God in its place. Should we not say that they hold a more impious view than the others, and a more foolish one than the notions of the Greeks and the other heresies? 3 First, if another flesh is raised in place of this one, as they say, then God’s judgment is not just, according to their own story. It would be judging one flesh in place of the one that sinned. Or it would be bringing a different body into the glory of the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, in place of the body that grew weary with fasting, sleepless nights and persecutions for the name of God.
4 And how will the soul be judged alone, as the heresies say, when the body that sinned together with it is not present? Such a soul would speak against God’s judgment, saying that the sins belonged to the body. 5 For it has a proof too, according to the argument of people driven by love of quarrelling and not by truth. It can say, “I did not sin; the body did. From the time I left the body, I have not committed fornication or adultery. I have not stolen, murdered or worshipped idols, or done any evil or incurable thing.” 6 And its defense will be found reasonable. If it defends itself reasonably, what shall we say? Is God’s judgment then idle? Or does God unjustly bring wrath on human beings? “May it never be.”
Chapter 88
1 But we know that “all things are possible with God.” He can raise a body without a soul. He can make bodies that have vanished live again and move of themselves, without a soul, if he wishes. He has in fact already carried out such a plan through the most holy Ezekiel. 2 For he said to the holy prophet, “Say, son of man, that bone be gathered to bone and joint to joint.” It was a marvel to see God’s power. The souls had not yet been put in, and the bones were dry. Yet at God’s command they not only gained the power to move, but the bones were also filled with understanding, and with no ordinary knowledge. 3 For the bones that belonged near the parts of the head did not forget and wander off. The vertebrae of the neck did not go astray, looking for their place among the joints of the ankle bones. Each bone moved and went its way with understanding, and was joined to its own joint.
4 So then, if God wishes, he is able to raise even a body without a soul. In this very thing he showed his power: he first made what men had given up as hopeless come to life again, by giving his command to Ezekiel. 5 He did not say, “Say, son of man, let the spirit come first.” Rather, after the difficulty had been made easy for faith, I mean after the bodies had been gathered together, then he commanded the souls to enter those same bodies. “And a great multitude,” he says, “stood up.” 6 So I have said that God is able to make even a body live again apart from the soul, as was shown above. But the body cannot be judged by itself alone, for it has a just defense against God’s judgment. 7 For the body would say for itself: “The sin came from the soul; I was not the cause. From the moment I was loosed and the soul departed from me, did I commit adultery? Did I fornicate, steal, worship idols, or do any such wrongdoing?” And so, according to the argument of the quarrelsome, God’s judgment would accomplish nothing.
8 For this reason, since the body and the soul together were one composite man made by God, the just Judge raises the body again and gives its soul back to it. In this way God’s judgment will be just, since both share together either the punishment due for sin, or the godliness shown through virtue and the reward that is to be given to the saints.
Chapter 89
1 89. I think these things are enough to establish the truth of our hope, and I have set out a few testimonies in place of many. But because of those who say that a different body is raised in place of the one that falls, I am taking up the labor again. I want to help those who wish to understand, and I do not want those who refuse to try to lose their own life. 2 May it be that we, the least and the nothing, take pains, and that we ourselves and everyone are helped, and that no one denies the resurrection of our flesh. In it lies the whole treasure, the foundation of every sound way of thinking, and the hope of every good work, according to what is said: “having this treasure in earthen vessels,” and so on. 3 For we who are weak practice self-control, and we who are lowly keep ourselves pure. We who are powerless long to give alms, because of what we expect to receive: the resurrection of the dead.
4 And so the rule of faith is founded, and the hope, the love of God, and the witness given for the name of God in persecutions, with tortures and other inhuman punishments. It is founded among those who do not deny the resurrection of our flesh, but believe that the very thing that is sown in the 5 earth will be raised. The divine Scriptures have given us two clear and true testimonies, by which we can know the hope of our resurrection and not stumble through the myths of vain men who have been deceived and who have written deception into life. So that I need not use many testimonies (for there are not few, in the New Testament and the Old, about our hope and resurrection), I will say this briefly:
Chapter 90
1 90. If what is raised were something else, as some claim, the apostle would not have spoken so firmly when he said, “For this perishable must put on imperishability, and this mortal must put on immortality.” 2 And since we must also be made firm in hope concerning the saints, that after the resurrection they will be made radiant and changed (as he says, “It is raised in glory”), Holy Scripture says: “Fool, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And you do not sow the body that will be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of some other seed. And God gives it a body as he wished.” He said this for the glory of those who are raised, in radiance. 3 And to show that the grain itself receives the glory, the one who also “spoke in Paul” about the resurrection said it through himself in the Gospel: “Unless the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,” he says, it remains alone.
4 “But if it dies, it bears many grains.” So the apostle said “grain,” and the Savior by his own words showed it to be the same grain of the body. What then shall we say? Was it not the very body sown, his own, that is, the grain, that rose? Or was what rose from the tomb after the three days something different from it? 5 As the angels say, “He has risen; he is not here.” And as he says to Mary, “Do not touch me; for I have ascended to my Father.” And as he shows his hands and his side to Thomas, saying, “Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 6 It is the mark of unbelievers to say that he did not rise at all. It is also the mark of those with a bad faith to say that the very body that existed and fell asleep did not rise. It is the mark of believers to say that the very body rose, and that it was established as the hope of truth from the same body by which he raised ours.
Chapter 91
1 For this reason he left the marks of the nails and did not wipe them away, and the mark of the spear as well, even though he had come in through closed doors. His flesh rose spiritual, but it was not something other than what it was. It was the very same body, united to the Godhead and adorned with the fineness of spirit. 2 If it had not been the fineness of spirit, what kind of opening could have received a bulky body? But he did it to show that this very perishable body of ours puts on imperishability in truth, and that though it is mortal, it puts on immortality. So he came in through closed doors to show that what is coarse becomes fine, what is mortal becomes immortal, and what is perishable becomes imperishable. 3 He also meant to refute all who disbelieve in our resurrection. He changed the body into fineness and blended the flesh with spirit. Yet after the resurrection he did not wipe away the scars of the nails or the mark of the spear.
4 Instead he showed that the very body which had suffered on the cross was the one that rose, that what rose was not something else, and that nothing different had grown out of it. The very body that had suffered rose free from suffering. The very grain that fell rose again, and it rose imperishable. 5 And so that we might not suppose again that only some part of it was raised, [the Scripture says that] the whole of it saw no corruption, for it says, “You will not give your Holy One to see corruption.” The whole of it also rose, for it says, “He has risen, he is not here.” 6 If he was raised and is not here, he truly rose. The Scriptures, which are our life, do not fail. And so that those who have been deceived might find no excuse, he showed bones and flesh to Thomas and to his disciples. He said, “Look at me, for it is I. A spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you see that I have.”
Chapter 92
1 Suppose someone argues cleverly: “The body of our Saviour was exceptional, because it was conceived only from Mary and without the seed of a man.” Then Adam’s body would also have been different from ours, because it was taken only from the earth, without the seed of a man. But no one can say this or prove it. 2 Suppose someone argues cleverly again: “Only Christ’s body rose as a whole, but ours is not itself raised. Something else is raised in its place.” Then how does Scripture say, “Christ has risen, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”? The body is one and the same, the firstfruits of those who are raised. Let them learn how Christ became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, so that they do not turn again to another error and suppose that the other Scriptures lie. 4 For before him, he raised Lazarus and the son of the widow in Nain. Elijah also raised a dead man, and Elisha raised two dead men, one of them still alive in the body and one already buried.
5 But those men, after they rose, died again, and they await the one universal resurrection. Christ, however, is “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep,” because having risen he “no longer dies, death no longer rules over him,” as it is written. 6 For he died once, enduring the suffering for us because of our sufferings. He tasted death once, “even death on a cross.” The Word came willingly to death for our sake, so that by death he might put death to death. 7 The Word became flesh. In his deity he did not suffer, but he suffered with the humanity. Suffering was reckoned to him, while he himself remained beyond suffering. Death was reckoned to him, while he himself remained 8 in immortality, or rather, being wholly immortality. For he himself said, “I am the life.” Our hope is not in flesh. For it says, “Cursed is the one who hopes in man, and he will be like the wild tamarisk.”
Chapter 93
1 What shall we say? Is Christ not man? From what has been said before, it is clear to everyone that we confess without doubt that the Lord, God the Word, became man, not in appearance but in truth. 2 But he did not come as a man who advanced into deity. Our hope of salvation is not in a man. None of all the men descended from Adam was able to work salvation. It was God the Word who became man, so that our hope would not be in a man but in the living and true God who became man. 3 Scripture says, “Every priest is taken from among men and appointed on behalf of men.” For this reason, when the Lord came, he took flesh from our flesh. God the Word became a man like us, so that in his divinity he might give us salvation, and in his humanity he might receive it on behalf of us men. By his suffering he undid suffering, and by his own death he put death to death.
4 The suffering was counted as belonging to the divinity, even though the divinity cannot suffer. [The suffering was counted to the divinity] because the holy Word, God who cannot suffer, was pleased to come in this way. 5 Here is an illustration of it. Suppose someone is wearing a garment, and blood is sprinkled on the garment, but it does not reach the body of the one wearing it. The stain from the blood is still counted against the wearer of the garment. In the same way, in the 6 flesh Christ suffered. I mean in the Lord’s man himself, whom the holy Word, coming from heaven, formed for himself. As the holy Peter says, “put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.” And again: “Since Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same way of thinking.” 7 Just as blood on a garment is counted against the one who wears it, so the suffering of the flesh was counted to the divinity, though the divinity suffered nothing. The purpose was that the world should not place its hope in a man, but in the Lord’s man,
8 since the divinity consented to have the suffering counted to itself. In this way salvation for the world would come from a divinity that cannot suffer. The suffering that took place in the flesh was counted to the divinity, although the divinity suffered nothing, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says, “For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,” and what follows.
Chapter 94
1 94. So he was crucified. The Lord was crucified, and we worship the crucified one, who was buried, rose on the third day, and went up into the heavens. As it is written: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” 2 “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.” We are like people drawing a single drop from the sea of the knowledge of God, and grasping only a sample of this plan of salvation, the grace of our hope. It came by the good pleasure of the Father, by the will of the Son, together with the will of the Holy Spirit, [. . .] of the same plan of God. 3 All the Scriptures contained the proclamation of the resurrection, scattered here and there. But its completion was kept back until the coming of the Word himself, who exists in his own person.
4 “For Christ is the fulfillment of the law,” as it is written. Where does the divine Scripture not speak about the resurrection? First, Abel’s blood proclaims it. After he died, it “still speaks,” as Scripture says. “Enoch was taken up and was not found, and he did not see death, for he pleased God.” Noah built an ark at God’s command, working a new birth for his own household. 5 Abraham in old age receives a child when “his body was already as good as dead.” God gave hope out of the dead, especially since “Sarah’s womb” was dead. What was “worn out and close to vanishing” was the dried-up spring of the ordinary course of womanhood. Yet it receives power again to receive seed, and the aged woman conceives like a younger one. 6 Isaac, too, was handed back to his father alive from death. For when God gave the boy back to his father from the dead, alive, he was proclaiming the hope of the resurrection.
7 Jacob shows the matter in action, for he did not treat the hope for his bones as a secondary thing. He cared for such remains not as things that perish, but as things that will live again. And he gave orders, not casually, that they be carried back from the land of the Egyptians. 8 Joseph also made this clear when he said, “You shall carry up my bones with you,” for “the Lord will surely visit you.” If there were no hope of resurrection, why would righteous men care about bones, giving commands about bones that decay? 9 The first voice to Moses is God’s own testimony: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” who are asleep in the world but alive with me. It is one and the same Spirit who spoke in the law and teaches in the gospel. For this is what the Savior, who spoke in the prophets, was pointing out to the Sadducees: “Behold,
Chapter 95
1 He also showed this through Aaron’s rod, which was dry, perhaps for many years, and was left in the tent from evening until dawn. Living trees, for their part, produce fruit only with labor, by the round of twelve months as the year runs its course. The sun warms them, the rains water them, the dews spread over them, and night and day nourish them. 2 But in a single night God made the hard thing easy. The dry rod budded, put out leaves, and bore ripe fruit. In this God showed a likeness of the resurrection that he will bring about. 3 Children are conceived through the honorable marriage which the Lord pointed out. First the seed of succession is sown, as the Lord showed, in the womb that bears children. As time rolls on, what was sown in the belly is brought to completion over a period of nine months. I mean that what is conceived is perfected by the count of nine months, and is then born.
4 In the resurrection it is not so. There the work is done in an instant. For “he will sound the trumpet, and the dead will be raised incorruptible.” So the Lord showed in the tent of testimony that the nuts which on living trees are carried through twelve months are packed into the dry wood and become buds in a single night. Not only that: 5 the thing which, as I said, takes twelve months was brought to completion in the space of one hour. In the same way the infant formed in the womb over nine months is perfected only after a long time has gathered it together, but in the resurrection it is completed in an instant and rises.
Chapter 96
1 Let the power of the Lord persuade the unbelievers, since no one “resists his will.” Let them listen to Moses, and let him show them. “What is in your hand?” says the Lord. He said, “A rod.” The rod was of wood, and certainly dry. The Lord says, “Throw it on the ground.” And he threw down the dry rod. 2 God made the dry thing moist, and not only moist but alive. Its nature was changed, and its substance took on another form. 3 The work was no illusion. It is truth that works by God’s command, not appearance. In everything, through Moses, he set before us the truth, to correct our thinking. 4 The prophet knew that what happened was no mere seeming but real, from the fact that he ran away. If he had known it was an illusion, he would not have fled from the face of the serpent.
5 But let this not become a stumbling block again to the quarrelsome, who may say that the rod was one thing and “God gave” it another “body, as he willed.” First, then, let them learn that he did not give life to one thing in place of another. 6 He gave life to that very rod which had been dry. The body that was given to the rod, and the kind or form moved by it, God did not call into judgment; he did not want the serpent to be tried in place of the rod. 7 Rather, through the rod he gave full assurance of the resurrection, and God showed what was possible for him, so that no one would disbelieve his power in anything. He did it with complete certainty. He did not raise some part of the rod; he changed the whole rod as he willed.
Chapter 97
That these things are so, that the dead have hope of eternal life, and that they “will rise in the tombs,” call again on Moses as a witness worthy of trust. When Reuben sinned, his father, the holy patriarch Jacob, laid a curse on him and said: “Reuben, my firstborn and the beginning of my children, you have run wild like water; do not boil over. For you went up onto your father’s bed and uncovered it,” he says. In the Hebrew the word is [elothar], which, when interpreted, means “do not turn back,” or “do not be added to,” or “do not overflow.” Put simply, it is “do not boil over.” The translators rendered it that way. If you want to learn that these things are so, and that his father fixed death as the penalty for this sin, Moses will make it plain. When Moses in turn was blessing the twelve tribes, he came to Reuben. He knew that Levi was the priest, since sins were loosed and bound by the hand of the priesthood. And he says: “Let Reuben live and not die.” But how could Reuben live, when he had been buried a hundred and twenty-six years? Moses knew that the resurrection was going to come for everyone in every way. He also knew a second death, the death of condemnation on the day of judgment. He wanted to spare Reuben, in place of the one punishment, [the punishment] of the things to come. So he says “let him live” in the resurrection, meaning this: he knew that all will live. And “let him not die” means: let him not be clothed with the second death of condemnation and eternal torment. For if Moses had been concerned only about the loss of Reuben’s life, it would have been enough to say, “Let Reuben live.” But because he is pointing to the things to come, he says, “Let Reuben live and not die.”
Chapter 98
1 Where, then, could anyone fail to gather so many testimonies about our hope and expectation of the resurrection, which is a resurrection in truth and not in appearance? 2 Let those who are vain and argue for nothing tell us this. Is only a part of the bodies raised, and each person only in part? Or is the whole raised for some, and only a part for others, while for others still it is the whole body? What kind of partiality is that? Is there “partiality with God”? Certainly not. 3 Let us search out where or when the saints raised a dead person in part and not the whole body. The son of the widow in Sarepta rose whole, and no part was left behind. The son of the Shunammite woman rose whole, and not one limb of his was left unraised. 4 The Lord also raised Lazarus and left no remnant in the tomb. He came out with the linen strips and the other wrappings [text defective], and surely there is no need of garments on the day of judgment.
5 He raised whole the son of the widow in Nain, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, and the daughter of the centurion. How empty is the notion of those who reckon such things, that he raises one part and leaves another behind! 6 Let us look at the cases before us, which have already become equal grounds of hope for us. Enoch was taken up whole, and to this day has not seen death. Elijah was taken up whole in the body, and to this day has not seen death. In these two living bodies God has set before us the resurrection in its fullness. 7 So that no one may doubt, here are two patterns [text defective] of the two firstfruits of our resurrection. Enoch lived in uncircumcision, and uncircumcision did not hinder the resurrection, nor the receiving of the body through the life he lived. Elijah lived in circumcision. So the resurrection is not to be thought of as for some and not others, but as universal and whole.
8 Elijah lived in virginity, so that the pre-eminence of virginity might proclaim immortality to the world, and incorruption together with the body. But so that the resurrection and the remaining of the body might not be thought to belong to virginity alone, because of its distinction, Enoch was not a virgin. He was self-controlled, and he fathered children. These two are alive, remaining in body and soul because of [our] hope.
Chapter 99
1 So that again no one may doubt, God also brought others down to Hades together with their bodies. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Korah and Aunan. They went down into Hades alive, [with] body and soul. From that very hour they were handed over to judgment. Their bodies were not dissolved, and no remnant or part was given up, but they went down whole, with body and soul. 2 They were handed over to punishment as whole persons, body and soul together. Job says, “until I come to be again,” and “may you raise up this body that endures these things,” and “you will renew me.” And again: “Your youth will be renewed like the eagle’s.” Isaiah says, “The dead will rise, and those in the tombs will be raised.” For he is the one “who looses those bound in strength, and likewise the rebellious, who dwell in tombs.”
3 Job also says, “A man who has fallen asleep will not rise again, nor will he know his own place any more.” This is true: the resurrection does not happen day by day, but is fixed for one day. And to show that he knew what appointed time he was waiting for, Job at once resolved the difficulty: “until the heaven is no more stitched together.” 4 For as long as heaven and earth exist, the bodies also remain in the earth. But when the one comes who rolls up heaven like a scroll and shakes the earth, then “those in the dust of the earth will also be raised.” 5 For this reason he says to Ezekiel, “Son of man, tell bone to be joined to bone and joint to joint,” and it happened so. And, “let sinews and veins come upon them, flesh, hair and nails.” And again: “Say, son of man, ‘Spirit, come from the four corners of the earth’” — that is, from the places stored up for souls.
6 Why does the Lord himself not speak, but order the man to speak? Because whatever the Lord says, he does at once, and it is never undone. But he commanded the man to speak, so that after the rising, at that hour, the hope of salvation might be shown to us, while it was the man’s word that was undone, not the Lord’s. For those bones were going to die again. But when the Lord says, “Rise,” they are raised and do not die. For the word of God will not be undone.
Chapter 100
1 This is why the Lord, when he came in the flesh, raised the dead: so that what had fallen asleep through the flesh might fall asleep again only until that same flesh rose and died no more. In the meantime he stopped saying to only one person, “Come out here,” until he should come and no longer say “Rise” to one at a time, but “Rise, all of you,” bringing about the resurrection of all. For he himself is the resurrection of the dead. 2 For here, after he rose from the dead, he raised none of those who had recently died. But many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep rose with him and were seen by many, “going in with him into the bridal chamber,” according to what is written in the gospel. 3 And it does not say that part of the bodies of the saints rose, but the bodies of the saints. And “they appeared to many.” They were not different people from those who had died, but were recognized by their own relatives, because they had not died long before.
4 Our Lord also wanted to show the wonder to others, and he carried out those difficult things by showing them to be easy. When he came to the girl who had just died, the daughter of the synagogue ruler, since she had died at that very hour, he saw fit to say to her, “Rise, child.” By this “Rise” he strengthened what had already been loosened, since she was still on the 5 bed. But the son of the widow at Nain, since he was already being carried out on the bier, he raised more easily: “for he touched the bier,” and said nothing to the boy. He only touched the bier, and the young man rose. 6 What went deeper still, and far beyond human hope, was when he came to Lazarus, dead four days. He did not say “Rise,” nor did he touch the tomb with his hand. Instead he calls, so readily, by his own
7 authority, “Lazarus, come out here.” Now “Come out here” is much easier and readier than touching, and touching is much easier than calling, “Child, rise.” In all this the holy Word of God acts so as to show us the hope of the resurrection.
Chapter 101
1 If I wished to select as many testimonies as there are from all the Scriptures, my mind is small, limited and unskilled, and because of their number I fear I would stretch my discourse out to great length. So I will say it briefly: our salvation is concise, and in all of them one hope, the resurrection, is proclaimed to us. 2 Unbelievers do not believe these things, the wrongly minded corrupt them, the contentious do not accept them, and the vainglorious push them away. But may God grant mercy to all, and make bright the darkened places of their thoughts. 3 The Greeks, since they have [not] received the Holy Spirit, will be refuted by the truth and by all the testimonies already given. They will be refuted most of all by you, the sons of the holy church of God and of the orthodox faith. 4 For you teach, having received the Holy Spirit and having been counted worthy of fitting speech “at the opening of the mouth.” First, you are disciples of Christ, counted worthy to belong to the “chief shepherd” and guardian of our souls. So you gather food for the flocks of Christ, your own peoples. You take thought how to feed both yourselves and God’s own people (I mean everyone who wishes to be helped) from the holy land that is hinted at in Moses. [The text here is disordered.]
5 Who of those with sound minds, looking to you, the devout and faithful, O orthodox, sons of the church, would doubt these things? [I mean some; or by “all” I mean those who belong to the truth, according to what is written. The text here is uncertain.] 6 For you are sons of a wise and most courageous woman. Her fame is with Solomon, who says, “Who will find a courageous woman?” as though she were rare, or rather, only one. You will choose the better thing and love what is profitable. 7 By the courageous woman, understand for me the church of God, your mother. Nothing is more courageous than she is. She dies at every persecution that is stirred up, for the sake of the name of her own husband.
Chapter 102
1 This most gentle woman asks her own bridegroom with care in the book of Songs, “Where do you shepherd? Where do you rest at midday?” Christ shepherds in the holy land spoken of before. And he does not only shepherd. He also commands the shepherds to loosen the sandal from their feet, as he first said to Moses. 2 You have received this tradition from him, and you yourselves safely lead by the hand those who are being brought into holy knowledge. First you take care that each person’s sandals are untied. The sandals of each of us are different. 3 Each person has shod himself by his own practice. Then each one listens to you, his teachers and good shepherds. One who had put on idolatry takes it off through your warning. Another takes off adultery, another fornication, another theft, another greed. 4 And not only that, but they also renounce hateful speech and shameful words, with blessed hopes. Each of the disciples hands himself over, “under the mighty hand” of the good shepherd, to be tended through you, the good shepherds. For each one will keep away from error altogether.
5 And you set the truth before their eyes. You deface the idols and openly proclaim the error about them. (For you do not count them as dead, since they never lived.) And you reasonably teach everyone, always, that they are empty and vain and do not exist. 6 For they never existed, so that they could be anything. They are wretched demons, a construction of the human mind that gave strength to the occasions for pleasure. From this, each person has dared to make his own passion into an object of worship and to confirm it there. 7 For at the very first, when this was newly introduced among men through the wickedness of demons, this was the “first fornication,” as it was called, and idols were sketched in shadow-paintings. Then each person handed over to his own children, to be worshiped, the very craft he had in his hands and by which he made his living. Out of the material of their own workmanship they fashioned gods. The potter made them from clay, the carpenter from wood, the goldsmith from gold, and the silversmith likewise from silver.
Chapter 103
1 Moreover, each one sketched his own passion in shapes resembling it, for his own eyes to see. A bloodthirsty man called it Ares. An adulterer, man or woman, called it the much-shared Aphrodite. A tyrant gave wings to Victory. 2 The squalid man, gaping after the things of this life, drew the likeness of Kronos. The effeminate drew Cybele and Rhea, because of the fluidity, I think, of the mingling of bodies with many partners. 3 Another, a drifter, man or woman, sketched Artemis the huntress, and drunken Dionysus, and much-toiling Herakles. A person of many partners sketched Zeus and Apollo. 4 Why should I list the multitudes, when the passions in men are countless? The Egyptians went astray more than all. They worshiped not only their own passions but also winged creatures and four-footed ones, creatures of land and of water, and some wild beasts. They “exchanged” the order of the animals that the holy God had handed over to them as servants.
5 Being beastly in mind, they are exceedingly impious. They make gods of the animals among them and are not ashamed. They worship the dog for its barking, the cat for eating reptiles, the goat for its lack of restraint, and the sheep for its bleating. They worship the crocodile for being many-cleft and most grim, the ibis for feeding on venom, and the kite, the hawk and the raven for being the most slavish. They worship the snake for being crooked and most unpleasant. 6 And in short, what great shame belongs to those who neither see their own refutation with their eyes, nor take it in with their senses, nor [grasp] with their minds the things that are done among them in vain. 7 They are struck with an evil fate. They are not enlightened even by their own philosophers, and they do not join in seeing with those who go around the circle [of learning?] of the truth.
8 For they do not listen to Diagoras. His own Heracles was made of wood, and for lack of firewood he set it under the pot. He mocked it and said, “Come now, Heracles, complete your thirteenth labor. Step forward and cook our meal for us.” Diagoras took the statue, split it into pieces, laughed at his own god as one who did not exist, and made merry as he ate the meal that had been set before him.
Chapter 104
1 Another man, Heraclitus, says to the Egyptians: “If they are gods, why do you mourn them?” For they sing shrill laments for Typhon, Osiris and other gods of the underworld, and grieve for them as for the buried. So this man says, “If they are gods, why do you mourn them? But if they have died, you mourn them in vain.” 2 Another, a comic poet named Eudaimon, says, “If there are gods, I cannot speak about them, nor can I make plain what kind of form they have. For many things stand in my way.” And Homer says, “Rule by many is not good.” 3 Philemon, another comic poet, says, “Those who worship one God have good hopes of salvation.” 4 For Apis, the chaff-eating calf, was at once struck in the thigh with a sword by Cambyses, king of the Assyrians. The point was that if blood flowed, it would be proved that Apis was not a god.
5 The followers of Cronus do not deny that their own god was shut up in iron chains. That is what they believe. But if someone is in confinement, it is not simply that he is subject to one who is greater. Such a person is confined as a criminal. 6 If I must also speak about Isis, who is also called Atthis and Io, the daughter of Apis the Cappadocian (who is also called Inachus), I am perhaps ashamed to proclaim their deeds. 7 Still, I will not be ashamed to tell what they themselves are not ashamed to worship. Let the worshippers of this goddess be ashamed, and [the bearded men?] as well, who urge their own daughters, wives and sisters to imitate the deeds of the gods. 8 At once the women, in love with Osiris, their own brother, and with Typhon, [their] brother, send their own brothers to war against each other. Great is the shame of a goddess who felt no respect for her own brother. She was in love and was not content with outside men, but reached even as far as her own brother.
9 And not only that: because her desire could never be satisfied, she even showed the way to killing a brother, and did it to those dearest to her. 10 And as for Horus, so that she might bear a child, she could not establish who his true father really is. For if she names Typhon, there is doubt whether he is not his father. If she names Osiris, who could establish that with certainty? 11 Such a mother taught that it was a fine thing for him [to become] a god, since she took him and prostituted herself in Tyre for ten years. 12 The sons of the Sinopeans made Serapis, [called] Apis the king, into a god. In doing so they were slaves more to tyranny than to truth.
Chapter 105
1 These are the wages of the gods honored among the Egyptians. To tell them one by one would take a long time. The Greeks, who think they are something in themselves, philosophize only in words and with a sharp tongue, and not in deeds. They have run aground worse than all. 2 They bring Cronus down from Uranus. They say that he was born from Uranus and [cut off] the parts of his own father. What an evil deed, and what a shameful thought! If he had not been cut, there would have been many sons of Cronus. And this noble fellow, who reached even his own father, 3 was not satisfied with his first impiety. As a young man he wronged his father, and when he grew old he wronged his own children, 4 swallowing Poseidon and Pluto. He searched for Zeus and was tricked by Rhea, and he swallowed a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead of a baby,
5 as if he were a god, perhaps [text missing]. But his child, if I may put it so, came from noble parents (Zeus is his name), and he ran the risk of becoming the husband of all women, and so did his son Hermes. And [text unclear] according to the laws he would have become [a household dependent?], and not always a secret seducer of wives and a wrongdoer. 6 For he seduces Penelope after becoming a goat for pleasure. He became a goat, I suppose, because of the thick tangle of his beard. 7 To Danae, [Zeus, the one we first called by that name,] became gold, in order to seduce a chaste virgin kept in her chamber. But that gold could never really have come to be. Being a sorcerer, he deceived the virgin by bribing her with gold. 8 And with Leda he again becomes a swan, which signals the wing-beating excitement of his burning desire.
9 Having once spread his wings as an eagle, he presides as teacher of those who corrupt boys. But he never became an eagle. He sailed past Troy in a ship with an eagle for its emblem, named “Eagle” for its speed. There he seized Ganymede, the son of the king of the Trojans, and carried out his corruption. 10 And for Pasiphae he became a bull, and likewise for Europa.
Chapter 106
1 106. Why should I list the many corruptions of this noble corrupter of virgins and teacher of corrupters? That is plain to not a few. In Crete, on the mountain called Lasios, [his tomb] is pointed out to this day. 2 There was not one Zeus, or two, but three and four of them. One is the son of Kronos mentioned before, who cast his own father into Tartarus on the Caucasus mountain. Another is called Latiarius, from whom the gladiators came. Another is the tragic one, who also burned his own hand. 3 Perhaps, being a god, he forgot that fire bites. He lacked the foresight of the one who spoke to the satyr, the goat, who had found fire first and came to kiss it: “Don’t touch it, goat. If you touch it, you will set your beard on fire.” 4 There have been not one Athena but many. One roamed and wandered around Lake Tritonis. Another was the daughter of Oceanus, another of Kronos, and there are many others.
5 There are many Artemises. One is the Ephesian, another is the one of Zeus, and there are quite a few others besides. So too the Dionysuses: the Theban, another the son of Semele, the one among the Corybantes, the one torn apart by the Titans, and the one of the Kouretes who [introduced the distribution of meat; the text is uncertain]. 6 Then there is the one they call Herakles, the averter of evil. How many of his deeds shall I pass over in silence? I will point out just one out of them all, the one perhaps most praised among them. It will be enough for him to have undergone this labor, so that salvation might come to life. For if he had not corrupted fifty virgins in a single night, how would the world have been saved? Rather, it would have perished. 7 And to be plain with you, I find it distasteful to write out their evil deeds in prose.
8 Furthermore, kings and tyrants, utterly harsh men, had certain favorites. They buried them in [a place missing from the text], having nothing more to give them, since they themselves were as perishable as those they honored. Out of goodwill toward their favorites they handed over their tombs to their own subjects, to be worshiped as gods. This was a deception for people’s lives, set up on an evil pretext. Such is Antinous, who was buried in Antinoou, 9 and who lay in a [pleasure-boat; the text is uncertain] and was enrolled among the gods by Hadrian in this way. Timogenes in Asia is honored in the same way. So are Kanobos, the pilot of Menelaus, and his wife Enmenouthis, who are honored in Alexandria where they are buried, on the seashore, twelve miles apart. So also Marnas, slave of Asterios the Cretan, among the people of Gaza, and Basios the shipmaster among the people of Pelusium.
Chapter 107
1 107. When you examine all these things carefully in the midst of the church, you set free those who have been led on in this way. [Here the text is corrupt: “a bad example of a deadly road.”] You also bring others from adultery to self-control. You deliver them not only from stealing other men’s marriages, but also lead them, through continence, to look down even on their own [wives], since “the time is short,” as the holy apostle says. And you instruct fornicators, so that they may not be punished for the unlawful act they have committed before God and before men. 2 When you have labored to hand on all this by your mouth and by your deeds, persuade them to accept everything from you. First do everything yourselves in practice and form it in yourselves. Confirm your words by the deeds with which you first taught yourselves, so that you may make disciples of others too.
3 For even in silence you have influence, like the sun, which silently teaches everyone everywhere. As soon as it rises, without a word, it teaches all people their crafts. 4 When you hand on the benefit of all this to your own children, or to your most faithful brothers, you lead them forward to walk on earth but to have “their citizenship in heaven.” And you stir up in most of them a zeal for the monastic life. 5 Through the firmness and sincere faith that are in you, you hate the heretics. You silence the Manichaeans, the Marcionites and the rest like them, and you drive them away from [the church] of God, dissolving all their pretexts and stopping their mouths. 6 For how many bold things they pour out against God and his holy prophets! They are light-minded and empty of the Holy Spirit. They blaspheme the Creator of all, and they hate all the good things God graciously gave to all people through his holy prophets, by prophecy [in the Spirit]. They hate the deepest things of the Law and the prophets, because they are earthly and bodily. They examine these things [in a natural, soulish way] and do not understand them. Their blasphemy is in vain.
7 Do not hesitate to shake their error off those who hear it at once, [refuting] them with true proofs. For such empty-minded people are swept along by such words like twigs in the current of a full river.
Chapter 108
1 108. They also say that the God of the Law is a good one, since he asked Adam where he was, not knowing, saying, “Adam, where are you?” And he says to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And to Abraham, “Where is Sarah your wife?” and many other things like these. 2 Yet those who say such things believe in God the Savior with the mouth and not in truth. He is God and has foreknowledge, yet he asks the very same kinds of questions in the New Testament as well: “Where have you laid Lazarus?” and “Who touched me?” and “Do you have bread with you?” and “Whom do you want?” or “Whom are you seeking?” 3 So the refutation of these people is easy and ready to hand. Just as the Son asks questions while having foreknowledge, so the Father also asks questions in the Law. He is always the same and does not change.
4 For if he says, “Where have you laid Lazarus?”, he is ignorant neither of the gospel nor of the Old Testament. He says “Where have you laid him?” because he wishes to expose those who had not shown even equal faith to that of the Shunammite woman. She had her faith toward a man, that is, Elisha the holy prophet, while the women around Martha had theirs toward God. 5 And if he says, “Who touched me?”, he does not say it in ignorance. He says it to persuade the woman to confess of her own accord, so that the Son of God would not be testifying about himself, but would be glorified by others. 6 And when he says, “Do you have bread with you?”, he says it for this reason: so that the smallness of the supply of bread would be made plain to all, and the greatness of his miracle would be marvelled at, since so great a crowd was fed with so few loaves. And when he says, “Whom are you seeking?”,
7 he shows that those who seek him are deceived. They are “seeking Jesus”, a name which means physician and savior, so that when they kill him, they would lose his salvation.
Chapter 109
1 109. In the same way, then, as we have shown that what is said about the economy of our Lord is spoken humanly yet is not without foreknowledge (for no sensible person would say that he did not know where they had laid Lazarus, when he was near the place, even if he asked in the way we described. A little earlier he had been far off in Galilee and had shown of himself that it was Lazarus), so we also explain these matters sensibly concerning the Old Testament. 2 When God said, “Adam, where are you?”, it was not the question of one who did not know. It was to show from what a height Adam had fallen, and into what depth of shame. 3 And “Where is Abel your brother?” means: the one you ought always to have carried in your arms and always to have been with has been thrown down to the earth by you.
4 For he shows from what follows that he did not ask out of ignorance but to convict him, when he says, “Cursed is the earth in your works, and cursed are you from the earth, which opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hand.” 5 “For behold,” he says, “his voice cries out to me.” And when he said, “Where is Sarah your wife?”, he did not say it in ignorance. For how could he not know, when he knew that she was laughing inside the house? So he did not ask out of ignorance. He asked to show Sarah’s daughters, who “profess godliness”, that they should learn her way of life, whenever they try to serve the saints from their own labors. 6 For she, though engaged in such great service, herself made the unleavened cakes and the loaves baked in the ashes. She prepared all that service together with her own servants, and she did not look at the faces of those she served. In this she left to our generations a pattern of modest self-control. And this will be enough to answer the arguments of the empty-minded.