The Ancoratus (The Well-Anchored Man) (chapters 110–119)
The Ancoratus (The Well-Anchored Man)
continued
Chapter 110
1 110. And suppose they say that the God of the law is good, because he cheated the Egyptians and taught his own people to plunder them when they left the land of Egypt. These fools do not know that with God nothing is lost, that there is righteous judgment, and that “God is not mocked.” 2 What did the Egyptians think? That they were seeking to have the Jews work for them for nothing? And not for just a few years, but for two hundred and fifteen, [together with the two hundred and fifteen years of Joseph (the text is corrupt here)]? 3 A sojourn of four hundred and thirty years had been fixed for Abraham and his seed, as it says: “Your seed will be a sojourner in a land that is not its own.” [Then] what had been fixed was being brought to completion. 4 So in his compassion God divided the years of their sojourn. [At once, through] fifteen years [the text is corrupt here], while they were still in their own [land], and the other two hundred and fifteen he assigned to those who went down into Egypt.
5 The count of these years is reckoned like this. It was then Abraham’s seventy-fifth year. So from Abraham’s seventy-fifth year until the birth of Isaac there are [number unclear in the Greek] years. Isaac, in his sixtieth year, fathers Jacob, and the total comes to [number unclear] years. Jacob, when he was [number unclear] years old, fathers Levi, and the total comes to [number unclear] years. Levi, at [number unclear] four years old, fathers Kohath. In Levi’s [hundred and] seventh year Jacob goes down into Egypt, and the total comes to two hundred and eleven years. After their entry into Egypt, four more years pass, and the two hundred and fifteen are completed. 6 From here I count again the remaining two hundred and fifteen years of the Israelites’ sojourn. Kohath, after the descent into Egypt, in his sixty-fifth year fathers Abraham, the father of Moses. So from the first Abraham, from his seventy-fifth year until the birth of the last Abraham, there are [number unclear] years, and from the going down into Egypt, sixty-five years.
7 Abraham, at seventy years old, fathers Moses. So from the first Abraham there are [number unclear] years, and from the going down into Egypt, one hundred and thirty-five. 8 Moses, in his thirtieth year, walks through the Red Sea as he leaves Egypt with the Israelites. So from the great Abraham there are [number unclear] years, and from the going down into Egypt, one hundred and sixty-five. 9 The remaining fifty years were spent after the crossing of the Red Sea, until they reached Palestine. This was not because of the length of the road, but because they had to fight, and were hindered by the nations they met along the way. 10 So from the seventy-fifth year of the great Abraham, when this prediction was given to him by God, until Moses and the arrival of the sons of Israel in Palestine, there are four hundred and thirty years. From the going down into Egypt until their arrival [in] Palestine, there are two hundred and fifteen years.
Chapter 111
1 111. The Jews worked for so many years without pay. Was it not right, before God and before men, that they be given their wages, even if only at the end? So God was not unjust when he brought his own people out of there with spoils. 2 If anyone doubts that the years are counted this way, let him listen to Moses, who says: “The dwelling of the sons of Israel in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.” 3 Since the Lord took care of that perfectly just payment, what empty objection is left for those who want to bring blame against the holy God? No one could ever find fault with the true God. Those who find fault only blame themselves. 4 They also put forward another empty objection, like the first. They say that the God of the law is good because he cheated the Canaanites, in order to give the Israelites their place: “houses they did not build, and olive groves, fig orchards and vineyards they did not plant.”
5 To this I answer: you fools! If God were like a man, what is said and done today would pass away, and he would give it no thought. But since God “is God and not man,” he does not forget what is done against him. He avenges it even after many generations. If they do not know this, let them learn it.
Chapter 112
1 112. Everyone knows that the righteous Noah became the remnant of the world after the flood. So he was left, he and his three sons. He was a righteous man and tried to make his children devout, so that they would not fall into the same evils as those in the flood. He did not hand on devotion to them by words alone. He also demanded an oath from each of them, pledging goodwill toward his brother. 2 Having been made heir of the world by God, he divided the whole world among his three sons. He split it into lots and assigned each portion to each son by lot. 3 To Shem, the firstborn, the lot fell from Persia and Bactria to India in length. In breadth it ran from [gap in the text] to the land of Rhinocorura. This Rhinocorura lies between Egypt and Palestine, opposite the Red Sea. 4 To Ham, the second son, went the southern parts, from that same Rhinocorura to Gadira. To Japheth, the third, went the northern parts, from Media to Gadira and Rhinocorura.
Chapter 113
1 113. To Shem were born children and children’s children, twenty-five in all, down to the time when the languages were divided. They are scattered among languages, tribes and kingdoms. 2 Their names are these: Elymaeans, Paeonians, Lazones, Cossaeans, Gasphenians, Palestinians, Indians, Syrians, Arabs (who are also [Tai]), Arians, Mardians, Hyrcanians, Magousaeans, Assyrians, Germans, Lydians, Mesopotamians, Hebrews, Coelenians, Bactrians, Adiabenians, Camelians, Saracens, Scythians, [Chiones, a corrupt reading], Gymnosophists (the “naked philosophers”), Chaldeans, Parthians, Eetae, Cordylenians, Massynians, Phoenicians, Midianites, Commagenians, Dardanians, Elamasenians, Kedrousians, Elamites, Armenians, Cilicians, [Egyptians], Cappadocians, [Phoenicians], [Bions, a corrupt reading], Carians, Chalybes, Psyllites, Lazi, Mossynoeci, Iberians, Phrygians. 3 To Ham, the second son, were born children and children’s children, thirty-two in all, down to that same division of the languages. They are: Ethiopians, Troglodytes, Angaeans, Taienians, Sabines, Fish-eaters, Hellenic peoples, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Marmaridae, Carians, Psyllites, Mossynoeci, Phrygians, Macones, Macrones, Syrtites, Leptimagnites, Bithynians, Nomads, Lycians, Mariandynians, Pamphylians, [Moschesidians, a corrupt reading], Pisidians, Augalaeans, Cilicians, Mauretanians, Cretans, Magardae, Numidians, Africans (who are also Bizacenes), Phasgenians, Mazices, Garamantes, Getulians, Blemmyes, Axomites. These hold the land from Egypt to the Ocean.
4 Their islands are: Cursula, Lopadusa, Gaulos, Rhide, Melite, Corcyra, Mene, Sardinia, Gortyna, Crete, Glaucus, Rhide, Thera, Carianthos, Astypalaea, Chios, Lesbos, Tenedos, Imbros, Iasos, Samos, Cos, Cnidus, Nisyros, Megiste and Cyprus. 5 To Japheth, the third son, were born children and children’s children, fifteen in all, down to that same division of the languages. They are: Medes, Albanians, Gargians, Armenians, Arraeans, Amazons, Coli, Corzenians, Beneagenians, Cappadocians, Galatians, Paphlagonians, Mariandynians, Tibarenians, Chalybes, Mossynoeci, Colchians, Melanchlaenians, Sauromatians, Germans, Maeotians, Scythians, Taurians, Thracians, Bastarnians, Illyrians, Macedonians, Greeks, Libyans, [Phrygians, a corrupt reading], Pannonians, Istrians, Venetians, Daunians, Iapygians, Calabrians, Hippici, Latins (who are also Romans), Tyrrhenians, Gauls (who are also Celts), Ligurians, Celtiberians, Iberians, Gauls, Aquitanians, Illyrians, Basantes, Cannians, Cartanians, Lusitanians, Vaccaeans, Britons, Scots and Spaniards. 6 Their islands are: Britain, Sicily, Euboea, Rhodes, Chios, Lesbos, Cythera, Zacynthus, Cephallenia, Ithaca, Corcyra and Cyprus. 7 If anywhere the name of a nation or an island is listed twice, in one man’s lot and a city in another’s, this is because of shared borders, or colonies planted at various times, or because Ham grasped for more and took parts of Shem’s share. Let no one be surprised or doubt.
Chapter 114
1 114. So these nations came from the three sons of Noah, and the world was divided in three among the three sons, as I said before. Their father demanded an oath from them that no one would encroach on his brother’s lot. 2 They said, in the oath, that whoever transgressed the terms of the oath would be utterly destroyed, together with all his offspring. 3 Now Palestine fell within Shem’s lot, along with everything near it. But Canaan, Ham’s son, was grasping. Later he came against the land of the Palestinians, that is, Judea, and snatched it away. And patient was the 4 God. He gave times of repentance, so that the descendants of Ham might repent and give back to the descendants of Shem their own inheritance. But they did not repent. They wanted to fill up their measure. 5 Then, many generations later, God, being just, avenged the breaking of the oath. This is how the measure of the Amorites had to be filled.
6 For Shem begets Arphaxad. Ham begets Canaan. And Canaan, after the grasping act, begets the Amorite, the Gergesite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, the Arkite, the Aradian and the Sidonian. 7 So the generations are counted in this way down to the vengeance for Shem. Shem, who was wronged, begets Arphaxad, as we said. Arphaxad begets Kenan, Kenan begets Sala, and Sala begets Eber, and in his time the building of the tower takes place. Eber begets Phalek, and in his time the division of the earth and of tongues takes place. Phalek begets Ragau, Ragau begets Serouch, Serouch begets Nachor, Nachor begets Tharra, Tharra begets Abraham, Abraham begets Isaac, and Isaac begets Jacob, who was named Israel, from whom come the Israelites. Jacob begets Judah, Judah begets Phares, Phares begets Esrom, Esrom begets Aram, Aram begets Aminadab, Aminadab begets Naasson, and Naasson begets Salmon. This is the line of those born from Shem.
8 So God took vengeance for these people, who had been wronged by the sons of Ham and deprived of their own place. He destroyed the descendants of Canaan, in keeping with their own oath, and the seed of Shem received back its own land. God therefore did no injustice, for he gave to each side what was just. “For God is not mocked,” as I said before.
Chapter 115
1 Then, at the exodus, when God was about to fit together an assembly for himself, he says to Moses, “Take your sandals off your feet.” For everyone who is about to approach clean washings first takes off his shoes. 2 A long time had passed, however, and each one of us had “wandered in his own way,” and this assembly had remained in its own evils. So God did not yet reveal “the washing of regeneration.” He put it off for many years, and later he revealed the all-holy washing to the holy church. In Moses he did so by having him take off his sandals. 3 In the prophets he did so by stripping off the outer tunic, leaving only a loincloth to Jeremiah. In John he changed the whole clothing of the world and remade it out of camel’s hair. In the Savior himself and his disciples he stripped off the fashion of the world, and then, after their cleansing, he clothed them from above, from heaven, with a garment “of fire and Spirit.”
4 But when the Israelites saw this grace, they did not know that he is God. So the prophet, as a charge against them, lamented over them because of the dishonor they would show to the Savior, saying, “Is this how you repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people?” 5 For they did not recognize that this was the one who was in the beginning, with whom the Father took counsel, saying, “Let us make man in our image and likeness.” 6 For the words “let us make” do not indicate a single person. Rather, the Father took counsel with the Son and the Holy Spirit. “For by the word of the Lord the heavens were made firm, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power.” 7 Nor did they understand the one who says in that same book, in plain words, “The Lord rained fire and sulfur from the Lord out of heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah.” For “the Lord rained fire” refers to the one who had come to Abraham, and “from the Lord out of heaven” refers to the one who had sent him.
8 Nor did they recognize him when he brought them out of Egypt. Nor did they understand the prophet who says, “And you, Bethlehem, are not the least.” (For how could one call “least” a city that held him whom heaven and all things cannot contain?) And: “from you shall come forth for me a ruler.” But if he comes forth from Bethlehem and is a man, how is he spoken of as God?
Chapter 116
1 What troubles them is that he is both God and man. For in the same passage it says, “His goings forth are from the beginning, from the creation of the world.” That no longer belongs to a man, but to God. 2 They do not remember that “Behold, the virgin will conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel.” The word “they will call” points to the way of the holy and faithful, the sons of the church. 3 For when they are questioned by the Jews, the killers of the Lord, about the Savior, asking how they [believe] in the one who was crucified, and they confess him, they hear from the same believers: “With you he was crucified, but with us he is God.” 4 They did not listen to David, and they did not understand his word, which he spoke in the Holy Spirit as he saw it, trembling at the saving plan of the Lord himself that was to come. He said, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand,’” and so on.
5 So the old sabbaths have passed away, and among us the true sabbath is proclaimed. The first circumcision has ceased, since it cut away one very small part of the body. But the heavenly circumcision is working very well, since it circumcises the whole body. 6 For the waters and the holy invocation do not work on one part of the human being. They seal the whole body of the man, make it clean, circumcise it, and set it free from all evils. This, then, is what the holy Church has received: these mysteries. 7 But fierce enemies, called “members of the household,” have risen up against her. They are not of the true faith of the Lord’s apostles. For if they had been of them, they would have remained with them. 8 But they are illegitimate and mixed in, and they long again with a wicked desire for the food of Egypt, the fish and the cucumbers. They blaspheme the Son of God up and down. These are the Arius-maniacs, whom we have already pilloried in the earlier discourses, and others who are Sabellians.
9 The Sabellians deny outright that there is a Son and a Holy Spirit. They say that the Son is the Father, and the Father himself is the Son, and the Holy Spirit himself is the Father, so that there is no Son and no Holy Spirit. They are exposed as second Jews and killers of the Lord. 10 The Arius-maniacs are the most impious of all. They dare to divide the Son from the Father’s substance and make him a stranger to it. They do not think the Son worthy of equal honor with the Father, nor that he was begotten from the Father’s substance. 11 There are others, their offspring, whom we counted earlier with the others listed before. Like the Jews, they blaspheme the Holy Spirit. They are second Sadducees and Samaritans, unknown, dead and faithless.
Chapter 117
1 117. So that we do not make our testimonies against these people long, “with ink and paper,” and so that our readers do not grow weary, a few will be enough. Against the Sabellians, along with the other testimonies, the testimony of the Jordan will suffice, as I have already said. 2 For the Son truly comes to the Jordan, having become God as man. He did not undergo a change but took flesh. It was not by the seed of a man but from the holy virgin that he took up a body, conceived by the Holy Spirit: a perfect body, that is, a perfect man, with soul and body. 3 So God, who is also man, came to John at the Jordan, being one and the same Son and Christ and Lord. And the Father cries out from above, bearing witness to the Son who had come to the Jordan: “This is my beloved Son.”
4 And the Holy Spirit came down on him in the form of a dove, when he had gone down into the waters. This was to show the waters clean for the sake of those who were going to be baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 5 Against the Arians, along with what was said before, it will be enough that the Son said, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” For here he showed the Son’s equality with the Father, and that he is truly his own. 6 Against the offspring of the Arians, who blaspheme the Holy Spirit, two testimonies already set out earlier, along with the other testimonies, will be enough. One is from Daniel, and goes like this: in the furnace of fire, Shadrach, 7 Meshach and Abednego, praising God, take in with themselves the whole creation of God and say, “Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord.” They listed heavens and angels, moon and sun and powers, earth and sea and everything in them, and nowhere did they count the Son and the Holy Spirit among the created things. And the Seraphim sanctify a Trinity, one may suppose, saying “Holy” not once, nor twice, nor four times, but three times.
Chapter 118
1 118. Let Peter also refute these people again, rebuking Ananias and those with him and saying, “You have tempted the Holy Spirit.” 2 And he says, “You have not lied to men, but to God.” The apostle knows, as we have said many times, that the Spirit is not foreign to God, for he says, “He searches even the depths of God.” But what is not from the substance of God cannot search the depths of God. 3 We know the Father as Father, the Son as Son, the Holy Spirit as Holy Spirit: a Trinity in unity. For there is one unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: one substance, one lordship, one will, one Church, one baptism, one faith. 4 And let those who speak against the holy virgin of Christ and pure bride, that is, our mother the holy Church, stop. 5 For her children received from the holy fathers, that is, the holy apostles, the faith to guard, and at the same time to hand on and proclaim to their own children.
6 You also, most honored brothers, are sons of this Church, so hand on this teaching to your own children. 7 Say these things, and things like them drawn from the divine Scriptures, [to confirm] yourselves and those who hear you. Do not stop teaching, preparing the way, and instructing, you faithful and orthodox. Keep this holy faith of the catholic church just as the holy and only virgin of God received it from the holy apostles of the Lord. 8 In this way, for each of the catechumens who are about to come to the holy washing, you must not only declare [the matter of believing] to your own sons in the Lord. You must also teach them the words exactly, since she is the same mother of us all, yours and ours, so that they say: 9 We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things seen and unseen.
10 And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, that is, from the substance of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father. Through him all things came into being, both those in heaven and those on earth. For us human beings and for our salvation he came down from the heavens and was made flesh from the Holy Spirit and Mary the virgin, and became man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried, and rose on the third day according to the Scriptures. He went up into the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will have no end. 11 And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who together with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who spoke through the prophets; in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
12 We confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come. Amen. 13 Those who say, “There was a time when he was not,” and, “Before he was begotten he was not,” or that he came into being out of nothing, or who claim that the Son of God is from another hypostasis or substance, or is subject to change or alteration, these the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes. 14 This faith was handed down by the holy apostles, and [was set out] in the church in the holy city by all the holy bishops of that time together, more than three hundred in number.
Chapter 119
1 119. But in our own generation other heresies have appeared, one after another. That is, in the time of the emperors Valentinian and Valens, around the tenth year of their reign, and again around the sixth year of Gratian, that is, in the ninetieth year of the tyrant Diocletian, 2 for this reason you and we and all the orthodox bishops, and in short the whole holy catholic church, speak as follows against the heresies that have arisen, in keeping with the faith set out beforehand by those holy fathers. We say it especially to those coming to the holy washing, so that they may declare and say as follows: 3 We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of all things unseen and seen; 4 and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of God the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father. Through him all things came into being, both those in heaven and those on
5 earth, seen and unseen. For us human beings and for our salvation he came down and was made flesh, that is, was perfectly born of the holy Mary, ever-virgin, through the Holy Spirit. He became man, that is, he took a perfect man: soul and body and mind, and everything that a man is, apart from sin. 6 He did not come from the seed of a man, nor did he come to be [in] a man. Rather, he formed flesh for himself into one holy unity. It was not as in the prophets, where he breathed and spoke and worked; he became man perfectly. 7 For “the Word became flesh.” He did not undergo change, nor did he turn his own divinity into humanity. He united into one his own holy perfection and divinity. For the Lord Jesus Christ is one and not two: the same God, the same Lord, the same King.
8 The same Lord suffered in the flesh, rose again, and went up into the heavens in that same body. He sat down in glory at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again in that same body, in glory, to judge the living and the dead. Of his kingdom there will be no end. 9 We believe also in the Holy Spirit, who spoke in the law and preached in the prophets, who came down upon the Jordan, who speaks in the apostles and dwells in the saints. 10 This is how we believe in him: that he is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the perfect Spirit, the Spirit who is the Comforter. He is uncreated. He proceeds from the Father, and he receives from the Son, and † is believed in. † 11 We believe in one catholic and apostolic church, and in one baptism of repentance, and in the resurrection of the dead, and in a just judgment of souls and bodies, and in the kingdom of heaven, and in eternal life.
12 As for those who say that there was a time when the Son or the Holy Spirit did not exist, or that he came into being out of things that were not, or who claim that he is of another substance or being, or that the Son of God or the Holy Spirit is changeable, the catholic and apostolic church, your mother and ours, anathematizes them. And again we anathematize those who do not confess the resurrection of the dead, and all the heresies that do not come from this right faith. 13 Most blessed ones, since you and your children believe in this way and carry out the commandments that flow from this faith, we hope that you will always pray for us, so that we may have a share and an inheritance in the same 14 faith and in the inheritance of its commandments. And pray for us, you and everyone who believes in this way and keeps the commandments of the Lord in Christ Jesus our Lord. Through him and with him be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
15 Up to this point, beloved brothers, my own littleness and the weak power of my mind have been compelled to come. Your goodness and nobility urged us on, even though we are unequal to the task, and in stretching beyond our own measure we need help. But he who is faithful in heaven knows everything. 16 Peace, then, to everyone who walks by this rule of the true and orthodox faith, and upon the Israel of God. Greet all the saints in the Lord. The servants of the Lord greet you, and especially I, Anatolius, who wrote this book, the discourse called the Ancoratus. And I pray that you may be well in the Lord.