Книга III

Chapter 1. In the third book the author will prove that Christ belongs to the Creator 1. In accordance with the plan of the previous work, which after its loss we continue to restore, here we will talk about Christ, although this is unnecessary after we have defended the uniqueness of the Divinity. For it is sufficiently clear from what was previously said that Christ should not be thought of as belonging to any other god than the Creator, since it has been established that no other God should be believed than the Creator, Whom Christ thus preached, and then the apostles declared Christ to belong to no other, but to that God whom Christ preached, that is, to the Creator, that there was no mention of another god and, thus, of another Christ. done before Marcion's temptation. 2. This is very easily proven when considering the apostolic and heretical Churches, namely, that corruption of the rule should be declared where a later origin is discovered. I already mentioned this in the first book. But even now this dispute, the subject of which will be the separate personality of Christ, will be useful so that when we prove that Christ belongs to the Creator, Marcion’s god will also be driven away. It is fitting for the truth to use all its powers not as one in difficulty - however, it wins even with a shortened withdrawal of the case, but [it was decided] 549 as striving everywhere to counteract an adversary who is maddened to such an extent as to rather assume that that Christ has come, which was never announced, than the one who was always foretold. Chapter 2. It is necessary that the Father first proclaim the Son, and not vice versa. Human salvation is connected with faith, which had to be justified by foreknowledge 1. From this point I enter into a debate about whether it should have come so unexpectedly. Firstly, because he himself is the son of his god: after all, the order is such that before the father declares about his son, than the son about his father, and before the father testifies about the son, than the son about the father; secondly, because, in addition to the name of the son, he has the name of the messenger. In the same way, the protection of the sender must first be revealed, in order to be a witness to the one sent, for no one who comes through the power of another arrogates it to himself by declaring it, but rather expects to be confirmed by it, since the support of the one who grants the power is first manifested. 2. However, the one whom the father never called so will not be recognized as a son, and the one whom the one giving the commission has never appointed will not be considered sent - the father who was to be named, and the guarantor who was to be appointed, if they existed. Anything that deviates from the rule of nature, which 550 does not allow those of higher rank to be subsequently recognized: the father after the son, and the sender after the messenger, and God after Christ, will be considered suspicious. 3. Nothing happens in knowledge before its source, for this does not happen in establishment. “Unexpectedly a son, unexpectedly sent and unexpectedly Christ.” But I am inclined to believe that nothing comes from God that is unexpected, for nothing comes from God that is unknown. If this is established, why was it not foreshadowed, so that both what was established on the basis of foreshadowing and the divine on the basis of establishment could be confirmed? 4. In any case, such a great work, which, one must think, was being prepared for human salvation, would not, of course, have not yet been expected, since it was destined to bear fruit thanks to faith. For inasmuch as it required faith in order for it to bear fruit, it needed preparation in order to become an object of faith, being provided with 551 foundations of establishment and pre-proclamation, by means of which arrangement the created faith was rightly ordained by God to man, and manifested in relation to God by man; faith, which must exist 552 thanks to knowledge, for it can do this, having learned, of course, thanks to foreshadowing. Chapter 3 Evidence of miracles is not enough to prove divinity 1. “It was not,” you say, “such an order was necessary, for He intended in fact to immediately confirm that He was both the Son, and the messenger, and the Christ of God through the proof of the miracles He performed.” But I will deny that this kind of proof alone is sufficient to testify to Him, which He himself subsequently deprived him of significance. For by declaring that many would come and perform signs and perform great wonders to seduce also the elect, 553 and yet should not be accepted, He showed the contingent nature of faith based on signs and wonders, which can very easily be performed even by false Christs. 2. Or how can it be that He wanted to be recognized, recognized and accepted on the basis of that (I am talking about miracles), on the basis of which He did not want this to happen to others, who were also destined to come unexpectedly, and without prediction on the part of any author of their coming? If, on the basis that he came before them and first recorded evidence of miracles, he, like a place in a bathhouse, took the faith, intercepted it from all those who followed, look, no matter how he himself ended up in the position of these subsequent ones, revealing himself later than the Creator, who had already been recognized earlier and therefore had performed miracles before, and no other than he, who foreshadowed that one should not believe others, that is, those who would come after Him. 3. So, if the fact that he came first and was the first to announce those who would come later should † lead to faith in him, 554 then he himself will be condemned in advance by Him later than Whom he was known, and the power to affirm this in relation to those who follow will only belong to the Creator alone, Who, not having a predecessor, could not * 555. Now - since I am going to prove that those very miracles which you attribute to your Christ as the only ones necessary for faith in him, the Creator either performed before through His servants, or intended to be performed through His Christ - I can, based on this, with full justification declare that 556 Christ should be believed in 556 because of miracles alone, the less, the more they can confirm His belonging to the Creator, and no one else, 557 as corresponding miracles of the Creator, and wrought through His servants, and promised in His Christ. 4. However, even if other evidence is discovered in favor of your Christ, i.e. new, then we would more easily believe that the new ones belong to the same One to whom the old ones belong, rather than that they belong to the one who owns only the new ones, devoid of confirmation from trustworthy antiquity. So he had to come, being foreshadowed both by predictions concerning him, ensuring faith in him, and by miracles, especially as coming against Christ, who belongs to the Creator, 558 supported by both signs and prophecies concerning Him, 559 so that Christ's rival would shine through all kinds of differences. But how could his Christ be foreshadowed by a god who was never foretold? Therefore, you are trying to ensure that there is no faith either in God or in your Christ, for God should not have remained unknown, and Christ should have been recognized thanks to God. Chapter 4. Consideration of the question of why Marcion’s Christ did not wait for the coming of Christ from the Creator 1. I think I did not deign to imitate the order established by our God as unpleasant to him and subject to speedy refutation. Being new, he wanted to come in a new way: a son before his father announced this, and a messenger before receiving authority from the sender, in order to introduce the most extraordinary faith, according to which they believe that Christ has come before they know that he exists. Here I should also examine why he did not come after Christ. 2. For when I find that his God 561 has so long shown himself to be most patient with the most ferocious Creator, who sometimes announced His Christ to men, I affirm that, for whatever reason he may have done this, postponing both his revelation and his intervention, for the same reason he should have been patient with the Creator, who is about to fulfill His ordinances also in His Christ, in order that, when all the work of the hostile God and the hostile Christ is completed and fulfilled, then he himself will add his own regulations. 3. However, 562 repentance for such great patience 563 led to the fact that he did not wait for the completion of the works of the Creator, then in vain he kept up the predictions about His Christ, whose appearance he could not wait for. He either interrupted the flow of someone else's time for no reason, or for no reason did not interfere with it for so long. What held him back and who inspired him to take action? However, in any case, he made a mistake by showing up so late after the Creator, but so hastily before His Christ. 4. He should have put the first 564 to shame long ago, but he should not have touched the second yet, so as not to endure the One who has been raging for so long, and not to disturb the One who is still inactive, in relation to both, acting not in accordance with the name of the best god, being truly fickle and unreliable, namely, tolerant 565 of the Creator and intolerant 566 to Christ, and to the vain everywhere. After all, he did not restrain the Creator any more than he opposed Christ. And the Creator remains absolutely as He is, and Christ will come, as it is written about Him. Why does he come after the Creator, Whom he could not correct? Why did he open himself to His Christ, Whom he could not hold? 5. Or if he corrected the Creator, revealing himself after Him, so that what was subject to correction preceded him, then, consequently, he, who was going to correct His Christ, had to wait for Him in the same way, in order to become a later corrector of Him as well as the Creator. It will be a different matter if he comes again after Him, so that in the first coming he can oppose the Creator, overthrowing His Law and Prophets, and in the second he can oppose Christ, exposing His Kingdom. Then, therefore, he intends to fulfill his plan, then, perhaps, he will need to believe in it. Or, if his work is already finished, it is in vain that he is going to return, not planning to do anything. Chapter 5. About two features in the speeches of the prophets: in the Bible the future is spoken of as having already happened and allegory is often used 1. With these introductory words, I took, as it were, the first step and, as it were, from afar. But, intending to fight from now on for real, face to face, I see that it is still necessary to identify some lines along which we have to fight: we are talking about the Scriptures of the Creator. For, going to prove that Christ belongs to the Creator in accordance with them, as subsequently fulfilled by Christ, I must also speak about the appearance of the Scriptures themselves and, so to speak, about their nature, so that they, considered together with the provisions, do not become the subject of controversy and do not weaken the attention of the reader by confusing their defense with the defense of the provisions. 2. I therefore refer to two points concerning prophetic speech which our adversaries must henceforth acknowledge. The first is that the future is reported as having already happened. 567 For it is fitting for the Divinity to consider as perfect everything that He has decided, since there is no distinction of time in Him, in Whom eternity itself is determined by the simple quality of time, and it is more characteristic of prophetic inspiration to show what it looks at, while it looks, already seen and thus fulfilled, that is, what will happen in any case. As, for example, it is said through Isaiah: I put My back under the lashes, and My cheeks under the palms, but I did not turn My face away from the spitting. 568 3. After all, whether Christ then proclaimed this about Himself, as we believe, or the prophet about himself, as the Jews believe, however, this was said about something that had not yet happened as if it had happened. Another feature will be that many things are announced in an intricate way - with the help of riddles, allegories and parables - so that it must be understood differently than what is written about it. For we read that the mountains will ooze sweetness, 569 but it does not follow from this that you should expect grape juice to appear from the stones or must from the rocks; we hear that the earth flows with milk and honey, 570 that you must believe that you will someday make pies and Samian pastries from clods of earth, and God does not promise to become precisely the manager of the water supply and the farmer, saying: I will place rivers in a thirsty country and in the desert - boxwood and cedar; 571 as well as foreshadowing the conversion of the pagans: May the beasts of the field, the sirens and the daughters of ostriches bless Me, 572 - He, of course, did not intend to receive happy omens from the chicks of swallows, foxes and those strange and fabulous singers. 4. And why should I talk more about this method of presentation? For even the apostle of the heretics 573 interprets the very law which leaves the mouth of the threshing oxen free, 574 as relating not to the oxen, but to us, 575 and declares that the stone accompanying to provide them with drink, 576 was Christ, 577 also teaching the Galatians that the two descriptions of the sons of Abraham are given allegorically, 578 and telling the Ephesians that what was foreshadowed in the beginning about a man who will leave his father and mother and both become one flesh, 579 he understands as referring to Christ and the Church. 580 Chapter 6. Refutation of the Marcionite claim that the Jews killed Christ as belonging to another god 1. If now enough is known about these two features of Jewish literature, remember, reader, our agreement to discuss, when we use something like this, not the form of Scripture, but the state of the matter. Therefore, since heretical madness has supposed that that Christ has come who was never announced, it follows that it should assert that that Christ who was always foretold has not yet come. 2. But in this case he will have to unite with the Jewish error and build up a proof for himself with its help, as if the Jews, being confident that He who came was a stranger, 581 not only rejected Him as a stranger, but also killed him as an enemy, although they, if He had been theirs, would, without a doubt, have recognized Him and surrounded Him with all kinds of religious veneration. 3. It must be thought that it was not the Rhodian, 582 but the Pontic law that guaranteed this shipowner, 583 that the Jews could not be mistaken regarding their Christ, although, even if nothing had been discovered that had been predicted about them, the human condition alone, predisposed to error, could convince that the Jews were capable of making mistakes, since they are people, and one should not immediately consider anything a foregone conclusion. based on the judgment of those who were most likely to be mistaken. 4. In turn, since it was foretold that they would not recognize Christ and would therefore kill Him, then, consequently, the very One against whom they were predicted to do this would be unrecognized and killed by them. If you require proof, I will not expand on those Scriptures which, while declaring that Christ can be put to death, also affirm, of course, that He will not be recognized - after all, if He were recognized, He could not, of course, endure anything - but, postponing them for the debate about the passion, I will be content with 584 appealing to those prophecies that confirm that Christ will not be recognized for some time. They report this briefly when they show that all the power of knowledge has been taken away from the people by the Creator. 5. “I will take away,” He says, “the wisdom of their wise men and the understanding of their understanding I will hide 585 and: with your ears you will hear and not hear, and with your eyes you will look and not see: for the heart of this people is fattened, and with their ears they listened with difficulty and their eyes were closed, so that they would never hear with their ears and see with their eyes, and guess with their heart and not turn, so that I would heal them. 586 6. For they deserved this dullness of feelings promoting salvation by loving God only in words, but being far from Him in heart. 587 Now, if Christ was announced by the Creator who forms the thunder, who creates the spirit, 588 and who proclaims His Christ to men, according to the prophet Joel, 589 if all the hope of the Jews, not to speak of the Gentiles, was destined to lie in the revelation of Christ, then, no doubt, it was indicated that because of the taking away from them of the powers of knowledge and understanding, of their wisdom and understanding, they they will not know and will not understand what was announced, that is, Christ, since their chief wise men, that is, the scribes, and their wise ones, that is, the Pharisees, were to make mistakes regarding Him; in the same way, the people had to listen with their ears and not hear, of course, Christ teaching, and look with their eyes and not see, of course, Christ doing signs, as it is said in another place: And who is blind if not My servants? And who is deaf if not he who rules over them? 590 7. But also when He reproaches through the same Isaiah: I have begotten and raised up sons, but they rejected Me; The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's manger, but Israel does not know Me, and the people have not comprehended Me. 591 But we, being confident that Christ always spoke in the prophets - namely, the Spirit of the Creator, as the prophet testifies: The false Spirit of ours is Christ the Lord, 592 Who was and hear and see from the very beginning as the substitute of the Father under the name of God - we know that such words belonged to Him, who even then reproached Israel for the acts that were predicted to be committed against Him: You have forsaken the Lord and provoked the wrath of Saint of Israel. 593 8. If, however, not to Christ, but rather to God Himself, you wish to attribute the Jewish ignorance imputed to the Jews from the very beginning, without allowing the thought that the Word and the Spirit, that is, Christ who belongs to the Creator, was previously despised and not recognized by them (the Jews), then you will still be refuted. After all, without denying that His Christ is the Son, the Spirit and the essence of the Creator, you will be forced to admit that those who did not recognize the Father could not recognize the Son, since They have the same essence, the fullness of which, if not understood, then much more its part, as participating in the fullness, is not understood. 9. From what has been discussed, it already becomes clear how the Jews rejected Christ and killed Him: not as those who accepted Him as a stranger, but as those who did not recognize their own, for they could not accept Him as a stranger, about whom nothing was ever announced, since they could 594 accept Him as the One about whom it had always been predicted. After all, something can be accepted or not accepted that, being provided by a prediction, will receive material for recognition or misconception. That which is devoid of 595 material does not allow understanding to manifest itself. 10. They rejected and persecuted Him, not as the Christ of another god, but as soon as a man whom they considered a deceiver 596 in signs and a rival in doctrine, so that this Man as one of their own, that is, as a Jew, but who had deviated from Judaism and was destroying it, they brought to court and punished in accordance with their Law, which they would not have done to a stranger. Those who did not judge His human nature as alien seem so far from understanding Christ as alien. Chapter 7. The Scripture spoke of two comings of Christ: the first - allegorically, the second - explicitly; therefore, the Jews, not understanding the words about the first inglorious appearance, rejected precisely their Christ, Whom they were waiting for as coming in divine greatness 1. Now it will be possible for the heretic, together with the Jew himself, to fully know the reason for the errors of the latter, having borrowed from whom the direction in this argument, blind from the blind, he fell into the same pit. 597 We say that the two forms of Christ shown by the prophets foreshadowed as many of His comings: one in humility - of course, the first, when, like a sheep, He had to be led to the slaughter, and, like a lamb before the shearer is silent, so He did not open His lips, 598 deprived of a respectable appearance. 2. For we have proclaimed, he says, about Him: like a child, like a root in a thirsty earth, and He has neither an impressive appearance nor glory; and we saw Him - He had neither form nor beauty, but His form was shameful, humiliated before the sons of men, a man in suffering and acquainted with the bearing of infirmity, 599 since He was destined by the Father to be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, 600 made a little lower than the angels, 601 calling Himself a worm and not a man, a reproach among men and the contempt of the people. 602 3. These examples of ignominy correspond to the first coming, as examples of greatness correspond to the second, when He will no longer become a stumbling block and a rock of temptation, but the main cornerstone accepted after the rejection 603 and crowning the church, 604 that is, the Church, and truly that rock of Daniel, cut off from the mountain, which will crush and crush the image of the kingdoms of this world. 605 4. About this coming the same prophet: Behold, with the clouds of heaven, as it were the Son of man, walking, came to the Ancient of Days. He stood before His face, and those who stood nearby failed Him. Royal power and all the nations of the earth according to generations were given to Him, and all glory was given to His zealous service. And His power is forever, which will not be taken away, and His kingdom, which will not end. 606 5. The point is that then He will take on a glorious appearance and inexhaustible beauty, surpassing the sons of men, for it is said: Abounding in beauty before the sons of men, grace was poured out in Your mouth; Therefore God has blessed You forever. Gird the sword upon His thigh, mighty in His glory and His beauty, 607 when the Father, after making Him a little lower than the angels, 608 crowns Him with glory and honor and places all things under His feet. 609 6. Then those who pierced Him will know Him, and will beat their breasts, 610 tribe after tribe, 611 of course, because they did not previously know Him in the humility of the human condition: And He is a Man, says Jeremiah, who will know Him? 612 For even His birth, according to the words of Isaiah, who can explain? 613 So in Zechariah, in the image of Joshua, and in the very sacrament of the name, the true high priest of the Father, Jesus Christ, is presented in a double guise for two comings: first, dressed in dirty rags, that is, in the dishonor of the flesh subject to suffering and death, when the devil, the author of Judas’ betrayal, resisted Him, not to mention the tempter after baptism; then, stripped of the former dirt and clothed in the podir, miter and pure miter, 614 that is, in the glory and honor of the second coming. 7. For if I begin to explain what the two goats that were sacrificed during Lent mean, 615 then won’t it turn out that they also symbolize both orders of Christ? Equal in age and very similar due to the fact that the appearance of the Lord is the same, for He will not come in another guise, so that He can be recognized by those from whom He suffered. One of them (the goats), shrouded in purple, cursed, spat upon, tormented, stabbed, was driven out of the city to death by the people, being marked with obvious signs of the Lord’s passions; the other, offered for sins and given as food to the church priests, provided signs of the second phenomenon, in which, after the atonement of all sins, the priests of the spiritual church, that is, the Church, would enjoy, as it were, a kind of meal of the Lord's grace, while the rest would be denied salvation. 8. So, since the first coming was announced in such a way that it turned out to be mostly obscured by allegory and disgraced by all dishonor, and the second so that it turned out to be obvious and worthy of God, then, having paid attention only to that which they (the Jews) could easily understand and accept on faith, i.e., the second, they were quite expectedly deceived about the more incomprehensible and, indeed, more shameful, i.e., regarding the first. And thus, down to this day they deny that their Christ came, for He did not come in greatness, for they do not know that He had to come also in humility. Chapter 8. If Christ did not have flesh, being a ghost, then everything he did is ghostly, the resurrection of the dead is unreliable, and our faith and the preaching of the apostles are in vain 1. Let the heretic henceforth stop borrowing poison from the Jew; let the viper, as they say, from the viper, finally vomit out the poisonous mucus of his own invention, the essence of which is that Christ is a ghost. Unless this position also belongs to other authors who appeared ahead of schedule and in some way premature “Marcionites”, whom the Apostle John called antichrists, 616 denying that Christ came in the flesh; but by doing so, however, not in order to establish the rights of another god, since they would have been branded for this too, but because they considered it incredible that God is flesh. 2. How much more of an antichrist is Marcion, who appropriates this assumption to himself, better prepared to deny the corporeal essence of Christ! Marcion, who made his god himself (the god of Christ) neither the creator nor the resurrector of the flesh, and in this respect, one must think, is the best and different from the lies and deception of the Creator. And therefore, his Christ, so as not to lie and deceive and accidentally not be attributed to the Creator because of this, was not what he seemed, and lied about what he was: that he was flesh without being flesh, and that he was a man without being a man. Accordingly, that he is a god, I suppose, 617 without being a god. 3. Why didn't he take the form of a ghost of God? Will I believe him about his inner essence if he has misled me about his outer essence? How can one be considered truthful about what is hidden if he is such a liar about what is obvious? How did he, who combined in himself the truth of the spirit and the deception of the flesh, produce a unification that the apostle does not allow: 618 light, that is, truth, and darkness, that is, lies? 4. Now, when it turns out that the flesh of Christ is a deception, it turns out that everything accomplished through the flesh of Christ is perfect through deception: conversations, touches, shared meals, and even the miracles themselves. For if he, by touching someone or allowing someone to touch him, freed him from his illness, then what is perfect physically cannot be considered truly perfect without the truth of the body itself. Nothing solid can be created gaping, nothing filled can be created empty. 619 An imaginary appearance has an imaginary action, an imaginary figure has imaginary deeds. 5. Likewise, the passions of his (i.e. Marcion) Christ do not acquire faith. After all, he who suffered untruly suffered nothing; the ghost could not truly suffer. Consequently, the whole work of God is destroyed. Everything that is significant and valuable in the Christian name is denied: the death of Christ, which the Apostle so persistently defended, of course, the true one, affirming it as the main foundation of the Gospel, our salvation and his own preaching. For I conveyed to you, he says, first of all, that Christ died for our sins, that he was buried and rose again on the third day. 620 6. Further, if his flesh is denied, how is his death affirmed, which is the test to which only the flesh is subjected, returning through death to the earth from which it was taken according to the law of its Creator? 621 And if death is denied while the flesh is denied, then there will be doubts about the resurrection. For he was not resurrected for the same reason that he did not die - because he was deprived of a bodily essence, which includes both death and resurrection. Accordingly, if Christ’s resurrection is unreliable, then ours is also destroyed. For our resurrection, because of which Christ came, will not have power if the resurrection of Christ himself does not have power. 7. Indeed, just as those who said that there is no resurrection of the dead are refuted by the apostle on the basis of the resurrection of Christ, 622 so, if the resurrection of Christ does not exist, the resurrection of the dead is also abolished. And thus, our faith will be in vain, and the preaching of the apostles will be in vain. 623 They also turn out to be false witnesses about God, since they uttered testimony that he supposedly raised Christ, whom he did not resurrect. 624 And we are still in sins, and those who slept in Christ perished; 625 even if they have to resurrect, but, perhaps, in a ghostly way, like Christ. Chapter 9. The angels who appeared to Abraham and Lot had true flesh, which was given to them by the same God who promised to make people angels 1. You, who imagine that in this matter you should, when objecting to us, refer to the angels of the Creator - that they, in the ghostly guise of imaginary, of course, flesh, communicated with Abraham 626 and Lot 627 and, however, really talked, and ate, and did what was entrusted to them - firstly, you cannot resort to the examples of That God whom you are overthrowing. After all, to the extent that the god you introduce is the best and most perfect, the examples of that God do not correspond to him; he will not be better and more perfect than Whom in everything, unless he differs from Him in everything. 2. Understand then that you will not achieve recognition of the fact that the angels had imaginary flesh; she was a true and genuine human being. After all, if it was not difficult for Him to reveal true feelings and actions in imaginary flesh, how much easier it was for Him to give true feelings and actions the true essence of flesh as its own Creator and Sculptor. 3. For your god, because he did not produce any flesh at all, as was to be expected, was probably able to bring the ghost of that which he could not have the truth of; my God, who transformed this one, taken from mud, into its present state, not yet from the marriage seed, but already flesh, could equally create flesh from any matter for the angels, being the One who raised, and moreover only by the Word, from nothing even the world, consisting of so many and so significant bodies. 4. In any case, if your God someday promises people the true essence of angels - they will, he says, be like angels, 628 - then why couldn’t my God provide the angels with the true human essence, no matter where it was taken? For you will not answer me where that angelic essence will come from. It is enough for me to establish that by which God corresponds, namely, its truth, which He provided to three witnesses: sight, touch, hearing. 5. It is more difficult for God to lie than to produce true flesh from something, even if unborn. However, to other heretics who claim that this flesh of angels would have to be born from the flesh if it were truly human, we, relying on a reliable basis, answer how it could be both truly human and unborn: it is truly human because of the truth of God, alien to lies and deception, and because it could not be perceived by people as people if they did not exist in the human essence; It is unborn because Christ alone had to be born into flesh from flesh, in order to transform our birth by His Nativity and thus also eliminate our death by His death, resurrecting in the flesh in which He was born, in order to be able to die. 6. Therefore, He Himself with the angels then appeared to Abraham in true flesh, but not yet born, for not yet doomed to death, but learning life among people. How much less should the angels, who were not destined to die for us, be supplied with flesh for a short time by birth! After all, they were not supposed to lay it down when they died. 7. But no matter where it came from and no matter how it was left, they did not pretend to have it in their possession. If the Creator creates angels as spirits and His servants with flaming fire, 629 as truly as spirits as by fire, then He also truly created them as flesh, so that we now remember and declare to the heretics that the promise to transform people into angels comes from the same One who once transformed angels into people. Chapter 10. Marcion’s god, forced to take on the alien form of human flesh, is pitiful, in contrast to the Creator, who used His elements to communicate with people. Whatever God puts on He makes worthy 1. So, I would like you, not having the opportunity to use the examples of the Creator as alien and having their own reasons, to discover the plan of your god, according to which he revealed his Christ not in the true flesh. If he despised her as earthly and, as you say, full of dung, why did he not also despise her image? After all, the image of any unworthy thing should not be considered worthy: the likeness follows from what the thing is. 2. “But how would he communicate with people, if not through the image of human essence?” Why, in this case, did he not choose to use the true essence to communicate truly if he needed to communicate? How much more worthily would necessity promote honesty than cunning! 3. You introduce a rather pitiful god precisely because he was able to reveal his Christ only in the guise of an unworthy, and, moreover, alien thing. Indeed, to some extent, 630 it will be decent to use something unworthy if it is ours, just as it will not be proper to use someone else’s, even if it is worthy. Why didn’t he come clothed in some other more worthy essence, and best of all – in his own, so as not to seem in need of an unworthy and alien one? 4. If my Creator entered into communication with man by means of the thorn bush and fire, 632 and later by means of the cloud and the ball, 633 and used bodies of the primary elements in representing Himself, then these examples of divine power sufficiently show that God did not need equipment of false or even genuine flesh. However, if we strive for accuracy, no essence is worthy of being clothed with God. 5. Whatever He puts on, He makes it worthy, provided it is without deception. And therefore, how could he (Marcion’s god) consider the true flesh a greater shame than the false? But he glorified her with his touch. 634 How significant will be the flesh, the ghost of which turned out to be necessary for the highest god! Chapter 11. About the stupidity of Marcion, who taught that Christ his god did not undergo birth 1. Marcion adopted all these fictions about the imaginary corporeality of Christ with the intention that the testimony of human nature would not also confirm the fact of His birth and so that in this way it would not be possible to defend the belonging of Christ to the Creator, since He was declared to be born and therefore carnal. And here the Pontian acts completely stupidly: as if it would be no easier to believe that the flesh in God is unborn than that it is false, especially if the angels of the Creator prepared this faith in advance by communicating in a true, but, however, unborn body. 2. After all, it was easier for the famous Philumena to convince Apelles 635 and other defectors from Marcion’s camp that Christ really wore flesh, but, however, not associated with birth, borrowed from the primary elements. And if Marcion feared that faith in the flesh might also introduce faith in birth, then, without a doubt, he who seemed to be a man was considered, of course, to be born. 3. Indeed, a certain woman exclaimed: Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts that nourished You. 636 And how was it said about His Mother and brothers that they were standing outside the doors? 637 Of course, when He Himself declared Himself to be the Son of Man, He confessed that He was born. 638 4. And we will look at these chapters in due course. Now, although I postponed all this until the examination of the Gospel texts, however, what I stated above: if in any case one who seemed to be a man was to be considered born, it was in vain to think that the belief in birth would be eliminated by the idea of ​​imaginary flesh. 5. What did the fact that what was considered true exist untruly, both flesh and birth? Or if you say: “Let people’s opinion be whatever it pleases,” then you find yourself worshiping your god with a false name, if he knew that he was different from the one he made people consider himself to be. And you 639 could already attribute to him an imaginary birth in order to avoid resolving this issue. 6. In fact, some girls sometimes seem to themselves to be pregnant, either because of blood flow, or because of some illness that causes bloating. 640 In any case, he had to play the scene with the ghost in such a way that he could “dance” what is connected with the origin of the flesh, since he still played the role of this very essence. You rejected, of course, the lie of birth: after all, you presented the flesh itself as true. 641 Even the true birth of God, one must think, is something extremely shameful. 7. Come on, fall on this most sacred and honorable work of nature, throw yourself on everything that you are; destroy the source of flesh and soul, call the womb, the workshop for the production of such a great living being, that is, man, a drain for sewage; persecute the unclean and shameful pains of pregnancy and childbirth and then the dirty, anxious, amusing 642 care of the newborn itself. However, when you overthrow all this in order to prove that it is unworthy of God, birth will not be more unworthy than death, childhood - crucifixion, punishment - nature, and the flesh - sentence. 643 8. If Christ really suffered this, the birth was less; if he, being a ghost, allowed a lie, he could have been born falsely. I think that we, by asserting that the truth more suits God than the falsity of the guise in which He revealed His Christ, have sufficiently shown that those main arguments of Marcion, with the help of which he proves the existence of another Christ, are completely untenable. 9. If he was true, he was flesh; if he was flesh, he was born. For that which this heresy attacks is confirmed when that with which it attacks is refuted. So, if He is considered carnal, since He was begotten, and begotten, since He is carnal, since He was not a ghost, then it will have to be recognized that He is precisely the One about whom the prophets of the Creator proclaimed, coming in the flesh and begotten, namely, that He is the Christ of the Creator. Chapter 12. Explaining why Isaiah's words about Emmanuel refer to the coming Christ 1. Refer now, as is your wont, † to this comparison of Christ in Isaiah, asserting that it does not correspond in any way. “For, firstly,” you say, “Christ in Isaiah will have to be called Emmanuel. 644 Secondly, He obtains the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria against the king of the Assyrians. 645 However, He who came did not appear under a similar name and did not perform any military deed.” 2. But I advise you to remember what is immediately adjacent to both passages. After all, the translation Emmanuel is added: “God is with us,” 646 so that you take into account not only the sound of the name, but also its meaning. For the combination of Hebrew sounds, which is Emmanuel, is a combination of the sounds of his people, and their meaning, which is “God with us,” is common thanks to the translation. Therefore examine whether this expression “God with us” (which is Emmanuel) has not been applied to Christ since Christ shone forth. 3. And I think you will not deny this, since you yourself call it “God with us,” [it is said] 647 i.e. Emmanuel. Or if you are so unfounded that, since you say “God with us” and not “Emmanuel,” you deny that He has come whose property it is to be called Emmanuel, as if this word did not mean “God with us,” then you will find that among the Jews the Christians, and even the Marcionites, mention Emmanuel when they want to say “God is with us,” just like any people, with whatever combination of sounds they say “with us.” God,” will proclaim Emmanuel, the meaning of the word referring to its sound. 4. And if Emmanuel means “God with us,” and the God who is with us is Christ, who also abides in us, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ, 648 then Christ is just as certainly abiding in the meaning of the name, which is “God with us,” as in the sound of the name, which is Emmanuel. And thus it is established that He has already come, about whom it was said in advance as Emmanuel, for the meaning of the one who came is Emmanuel, i.e. “God with us.” Chapter 13. Explaining why Isaiah's words about the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria relate to the coming Christ 1. Likewise, you take into account only the sound of the names when you understand “the power of Damascus,” “the spoil of Samaria,” and “the king of the Assyrians” as if they foreshadowed Christ as a warrior belonging to the Creator, not paying attention to what Scripture says above 649: For before he learns to name his father and mother, He will take the power of Damascus, the spoil of Samaria against the king of the Assyrians. 650 2. You need to first look at the indication of age: can we be talking about Christ as a man, not to mention the fact that He was a commander. Namely, will the baby call to arms with his squeak, give the signal for the beginning of war not with a trumpet, but with a rattle, indicate the direction of attack on the enemy not from a horse, chariot or fortress wall, but from the neck or back of his nurse or nurse, and thus take possession of Damascus and Samaria instead of breasts? 3. It’s another matter if among the Pontians the babies of a barbarian people are eager to fight, having, I think, first taken a sunbath with ointment, then armed themselves with diapers and received payment with oil, 651 babies who learn to throw spears before chewing. 652 Indeed, if nature nowhere allows for people to fight before they become men, 653 for them to accept the power of Damascus before they know what to call their father and mother, then it follows that this proclamation should be understood as allegorical. “But even the Virgin,” he says, “is not allowed by nature to give birth, and yet they believe the prophet.” And they do it right. 4. For he prepared faith in an incredible thing, explaining that it would become a sign: Therefore, he says, the Lord will give you a sign: behold. The virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son, 654 A sign from God, if it were not some kind of miraculous extraordinariness, would not be a sign. And the Jews, if ever, in order to confuse us, dare to lie that it is not the Virgin, 5. but a young woman 655 who is about to conceive and give birth, the Scripture mentions, they are defeated by the argument that no sign can seem to be an ordinary thing, that is, pregnancy and childbirth in a young woman. Consequently, they will with good reason believe 656 in the motherhood of the Virgin, which is destined to become a sign; in the belligerence of the baby - without any reason, because there is no explanation for the sign. But, having endowed the unprecedented birth with the function of a sign, 657 after these words about the sign in another place he announces how the Child is fed, who will eat honey and oil 658 - 6. and this, of course, is not said as a sign [that He will not indulge evil], 659 because this 660 is a property of childhood - but He will accept the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria against the king of the Assyrians. 661 Consider His age and seek the meaning of what was foretold, but, above all, return to the true Gospel what you stole from the later: 662 and the prophecy becomes clear as its fulfillment is announced. Indeed, let those eastern wise men await the first days of Christ's infancy, 663 in order to bestow upon Him gold and incense: 664 and the Child received the power of Damascus without battle or weapons. 7. After all, besides what everyone knows, that the power of the East, i.e. its power and might, usually lies in gold and incense, there is no doubt that the Creator called the strength of other nations gold, as it is said through Zechariah: And Judah will settle near Jerusalem and gather all the strength of the surrounding nations, gold and silver. 665 8. But about that offering of gold also David: And it will be given to Him from the gold of Arabia, 666 - and again: The kings of the Arabs and Sabaeans will present Him with gifts. 667 For the East usually considered the Magi to be kings, and Damascus was previously considered to belong to Arabia, 668 before it was assigned to Syrophenicia after the division of Syria; 669 Christ then accepted its (Damascus) power, taking its signs, that is, gold and aromas. As the spoil of Samaria, the Magi themselves, who, after having comprehended Him, honored Him with gifts and, kneeling down, worshiped Him as God and king, taking advantage of the testimony of the indicating and leading star, turned out to be “the spoil of Samaria” - that is, idolatry - by believing in Christ. 9. For He, under the name of Samaria as being dishonored because of idolatry, because of which she fell away from God under King Jeroboam 670, branded idolatry. For it is not unusual for the Creator to metaphorically replace one word with another on the basis of a comparison of crimes. After all, He calls the princes of Sodom the princes of Judah, and He calls the people themselves the people of Gomorrah; 671 and He says in another place: Your father is an Amorite, and your mother is a Hittite, 672 - because of the similar wickedness of those whom He once called even His sons: I have begotten and raised up sons, 673 10. So by Egypt He sometimes means the whole world when accused of superstition and slander. 674 So Babylon in our John is an image of the Roman city, equally great, proud of the kingdom and fighting with the saints of God. 675 Using the same method, He called the Magi the name of Samaritans; the Magi, from whom was taken away as booty what they owned together, as we said, with the Samaritans - idolatry. By the words “against the king of the Assyrians” we mean: “against Herod,” against whom, without informing him then about what he was looking for for the purpose of killing Christ, the Magi actually spoke out. 676 Chapter 14. The words about the sword and arrows, which, according to the psalm, Christ wields, must be understood allegorically 1. This interpretation of ours will receive confirmation when in another place you, who consider Christ a warrior because of the names of some weapons and because of similar words, are refuted by a comparative examination of other thoughts. Gird yourself, says David, with a sword 677 on your thigh. 678 But what do you read about Christ above? Blossoming with beauty greater than the sons of men; grace poured out from Your mouth. 679 2. It’s funny to me if He, Whom He girt with a sword for war, is flattered about His blooming beauty and the grace of his lips. Adding also: Pacnpocmpany, prosper and reign, 680 - adds - for the sake of truth, meekness and justice. 681 For who, with the help of the sword, will carry out this, and not, rather, the opposite of this: deception, rudeness and injustice, that is, matters inherent in battles? Let us see, therefore, whether that sword, which has a different effect, is not somehow different. 3. After all, the Apostle John in Revelation describes a sword 682 coming from the mouth of God, 683 a two-edged sword, sharpened, 684 by which we should understand the divine word, double-edged thanks to the two Testaments of the Law and the Gospel, sharpened by wisdom, hostile to the devil, arming us against spiritual enemies 685 depravity and all lust, cutting off from the most dear for the sake of the name God's. 686 4. And if you do not want to recognize John, you have a common teacher, Paul, who girds our loins with truth and the breastplate of righteousness, who equips us with the preparation of the Gospel of peace and not of war, commanding us to take the shield of faith, with which we can extinguish all the fiery arrows of the devil, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit 687, which, he says, is the Word of God. 688 5. And the Lord Himself came to send this sword to earth, 689 and not peace. If this is your Christ, then, therefore, he is a warrior. If he is not a warrior, and the sword he offers is allegorical, then Christ the Creator in the psalm is allowed, without any connection with military affairs, to be girded with the symbolic sword of the word, with which the above-mentioned blooming beauty and grace of the lips can be combined, with which He was then girded over the thigh, according to David, intending to one day send this to the earth. 6. For this is indicated by the words: Spread, prosper and reign: spreading the word throughout the whole earth in order to call all nations, coming to prosper through the success of the faith through which He was accepted, and reigning since then, for He conquered death by resurrection. And Your right hand will lead You, he says, miraculously, 690 - that is, the power of spiritual grace, which leads to the knowledge of Christ. 7. Your arrows are sharp, 691 - commandments and threats and reproofs of the heart flying everywhere, stabbing and piercing every conscience. Nations will fall before You, 692 - of course, worshiping You. Such is the “mighty in battle” and “armed to the teeth” Christ the Creator, so He now accepts the spoils, and not only of Samaria, but of all nations. Recognize as allegorical the prey of Him whose weapon you learned about the allegorical nature. So, since in a similar way, that is, allegorically, both the Lord spoke and the Apostle wrote, it is not by chance that we use his interpretations, examples of which are recognized even by opponents, and, therefore, the Christ who came will be the Christ of Isaiah, to the extent that He will not be a warrior, for this is not what Isaiah foretells. Chapter 15. The son of another god should not have been called by the name of the Creator 1. Enough has already been said regarding issues related to the flesh, and because of it, to birth and the name Emmanuel alone. About other names and, above all, about the name Christ, what will the other side answer? If, according to you, the name of Christ is as common as the name of God, so that it is fitting to call the son of each of the two gods Christ, as 693 of each god 694 is the father, then this proof will be counteracted by convincing reasoning. 2. After all, the name of God, as a natural Deity, can be extended to all those who claim divinity, including idols, according to the words of the Apostle: For there are those who are called gods, either in heaven or on earth; 695 the name of Christ, which came not from nature, but from institution, becomes the property of the One by whom it turns out to be established, and will not allow transfer to another god, especially one who is hostile and has his own institution, for which he will owe his own names. 3. For how does it happen that those who have invented different institutions of two gods admit a commonality of names when the institutions do not agree, although there is no greater proof of two hostile gods than the discovery of different names in their institution? For the existence of differences is confirmed only by the uniqueness of the names. 4. If it is absent, if it ever happens, the Greek catachresis 696 about the use of another word in its improper meaning comes to the rescue. God, I think, should not lack anything, and his institution 697 should not be built from alien material. What kind of god is this, who even for his son demands names from the Creator, not only alien, but old and well-known, which, at least for this reason, are not suitable for a new and unknown god? 5. In addition, how can he teach that a new piece of cloth should not be sewn to old clothes and new wine should not be entrusted to old wineskins, 698 being itself sewn to old names and poured into them? How can he separate the Gospel from the Law, being fully clothed in the Law, namely, in the name of Christ? Who forbade him, who preached something else and came from another place, to be called something else, although he did not accept the true flesh precisely because he did not seem to be Christ the Creator? 6. In vain was his reluctance to appear as the One Whom he wished to be called, despite the fact that even if he had been bodily, he would have seemed less like Christ the Creator if he had not been so called. However, having accepted the name of the One whose essence he rejected, he will inevitably find himself recognizing, based on the name, also the essence. After all, if Christ means “Anointed,” and to be anointed is a property of the body, then he who did not have a body could not be anointed at all; one who could not at all be anointed could in no way be called Christ. It's another matter if he took on the appearance of a name. 7. “But how,” he says, “would he have insinuated himself into the confidence of the Jews, if not with the help of a name well known and familiar to them?” The god you are talking about turns out to be hesitant or cunning: doing something through deception betrays a plan, uncertainty or deceit. The false prophets acted much more noble and straightforward, appearing against the Creator in the name of their god. But I do not find the fulfillment of this plan, since it was easier to consider him either my own Christ, or, rather, some kind of deceiver, 699 than the Christ of another god, which the Gospel will confirm. Chapter 16. The name "Jesus", being completely unsuitable for Marcion's Christ, was foreshadowed in Scripture as the name of our Christ by the naming of Hosea Joshua Jesus 1. Well, if he stole the name of Christ like a petty thief stole a basket, why did he want to also be called Jesus, a name with which the Jews had no such expectations? For if we, who by God’s grace have acquired an understanding of His mysteries, admit that this name was intended for Christ, then the Jews, from whom understanding has been taken away, 700 will not know this. To this day they expect Christ rather than Jesus, and interpret Elijah 701 as Christ rather than Jesus. 2. Why, therefore, did he come in that name in which Christ did not expect? He could come in the one name that was the only one hoped for. However, when he combined the two, the expected and the unexpected, both of his plans collapsed. For if he is called Christ for this reason, so that he could creep into trust for a time, as if he were from the Creator, then Jesus prevents this, for this name was not expected in Christ the Creator; if he so that he could be considered belonging to another god, then Christ does not allow this, for Christ was not expected from anyone other than the Creator. 3. Which of these is able to hold on, I don’t know. Both of them will hold on to the Christ who belongs to the Creator, in whom Jesus is also revealed. "How?" - you say. Find out this now with the accomplices of your error - the Jews. 702 When Moses Abzes, 704 son of Naveh, 705 was appointed successor 703, his former name, as is known, changes and he begins to be called Jesus. 706 4. “Of course,” you say. First of all, we affirm that this was an image of the Coming One. Indeed, since Jesus Christ was destined to introduce the second nation, which we are, born in the wilderness of this century 707, into the Promised Land flowing with honey and milk 708 - that is, 709 the possession of eternal life, sweeter than which there is nothing, and this was to happen not through Moses, that is, not through the teaching of the Law, but through Jesus, through the grace of the Gospel, after we were circumcised a stone blade, 710 that is, Christ's, 5. for the stone is Christ, 711 - insofar as that man who was prepared as a type of this mystery was consecrated in the likeness of the name of the Lord, being called Jesus. 712 Christ Himself even then testified that this name was His when he spoke to Moses. For who spoke if not the Spirit of the Creator, Who is Christ? So, when He spoke to the people who had received the command: Behold, I send My angel before your face, that he may guard you on your way and bring you into the land that I have prepared for you; listen to him and listen to him, so as not to disobey him, because he will not hide you, for 713 My name is on him, 714 - He called him (Joshua) an angel because of the many miracles that he had to perform, and because of his prophetic ministry in proclaiming the divine will, Jesus - because of the mystery of His future name. 6. After all, the fact that this 715 name that He Himself gave to him (Joshua) is His name, He confirmed, commanding him from now on to be called not an angel, not Auses, but Jesus. Consequently, if both names are suitable for Christ the Creator, then they are just as unsuitable for Christ the non-Creator, just as the rest of the series of actions does not correspond to it. We need, finally, from now on to be guided by that reliable and fair principle that allows us to reject the opponent’s evidence without considering it, 716 necessary for both sides, on the basis of which it would be determined that Christ of another god should have absolutely nothing in common with Christ the Creator. 7. After all, you need to defend the difference in the same way as we do not allow the difference, for you cannot prove that the Christ of another god has come unless you show that he is completely different from Christ the Creator, and we cannot defend His belonging to the Creator unless we show that He is such as was determined by the Creator. As for names, we have already defended them: I appropriate Christ for myself, I defend Jesus for myself. Chapter 17. The coming Christ, as was predicted about Him by the prophets, was pitiful and despised 1. Let us compare the rest of His acts with Scripture. Isaiah appears again: “We declared,” he says, “before Him: 717 like a child, like a root in a thirsty land, and He had neither form nor glory, and we saw Him, and He had neither form nor beauty, but His form was pitiful, diminished in comparison with all people, 718 - like the higher voice of the Father to the Son: As many will be terrified of You, so will the image be without glory Yours from the people. 719 2. Whatever that unfortunate body was like, what was it like in appearance, what was it like in appearance? If it is plain, if it is inglorious, if it is despised, then Christ will be mine. After all, this is exactly how He was depicted in the prophecies in appearance and appearance. 720 And if He is also in David abounding in beauty before the sons of men, 721 He is so called in that allegorical state of spiritual grace in which He is girded with the sword 722 of the word, which is truly His appearance, beauty and glory. 3. However, in bodily form 723 this same prophet, even as a worm and not a man, is reproached by a person and contempted by the people. 724 This kind of proclamation 725 does not concern His inner nature. For if the fullness of the Spirit abides in Him, 726 I will recognize the branch from the root of Jesse: 727 its flower 728 will be my Christ, on whom rested, according to Isaiah, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of God. 729 4. For not a single person corresponded to all the spiritual testimonies taken together 730, except for Christ, who was equated to a flower because of the grace of the Spirit, and was considered to come from the trunk of Jesse through Mary, who descended from Jesse. I demand an answer regarding the idea: if you attribute to Him the desire for all humility, patience and tranquility, then, based on this, He will be the Christ of Isaiah - a Man of suffering and learning to endure weakness, 731 Who, like a sheep, was led to the slaughter and, like a lamb before the shearer, did not open His mouth; 732 Who did not resist and did not shout, and His voice was not heard without; 733 Who did not crush the broken reed, that is, the broken faith of the Jews; Which flax burning wick, that is, the instantaneous burning of the nations, did not extinguish, 734 - He cannot be other than the One who was predicted. 5. It is necessary that 735 His acts be studied with reference to Scripture, divided, if I am not mistaken, into two actions: preaching and working miracles. But I will arrange examples of both in such a way that (since Marcion also deigned to examine the Gospel itself) the various aspects of the teaching and signs will be postponed until the moment, as it were, before the events themselves 736. Here, in general terms, we will complete the work begun, affirming for now that Christ was foreshadowed by Isaiah as the Preacher: For who among you, he says, fears God, [and] 737 listens to the voice of the Son 738 Him? 739 And also as a Physician: For He Himself, He says, took our infirmities and bore our illnesses. 740 Chapter 18. Images of the cross and crucifixion of the Lord in the Old Testament 1. From death, I think, you are trying to draw a distinction, 741 denying that the suffering on the cross was foreshadowed for Christ the Creator, and citing as additional evidence the improbability of the Creator dooming His Son to the kind of death that He Himself cursed: Cursed, he says, is everyone who hangs on a tree. 742 However, I rightly separate the meaning of this curse 743 from the simple prediction of the cross, to which the present study is mainly devoted, for in other places confirmation of the actual state of affairs precedes its explanation. First I will explain the images. 2. Indeed, it was highly appropriate to depict this secret allegorically in the proclamation - as incredible as it is, so much more likely to become a temptation in the future if it were spoken about openly; so much more sublime, so much more subject to concealment, so that the complexity of understanding requires God's grace. So, let's start with Isaac, who, when, destined by his father for slaughter, 744 himself carried the tree for himself, 745 already at that time pointed to the death of Christ, given by the Father to be sacrificed 746 and carrying the tree 747 of His suffering. 3. Joseph, also destined to become a type of Christ, if only 748 because (so that I do not delay my exposition), that he suffered persecution from the brothers for the sake of God's mercy - like Christ from the Jews, according to the flesh - when he received the father's blessing, expressed in these words: His beauty is a calf, His horns are the horns of a unicorn, 749 with them He will immediately scatter the nations until limit of the earth, 750 - of course, he was doomed to be neither a one-horned rhinoceros nor a two-horned minotaur, but Christ was foreshadowed in him, a calf in accordance with both purposes: for some, fierce as a Judge, for others, meek as a Savior, whose horns are the edges of the cross. 4. In fact, the yardarm, which is part of the cross, has edges called horns, while the unicorn is the pillar of the central mast. It is thanks to this power of the cross that He, thus clothed with horns, now scatters all nations through faith, transferring from earth to heaven, and then will scatter through judgment, throwing from heaven to earth. 5. He will also be a calf in another place in the same Scripture when Jacob spiritually curses 751 Simeon and Levi, that is, the scribes and Pharisees, because the latter in their origin go back to the former: Simeon and Levi committed injustice because of their heresy, 752 - namely, that because of which they persecuted Christ. Let my soul not enter into their council and let my feelings 753 not abide in their assembly, for in their irritation they killed people - that is, the prophets - and in their lust they cut the veins of the calf, 754 - that is, Christ, who crucified Him after killing the prophets, in a frenzy, of course, they lived with His nails. Otherwise, it makes no sense if after the murders he scolds them for torturing some bull. 6. As for Moses, why did he only, when Jesus fought with Amalek, stretch out his hands and sit in prayer, although in such alarming circumstances he should rather have prayed on his knees, striking his chest with his hands and falling with his face to the ground, if not because where the name of the Lord fought, who was once to fight against the devil, the image of the cross was also necessary, through which Jesus was to gain victory? 755 7. The same Moses again, after the prohibition of the likeness of every thing, 756 why, as a saving spectacle, installed a copper serpent, mounted on a pillar 757 in the form of a hanged man? 758 Didn’t he also emphasize here the power of the cross of the Lord, thanks to which the devil serpent was disarmed and everyone who suffered from spiritual serpents, but looked at this and believed in it, was promised healing from sinful bites and, therefore, salvation? Chapter 19 1. Well, now I will see how you understand the following words, if you read them from David: The Lord reigned from the tree 759. Is it only 760 that a certain wood merchant is designated as the king of the Jews, and not Christ, who reigned from the moment of His passion on the tree, having conquered death. After all, if 761 death reigned from Adam to Christ, 762 then why cannot it be said of Christ that He reigned from the tree since He, by dying on the wood of the cross, put an end to the kingdom of death? 2. Isaiah also says: For unto us a child is born, what is new if we are not talking about the Son of God? – And Tom was given to us, whose power was on His shoulder. 763 Which king in general wears the sign of his power on his shoulder, and not on his head, like a diadem, or in his hand, like a scepter, or some special distinctive clothing? 3. But only the new King of new ages - Christ Jesus - of new glory 764 bore both His power and greatness on His shoulder, namely the cross, so that, in accordance with the above-mentioned prophecy, the Lord would henceforth reign from the tree. Jeremiah hints at this tree 765 to you, foreshadowing that the Jews will say: Come, let us lay the tree on His bread, 766 - i.e. on the body. 4. After all, this is exactly what the Lord revealed 767 in the Gospel that you also recognize, calling His Body bread, 768 so that thanks to this you would understand that the image 769 of His Body was given to bread by He Whose Body the prophet first likened to bread, since the Lord Himself was going to subsequently explain this sacrament. 5. If you are still looking for a prediction about the Lord's cross, you may well be satisfied with the twenty-first psalm, containing a description of all the passions of Christ, who even then proclaimed His glory: They pierced, he says, My hands and feet, 770 - which is a torture inseparable from crucifixion. And again, when he prays for the Father’s help, he says: Save Me from the mouth of the lion, - of course, death, - and from the horns of the unicorn humility, 771 - 6. i.e. from the edges of the cross, as we showed above. Neither David himself nor any king of the Jews suffered such a crucifixion, so that you do not think that someone else, who alone was so significantly crucified by the people. If even now heretical stubbornness rejects and ridicules all these interpretations, I will concede to him that the Creator did not foretell any crucifixion of Christ: after all, even in this case it will not prove that He who was crucified is different. 7. Unless it demonstrates that this death of his was predicted by his god, so that the difference of suffering, and because of this also the difference of persons, could be defended on the basis of the difference of omens. However, since neither his Christ himself, nor even his crucifixion were predicted, the prophecy of death alone is quite enough to confirm Christ is mine. For from what is not said about the type of His death, it could have happened through crucifixion; it would then have to be attributed to something else if there were a prediction about something else. 8. Unless it wishes that the death of my Christ should not be foreshadowed, which is all the more shameful if it announces the death of its own Christ, whose birth it denies, but denies the mortality of mine, whose birth it acknowledges. However, I want to prove the death, burial, and resurrection of my Christ with one saying of Isaiah, who says: His burial is taken out of the midst. 772 9. For He would not have been buried if He had not died, and His burial was not taken away from the environment except through resurrection. Finally, he adds: Therefore He will receive many as an inheritance and will divide the spoils of many 773 because His soul was given over to death. 774 The reason for this grace is shown, which was to be a reparation for the injustice of death; it is likewise shown that He acquires this [coming to acquire through death] 775 after death, of course, through the resurrection. Chapter 20. Now is being fulfilled what was predicted as coming after Christ 1. The series of Christ's deeds is set forth in accordance with these so far fully enough so that He, clearly presented as such, as was proclaimed, should be considered as none other than the One who was proclaimed as such, so that already from this consistency of His deeds and the Writings of the Creator, thanks to the ability to judge in most cases the result, 776 the faith may also be restored in what the opposing party 777 or put under doubt, or denied. Now - further: we will also present those corresponding from the Scriptures of the Creator, which were foretold as coming after Christ. 2. For even 778 the decree would not have been fulfilled if He had not come, after whom it was to be fulfilled. Look at all the peoples who have since begun to emerge from the abyss of human error to God the Creator, to God the Christ 779 and, if you dare, deny that this was predicted. 3. But immediately you will encounter the Father’s promise in the psalms: You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thy inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession. 780 And you will not be able to prove that His Son is David rather than Christ, or that the boundaries of the earth were promised rather to David, who reigned within the borders of the Jewish people alone, than to Christ, Who had already taken possession of the whole world through faith in His Gospel. 4. So also through Isaiah: Behold, I have given You as a decree for the people, for the light of the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, - of course, those who are in error, - to deliver the conquered from their bonds, - that is, to free them from sins, - and from the closet of the prison, - that is, from death, - those sitting in darkness, 781 - of course, ignorance. 5. If these things happen through Christ, then they will be foreshadowed in relation to none other than Him through whom they happen. Also in another place: Behold, I have made Him a witness to the Gentiles, a prince and ruler over the Gentiles; the pagans who do not know You will call on You, and the nations will turn to You. 782 After all, you cannot interpret this in relation to David, for it is said above: And I will establish for you an everlasting statute, the piety and faithfulness of David. 783 6. However, from these words you will rather understand that the race of Christ according to the flesh goes back to David thanks to the origin of the Virgin Mary. For in the psalm an oath is given to David concerning this promise: Of the fruit of thy womb I will set upon thy throne, 784 What is this womb? David himself? Obviously not. After all, David was not going to give birth. 7. But not his wife either. After all, He would not say: From the fruit of your womb, but rather: From the fruit of your wife’s womb. It remains that, speaking of his womb, He pointed to someone from his family, the fruit of whose womb was to become the flesh of Christ, which sprang from the womb of Mary. Therefore, he called the fruit only the womb as a womb in its own meaning, as if only the womb, and not the husband either, and the womb itself was attributed to David, the ancestor and father of the family. 8. In fact, since he could not attribute the Virgin’s womb to the husband, he attributed it to the ancestor. Thus, the new institution that is now revealed in Christ will be that which the Creator then promised, calling it the piety and faithfulness of David, which were in Christ, for Christ is from David. [Of course, His very flesh will be the piety and faithfulness of David, which is so holy in piety and faithful in the power of the resurrection.] 785 After all, Nathan the prophet in the second book of 786 Kings gives David a promise for his seed, which will be, he says, from his womb. 787 If you, in the simplicity of your soul, interpret this as referring to Solomon, you will make me laugh. For it will seem that David gave birth to Solomon. Isn’t Christ, the Seed of David from the womb that was from David, that is, Mary, foreshadowed in this place? For Christ had rather to build the palace of God, 788 that is, a holy man, so that the Spirit of God might dwell in this best church; 789 and the Son of God 790 rather should have become Christ, 791 than Solomon, the son of David. Finally, both the eternal throne and the eternal kingdom 792 are more suitable for Christ than for Solomon, the transient king. But God’s mercy did not depart from Christ, 793 and even the wrath of God fell on Solomon after he fell into debauchery and idolatry. 794 10. For he raised up Satan, an Edomite adversary, against him. 795 So, since none of the above corresponds to Solomon, but to Christ, the principle of our interpretations will be correct, while the proof is also the very outcome of the deeds that turn out to be foreshadowed in relation to Christ. And thus in Him will consist the piety and faithfulness of David; God made him a witness to the Gentiles, and not David, a prince and ruler of the Gentiles, and not David, who ruled over Israel alone. Christ today is being called by the pagans who did not know Him, and the nations today are turning to Christ, about whom they had no idea before. What you see happening cannot be called the future. Chapter 21. The calling of the Gentiles, which is spoken of in Scripture and which is now being carried out, must be distinguished from the calling of proselytes among the Jews. 1. So, you cannot use your well-known trick to distinguish between the two Christs: as if a certain Jewish Christ was intended by the Creator to gather from the dispersion of only one people, and yours was given by the best god for the liberation of the entire human race - since the Christians of the Creator turn out, in the end, to have appeared earlier than Marcion, since all peoples were called to His kingdom from the time when God reigned from the tree, when there was still no Kerdon, not to mention Marcion. 2. But, [and] 796 refuted in the question of the calling of the pagans, you are already striving to refer to proselytes who 797 go over to the Creator from among the pagans, 798 although 799 proselytes, people of a different and special status from others, are called a prophet separately: Behold, says Isaiah, proselytes through Me will come to You, 800 showing that they themselves proselytes were also to come to God. And the pagans, which we are, also have their own name - “those who trust in Christ”: And the pagans will trust in His name. 801 3. The proselytes, whom you substitute for prophecy about the pagans, usually trust not in the name of Christ, but in the order of Moses, from which their institution came. However, the election of the Gentiles took place in the last days. It is with these words that Isaiah says: And in the last days the mountain of the Lord will become manifest, - of course, the greatness of the Lord, - the palace of God above the tops of the mountains, 802 - of course, Christ, the universal Church of God, 803 in whom God is worshiped, the Church established above everything that stands out in its strength and might, 804 - and all the heathen will come to Him, and many will come and say: Come, let us rise up to the mountain of the Lord, to the palace of the God of Jacob, and He will show us His way, and we will enter it; for from Zion will come light and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem, 805 - this is the way of the New Law, the Gospel, and the new word, which is in Christ, and no longer in Moses - and will judge among the nations - that is, about their error - and will expose a large people - themselves, first of all, Jews and proselytes - and will beat their swords into plowshares and spears 806 into pruning hooks, - i.e. They will turn the abilities of criminal souls and evil tongues, and all malice and blasphemy to exercises in modesty and peacefulness, - and nation will not raise the sword against nation - of course, discord - and they will no longer learn to fight, 807 - that is, to show hostility, so that from this place you understand that the promised Christ is not powerful in battle, but a peacemaker. 4. Either deny that it is foretold when it appears before your eyes, or that it is fulfilled when it is read about, or, if you do not deny both, it will be fulfilled in the One in respect of Whom it was predicted. Look also at the very penetration and expansion of the calling to the present time among the pagans, who in the last days began to come to God the Creator, and not among the proselytes, whose election took place, rather, from a long time ago. After all, this faith was introduced by the apostles. 808 Chapter 22. The Scriptures predict persecution of the apostles, the sign of the cross on the forehead of believers, and the glorification of God by the pagans 1. It was also foretold to you about the work of the apostles: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring peace, who bring good news, 809 not war and not evil. Echoes 810 and the psalm: Their speech reaches every earth and their voice reaches the ends of the earth, 811 - namely, those who bring the Law that came from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, 812 so that it may be, as it is written: All who are far from My justice may draw near to My righteousness and truth. 813 2. When the apostles girded themselves for this work, did they break ties with the Jewish elders, rulers and priests - or not? “Of course,” he says, “like preachers of another god.” On the contrary, the Same One, Whose Scripture they were precisely fulfilling: Get away, get away,” exclaims Isaiah, “get away from here and do not touch what is unclean,” that is, blasphemy against Christ, “get away from their midst,” of course, the synagogues, “separate yourself, that you carry the vessels of the Lord.” 814 3. For, as is written above, the Lord has already revealed by His hand the Holy One, 815 - that is, by the power of His Christ - before the Gentiles, so that all the Gentiles and the ends of the earth might see the salvation that was from God. Thus, having moved away from Judaism itself, replacing the obligations and burdens of the Law with the freedom of the Gospel, we realized what was said in the psalm: Let us break their bonds and throw off their yoke, 816 - of course, after the tribes became agitated and the peoples plotted in vain; The kings of the earth rose up and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. 817 4. What did the apostles then endure? “All kinds of injustices,” you say, “persecutions, of course, from the people of the Creator as the enemy of the one they preached.” And how does the Creator, if He was an adversary of Christ, not only foretell what His apostles will have to endure, but also condemn it? 5. After all, He could not foreshadow the series of acts of another god, about whom He had no idea, as you claim, and would not condemn what He Himself took care of: See how the Righteous One perishes - and no one takes it to heart, and righteous men are killed - and no one pays attention to it; after all, the Righteous One has been removed by the face of justice, 818 - who is this if not Christ? Come, they say, let us kill the Righteous One, for He is harmful to us. 819 So, having said at the beginning and adding at the end that Christ suffered, he foretold that His righteous would suffer in the same way, both the apostles, and then all the believers, marked by the very sign of which Ezekiel: The Lord says to me: Go through the middle of the gate 820 in the center of Jerusalem and put the sign of Tau on the foreheads of men? 821 6. After all, the Greek letter Tau itself, our T, represents a cross, which, as predicted, will be on our foreheads in the true and universal Jerusalem, in which the brothers of Christ, 822 that is, the sons of God, 823 will bring glory to God, as the twenty-first psalm proclaims from the person of Christ Himself to the Father: I will tell my brothers about your name, in the middle of the Church I will sing a hymn to you, 824 - after all, what was to happen today in His name and spirit, He with full right foreshadowed as coming from Him; and a little lower: Om I glorify You in the great Church, 825 - and in the sixty-seventh: In the churches bless the Lord God. 826 To which the prophet Micah echoes: My favor is not with me, says the Lord, and I will not accept your sacrifices; for from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun My name is glorified among the pagans, and in every place a sacrifice is offered to My name, and a pure sacrifice, 827 - namely, glorification, blessing, praise and hymn. 7. Since all this is also revealed in you - the mark on the forehead, and the sacraments of the churches, and the purity of the sacrifice - then you should go so far as to affirm that the Spirit of the Creator prophesied to your Christ. Chapter 23. About the punishment of the Jews predicted in the Bible because they rejected Christ, Who, therefore, could not belong to any other god except the Creator 1. Now, since you, along with the Jews, deny that their Christ has come, learn also about their own end, which they were predicted to find after Christ for wickedness, because of which they despised Him and killed Him. First, from the day that, according to Isaiah, man threw away his gold and silver abomination, which was made for the worship of vain and harmful things, 828 i.e., from the time that the human race, when the truth became clear through Christ, rejected idols, see if what follows was not fulfilled. 2. For the Lord of hosts took away from Judea and Jerusalem, among other things, both the prophet and the wise architect, 829 that is, the Holy Spirit, who builds the Church, namely, the church and the house and the city of God. After all, from then on, God’s grace dried up for them, and the clouds were commanded not to rain on the vineyard of Sorekh, 830 that is, heavenly gifts to descend on the house of Israel. 831 3. After all, he produced thorns, 832 with which he crowned the Lord, 833 and not justice, but a cry, 834 with which he achieved His crucifixion. 835 And since in this way the rbs 6 of divine grace were taken away, the Law and the Prophets acted only until John. 836 Then, because of their (the Jews') persistence in madness, the name of the Lord began to be blasphemed through their fault, as it is written: Because of you my name is blasphemed among the pagans, 837 - after all, from them a bad rumor spread, 838 - and since they did not regard the time between Tiberius 839 and Vespasian 840 as a time for repentance, 841 then their land was devastated, their cities were burned, their land was devastated by strangers before their eyes, 842 the daughter of Zion was abandoned, like a watchtower in a vineyard or a watchtower in a cucumber field, 843 namely, since Israel did not comprehend the Lord and the people did not know Him, but abandoned and brought to indignation the Holy One of Israel. 844 4. So the conditional threat of the sword - If you reject and do not hear Me, the sword will devour you 845 - will confirm that He who did not hear Whom they perished was Christ, Who in the fifty-eighth Psalm demands from the Father to scatter them for them: Scatter them in His power; 846 Who again through Isaiah, summing up what was said about their burning, says: Because of Me this has happened to you, you will sleep in anxiety 847. 848 5. It is quite absurd if the Jews suffered this not because of Him who declared that they would endure it because of Him, but because of Christ, another god. But, I note, the Christ of another god, according to you, was brought to the cross by the power and might of the Creator as hostile to him. Here, however, He is portrayed as the One Whom the Creator protects: And the evildoers were given for his tomb, 849 - namely, those who claimed that it was plundered, 850 - and the rich for His death, 851 - namely, those who bought the betrayal of Judas 852 and the perjury of the soldiers about the theft of the body. 853 6. Therefore, either it was not because of Him that this happened to the Jews, but you will be refuted both by the correspondence of the meaning of Scripture to the outcome of the matter, and by the succession of times, or, if this happened to them because of Him, then the Creator could not avenge anyone other than His Christ, and would rather reward Judas 854 if His enemy were destroyed. Indeed, if Christ the Creator has not yet come, for whose sake it was predicted that they would suffer this, then they will endure this when He comes. And where then should the daughter of Zion be left, who is not here today? 7. Where should cities that are already in ruins be burned? Where is the scattering of the people who have already been exiled? Return to Judaea the position that Christ the Creator would have revealed - and insist that someone else has come. How can it be that He sent through His heaven one whom He then had to destroy on His earth, after desecrating the more glorious and beautiful region of His kingdom, 855 after trampling underfoot even His court and the Kremlin? 856 Is this what He desired more? He Who is known to be a jealous God! 857 Anyway, He won. Be ashamed, you who believe in a defeated god. What do you expect from someone who couldn't stand up for himself? After all, he was suppressed by the forces and people of the Creator, either because of weakness or because of malice, in order, patience, to impute to them such a great crime. Chapter 24. About the thousand-year earthly kingdom 1. “Of course,” you say, “I expect from him that which itself will become evidence of the existence of difference - God’s kingdom of eternal heavenly possession. Your Christ promises the Jews their former position after the return of the earth, and at the end of his life - consolation in the underworld in the bosom of Abraham.” 858 Oh, most kind God, if he, having calmed down, returns what he took away in anger! O thy God, 859 who both smites and heals, 860 causes disasters and creates peace! 861 Oh, God, merciful even towards the dead! 2. But about the bosom of Abraham in due time. As for the return of Judea (which the Jews themselves, deceived by the names of localities and countries, expect as it is described), then how the allegorical interpretation spiritually in its appearance and fruit corresponds to Christ and the Church, and it takes a long time to study, and in another work it is stated, which we called “On the Hope of the Faithful,” 862 and this is unnecessary now because it is not an earthly, but a heavenly promise that is being discussed. 3. After all, we confess that we are promised a kingdom on earth, 863 but first heaven, and it will have a different character, since it is in the city not made by hands, Jerusalem, which the apostle calls our mother from above, 864 after the resurrection will be transferred 866 from heaven for a thousand years. 867 And, declaring that our state, that is, citizenship, is in heaven, 868 refers it, of course, to a certain heavenly city. 4. Ezekiel knew it (the city), 869 and the Apostle John saw it, 870 and the word of the new prophecy, which abides with our faith, 871 confirms in order to foretell that the image of the city, before the sight of it, will become a sign. Most recently this was fulfilled during the eastern expedition. After all, it is also known from the testimonies of the pagans that in Judea, for forty days in the morning, hail hovered in the sky, the entire appearance of the walls of which melted with the onset of day, and in other cases it disappeared immediately. 5. We say that this city is prepared by God to receive the saints after the resurrection and to reinforce them with an abundance of all blessings, of course, spiritual, in compensation for what in this age we have despised or abandoned, because it is both just and worthy of God that His servants should rejoice where they were oppressed for His name. This is the meaning of the heavenly 872 kingdom. 6. After a thousand years of this kingdom, within which period the resurrection of the saints will be completed, rising in accordance with merits earlier or later, then, when both the destruction of the world and the worldwide fire of 873 judgment will occur, we, having changed in the blink of an eye 874 into an angelic essence, of course, through that very endowment of incorruptibility, 875 will be transferred to the Kingdom of Heaven, which is now being revalued so [because] 876 as if it had not been foretold by the Creator and, as a result, would prove that Christ belonged to another god, by whom it was supposedly revealed first and only. 7. Find out now that this was foreshadowed by the Creator, and should have been considered by the Creator without foreshadowing. Do you think that when the seed of Abraham, after the first promise that it would become as numerous as the sand, is also destined to become like the stars, 877 is not this a sign of both earthly and heavenly establishment? When Isaac, blessing his son Jacob, says: God will give you from the dew of heaven and from the abundance of the earth, 878 - are these not examples of both mercy? 8. Finally, attention should be paid to the construction of the blessing itself. Indeed, regarding Jacob, who is the image of a later and better people, that is, ours, the first promise is the promise of heavenly dew, the second - earthly abundance. For we are first invited to heavenly things when we are rejected from worldly things, and thus subsequently we find ourselves destined to inherit earthly things as well. And your Gospel 879 also says: Seek first the Kingdom of God, and this will be added to you, 880 9. However, to Esau he first gives 881 an earthly blessing and adds a heavenly one, saying: From the abundance of the earth will your dwelling be and from the dew of the sky. 882 After all, the institution in Esau for the Jews, firstborn by birth, but inferior to others in love, after being saturated with the Law from earthly goods through the Gospel by faith, is directed to heavenly ones. But when Jacob sees in a dream a ladder established from earth to heaven and some angels ascending, others descending and the Lord standing on it, 883 will we rashly interpret it as indicating the path to heaven, 884 along which some ascend, others descend, *** 885 which is determined by the judgment of the Lord? 10. Why did he, when he woke up 886 and was first horrified by the place, turn to the interpretation of the dream? After all, having said: How terrible this place is! - says: This is nothing other than the palace of God and this is the gate of heaven. 887 For he saw Christ the Lord, who is the Church of God 888 and the gate, 889 through whom they go to heaven. And, of course, he would not have mentioned the gates of heaven if it were impossible for the Creator to get to heaven. But there is also a gate that receives, and a leading one, 890 already paved by Christ, of whom Amos: Who arranges His ascent into heaven. 891 Of course, not for Himself alone, but also for His own who will be with Him. 11. For he says: You will be clothed in them as if you were a bride’s adornment. 892 So the Spirit marvels at those who, thanks to that ascent, rush to the Kingdom of Heaven, saying: They fly like kites, 893 like clouds fly and like chicks of doves towards Me, 894 - that is, simply like doves. After all, we will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord, 895 - according to the apostle - that is, that Son of man walking in the clouds, 896 of whom Daniel speaks - and thus we will constantly be together with the Lord 897 until both on earth and in heaven, calling on the ungrateful of both covenants 898 the very elements themselves as witnesses: Listen, heaven, and bow your ear, earth. 899 12. And even if Scripture had not extended to me so many times the hand of heavenly hope, I would have had full anticipation of this promise as well, for I already have earthly grace; I would expect something from heaven from God, who owns heaven as well as earth: thus, I would believe that Christ, who promises the highest, belongs to the One who promised the lowest, who created proofs of the greater from the little, who left this proclamation of the unheard-of, if you like, Kingdom to Christ alone, so that the earthly glory would be proclaimed through the servants, and the heavenly one through the Lord Himself. 900 13. But you prove that Christ is different, based on the fact that He announces a new Kingdom. First, give some example of mercy, so that I have no reason to doubt the reliability of so great a promise in which I trust, since I have been taught; first of all, of course, you should prove the presence of some kind of heaven in the one who, as you claim, promises heavenly things. But now you call for dinner, but do not show the house, you refer to the kingdom, but do not show the royal palace. How 901 does your Christ promise the kingdom of heaven without having heaven? How did he imagine man without flesh? Oh, a ghost in everything! Oh, the great 902 deception also in regard to the promise! Interpolation, according to Kroymann. “nature which” – Kroymann's correction. In the manuscript: “and nature.” That is, business. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript the word refers to preparation. Lit.: “faith (fides), which must believe (credere).” See: Mk. 13:22; Matt. 24:24. According to another interpretation: “to undermine their faith.” Kroymann suggests a lacuna here, believing that the missing word must mean “to be condemned.” Otherwise the translation should follow: “Who could not be later than anyone.” Kroymann, along with this, also offers another reading: “the more they (miracles) can be interpreted as relating to the Creator and no one else.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “especially against Christ, who belongs to the Creator, coming and strengthened.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “by the prophets.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “it requires.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: "Lord." Pun: paenitentia patientiae. Kroymann excludes this word. For predicting the future as if it were about the present or the past, see: lusi. Dial., 114. See: Isa. 43:20. Translation according to the Septuagint. That is, the Apostle Paul, recognized by the Marcionites. Wed: Ref. 17:6; Number 20:7–11. Kroymann's correction. In the manuscript: “other.” Maritime law enjoyed great authority. Tertullian has the following words: “But when they are postponed until the dispute about the passions, it will be enough to turn to those prophecies.” There is a correction: "Amosu". Persona spiritus nostri Christus dominus. See: Lamentation. 4:20. In the Septuagint: πνεῦμα προσώπου ἡμῶν Χριστὸς κυρίου. Β Vulgate: spiritus oris nostri Christus dominus. According to another reading: they could accept the One about whom it had always been predicted.” Tertullian uses the word planus, borrowed from Greek. This is how the high priests and Pharisees characterized Christ before Pilate in Matt. 27:63. Wed: Matt. 15:14 ; OK. 6:39. Wed: Rome. 9:33; 1 Peter 2:7; Is. 8:14. Wed: Ps. 8:6; Heb. 2:9. Wed: Is. 28:16 ; Ps. 118 /117:22; 1 Peter 2:4–7. Wed: Dan. 2:31–35 and Iust. Dial., 70. See: Ps. 45 / Ps. 44:3–4. Wed: Ps. 8:7 (according to the Vulgate, Ps. 8:8, posuisti sub pedibus eius); 1 Kop. 15:27; Eph. 1:22 (subiecit sub pedibus eius). The Latin translation follows the Greek: the Septuagint also uses a preposition (ὑποκάτω in Ps. 8:7 and ὑπό in 1 Cor. 15:27 and Eph. 1:22). In Tertullian, without a pretext: subiciet omnia pedibus eius, - perhaps under the influence of the famous lines of Virgil: “Happy are those who were able to know the basics of things, / Those who all kinds of fear and Fate, adamant to prayers, / Bravely threw at the feet, and the greedy noise of Acheron (felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas / atque metus omnis et inexorabile fatum / subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis auari (Verg. Georg., II, 490–492, trans. S. Shervinsky). Cp.: 3ax. 12:10; In. 19:37. Lit.: “tribe by tribe.” Tribes were originally the name given to the three divisions into which the Roman people were divided. Compare: Zech. 12:12 . See: Jer. 17:9 (according to the Septuagint). Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: "Christ". Nihil solido ab inani, nihil plenum a vacuo... In the Vulgate, the Hebrew words תהו ובהו [tōhû wābōhû] “chaos and emptiness” from the phrase “the earth was chaos and emptiness” (Gen. 1:2) are translated inanis et vacua “yawning and empty.” A similar reminiscence appears in Tertullian and in a dispute with the pagans: “I think doubt arises about the power of God, who, from what did not exist, as if from an empty and gaping death (de morte vacationis et inanitatis), erected this such a great body of the world, animated by the Spirit, giving life to all souls, and serving as a shining example of human resurrection as a testimony to you” (Tert. Apol., 48, 7). "facit angelos spiritus et apparitores suos ignem flagrantem." See: Ps. 104 / Ps. 103:4. B Tert. Adv. Marc., II, 8, 2 this phrase has a different form: “qui facit spiritus angelos et apparitores flammam ignis.” Kroymann's correction. In the manuscript: “to some.” Lit.: “blackberry”, according to the Vulgate. This sentence can be understood as an objection of the Marcionites (their god, feigningly accepting flesh, seemed to touch – fingendo – it) or as a continuation of the author’s thought (the Creator glorified human flesh by sculpting – fingendo – it). Eusebius Pamphilus quotes the words of a certain Rodon, a native of Asia, who studied in Rome with Tatian, about different trends in Marcion’s heresy. Rawdon reported that Apelles, “respected for his civic dignity and venerable age, recognizes one principle (μίαν ἀρχήν), and speaks of prophecies as coming from an opposing spirit (ἐξ ἀνπκειμένου πνεύματος), believing the words of a demon-possessed virgin named Philumena” (Eus. V, 13:2). Kroymann moved this proposal here. In the manuscript it appeared after the words “in due time.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “then.” Tertullian more often than other Christian writers resorted to explanations of a physiological nature (Labriolle P., de. La physiologie dans l’ceuvre de Tertullien/ / Archives generales de medecine. 1906. 83 e An nee. 197 e Vol. T. 1. P. 1319). He talks about his medical studies in Tep. De an., 2, 6. In chapter 25, he talks in detail about pregnancy and childbirth, as well as forced abortion; see also: Tert. De an., 37, 2–4. Kroymann's correction. In the manuscript: “sentence to the flesh.” According to the edition of Jacob Pamelius. In the manuscript: “promises.” Lit.: “to tear apart.” Pun: lanceare quam lancinare. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “lived.” The Hebrew word עלםה [‘almāh] is translated παρθένος “virgin” in the Septuagint, and virgo in the Vulgate. The word alma is used nine times in the Old Testament: Ps. 46 /45:1; Ps. 68 /67:26; Proverbs 30:19 ; Song 6:8; / Steam. 15:20; Life 24:43 ; Ref. 2:8; Is. 7:14 ; Song 1:3 (in / Par. 15:20 and Ps. 46:1 we are talking about the singing of a song in a woman’s voice). See: Konkordanz zum hebraeischen Alten Testament/Ausgearbeitet und geschrieben von G. Lisowsky, 1993, Stuttgart. S. 1072. Cp.: The Brown–Driver–Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson publishers, 1999. P. 761. The meaning of “virgin” is the word rfrra [botülähl, found much more often in the Old Testament. Kroymann's correction. In the manuscript: “one could believe.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “But, having said the sign of an unprecedented birth,.” Wed: Is. 7:15 and Tert. Adv. Marc., III, 13.3. In the Hebrew text there is the word [hem’āh] “curd, curdled milk” (The Brown–Driver–Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. P. 326), “butter, lac coagulatum, butyrum” (Konkordanz zum hebraeischen Alten Testament. S. 503), which is translated in the Septuagint: βούτυρον, in Vulgate: butyrum “oil.” In Isa. 7:21–22 says, “And it shall come to pass in that day: Whosoever keepeth a cow and two sheep, according to the abundance of milk which they yield, shall eat butter (pkop); “All who remain in this land will eat butter (pkop) and honey” (Synodal translation), cf.: “roll like cheese in butter.” Note that “oil and honey” from Isa. 7:15 and 22 are sometimes compared with the "milk ([hālāb]) and honey" of the Promised Land (Ex. 3:8 and 17; Deut. 6:3 and 11:9, etc.; in Tertullian below, Tert. Adv. Marc., III, 16.4: "flowing with honey and milk - melle et lacte - Promised Land") (The Bible in Russian translation with appendices. 2nd ed. Brussels: Publishing house “Life with God”, 1983. P. 1997). Let us consider the validity of this parallel. In addition to the passages indicated above (Isa. 7:15 and 22), the word המאה [hem’āh] occurs seven times in the Old Testament (in contrast to the much more frequent הלב [hālāb]): Bmop. 32:14 (song of Moses: God fed Israel with “butter of the cow and milk of the sheep”); 2 Sam. 17:29 (see below); Job. 20:17 (about the fragility of the happiness of the wicked: he will not look at streams, rivers, streams of honey and butter [ie cream]); Job. 29:6 (lap = lksp, about the happiness of Job’s former life); Life 18:8 (see below); Court. 5:25: “I asked for water, she gave milk, she brought oil in the cup of the heroes [i.e. e. cream] (lxp)"; Proverbs 30:33: “compression of milk [i.e. e. churning] produces oil, squeezing the nose [i.e. e. blow] produces blood, compression of anger [i.e. that is, stimulating it] produces a quarrel.” In all these cases, butter/cream acts, one way or another, as a product. As for the image of “the land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex. 3:8,17; 13:5; 33:3; Jlee. 20:24; Num. 13:27–28; 14:8; 16:13 - about Egypt [!]; 16:14; Deut. 6:3; 11:9; 26:9,15; 27:3; 31:20; Isa. 5:6; Jer. 32:22; Ezek. 20:6, 15), then this is a phraseology (cf.: “milk rivers,” flowing with wine, and the hills flowing with milk, but this passage speaks not of a blessed land, but of a blessed time). In Numbers 13:27 /28 The spies show Moses and Aaron the fruits of the Promised Land and say that it actually flows with milk and honey. However, it is obvious that the fruits shown were not these abstract products. Thus, we can conclude that, although when reading Isa. 7:15 certain associations with Ex. 3:8 and others could arise (cf. Song 4:11), but a much more important parallel to Isa. 7:15 is served by the two aforementioned passages: Gen. 18:8 and 2 Sam. 17:29. In Gen. 18:8 speaks of Abraham treating three men who, according to the Church Fathers, foreshadowed the mystery of the Trinity; Isaiah speaks of human food for the Divine Child. In 2 Samuel 17:29 reports the offering of honey, butter/cream, etc. to David and the people who were with him: the Child foretold by Isaiah, who in Scripture is repeatedly called the seed/son of David (2 Sam. 7:12; Ps. 89/88:4-5; Jer. 23:5; Matt. 1:1; 22:42; Luke 2:4; John 7:42; Rom. 1:3; 2 Tim. 2:8), it was proper to eat David's food. The Scriptures do not say anywhere about eating the milk and honey that flows through the Promised Land. Interpolation, according to Kroymann. That is, tasting cream and honey. That is, your “Gospel”. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “the last one.” Kroyman's conjecture. In the manuscript: “Christ in infancy.” Syria, southern Mesopotamia and part of Egypt were sometimes included in Arabia. Syria was divided into Upper and Lower (or “Hollow”, Kelesyria), the capital of which was Damascus. Wed: 1 Kings 12:25–33. After the captivity in Shechem, the Samaritans built a church. Wed: Rev. 11:8; Is. 19:1 et seq.; 1 Sam. 6:6. Wed: Rev. 14:8; 17:5; 18:10. Ensem. The Septuagint uses the word ῥομφαία. See: Ps. 45 / Ps. 44:5. Quote from the Septuagint. Compare: “and stretch, and prosper, and reign (καὶ ἔντεινον καὶ κατευοδοῦ καὶ βασίλευε).” Hebrew text: “And prosper in thy beauty, ride in a chariot.” Probably, the authors of the Greek text took the form והדרך “and to your beauty” as a form from the verb דרך “to step, to guide.” The verb צלח in the Qal rock means “to be lucky”, in the Hif‘il rock. – “to bring good luck”; the verb רכב means “to ride on horseback”, “to ride on a chariot”. Ensem. The Greek text uses the word ρομφαία. Wed: Matt. 10:34–35; see also: Matt. 19:29 ; Mk. 10:29 ; OK. 14:26. See: Eph. 6:14–17. Wed. description of Christ’s army by Clement of Alexandria: “The loud trumpet sounded, called the soldiers and declared war. Is it possible that Christ, who brought a peaceful song to the ends of the earth, will not gather His peacekeeping warriors? Indeed, as a man, He recruited an army not stained with blood with the help of His own blood and words and handed the Kingdom of Heaven to the soldiers. Christ's trumpet is the Gospel: He sounded it and we heard it. Let us take up the weapons of peace, putting on the breastplate of righteousness, taking up the shield of faith, putting on the helmet of salvation, and sharpening the sword of the spirit, that is, the utterance of God. With these words the apostle puts us in a non-military formation. This is our invulnerable armor; Armed with them, we will resist the evil one. Let us extinguish His flaming arrows with spear tips, wet from being immersed in water and hard from being tempered by the Word! Let us give thanksgiving praise to God and honor Him appropriately” (Cl. Protr., 116, 2-4). Hanc machaeram. Wed: Matt. 10:34. In the Greek text in Eph. 6:17 and in Matt. 10:34 the word μάχαιρα is used; which in both cases is translated by the word gladius in the Vulgate. Tertullian preserves the Greek word in Christ's speech. In his treatise Against Marcion, Tertullian uses the word machaera several times. See: Ps. 45 / Ps. 44:5. Quote from the Septuagint. In the original text: “Thy right hand will show You terrible things.” The verb ירה has the meaning “to show” and “to teach”; This is probably where the Greek translation comes from: “will lead you.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “how so.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “gentlemen.” According to Cicero, Aristotle, what rhetoricians call hypallaga, and phammaticians call metonymy, “ranks among figurative meanings, together with another deviation from the usual usage - the so-called catachres: for example, when about a weak soul we say “petty soul,” using words close in meaning, if such are the requirements of pleasantness or appropriateness” (Cis. Or., 27.94. Trans. M. L. Gasparova). Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “establishments” (plural). Tertullian again uses the word planus from Matt. 27:63. Wed: Mal. 4:5; Matt. 16:14 ; Mark 6:15; Ps. 1:17; 9:8, 19; In. 1:21. Quite an insulting mockery of the extremely anti-Jewish Marcionites. Wed: Number. 27:18; 11:28; Deut. 34:9; Is. Nav. 1:1–9. Auses (AYZH), i.e. Osee, according to the Vulgate (Num. 13:9/8 and 17/16). Naue (NAYH), i.e. Nun, according to the Vulgate (Num. 13:9/8 and 17/16). Iesus (Ἰησοῦς); according to the Vulgate – Iosue (Num. 13:17/16). In Hebrew (without vowels) “Osee” – הזשע [hôšē‘a], “Iosue” – יהזשע [yahôš’a], The Name of the Lord in Hebrew is BIO” [yesu a]. Wed: Ref. 3:8 and 17; Deut. 6:3 and Deut. 11:9, etc. Petra enim Christus. Cp.: 1 Kop. 10:4: “ἡ πέτρα δὲ ἧν ὁ Χριστός.” Compare: “And so the ancient Jews wandering in the desert became a parable, having experienced the consequences of the threat: after all, it is said that they did not enter into rest because of unbelief before, following the successor of Moses, they finally learned in practice that they would be saved only by believing Jesus” (Cl. Protr., 85, 2). Superillum. Septuagint: ἐπ’ αὐτῷ “on it”, Vulgate: in illo “in it”. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “repeatedly”. The words in italics represent the translation of praescriptio. The fragment “However He Was Proclaimed” appears in the manuscript before the quotations from Isaiah. Kroymann places him after them. Translation, according to the handwritten reading: “Whatever that wretched body may be, since it was tangible, since it was examined, if it is inconspicuous, if it is inglorious, if it is despised, then Christ will be mine. After all, this is exactly how He was depicted in the prophecies in appearance and appearance.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “in an incorporeal form.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “you proclaim.” Wed: Isa. 11:1,10; Rome. 15:12. According to the Septuagint: “A branch will come from the root of Jesse, and a flower from the root will appear.” The flower, flos, is mentioned in this place and in the Vulgate. In the Hebrew text, a word is used with the meaning: “shoot, cutting,” which is found, in addition to the indicated place, only in three places: Isa. 14:19; 60:21, Dan. 11:7. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “the whole variety of spiritual evidence did not correspond.” Tertullian so far speaks only of foreshadowing (Kroymann). See: Isa. 53:4; Matt. 8:17. Between your Christ and Christ the Creator. Kroymann's interpretation. Another interpretation: “putting off.” Lignum. Wed: Gen. 22:6–7. The Septuagint and Vulgate use the plural: τὰ ξύλα / ligna. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “and not.” "wild bull" in the original text; in the Septuagint: "unicorn", in the Vulgate: "rhinoceros". Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “interprets.” See: Gen. 49:5. Quote from the Septuagint. See: Gen. 49:6. Quote from the Septuagint. Wed: Ref. 20:4, 23; Lion. 19:4; Lion. 26:1. A ligno. See: Ps.96 / Ps.95:10; cf.: 1 Par. 16:31. The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts of this psalm do not contain the words “from the tree,” but Justin refers to them in lust. Apol., I, 41, and in lust. Dial., 73 accuses the Jews of having removed these words from the psalm. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “even if.” According to Kroymann, the words “new glory” can be placed before the words “new ages”: “the new King of the glory of the new ages, Christ Jesus.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: "God". Wed: Luke. 22:19; Matt. 26:26 ; Mk. 14:22. This is not about the symbolism of the Body of Christ in the Holy Gifts, but about the fact that the Lord transforms bread into the Holy Gifts in the image of His Body. This is well said by H.V. Gogol: “Transubstantiation has taken place! The very body in which the Eternal Word clothed itself when it was on earth, the body of the Lord Himself, now lies slain on the altar, and the slaughter took place with a verb, instead of a sword. May every priest forget at this time: not a priest who bears the appearance and name similar to us, but the Supreme, Eternal Bishop Himself performed this slaughter, performing it forever in the person of His priests. On the throne lies not an image, not a form of a body, but the very body of the Lord, which suffered on earth, suffered being strangled, was spat upon, crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father!” See: Gogol N.V. Reflections on the Divine Liturgy. M., 1990. pp. 88–89. See: Ps. 22 / Ps. 21:17. See: Ps. 22 / Ps. 21:22 ; – Kroymann's insert. See: Isa. 57:2. Translation according to the Septuagint, which says: “His grave will be in peace, removed from the environment (ἦρται ἐκ τοῦ μέσου)”; cf.: Col. 2:14; 2 Thess. 2:7. In the Septuagint: "strong." Compare: “As we endure, we read about what we endure; when we remember it, it is confirmed. The fulfillment of what was predicted is, I believe, reliable evidence of divinity. So, thanks to this, we gain complete confidence in the future, already, of course, confirmed, for it was predicted along with what is confirmed daily. The same words sound, the same writings testify, the same spirit motivates” (Tert. Arol., 20, v3-4). Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “ad diversas sententias.” Perhaps it should read: “and to His Christ.” See: Isa. 55:3. Quote from the Septuagint. See: Ps. 132 / Ps. 131:11. Conjecture. In the manuscript: “in the first.” Cp.: 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor. 6:16. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “Christ was to be counted.” Wed: 1 Kings 11:14. Quote from the Septuagint. Another possible understanding: “For Satan raised up an Edomite adversary against him.” With different punctuation: “you are already referring to proselytes. You ask: “Who.” That is, you claim that pagan Christians who have turned to the Creator are proselytes. Unclear quote. Wed: Is. 16:4 (?). See: Isa. 42:4, according to the Septuagint. Zibinas, rare Greekism; cf.: ζιβύνη, found in Isa. 2:4 and Jer. 6:23. That is, according to the apostles, salvation for the pagans is given not by turning to the law of Moses, but by turning to Christ. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “echoed.” See: Isa. 46:12–13. The text is different from the Septuagint. Wed: Is. 52:10. In the Septuagint: “He will open His holy hand.” See: Isa. 57:1. Quote from the Septuagint, where, however, it is said differently: “from the face of injustice the righteous will be taken away (that is, saved).” These words are not in the Septuagint. In the original and Vulgate: “in the middle of the city.” See: Ezek. 9:4. There is no mention of Tau in the Septuagint, but thau appears in the Vulgate. In the original: תו [tāw] “sign”. Wed: Matt. 12:49–50; Rome. 8:29. See: Ps.22 / Ps.21:23; Heb. 2:11–12. Wed: Is. 2:20. The Septuagint says: “On that day man will cast away his silver and gold abominations, which he made to worship empty mice and bats.” Tertullian's manuscript uses the word noctivus "harmful"; "owl" – noctua. In the Vulgate: "to worship moles and bats." Wed: Is. 5:6. The word Soreh is absent from both the Septuagint and the Vulgate. In the valley of Sorek (“vineyard”) lived Delilah, whom Samson fell in love with (Judges 16:4). Wed: Is. 5:4. In the Septuagint: “it (the vineyard) brought forth thorns (ἀκάνθας).” The crown of thorns was woven and placed on the Lord by Roman soldiers. Wed: Matt. 27:29 ; Mk. 15:17; In. 19:2. Wed: Matt. 27:23; Mk. 15:8,13–14; OK. 23:18, 21, 23; In. 19:6, 12, 15. See: Isa. 52:5; cf.: Ezek. 36:20–23. Apparently, we are talking about a rumor spread by the Jewish high priests and elders about the abduction of the body of the Lord by the disciples (cf. Matthew 28:11–15). It is unlikely that Tertullian is implying that the Jews became the culprits of bad rumors about Christians in later times. In Tert. Ad nat., 114.1 (cp.: Tert. Apol., 16.12), however, a certain Jew who betrayed his religion is mentioned, offering the public a picture in which the Christian God is depicted in a toga with horse (donkey) ears, with a hoof on one leg and with a book. Roman Emperor from 14 to 37 AD. Christ was crucified under him. Roman Emperor from 69 to 79. Under him, Jerusalem was captured. Wed: “and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation” (Luke 19:44, Synodal translation). Tertullian means the so-called. “The Jewish War” (67–70), a detailed description of which is contained in the work of the same name by Josephus. The destruction of the Church that occurred during this war was predicted by the Lord. Wed: Matt. 24:2; Mk. 13:2; OK. 21:6. Christ speaks of the coming siege and destruction of Jerusalem in Luke. 19:43–44. Wed: Is. 1:3–4; and also: Deut. 29:24–25. In anxietate. In the Septuagint: "in tribulation." Wed: Matt. 26:14–16; Mk. 14; 10–11 ; OK. 22:3–6. According to Kroymann, by Judas Tertullian means the Jews. Wed: Matt. 21:12 ; Mk. 11:15; OK. 19:45; John 2:15. Wed: Matt. 21:23 ; Mk. 11:27; OK. 20:1. Wed: Ref. 20:5; 34:14; Deut. 4:24; 5:9; 6:15; Nahum. 1:2. That is, the way you portray your god. Cp.: Deut. 32:39; Job 5:18. De spe fidelium is one of the lost works of Tertullian. Tertullian was a chiliast. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript this word refers to Jerusalem. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “heavenly.” Et mundi destructione et iudicii conflagratione commissa, demutati in atomo in angelicam substantiam transferemur in caeleste regnum. Cp.: Et istas ego receperim causas, et illam quae in conflagratione nostris placet hoc quoque transferendam puto (Sen. Nat. Quaest., III, 29, 2). Cp.: 1 Kop. 15:52: ἐνἀτόμφ. That is, the Gospel of Luke distorted by the Marcionites. Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “promises.” Tertullian refutes Marcion, who claimed that among the Jews the dead reside in the underworld. Kroymann suggests a lacuna here: “and since the Lord is above, both this and that are carried out according to the judgment of the Lord.” Neither the Septuagint nor the Vulgate speaks about kites. In the Septuagint: “Who are these that fly (πέτανται) like clouds and like doves with their young (σὺν νεοσσοῖς)?” Compare: Job. 5:7: “And the chicks (νεοσσοί) of the kite fly (πέτονται) to high places.” In the original: “and sparks fly up.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “God.” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “Is it because your Christ promises a heavenly kingdom, not having heaven, because (lit.: how) he presented man, not having flesh?” Kroymann's conjecture. In the manuscript: “great (promise).” You might be interested in: