The newly discovered work of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons "Proofs of the Apostolic Preaching"

(Ἑ πίδειξις τοῦ ἀποστολικοῦ κηρύγματος) I. “Renaissance” in the study of ancient Christian writing in connection with the discovery of unknown monuments. – Circumstances of the discovery and publication of the work of Saint Irenaeus: “Proof of the Apostolic Preaching” – Its authenticity and time of origin. - Purpose of writing. – The nature of the presentation and the procedure for disclosing the content. – II. Text of the monument. – III. Remarks on the significance of the newly discovered work. Several years ago, a very respectable German researcher of ancient Christian literature drew attention to the rather original opinion of a famous antiquary, who frankly told him that private Theological libraries compiled from books before 1870, with a few outstanding exceptions, had no value for him. Of course, he applied the only standard possible to him in determining the scientific merit of theological works in the past and in the present; but this judgment turns out to be fair to a certain extent, not only from a commercial point of view, but also from a strictly scientific one. Without deciding the question of how fair the view of the antiquarian is in relation to theology taken as a whole, the said scientist recognizes it as unconditionally true in relation to that special area of ​​it, in which he himself is a competent connoisseur, namely patristics, or, in the terminology of the newest Protestant scholars, to the history of ancient Christian literature, especially in the first three centuries 1 . What was written almost ten years ago is even more applicable to the current state of affairs. The study of ancient Christian writing of the pre-Nicene era over the last quarter of the last century and the first years of the new one has made such significant progress that it is hardly possible to point out at least one period of it in the presentation and understanding of which more or less significant changes and amendments would not have to be made. Why, even the major works of the past related here, have in many respects lost their significance and need to be verified using new data obtained by science. Both in church historical science in general and in the history of ancient Christian writing in particular, a decisive revision and revaluation of the scientific conclusions of the past is now taking place. Numerous and very valuable works have appeared on the publication and criticism of the text and a thorough study of the content of the primary sources of history and the teaching of the ancient Church with the application of the achieved results to various areas of church-historical knowledge, on the basis of which many old confusing and dark questions are resolved, illuminated from new angles or are approaching their resolution, new problems are posed to scientists, new combinations of already known material are outlined, and so on. This keen interest in the study of monuments of ancient Christian writing with its results significant for theological and church-historical science not only does not weaken, but every year it becomes more and more intensified and is found in the literature with a whole stream of new scientific works. Researchers who consider it obligatory for themselves to follow all newly appearing works in this area are forced to admit that it is extremely difficult to navigate the mass of new works, mostly scattered in various collections and periodicals, and find it absolutely necessary to have special indexes of publications of ancient Christian literature and works devoted to its study 2 . The vital nerve of this new “revival” in the study of ancient Christian writing consists of numerous discoveries and finds of ancient monuments known only by name or completely unknown, new copies of the original text and translations of works that have survived in an unsatisfactory form. As is known, the losses in the field of ancient Christian writing are astounding, and its researchers can only express bitter regrets about the enormous difference between pre-Nicene literature, as it was according to the available incomplete information about it, and those meager remnants of it that are currently known, since these significant gaps in the primary sources make it impossible to determine with sufficient completeness and clarity the life of the Church in all its aspects and the gradual revelation of Her teachings in the most important, fundamental era of Her existence. Although handwritten material stored in various libraries of the East and West has been continuously and tirelessly studied for almost four centuries, and, as far as possible, through printing everything that has been preserved from ancient Christian writing is made public property, the eye of scientists has not yet penetrated everywhere, but the fact that recent decades has completely unexpectedly brought to light a significant number of very valuable ancient Christian monuments, the discovery of which has surpassed even the wildest hopes and has significantly expanded the horizons of church history. science, having enriched it with many new, significant information, clearly showed that in the future the possibility of the appearance in the field of historical research of many more of those documents that were considered completely lost is not excluded. Hopes for new discoveries are all the more solid because until now there has not been a properly organized and systematic study of manuscript treasures in numerous libraries not only in the East, but also in the West - and here a happy accident can provide invaluable services to the scientific world; and the libraries in various eastern monasteries, and especially in Sinai, Mount Athos, Jerusalem, and Egypt, undoubtedly contain many more unknown materials from the field of ancient Christian writing. In addition, great and not unreasonable hopes are placed on the Syriac, Armenian, Coptic and Slavic translations of those monuments, the Greek original of which has been lost. None of these literatures have yet been systematically and systematically studied in relation to the monuments of ancient Christian writing included in it; and in general, more or less thorough study of them began only about half of the last century. Accidental discoveries in manuscripts of translated writing support confidence in rich results for filling many gaps in the history of ancient Christian literature, which a careful study of it can provide. Not all newly discovered monuments are of equal importance; sometimes it even turned out that it was precisely those of them whose discovery aroused especially many hopes and expectations that least of all justified them: a hasty and exaggerated assessment of their significance caused unpleasant disappointment (for example, the Gnostic Πίστις Σοφία in content turned out to be of little value). But we must not forget that, according to the current state of primary sources on the history of the ancient Christian church, it is very important to enrich them with material even insignificant in volume or content, since even unimportant documents still shed at least some light on an area that is unclear in many respects, or at least confirm what is already known. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the West, where scientific interests are very high, even the daily press is sensitive to reports of the discovery of several sheets of an ancient Christian monument somewhere in an Egyptian tomb and notifies its readers about this. Only by the totality of all the discoveries of recent times - both significant and insignificant - have those undoubted successes in the field of church-historical knowledge been achieved, of which modern science is justly proud: in them it has found both the strengthening and expansion of its foundation. Among the completely random finds is the newly discovered work of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, preserved in an Armenian translation and published in the recently published book “Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur” (herausgeb. von Ad. Harnack und C. Schmidt), B. 31, Heft 1 (third series B. I, H. l), entitled: “Des heiliges Irenäus Schrift zum Erweise der apostolischen Verkündigung εἰς ἐπίδειξιν to ῦ ἀποστολικοῦ κηρύγματος , in armenischen Version entdeckt, herausgeben und ins Deutsche übersetzt von Lie. Dr. Karapet Ter-Mekerttschian und Lie. Dr. Erwand Ter-Minassiantz, mit einem Nachwort und Anmer kungen von Adolf Harnack. Leipzig 1907". Among the ancient church writers, to whose works time was especially merciless, one of the first places is occupied by Irenaeus of Lyon: of his numerous creations, which are mainly reported by Eusebius (Hist. eccl., 5:20–26), only one of his main works against heretics has reached us in its entirety: Ἔ λεγχος καὶ ἀνατροπὴ τῆς φευδονύμχου γνώσεως (“Adversus haereses”), and not in the original Greek, but in the Latin, albeit a literal translation with small fragments of the Greek text preserved by other writers; the rest are known only from small fragments or from one title 3. Such a sad fate of the works of Saint Irenaeus is all the more regrettable because he occupies an outstanding and influential position in the Church at a very important, one might say, critical moment in its historical existence in view of the clearly revealed opposing trends in the understanding of Christianity. He is the first of the writers of post-apostolic times to be called a theologian in the proper sense of the word: surpassing all previous writers in the brightness and clarity of thoughts and clarity of presentation, he was the first to present a complete view of the relationship between God and the world, revealed from the own principles of the Christian faith, and established the basic principles of church theology, which essentially remain unchanged for all subsequent times. At the same time, he is the last disciple of the direct disciples of the apostles: through Polycarp and other elders, he hears their living voice and perceives the spirit of their teaching; therefore, in his personality and theology many threads are connected leading to an understanding of the previous history of the Church of Christ. At the same time, he throws a far-reaching light on the subsequent development of church theology, in which traces of his strong influence are clear 4 . But due to the loss of Saint Irenaeus’s own works, it is still not possible to illuminate with proper completeness, clarity and convincingness the personality, teaching, activity and ecclesiastical significance of the famous teacher. Disagreements on issues related to his personality and activities reach their greatest severity in assessing his dogmatic-historical position. It is understandable, therefore, that the news of the discovery of the work of St. Irenaeus; which was considered completely lost, caused an impatient expectation of its speedy appearance in print - especially since its very title, apparently, pointed to the disclosure in it of one of the most significant sources of the theology of St. Irenaeus - the apostolic tradition. The book “Texte und Untersuchungen” contains a preface by Archimandrite Karapet and Adolf Harnack with information about the discovery of the manuscript in which the work of Irenaeus was found, about the manuscript itself, about the origin of the Armenian translation of the works of Irenaeus, about the translation of the newly discovered work into German (III-VIII), the Armenian text of the work (1–69), its German translation (1–52), afterword and notes by Adolf Harnack (53–66) and a list of quotations from primary sources found in the work (mainly from the books of the Old and New Testaments), compiled by Adolf Harnack. In the preface, Archimandrite Karapet provides the following information about the opening of the monument. In December 1904, he leafed through the manuscripts stored in the library in the Church of Our Lady in Erivan, and was amazed by the discovery in one of them of extensive books under the name of St. Irenaeus. The first of these books, which was preceded by a table of contents, bore the title: “Irenaeus, Proof of the Apostolic Preaching.” Therefore, he at first thought that the entire manuscript contained an Armenian translation of the work mentioned by Eusebius (H. E. V, 26) sent by him to brother Marcian. However, after a careful review of the manuscript, he was convinced that in the first place there are the last two books of the famous anti-heretical work of Irenaeus, which ends with the correct signature: “exposure and refutation of false knowledge.” And only then, after the repeated inscription: “Proof of the Apostolic Preaching,” comes the work of the same author, which until now was considered lost. His official duties did not allow Archimandrite Karapet to begin publishing and translating this work. But a year later the opportunity presented itself to perform this work together with Erw. Ter-Minassiantz’ eats and publishes the newly discovered monument in the Armenian text and German translation. The manuscript, as the notes on it show (one of them is printed at the end of the text of the monument), was written by order of Archbishop John, well known in Armenian literature, whose activity dates back to the second half of the 13th century. As a learned man he is called Rabbun, and as the brother of King Hetum of Cilicia (1226–1270), he is called the brother of the holy king in the printed note of the scribe. From the available data we can conclude that he was a great lover of books and owned a very rich library, since valuable manuscripts copied either by himself or at his order have survived to this day. He was consecrated bishop in 1259 and died in 1289. Since he is called an archbishop only in manuscripts of a later date, we can conclude from this that the manuscript containing the works of Irenaeus was written in the last years of his life, since the copyist calls it the recipient of the book “The God-pleasing and blessed lord Archbishop John.” In addition to the works of Irenaeus, which occupy almost two-thirds of the entire manuscript, it contains several unpublished treatises of various contents, which, as Archimandrite Karapet notes, are important in historical and critical terms; but, unfortunately, at the present time he does not give any immediate indications on the basis of which one could judge their value; it is therefore necessary to expect new publications. It is impossible to say with certainty when the works of Irenaeus were translated into Armenian. Archimandrite Karapet recognizes the probable origin of this translation in the period from the half of the 7th century to the beginning of the 8th century. In any case, there is no doubt that the copyist of the found manuscript used a ready-made translation list. It is even more difficult to resolve the question of what language the Armenian translation was made from. Archimandrite Karapet leaves it open: in his opinion, some data favor the recognition of the Syrian original; but other reasons, no less important, can be given in favor of translation directly from the Greek language. The publishers of the newly discovered work themselves translated it into German, trying, according to them, to convey the meaning of the original as accurately and literally as possible. They also translated passages from Holy Scripture literally. But at the same time, they themselves admit that there are a lot of difficulties for a correct understanding of the Armenian text. Professor Adolf Harnack, although he had full confidence in the knowledge and abilities of both publishers, nevertheless, for complete confidence, asked Privatdozent Finck to review the text and translation; he confirmed the excellent quality and accuracy of the translation; very little had to be corrected. Adolf Harnack himself and Fink corrected the translation style in some places. Adolf Harnack divided the entire work into one hundred small chapters, and in the notes (56–64 pp.) he gave parallel passages from the “Adversus haereses” and other monuments of ancient Christian writing that serve to explain the text. In the found manuscript, the name Irenaeus is placed in front of the entire collection, although it is not repeated later in front of the newly discovered work. The author's name is not indicated in the work itself; but its belonging to Irenaeus of Lyon is beyond any doubt. There is also no reason to suspect its integrity. Adolf Harnack considers it completely unnecessary to prove both (S. 55). The history of ancient Christian writing shows that Irenaeus, apparently, was not one of those writers whose name was used to distribute forged works, 5 and in this case, external evidence of authenticity is in complete agreement with the internal properties of the work. The title of the work in the manuscript: “Proof of the Apostolic Sermon,” indicating that it belongs to Saint Irenaeus, the author of the last two books of the famous work “Adversus haereses,” undoubtedly written by Irenaeus of Lyons, and the name of Marcian at the very beginning of the open work evoke the authoritative testimony of Eusebius, who in his Church History (V, 26) reports that Irenaeus wrote a work dedicated to his brother, according to named Marcian, as proof of the apostolic preaching 6. The exact coincidence of the name of the work, the addressee and the author is irrefutable evidence that the found work is identical with the work of Irenaeus of Lyon, attested by Eusebius. In addition, it is very important that in the work itself the author refers to what he had previously written, “The Exposure and Refutation of False Knowledge” γνώσεως ). Finally, the entire content of the work, the way of expressing thoughts and the nature of the teaching set forth in it bear the stamp of origin from the same author to whom the “Adversushaereses” belongs; An eloquent confirmation of this position are the parallels in both works, which, however, are of such a nature that, despite their numerousness, the newly discovered monument cannot be recognized as an extraction from a previous work, or a mosaic of expressions taken from it, or, finally, a conscious imitation of it: the parallels are explained simply by the fact that the same author speaks about the same subjects. As for the title of the work, it is difficult to decide how it was inscribed by the author himself: εὶς ἐπίδειξιν τοῦ ἀποστολικοῦ κηρύγματος or ἐπίδειξις κτλ. The Armenian translation testifies in favor of the latter; but Adolf Harnack, not daring to speak out with complete confidence, is nevertheless more inclined to favor the fact that Irenaeus wrote more modestly: (Λόγος) εὶς ‘ επίδειξιν, since otherwise, in his opinion, Eusebius would have structured his speech differently in his message (S. 54). But perhaps Irenaeus himself did not give his work any inscription, and it was formulated only by Eusebius in accordance with the clearly expressed purpose of the work - to present evidence of the truth or reliability of the apostolic gospel on the basis of Holy Scripture (mainly prophecies). Since there is no certainty that Eusebius writes out the exact title of the work and since, further, its inscription in the Armenian manuscript is undoubtedly based on a handwritten tradition of an earlier time, perhaps reaching back to the Greek original, then, in our opinion, the name of the newly discovered work, attested by the Armenian translation, should be retained: ἐπίδειξιν τοῦ ἀποστολικοῦ κηρύγματος . Who was the Marcian to whom the work was intended by the author is unknown: in the monument itself, except for the name, no further indications are given regarding his identity; Eusebius doesn’t add anything either, calling him simply a brother named Marcian. Essentially, nothing can be objected to the assumption of I. V. Lightfoot that this Marcian is the same person whose hand was written “Martyrium Polycarpi”, and who also bore the name Marcian 7; but, on the other hand, it is impossible to satisfactorily substantiate this assumption, since there is no information about this last Marcian and his relationship with Irenaeus, except for the natural conclusion that he was close to Saint Polycarp and therefore could have been well known to Irenaeus, and that he occupied a prominent position among the Smyrna brothers. Marcian, as can be seen from the preface of the work, was on friendly terms with Irenaeus and at the time when Irenaeus wrote his work, he was not in Lyon: Irenaeus expresses regret that he cannot constantly be with Marcian in order to make this earthly life easier for each other, spending it in continuous general conversation about useful subjects; separated physically, he does not want to miss the opportunity to talk with Marcian in writing (Chapter 1). From the tone of the preface and the purpose of writing the work, one can conclude that Marcian was a layman, but there is no sufficient basis to assert this decisively. On the question of the time of origin of the work, we can only say that it was Written after “Against Heresies,” since the author already refers to it. The third book of the latter was written under the Roman bishop Eleutherius (175–189): and since it was followed by the fourth and fifth books, written undoubtedly at some intervals, the newly discovered treatise belongs to the last decade of the Second century, being one of the last works of Saint Irenaeus 8. The goal that Irenaeus pursued in his work, sending it to Marcian, is clearly stated at the very beginning of it: he sought to present in brief words the preaching of the truth in order to strengthen Marcian’s faith; for this purpose he sends him “an important written reminder, so that in a little he may receive much, and in a little he may know all the members of the body of truth, and in a short time he may hear the proof of Divine things.” Then Marcian’s salvation will become fruitful, and he will make all false believers lower their eyes, and to those who want to learn sound and blameless teaching, he will be able to present it with all decisiveness (chap. 1). This is how the goal set determines the nature of the presentation throughout the work. The author does not lose sight of the modern conditions of church life, which call for an energetic struggle against heretical teaching in its various ramifications and discoveries, as evidenced by the last chapters (98–100), and the polemical opposition of the essential points of true Christian teaching to heretical teaching forms the basis of all his reasoning - it undoubtedly determines both the choice and the formulation of questions. But the speech itself is conducted in a completely calm tone, without direct, clearly expressed polemics against false teaching and without a specific indication of the errors of heretics (except for the last chapters mentioned). The basis for the presentation of true Christian teaching is the “canon of faith”, as it was communicated at baptism, and as proof of its reliability, arguments and texts of the Holy Scriptures common in the Second Century are cited, borrowed mainly from Old Testament prophecies, the content of which is revealed and commented on in the application to New Testament events with the aid of an allegorical and mystical explanation of the facts of Old Testament history. Thus, in the newly discovered work, Irenaeus speaks not as a polemicist or even as a scientist, but as a shepherd and catechist, presenting in a publicly accessible form the correct view of the history of the salvation of mankind. Irenaeus’ desire to reveal as clearly and as thoroughly as possible the essential points of the “canon of faith” and to impress them more deeply in the minds of Marcian and other readers of the work also explains those repetitions in the presentation, which partly make it difficult to accurately determine his plan. It goes without saying that Irenaeus did not set out to write strictly proportionate parts of the work; however, even repetitions do not violate the planned sequence in the disclosure of intended thoughts. After a preliminary brief appeal to Marcian (chapter 1), Irenaeus from the second chapter begins to carry out the task at hand and, having mentioned the need to keep the soul and body pure in order to know the truth, indicates that the purity of the soul is achieved by constant observance of the “Canon of Faith” communicated at baptism, which is performed in the name of God the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, the incarnate, deceased and risen Son of God, and in the name of the Holy Spirit (5 chapters). The author, in various combinations, reveals the three members of the “canon of our faith” outlined by this formula, dwelling in particular detail on the first of them, setting out the doctrine of one God, the highest Spirit, unhappened, incomprehensible, the beginning of everything, Creator of heaven and earth and the whole world, Creator of angels and people, good, merciful and righteous, Nourisher of all, King and Judge. There is no other God either above Him or after Him; the height and greatness of this God is indescribable. He created everything with the Word and adorned everything with the Spirit. The second member of faith is the Word of God, the Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom all things happened; He appeared to the prophets and at the end of time became a man in order to abolish death and show life and unite people with God. The third member is the Holy Spirit; To them the prophets prophesied, the fathers learned the Divine, and the righteous were brought to the path of righteousness; at the end of time He poured out upon humanity throughout the earth in a new way, renewing people to God. The Holy Spirit leads people to the knowledge of the Son, and the Son to the knowledge of the Father. This first part of the work ends with the 8th chapter. In the second part – from chapters 9 to 42. – the author sets out the history of divine revelation in the world from the creation of man, the Fall, the flood, the calling of Abraham and until the conversion of the pagans to Christ through the apostles sent by Him. It begins with a speech about the seven heavens, inhabited by powers, angels and archangels who serve God - and the author again emphasizes that the whole world, including the angels, was created by God, who gave laws to the whole world so that each creature remained in its own area, without transgressing the limits established by God. This God is glorified by His Word, which is His Son, and by the Holy Spirit, which is the Wisdom of the Father of all. With the narration of the creation of people and their life in Paradise, the author opens a concise, however, with significant details, presentation of the initial history of mankind, then moves on to the history of the Israeli people before their conquest of the land of Canaan and at the end mentions King David and his son Solomon, who built the church of God. He does not recount the further history of the people of Israel; for his purpose it was enough to briefly indicate that prophets were sent to this very people, who through the Holy Spirit instructed the people on the path and returned the fathers to the almighty God, became the heralds of our Lord Jesus Christ, predicting that according to the flesh he would come from the house of David, being the Son of God, who from eternity was with the Father; He was born before the creation of the world and at the end of time appeared in human form to the whole world. The author does not present the events of New Testament history, obviously because he considered its facts to be generally known; from the Old Testament prophets he directly proceeds to pointing out the fruits of the redemption accomplished by Christ, arguing that only through the coming of the Son of God could people become partakers of incorruption. He only notes the meaning and significance of the main events of the Lord’s earthly life. The history of the creation of the first people and their fall gives the author indications of the means of recreating and restoring fallen man: humanity fell to death through disobedience - its abolition was possible only through obedience; death had dominion over the body - the Word became flesh, so that by the same body he could abolish death; the body of the first man was created from virgin soil - the Lord is born from the Virgin; through the virgin's disobedience, man became mortal - through the Virgin's obedience he receives life; the crime was committed through the tree - by nailing the Son of Man on the tree, the knowledge of evil is destroyed and the knowledge of good is given. The Cross established the fellowship of all those scattered throughout the Universe and called on all sides to the knowledge of the Father. Thus, the promises given to the fathers are fulfilled: the Son of God became the son of Abraham and David; The Word of God became flesh to destroy death and give life to man. He sanctified our birth and abolished death. At the same time, He showed the resurrection, becoming the firstborn from the dead, and in Himself resurrected fallen man, raising him to heaven at the right hand of the glory of the Father. There is the closest and inextricable connection between all the facts of the Lord’s redemptive work on Earth: if He was not born, then He did not die, if He did not die, then He did not rise from the dead, if He did not rise from the dead, then He did not conquer death and did not destroy its dominion, and if He did not defeat death, then how can we, who fell into death from the beginning, rise to life? The Forerunner, John the Baptist, prepared for the acceptance of the Word of life, proclaiming about Him that He is the Christ on Whom the Spirit of God rests. His disciples and witnesses of all His good deeds, teachings, sufferings, death, resurrection and ascension are the apostles, who, after receiving the Holy Spirit, were sent by Him into the whole world and called the pagans, cleansing their souls and bodies with baptism with water and the Holy Spirit; they fulfilled the calling of the pagans foretold by the prophets. Irenaeus ends this part of the work with a call to walk in truth, holiness, righteousness and patience: the apostles taught to keep the body blameless for the resurrection and the soul spotless. From the second half of the 42nd chapter, the main and essential part of the work begins, the content of which determines its title. Irenaeus defines the purpose and meaning of further reasoning in this way: “That all this was supposed to happen, the Spirit of God announced this in advance through the prophets, so that faith would be strong in those who serve God in truth. For what was impossible for our nature and therefore should have seemed incredible to people, God announced this in advance through the prophets, so that through what was said before, that is, for many centuries, then it was fulfilled as it was said before, we would understand that it was God; Who from the beginning told us about our salvation” (chap. 42). Accordingly, Irenaeus cites a whole series of prophecies that speak of the eternal existence of the Son of God and His activity in the Old Testament (43–52 ch.), the Incarnation and Nativity (53–66 ch.), His healings (67 ch.), suffering and death on the cross with many details, descent into hell (68–82 ch.), resurrection from the dead, ascension, sitting at the right hand of God and coming to Judgment (chap. 83–85). Summarizing all that has been said, Irenaeus writes: “If the prophets predicted about the Son of God that He would appear on earth, and also announced where on earth and how and in what form He would appear, and the Lord took upon Himself all these prophecies, then our faith in Him is firmly founded and the tradition of preaching is true, that is, the testimony of the apostles, who were sent by the Lord throughout the world to preach the Son of God...” (86 ch.). But the prophets also announced the very embassy of the apostles to preach and call and save the pagans not through the Law of Moses, but through faith and love implanted by the Holy Spirit. According to the prophecies, the Word of God changed the hearts of the pagans - why the church is so fruitful in the saved. After life has been given to us by this calling, we must not return to the first legislation, for we have received the Lord of the law, the Son of God, and through faith in Him we learn to love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. For Christians there is therefore no need for the guidance of the law. Calling on the readers to give thanks to God, who saves us with His unsearchable and incomprehensible wisdom and from Heaven proclaiming to us the salvation that we alone could not achieve, the author exclaims: “this is the beloved preaching of the truth, and this is the image of our salvation, and this is the way of life, which the prophets foretold and Christ fulfilled, and the apostles handed down, and the church entrusted to His children throughout the world. It (i.e., the truth) must be preserved in its entirety with a strong will and in a godly manner, with good deeds and a sound direction of thought” (chap. 98). As a conclusion to the work and a conclusion from everything that preceded it, Irenaeus warns the reader against various errors of his time, which he classifies as heresies in relation to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: one should not separate God the Father from the Creator of the world, one should not deny the Incarnation and reject the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We must beware of all erring people and abstain from their morals if we really want to be pleasing to God and receive salvation from Him. § II. "Proof of the Apostolic Preaching" 9 1. Since I have learned, my dear Marcian, your inclination to walk in reverence for God - and this alone leads a person to eternal life - then I both share your joy with you and ask you, with unshakable firmness in faith, to be pleasing to God, your Creator. Oh, if we could constantly be together and mutually benefit and make life here easier, spending it in continuous general conversation about useful subjects! But since at the present time we are physically separated from each other, I would like not to miss the opportunity, within my strength, to speak with you in writing and in brief words to expound the preaching of the truth in order to strengthen your faith. I am sending you this (work) as an important written reminder, so that in a little you may receive much, and in a little you may know all the members of the body of truth, and in a little you may hear the proofs of the Divine. For in this way your salvation will become fruitful, and you will force all false believers to lower their gaze, and to everyone who wants to know, you will express with all decisiveness our sound and blameless word (cf. Titus 2:8). For there is one path, accessible to all who see, which is illuminated by heavenly light; but are numerous, dark and contrary to the path of those who do not see; and the first leads to the heavenly kingdom, uniting man with God, while these lead to death, separating man from God. Therefore, both you and everyone who cares about their own salvation need to steadily and firmly and confidently walk in faith, so that, having become careless and unsettled, you do not remain mired in material lusts, or even lose your way to the right path. 2. Since man is a living being, consisting of soul and body, it is necessary and proper for him to observe both in a good state; and since sins arise from both of them, purity of the body serves as a protective means by which people are kept from everything harmful and from all unrighteous deeds, and purity of the soul is a means of keeping faith in God intact, without adding or cutting anything from it. For piety through desecration and pollution of the body becomes gloomy and sad; it is distorted and desecrated and no longer remains intact if a lie penetrates the soul; on the contrary, it is preserved in beauty and in its measure if truth in the spirit and purity in the heart remain unshakable. For what is the use of knowing the truth in words, but desecrating the body and committing evil deeds? Or, on the other hand, what benefit can cleanliness of the body actually bring if there is no truth in the soul? For these (that is, truth and soul) both rejoice with each other and are united, and are comrades in the struggle to place man before God. And therefore the Holy Spirit says through David: “Blessed is the man who does not walk according to the advice of the ungodly” (Ps. 1:1): this is the mood of those tribes that do not know God. For these godless ones are those who do not worship the truly existing God. And therefore the Word says to Moses: “I am this” (Ex. 3:14). Therefore, those who do not worship the existing God are godless. “And on the way there are not a hundred sinners” - sinners are those who have knowledge of God, but do not keep His commandments, that is, they are despisers. “And he does not sit in the seat of the corrupters” - and the corrupters are those who, with their insidious and perverse teaching, corrupt not only themselves, but also others, for the seat is a symbol for the pulpit (teacher) 10 . All heretics are exactly like this: they sit on the seat of the corrupters and corrupt those who accept the poison of their teachings. 3. Therefore, in order not to tolerate this, we must keep intact the rule of faith and fulfill the commandments of God, believing in God and fearing Him, since He is the Lord, and loving Him, since He is the Father. Doing comes from faith, for “if you do not believe,” says Isaiah, “you will not understand” (7:9); and faith is brought by truth, for faith is built on what truly exists, so that we believe in existence (τὰ ὄντα) as it is; By believing in existence as it always is, we firmly maintain our confidence in it. And since faith is the constant guardian of our salvation, it is necessary and worthy to put a lot of care into it in order to achieve a true understanding of things. It is faith that produces this in us, as the elders, the disciples of the apostles, told us. First of all, it teaches us to remember that we received baptism for the remission of sins in the name of God the Father and in the name of Jesus Christ, the incarnate and died and risen Son of God, and in the Holy Spirit of God; and that this baptism is the seal of eternal life and rebirth into God, so that we may be children not of dead people, but of the eternal and unchangeable God; so that the eternal and unchangeable would become God, and He would stand high above each of the created beings 11 , and everything would be subordinate to Him, and all those subordinate to Him would become His (own), so that God would rule and be Ruler not over anything else (alien), but over His own 12 , (reminds) that everything is God’s and that therefore God is the Almighty and everything is from God. 4. For it is necessary that we who came into existence had the beginning of our existence from some great cause; and God is the beginning of everything, for He Himself did not come from anything, but from Him everything came. And therefore it is necessary and worthy, first of all, to confess that He is one God, the Father, Who created and formed everything and brought things into being, and while He embraces everything, He alone is not embraced 13 . Between everything (that happened) is this world of ours 14 and man in the world; therefore, this world was also created by God. 5. Therefore, the matter is presented as follows: God the Father, uncreated, invisible, Creator of everything, above Whom there is no other God and after (below) Whom there is no other God; and since God is a rational being, therefore He created what happened with the Word; and since God is Spirit, He adorned everything with the Spirit, as the prophet says: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by His Spirit all their power” (Ps. 32:6). since the word affirms, that is, is the product of the body and gives the essence of emanation, 15 and the spirit orders and forms the differences of forces, then in all justice the Word is called the Son, and the Spirit the Wisdom of God. Paul, His apostle, also speaks appropriately (for this case): “There is one God the Father, who is above all and with all and in us all (Eph. IV, 6). For above all is the Father, and with all is the Word, since through Him everything came from the Father, but in us all is the Spirit, Who cries: “Abba Father” (Gal. IV, 6), and prepares man for likeness to God. The Spirit reveals the Word, and therefore the prophets proclaimed the Son of God; but the Word gives an image to the Spirit, and therefore It Itself is the inspirer of the prophets and leads man to the Father. 6. This is the rule of our faith and the foundation of the building and the strength of our walk: God, the Father, not made, not comprehended, invisible, one God, Creator of all; This is the very first position of our faith. The second position is the Word of God, the Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who appeared to the prophets according to the image of their prophecy and following the definition of the Father - through whom all things happened, who also at the end of times, in order to bring everything to perfection 16 and unite 17, became man between people, visible and tangible, in order to abolish death and show life and bring about the communion of unity between God and man. And the third position is the Holy Spirit, by whom the prophets prophesied and the fathers learned the Divine and the righteous were led to the path of righteousness, and Who at the end of times was poured out in a new way on humanity throughout the entire earth, renewing man for God. 7. And therefore the baptism of our regeneration is accomplished through these three provisions, when God the Father gives us grace for regeneration through His Son through the Holy Spirit. For those who carry the Spirit of God within themselves are brought to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son brings them to the Father, and the Father allows them to partake of incorruption. Consequently, without the Spirit it is impossible to see the Son and without the Son it is impossible to approach the Father; For the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of the Son is through the Holy Spirit; The Son communicates the Spirit, in accordance with His ministry, according to the good pleasure of the Father, to those to whom the Father wants and as the Father wants. 8. But the Father is called by the Spirit most high and almighty and Lord of hosts, so that we may know God that this same one is the creator of heaven and earth and the whole world and the creator of angels and men and the Lord of all, through whom all this came into being and from whom all things are nourished: merciful, merciful, and gracious, kind, righteous, the God of all, of Jews as well as of pagans, as well as of believers, but believers like the Father, for at the end of time He revealed the Gospel of sonship. Of the Jews (God), as Lord and lawgiver, for in the midst of times, when mankind forgot God and moved away from Him and retreated, He brought them into service through the law, so that they would know that they had (above them) the Lord, the creator and founder of the world, who gives the breath of life, whom we must worship day and night. He is God of the pagans, as Creator and Almighty, at the same time as nourisher and bread-giver and king and judge; for no one will escape His judgment: neither Jew, nor Gentile, nor a believer who has sinned, nor an angel. But those who now do not hope for His goodness will recognize His power at the judgment, as the blessed apostle says: “You do not understand that the goodness of God draws you to repentance, you, by your stubbornness and unrepentance of your heart, are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God, who will reward everyone according to his deeds” (Rom. 2:4-6). This is He who in the law is called the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of the living. And despite all this, the height and greatness of this particular God is indescribable. 9 . But the world is surrounded by seven heavens, in which the powers and angels and archangels live, 18 performing the service of worship of God Almighty and Creator of all: not because He supposedly needs it, but so that they are not idle and useless and graceless. And therefore the Holy Spirit abounded in His indwelling 19 and is counted by the prophet Isaiah in seven forms of service that rested on the Son of God, that is, on the Word, when He came as Man. For “the Spirit of God,” He says, “will rest on Him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might (spirit of knowledge) 20 and godliness, the spirit of the fear of God will fill Him” (Is. 11:2-3). And so, the first heaven from above, which embraces the others, is wisdom, and the second behind it is the heaven of reason, and the third is of counsel, and the fourth, counting from above, is the heaven of fortress, and the fifth is the heaven of knowledge and the sixth is the heaven of piety, and the seventh is this firmament above us, which is full of fear of the Spirit illuminating this heaven of ours (cf. Sol. 1:7). For Moses from here took the pattern of the lamp with seven branches, which gave continuous light in the sanctuary; because he arranged this Divine Service according to the heavenly pattern, as the Word says to him: “you must make it exactly according to the pattern that you saw on the mountain” (Ex. 25:40). 10. This God is glorified by His Word, who is the eternal Son of God, and by the Holy Spirit, who is the Wisdom of the Father of all; and the powers of these (the latter), the Word and Wisdom, which are called cherubim and seraphim, glorify God with an unceasing song of praise; and every creature that is in heaven gives honor to God, the Father of all. He formed the whole world with the Word - and in this world there are also angels - and He gave laws to the whole world so that each (creature) would remain in its own (area) and would not overstep the limits established by God, each performing the work assigned to it. 11. But He created man with His own hands, taking the purest, subtlest and most tender from the earth, and mixed His power to a certain extent with the earth; for He gave the creation His own forms, so that what is visible (in it) also might be God-like. For created man was placed on earth as the image of God. And in order for him to become alive, He breathed into his face the breath of life, so that both in breath and in creation man is like God. He was free and independent, since he was created by God in order to dominate everything on earth. And this entire Universe, which contains everything - prepared by God before the creation of man - was transferred to man as a place (of residence). And in this place were, each with his own service, the servants of that God who created everything; and the steward, who was appointed over his fellow slaves, ruled over this place. The servants were angels, and the ruler was an archangel. 12. God, having made man the ruler of the earth and everything on it, also made him the ruler of those who are servants on it (that is, the angels). However, they had their inherent perfection, and the ruler, that is, the man, was small, for he was a child 21, and therefore it was necessary for him, growing, to achieve perfection. And so that his nourishment and growth would occur in complete joy and pleasantness, He prepared for him a better place than this world, which was excellent in air, beauty, light, food, plants, fruits, waters and all other means of life; and it is called heaven. And this paradise was so beautiful and good that the Word of God constantly rushed about in it, walked and talked with man about the future that was about to happen, sealing it in advance; thus it lived with them and talked and was with people, teaching them righteousness. But the man was a child, since he did not have perfect understanding, which is why he was easily deceived by the deceiver. 13. In paradise, when a man lived there, God brought all the animals to him and ordered him to give them all names; and everything that Adam called the living creature became his name. And He decided to create a helper for man, for this is what God said: “It is not good for man that he is alone; Let us make him a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 2:18); for among all other living beings there was no helper for Adam who was the same as him, and equal in dignity and similar. God Himself sent Adam into a frenzy and put him to sleep; and here one thing follows from another 22: while before there was no sleep in Paradise, he came to Adam by the will of God. And God took one of Adam's ribs and filled its place with flesh; and the rib that He took He created into a wife and brought her to Adam. When he saw her, he said: “This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she will be called woman, for she was taken from her husband” (Gen. 2:23). 14. Both Adam and Eve, for that is the name of the wife, were naked and were not ashamed, for they had an innocent and childlike feeling and did not reach the point of thinking about anything or understanding what later, in a state of depravity, was to be born in the soul as a result of sensual desires and shameful passions. For then they kept their nature still intact, because the breath of life was blown into the creation within them. For the spirit, while it remains in its proper dignity and strength, everything that is vicious is incomprehensible and inaccessible; Therefore, they were not ashamed when they kissed, they hugged each other in purity, like children. 15. But so that man would not imagine much of himself and would not be arrogantly exalted - as if he, due to the dominion and freedom given to him, did not have a ruler (over himself) and, thus, would sin against God, his Creator, transgressing his limit - and did not come to a self-satisfied proud thought against God, God gave him a commandment so that he would know that he has the Lord of all as his ruler. Also, (God) set a certain limit for him, so that if he kept the commandment of God, he would constantly remain as he was, that is, immortal; if he does not comply, he will become mortal, turning into the earth from which his creation began. The commandment was as follows: “You may eat from every tree that is in Paradise if you wish, but you cannot eat from the tree from which is the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day that you eat you will die” (Gen. 2:16–17). 16. Man did not keep this commandment, did not obey God, deceived by an angel, who, envying people for the many gifts that God gave them, and looking at this with enmity, both destroyed himself and made man sinful, convincing him not to obey the commandment of God. Thus, having initially become in his deceit the head and leader of sin, the angel himself was once defeated after sinning against God, and then he led man to the loss of paradise. And since he, deceived by the dignity of his nature, rebelled and separated from God, he is called in Hebrew Satan, that is, the enemy; but he is also called a slanderer. God cursed the serpent, which carried an enemy within itself, which curse extended both to the animal itself and to the hidden angel nesting within it, Satan. He removed man from His face, then blocking the path leading to paradise. For heaven does not accept sinners. 17. When Adam and his wife Eve were outside of Paradise, they fell into many disasters and confusion and walked in this world with sadness and sorrow and groaning. For man worked the land under the rays of this Sun, and it brought him thorns and thistles as punishment for sin. Then what was written was also fulfilled: “Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain and then gave birth to Abel” (Gen. 4:1–2). But the rebellious angel, who led man to disobedience and made him sinful and was the reason for his expulsion from Paradise, not being satisfied with the first evil, committed the second among the brothers; for, having filled Cain with his spirit, he made him a fratricide. And so Abel died, put to death by his brother, as a sign that from now on some will be persecuted and oppressed and put to death, and the unrighteous will kill and persecute the righteous. Having become even more angry at this, God cursed Cain, and this curse extended to each of his entire family, inherited from child to child, like a sower. God raised up another son for Adam in the place of the murdered Abel. 18. Evil, spilling and spreading, took possession of the entire human race, so that there was too little seed of righteousness in them, and confusion occurred on earth between different elements; for the Angels mixed with the daughters of the Sons of Men, who bore them children, who, because of their extraordinary growth, were called earth-born. Then the angels brought evil teaching as a gift to their wives; for they taught them the powers of roots and herbs, as well as the art of dyeing and blush and the production of expensive fabrics, magical means for (exciting) hatred, love, ardent passion and love seductions, magical bandages, all sorts of magic and God-hating idolatry, through which the work of the evil one, rising in the world, spread, and the work of righteousness, diminishing, weakened. 19. Until the judgment of God came to the world through the flood in the tenth generation, in which Noah alone, after the first creation, turned out to be righteous and for his righteousness, both he himself remained alive and his wife and his three sons and three wives of his sons he imprisoned in the ark along with all the animals that God commanded to take with him into the ark. And then death befell everyone: both people and animals that were on earth - only those who took refuge in the ark survived. The three sons of Noah were: Shem, Ham and Japheth, from whom the (human) race multiplied again; for after the flood people received their beginning from them. 20. But one of them fell under a curse, and two inherited a blessing for their deeds. For the youngest of them - who was called Ham, since he laughed at his father and was thus doomed to ungodly sin for insulting and reproaching his father - received a curse and passed it on as an inheritance to all who descended from him. It so happened that the entire family after him was cursed and grew and multiplied in sin. His brothers, Shem and Japheth, received a blessing for respecting their father. The curse of Ham, with which his father, Noah, cursed, is as follows: “Cursed be the son of Ham; he will be a slave to his brothers” (Gen. 9:25). This (curse) passed on to his family - since he gave birth to many descendants on earth - growing for fourteen generations in a wild state, until finally his family, having fallen into judgment, was struck by God. For the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Amorites, and the Girgashites, and the Sidonians, and the Arabs (Arads?), and those who inhabit Phenicia, all the Egyptians and Libyans, come from the race of Ham; they fell under the curse, since the curse acted on those wicked people for a long time 23. 21. And just as the curse passed, likewise the blessing passed to the generation of the blessed one, in order to each one. Between these, Shem was first blessed in the following words: “Blessed is the Lord God of Shem, and Ham will be his servant” (Gen. 9:26). The power of the blessing is that God and the Lord of all became for Shem a special possession of worship, when the blessing increased and reached Abraham, who represents the tenth generation in the line of generations from the seed of Shem. Therefore, it pleased the Father and God of all to be called the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, for the blessing of Shem extended its effect to Abraham. The blessing of Japheth is as follows: “may God extend Japheth, and may he dwell in the house of Shem, and may Ham be his servant” (Gen. 9:27); and this should mean that at the end of time (salvation?) appeared to the elect of the Lord from the calling of the pagans, when God extended the calling to them. And further: “their speech spread throughout the whole Earth, and their words to the ends of the universe” (Ps. 18:5). “To spread” must be understood in reference to the calling of the Gentiles, that is, about the church, and “he dwells in the house of Shem” must mean that (he will dwell) in the inheritance of the fathers, receiving the birthright in Christ Jesus. Thus, in the order in which each person is blessed, in the same order he receives, according to his origin, the fruit of blessing. 22. After the flood, God established a covenant with the whole world, equally with all animals and people, that he would not destroy with the flood all the growth of the earth. And He gave them this sign: “When the air is covered with clouds, a rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember My covenant and will not again destroy with water every living creature on Earth” (Gen. 9:14, 15). And He changed the food of the people, commanding them to eat meat; for from the primordial Adam until the flood, people ate only seeds and fruits of trees, but meat food was not allowed to them. And since the three sons of Noah laid the foundation for humanity, God blessed them with reproduction and fertility, saying: “Grow, multiply, populate the earth and subdue it. Fear and trembling will come from you to all who live (on earth) and to all the birds of the air, and they will serve as food for you, like green grass. Only the flesh, which still has its life blood in it, you must not eat; I will avenge your own blood on every beast and every man. Whoever sheds human blood, his blood will be shed instead of this blood. For in the image of God He created man” (Gen. 9:1–6). But the image of God is the Son, in whose image man was made. Therefore, He also appeared in recent times to show the similarity of the human image with Himself. Based on this covenant, humanity multiplied, descending from the seed of three. And in the universe there were only one mouth, that is, one language. 23. But then they rose from the East and, while they were still walking through that country, they entered the extremely vast plain of Shinar, where they began to build a tower. For they were looking for a means by which they could ascend to heaven and at the same time leave their work as a monument for future humanity. The construction was carried out using bricks and asphalt, and the brave work of their audacity succeeded, since everyone was unanimous and of the same mind and in concert worked towards the goal. So that their matter would not spread further, God separated their languages, so that they could no longer understand each other. Thus they dispersed and took possession of the universe, each according to his own language: they settled in groups, tribe beside tribe. Therefore, there are many different nationalities and different languages ​​in the world. So, three generations of people occupied the Earth; and one of them was under a curse, and two were under a blessing; but the first blessing became the inheritance of Shem, whose descendants lived in the East and occupied the land of the Chaldeans. 24. And after certain times had come, that is, in the Tenth century after the flood, Abraham appears, who seeks what belonged to him from the blessing of his ancestor, and God, worthy for him (of worship). And when, by the inner attraction of his soul, he walked throughout the entire universe, asking where God was, and when he turned out to be weak and did not reach the goal, then God had mercy on him, only those who were secretly looking for Him, and appeared to Abraham, allowing him to call Himself through the word, as through a ray. For He spoke to him from Heaven and said: “Get out of your land, from your kindred and from your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you and settle there” (Gen. 12:1). And he, trusting in the heavenly voice, when he himself was already in mature years - since he was seventy years old and had a wife - went with her from Mesopotamia, taking with him Lot, the son of his deceased brother; and when he came to the land which is now called Judah and which was then inhabited by seven tribes, the descendants of Ham, then God appeared to him in a vision and said: “I will give this land to you and to your descendants after you for an everlasting inheritance” (Gen. 12:7). (After this, his descendants remained in a land that did not belong to them as strangers and were exposed to disasters there, suffering sorrow and enslavement for 400 years. And in the fourth century they returned to the country promised to Abraham; God condemned the people who forced his descendants into slavery) 24. And so that Abraham would know both the number and the glory of his descendants, God brought him out (from the tent) at night and said to him: “Look up to the sky and look at the stars in the sky, whether you can number them; such shall your descendants be” (Gen. 15:5). Since God saw the steadfastness and firmness of his spirit, He testified about him through the Holy Spirit, saying in Scripture: “And Abraham believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). But he was not circumcised when it was testified about him. And so that the excellence of his faith might be known by a sign, He gave him circumcision as a seal of faith for the uncircumcision of one who was uncircumcised. Then from Sarah, who was barren, according to the promise of God, he had a son Isaac, whom he circumcised as God commanded him. And from Isaac was born Jacob; and thus the original blessing of Shem came to Abraham, and from Abraham to Isaac, and from Isaac to Jacob; through this the inheritance of the Spirit was divided in them; for He is called the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And Jacob begot twelve sons, after whom the twelve tribes of Israel were named. 25. When famine spread throughout the world, it happened that only in Egypt there were means of food. Then Jacob and all his sons moved to Egypt. The number of all those evicted extended to seventy-five souls, and within 400 years, as the promise said in advance, there were six hundred and sixty thousand (?). But since they were greatly oppressed and tortured, and they sighed and wept before God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob brought them out of Egypt with the help of Moses and Aaron, after he had struck the Egyptians with ten plagues, and at the last plague sent a destructive angel to destroy their firstborn, from man to beast; from this He saved the sons of Israel, symbolically showing the suffering of Christ through the killing of the spotless lamb, whose blood was given as a protective sign for salvation by painting the houses of the Jews. And this sacrament is called Easter - the foundation of salvation. And dividing the Red Sea, He brought the children of Israel into the wilderness with all care, and the pursuing Egyptians, who followed them into the sea, were all completely destroyed. This is how God’s judgment befell those who unjustly tortured the descendants of Abraham. 26. In the desert, Moses received from God the law, the ten books written on stone tablets by the finger of God; the finger of God is that which extends from the Father to the Holy Spirit 25; likewise the commandments and justifications which He commanded the children of Israel to observe. And he, at the command of God, erected the tabernacle of revelation, a visible image on Earth of that which is spiritual and invisible in heaven, at the same time a representation of the image of the church and a prophecy about the future; likewise also the vessels and the sacrificial tables and the ark in which he placed the tablets. At the same time, he appointed Aaron and his sons as priests, giving the priesthood to their entire family; they were from the tribe of Levi. Also, by the command of God, he called the entire tribe to serve at the church of God, giving them the Levitical law as the norm for how and in what manner those who continuously have at their disposal service in the church of God should behave. 27. When they approached the land that God had promised to Abraham and his descendants, Moses chose one man from each tribe and sent information to their fellows about the land and the cities in it and the inhabitants of those cities. Then God revealed to him a name that alone could give life to those who believe in him; and Moses changed the name of Hoshea the son of Nun, one of the messengers, to Joshua. And thus, he sent them with the power of the name, in the belief that he would receive them back unharmed for the sake of the guidance of the given name. But when they, after their journey there, investigations and reconnaissance, returned, carrying grape bunches with them, some of those twelve sent brought all the people into painful fear, saying that there were large and fortified cities there, inhabited by earth-born giants, so that they were not able to take possession of the land. Then all the people wept, falling into doubt whether God was with them, who would give them strength and subjugate them all. And they (the scouts) also spoke badly about the land, as if it was not good, and that it was not worth going to danger for such land. But two of the twelve - Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh - tore their clothes because of the misfortune that had occurred and begged the people not to doubt and not to lose courage, for God had delivered everyone into their hands, (saying) that the land was also extremely good. But when the conviction did not work, and the people continued in the same unbelief, God turned away and changed their way so that they would wander, punishing them in the wilderness with many stripes. And how many days did those who surveyed the land go back and forth - this lasted forty days - counting a year for each day, He kept them in the wilderness forty years, and none of those who were mature in years and in mind, because of their unbelief, He considered worthy to enter the (promised) land, except two who testified in favor of the inheritance, that is, Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and also those who were still small and did not know how. distinguish right from left. Thus, the entire people of little faith died in the desert, receiving one after another a righteous reward for their lack of faith. The children who grew up within forty years made up for the number of deaths. 28. When they were forty years old, the people came close to the Jordan and pitched their camp against Jericho. Here Moses gathered the people and repeated everything once again, telling about the great deeds of God until that day, and brought those who grew up in the desert into obedience and order, so that they would fear God and keep His commandments; having renewed the legislation which he had annexed to that given before, he entrusted it to them. And this was called “Deuteronomy,” in which many promises are written both about our Lord Jesus Christ and about the people, and about the calling of the pagans and about the kingdom. 29. And when Moses finished his course of life, God said to him: go up to this mountain and die, for you will not bring My people into the land. And he died according to the word of God, and Joshua the son of Nun took his place. He divided the Jordan and brought the people into the land, and after he had defeated and destroyed the seven nations living in it, he gave the people Jerusalem, which is on this side, in which lived King David and his son Solomon, who built a church in honor of God in the likeness of the tabernacle that was made by Moses according to the model of heavenly and spiritual (things). 30. Prophets were sent here by God, who through the Holy Spirit guided the people on the path and returned their fathers to the almighty God; they appeared as the heralds of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, proclaiming that His flesh would come forth from the house of David, as a result of which after a long series of generations He would be in the flesh the son of David, who is the son of Abraham - but in the Spirit He is the Son of God (cf. Rom. 1:3 f.), since He was first of the Father, begotten before the creation of the world, and at the end of time appeared to the whole world in human form; through this the Word of God accomplished in Himself everything that is in heaven and on earth. 31. He united people with God and established peace and harmony between man and God; for it was not in our power to become partakers of incorruption in any other way if He had not come to us. For while incorruption was invisible and did not appear, it was not at all useful to us; now it has become visible, so that we may in all respects receive participation in incorruption. since all of us in the primordial creation of Adam, through his disobedience, were firmly tied to death, it was necessary that death should be destroyed by the obedience of the One who became man for us. But since death had dominion over the body, it was necessary that it should free man from its oppression, abolished through the body. The Word was made flesh, so that through the same body through which sin was established and dominated, it could be abolished and no longer be in us (cf. Rom. 8ff.). Therefore, the Lord took on this bodily image of the primordial one in order to enter into the struggle for the fathers and, through Adam, to gain victory over the one who defeated us in Adam. 32. Where does the primordial being come from? From the will and wisdom of God and from the virgin Earth. “For God,” says the Scripture, “before he created man, he had not yet sent rain, and there was no man on it to till the ground” (Gen. 1:5). From this earth, when it was still virgin, God took the dust and created man as the beginning of our humanity. For the secondary completion of this man, the Lord subjected Himself to the order of the same incarnation, being born of the Virgin in accordance with the will and wisdom of God, in order to show the similarity of His incarnation with the incarnation of Adam, and so that what was written at the beginning would be fulfilled: “man in the likeness and image of God” (Gen. 1:26). 33. And just as through the disobedient virgin man was struck and died, so here also through the Virgin, who obeyed the Word of God, he received life through the life newly created in man. For the Lord came to find again the lost sheep (cf. Matt. 18:12), and the lost was man. Therefore, there was no new creation, but He received the likeness of creation from She who was from the race of Adam. For a new perfection of Adam in Christ was necessary, so that what was mortal could be swallowed up into immortality (cf. 1 Cor. 15:53); in the same way in relation to Eve and Mary, so that the Virgin, interceding for the virgin, with virginal obedience would destroy and destroy virginal disobedience. 34. Likewise, the crime that was committed through the tree was destroyed by the obedience of the tree. When God heard (such a petition), the Son of Man was nailed to the tree, thereby abolishing the knowledge of evil, and introducing and allowing to be acquired the knowledge of good. And it is evil to disobey God, just as good is to obey God. Therefore, the Word speaks through the prophet Isaiah, when he predicts future torment - for they are called prophets because they tell the future - and so the Word speaks through him in the following way: “I do not resist or contradict; I gave My backbone for blows and My cheeks for blowing, and I did not hide My face from mocking and spitting” (Isaiah 50:6). By the obedience in which He was steadfast to death, hanging on the tree, He destroyed the ancient disobedience associated with the tree. For He Himself is the Word of Almighty God, Who has invisibly spread into us and in general throughout this whole world and extends its length and width and height and depth, for through the Word of God the strength of being of the entire Universe is maintained, and in it the Son of God is crucified, cross-shapedly imprinted on everything. For it was fitting for Him, after He had become visible, to open the communion of all with Him on the cross, in order to show His action in the visible through a visible image. For He is the One who brought into light the heights, and extended the depths that lie far under the earth, and extended the length from the East to the West, and passed through the North and the South, and called those scattered on all sides to the knowledge of the Father 26 . 35. He also fulfilled the promise that was to Abraham, which God promised him to make his descendants like the stars of heaven. For this was accomplished by Christ, being born of that Virgin who had her descent from Abraham. And thus, He made those who believed in Him to be lights in the world (cf. Phil. 2:15) and by the same faith, together with Abraham, justified the Gentiles, “For Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Gal. 3:6; Gen. 15:6). In the same way, we are justified by faith in God, for the righteous will live by faith (Gal. 3:11; Hab. 11:4). Thus, Abraham's promise was fulfilled not through the law, but through faith (cf. 5:13). For Abraham is justified by faith, but for the righteous there is no law (1 Tim. 1:9). In the same way, we are justified not by the law, but by faith, which is attested by the Law and the Prophets, and which the Word of God offers us. 36. He also fulfilled David's promise; for God promised him from the fruit of his womb to establish an eternal King, of whose rule there will be no end. This king is Christ - the Son of God, Who became the Son of Man, that is, descended from that Virgin who had Her descent from David. Therefore, the promise speaks of the fruit of the womb, which is a special product of the fruitfulness of a woman, but not from the fruit of the loins and not from the fruit of the womb, which is also a special type of birth; In this way, that special, different and own thing was revealed that is characteristic of the fruit of a virgin womb from the line of David. He rules over the house of David forever; His kingdom will have no end. 37. Thus, therefore, He gloriously accomplished our salvation and fulfilled the promises of the fathers and destroyed ancient disobedience. The Son of God became the son of David and the son of Abraham; for He fulfilled this and did it again in Himself to make it possible for us to receive life. The Word of God became flesh according to the definition regarding the Virgin, in order to destroy death and give life to man; for we were captivated by sin and were among those who were born in sins and live with death. 38. So, God the Father was full of mercy; He sent the creative Word, which, having come for our salvation, remained in the same place and in the same environment in which we lost our lives, breaking the bonds of those fetters. And His light appeared and dispelled the darkness of the prison, and sanctified our birth and abolished death, breaking the chains in which we sat captive. At the same time, He showed the resurrection, Himself becoming the firstborn from the dead, and in Himself resurrected fallen man, raising his mountain to the highest part of heaven at the right hand of the glory of the Father, just as God gave the promise through the prophet, saying: “I will restore the fallen tabernacle of David,” that is, from David the (originating) body. And our Lord Jesus Christ truly fulfilled this, gloriously working out our salvation to enable us to truly be raised to life in the Father. And if anyone does not want to acknowledge His birth from the Virgin, then how can he allow His resurrection from the dead. For it would not in any way be surprising or extraordinary or strange; for if the unborn had risen from the dead, then it would actually be impossible to talk about any resurrection of the unborn. For he who is unborn and immortal and who did not come by birth cannot fall into death. For if someone has not accepted the human beginning, how can he accept its end? 39. Therefore, if He was not born, then He did not die; if He did not die, then He did not rise from the dead, and if He did not rise from the dead, then He did not conquer death and its dominion would not be abolished; and if He had not conquered death, how could we, who had fallen into death from the beginning, rise to life? Therefore, those who take away salvation from people and do not believe in God - that He will raise them from the dead - also reject the birth of our Lord, which He took upon Himself for us when the Word of God became flesh, in order to show the resurrection of the flesh and to go ahead of everyone to Heaven. As the firstborn 27 Word of the Father's counsel, He accomplished everything when He Himself passed through the world and created order in it. For He was the firstborn of the Virgin, a righteous, holy man, reverent, good, perfect in everything - He saved from hell all who followed Him, He Himself was the firstborn from the dead - the head and leader of Divine life. 40. In this way the Word of God penetrates into everything to establish harmonious communication, since He is true man and a wonderful counselor and mighty God. Thus God called man again, so that through fellowship with Him we might have a share in incorruption. He who was foretold through Moses by the Law and the Prophets of the highest and omnipotent God, as the Son of the Father of all, and from whom all things come, who spoke to Moses - This one came to Judea, conceived of God through the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary: from She who was from the descendants of David and Abraham - Jesus the Anointed of God, showing Himself as foretold prophets. 41. His forerunner, John the Baptist, prepared the people in advance to receive the Word of life, proclaiming about Him that He is the Christ on whom the Spirit of God rests (cf. John 1:33), uniting with His body. His disciples and witnesses of all His good deeds and teachings and sufferings and death and resurrection and ascension after the bodily resurrection, are the apostles who, having received the power of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:8), were sent by Him into the whole world and called the pagans, showing people the way of life, converting them from idols and fornication and extortion, and cleansing their souls and bodies with the baptism of water and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, which they received from the Lord, they communicated and taught to the believers, and thus founded the church in every order. By faith and love and hope they fulfilled the calling of the pagans foretold by the prophets, in which participation was given to them by the grace of God, fulfilling it through their ministry, and those pagans who believed in the Lord and loved Him, receiving the promise of the fathers that it was the God of all, by virtue of the resurrection from the dead, instead of holiness and righteousness and patience, who would give eternal life, which He promised through Him who died and rose again: through Jesus Christ, To whom He gave kingdom and dominion over all things, living and dead, as well as Judgment; then (the apostles) also through the true word taught to keep the body blameless for the resurrection and the soul undefiled. 42. Thus, therefore, believers should behave, because the Holy Spirit constantly abides in them, which was given to them at baptism, and upon receipt is firmly preserved, which is why a faithful Christian walks in truth, holiness, righteousness and patience. For the soul will also take part in the resurrection, when the bodies of believers will again take on a certain form and together with it will be awakened by the power of the Holy Spirit and will be brought into the Kingdom of God. This is the fruit of the blessing of Japheth, which is found in the calling of the Gentiles through the church, and he is preparing to settle, according to God's promise, in the house of Shem. That all this should happen like this, the Spirit of God announced this in advance through the prophets, so that faith would be strong in those who serve God in truth. For what was impossible for our nature and therefore should have seemed incredible to people, God announced this in advance through the prophets, so that we - due to the fact that what was said before, that is, for many centuries, was then fulfilled as it was said before - we would understand that it was God who from the beginning told us about our salvation. 43. God must be believed in everything, for God is true in everything, also in that which concerns the existence of the Son of God; and He was not only before His appearance in the world, but also before the origin of the world, which Moses first prophesied; he says in Hebrew: “Barešit bara elohim bašan benuam šamentareš”, which translated into our language 28 means: The Son in the beginning - then God created Heaven and Earth (Gen. 1:1) 29. The prophet Jeremiah also testifies to this in the following way: “before the morning star I gave birth to you, and before the sun is your name” (Ps. 109 and 71 according to the LXX translation) 30. And this means before the creation of the world, because together with the world the stars also came into being. And again he says: “Blessed is He who was before the origin of man.” For for God the Son had a beginning before the foundation of the world, but for us - now that he appeared. Before this, He was not for us, since we did not know Him. Therefore, also, His disciple John, intending to tell us who the Son of God is, who before the origin of the world was with the Father, and that everything that happened received its existence through Him, says this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; It was in the beginning with God. All things came to pass through Him, and without Him nothing came to pass” (John 1:1–3). By this he firmly establishes that the Word, (who) in the beginning (was) with God (and) through whom all things came into being, is also His Son. 44. And again Moses says how the Son of God came to talk with Abraham: “Then God appeared to him by the oak grove of Mamre at noon, and when he looked, behold, three men stood before him, and he bowed to the ground and said: “Oh, Lord, if I have found favor with You”” (Gen. 18: 1-3), and everything that follows, he spoke with the Lord and the Lord spoke with him. Two of these three were angels, and one was the Son of God, with whom Abraham talked when he interceded for the Sodomites, so that they would not be destroyed if even only ten righteous people were found there. And while they were still speaking, the two angels went to Sodom, where they took Lot. And then the Scripture says: “And the Lord rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven” (Gen. 19:24). The Son who spoke with Abraham was the Son; Since He was the Lord, He received the power to punish the Sodomites from the Lord of Heaven, from the Father who rules over everything. Thus, Abraham was a prophet and saw the future, which was to happen in a human way, (saw) the Son of God, how He talked with people and ate with them and then had to execute the Father's judgment over them, how He received power to punish the Sodomites from Him who rules over all. 45. And when Jacob walked through Mesopotamia, he saw in a vision that He was standing at the top of a ladder, that is, on a tree that stretched to the very sky, for on it those who believe in Him ascend to heaven. For His sufferings are our ascension to grief. And all such visions point to the Son of God, how He talked with people and lived with them. For it was not the Father of all, Who could not be seen by the world, who spoke with Abraham, while in a small place, and not the Creator of all, Who says: “Heaven is My throne and Earth is My footstool; what house will you build for me and what place is my rest” (Isa. 66:1; Acts 7:49)? and Who embraces the earth with His handful and stretches out the heavens with His hand? - but the Word of God, Which was always with humanity and announced in advance the future that was about to happen and taught man the Divine. 46. He is the One who spoke to Moses in the thorn bush and said: “I have seen enough of the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and I came down to save them” (Exodus 3:7ff.). He is the One who ascended and descended for the salvation of the oppressed, leading us out of the dominion of the Egyptians, that is, from all idolatry and all ungodliness, saving us from the Red Sea, that is, freeing us from the deadly confusion of the pagans, from the bitter chagrin of their reproach. For the Word of God prepared in them our (concerning us) promises of salvation, then in an image, showing the future in advance, and now actually delivering us from the cruel service of the pagans; so in the desert He issued an abundant stream of water from a stone, and the stone is He Himself; He also gave twelve springs of water, that is, the teaching of the twelve apostles. He also killed the stubborn ones of little faith in the desert, but those who believed in Him and became children in malice (cf. 1 Cor. 14:20) He brought into the inheritance of the fathers, which is distributed as an inheritance not by Moses, but by Jesus, Who freed us from Amalek through the binding of His hands, and elevated us into the kingdom of the Father. 47. Thus the Father is Lord; and the Son is Lord; and the Father is God, and the Son is God, for whoever is born of God is God. And at the same time, according to His being and according to the power of His being, one must recognize one God, but according to the economy of our salvation, both the Son and the Father are completely just. For since the Father of all is invisible and unapproachable to those created, those who are predestined to approach God are drawn and captured to the Father by the Son. Even more obviously and clearly, David speaks of the Father and the Son in this way: “Thy throne, O God, is always and forever; You loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God has anointed you with the oil of gladness, like none of your fellows.” (Ps. 44:7–8). For the Son, since He is God, receives from the Father, that is, from God, the Throne of the eternal kingdom and the anointing, like none of His partners. The anointing is the Spirit with whom He is anointed, and His partners are the prophets, the righteous, the apostles and all who have a part in the fellowship of His kingdom - that is, His disciples. 48. And David says again: “The Lord says to my Lord, “Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Lord will send a rod of strength from Zion, and rule among your enemies. With you in the beginning, in the day of your power, with the shining of the saints, from the womb before the star, I gave birth to you. The Lord has sworn and will not repent: you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, and the Lord is at your right hand. In the day of wrath he destroyed kings; to bring judgment upon the nations, to fill the fallen, to crush the heads of many upon the earth; He will drink from the stream along the way, therefore he will lift up his head” (Ps. 109). By this he declared Him to be from the beginning, and that He would rule over the nations and judge all men and kings who now hate Him and persecute His name 31; these are therefore His enemies. And when he called Him the priest of God forever, he wanted to point out His immortality; and therefore he said: “He will drink from the stream along the way and therefore lift up his head.” By this he announced the glorious exaltation in Him of the human, the low and the inglorious. 49. And further, the prophet Isaiah says: “Thus says the Lord God to my anointed, the Lord, whose right hand I have taken, to subdue the nations to him” (Is. 45:1). But what does it mean that Christ the Son of God is at the same time called the king of the nations, that is, of all people, and that He is called - and is - both the Son of God and the king of all? David says about this: “The Lord said to me: You are My Son; Today I have given birth to you; ask Me, and I will give you the nations for an inheritance and the ends of the Earth for a possession” (Ps. 2:7–8). These words were not spoken about David - for he did not rule over the nations or over the whole Earth - but only over the Jews. Thus it is obvious that the promise to the anointed one to rule over the ends of the Earth refers to the Son of God, whom David himself confesses as his Lord, saying: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand” (Ps. 109:1), and what else follows, as we said before. For he believes that the Father speaks to the Son, as we pointed out a little earlier to Isaiah, who says this: “God speaks to my Lord, the Anointed One, to bring the nations under subjection to him” (45:1). This is the same promise through both prophets, that He is the king; therefore, the word of God refers to the same thing - I think, namely to Christ, the Son of God. For if David says: “God spoke to me,” then it must be said that neither David nor any of the prophets speak on their own behalf, since, after all, it is not a man who utters prophecies, but the Spirit of God; He takes on a form and image in the prophets, each time in the likeness of the person to whom he relates, and sometimes speaks like Christ, and sometimes he speaks like the Father. 50. So, in accordance with this, Christ Himself says through David that the Lord speaks with Him, and in a very fitting way He Himself speaks and other things about Himself through the prophets, among others also through Isaiah as follows: “And now, thus says the Lord, who formed me from my mother’s womb to be his servant, that I may gather Jacob and Israel to Him, and I will be glorified in the Lord, and my God will be my strength. And He said: It should be important to you that you are called My servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back the scattered ones of Israel. And I have made you a light for the nations, that you may be a source of salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:5–6). 51. Here, first of all, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the pre-existence of the Son of God follows from the fact that the Father talked with Him and, before He was born (on Earth), made Him known to people; then He was determined to be born among people and to appear as a man; and that God Himself produced Him from His mother’s womb, that is, that He must be born of the Spirit of God, and that He is the Lord of all people and the Redeemer of the Jews and others who believe in Him. For in the Hebrew language the Jewish people are called Israel, after their father Jacob, who was also previously called Israel; But (Scripture) calls all people pagans. The Son calls Himself a servant of the Father for the sake of His obedience to the Father; For among men every son is his father's servant. 52. That the Son of God, Christ, Who was before all the world, is with the Father and, being with the Father, at the same time is close and in contact with people and is the king of all - since the Father subjected everything to Him - and the Redeemer of those who believe in Him, the Scriptures tell about this. But since it is impossible to separately make each testimony of Scripture the subject of explanation, then you must, in accordance with this, also understand the other (testimonies) that speak similarly to these, believing in Christ and asking God for wisdom and understanding in order to comprehend what was said by the prophets. 53. And that this Christ, who was with the Father - since He is the Word of God - was determined to become flesh and man, and to take birth and be born of a Virgin and live among people, when the Father of all Himself brings about His incarnation - Isaiah speaks of this in this way: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a Virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and you will call Him Immanuel; He will eat butter and honey; before He is able to recognize and discern what is evil, He will choose what is good; for before the Child knows evil and good, He will reject the evil in order to choose the good” (Isa. 7:14–16). Thus he announced His birth from the Virgin; and that He would become a true man, He foretold this through His eating, also by calling Him a child, but also by the name given to Him - for this is precisely the error in relation to the begotten 32 - and He bears a double name: in the Hebrew language - Messiah Christ and in our language - Jesus the Anointed One. And these names are a designation of certain deeds performed by Him. It is He who is called Christ because the Father anointed and adorned everything through Him, and because He, at His Coming as a man, was anointed with the Spirit of God and His Father. As He Himself says about Himself through Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord rests on Me, for He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor” (Isaiah 61:1). And He was called the Redeemer because He became the cause of salvation for those who were then freed by Him from all sorts of illnesses and from death; for those who later believed in Him, He became the mediator of future and eternal salvation. 54. Therefore, He is the Redeemer. Immanuel in translation means: “God is with you,” or as the prophet’s saying, filled with promise, is similar to saying in another place: “God is with us” (Is. 7:10). This also corresponds to the explanation and revelation of the promised. For, “behold,” he says, “the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son,” and this one, although God, will be with us. And while he proclaims the future that God will be with us, he at the same time marvels at this. Also, about His birth, the same prophet speaks in another place: “Before suffering from childbirth, She gave birth; before the pain came, She gave birth to a son” (65:7); with this he announced His unexpected and unthinkable birth from the Virgin. Again the same prophet says: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and He is called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God” (Isa. 9:6). 55. And he calls Him a wonderful adviser - the closest image, the adviser of the Father, which indicates that the Father does everything with Him, as it is said in the first book of Moses, the inscription of which reads “Genesis”: “And God said: Let us create. a man in our image and like us” (Gen. 1:26). Thus, from this it is clear that the Father is speaking to the Son, and that, therefore, this (Son) is the wonderful adviser of the Father. However, He is also our advisor, when He offers us advice and gives instructions, that is, without forcing us, like God, although He is a mighty God, but He gives us instructions to eliminate ignorance and acquire knowledge and move away from error, come to the truth, and reject corruption and accept incorruption. 56. And again Isaiah says: “And they will desire to be burned with fire, for to us a child is born and to us a son is given, the government is upon His shoulder, and His name is: Executor of the great counsel. For I will bring peace to the princes, peace and health to them. Great is his dominion and his peace has no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom he will restore and strengthen it with righteous judgment from now on and forever” (9:5-6). 33 Thus these words show the Son of God at the same time both as a begotten and as an eternal King. The words: “they will desire to be burned with fire” refer to those who do not believe in Him and who did what they did in relation to Him; (in this sense) it is said that at the Judgment they will say: “how much better it would have been for us to have been burned with fire before the Son of God was born, instead of not believing in Him when He was born.” For for those who died before the appearance of Christ there is hope that at the judgment of the Risen One those who feared God and died in righteousness and carried the Spirit of God within themselves, like the patriarchs, prophets and pious ones, will receive salvation. For those who, after the appearance of Christ, did not believe in Him, punishment at the trial will be inevitable. And the words: “dominion on His shoulder,” understood allegorically, mean the cross on which His back was nailed. For that cross, which was and is a reproach for Him, as well as for His sake and for us, means His dominion, that is, the sign of His kingdom. And he was the executor of the great Council, that is, the Council of the Father, Whom He revealed. 57. And that He must be born, and how He must be born, and that He will be revealed as Christ, this is clear from the above, as it was previously announced through the prophets. But then it was also first announced in what country and among what people He was to be born. By the way, Moses in Genesis says this way: “The prince shall not fail from Judah, nor the leader from between his feet, until He to whom this is ordained comes, and he will be the hope of the nations; He washes his garments in wine and his garments in the blood of grapes” (49:10-11). Judah is the patriarch of the Jews, the son of Jacob, from whom they received their name. And they had neither a prince nor a leader until the coming of Christ. But from the time of His coming the strength of his bow weakened, and the land of the Jews was subject to the Romans, so that they no longer had their own princes or king. For He has come, for whom the kingdom in heaven is prepared, who also washed His garments in wine and His garments in the blood of grapes. His garment, as well as His vestment, are those who believe in Him, whom He purified, having redeemed us with His blood. His blood is called the blood of the grapes. For just as it is not man who makes the blood of the grapes, but God who creates it and brings joy to those who drink it, so His incarnation and His blood are produced not by man, but by God. The Lord Himself gave a sign to the Virgin: that is, Immanuel, who (must be born) of the Virgin, who also brings joy to those who drink Him, that is, those who receive His Spirit into eternal joy. Therefore, He is also the hope of the nations, that is, those who hope in Him, for we hope that He will restore the kingdom. 58. And again Moses says: “A star will rise from Jacob, and a leader will arise from Israel” (Num. 24:17). By this he clearly proclaims that His dispensation regarding the incarnation must take place among the Jews. And this one who came down from heaven, was born and took upon Himself such a dispensation, was from the family of Jacob and Judah. For a star appears in the sky, and a leader is like a king, for He is the king of all the saved. When He was born, the star appeared to the wise men who lived in the east, which is why they learned that Christ was born - and they came to Judea, led by the star, until the star in Bethlehem, where Christ was born, shining in the house in which the Baby lay, wrapped in swaddling clothes, stood over His head and showed the wise men the Son of God, Christ (cf. Matthew 2:1-9). 59. And to this Isaiah also speaks in this way: “And a branch will come from the root of Jesse, and a flower will come from his root. And the Spirit of God will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and piety. The spirit of the fear of God will fill him. He will not judge on the basis of opinions and will not reprove on the basis of words, but will give just judgment to the humble and have mercy on the sufferers of the Earth. And with the word of his mouth he will smite the earth, and with the spirit of his mouth he will kill the wicked. And righteousness will be the girdle of His loins, and truth will be the girdle of His thighs. And the wolf will eat (grass) with the lamb, and the panther will eat with the kid, and the ox and the lion will graze together. And the child will lay his hand on the holes of the asps and on the nest of the offspring of the asp, and they will not harm him in any way. And in that day the offspring of the root of Jesse and the one who rises up will rule over the nations - the nations will trust in Him; and his rising 34 will be glorious” (11:1–10). By these (words) he designates Him as born of those who descend from David and Abraham. For Jesse was a descendant of Abraham and the father of David. Belonging to his offspring, the Virgin, who became the mother of Christ, is the (above-mentioned) offspring (rod). Therefore, Moses also shows miraculous signs to Pharaoh with his rod. Also in other cases among people, the rod is a sign of dominance. And he calls His body color, for He grew from the Spirit, as we said before. 60. With the words: “He will not judge on the basis of opinions and will not reprove on the basis of words, but will give just judgment to the humble and will have mercy on the sufferers of the earth,” he more indicates His divinity. For to pass judgment without partiality, without showing honor to the noble, but rather to render due and equal to the humble, is in accordance with the highest righteousness of God. For God did not suffer (influence) from anyone and did not have (false) compassion, and is merciful only to the righteous. Mercy, on the other hand, is characteristic of God in a very special way - precisely that God, Who by grace can save and Who strikes the Earth with a word and kills the atheists with one word; all this belongs to God, who does everything with the word. And the words: “and righteousness will be the girdle of his loins and the girdle of his thighs” show, on the one hand, the appearance of His human image, and on the other hand, His own strict righteousness. 61. As for unity, harmony and peace between heterogeneous and by nature opposite and hostile animals, the elders say that this will really happen at the second coming of Christ, when He will rule over all; For by this he points in a symbolic image to the gathering in peace and harmony, in the name of Christ, of like-minded people of various dissimilar origins. In this connection, the righteous are compared with oxen, with lambs, with goats and with children, when no harm is done to them by those who previously behaved in their violence like wild animals, both men and women, so that some of them became like wolves and lions, because they robbed the weak and waged war with their own kind, and women became like panthers and vipers, who with their deadly poison or their with greed they were capable of killing even those dear to them 35. (All such), having come together in My name (that is, Christ), by the grace of God they will receive right morals, changing their wild and indomitable nature. This has happened now; for those who were previously evildoers - so that they could not miss a single criminal deed - after they learned to know Christ and believed in Him, became completely believers and changed, so that they did not deviate from the strictest morality. Such a great change is produced by faith in Christ, the Son of God, in those who believe in Him. And if he says: “He rises to rule over the nations,” then this means that He must die and rise again in order for them to confess and believe in Him as the Son of God, as the King. Therefore he also says: “and His rising will be glorious,” because He was glorified as God when He rose again. 62. Therefore, the prophet again says: “In that day I will restore the fallen tabernacle of David” (Amos 9:11). By this he clearly designates - as we previously indicated (chapter 38) - the flesh of Christ born of David, which after death rose from the dead. For the flesh is called a tabernacle. For just as the descent of Christ in the flesh from David - of whom (the same Scripture) says that He will be the Son of God - so also that He will die and rise again, and that He is in appearance a man, but in power God, and thus will appear as the Judge of the whole world, and that He alone creates righteousness and is the Savior - all this Scripture proclaims with these words. 63. And again the prophet Micah indicates the place where Christ should be born, that is, Bethlehem of Judea, saying: “And you, Bethlehem of Judea, are not small among the leaders of Judah; for from you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel” (Matthew 2:6; Micah 5:2). Bethlehem is the region of David, so He is a descendant of David not only for the sake of the Virgin who gave birth to Him, but also because He was born in Bethlehem, the region of David. 64. And again, about the fact that Christ must be born from his offspring, David speaks as follows: “For the sake of My servant, do not turn away Your anointed. The Lord swore to David a true oath, which He will not repudiate: I will set the fruit of your body on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies which I have made with them, then their sons also will forever (sit on your throne)” Ps. 131:10–12. But none of the sons of David ruled forever, nor did his kingdom last forever, for it was destroyed, but only the king born of David, that is, Christ (rules forever). All these testimonies refer to His origin in the flesh and also indicate in clear speech His race and the place where He was to be born, so that there was no need to look for the Son of God for those born among the pagans or anywhere else, but in Bethlehem of Judea from the line of Abraham and David. 65. Also pointing to His entrance into Jerusalem, which was the main city of Judah, where the royal throne and the church of God were located, the prophet Isaiah says: “Say to the daughter of Zion: Behold, your king is coming to you, meek, sitting on the foal of a donkey, the son of a donkey” (Is. 62:11; Zech. 9:9). For He came to Jerusalem sitting on a donkey's foal, when the crowd laid their clothes (on the lots) and set Him on it. By the daughter of Zion we mean Jerusalem. 66. Thus, the Prophets announced that the Son of God was to be born, and how and where it was determined for Him to be born, and that Christ is the one eternal King. In the same way they predicted how He, coming from men, would heal those whom He healed and raise the dead whom He raised, and how He would be hated and mocked and suffer and be killed and crucified, just as He (indeed) was hated, mocked and killed. 67. Now we will talk about His healings. Isaiah says this about this: “He bore our infirmities and laid our sorrows on Himself” (53:4), that is, He will bear them and take them upon Himself. For there are places where the Spirit of God communicates through the prophets what is about to happen as if it were accomplished; for what is weighed and predetermined by God to definitely happen is considered as having already happened. And the Spirit, contemplating in advance and foreseeing the time when the prophecy should be fulfilled, (according to this) makes His sayings. And to indicate the image of healing, he says the following: “in that day the deaf will hear written words and the eyes of the blind will see in darkness and in darkness” (Isa. 29:18); and again he says: “Be strong, weak hands and trembling and stumbling knees; take comfort, you timid and faint-hearted ones; be strong, do not be afraid; Behold our God - He will reward with judgment; He Himself will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will hear; then the lame will jump up like a deer, and the tongue of those who stutter will be free (clear).” About the dead that they will rise, he says this way: “the dead will rise, and those who are in the graves will rise” (26:19). When He does this, one must believe in Him as the Son of God. 68. About the fact that He will be mocked and tormented and, finally, even killed, Isaiah says this: “Truly My Son is recognized, exalted and exalted. How many were amazed at You - so inglorious is His face among people - so many nations will be amazed and kings will stop their mouths; for those who were not told about Him will see Him, and those who have not heard will understand. Lord, who believed what was announced to us, and the arm of the Lord - to whom was it revealed? He proclaimed that he was a child before Him, like an offspring from a root in dry ground; He had no form, no glory, no beauty, and we saw Him; but His appearance is despised and belittled more than other people; a man with wounds and accustomed to endure suffering, for His face is turned away; He was despised and thought of as nothing. And He bears our sins and endures illness for our sake; and we thought that He was in sickness, in ulcers and in suffering (from God), while He was wounded for our sins and tormented for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we were healed” (52:13–53:5). With these words, therefore, it is announced that He suffered, just as David says: “I also suffered” (Ps. 37:7). David never suffered, but Christ did when the command was given to crucify Him on the cross. And again His word speaks through Isaiah: “I gave My backbone to be struck and My cheeks to be buffeted, and I did not turn My face from mocking and spitting” (Is. 50:6). The prophet Jeremiah says the same thing in the following words: “he offers the cheeks to him who beats him, he is fed up with reproach” (Lamentations Jeremiah 3:30). Christ endured all this. 69. Further in Isaiah it follows: “By His stripes we were healed; We have all gone astray like sheep, each one has turned to his own way, but the Lord has laid our sins on him” (Isaiah 53:5–6). So, it is clear that this happened to Him according to the will of the Father for the sake of our salvation. Then he speaks about His suffering: “He does not open his mouth, like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, like a dumb lamb before the shearers” (53:7). Look, this is how he announces his voluntary march to death. The word of the prophet: “in His humility His judgment was taken away (from Him)” - Isa. 53 – indicates His humble appearance. The taking away of judgment was accomplished in accordance with His dishonor. Taking away judgment serves as salvation for some, but brings deadly torment for others. For it was brought by some, and taken away from others. So is the court; those to whom it is brought have it for their deadly torment; those from whom he was taken away are saved through this. Thus, those who crucified Him brought judgment upon themselves, and when they did this to Him, they did not believe in Him, that through the judgment they brought upon themselves they would perish in torment. But judgment has been taken away from those who believe in Him, and they are no longer subject to it. And the judgment that will kill those of little faith with fire will take place at the end of this world. 70. Then he says: “Who will explain his generation?” (Isa. 53:8). So that we, for the sake of His enemies and for the sake of the suffering He endured, do not despise Him as an inglorious and unimportant person, this is said for our edification. For He who endured all this has an innumerable generation, since by generation he means His origin, that is, His Father, Who is innumerable and ineffable. Understand, then, that a being of such origin endured such suffering, and do not revile Him for the suffering He endured with the intention of your sake, but fear before Him for the sake of His origin. 71. And in another place Jeremiah says: “The spirit of our face is the Lord Christ, and how He was caught in their net, about whom we thought: in his shadow we will live among the nations (Lam. 4:20) 36. And that Christ, being the Spirit of God, will become a man subject to suffering, Scripture indicates this; and it seems to be amazed and amazed at His suffering, for this is how He must endure suffering, under whose shadow we thought to live; and by shadow he means His body, For as the shadow comes from the body, so the body of Christ comes from His Spirit. But by the word “shadow” he at the same time designates the plainness and easy accessibility of His body for humiliation. For just as the shadow of even upright bodies lies on the ground and is trampled underfoot, so the body of Christ, thrown to the ground by suffering, is, as it were, trampled underfoot. And he called the body of Christ a shadow in the sense that the Spirit overshadowed and covered Him with glory. Thus, also very often, during the passage of the Lord, those who fell into various illnesses were placed on the path, and those to whom His shadow reached were healed. 72. And again the same prophet about the suffering of Christ (speaks) like this: “how a righteous man dies, and no one takes it to heart, and the righteous are raptured (from the Earth), and no one will think that the righteous are raptured from evil. In peace He goes to His grave; declares how He died for our Redemption; for in the world it means Redemption. For those who were enemies and adversaries, as a result of His death, believing in Him, maintain mutual peace, since through universal faith in Him they truly became friends and beloved. If he says: “He was taken out of the midst,” then by this he means His resurrection from the dead. For after His burial He no longer appeared as a dead man, since, dying and rising, He must remain immortal, (about which) the prophet says this: “he asked You for life and You gave him long life for ever and ever” (Ps. 20:5). But why does he say: “he asked for life” when, after all, He had to die? By this he proclaims precisely His resurrection from the dead, and that He, having been raised from the dead, is immortal. For He received life precisely for this purpose; to be resurrected, and long life forever and ever, to be incorruptible. 73. And again David speaks about the death and resurrection of Christ like this: “I lay down, fell asleep, and arose, for the Lord protected me” (Ps. 3:6). David did not say this about himself, since he did not rebel after he died; but this is the Spirit of Christ, who through other prophets, and in the present case through David, speaks of Him: “I lay down, fell asleep, and arose, for the Lord protected me.” By sleep he means death, for He was resurrected. 74. And again, about the suffering of Christ, David says this: “Why are the nations in turmoil and the tribes plotting in vain. The kings of the earth rise up and the princes take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed” (Ps. 2:1-2). For Herod, the king of the Jews, and Pontius Pilate, procurator of the Emperor Claudius 37, came together and condemned Him to crucifixion (cf. Luke 23ff.). For Herod was afraid that He would be an earthly king, by whom he might be deposed from his kingdom. Pilate was forced by Herod and the Jews around him to betray Him to death against his will, when he preferred to do this rather than act against the Emperor by saving a man who bore the name “king.” 75. And the same prophet also speaks about the sufferings of Christ: “You rejected and despised us, you were angry with Your anointed; You have ruined the covenant of my servant; Thou hast cast down his shrine to the ground; You have destroyed its walls and made its fortresses tremble. He is plundered by all who pass by, and he has become a laughing stock to his neighbors. You have exalted the right hand of his oppressors; You allowed his enemies to rejoice over him. You turned back the help of his sword and did not strengthen him in battle. You put an end to his purity and threw his throne to the ground. You have shortened the days of his time and covered him with shame” (Ps. 89:39–46). And that He endured all this and that this had to happen according to the will of the Father, He declared this openly; for He had to, in accordance with the will of the Father, endure suffering. 76. And Zechariah says this: “sword, rise up against my shepherd and against my husband, my partner; Smite the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7). And this happened when He was captured by the Jews; for all the disciples left Him out of fear, lest they die. For they did not yet firmly believe in Him until they saw Him risen from the dead. 77. Again He says in the book of the twelve prophets: “and they bound him and brought him as a gift to the king 38.” For Pontius Pilate was the governor of Judea and then harbored enmity towards Herod, the king of the Jews. But then, when Christ, bound, was brought to him, Pilate sent him to Herod, leaving him to interrogate Him in order to find out exactly what he wanted in relation to him, using Christ as a pretext to make peace with the king (cf. Luke XXIII, 7 f.). 78. And in (the book of) Jeremiah He announces His death and His descent into hell as follows: “And the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, remembered His dead who had fallen first on the earth, and came down to them to proclaim to them His salvation, to save them” 39 . Here He explains the reasons for His death, for His descent into hell was for the salvation of the dead. 79. And again about His cross Isaiah says this: “All day long I stretched out My hands to a foolish and rebellious people” (Is. LXV, 2). For this is the sign of the cross. And David says even more clearly: “Dogs have surrounded me, a crowd of evil ones has surrounded me; they pierced my hands and feet” (Ps. 21:17). And again he says: “My heart melted like wax in my insides and my bones crumbled” (Ps. 21:15). And again he says: “Deliver me from the sword and nail my flesh, 40 for the host of the wicked has come against me” (Ps. 21:21, 17). In these words he clearly refers to His crucifixion. Likewise, Moses also speaks to the people in the following way: “And your life will hang before your eyes, and you will tremble day and night, and you will not be confident in your life” (Deut. 28:66). 80. Again David says: “They looked at Me, they divided My garments among themselves and cast lots for My clothing” (Ps. 21:19). For at His crucifixion the soldiers divided His garments, as was their custom, and tore His clothes and thus divided Him. But regarding the tunic, since it was woven on top and not sewn, they cast lots so that the one on whom it would fall would receive it (cf. John 19ff.). 81. And again the prophet Jeremiah says: “And they took thirty pieces of silver, the price of the valued one, which they valued from the children of Israel, and gave them for the potter’s land, as the Lord commanded me” (Jeremiah 32 ff.; cf. Matt. 26:9–10). For Judas, who was one of the disciples of Christ, made a promise to the Jews and made an agreement with them when he saw that they wanted to kill Him, and since he was instructed by Him (cf. John 12ff., Matt. 26:8-16), he then took thirty pieces of silver, a local coin, and betrayed Christ to them, but then repented of what he had done, and returned the silver to the leaders of the Jews, and he hanged himself. They did not consider it proper to invest them in the treasury, because it was the price of blood, and with them they bought a field that belonged to a potter for the burial of strangers (Matthew 26ff., 27:3ff.). 82. And after He was crucified, when He asked for a drink, they gave Him vinegar with gall to drink (cf. Matt. 27:34), and this is exactly what David said: “And they gave Me gall for food, and in my thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink” (Ps. 68:22). 83. And that He, having risen from the dead, will ascend to Heaven, David says about this: “There are thousands of chariots of God, thousands of them driving them, among them the Lord, in Sinai, in the sanctuary. He ascended on high, took captivity captive; He accepted and bestowed gifts on people” (Ps. 67:18–19). By captives he means the destruction of the dominion of the indignant angels. He also indicates the place where He must ascend from Earth to Heaven. For he said: “The Lord has risen up from Zion.” For after His resurrection from the dead He gathered His disciples on the Mount of Olives opposite Jerusalem and confirmed to them the things pertaining to the Kingdom of Heaven; and here they saw how He ascended into Heaven and how the Heavens opened and received Him (cf. Diary 1:4-12). 84. David says the same thing again: “Lift up your gates, O princes; be lifted up, O everlasting gates, that the King of glory may enter in” (Ps. 23:7). For the eternal gates are Heaven. But since the Word came down in a way invisible to creation, they knew nothing about it. Now, the Word became flesh and apparently ascended into Heaven. And when the powers saw Him, the lower angels cried out to those who were in the firmament: “Lift up your gates; Be lifted up, O everlasting gates, that the King of glory may come in.” And when they were amazed and asked: “Who is this?”, then those who (before) saw Him, and now for the second time, testified: “The Lord is mighty and mighty, He is the King of glory” (Ps. 23:8-10). 85. Thus, having risen and ascended, He remains at the right hand of the Father until, at the time set by the Father, all enemies are subdued to Him. The enemies are all those who rebelled - angels and archangels and powers and thrones who rejected the truth. And the prophet David speaks about this in this way: “Thus says the Lord to my Lord: She is seated at My right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” (Ps. 104:1). And that He ascended to where He descended, David says about this: “His departure from the end of heaven and His return to the (other) end of heaven” (Ps. 18:7). Then he points to His Judgment with these words: “and nothing remains hidden from His heat” (Ps. 18:7). 86. If the prophets predicted about the Son of God - that He would appear on Earth, they also announced where exactly on Earth, and how, and in what form He would appear; and the Lord took upon Himself all these prophecies - then our faith in Him is firmly founded and the tradition of preaching is true, that is, the testimony of the Apostles who were sent throughout the world to preach the Son of God: how He, having come to suffer, suffered for the abolition of death and for the revitalization of the flesh, so that we would put aside enmity against God, which is criminal, and come to peace with Him, doing what is pleasing to God before Him. And this was announced by the prophets: “How blessed are the feet of those who bring good news of peace and good news” (Is. 52:7). And that they must go out from Judea and from Jerusalem, to proclaim to us the word of God, which is also the Law for us, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isa. 2:3). And that they will preach throughout the whole world, David says about this: “their broadcast goes throughout the whole Earth and their words to the ends of the Universe” (Ps. 18:5). 87. And that people will not live in the verbosity of the law, but in the brevity (simplicity) of faith and love, Isaiah speaks about this like this: “A short and precise word in righteousness; for God will give a short word to all the earth” (Isa. 10:22–23). And therefore the Apostle Paul says: “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10); for whoever loves God has fulfilled the law. And the Lord, when they asked Him what the main commandment was, answered: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy strength, and with all thy soul; and the second is like it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. All the law and the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Mark 12ff., Matt. 22ff.). Through faith in Him, He develops our love for God and neighbor, as a result of which we become pious and righteous and good; and therefore (it is said): “He performed a short word on Earth, in the Universe.” 88. And that after His Ascension He will be exalted above everyone, and that no one can compare with Him, Isaiah says about this: “Who is he who is judged? Let him begin! And who is justified? Let him come closer to the Son of God! Woe to you, for you will all wear out like clothing, and moths will eat you, and all flesh will humble itself, and the Lord alone will be exalted among all the exalted” (Isaiah 2:17; 50:8). And that in the end those who serve God will be saved by His name, Isaiah says about this: “and those who serve Me will be given a new name, which is blessed on Earth; and they will glorify the true God” (Is. 65ff.). And that He Himself will perform this blessing and will Himself save us with His blood, Isaiah announced this in the following words: “not an intercessor, not an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them; out of His love and condescension for them, He redeemed them” (Is. 63:9). 89. That He does not want to return the redeemed to the legislation of Moses - for the law is fulfilled by Christ - but that they must live by faith and love Ed. > from the Son of God, according to the new essence of this word, Isaiah proclaims this as follows: “Do not remember the former things and do not think about what once happened. Truly I am doing something new that is already happening, and you will recognize it. And I will make rivers in the wilderness and in the dry desert to give water to My chosen people, the people that I have purchased for Myself, that they may proclaim My glory” (Isaiah 43:19–21). The desert and the steppe were formerly the calling of the pagans, for neither the Word passed through it nor was it watered by the Holy Spirit, who paved a new path of piety and righteousness and issued abundant streams, that is, spread the Holy Spirit on the Earth, as He promised through the prophets in the last days to pour out the Spirit on the whole Earth. 90. Thus, our calling is through the renewal of the spirit and not in our old (being) 41 , as Jeremiah prophesied: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt; for they did not remain steadfast in the covenant, and I neglected them, says the Lord. “But the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in those days will be this: I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” And I will be their God, and they will be My people. Henceforth they will not teach each other or brother to brother: Know the Lord, for everyone will know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will forgive their iniquity and will remember their sins no more” (Jer. 31:31–34). 91. And that these promises should be inherited through the calling and by the Gentiles, among whom the new covenant was revealed, Isaiah speaks of this in this way: “Thus says the God of Israel: On that day man will turn his gaze to the Creator, and his eyes will be fixed on the Holy One of Israel; and they will not look upon the church of idols, nor upon the work of their hands which their fingers have made” (Isa. 17:7-8). These words are obviously spoken about those who left idols and through the Holy One of Israel believed in God, our Master. And the Holy One of Israel is Christ, and to Him, who has become visible to people, and not to idolatrous churches and not to the work of our hands, we turn our gaze. 92. And that He will become visible among us - since the Son of God became the Son of Man - and will be known by us, who had no knowledge (of Him) before, the Word itself in Isaiah speaks of this: “I did not reveal myself to those who asked about Me, I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, “Here am I, to a people who have not called on my name” (Isa. 65:1). 93. And that this people will be holy, this is announced in the book of the twelve prophets: “And I will say not to My people: You are My people, and those who are not beloved will not be beloved. And in the place where they said about them, “You are not my people,” there they will be called sons of the living God” (Hos. 2:23; 1:10). The same was said by John the Baptist: “God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones” (Matthew 3:9). For after our hearts have been plucked out and freed from the service of stone, we behold God by faith and become children of Abraham, who is justified by faith. And therefore God says through the prophet Ezekiel: “And I will give them another heart and put a new spirit within them; And I will pluck out of their flesh the heart of stone, and remove it, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My commandments, and keep My justifications, and do them. And thus they will be My people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 11:19–20). 94. This is how the change of heart among the nations was accomplished by a new calling through the Word of God, when He became flesh and dwelt among people, as His disciple John also says: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). That is why the church is so fruitful in the saved. For neither Moses nor the prophet Elijah are any longer intercessors, but the Lord Himself saved us, giving us many children to the church, the assembly of the firstborn, as Isaiah announced in these words: “The barren one, who does not give birth, rejoices!” The barren church is one that never in former times allowed the children of God to be revealed. “Shout and cry, you who are not in labor, because she who is forsaken has more sons than she who has a husband” (Isaiah 54:1). The first assembly (that is, the church) had the law as its husband. 95. Also, Moses says in Deuteronomy that the pagans will be first, and the disobedient people last, and again he says: “You have provoked Me to anger without God, and have grieved Me with your vain idols; and I will provoke you to anger with a nation that is not wise; I will provoke you to grief with a foolish people” (Deut. 32:21). 42 For they forsook the God that is, and served gods that are not, and slew the prophets of God, and prophesied unto Baal, which was the idol of the Canaanites. They also despised the Son of God who exists, they chose the thief Barabbas, who was captured in murder (cf. Mark 15:7); they renounced the eternal King and confessed the temporary Caesar as their king (John 19:15). Thus, God was pleased to give His inheritance to the foolish pagans and those who did not walk in the ways of God and did not know that there is a God. After life has been given to us by this calling, and after God has brought Abraham's faith in Him again to perfection in us, I think we should no longer return to the first legislation. For we have received the Lord of the Law, the Son of God. And through faith in Him we learn to love God with all our hearts, and our neighbors as ourselves. Love for God is far from any sin, and love for one’s neighbor does not cause harm to one’s neighbor (cf. Rom. 13:10). 96. Therefore, we have no need of any law as an educator; behold, we speak with the Father and stand before Him face to face, having become children in wickedness and strengthened in righteousness and propriety 43 . For the law will no longer say: “Thou shalt not commit adultery” to one who never again comes to the thought of lustful desires in relation to another man’s wife; and the law will no longer say: “Thou shalt not kill” to the one who has removed from himself all anger and all enmity; He will not say: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his ox, nor his donkey,” to those who do not care at all about earthly things, but gather heavenly fruits; and he will not say: “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (Ex. 21:24) to one who does not consider anyone his enemy, but everyone his neighbors; therefore he can never stretch out his hands for vengeance. You cannot demand tithes from someone who brings all his property to God and leaves his father, mother and all his relatives, and follows the Word of God. And it is not commanded to spend the day in peace and leisure for those who keep the Sabbath every day, that is, in the church of God, which is the body of man, perform worthy service to God and do righteousness every hour. For I “want mercy, and not sacrifice,” He says, “and knowledge of God, and not burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). “If the wicked kill an ox for Me, it is the same as if he killed a dog; and he who sacrifices bread is the same as he who offers swine’s blood” (Isa. 66:3). But everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Joel 2:32; cf. Rom. 10:13). “Neither is there any other name of the Lord under heaven by which men will be saved” (Acts 4:12), except the name of God, that is, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to whom also demons and evil spirits and all rebellious forces are subject. 97. When the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, was called upon, division occurred in humanity. And where those who believe in Him will always call on Him and do His will, there He is close and present and fulfills the requests of those who call on Him from a pure heart. Having thus received redemption, let us constantly thank God, who saves us with His unsearchable and incomprehensible wisdom and from Heaven proclaiming to us salvation - that is, the visible Coming of our Lord, that is, human life - which we alone could not achieve. For what is impossible with people is possible with God (Luke 18:27). Therefore also Jeremiah says about Him: “Who ascended into Heaven and took it (wisdom) and brought it down from the clouds? Who crossed the sea, found her and brought her, more precious than gold? There is no one who would find the way to her and who would know the paths to her. But He who knows everything and knows it with His mind; He who created the Earth for eternity and filled it with four-legged cattle; Who sends light and if He calls him again, he must obey Him. The stars shone in their order with joy, and when He calls them, they answer: Here we are, and they shone with joy for the sake of Him who created them. This is our God, no one can compare with Him. He found all the ways of wisdom and gave it to His servant Jacob and His beloved Israel. After that He appeared on Earth and spoke among people. This is the Book of Commandments and the law that is everlasting. All who hold on to it will live, and those who leave it will die” (Bar. 3:29–4:1). But he calls Jacob and Israel the Son of God, who received from the Father dominion over our lives; and after He received it, He brought it to us, far from Him, when He appeared on Earth and spoke among people. Thus, He mixes and unites the Spirit of God the Father with God's creation, so that man may be in the image and likeness of God. 98. This is the precious preaching of the truth, and this is the image of our salvation, and this is the way of life that the prophets predicted and Christ fulfilled and the apostles passed on, and the church entrusted to His children throughout the world. It (that is, the truth) must be preserved in its entirety with a strong will and in a godly manner, with good deeds and a sound direction of thought. 99. We must not imagine God the Father to be different from our Creator; They despise the existing God and make the non-existent as their deity. They create for themselves a Father far superior to our Creator, they think that in this way they have found something greater than the truth. All such are wicked and blaspheme their Creator and Father, as we showed in the refutation and exposure of the falsely called gnosis. Others do not attach any importance to the descent of the Son of God and the economy of His Incarnation, which the apostles announced and the prophets predicted, that through this the perfection of our human nature should be realized, as we have shown you in a few provisions. And such should be counted among those of little faith. Others again do not accept the gifts of the Spirit and reject prophetic gifts, through the perception of which a person makes his life fruitful in God 44 . These are the ones Isaiah pointed out: “For they will be,” he says, “like an oak whose leaf has fallen, and like a garden where there is no water” (1:30). Such people are completely unfit for God, because they cannot bear any fruit. 100. Such are the false teachings regarding the three provisions of our seal (Confession of Faith at Baptism, cf. Chapter 7), which deviate far from the truth. For they (false teachers) either blaspheme the Father or reject the Son, since they teach against the economy of His Incarnation, or they do not receive the Spirit, that is, they blaspheme the prophecies. We must beware of all such people and avoid their morals if we really want to be pleasing to God and receive salvation from Him. The newly discovered work of Saint Irenaeus has not yet caused and, undoubtedly, will not cause such a scientific movement as was accompanied by the publication of many finds of recent times: it did not fully justify either the regrets that were expressed about its loss, or the hopes that were awakened in scientific circles at the first news of the discovery of this ancient treatise with such a promising title, on the basis of which it was natural to expect new valuable data for the history of dogmas. Several months have already passed since the publication of the text of the monument, but even to this day the press has responded almost only with brief messages, in which the usual elevated tone when assessing new documents is not noticeable; on the contrary, one senses a somewhat condescending attitude toward the unexpected discovery of a work by an outstanding church father when they say that its discovery is “in any case an event” 45 , that a discovery in the field of Second Century literature can only be interesting 46 , that the work is of much interest, and that in this find we draw hope that in the translations of the Eastern Churches we will again be presented with other works that were considered lost 47 . At the same time, they directly admit that the first reading of the book causes some feeling of disappointment 48 . The reason for such an impression of the newly discovered work and the resulting attitude towards it is that in its content it does not provide almost anything new in comparison with the data that was known from the anti-Gnostic work previously written by Irenaeus: it is necessary to carefully look for new thoughts and new messages in it 49 . At the beginning, Irenaeus says that he wants to expound to his friend “all the members of the body of truth,” but in reality he focuses his attention on the fundamental principles of faith and expounds the doctrine of the one highest God and His relationship to the world, the Trinity, the creation of the world and man, the fall, the history of revelation in the time of the patriarchs, the incarnation of the Son of God, made man, and His redemptive work, typified in the Old Testament and foretold by the prophets and realized in His person and in His church, about the general resurrection and, finally, about the judgment that will be for all people. In all these points, Irenaeus reveals the same basic thoughts that are clarified in polemical form in the Adversus haereses, especially in books 3–5: and here we find in the first place the affirmation of the identity of God the Father and Creator and a particularly persistent disclosure of the doctrine of the highest God and His creation of everything that happened, starting with the angels; the same teaching about the origin of man, his nature, the Fall and its causes; the same teaching about the Divine Word, the Son of God, and His relationship to the world, about His activity in the Old Testament, about the incarnation of the Son of God and the redemption of humanity completed by Him, which is understood in the sense of the restoration of the original state, the reunification of man with God, the restoration in him of the image and likeness of God; the same comparisons between the incarnate Word and Adam, the Virgin Mary and Eve, and so on 50 . There is nothing new or remarkable in the very method of revealing the subject: Irenaeus uses the same arguments and texts that were usually used at that time and which were already used by Irenaeus himself in the “Adversus haereses”, and the evidence is grouped around various questions in a form that cannot satisfy people accustomed to a strict order and methodical connection of thoughts: it is not uncommon for a question that, apparently, has already been revealed and exhausted, appears again after a few pages, from one and the same From the same text, various ideas are extracted through a unique interpretation. True, the textual apparatus in the newly discovered work does not have the same volume and variety as in “Adversus haereses”; but important texts are found in both works, explained in the same sense and used for the same purposes; some differences in interpretation are explained quite naturally by the difference in points of view and objectives of both works. To this it is also necessary to add the already noted dependence of Irenaeus on the “Book of Testimonies against the Jews,” which, apparently, to a certain extent determined the choice of texts and their combination, and even, perhaps, the very method of explanation. It is precisely this lack of originality both in the content and in the method of revealing the questions posed, as well as significant shortcomings in the presentation of the subject, that deprive the newly discovered work of lively fascination and strength and are the reason for the somewhat cold reception that it received in theological literature. But, on the other hand, these features of the work, which have so much reduced interest in it, find a sufficient explanation in its general character and purpose: while the "Adverses haereses" is a polemical, dogmatic and scientific treatise and addressed to a friend who obviously had a wide education and the ability to deeply understand sublime and complex questions, the newly discovered work, as has been said, is in a way a catechism, an edifying a book that requires very little effort from the reader to understand: it briefly and clearly sets forth the essential elements of faith, which every member of the Christian Church should know so firmly and clearly as to be able both to defend his confession from heretics, and to expound a sound and blameless word to those who have not yet known it. In view of the indicated relationship of the content of the newly discovered work of Irenaeus to the content of the already known “Adversus haereses”, we do not consider it necessary to add to the translation a detailed analysis of the dogmatic teaching contained in it 51; Let us only note the following: a) Irenaeus persistently points Marcian to the “rule of faith,” which must be observed intact (chapters 3–6), without adding or cutting anything (2); the truth set forth by them was conveyed by the apostles and the church entrusted to Her children, and it is clearly noted that for Irenaeus the source of this apostolic tradition was “the elders, the disciples of the Lord” (chapters 3 and 61). Thus, Irenaeus does not introduce any new teaching, revealing the faithful general church teaching in its integrity, and this teaching represents a very definite whole, a “rule of faith,” which serves as the norm of Christian confession and life. b) Particularly noteworthy is the clear presentation in the newly discovered work of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and the beginning of chapter 47: “The Father is Lord and the Son is Lord, and the Father is God, and the Son is God, for he who is born of God is God” - forces Adolf Harnack to recognize in it such a definite “Nicene” place, which is not in “Adversus haereses”. He decisively rejects the possible assumption of interpolation and draws attention to the fact that this teaching about the Father and the Son is justified only from the economy of salvation, which is pre-Nicene, pre-Origen, Irenaean 52. c) A very important section in the newly discovered work is represented by chapters 87–96, which contain an animated revelation of the teaching regarding the freedom of converted pagans from the Law of Moses. Individual thoughts in these chapters have parallels in the Adversushaereses, but in the latter they are nowhere presented in such a fully expressive combination. In the newly discovered work, Irenaeus decisively and even sharply emphasizes that the Lord “does not want to return the redeemed to the legislation of Moses, for the law is fulfilled by Christ” - but must live by faith and love (89): “after our hearts are plucked out and freed from the service of stone, we contemplate God by faith and become children of Abraham, who is justified by faith” (93). “We have received the Lord of the law, the Son of God, and through faith in Him we learn to love God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves” (chap. 95). “We have no need for any law as an educator: we say. with the Father and stand before Him face to face” (chap. 96). In the reasoning of this section, “the piety of Irenaeus, his deep experience regarding the simplest and most important things in religion, his assessment of the difference between the religions of Moses and Christ, his high reverence for love” 53 clearly appear. Yet the work convinces researchers that the main points of religious teaching revealed in “Adversus haereses” were for Irenaeus “not theology, but religion itself,” that he mastered his theology in a surprisingly solid form. With his whole being, mind and heart, he penetrated into the faith of the church, how devoted it was to him and how he understood it. He seeks to group its most important provisions and make them accessible to general understanding. But, justifying its content for believers with possible arguments, he reveals in his work the amazing tension of faith and religious life, preserving faith in its simplicity and strength, its practical tendency and warmth. He always remains in the area of ​​spiritual life, religious feeling and mood and moral activity, without even touching on questions about hierarchy, cult and sacraments. Readers received in Irenaeus’s work a truly “important written reminder” that gives a lot in a little (chap. 1); it was for them a precious manuale biblicum, a combination of texts expediently selected from the Old Testament sacred books, and in some respects could replace the reading of these books themselves for ordinary believers. Summarizing the impression received from the newly discovered work, Adolf Harnack says: “even we now read this entire book with respect, and its individual passages with amazement and inner excitement” 54. Thus, the interest of the newly discovered work of Irenaeus turned out to be not what was expected: without supplementing with new data the existing information about the theology of its author, this work is undoubtedly important for an accurate and comprehensive disclosure of the teachings of the famous father of the church, introducing some new touches into it, better clarifying its spirit and outlining the personality of Irenaeus himself from new sides. For all this, and without causing any scientific excitement by its publication, the "Proof of the Apostolic Preaching" should rightly take place next to the "Adversus haereses" as an essential addition to it. Krüger Gust., Prof., Die neue Funde auf dem Gebiete der ältesten Kirchengeschichte (Vortage der theologischen Konferenz zu Giessen. 14 Folge), Giessen 1898, S. 5–6. Ehrhard Alb., Prof., Die altchristliche Littteratur und ihre Erforschung von 1884–1900. Erste Abteilung: Die vornicänische Littteratur. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1900, pp. 31–32. Having undertaken a review of publications of ancient Christian writing only from the first three centuries and related studies that appeared from 1884 to 1900, in the preface to his work (written August 1, 1900), Ehrhard Alb. says that for this he had to read about 2,700 large and small works, treatises and articles (S. VII-VIII), and however, in another place he states that with the fragmentation of the material, which is caused by the currently enormous number of Zeitschriften, Berichten von Academien and the like, it is almost impossible for one person to review all the newly appearing literature (S. 31; cf. Bardenhewer O., Prof. Geschichte der altkirchliechen Litteratur. 1 Bd. Freiburg im Breisgau 1902, S. VII-VIII), among which there were many premature and low-value works that saw the light of day prematurely, why Gust. Krüger and was forced to turn to lovers of the history of ancient Christian writing with a request not to immediately print everything that was written, and to write as briefly as possible (Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Theologie Bd. 39 (1896), S. 169–174). A complete list of the works of Saint Irenaeus is given in Ad. Harnack'a in Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius. V. 1. 1, Leipzig 1893, S. 263–264. Wed. Th. Zahn in Realencyklopedie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 3 Aufl., V. IX, S. 401–406; Bardenhewer O., Geschichte der altkirchlichen Litteratur in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten, Freiburg im Breisgau 1898, S. 91–94. Wed: Prof. A. Spassky. History of dogmatic movements in the era of the Ecumenical Councils (in connection with the philosophical teachings of that time). Volume I. Sergiev Posad 1906, p. 18.31. Irenaeus himself expresses fear of distortion only from incorrect correspondence and implores the copyist to review the list and carefully correct it according to the original (in Eusebius, H. E. V, 20). Αλλὰ γὰρ πρὸς τοῖς ἀποδοθεῖσις Σἰρηναίου συγγράμμασιν καὶ ταῖς ἐπιστολαῖς-φερεταί τις αὐτοῦ πρὸςἆ Ελληναλ λογος συντομώτατος καὶ τὰ μάλλιστα ἀναγκαιότατος, περὶ ἐπιτήμης ἐπιγεγραμμένος, καὶ ἄλλος, ὃνἀνατέθεικεν ἀδελφῷ Μαρκιανῷ τοῦνομα, εἰς επίδειξιν τοῦ ἀποστολικσῦν κηρύγματος, καὶ βιβλίον τι διαλέ διαλέξρωνδιαφόρων, ἐν ᾦ τῆς πρὸς Ἑβραίους ἐπιστολῆς καὶ τῆς λεγομένης Σολομώνος Σοφίας μνημονρύει, ῤητά τινα ἐξ αὐτῶνπαραθέμενος καὶ τα μεν εἰς ῆμετέραν ἐλθόντα γνῶσις τῶν Εἰρηναίου τοσαῦτα. The Apostolic Fathers, Part. II, Vol. I, p. 455, Vol. III, p. 455, Vol. III, p. 398. March. Polyc, c. XX: ἡμεῖς δὲ κατὰτὸ παρόν ὡς ἐν κεφαλαίῳ μεμηνύκαριεν διὰ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ἡμῶν Μαρκιανοῦ. Cf. Prof J. Rendel Harris in The Expositor March 1907: Irenaeus on the Apostolical Preaching, p. 248. The proposed text represents the most accurate translation of the German translation (without checking in Armenian). If the task of any translation is to reproduce the thoughts of the original with all the nuances in their expression, then in this case it is necessary to take into account the fact that, with the loss of the original, the translator had before him a second or perhaps even a third translation (if the Armenian translation was made not from Greek, but from Syriac). Naturally, with each new translation, the features of the original language were gradually lost and smoothed out, and with them, probably, some of the subtleties of the original text also disappeared. Translators from Armenian, which undoubtedly retained many of the features of the original, tried, in their own words, to convey the meaning of the Armenian translation as accurately as possible literally, but during publication the style of the translation was corrected, of course, in accordance with the requirements of the German language, which made the structure of speech of the work even more distant from the original. In addition, it should be borne in mind that even for translators from Armenian, a correct understanding of the Armenian text in some places presented great difficulties. Under such conditions, it is difficult to determine with possible accuracy how this or that unclear passage was actually read in the original. Wed. Hermae Pastor. Mand. XI, 1. – “The shepherd showed me people sitting on a bench (ἐπὶ συμψελλίου), and one man sitting in a pulpit (ἐπὶ καθέδραν). And he says to me: Do you see those sitting on the bench? “I see, sir,” I say. “These,” he says, “are the faithful, but the one sitting in the pulpit is a false prophet, destroying the meaning of God’s servants.” Damit das Ewige und Beständige (in uns?) Gott werde und hoch über einem jedem der Gewordenen stehe. In uns with a question mark, enclosed in parentheses, is due to Adolf Harnack. In a note to this chapter he writes: “it is impossible to accurately understand the long concluding sentence of this chapter (the statement of the consequences of sonship). There is hardly any talk here of θεοποίησνς, but the absolute sovereignty of God is depicted. Naturally, one cannot think of pantheism in the same way. At the very end there is a polemical turn against the Gnostic and Marcionite teaching, according to which creation is alien to the highest God (S. 56–57). In our opinion, the insertion in uns is unnecessary: ​​the polemical direction against the Gnostic and Marcionite teachings is taken not at the very end of the chapter, but almost from the beginning, and in the sentence: damit das Ewige and so on it is completely clear; in this case, in uns is eliminated by itself, and there is no room for the assumption of either θεοποίησις or pantheism. Wed. Adv. haer. V, 2.1: “Those who say that God, as if greedy for someone else’s property, came into someone else’s (property) in order to present that person who was created by another to that God who did not create and did not create and who from the beginning was deprived of his own creation of people are also foolish.” Wed: III, 11, 2. Wed. Hermae Pastor, Mand. I: πρῶτον πάντων πίστευσον, ὅτι εἰς ἐστὶν ὁ τὰ πάντα κτίσας καὶ καταρτίσας, καὶποιήσας ἐκ τοῦ μή ὅντος εἰς τὸ εἶναι τὰ πάντα, καὶ πάντα χωρῶν, μόνος δε ἀχώρητος ὤν. . Irenaeus cites these words of Hermas, without naming the source, but in Adv. haer. IV, 20, 2 he cites the same place, introducing it with the following formula: καλῶς ο ὖ ν ε ἶ πεν ἡ γραφή. At this point he inserts "Father", as in Adv. Haer. I, 10, 1: ἡ πίστις εἰς ἔνα θεὸνπατέρα παντοκράτορα. Based on a comparison of the text of Irenaeus’s newly discovered work and the quoted words from “The Shepherd,” which Irenaeus undoubtedly used, Joh. Kunze makes an amendment to the German translation, rightly asserting that instead of the printed: er Alles trägt, allein untragbar ist, one should put: der Alles fasst, allein aber unfassbar ist (Theolog. Literaturblatt. 1907. No. 3, S. 29). The same is true in Chapter VI, where unfassbar should also be used instead of untragbar. Diese uns gemässe Welt = secundum nos mundus in Adv. haer. II, 2, 5 (cf. IV. 20, 1) and corresponds to the Greek ὁ καθἡμ ᾶ ς κόσμος. The text at this point is probably corrupted. Literally it is written: des Leibes Werk ist und die Wesenheit der Emanation verleiht. Adolf Harnack the expression: das Leibes Werk ist replaces Fleisch werden lässt, although he finds that even in this form the whole sentence cannot be considered correct; but he does not dare to say how it was in the original text. We have translated the literal expression of the Armenian text, without accepting the amendments of Adolf Harnack on the assumption that here the thought and expressions of Irenaeus are determined by analogy with the origin of the human word. Wed. Adv. haer. I, 21, 2: τὴν δὲ ἀπολύτρωσιν ῦπο Ἰ ησοῦ κεκομ ἱσθαι ε ί ς τελείωσιν. Wed. Eph. I, 10: “in order to unite all things heavenly and earthly under the head of Christ (ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάντα ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ). Adv. haer. I, 10, 1: ἐπὶ το ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάνται. V, 20, 2. In Adv. haer. I, 5, 2 (cf. IV, 1, 1) Irenaeus says that according to the teachings of the Valentinians, “the demiurge prepared seven heavens... about the seven heavens they say that they are reasonable, and they believe that they are angels.” But Irenaeus himself in Adv. haer., does not expound his doctrine of the seven heavens. That is, He is diverse in His gifts. The words "spirit of knowledge" are in brackets because they are not in the German text; but further Irenaeus speaks of the spirit of knowledge (fifth heaven). Adv. haer. IV, 38, 1: ἄνθρωπος νήπιος ἦ ν. Und da eine Tat aus der anderen folgt. The expression is obscure and it is difficult to understand its real meaning. The confessor and father of the Church, who lived in the 4th century, Eustathius of Antioch left the work “On Melchizedek”, excerpts from which have survived to our time. From this treatise it can be understood that the main idea of ​​this work was this: in the Holy Scriptures there is no genealogy of Melchizedek because Melchizedek was a Canaanite, and “it was not necessary to compile a Genealogy and elevate one who is at the pinnacle of righteousness to the race of Canaan, for it was not at all appropriate for one who had achieved the highest righteousness to be intertwined with a race that had reached the utmost wickedness.” See the chapter “Antiochian Theological School” in the course of Prof. A.I. Sagarda in this volume - Ed. Adolf Harnack considers what is enclosed in brackets to be interpolation (cf. Chapter 25); but there is no need for such an assumption, in view of Gen. XV, 13. Undoubtedly, the Word of God is the Son, the mediator of all Old Testament revelations. Wed. Adv. haer. V, 17, 4: “The Word of God, which through negligence we lost through the tree and did not find, we will receive again through the building of the tree... For since we lost It through the tree, through the tree It again became clear to everyone, showing in Itself the height, length, width and depth... through the outstretching of hands, gathering two peoples to one God.” The German text reads: erstgeborenes, erstgezeugtes Wort (Greek πρωτόγονος and πρωτότοκος). The text actually says: “translated into Armenian.” In Quaest. hebr. in libro Genes. (P. de Lagarde 1868), b. 3, to the words of Gen. I, 1: "In principio fecit Deus caelum et terram", Jerome makes the following remark: plerique aestimant, sicut in Altercatione quoque Jasonis et Papisci scriptum est, et Tertullianus in libro contra Praxeam disputat, nec non Hilarius in expositione cujusdam psalmi affirmat, in hebraeo haberï In filio fecit Deus caelum et terram. Quod falsum esse rei ipsius veritas comprobat. The explanation of in principio in the sense of in filio is undoubtedly based on Proverbs. VIII, 22 (according to LXX), where Wisdom speaks of Herself: κύριος ἔκτισέ με ἀρχὴνὁδῶν ε ἶ ναι. Hilary (Comment. In Ps. 2) states that the Hebrew word "bresith" has three meanings: in principio, in capite, in filio (cf. Text u. Untersuch. I, 1-2. S. 117-119). The tradition, which, together with the Hebrew text, reached Irenaeus, saw the reference to the “Son” in “bara”. But the details of the text cited by Irenaeus are not clear either to Adolf Harnack or to his “more knowledgeable friends” to whom he addressed. Prof. J. Rendel Harris in the article: Jrenaeus on the Apostolical Preaching (“The Expositor”, 1907, March, pp.253–257) in the way of citing quotations from the Old Testament books in the newly discovered work of Irenaeus and in particular in the combination of passages from Psalms 109 and 71 in the 43rd chapter finds not only confirmation of the previously proven position that in the ancient church was in circulation a written collection of prophetic passages used in polemics with the Jews, which bore the title: “Testimonies against the Jews,” but also an indication that this book of “testimonies,” in addition to polemical use against the Jews, became a textbook church book for instructing catechumens from the Greeks, equivalent to the Gospels; subsequently it was replaced by the Gospels themselves and soon disappeared. From the use of this collection, it is also explained that Irenaeus mistakenly attributes to Jeremiah the passages he cited from the psalms: either there was an error in the collection itself, or evidence from Jeremiah stood next to the texts from the psalms, and Irenaeus inadvertently attributed the latter to Jeremiah. Obviously, an indication of the modern attitude towards the church on the part of the Roman government. According to the translators from Armenian, it is very difficult to understand the actual meaning of the text in this place; in their opinion, this translation seems to be the only acceptable one. The quotation does not correspond to the canonical text and does not convey the intended meaning, however, like the Synodal (1876) and Elizabethan (1751) translations. The clearest text is the Ostrog Bible, as well as the modern translation (unfortunately, not accompanied by a preface and explanations, but in which its borrowings from the translations of our Russian pre-revolutionary researchers can be traced): “All shoes in which they went through the war, and clothes stained with blood will be thrown into the fire. This will all happen when a child is born, the Son given to us by God, who will become a leader, and they will call Him: Miraculous Counselor, Almighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The power of His authority and peace will increase for the king from the family of David, who will rule always and forever, in justice and kindness. Great is the love of the Lord Almighty for His people, and He will accomplish all things with this great love” Isaiah 9:5–6 (Bible. M., World Bible Translation Center, 1997) – Ed. Irenaeus is apparently read ἀνάστασις instead of ἀνάπαυσις; Wed Ch. 61. In Adv. haer. V, 33. 4 Irenaeus speaks more strongly in favor of a literal understanding of the prophecy in Isa. XI, 6-9 and objects to the exclusive use of the symbolic explanation: “I know,” he says, “that some are trying to attribute this to savages who believed, from various nations and from various occupations, and having believed, they became like-minded with the righteous; but although even now this (is true) in relation to some people from different tribes who come to the same mind of faith, nevertheless, at the resurrection of the righteous it will come true for those animals too.” The Synodal Translation is more intelligible: “The breath of our life, the Lord’s Anointed One, is caught in their pits, the One about whom we said: “Under His shadow we will live among the nations”” - Ed. The incorrect indication of Irenaeus that Pontius Pilate was the procurator of Emperor Claudius stands in connection with his statement, based on John. VIII, 57 and the traditions of the elders that the Lord Jesus Christ was about fifty years old at the time of the sufferings on the cross; Therefore, it is natural that he considered the end of His earthly life. during the reign of Emperor Claudius, that is, not earlier than 41 years old. In Adv. haer. II, 22, 5-6 Irenaeus writes: “Everyone will agree that the age of thirty is the beginning of manhood, which continues until the fortieth year; from the forties and fiftieth the old age begins, in which our Lord also taught, as the Gospel and all the elders who gathered in Asia, around John, the disciple of the Lord, testify, that John conveyed this very thing to them... Moreover, even the Jews, who at that time argued with the Lord Jesus Christ, quite clearly pointed out the same thing. For when the Lord said to them: “Abraham your father rejoiced to see My day, and he saw and rejoiced,” then they answered Him: “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham (John 8:57)? These words could be spoken to someone who has already lived forty years, but has not yet reached the fiftieth year and yet is not far from the fiftieth year. And to someone who is thirty years old, they would say this: you are not yet forty years old. For those who wanted to make Him out to be a liar, of course, would not increase His years beyond the age they saw Him as having, and designated the years closest to His age, seeing that He was more than forty, not thirty years old... Consequently, He was not far from fifty years old.” Testimony of Luke. III, 1-2 that Jesus Christ was baptized in the 15th year of Tiberius and was then about 30 years old (III, 23), Irenaeus reconciles with his opinion with the assumption that He taught for many years and passed through and sanctified all ages, from infancy to old age, in order to appear in everything as a perfect teacher (Adv. haer. II, 22, 6; cf.: 4). But Pontius Pilate was recalled from Judea in 37 AD and was not the procurator of Emperor Claudius. Adolf Harnack, in a note to this chapter, writes that such a saying is not found in the book of the twelve prophets, as far as he knows, and considers it amazing that Irenaeus does not name the prophet, which he always does in other places. Prof. Rendel Harris ("The Expositor" 1907, March, pp. 252-253) pointed out that this saying is taken from the book of the prophet Hosea, X, 6, according to the LXX translation, where it reads like this: καὶ αὐτὸν εἰς Ἀσσυρίους (and having bound him to Assyria, she took him as a gift to King Jaarim). We find a similar application of the saying of Hosea, as a prophecy about Christ and His suffering, in Justin (Dial. With Tryph. p. 103: “When Herod, who succeeded Archelaus, received the power granted to him, Pilate, to please him, sent Jesus bound to him; foreseeing this, God said so: and they took him to the Assyrians as a gift to the king”), and in Tertullian (Adv. Marcion., IV, 42: “for being sent by Pilate to Herod as a gift, he gave faith to the words of Hosea, for he prophesied about Christ: “And they brought Him bound as a gift to the king,” in Cyril of Jerusalem (Cat. 13:14). In Adv. haer. III, 20. 45 Irenaeus attributes these words to the prophet Isaiah, and in IV, 22. 1 - to Jeremiah. Saint Justin also claims that they belong to the prophet Jeremiah, accusing the Jews of having omitted these words, among other places, in their lists of sacred books (Dial. C. Tryph. p. 72). Based on the testimony of Justin, one can think that in the hands of Justin and Irenaeus there were such lists of Old Testament books or collections of prophetic passages in which these words were attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, although they are not in the book of the prophet Jeremiah. In the German translation, after the words: “errette mich vom Schwert” there is an omission, marked with an ellipsis, and the note says that what follows are several words, obviously spoiled, which may mean: “Und meinen Leib von Nageln”, oder etwas verändert: “Nagle an meinen Leib”. Adolf Harnack in his note concludes that the words of Ps. 22 (21), 21, components of the crux interpretum, in Armenian, apparently, received a special understanding (of course, the expression: and from the hand of my only begotten pessia). But Eberh. Nestle rightly pointed out (in Berliner philologische Wochenschrift, 1907, no. 8, 230) that Adolf Harnack forgot the epistle of Barnabas he published, which in V, 14 combines quotations from Ps. XXI, 21 and XXIX, 120: τὰς σαρκας, ὄτι πονηρευομένων συναγωγαὶ ἐπανέστησάν μοι. Translators from Armenian suggest in this place the mistake of the copyist who wrote: “in ours” instead of: “in the letter” (due to the similarity of the Armenian style of these words); in this case, instead of “not in our old (being)” (“nicht in unserem altem [“Wesen”]), one should read: “not in the old letter” (“nicht im altenBuchstaben”). In the Synodal edition: “You have provoked Me not with God, you have grieved Me with your vain things: and I will provoke them not with a people, with a senseless people I will grieve them” - Ed. The German text reads: “siehe, wir sprechen mit dem Vater und stehen ihm von Angesicht zu Angesicht gegenüber, (einst) Kinder geworden durch Bosheit und (nun) erstarkt durch Gerechtigkeit und Wohlanständigkeit.” When translating into Russian, we deviated from the German text, since, according to the instructions of H. Koch’a (in Zeitschrift für dieneutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde des Urchristentums”, 1907, H. 1, S. 69), bracketed einst and nun are not given in the Armenian text, in which there is also no difference in tenses in verbs; therefore, these words are an insertion for the purpose of clarifying an incomprehensible passage. But there seems no need for such an explanation of Irenaeus’s expression: obviously, it is based on 1 Cor. XIV, 20: “Do not be children in mind: in evil be infants, but in mind be adults” νηπιάζετε, ταῖς δέφρεςὶν τέλειοι γίνεσθε) Wed. Ch. 26 of the newly discovered work of Irenaeus. A parallel to this expression is Adv. haer. IV, 28. 3: those who love God and believe His promises and through wickedness have become infants (et malitia parvuli effecti sunt) are saved and receive eternal life. Wed. also Prof. Joh. Kunze in Theolog. Literaturbl. 1907, 3, 30. Wed. Adv. haer. III, 11. 9: “Others, rejecting the gift of the Spirit, poured out on the human race in recent times by the will of the Father, do not accept the form presented by the Gospel of John, in which the Lord promises to send the Comforter; but at the same time they reject both the Gospel and the prophetic Spirit. The truly unfortunate, who, of course, do not want to be false prophets, but reject the gift of prophecy from the church.” Prof. N. Bonwetsch in Theologische Literaturzeitung 1907, no. 6, 174. Prof. Rendel Harris in "The Expositor" 1907, March, p. 246. Prof. Joh. Kunze in Theologische Literaturblatt 1907, no. 3, 29. Prof. Rendel Harris in "The Expositor" 1907, March, p. 247. Prof. Ad. Harnack in the afterword to the edition of the text, S. 55. See Ant for more details. Degert in "Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique" 1907, no. 3: Une oeuvre nouvelle de S. Irénée, P. 72–75. On the theology of Irenaeus, see Duncker Ludw., Des heiligen Irenäus Christologie im Zusammenhänge mit dessen theologischen und anthropologischen Grundlehren. Göttingen 1843; Ziegler Heim., Irenäus der Bischof von Lyon. Ein Beitrag zur Entstehungsgeschichte der altkatholischen Kirche. Berlin 1871; Kunze Joh., Die Gotteslehre des Irenäus. Leipzig 1891; Klebba Ern., Die Anthropologie des hl. Irenaus. Munster 1894. Werner Joh., Der Paulinismus des Irenäus (Text. U. Unters. 6:2) Leipzig 1889. Dufourcq Alb., Saint Irénée. Paris 1904; Harnack Ad., Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, 3 Aufl. 1894, I, S. 507–590; Loofs Friedr., Leitfaden zum Studium der Dogmengeschichte, 4 Aufl., Halle 1906, pp. 139–150; Spassky A., History of dogmatic movements during the period of the Ecumenical Councils (in connection with the philosophical teachings of that time), vol. I, Sergiev Posad, 1906, p. 18–34. In the afterword and notes to the edition of the text, p. 61. Ad. Harnack in the afterword and notes to the edition of the text, p. 63.