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You, my dear friend, asked me to bring to light the hidden teachings of Valentinus, as the heretics themselves think, to show the differences of the heretics and present a refutation against them. Therefore, I undertook, tracing their origin from Simon, the father of all heretics, to expound both their teachings and their succession, along with evidence against all of them. And since denouncing and refuting them in many respects is one thing, I sent you (my) books, of which the first contains the opinions of everyone and reveals their customs and character of behavior; and in the second, their perverse teaching is refuted and destroyed, and brought to light and shown for what it really is. In this third book I will present evidence from the Scriptures, so that I will not remain in debt to you for anything you ask, and so that you will receive from me, even beyond your expectations, the means to expose and refute all kinds of false teachers. For the love of God, rich and unenviable, gives more than anyone asks of it. So, remember what I said in the first two books, and by adding this book to them, you will have from me a complete refutation of all heretics and with confidence and firmness you will confront them in defense of the true and life-giving Faith, which the Church received from the Apostles and passes on to its children. For the Lord of all gave His apostles authority (to preach) the Gospel, and through them we came to know the truth, i.e. the teaching of the Son of God; to them the Lord said: “Whoever listens to you listens to Me, and whoever despises you despises Me and the One who sent Me” (Luke 10:16). The apostles began to preach and put the Gospel into writing not before they were invested with the powers of the Holy Spirit. They proclaimed the One God, Creator of heaven and earth. 1. We learned about the arrangement of our salvation not through anyone else, but through those through whom the Gospel came to us, which they then preached (orally), then, by the will of God, handed over to us in the Scriptures, as the future foundation and pillar of our Faith. It is indecent to assert that they preached before they received “perfect knowledge,” as some dare to say, posing as the correctors of the apostles. For, after our Lord rose from the dead, and they were clothed from above with the power of the descending Holy Spirit, filled with all (His gifts) and received perfect knowledge, they went out to the ends of the earth, preaching the good news (given) to us from God, and proclaiming heavenly peace to people who, both together and individually, have the Gospel of God. Thus, Matthew published the scriptures of the Gospel among the Jews in their own language, while Peter and Paul preached the gospel in Rome and founded the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, gave us in writing what was preached by Peter. And Luke, Paul's companion, set forth in a book the Gospel he preached. Then John, the disciple of the Lord, reclining on His chest, also published the Gospel during his stay in Ephesus of Asia 8 . 2. And they all preached to us the One God, the Creator of heaven and earth, proclaimed by the law and the prophets, and the One Christ, the Son of God; and whoever does not agree with them despises the participants of the Lord, despises Christ the Lord Himself, despises the Father, and is condemned by himself, opposing his own salvation, which is what all heretics do. Heretics follow neither Scripture nor Tradition. 1. When they reprove (heretics) from the Scriptures, they turn to the accusation of the Scriptures themselves, as if they are incorrect, have no authority, are different in presentation, and (they say) that from them the truth cannot be revealed by those who do not know the tradition. For (they say) the truth was not conveyed through writing, but by a living voice, and because Paul allegedly said: “We speak wisdom among the perfect, but the wisdom is not of this world” (1 Cor. 11:6). And by this wisdom each of them calls a fiction invented by himself, so that, according to their concept, the truth is found either in Valentinus, then in Marcion, then in Cerinthus, and then in Basilides, or in some other contradictory teacher who could not say anything related to salvation. For each of them, being of a completely wrong direction, is not ashamed, distorting the teaching of the truth, to preach himself. 2. When we send them again to the tradition that comes from the apostles and is preserved in the churches through the succession of elders, they resist the tradition, saying that they are wiser not only than the elders, but also the apostles, and that they have found the pure truth. For (they say) the apostles mixed something from the law into the words of the Savior, and not only the apostles, but also the Lord Himself said this from the Dimiurge; sometimes from the middle, and sometimes from the heights (Pleroma), but they undoubtedly, intact and purely know the secret mystery: the most shameless blasphemy against the Creator! So it turns out that they do not agree with either the Scriptures or tradition. 3. These are the people we must fight, dear friend, people who, like snakes, try to escape from everywhere. Therefore, they must be opposed from all sides in order to knock some of them out of their refuge and lead them to convert to the truth. For, although it is not easy for a soul to be converted when it is overwhelmed by error, it is not entirely impossible to free itself from error as soon as the truth is presented. Refutation of heretics on the basis of the tradition of the apostles preserved in the Church. 1. Everyone who wants to see the truth can learn in every church the tradition of the apostles, revealed throughout the world; and we can list the bishops installed as apostles in the churches, and their successors before us, who taught nothing and did not know anything that these (heretics) are raving about. For if the apostles had known the secret mysteries, which they communicated to the perfect separately and secretly from others, they would have handed them over especially to those to whom they entrusted the churches themselves. For they wanted those whom they left as their successors and to whom they transferred their position of teaching to be perfect and impeccable in everything, since great benefit should come from their correct action, and from their fall the greatest misfortune. 2. But since it would be very long in a book like this to list the succession (primates) of all churches, I will cite the tradition that the greatest, most ancient and well-known church has from the apostles, founded and organized in Rome by the two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul, and the faith proclaimed to people, which through the succession of bishops has come down to us, and I will put to shame all those who in every possible way illegally constitute meetings either out of bad self-indulgence, or out of vanity, or out of blindness and perverse opinions. For, of necessity, every church, i.e., agrees with this church, according to its primary importance. believers everywhere, since in it the apostolic tradition has always been preserved by believers everywhere 9. 3. The blessed apostles, having founded and established the church, entrusted the ministry of bishopric to Linus. Paul mentions this line in his letters to Timothy. He is succeeded by Anaclitus; after him, in third place, Clement received the bishopric from the apostles, having seen the blessed apostles and treated them, still having the preaching of the apostles in his ears and their tradition before his eyes; However, he was not alone, but many still remained then who received instruction from the apostles. Under this Clement, when there was considerable dissent between the brothers in Corinth, the Roman Church wrote a very practical letter to the Corinthians, exhorting them to peace and restoring their faith, and proclaiming the tradition recently received from the apostles 10, which preaches the One Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth. The creator of man, who brought the flood and called Abraham, who brought the people out of the land of Egypt, who spoke to Moses, laid down the law, and sent the prophets, and prepared fire for the devil and his angels. From this scripture, those who wish can learn that He, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is preached by the churches, and also understand the apostolic tradition of the Church, since the message is much older than those people who now teach false teaching and invent another God, higher than the Creator and Maker of all that exists. This Clement 11 was succeeded by Evarest, Evarest by Alexander, then Sixtus was made sixth from the apostles, after him Telesphorus, who gloriously endured torment; then Hyginus, then Pius, after him Anicetas; after Sotira, who succeeded Anicetas, now in twelfth place from the apostles the lot of the bishopric belongs to Eleutherus. In this order and in such succession, church tradition from the apostles and the preaching of the truth have reached us. And this serves as the most complete proof that the same life-giving Faith has been preserved in the Church from the Apostles to the present day and delivered in its true form. 4. And Polycarp, who not only was instructed by the apostles and treated many of those who saw our Lord, but was also made bishop of the Smyrna church in Asia by the apostles, and whom I saw in my early youth - for he lived a long time and in extreme old age ended this life with the most glorious and noble martyrdom - he always taught what he learned from the apostles, which the Church also transmits, and that only one thing is true. All the Asian churches testify to this, as well as those that have been the successors of Polycarp to this day - such a person is a much more reliable and reliable witness of the truth than Valentinus, Marcion and other heretics. Having arrived in Rome under Anicetus, he converted many from the above-mentioned heretics to the Church of God, proclaiming that he had received from the Apostles only the truth that was transmitted by the Church. And there are those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, in Ephesus, came to the bathhouse and saw Cerinthos in it, ran out of the bathhouse without washing and said: Let us run away so that the bathhouse does not fall, because in it is the enemy of the truth, Cerinthos. And Polycarp himself, when meeting with Marcion, who said to him: “Do you know me,” answered: “I know the firstborn of Satan.” The apostles and their disciples were so careful not to communicate even in words with any of those who distorted the truth, just as Paul said: “Depart from a human heretic after the first and second admonition, knowing that he has become corrupt and sins, being self-condemned” (Titus 3:10-11). There is a very practical epistle of Polycarp written to the Philippians, from which those who desire and care about their salvation can learn both the nature of his faith and the preaching of the truth. Also, the Church of Ephesus, founded by Paul and having John among itself until the time of Trajan, is a true witness to the apostolic tradition. The truth is found only in the Catholic Church, the custodian of the apostolic tradition. Heresies are recent and cannot trace their origin to the Apostles. 1. With such evidence, one should not seek from others the truth, which is easy to obtain from the Church, for the Apostles, like a rich man in a treasury, completely put into it everything that relates to the truth, so that everyone who wants to takes from it the drink of life (Apoc. 22:17). She, precisely, is the door of life, and all others (teachers) are thieves and robbers. Therefore, one must avoid the latter, but with the greatest care choose what pertains to the Church and accept the tradition of the truth. So what? If a dispute arose about some important issue, would it not be appropriate to turn to the most ancient churches in which the Apostles were converted, and from them to obtain what is reliable and clear regarding the present issue? What if the Apostles had not left us the scriptures? Should they not have followed the order of tradition given to those to whom they entrusted the churches? 2. This order is followed by many tribes of barbarians who believe in Christ, who have their salvation without charter or ink, written in their hearts by the Spirit, and carefully observe the ancient tradition, believing in the One God, Creator of heaven and earth and everything that is in them, through Jesus Christ the Son of God, Who, out of excellent love for His creation, condescended to be born of a Virgin, through Himself uniting man with By God, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was resurrected, taken up in glory (to heaven) and will come with glory as the Savior of those being saved and the Judge of those condemned, and will send into the eternal fire the distorters of the truth and the despisers of His Father and His coming. Those who accepted this faith without writing are barbarians in relation to our language, but in relation to doctrine, character and way of life, according to their faith, they are very wise and please God, living in all truth, purity and wisdom. And if someone began to preach heretical fabrications to these people, speaking to them in their own language, they would immediately, covering their ears, run away as far as possible, not even tolerating hearing blasphemous conversation. Thus, as a result of that ancient apostolic tradition, they do not even allow the monstrous speech of heretics into their minds, since they had neither a (church) meeting nor an established teaching. 3. For before Valentinus there were no Valentinians, and before Marcion there were no Marcionites, and likewise the other evil-minded (teachers) whom I have listed above did not exist before the founders and inventors of their perverse teachings appeared. Valentine came to Rome under Hyginus, flourished under Pius, and remained until the time of Anicetus. Cerdon, Marcion's predecessor, himself arrived under Hyginus, who was the ninth bishop, 12 often coming to church and confessing, he ended (life) like that, now teaching in secret, now confessing again, now convicted of his bad teaching, and finally left the meeting of the brethren. His successor, Marcion, received power under Anicetus, who occupied tenth place in the rank of bishops. Other so-called Gnostics descended from Menander, a disciple of Simon, as I have shown, and each of them was the father and head of the teaching he accepted. The latter all fell into their apostasy much later, already in the Middle Ages of the Church. Christ and His Apostles did not offer their teaching falsely and without adapting to the opinions of their listeners and preached the One God, the Father and Creator of all. 1. When the apostolic tradition thus exists in the Church and is preserved among us, I will return to the evidence from the writings of the Apostles, who also wrote the Gospel, in which they set forth the doctrine of God, making it clear that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Truth (John 14:6) and there is no lie in Him, just as David, prophesying from His birth from the Virgin and about the resurrection from the dead, says: “Truth has shone from the earth” (Ps. 84:12). And the Apostles, disciples of the Truth, are also alien to all lies; for falsehood is not united with truth, like darkness with light, but the presence of one excludes the other. Therefore, our Lord, being the Truth, did not speak a lie, and whom He knew to be the fruit of imperfection, He would not have confessed to be God, and He, perfect, spiritual and who was inside the Pleroma, would not call the imperfect, soulful and outside the Pleroma the God of all, the Supreme King and His Father. And His disciples did not mention any other God and did not call anyone Lord, except Him who is truly God and Lord of all - as these empty sophists say, as if the apostles with hypocrisy adapted their teaching to the acceptability of the listeners and gave answers in accordance with the opinions of the questioners: for the blind they invented fables in accordance with their blindness, for the weak in accordance with their weakness, and for those who are mistaken in accordance with their error, and that they preached him to those who revered the Dimiurge as the only God, and to those who were able to understand the nameless Father they expounded the ineffable mystery through parables and riddles; and that the Lord and the Apostles conducted the work of teaching not in accordance with the truth, but hypocritically and adapting to the acceptability of everyone. 2. This course of action is not characteristic of those who heal or give life, but rather of those who cause disease and spread their ignorance, and much truer will be the law that curses everyone who leads the blind astray along the way. For the Apostles, sent to find the lost, to bring sight to the blind and to heal the sick, of course, spoke to them not according to their real opinion, but in accordance with the revelation of the Truth. And some people would not act correctly if the blind, already ready to go to the abyss, were advised to continue along that most dangerous path, as if it were really a straight path, and they would pass along it safely. What kind of doctor, wanting to heal a patient, will act in accordance with the whims of the patient, and not with what is required for the cure? And that the Lord came to heal the sick, He Himself testifies, saying: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31,32). How will the sick be strengthened? And how will sinners repent? Is it because they will remain in the same position, or, on the contrary, when they decide to make a great change and change their previous way of life, through which they brought upon themselves considerable illness and many sins? Ignorance, the mother of all this, is eliminated through knowledge. Therefore, the Lord imparted knowledge to His disciples, through which He healed the sick and restrained sinners from sin. So, He spoke to them, without adapting to their old opinion, and gave an answer, not in accordance with the disposition of those asking, but in accordance with the saving teaching, without pretense and without partiality. 3. This is also evident from the words of the Lord: He, by the circumcision, pointed to the Son of God, Christ foretold by the prophets, i.e. revealed Himself, Who returned freedom to people and bestowed the inheritance of incorruption. And the Apostles taught the pagans to leave vain trees and stones, which they considered to be gods, and to honor the true God, who created and formed the entire human race and through His creation nourished it, multiplied, strengthened and supported it in being, and to trust in His Son, Jesus Christ, who redeemed us with His blood from apostasy, so that we too might be a sanctified people - Who He will come down from heaven in the power of the Father and execute judgment on everyone and bestow the blessings of God on those who keep His commandments. He appeared in recent times and, like a cornerstone, gathered and united those who were far and near (Eph. 2:17), i.e. circumcised and uncircumcised, spreading Japheth and placing him in the house of Shem (Gen. 9:27). The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament writings did not speak about any other God or Lord than the true God. 1. Therefore, neither the Lord, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the Apostles would ever definitely and decisively call one who is not God God, if he were not really God, and would not arbitrarily call anyone Lord, except God the Father who is lord over all and His Son, who received from the Father His dominion over all creation, as it is said in the words: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou on My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool.” (Ps. 109:1). Here (Scripture) represents that the Father said to the Son: He has given Him the inheritance of the nations, and has subjected all His enemies to Him. Therefore, when the Father truly is the Lord, and the Son truly is the Lord, then the Holy Spirit rightly designated Them with the name Lord. And also, during the destruction of the Sodomites, Scripture says: “And the Lord rained fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven over Sodom and Gomorrah” (Gen. 19:24). Here it shows that the Son, who talked with Abraham, received from the Father the power to judge the Sodomites for their depravity. Likewise it is said: “Your throne, O God, endures forever; the scepter of your kingdom is the scepter of righteousness. You loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and therefore God, Your God, anointed You” (Ps. 44:7). For the Spirit designated both by the name of God, both the anointed Son and the anointing one, i.e. Father. And again: “God stood in the assembly of the gods and judges among the gods” (Ps. 81:1). This speaks of the Father and the Son and of those who received adoption as sons; the latter are the Church. For she is the assembly of God, which God, i.e. The Son Himself gathered through Himself. He again says about Him: “The God of gods, the Lord, spoke and called the earth” (Ps. 49:1). What God? The one about whom he said: “God will come clearly, our God, and will not be silent” (Ps. 49:3), i.e. The Son of God, Who came openly to people, and Who says: “I have appeared openly to those who do not seek Me” (Isaiah 65:1). What gods (He is God)? Those to whom he says: “I said - you are gods and all the sons of the Most High” (Ps. 81:6), i.e. who have received the grace of adoption, by which we cry: Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). 2. Therefore, no one else, as I said, is called God and is called Lord, except God and Lord of all, who also said to Moses: “I am who I am. And say to the children of Israel this: Jehovah hath sent me unto you” (Ex. 3:14), and besides His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Who makes them sons of God who believe in His name. And again, turning to Moses, the Son says: “I have come down to deliver this people” (Ex. 3:8). For He who descended also ascended for the salvation of people. So, through the Son, who is in the Father and has the Father in Himself, Jehovah God was revealed, since the Father bears witness to the Son, and the Son proclaims the Father. Just as Isaiah says: “And I am a witness, says the Lord God, and a servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe and understand that I am” (Isa. 43:10). 3. When Scripture mentions those who are not gods, then, as I said, it does not completely represent them as gods; but with some addition and designation, showing that they are not gods. So David says: “the gods of the nations are idols of demons” (Ps. 95:5) and “do not follow other people’s gods” (Ps. 80:10). By the words “gods of the peoples” - and the peoples do not know the true God - and by calling them “foreign gods” he shows that they are not gods. He himself says that they are: they, he says, “are the essence of idols of demons.” And Isaiah (says): “those who blaspheme God and those who sculpt uselessly will be put to shame, 13 and I am a witness, says God” (Is. 44:11). He denies that they are gods, but uses only one name so that we know who he is talking about. Jeremiah says the same thing: “the gods who did not create heaven and earth; let them perish from the earth under heaven” (Jer. 10:11). By adding about their destruction, he thereby shows that they are not gods. And Elijah, having gathered the entire Israeli people to Mount Carmel to turn them away from idolatry, says: “How long will you limp on both sides? If there is One Lord God, then follow Him” (1 Kings 18, 21, etc.). And even during the burnt offering he speaks to the priests of idols: “You will call in the name of your gods, but I will call in the name of the Lord my God, and the God who hears today is God” (1 Kings 18:24). By saying this, the prophet thereby shows that those who are revered by them as gods are not gods. But he turns them to God, in whom he believed and who truly is God, and to whom he addressed his appeal: “The Lord, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, hear me today, and all this people will understand that You are the God of Israel” (1 Kings 18:36). 4. And I call upon You, Lord - the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who, according to the abundance of His mercy, was pleased with us, so that we may know You, who created heaven and earth and rule over all things, the One and True God, besides Whom there is no other God, through our Lord Jesus Christ grant also the dominion of the Holy Spirit; Grant to everyone who reads this work to know You that You are the only God, and to be established in You and to abandon all heretical, godless and ungodly teaching. 5. And the Apostle Paul, saying: “You served those who were not gods, but now you know God and are even known by God” (Gal. 4:8,9), separated those who were not (gods) from Him who is God. And also speaking about the Antichrist: “he opposes and rises above everything that is called God or that is worshiped” (2 Thess. 2:4), denotes those who are called gods by those who do not know God, i.e. idols For the Father of all is called God and really is; and the Antichrist will not exalt himself over Him, but over them, who are called, but are not gods. That this is true, Paul himself says: “We know that an idol is nothing and that no one is God except the One. Even if there are so-called gods in heaven or on earth, we have one God the Father, from whom are all things and to whom we belong, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things (exist) and through whom we also” (1 Cor. 8:4, etc.). He distinguished and separated those who are called, but are not gods, from the One God the Father, from Whom everything is, and from himself, he most decisively confessed the One Lord Jesus Christ. In the words: “in heaven and on earth,” He does not speak about the creators of the world, as these (false teachers) interpret, but this is similar to what Moses said: “Do not make for yourself any image for God, whether of what is in heaven, or of what is on the earth below, or of what is in the water under the earth” (Deut. 5:8). What exactly is meant by what is in the sky, he himself explains: “Looking at the sky and seeing the sun, the moon and the stars and all the adornment of the sky, out of error, do not worship them or serve them” (Deut. 4:19). And Moses himself, the man of God, although he appeared before Pharaoh as God, is not called by the prophets either Lord or God, but the Spirit speaks of him as “Moses, the faithful servant and servant of God” (Heb. 3:5; Num. 12:7), which is what he actually was. Reply to an objection borrowed from the words of St. Pavel. The Apostle sometimes uses permutations of words. 1. As for what they say, that Paul in the second (epistle) to the Corinthians clearly said: “The God of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe” (2 Cor. 4:4), and that there is another God of this age, and another He who is above all dominion, principality and power; then we are not to blame if those who arrogate to themselves the knowledge of the higher divine mysteries do not even know how to read Paul. For if someone, in accordance with the custom of Paul, who, as I have demonstrated elsewhere 14 and with many examples, uses permutation of words, reads this passage as follows: “from whom God” separates and, stopping a little later, reads the rest together in one “he has blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this age,” then he will find the true meaning, so that the thought will come out: “God has blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this age.” This turns out to be the case through some arrangement. Paul does not speak about the God of this age, as if recognizing another (God) as superior to him - he recognized God as God - but he speaks about the unbelievers of this age, because they will not inherit the coming age of incorruption. How God has blinded the minds of unbelievers, I will show from Paul himself in further discussion, so as not to distract my thoughts too far from the real subject of speech. 2. That the Apostle often makes movements in words, due to the speed of speech and the impetuosity of the spirit within him, can be seen from many other examples. In Galatians he says this: “Why then is the law of works? 15 It is given until the seed comes, to whom the promise relates, being established by the angels by the hand of the Mediator” (Gal. 3:19). The order (of words) is as follows: “Why then the law of works? Established by the angels by the hand of the Mediator, it is given until the seed comes to whom the promise relates”: thus man asks, and the Spirit answers. And in the second (epistle) to the Thessalonians, he says about the Antichrist: “Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus Christ will kill with the breath of His mouth and destroy by the manifestation of His coming, whose coming will be according to the work of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thess. 2:8). Here the order of the words is as follows: “then the lawless one will be revealed, whose coming will be according to the work of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the spirit of His mouth and destroy by the appearance of His coming.” For He does not speak about the coming of the Lord, which He (will be) according to the work of Satan, but about the coming of the lawless one, whom He also calls the Antichrist. Therefore, if someone is inattentive when reading and does not stop breathing at the place being spoken, then not only inconsistencies will appear, but the reader will also say blasphemy, as if the coming of the Lord will be by the action of Satan. So, just as here, when reading, we must show the rearrangement of words and observe the subsequent meaning of the Apostle, so there we do not read “the God of this world,” but God, whom we truly call God, and we will hear about those who do not believe and are blinded by this age, that they will not inherit the age of life to come. Reply to an objection taken from the words of Christ. One God, beginningless and infinite, can truly be called God and Lord. 1. With the destruction of such slander of heretics, it becomes clear that neither the prophets nor the apostles ever named another God or called anyone Lord except the One True God. Moreover (this was not allowed) by the Lord Himself. Who commands both Caesar to “render what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God” (Matthew 22:21), and calls Caesar precisely Caesar, and confesses God as God. In a similar way, He Himself explains the words: “you cannot serve two masters” (Matt. 6:24), saying: “you cannot serve God and mammon,” confessing God as God, and calling mammon what it is. With the words: “you cannot serve two masters,” He does not call mammon Lord, but teaches the disciples, while serving God, not to submit to mammon and not to be slaves to her. For he says: “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). Therefore, just as he calls those who serve sin slaves of sin, but does not call sin itself God, so he calls those who serve mammon slaves of mammon, without calling mammon God. And mammon in the Jewish language, which is also spoken by the Samaritans, means “greedy, wanting more than he should.” In the Hebrew language, with the addition of a syllable, it is called “mamuel” and means a glutton, an immoderate eater. So, according to both meanings (of the word), we cannot serve God and mammon together. 2. When He calls the devil strong, it is not in general, but in comparison with us, but He shows Himself in everything and truly strong, saying that “no one can otherwise plunder the vessels of a strong man, unless he first binds the strongest and then plunders his house” (Matthew 12:26). The vessels and his house were us when we lived in apostasy, for he did with us what he wanted, and the unclean spirit dwelt in us. He was strong not in relation to the One who bound him and plundered his house, but in relation to the people who were in his power, because he turned their thoughts away from God; and the Lord snatched them away (from him), as Jeremiah says: “The Lord delivered Jacob and snatched him out of the hand of his mightiest” (Jer. 31:11). If the Lord had not pointed out the one who was binding him and plundering his house, and had only called him strong, then the strong one would have been invincible. But He also added about the one who holds him (in his power), for the one who binds holds, and the one who is bound is held (in power). And He did this without comparison, so that the apostate servant would not be compared with the Lord, for not only he, but nothing that was created and subordinate to Him can be compared with the Word of God, through Whom everything came into being, Whom is our Lord Jesus Christ. 3. That Angels, Archangels, Thrones and Dominions were arranged and created by the Most High God through His Word, this is what John showed. Having said about the Word of God that it was in the Father, he added: “all things happened through Him, and without Him nothing happened” (John 1:3). David also, having listed His praises and named everything I mentioned, including the heavens and all their powers, added: “For He commanded and it was created, He spoke and it became” (Ps. 32:9). Who did he command? The Word by which “the heavens are established, and all their power is by the spirit of His mouth” (Ps. 33:6). And that He Himself created everything freely and as He wanted, David again says; “Our God is in heaven and on earth; He created everything that He wanted” (Ps. 113:11). What is created is different from the Creator, and what is created is different from the Creator. He Himself is uncreated, without beginning and end, needing nothing; Sufficient to Himself and giving existence to all other beings; and what He created received a beginning. But what has a beginning, can be destroyed, is subordinated and has a need for its Creator, then it is necessary for people who have any sense in distinguishing such things to have a different name, so that He who created everything with His Word in justice alone is called God and Lord, and what was created should no longer be associated with the same name and receive the same name that belongs to the Creator. The One God, Creator of heaven and earth, preached by the prophets, is proclaimed by the Gospels. Proof of this is from the Gospel of Matthew. 1. When in this way it is sufficiently shown here, and later it will be even more clear, that neither the prophets, nor the Apostles, nor the Lord Christ in His person recognized any other Lord or God, but only God and the Lord himself, for the prophets and Apostles recognized the Father and the Son, and did not call anyone else God and did not confess the Lord, and the Lord Himself taught to His disciples only about the Father God and the Lord, Who is One is God and the Lord of all, then we must, if we are their disciples, follow their testimonies of this kind. For the apostle Matthew, knowing one and the same God, who promised Abraham to make his seed like the stars of heaven. Who through His Son Christ Jesus called us from the worship of stones to the knowledge of Him, so that “those who were not a people became a people, and the not loved became the beloved” (Rom. 9:25; Hos. 1:10 and 2:23), says that John, who prepared the way for Christ, to those who boasted of carnal kinship (with Abraham), but had a corrupt mind and full of all evil, preached repentance, which would turn them away from evil, and said: “brood of vipers! Who told you to flee from the wrath to come? Produce fruit worthy of repentance; and do not think that he says to himself: our father is Abraham. For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matt. 3:7-9). He preached to them repentance (and removal) from evil, but did not proclaim another God except the One who gave the promise to Abraham - he is the forerunner of Christ, about whom Matthew, according to Luke, says: “he is the one about whom the Lord said through the prophet: the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. Let every valley be filled, and every mountain and hill be humbled, and let the crooked places be made straight and the rough paths made smooth, and let all flesh see the salvation of God” (Matthew 3:3). So, it is one and the same God, the Father of our Lord, who promised to send the Forerunner through the prophets and made His salvation visible, i.e. His Word, which became incarnate, so that their King could be seen in everything. For it is necessary that those who are judged see the Judge and know the one by whom they are judged, and those who receive glory must know the one who gives them the gift of glory. 2. Matthew also speaks about the Angel this way: “The Angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph (Matt. 1:20); which Lord, he himself explains: “that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled: out of Egypt I called My Son (Matt. 2:15). Behold, the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Emmanuel, which means God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). About this Emmanuel from the Virgin, David said: “Do not turn away the face of your Christ (anointed one). The Lord swore to David in truth and will not despise him: I will place the fruit of your womb on your throne” (Ps. 131: 10, 11). And again: “God is known in Judea; His place became in the world (Salim) and His dwelling place in Zion” (Ps. 75:2). Therefore, it is one and the same God, preached by the prophets and proclaimed by the Gospel, and His Son, who is from the fruit of David’s womb, i.e. from the Virgin of David, and Emmanuel, and Balaam prophesied about His star: “A star will shine from Jacob and a leader will arise in Israel” (Num. 24:17). Matthew says that the wise men who came from the east said: “We saw His star in the east, and came to worship Him” (Matt. 2:2), and brought by a star to the house of Jacob to Emmanuel, they showed with the gifts they brought whom they worshiped: they brought myrrh, because He was the One who was to die and be buried for the mortal race of man, gold, because He is the King, “whose kingdom has no end” (Luke 1:33), - incense, because He was God, Who “became known in Judea” (Ps. 75:2) and “was revealed to those who did not seek Him” (Is. 65:1). 3. Matthew also says about His baptism: “The heavens opened and He saw the Spirit of God, which descended on Him like a dove. And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16). It was not Christ who descended upon Jesus then, and it is not another Christ, but another Jesus; but the Word of God, the Savior of all, the Ruler of heaven and earth, who is Jesus, as I have previously shown, 16 who took flesh and was anointed by the Father with the Spirit, became Jesus Christ, as Isaiah also says: “A branch will come from the root of Jesse, and a flower will come up from its root, and the Spirit of God will rest on Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and piety and fill Him with the Spirit of the fear of God. He will not judge according to glory, and not reprove according to speech, but He will give just judgment to the humble (man) and will reprove the glorious ones of the earth” (Isa. 11: 1, etc.). And Isaiah, prophesying about His anointing and why He was anointed, says: “The Spirit of God is upon Me, because He has anointed Me: He has sent Me to preach good news to the humble,” 17 to heal the brokenhearted, to preach remission to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense, and to comfort all who mourn” (Isaiah 61:1, etc.). For, because the Word of God was a man from the root of Jesse and the son of Abraham, therefore the Spirit of God rested on Him, and He was anointed to preach the gospel to the humble. Since He was God, He did not judge by glory and did not reprove by speech; for “He did not need anyone to testify to Him about man, when He Himself knew what was in man” (John 2:25). granting remission to those who were brought into captivity by sins, he freed them from the bonds of which Solomon speaks: “every one is bound by the chains of his sins” (Proverbs 5:22). So the Spirit of God descended on Him - (the Spirit) of Him who through the prophets promised to anoint Him, so that we, receiving from the abundance of His anointing, would be saved. Continuation of evidence from the Gospels of Mark and Luke. 1. Luke, a follower and disciple of the Apostles, speaking about Zechariah and Elizabeth, from whom, according to the promise of God, John was born, says this: “both of them were righteous before God, walking according to all the commandments and statutes of the Lord blamelessly” (Luke 1:6). And also about Zechariah: “one day, when he, in the order of his turn, performed priestly service before God, according to the custom of the priesthood, it fell to him by lot to burn incense,” and he came to perform the priesthood 18, “entering the church of the Lord” (Luke 1:8, etc.). The Primate, before the face of the Lord, simply, decisively and firmly confesses on his own behalf as God and Lord the One who chose Jerusalem and established the law of the priesthood, whose servant and angel Gabriel. For he did not know another God higher than Him, because if he had the concept of some most perfect God and Lord besides Him, then he would not have confessed, as I have already shown, the one whom he considered the fruit of imperfection, unconditionally and completely God and Lord. And about John he says this: “he will be great before the Lord, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare for the Lord a perfect people” (Luke 1:15). For whom did he prepare a people, and before what Lord was he great? Of course, before the One who said that John had something “greater than a prophet”, and “there is no one among those born of women greater than John the Baptist” (Matt. 40:9, 11): he prepared the people for the coming of the Lord, forewarning his fellow servants and preaching to them repentance, so that they would receive remission from the coming Lord, turning to Him from whom they were alienated because of their sins and crimes, as David says: “sinners were alienated from the womb, they strayed from the womb” (Ps. 57:4). And therefore he turned them to their Lord and prepared for the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah a perfect people. 2. And also regarding the Angel, he said: “at that time the angel Gabriel was sent from God, who said to the Virgin: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace from God” (Luke 1:26). And about the Lord he says: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32, etc.). Who else reigns continuously in the house of Jacob forever, if not Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of the Most High, Who through the law and the prophets promised to reveal His salvation to all flesh, so that He became the son of man in order that man might become the Son of God? And Mary, rejoicing at this, exclaimed, prophesying about the Church: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For He accepted His servant Israel, remembering His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever” (Luke 1:46, 54, 55). With these and similar (words) the Gospel shows that God who spoke to the fathers is the One who through Moses gave the law, through which legislation we learned that He spoke to the fathers. This God Himself, in His great goodness, poured out mercy on us, by which mercy “the East visited us from above, and appeared to those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, and directed his steps towards the path of peace” (Luke 1:78), just as Zechariah, having ceased from the dumbness to which he was subjected for unbelief, was filled with a new spirit and again blessed God. For everything was new when the Word again arranged His fleshly coming, so that man, who had departed from God, might be appropriated to God; therefore, people were taught in a new way to honor God, but not another God, because “there is one God, who justifies the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith” (Rom. 3:30). 3. Zechariah, prophesying, exclaimed: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, that he hath visited his people, and wrought deliverance for them, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David his servant, as he declared by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been of the ages, that he would save us from our enemies, and from the hand of all them that hated us, to show mercy to our fathers, and to remember the holy covenant. His own, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, that He would give us, freed from the hand of our enemies, to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days” (Luke 1:68, etc.). Then he says to John: “And you, little child, will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to make his people aware of salvation in the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1:76). For they lacked this knowledge of salvation, i.e. (knowledge) of the Son of God, which John communicated, saying: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one of whom I said: A man comes after me, who stood before me, because He was before me, and from His Fullness we have received everything” (John 1:29, 15, 16). So, this is the knowledge of salvation: (it is not said here) about another God, about another Father, nor about the Depth, nor about Plerom from 30 aeons, nor about the mother Osmeritsa; but the knowledge of salvation is the knowledge of the Son of God, who, truly, is called and is salvation, and the Savior, and the accomplishment of salvation. Salvation: “I have waited for Your salvation, O Lord” (Gen. 49:18). Savior: “This is my God, my Savior, I will trust in Him” (Is. 22:2). Completion of salvation: “God made His salvation known in the face of the nations” (Ps. 97:2). For He is the Savior, because He is the Son and Word of God; the accomplishment of salvation, because the Spirit, for it is said: “The Spirit of our presence, Christ the Lord” (Lamentations 6:20); salvation is because it is flesh; for “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). This is the knowledge of salvation that John imparted to those who repent and believe in the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. 4. The angel of the Lord, says (Luke), appeared to the shepherds, announcing to them the joy, “that he was born in the house of David” 19 “A Savior, who is Christ the Lord; then (appeared) a numerous heavenly army, glorifying God and crying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will” (Luke 2:13) 20. The falsely called Gnostics say that these angels came from the Octome and announced the descent of the heavenly Christ. But they are again mistaken when they say that the heavenly Christ and Savior was not born, but after the baptism that took place according to the dispensation of Jesus 21 He descended upon Him in the form of a dove. Therefore, according to their opinion, the angels of the Octomeric lied when they spoke. “that today a Savior has been born to you in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). For, in their opinion, then it was not Christ, not the Savior, who was born, but Jesus, who was according to the economy, who is from the creator of the world (Dimiurge), and upon whom after baptism, i.e. after 30 years, according to them, the Savior from above came down. But why did (the angels) add “in the city of David,” if not to proclaim the joy that the promise given by God to David was fulfilled, that from the fruit of the womb there would be an eternal King? for the Creator of the whole universe made a promise to David, as David himself says: “My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 123:8); and again: “The ends of the earth are in His hand, and the heights of the mountains are His. For the sea is His, and He created it, and His hands founded the dry land. Come, let us worship and fall down before Him and weep before the face of the Lord who created us, for He is the Lord our God” (Ps. 45:4, etc.). The Holy Spirit clearly declares through David to his hearers that there will be those who despise Him who created us, and One only is God. Therefore, he said the above words, instilling the following: do not be mistaken; besides or higher than Him there is no other God on whom you should rely more - to make us pious and grateful to Him who created, arranged and nourishes us. What will happen to those who invented such blasphemy against their Creator? The angels also proclaim the same truth. For by exclaiming: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace,” with these words they glorified Him who is the Creator of the highest, i.e. heavenly things, and the Creator of everything on earth, who to all creation, i.e. people, sent His mercy of salvation from heaven. Therefore, “and the shepherds, he says, returned, glorifying God for all that they heard and saw, as it was told to them” (Luke 2:20). For the shepherds of Israel glorified no other God, but Him who was preached by the law and the prophets, the Creator of all things, whom the angels also glorified. If the angels from the Octomeric glorified one God, and the shepherds - another, then the angels from the Octomericity brought them error, not the truth. 5. Further, Luke says about the Lord: “When the days of purification were fulfilled, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him before the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, that every male child who opens the womb should be dedicated to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice, as it is said in the law of the Lord, two turtle doves or two chicks of doves” (Luke 2:22-24); and he himself very clearly calls Him who gave the law Lord. And “Simeon,” he says, blessed God and said: “Now You are sending Your servant away, O Lord, in peace, for my eyes have seen Your Salvation, which You have prepared in the face of all nations, the Light to enlighten the Gentiles and the Glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:26-32). And “Anna the prophetess,” he says, in a similar way “glorified God” when she saw Christ, and “spoke about Him to everyone who was waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:36, 38). All this proves that there is One God, who, through the coming of His Son, reveals to people a new dispensation of freedom, a new covenant. 6. Therefore, Mark, the interpreter and companion of Peter, began his Gospel writing this way: “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets: Behold, I am sending My angel before Your face, who will prepare Your way” 22 . “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make the paths straight before our God” (Mark 1:1, etc.). He clearly calls the beginning of the Gospel the words of the holy prophets, and Whom they confessed as Lord and God, He shows Him to be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who promised Him to send His messenger before Him: this was John, in the spirit and power of Elijah, crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make the paths straight before our God.” The prophets did not proclaim one God or another, but the One and the Same, although with different designations and under many names, for the Father is diverse and rich, as I showed in the previous book, and subsequently I will prove this from the prophets themselves. At the end of the Gospel, Mark says: “So the Lord, after speaking with them, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God” (Mk. 16:19), confirming what the prophet said: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, while I make your enemies your footstool” (Ps. 109:1). Thus, the same God and Father, Whom the prophets proclaimed, preaches the Gospel, Whom we Christians honor and love with all our hearts, as the Creator of heaven and earth and everything that is in them. Evidence from the Gospel of St. John. There are four Gospels – no more, no less. 1. This faith is proclaimed by John, the disciple of the Lord, and through the proclamation of the Gospel he intends to eliminate the error sown among the people of Cerinthus and even earlier by the so-called Nicolaitans, who are a branch of falsely called knowledge (gnosis), in order to shame them and convince them that there is One God, who created all things by His Word, and not that, as they say, there was another Creator, another Father of the Lord, and another Son the Creator, and another Christ from above, who seemed to remain uninvolved in suffering, descended on Jesus, the Son of the Creator, and again flew off to His Pleroma; and the Only Begotten is the Beginning, and the Word is the true Son of the Only Begotten; and as if this creation, to which we also belong, was created not by the first God, but by some power, far inferior to Him and separated from communication with that which is invisible and ineffable. Since the disciple of the Lord wanted to eliminate such teachings and establish in the Church the rule of truth that One Almighty God, who created everything visible and invisible with His Word, and at the same time show that through the Word, through which God accomplished creation, He granted salvation to created people, he began his teaching in the Gospel like this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; It was with God in the beginning. Everything happened through Him, and without Him nothing happened. What happened, for this purpose there was life in Him” 23, and life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend Him” (John 1:1, etc.). “Everything, he says, came into being through Him”: and “everything” also includes the creation around us, for it is impossible to concede to them (the heretics) that by “everything” they mean what is inside their Pleroma. For if this creation also contains their Pleroma, then it, as I showed in the previous book 24, is not outside it; if it is outside the Pleroma, which, however, turned out to be impossible, then their Pleroma is no longer “everything”; This means that this vast creation is not outside (Pleroma). 2. However, John himself rejects all disputes about this, saying: “He was in this world, and the world came into being through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:10, 11). According to Marcion and others like him, the world was not created by Him, and He came not to His own, but to strangers. And according to some Gnostics, this world was created by angels, and not through the Word of God. According to the Valentinians, he was created not through Him, but through the Dimiurge. For He (the Savior) made images in the likeness of the things above, as they say; and Dimiurge created the world. They say that He, the Lord and the author of the dispensation of this creation, by whom this world was created, was produced by the Mother. whereas the Gospel clearly says that all things were created through the Word, which was in the beginning with God; and this is “the Word,” he says, “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). 3. According to them, neither the Word became flesh, nor Christ, nor the Savior composed of all (eons). For they think that the Word and Christ did not come into this world; The Savior also did not become incarnate and did not suffer, but in the form of a dove descended on Jesus, who was in the economy, and, announcing the unknown Father, ascended again to Pleroma. Some say that being in the dispensation, Jesus became incarnate and suffered, and that He passed through Mary like water through a pipe; others call Him the son of Dimiurge, upon whom Jesus, who was in the dispensation, descended; and others say that Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary, and that the heavenly Christ descended on Him, bodiless and passionless. But none of the heretics says that the Word of God became flesh. For. if anyone examines the systems of all of them, he will find that the Word of God and the heavenly Christ appear in all of them as disembodied and not involved in suffering. Some think that He appeared as a transfigured Man, but was neither born nor incarnate; others, on the contrary, that He did not take on human form, but descended like a dove on Jesus, who was born of Mary. The falsity of all these witnesses is shown by the disciple of the Lord, saying: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” 4. And so that we do not ask what kind of God the Word became flesh, he himself shows in advance with the words: “There was a man sent from God—his name was John; he came for testimony, to testify about the Light” (John 1:6). From what God was John the Baptist sent, testifying to the Light? From the same One, whose angel is Gabriel, who brought the joyful news of His birth, who through the prophets promised to send before the face of His Son a messenger who would prepare the way for Him, i.e. will testify to the Light, “in the spirit and power of Elijah.” And what kind of God was Elijah, a servant and prophet? The One who created heaven and earth, as he himself confesses (See 1 Kings 18:36). Sent by the Creator and Creator of this world, how could John testify to that Light that came down from the invisible and unnameable? For all the heretics decided that the Dimiurge does not know his highest power, of which John turns out to be a witness and messenger. Therefore, the Lord said that he was “more than a prophet” (Matt. 11:6; Luke 7:26). For all the other prophets heralded the coming of the Light of the Father and desired to be worthy to see Him Whom they preached; and John foretold as others did, and saw him who came, and pointed him out, and persuaded many to believe in him, so that he was both a prophet and an apostle. And this means “more than a prophet,” because “first are apostles, second are prophets” (1 Cor. 12:28); yet from the same God. 5. Good is the wine 25 which was produced by God in the vineyard and was drunk first; for none of those who drank it blasphemed, and the Lord Himself tasted of it: but much better was the wine that was quickly and simply made by the Word from water for the use of those gathered for the wedding. For although the Lord could, without any created substance, deliver wine for the feasting and satisfy the hungry with food, He did not do so, but took the bread produced by the earth and gave thanks (John 6:11) "," and another time turning water into wine, He fed those who reclined and gave drink to those invited to the wedding, and thereby showed that God, who created the earth, commanded it to bear fruit, and created waters and brought forth springs, - He in the last times, through His Son, gives to the human race the blessing of food and the grace of drink, - He is incomprehensible through the comprehensible, invisible through the visible, because He does not exist outside, but in the bosom of the Father. 6. “No one has ever seen God,” he says; only the Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, made Him known” (John 1:18). The Invisible Father will be revealed to everyone by the Son who is in His bosom. Therefore, those to whom the Son has revealed Him know Him, and again the Father, through the Son, gives knowledge of His Son to those who love Him. From Him Nathanael was taught and came to know Him, to whom the Lord gave testimony that He was “a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile” (John 1:47). The Israeli recognized his King, which is why he said to Him: “Rabbi! You are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel." From Him Peter was taught and recognized Christ as the Son of the Living God, who says: “Behold my beloved Son, in whom I delight: I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim judgment to the nations. He will not contradict or cry, and no one will hear His voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed and will not quench the smoking flax, until he brings judgment to victory, and the nations will trust in His name” (John 1:49; 6:69; Matt. 12:18; Isaiah 42:1). 7. These are the first principles of the Gospels: they preach that there is One God, the Creator of this universe, who was announced by the prophets and through Moses established the law, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and besides Him they know no other God and no other Father. And the reliability of these Gospels is so great that the heretics themselves give them testimony, and, based on them, each of them tries to confirm his teaching. For the Ebionites, who use only the Gospel of Matthew, are convicted from it itself of their wrong concepts about the Lord. Marcion, having circumcised the Gospel of Luke, with the remnants of this Gospel preserved by him, is revealed as a blasphemer against the One God. Those who separate Jesus from Christ, and say that Christ remained uninvolved in suffering, and Jesus suffered, giving preference to the Gospel of Mark, can be corrected if they read it with love for the truth. The followers of Valentinus, who fully use the Gospel of John to confirm their connections, can be convicted from it that they are not saying anything correctly, as I showed in the first book. Therefore, when our opponents give us evidence and use the same (sources), then our evidence, borrowed from them, is firm and true. 8. It is impossible for there to be more or fewer Gospels than there are. For, since there are four countries of the world in which we live, and four main winds, and since the Church is scattered throughout the whole earth, and the pillar and foundation of the Church is the Gospel and the Spirit of life, then it must have four pillars, breathing incorruption from everywhere and reviving people. From this it is clear that the Word, who organizes all things, sits on the Cherubim and contains all things, having revealed himself to men, gave us the Gospel in four forms, but permeated by one Spirit. Just as David, praying for His appearance, says: “You who sit on the Cherubim appear” (Ps. 79:1). For the Cherubim have four faces and their faces are images of the activity of the Son of God. “The first animal,” it is said, “is like a lion” (Apoc. 4:7) and characterizes His effectiveness, dominion and royal power; “the second is like an ox,” and means His sacred and priestly dignity; “the third had the face of a man,” and clearly depicts His appearance as a man; “the fourth is like a flying eagle”; and indicates the gift of the Spirit moving over the Church. Therefore, the Gospels agree on what Christ Jesus sits on. For one of them sets forth His original, efficient, and glorious birth from the Father, saying thus: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. And everything happened through Him, and without Him nothing happened” (John 1:1). Therefore, this Gospel is full of all authenticity, for such is its character. The Gospel of Luke, bearing a priestly character, begins with the priest Zechariah making a sacrifice to God. For the well-fed calf was already ready, which was to be slain in order to obtain a younger son. Matthew announces His human birth, saying: “The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham.” And also: “The birth of Jesus Christ was like this” (Matthew 1:1,18). This Gospel depicts His humanity; therefore, throughout the Gospel He appears to be a humbly sensitive and meek person. And Mark begins with the prophetic Spirit coming from above to people, saying: “The beginning of the gospel, as it is written in the prophet Isaiah” (Mk. 1, 1), and indicates the winged image of the Gospel; therefore, he made a condensed and cursory account, for such is the prophetic Spirit. And the Word of God Himself conversed with the patriarchs who were before Moses in accordance with His Divinity and glory, and for those under the law It represented the priestly and liturgical rank, after which, having become man, He sent down the gift of the Holy Spirit to the whole earth, covering us with His wings. As is the mode of action of the Son of God, such is the form of the animals, and as is the form of the animals, such is the character of the Gospels. The animals are four-shaped, and the Gospel and the activity of the Lord are four-shaped. And, therefore, four main covenants were given to humanity: one under Adam before the flood, the other after the flood under Noah 26; the third is the legislation under Moses, the fourth, which renews man and reduces everything in itself, through the Gospel, lifting and, as if on wings, lifting people into the Kingdom of Heaven. 9. In this state of affairs, all those who distort the idea of ​​the Gospel and introduce more or less forms of the Gospel than have been said are vain and ignorant and, moreover, impudent - some in order to seem as if they have found more than the truth, others in order to reproach the orders of God 27 . For Marcion, rejecting the whole Gospel, and even himself, cutting himself off from the Gospel, boasts that he has a part (in blessing) of the Gospel. Others 28, 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 promised to send the Comforter; but at the same time they reject both the Gospel and the prophetic Spirit. The truly unfortunate ones who wish to be false prophets, of course. but they reject the gift of prophecy from the Church: they act like those who 130, because of those who come hypocritically, withdraw even from communion with the brethren. It is clear that such people (Montanists) do not accept the Apostle Paul. For in his letter to the Corinthians he spoke deliberately about prophetic gifts and knows men and women who prophesy to the Church 131. Because of all this, when they sin against the Spirit of God, they fall into the unforgivable sin. The followers of Valentine, without any fear, offer their writings and boast that they have more Gospels than there are. They have reached such insolence that they title their recent work “The Gospel of Truth,” although it in no way agrees with the Gospels of the Apostles, so that they do not even have a Gospel without blasphemy. For, if the name Gospel put forward is true, and yet is not at all similar to those that were handed down to us by the Apostles, then those who wish can find out - as the scriptures themselves show - that it is not the Gospel of Truth handed down to us by the Apostles. And that those Gospels alone are true and reliable and there cannot be any more or less than those mentioned above, I have already proven this with many arguments. For when God created everything harmoniously and in accordance, it was necessary for the Gospel to have a well-ordered and coherent appearance. Having examined the opinion of those who gave us the Gospel, on the basis of their own principles, let us now move on to the other Apostles and examine their teaching about God, and then listen to the words of the Lord Himself. 1. The Apostle Peter, after the resurrection of the Lord and His ascension into heaven, wishing to complete the number of twelve apostles and to accept another in the place of Judas, who would be chosen by God, said this to those present: “Men and brethren! it was necessary to fulfill (the word) of the Scripture, which the Holy Spirit predicted through the mouth of David about Judas, who became the leader of those who took Jesus, for he was numbered with us: ... let his court be empty, and let there be no one living in it; and let another take his dignity” (Acts 1:16, 17, 20; Ps. 68:26; 108:8), and arranges for the replenishment of the Apostles in accordance with the words of David. When later the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples, so that they all prophesied and spoke in tongues, and some laughed at them as if they were drunk on wine, then Peter said that they were not drunk, since it was the third hour of the day, but this is what was said by the prophet: “It will come to pass in the last days, says the Lord, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and they will prophesy” (Joel 2:28). So God, through the prophet, promised to send His Spirit to the human race, He sent it to him, and Peter proclaims that God Himself fulfilled His promise. 2. For Peter said: “Men of Israel! listen to my words 29: Jesus of Nazareth, a man testified among you by God with the powers, wonders and signs that God did through Him among you, as you yourselves know, Him, according to the definite advice and foreknowledge of God, 30 betrayed, by the hands of the wicked they nailed him to death; but God raised Him up, breaking away the diseases of hell 31 because it was impossible for Him to hold Him. For David says of Him: I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand, so that I should not be shaken; therefore my heart rejoices and my tongue is glad, even my flesh rests in hope. For You will not leave my soul in hell, nor will You allow Your holy one to see corruption” (Acts 2:22-27; Ps. 15:8). Then he boldly tells them about the patriarch David, that he died and was buried, and they have his tomb to this day. “Being a prophet,” he said, “and knowing that God promised with an oath that he would sit on His throne from the fruit of his womb 32, he foreseeingly said about the resurrection of Christ that He was not left 33 in hell, and His flesh did not see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, of which we are all witnesses. He, having been exalted by the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, poured out this gift 34 which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into heaven; but he himself says: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool. Know therefore surely, all the house of Israel, that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:30-37). When the crowds said, “What should we do?” Peter tells them: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Thus, the Apostles did not proclaim another God and not another Fullness (to the Pleroma), and (they did not say) that one Christ suffered and rose again, and another flew to the heights and remained uninvolved in suffering, but that one and the same God the Father and Christ Jesus, risen from the dead, preached faith in Him to those who did not believe in the Son of God and from prophecies convinced them that Christ, whom God promised to send, He sent in Jesus, whom they crucified and God raised. 3. Again, when Peter, together with John, saw at the doors of the church, called beautiful, a man lame from birth, who was sitting and begging for alms, he said to him: “I have no silver and gold; But what I have, I give it to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth: get up and walk. And immediately his feet and knees became strong, and he began to walk, and entered the church with them, walking, jumping and praising God” (Acts 3:6-8). When a crowd gathered towards them from all sides due to an unexpected event, Peter said to them: “Men of Israel! Why are you amazed at this, and why do you look at us as if we, by our own strength, did what he could do? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Son, whom you delivered up to judgment” 35 and whom you denied before Pilate when he wanted to release Him. But you became hardened” 36 against the Holy and Righteous One and asked to give you a murderer husband; and the Chief of life was killed. This one God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And by faith in His name, His name strengthened him whom you see and know, and the faith that came from Him granted him healing before you all. And now, brethren, I know that out of ignorance you committed evil.”37 God, as he foretold through the mouth of all the prophets that His Christ would suffer, did so. Therefore, repent and be converted, so that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come to you from the presence of the Lord, and may He send Jesus Christ, who was destined for you, whom heaven was to keep until the times of fulfillment of all that God had spoken through his holy prophets.”38 Moses said to our fathers: The Lord your God will raise up for you from among your brothers a prophet like me; obey him in everything he tells you. And it will come to pass that every soul that does not listen to that prophet will be cut off from the people. And all the (prophets) from Samuel and after him, no matter how many they spoke, also foretold these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham: And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. To you first, God, having raised His Son” 39, sent Him to bless you, so that everyone would also turn from their evil deeds “” (Acts 3:12-26). Peter spoke a clear sermon to them together with John, preaching that the promise that God gave to the fathers was fulfilled through Jesus, and not another God, he proclaims, but brings to the attention of Israel the Son of God, who became Man and suffered, and preaches in Jesus the resurrection from the dead and points out that everything that the prophets announced about the suffering of Christ, God has fulfilled. 4. Therefore, again, when the leaders of the priests gathered, he boldly said: “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel! If today you demand from us an answer for a benefit to a weak person, through which he became healthy, then let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him he stands before you healthy. He is the stone that was neglected by you builders, but became the head of the corner” 40. And there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:8-12). So the Apostles did not change God, but proclaimed to the people that Christ is Jesus crucified, Whom the same God raised, Who sent the prophets and gave salvation to people in Him. 5. When, embarrassed by the example of healing, “for more than forty years,” says Scripture, “it happened to the man on whom this miracle of healing happened” (Acts 4:22), and by the teaching of the Apostles and the presentation of the prophecies, the high priests released Peter and John, then (the latter) returned to the other co-apostles and disciples of the Lord, that is, to the church, and told what had happened and how they acted boldly in the name of Jesus. “And when they heard”—the whole church—“with one accord they lifted up their voices to God and said: Lord, You are God, having created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, Who through the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said: Why are the Gentiles rebelled and the nations plotting vain things? The kings of the earth appeared and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For, truly, Herod and Pontius Pilate with the pagans and the people of Israel were gathered in this city against Your Holy Son Jesus, whom You anointed. to do what Thy hand and Thy will have predestined to be” (Acts 4:24-28). These are the voices of the Church, from which every church received its origin; these are the voices of the metropolis of the citizens of the New Testament; such are the voices of the Apostles; These are the voices of the Lord’s disciples, made perfect by the Holy Spirit after the Ascension of the Lord; They called on God, who created heaven and earth and the sea, Who was proclaimed by the prophets, and His Son Jesus, Whom God showed, but they do not know another (God). For there was then neither Valentine, nor Marcion, nor the rest of those who corrupted themselves and those who follow them. Therefore, God, the Creator of all, heard them. For it is said: “The place where they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31) to everyone who wanted to believe. “With great power the Apostles gave testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Acts 4:33), saying to them: “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you took and killed by hanging on a tree. God exalted him to be the Leader and Savior of His right hand” 41 in order to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel; and we are witnesses to these words, and also the Holy Spirit, whom God gave to those who believe in Him” (Acts 5:30). “And every day,” they say, “in the church and from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching the gospel about Jesus Christ” (Acts 5:42), the Son of God. For such was the knowledge of salvation; which makes perfect before God those who acknowledge the coming of His Son. 6. But since some of them (heretics) shamelessly say that the Apostles, preaching to the Jews, could not proclaim to them any other God than the one in whom they (the Jews) believed, then I will tell them that if the Apostles spoke in accordance with the opinion previously rooted in people, then no one learned the truth from them, and even before from the Lord Himself, for He, according to them, spoke in the same way. This means that they themselves do not know the truth, but having such an opinion about God, they accepted the teaching as they could hear it. According to this reasoning, no one will have the rule of truth, but all students will impute to everyone (teachers), so that as each of them thinks and is able to understand, so it will be spoken to him. But the coming of the Lord will turn out to be unnecessary and useless if He came in order to allow and preserve everyone’s previous opinion about God. Moreover, it was much more difficult to proclaim that the one whom the Jews saw as a man and nailed to the cross was Christ the Son of God, their eternal King. And if this was so, then (the Apostles) told them not in accordance with their previous opinion. Those who told them to their faces that they were the murderers of the Lord would themselves much more boldly proclaim that Father who is higher than the Dimiurge, and would not conform to how someone thought (about God); and it would have been even less sinful if they had not nailed the heavenly Savior to the cross, to whom they must ascend, since He was not involved in suffering. For just as they spoke to the pagans not according to their previous concepts, but boldly said that their gods were not gods, but idols of demons, so they would have proclaimed to the Jews if they had known another greater and more perfect Father, without feeding or strengthening their false opinion about God. And destroying the delusion of the pagans and turning them away from their gods, they did not introduce another delusion to them, but by eliminating those who were not gods, they revealed the One and Only God and True Father. 7. From the words of Peter, which he said in Caesarea to the centurion Cornelius and to the pagans who were with him, to whom the Word of God was first proclaimed, we can understand what the apostles proclaimed, what their preaching was, and what concept they had about God. This Cornelius was, it is said, a man “pious and fearful of God with all his household, who gave much alms to the people and always prayed to God.” About the ninth hour of the day he saw an Angel of God who came to him and said: “Your alms have come as a memorial before God. Therefore we went to Simon, called Peter” (Acts 10:1-5). Peter saw a revelation in which a heavenly voice told him: “What God has purified, do not call unclean” (Acts 10:15), that is, God, who established in the law the distinction between clean and unclean, He, whom Cornelius also honored, cleansed the pagans with the blood of His Son. Peter came (to Cornelius) and said: “Truly I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation whoever fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him” (Acts. 10, 34, 35), clearly showing that God, Whom Cornelius formerly feared, about whom he heard through the law and the prophets, and for whose sake he did alms, is truly God. But he lacked the knowledge of the Son. Therefore, (Peter) added: “You know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism preached by John, how God, by the Holy Spirit and with power, showed Jesus of Nazareth, and He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him. And we are witnesses to everything that He did in the land of Judea and in Jerusalem: they finally killed Him, hanging him on a tree. This one God raised up on the third day and gave Him to appear not to all the people, but to us, witnesses chosen before by God, who ate and drank with Him after His resurrection from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people and testify that He is the Judge predestined by God of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about Him that whoever believes in Him receives remission of sins through His name” (Acts 10:37-44). Therefore, the Apostles proclaimed the Son of God, whom people did not know, and His coming to those who had previously been taught about God, but they did not introduce another God. For if Peter had known anything like this, he would have freely preached to the pagans that there is one God of the Jews, and another God of the Christian, and no matter what he told them, everyone, struck by the vision of the Angel, would have believed. From the words of Peter it is clear that he preserved God, previously known to them, but testified to them that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Judge of the living and the dead, into whom he commanded them to be baptized for the remission of sins, and not only that, but he also testified that Jesus is the Son of God Himself, who, being also anointed with the Holy Spirit, is called Jesus Christ. And He is the same one who was born of Mary, as the testimony of Peter says. Could it be that Peter did not even then have the perfect “knowledge” that these people later invented? It turns out that Peter is imperfect and the other Apostles are imperfect, and they should come to life and become disciples of these (heretics) in order to also become perfect. But this is of course funny. These people turn out to be disciples not of the Apostles, but of their own evil teaching. That is why the opinions of each of them are so different, because he internalized the error as he was capable of it. But the Church throughout the world, having a firm beginning from the Apostles, remains in the same teaching about God and His Son. 8. Again: whom did Philip proclaim to the eunuch of the queen of Ethiopia, who was returning from Jerusalem and reading the prophet Isaiah, when he was alone with him? Is it not the One about whom the prophet said: “As a sheep is led to the slaughter, and as a lamb is silent before its shearers, so He does not open His mouth. Who can explain His generation? for His life will be taken from the earth” (Acts 8:26–32; Isa. 53:7, 8); and that this is Jesus; and in Him the Scripture was fulfilled, as the eunuch himself believed and immediately demanding to be baptized said: “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God” (Acts 8:37). He was sent to the countries of Ethiopia to preach what he himself believed - that there is One God, proclaimed by the prophets, and His Son appeared as a man, and was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and so on, what the prophets say about Him. 9. And Paul himself - after the Lord spoke to him from heaven and showed that he was persecuting his Master, persecuting His disciples, and sent Ananias to him so that he could receive his sight and be baptized - “preached - they say - in the synagogues in Damascus with all boldness about Jesus, that He is the Christ the Son of God" (Acts 9:20). This is a mystery, which, as he says, was announced to him through revelation, namely, that those who suffered under Pontius Pilate are the Lord of all, the King, God and Judge, who received power from the God of all, because “he was obedient even to death, even death on the cross (Phil. 2:8).” And since this is true, he, preaching the gospel to the Athenians in the Areopagus, where in the absence of the Jews he could freely preach the true God, said to them: “God, who created the world and everything in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in churches made with hands, and is not embraced” 42 by human hands, as if he needed anything, Himself giving to everything life, breath and everything. From one blood He brought forth the entire human race to inhabit the face of the whole earth, predetermining times in accordance with the limits of their habitation” 43, so that they would seek the Divine if in any way they could feel or find Him, although He is not far from each of us. For in Him we live, move, and have our being, just as some of you also said, “We are His generation.” So, being the race of God, we should not think that the Divinity is like gold, or silver, or stone, which received an image from art, or the whim of man. So, leaving the times of ignorance, God now commands people everywhere to repent; for He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through the Man Jesus, of which He has given evidence by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:24-32). In this place, he proclaims to them, in the absence of the Jews, not only that God is the Creator of the world, but also that He has brought forth one human race to inhabit the whole earth, just as Moses says: “When the Most High divided the nations after the scattering of the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God” (Deut. 32, 8); but the people who believe in God are no longer under the authority of angels, but of the Lord. “For the people of Jacob became the Lord's inheritance, Israel a part of His inheritance (Deut. 32:9). And again, when Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra in Lycia” 44 and made a man lame from birth in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ able to walk, and when the crowd wanted to honor them as gods for such a wondrous deed, he said to them: “We are men like you and bring you the good news of God, in order to turn you from those vain idols to the living God, who created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, who in times past He allowed all nations to walk in their own ways, although He did not cease to testify about Himself with His good deeds, giving you rain from heaven and fruitful times, filling your hearts with food and joy” (Acts 14:15-17). And that all his Epistles agree with these sermons, I will prove this from the Epistles themselves in the proper place, explaining the Apostle. If, to strengthen the evidence, I cite passages from the Scriptures, and what is said in them in various ways, I convey briefly and concisely, then generously pay attention to them and do not consider this as verbosity, understanding that the evidence found in the Scriptures cannot be presented otherwise than from the Scriptures themselves. 10. Further, Stephen, the first chosen by the Apostles to be a deacon, the first of all people to follow in the footsteps of the martyrdom of the Lord, since he was the first to be killed for confessing Christ, boldly spoke to the people and taught, saying: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham and said to him: get out of your land and from your kindred, and go to the land that I will show you; and he moved him to this land, in which you still live, and did not give him an inheritance in it, not even one foot, but promised to give it as a possession to him and to his seed after him. And God told him that his seed would wander in a foreign land and would be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years; but I, God said, will execute judgment on the people to whom they will be in slavery, and after that they will come out and serve Me in this place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so he (Abraham) begat Isaac” (Acts 7:2–8). And the rest of his words proclaim the same God who was with Joseph and with the patriarchs, who also spoke with Moses. 11. And that all the teaching of the Apostles proclaimed one and the same God, who translated Abraham, gave him the promise of an inheritance, established the covenant of circumcision at the proper time, called him out of Egypt, obviously preserving him through circumcision - for He gave it for a sign, so that they would not be like the Egyptians - (and He was proclaimed) as the Creator of all things, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as God fame; Those who wish can learn this from the very speeches and deeds of the Apostles and see that He alone is God and there is no other (God) higher than Him. If another God were higher than Him, then through comparison, on the basis of superiority, we would say that This One is higher than that. For excellence is revealed by deeds, as I said before 45; and since they (the heretics) cannot indicate a single work of their Father, then That One turns out to be God. If anyone is “infected with a passion for competition” (1 Tim. 6, 4), what was said by the Apostles about God, is considered an allegory, then let him consider my above words, in which I showed the One God, the Creator and Maker of everything, and refuted and exposed their positions; and he will find that they agree with the teaching of the Apostles and affirm what they taught and were convinced of - that God alone is the Creator of everything; and when he rejects from his thoughts such great error and blasphemy against God, he will find the basis within himself and will know that the law of Moses and the grace of the New Testament, both in accordance with the times, were given for the benefit of the human race by the same God. 12. For all those who are ill-minded, on the basis of the legislation of Moses, thinking that it is dissimilar and contrary to the teaching of the Gospel, did not try to investigate the reasons for the difference between the two Testaments. Abandoned by paternal love and filled with Satan, turning to the teachings of Simon the Magus, they retreated in their thoughts from the One who is God, and imagined that they had found something greater than the Apostles, inventing another God, and that the Apostles, still holding Jewish opinions, preached the Gospel, and they were sincere and wiser than the Apostles. Therefore, Marcion and his followers turned to truncation of the Scriptures, not recognizing some of them at all, 46 and abbreviating the Gospel of Luke and the Epistles of Paul and considering only as authentic what they thus abridged. But I, with the help of God, will refute them in another work 47 on the basis of what they still retain. All others, arrogant under the false name of “knowledge,” although they recognize the Scriptures, distort their interpretation, as I showed in the first book. And the followers of Marcion directly blaspheme the Creator, attributing to Him the creation of evil, but they have a more tolerable teaching regarding His beginning, recognizing two different gods by nature, one good and the other evil; and the Valentinians, although they use specious names and call the Creator (Dimiurge) both Father, and Lord, and God, but they contain a more blasphemous doctrine or sect, claiming that He was not produced by any of the aeons located within the Pleroma, but by that defect that was expelled from the Pleroma. They were drawn into all this by ignorance of the Scriptures and the economy of God. In the following discussion I will give both the reason for the difference between the Testaments and, on the other hand, their unity and agreement. 13. Since both the Apostles and their disciples taught as the Church preaches, and they taught so perfectly, because they were called to perfection, Stephen, teaching the same, saw, while still on earth, the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God and said: “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). He said this and was stoned and thus fulfilled the perfect teaching, imitating the Teacher in all his martyrdom and praying for those who killed him, with the words: “Lord, do not impute this sin to them” (Acts 7:60). So those were perfect who knew the One and the same God, from beginning to end inherent in the human race through various orders, as the prophet Hosea says: “I fulfilled the visions and was indicated by the hands of the prophets” (Hosea 12:10). Those who gave up their souls even to death for the Gospel of Christ, how could they speak to people in accordance with their deep-rooted opinions? If they did this, they would not suffer; but because they preached the opposite to people who disagreed with the truth, they suffered. So, it is obvious that they did not abandon the truth, but with all boldness they preached to the Jews and Greeks - to the Jews that Jesus, crucified by them, is the Son of God, the Judge of the living and the dead, and that He received from the Father an eternal Kingdom in Israel, as I have shown, and to the Greeks they proclaimed the One God, who created all things, and His Son Jesus Christ. 14. This is clearer from the Epistle of the Apostles, which they sent neither to Jews nor to Greeks, but to those who believed in Christ from among the pagans. For when some of the Jews came to Antioch, in which also, first of all, the disciples of the Lord, by faith in Christ, began to be called Christians, and convinced those who believed in the Lord to be circumcised and to fulfill other regulations of the law, and Paul and Barnabas on this issue came to Jerusalem to the other apostles and the whole Church gathered together, then Peter said to them: “Men and brethren! you know that from the days of old God chose from among you” 48 that from my mouth the Gentiles might hear the Word of the Gospel and believe; and God, the knower of the heart, gave them testimony, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us, and did not make any difference between us and them, purifying their hearts with faith. Why are you now tempting God to place a yoke on the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we could bear? But we believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we can be saved, just as they were” (Acts 15:7-11). “After him Jacob said: Men and brethren! Simon explained how God decided to take a people from the pagans in His name. And thus” 49 the words of the prophets agree, as it is written: Then I will turn and rebuild the fallen tabernacle of David, and what is destroyed in it I will build and raise it up, so that other people and all the nations among whom My name is called will seek the Lord, says the Lord who does this” (Amos 11:11-12) 50. His work has been known to God from eternity” 51 . Therefore, for my part, I believe not to make it difficult for those who turn to God among the pagans, but to command them to abstain from the vanities of idols” 52, from fornication and from blood, and not to do to others what they do not want for themselves” (Acts 15:14-20). And after this was said and everyone agreed, they wrote to them like this: “Apostles and elders (and) brethren, greetings to the pagan brethren who are in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia. Because we have heard that some who went out from us troubled you with their speeches, crushing your souls, saying that you must be circumcised and keep the law, which we did not command them; Then we, having gathered together, decided to send to you chosen men with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, people who gave up their souls for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we have sent Judas and Silas, who will explain our opinion to you verbally. For it pleases the Holy Spirit and us not to place any more burden on you except this necessary: ​​abstain from sacrifices to idols and blood and fornication, and do not do to others what you do not want for yourself; from which, by guarding yourself, you will do well, walking in the Holy Spirit” (Acts 15:23-29). From all this it is obvious that they did not teach about the existence of another God, but gave a new covenant of freedom to those who had recently believed in God through the Holy Spirit. And by their inquiry into whether or not the disciples should be circumcised, they clearly showed that they had no idea of ​​another God. 15. In this case, they would not have such fear regarding the first Testament that they would not even want to eat with the pagans. For Peter, although he was sent to instruct them and was prompted to do so by a vision, nevertheless spoke to them with great fear: “You know that it is forbidden for a Jew to communicate or associate with a foreigner, but God revealed to me that I should not consider a single person bad or unclean; therefore I came without question” (Acts 10, 28, 29), showing with these words that he would not have gone to them if he had not been commanded. In the same way, he would not have given them baptism so easily if he had not heard that they were prophesying, since the Holy Spirit rested on them. And therefore he said: “Who can forbid those who have received the Holy Spirit, just as we have, to be baptized with water” (Acts 10:47)? - inspiring those who were with him and showing that if the Holy Spirit had not rested on them, then someone could have forbidden their baptism. And the Apostles who were with James allowed the pagans to act freely, leaving us to the Spirit of God. They themselves, knowing the same God, adhered to their former customs, so that Peter, fearing to be reproached by them, although he had previously eaten with the pagans because of the vision and the Spirit that rested on them, however, he separated from them and did not eat with them when some people came from Jacob; According to Paul (Gal. 2:12, 13), Barnabas did the same. Thus, the Apostles, whom the Lord made witnesses of all His activities and all teaching - for Peter, James and John are everywhere with Him - acted reverently in relation to the order of the Law of Moses, showing that it came from the same God. But they would not have done this, as I have already said, if they had been taught from the Lord that there is another father besides the One who established the law. A refutation of the opinion that Paul alone of the Apostles knew the truth. 1. As for those who say that Paul alone knew the truth, and the sacrament was revealed to him (only) through revelation, Paul himself will reprove them when he says that the same God assisted Peter in his apostleship to the circumcision and to him among the Gentiles (Gal. 2:8). Peter, therefore, was an apostle of the same God, Whom also Paul, and Whom Peter proclaimed among the circumcision as God and the Son of God, Him also Paul (preached) among the Gentiles. For our Lord did not come to save Paul alone, and God is not so poor. to have only one apostle who would know the order of His Son. And Paul, saying: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, those who bring good news of peace” (Rom. 10:15; Is. 52:7), clearly showed that not one, but many preached the truth. And also in the letter to the Corinthians, having listed those who saw God after His resurrection, he added: “So, whether I or they, this is how we preach, and this is how you believed” (1 Cor. 15:11), recognizing that the same sermon is shared by all those who saw God after the resurrection from the dead. 2. And the Lord, in response to Philip, who wanted to see the Father, said: “I have been with you so long, and you do not know Me, Philip? He who sees Me also sees the Father: how do you say: show us the Father? For I am in the Father and the Father in Me, and from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (John 14:7-10). Therefore, to say that those to whom the Lord gave testimony that they knew and saw the Father in Him did not know the truth, and the Father is the truth, is characteristic of people who bear false witness and are alienated from the teaching of Christ. For why did the Lord send the twelve Apostles to the lost sheep of the house of Israel if they did not know the truth? How did the seventy (Apostles) preach if they themselves did not know the truth of the preaching in advance? Or how could Peter, to whom the Lord gave testimony, not know (the truth) that it was not flesh and blood that was revealed to him, but the Heavenly Father (Matthew 16:17)? And just as “Paul (was) an apostle, not from men, nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father” (Gal. 1:1), (so were the other Apostles), for the Son brought them to the Father, and the Father revealed the Son to them. 3. And that Paul agreed to the demand of those who called him to the Apostles on a question that arose among them, and came to them in Jerusalem with Barnabas, not without reason, but so that the freedom of the pagans could be established by them, he himself speaks about this in his letter to the Galatians: “Then after fourteen years I went to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus with me. “I walked by revelation and told them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles” (Gal. 2:1-2). And he also says: “we yielded and submitted for an hour, so that the truth of the Gospel might be preserved among you” (Gal. 2:5) 54. Therefore, if anyone, on the basis of the Acts of the Apostles, carefully examines the time about which it is written that he came to Jerusalem on the above-mentioned matter, he will find that the years indicated by Paul coincide with it. Thus, Paul’s instruction is consistent and, as it were, identical with Luke’s testimony about the Apostles. About Luke, Paul's companion, and about the features of the Gospel story that are known only through him. 1. And that Luke was Paul’s inseparable (companion) and collaborator in the gospel, he himself declares this, not boasting, but being prompted by the truth itself. For, he says, when Barnabas and John, called Mark, separated from Paul and sailed to Cyprus, then “we came to Troas” (Acts 16:8ff.); and when Paul saw in a dream a man from Macedonia who said: “Come to Macedonia and help us,” he immediately said, “we decided to go to Macedonia, knowing that the Lord was calling us to preach the gospel to them. So, having sailed from Troas, we directed our voyage to Samothrace." And then he carefully shows the rest of his journey to Philippi, and how they spoke the first speech: “Having sat down,” he says, “we talked with the women who had gathered” (Acts 16:13), and who believed and how many. And again he says: “And after the days of unleavened bread we sailed from Philippi and arrived at Troas, where we stayed seven days” (Acts 20:5,6). And he tells all the other details (of his journey) with Paul in order, with all care indicating the places, cities and the number of days until they came to Jerusalem, and what happened to Paul there, how he was sent bound to Rome, the name of the centurion who received him, and the names of the ships, and how they were shipwrecked and on which island they were saved, how they were received kindly, and Paul helped the captain of this island, how from here they sailed to Puteoli and then arrived in Rome and how long they stayed in Rome (Acts 21; 27; 28). Being present at all this, Luke carefully described it in such a way that he could not be convicted of lies or exaltation, because all these (details) prove that he was older than everyone who now teaches differently, and knew the truth. That he was not only a companion, but also a collaborator of the Apostles, especially Paul, Paul himself declared this in his letters, saying: “Demas left me and went to Thessalonica, Crescentus to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, Luke alone with me” (2 Tim. 4:10, 11), and thus shows that he was always with him and was not separated. And in his letter to the Colossians he says: “Luke, the beloved physician, greets you” (Col. 4:14). If Luke, who always preached with Paul, was called “beloved” by him, preached the gospel with him and was authorized by him to convey the Gospel to us, was not taught anything else by him, as is clear from his words, then how do these people, who were never with Paul, boast that they were taught the hidden and ineffable mysteries? 2. And that Paul simply knew, and taught this not only to those who were with him, but also to all who listened to him, this he himself shows. For when the bishops and elders who came from Ephesus and other nearby cities gathered in Miletus, since he hurried to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, testifying to them about many things and speaking about what was about to happen to him in Jerusalem, he added: “I know that you will no longer see my face; Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all. For I did not fail to proclaim to you the whole will of God. Therefore, pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops to rule over the Church of the Lord,” 55 which He purchased for Himself with His own blood” (Acts 20:25-28). Then, pointing to the evil teachers who were about to appear, he said: “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come to you, not sparing the flock. And from among yourselves men will arise speaking false things, in order to draw away the disciples after themselves. “I did not fail,” he said, “to proclaim to you the whole will of God” (Acts 20, 29, 30). So the Apostles simply and without looking at anyone taught everyone what they had been taught from the Lord. So Luke, without looking at anyone, conveyed to us what he learned from them, as he himself testifies when he says: “As those who from the very beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word delivered to us” (Luke 1:2). 3. If anyone eliminates Luke under the pretext that he did not know the truth, he will clearly (through this) reject the Gospel, of which he presents himself as a disciple. For through him we know about very many and necessary things in the Gospel, such as: the birth of John, the story of Zechariah, the coming of the Angel to Mary, the call of Elizabeth, the descent of the angels to the shepherds and the words they spoke, the testimony of Anna and Simeon regarding Christ, that He remained in Jerusalem at the age of twelve, the baptism of John, the number of years of the Lord when He was baptized, and that (it was) in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar; and in his teaching - about what is said to the rich: “Woe to you, you rich! for you have received your consolation." And: “Woe to you, you who are full, for you will hunger; and those who laugh now, for you will weep. Woe to you; when all people will speak well of you, for this is what your fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6:24-26). Through Luke alone we learned about all this kind of circumstances - about many of the actions of the Lord we learned from him, such as are mentioned by everyone (Evangelists): - such as, for example, about the many fish caught by Peter’s companions when, at the command of the Lord, they cast down their nets (Luke 5), about a woman who suffered for eighteen years and was healed on the Sabbath day (Luke 12), and about a man suffering from watery sickness, whom the Lord healed on the Sabbath, and how He defended Himself concerning healing on that day; how He taught the disciples not to covet first places, and that we should call upon the poor and weak, who cannot reward us; about a man who knocked at night to borrow bread and received it because of the urgency of his need (Luke 11); about how, while He was reclining with the Pharisee, the sinner’s wife kissed His feet and anointed Him with ointment, and that in her favor the Lord spoke to Simon about two debtors (Luke 7), also about the parable of the rich man who gathered his entire harvest, and to whom it was said: “This night your soul will be taken from you; who will get what you have prepared” (Lk. 12, 20), and richer about that; who dressed in purple and feasted brilliantly, and about the beggar Lazarus (Luke 16); about the answer that He gave to the disciples when they said to Him: “Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5); about His conversation with Zacchaeus the publican? (Luke 19), about the Pharisee and the tax collector who prayed together in the church (Luke 18), about the ten lepers whom He healed together on the way (Luke 17); about how He commanded the lame and blind to be gathered for marriage from the streets and alleys (Luke 18), and about the parable of the judge, who did not fear God, whom the persistence of a widow forced to protect her (Luke 13), and about the fig tree in the vineyard that did not bear fruit. And many other things can be found that are said only by Luke, and which are used by both Marcion and Valentinus. And above all this (he tells) about what (the Lord), after the Resurrection, spoke to his disciples on the way, and how they recognized Him in the breaking of bread (Luke 24). 4. Therefore, they (the heretics) must necessarily accept everything else that was said to them (Luke) or must reject this too. For no one who has sense will allow them to accept some of what Luke said as true, and reject something as if he did not know the truth. And if the followers of Marcion really reject this, then they will have no Gospel left; and they, shortening the Gospel of Luke, as I said before, 56, boast that they have the Gospel. The followers of Valentinus must stop their extreme idle talk, for from this (the Gospel) they borrowed many bases for their subtle speculations, daring to interpret it poorly; what they were told was good. On the other hand, if they are forced to accept the rest (parts of the Gospels), then, delving into the perfect Gospel and the teaching of the Apostles, they must repent in order to be saved from destruction. Refutation of those who humiliate the Apostle Paul. 1. We present the same thing against those 57 who do not recognize the Apostle Paul: they either must renounce the other words of the Gospel, which have become known to us through Luke alone, and not use them; or if everyone accepts this, then, of necessity, they must also accept that testimony about Paul, when he (Luke) says that the Lord first said to him from heaven: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? I am Jesus Christ, whom you persecute” (Acts 22:8; 26:15), - then Ananias spoke about him: “Go, for he is the vessel chosen by Me, to proclaim My name among the nations and kings and children of Israel. And I will show him from this (time) how much he must suffer for My name” (Acts 9:15,16). Therefore, those who do not recognize him, who was chosen by God in order to boldly proclaim His name, because he was sent to the above-mentioned nations, despise the election of God and excommunicate themselves from communion with the Apostles. For they cannot prove that Paul is not an apostle, when he was chosen for this purpose, nor can they prove that Luke is a liar, while he tells us the truth with all care. Perhaps this is why God did what Luke presented so many Gospel truths that everyone must use, so that everyone, following his subsequent testimony about the acts and teachings of the apostles and having the rule of truth intact, could be saved. So, his testimony is true, and the teaching of the Apostles is clear and firm and does not hide anything, because they did not teach one thing in secret and another openly. 2. Such tricks are characteristic of false teachers, evil deceivers and hypocrites, just as the followers of Valentine do. These people speak to the crowd for the sake of those who belong to the Church, whom they themselves call Catholics 58 and churchmen, and with their speeches they entice the simpler and deceive them; imitating our way of speech so that they are listened to more often; and then they reproach us for the fact that while they think similar to us, we withdraw from communication with them without reason, and while they say the same thing and contain the same teaching, we call them heretics; and when, through their speculations, they turn someone away from the faith and make them their unquestioning listeners, then they separately expound to them the ineffable mystery of their Pleroma. But everyone is deceived who imagines that they are able to distinguish from the truth what is believed in words. For error is tempting and believable and needs embellishment, but truth is unadorned and therefore entrusted to children. If one of their listeners demands an explanation or objects to them, they claim that he is not capable of accepting the truth and does not have above seed from their Mother, and they tell him absolutely nothing, calling him belonging to the middle regions, that is, to spiritual beings. And if someone, like a lamb, surrenders to them and follows their course of action and their “redemption,” then he becomes arrogant and thinks that he is neither in heaven nor on earth, but has entered into the Pleroma itself, and having already united with his angel, he walks vainly and arrogantly like a rooster. Among them there are those who say that a person coming from above should maintain good behavior; That's why they try to appear important in appearance. Very many, having become despisers as if already perfect and living without any respect and with disdain (for everything), call themselves spiritual and say that they already know the place of coolness, which is inside the Pleroma. 3. But let's return to the previous reasoning. When it is clearly shown that the former preachers of truth and apostles of freedom did not call anyone else God and did not call anyone else Lord, except only the true God the Father and the yoke of the Word. ruling in everything, then it should be clear that they confessed as the Lord God the Creator of heaven and earth, who spoke with Moses and gave him the code of the law, who called the fathers, and knew no one else. So, the teaching of both the Apostles and their disciples 59 regarding God became obvious from their words. The teaching of the Apostles about our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God. 1. Some say that Jesus was only the vessel of Christ, into which Christ descended from above like a dove and, showing the nameless Father, entered the Pleroma in an incomprehensible and invisible way - for He was not comprehended not only by people, but also by heavenly authorities and powers - and that Jesus was the Son, and Christ the Father 60, and the Father of Christ is God; others say that He suffered imaginary, being by nature alien to suffering. The Valentinians say that Jesus, who according to the economy, was the one who passed through Mary, and on whom the Savior descended from the high region, who is also called Christ 61, since He has the names of all those who gave birth to Him, and to the one who, according to the economy, communicated His power and His name, so that through him death would be abolished, and the Father would become known through that Savior who came from above, Whom they are also called the friend of Christ and the entire Pleroma, - this is how they confess with their tongue the one Jesus Christ, but are divided in opinion; for, as I have already noted, this is their custom - to say that there was one Christ, produced by the Only Begotten for the strengthening of the Pleroma, another Savior begotten for the glorification of the Father, and still another - the one according to the economy. and of whom they say that he suffered, while the Savior, who bore Christ, returned to Pleroma. Therefore, I find it necessary to cite the entire teaching of the Apostles about our Lord Jesus Christ and show that not only did they not think anything of the kind about Him, but even more so, that they proclaimed by the Holy Spirit that those who would give out such teachings are the messengers of Satan to overthrow the faith of some and to turn them away from life. 2. That John recognized one and the same person as the Word of God, the Only Begotten, incarnate for our salvation - (namely) Jesus Christ our Lord, I have sufficiently shown this from the words of John himself. And Matthew, recognizing the One and Same Jesus Christ, setting forth His birth according to humanity from the Virgin in accordance with how God promised David from the fruit of his womb to raise up an eternal King, having promised the same to Abraham much earlier, says: “the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1); then, in order to free our minds from suspicion regarding Joseph, he says: “The birth of Jesus Christ was like this: after His Mother was betrothed to Joseph, before they were united, it turned out that She was pregnant with the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). Then, when Joseph decided to let Her go, since She was not idle, (Matthew says) an angel appeared to him and said: “Do not be afraid to accept Mary as your wife; for what she has in her womb is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. And this happened, that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled: behold, a virgin will be with child and give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Emmanuel, which means: God is with us” (Matthew 1:20-21); by this he clearly shows that the promise given to the fathers was fulfilled - the Son of God was born from the Virgin, and that this very Savior is Christ; Whom the prophets foretold; and not that, as they (the heretics) say, Jesus is the one who was born of Mary, but Christ came down from above. Of course, Matthew could say: “the birth of Jesus was thus,” but the Holy Spirit, foreseeing the distorters and protecting against their deception, said through Matthew: “the birth of Christ was thus,” and that He is Emmanuel, so that we would not regard Him only as a man, for “not from the will of the flesh, nor from the will of a man, but from the will of God, the Word became flesh” (John 1, 13-14) and so that we do not think that one was Jesus and the other Christ, but recognized one and the same (Jesus Christ). 3. Paul explained this very thing, writing to the Romans: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, predestined unto the gospel of God, which he promised through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his Son, who was made in the flesh of the seed of David, who was predestined (as) the Son of God with power through the Spirit of holiness, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead” (Rom. 1, 1–4). And writing to the Romans about Israel, he says: “theirs are the fathers, and from them is Christ according to the flesh, who is God above all, blessed forever” (Rom. 9:5). And also in the letter to the Galatians he says: “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, made of a Woman, who was under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4-5), - clearly showing that there is One God, who gave the promise through the prophets about the Son, and One Jesus Christ our Lord, who is of the seed of David by His birth of Mary, and that this Jesus Christ is the predestinated Son of God with power through the Spirit of Holiness through the resurrection from the dead, to be to Him the firstborn from the dead, as He is the firstborn in all creation; The Son of God, who became the Son of Man, so that through Him we might receive adoption as sons, because man 62 bears, receives and contains the Son of God. Therefore, Mark says: “the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets” (Mark 1:1), knowing the One and the same Son of God Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed by the prophets, who is Emmanuel from the fruit of the womb of David, “the Messenger of the great council” (Isaiah 9:6) of the Father, through whom God made the east shine and gave righteousness to the house David and raised up for him a horn of salvation (Lk. 1:69) and “established a testimony in Jacob,” as David says, discussing the reasons for His birth, “and laid down a law in Israel, so that another generation might know Him, the children who are born of these, and they, rising up, will tell their sons to place their hope in God and seek His commandments” (Ps. 77:5-7). And again the angel, preaching the gospel to Mary, says: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give Him the throne of David His Father” (Luke 1:32), confessing Himself who is the Son of the Most High, Himself also the Son of David. And David, knowing through the Spirit the order of His coming, according to which He rules over all living and dead, confessed Him as Lord, sitting at the right hand of the Most High Father (Ps. 109:1). 4. And Simeon, who received the promise from the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw Christ Jesus, taking Him in his arms, the firstborn of the Virgin, blessed God and said: “Now you are releasing Your servant, O Master, according to Your Word in peace, for mine eyes have seen Your Salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all nations, a light for the enlightenment of the Gentiles and the Glory of Your people. Israel" (Luke 2:29-32), thereby confessing that the Child, whom he held in his arms, Jesus, born of Mary, He is Christ the Son of God, the Light for all and the Glory of Israel itself, and the peace and tranquility of the departed. For He exposed people, taking away their ignorance, giving them His knowledge and spreading those who knew Him, as Isaiah says: “Call a name, quickly strip, quickly strip” (Is. 8:3). These are the works of Christ. He was Christ, Whom Simeon held and blessed the Most High, Whom the shepherds saw glorified God, Whom John, while still in the womb of his mother, while He was in the womb of Mary, recognized as Lord and greeted by leaping, Whom the wise men saw, bowed and brought Him the gifts I mentioned above, and having prostrated themselves before the Eternal King, they departed another way, not returning the way of the Assyrians. “Before the Child can name his father or mother, He will receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria against the king of Assyria” (Isaiah 8:4) 63, (says Isaiah) mysteriously, but strongly indicating that the Lord struck Amalek with his hidden hand (Exodus 17:16). Therefore, He also snatched up the youths who were in the house of David, who had the happy lot to be born at that time, in order to send them into His Kingdom; Himself being a Child, He prepared martyrs from the infants of men who were, according to the Scriptures, killed for Christ, who was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the city of David. 5. Therefore, the Lord, after His resurrection, said to the disciples: “O foolish ones and slow in heart to believe everything that the prophets said! Isn’t it right for Christ to suffer and enter into his glory” (Luke 24, 25, 26). And he also says to them: “These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything must be fulfilled that was written about Me in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms. Then he opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures, and said to them: “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in His name to all nations” (Luke 24:44-47). And He is born of Mary. “The Son of Man,” He said, “must suffer much, be rejected, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again” (Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22). So, the Gospel does not know another Son of Man except the one born of Mary, who suffered, and not Christ, who left Jesus to suffer: but it knows that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born, and that He Himself suffered and rose again, as John, the disciple of the Lord, confirms, saying: “These are written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and by believing you may have eternal life in His name” (John 20:31). seeing these blasphemous doctrines which divide the Lord, how much depends on them, saying that He came from various substances. Therefore, in his message he testifies to us thus: “children, the last time; and as you have heard that the Antichrist will come, and now many antichrists have appeared, then from this we know that it is the last time. They left us, but they were not ours, for if they were ours, they would have remained with us, but (they also left) it was revealed that they were not ours. Therefore, know that every lie is from outside, and not from the truth. Who is a liar if not he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the Antichrist” (1 John 2:18–22). 6. But because all the above-mentioned (heretics), although they confess with their tongues the One Jesus Christ, they themselves laugh at themselves, thinking differently and saying differently; for their opinions are varied, as I have shown: they say that one suffered and was born, this is Jesus, and the other who descended on him is Christ, who ascended again, and that the one who came from the Dimiurge or is according to the economy, or who was born from Joseph, is subject to suffering 64, and on him from invisible and ineffable (places) came He whom they recognize as incomprehensible, invisible and impassive: then they deviate from the truth, because their thought has moved away from Him who is truly God, not knowing that His Only Begotten Word, always inherent in the human race, united with His creation by the will of the Father and became flesh, and is precisely Jesus Christ our Lord, Who suffered for us and rose again for our sake and again has to come in the glory of the Father to resurrect all flesh and reveal salvation and show the rule of righteous judgment to all created by Him. So, there is One God the Father, as I have shown, and One Christ Jesus our Lord, who is to come according to the universal dispensation and restores everything in Himself. In everything there is also man, God’s creation; therefore, restoring man in Himself, He, the invisible, became visible, the incomprehensible became encompassed, and alien to suffering, the suffering, and the Word became man, restoring everything in Himself; so that just as in the heavenly, spiritual and invisible (world) the Word of God is in charge, so in the visible and corporeal It has authority and, arrogating to Himself primacy and placing Himself as the Head of the Church, will attract everything to Himself in due time. 7. With him there is nothing incomplete or untimely, just as with the Father there is nothing incongruous. For all this is foreshadowed by the Father, but is carried out by the Son, as is proper and as it should, at the proper time. Therefore, when Mary urged Him to perform the wondrous sign of wine and ahead of time wanted to participate in the mysterious cup 65, the Lord, eliminating Her untimely haste, said: “What do I and You, Woman? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4), waiting for the hour that the Father had foreseen. Therefore, also, when more than once people wanted to seize him, it is said: “no one laid hands on Him, for the hour had not yet come” (John 7:30) He was taken, nor the time of suffering, foreshadowed by the Father, just as the prophet Habakkuk says: “When the years draw near, You will be known; when the time comes, You will appear; when my soul is troubled in anger, You will remember Your mercy” (Hab. 3:2). And Paul says: “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent His Son” (Gal. 4:4). From this it is clear that our Lord accomplished everything foreshadowed by the Father in order, on time and at the foreordained and proper hour, being one and the same, but rich and many. For He fulfills the rich and manifold will of the Father, since He is the Savior of those who are being saved, and the Lord of those under His dominion, and the God of created things, and the Only Begotten (Son) of the Father, and the Christ foretold, and the Word of God made flesh, when the fullness of the time had come, in which the Son of God was to become the Son of Man. 8. So, outside the economy (of Christ), all those who, under the pretext of “knowledge,” think that one was Jesus, and another Christ, and another the Only Begotten, from whom is again the Word, and another Savior, whom these disciples of error recognize as the product of aeons that occurred in imperfection: these people are sheep in appearance, for they seem similar to us in the manner of expression that they use outwardly, speaking in the same way with us, but inside they are wolves. For their teaching is homicidal, inventing many gods and presenting many fathers, and reducing and dividing the Son of God into many things: the Lord commanded us to beware of them, and His disciple John in his above-mentioned letter commanded us to avoid saying: “Many deceivers have come into this world, not confessing Jesus Christ who came in the flesh; such (a person) is a deceiver and Antichrist. Keep an eye on them, lest you lose what you have worked for” (2 John 7:8). And he also says in the message: “Many false prophets have appeared in the world. Know the Spirit of God for this reason: every Spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that destroys (1 John 4:1-2)" 66 "Jesus Christ is not from God, but from Antichrist." These (words) agree with what is said in the Gospel, that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Therefore, even in the epistle he says: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:1), knowing one and the same Jesus Christ, to whom the gates of heaven were opened for the sake of His taking on flesh: He is in the same flesh in which He suffered and will come to reveal the glory of the Father. 9. According to this, Paul also spoke to the Romans; says: “Much more, those who receive an abundance of grace and righteousness for life will reign through the One Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17). So, he did not know the Christ who flew away from Jesus, and he did not know the Savior on high, whom they call innocent of suffering. For if one suffered, and the other remained uninvolved in the suffering, and one was born, and the other descended on the one who was born and then left him, then it turns out that there is not one, but two. And that the apostle knew the One who was born and suffered, Jesus Christ, he again says in the same epistle: “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? So that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4) 67. And further showing that Christ suffered, and that the Son of God Himself died for us and redeemed us with His blood at a predetermined time, he says: “For why did Christ, while we were still weak, at the appointed time die for the ungodly? But God proves His love for us by the fact that Christ died for us while we were still sinners: much more now, having been justified by His blood, we will be saved from wrath by Him. For if, being enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we will be saved by His life (Rom. 5:6-10). The very One who was taken and suffered and shed His blood for us, He very clearly calls Him Christ and the Son of God, Who both rose again and was taken into heaven, as (Paul) himself says: “Christ died, but was also resurrected; He is also at the right hand of God" (Rom. 8:34), and again: "knowing that Christ, having risen from the dead, dies no more" (Rom. 6:9). For he himself, foreseeing through the Spirit the divisions of evil teachers and wanting to cut off every cause for disagreement, he says the above: "If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies" ( Rom. 8, 11). Just what he does not proclaim to those who want to listen: do not be mistaken; One and the same Christ Jesus the Son of God, who by His suffering reconciled us to God and rose from the dead, who is at the right hand of the Father and perfect in everything; Who, being beaten, did not reflect the blows, “while suffering did not threaten” (1 Peter 2:23) and, enduring torment, begged the Father to forgive those who crucified Him. For He Himself, truly, is the Savior, He is the Word of God, He is the Only Begotten of the Father, Christ Jesus our Lord. Apostolic teaching about the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus Christ. 1. Of course, the Apostles could say that Christ descended on Jesus, or the Savior on high (descended) on the one who according to the economy, the One who comes from invisible (places) - on the one who is from the Dimiurge, but they did not know or say anything like that; for if they had known, they would have said; and they said what happened; namely, that the Spirit of God descended on Him like a dove, that Spirit about whom Isaiah said: “and the Spirit of God rests on Him” (Is. 11:2), as I have already said. And again: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me” (Isa. 61:1). That Spirit about whom the Lord says: “It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matthew 10:20). And again, giving the disciples the power to regenerate into God, He told them: “So, go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). He (God) promised to pour it out through the prophets in the last times on male and female servants, so that they would prophesy; therefore He also descended upon the Son of God, who became the Son of Man, habituating to dwell with Him in the human race and rest among men and live in the creation of God, doing in them the will of the Father and renewing them from weariness into the renewal of Christ. 2. David asked for this Spirit for the human race, saying: “And strengthen me with the Lord’s Spirit” (Ps. 50:12). He came down, as Luke says, after the Lord’s ascension to the disciples on the day of Pentecost, having the power to admit all nations to the door of life and to the revelation of the New Testament; why they agreed in all languages ​​and glorified God, since the Spirit brought divided tribes to unity and brought the firstfruits of all nations to the Father. Therefore, the Lord promised to send a Comforter who would unite us with God. For just as dry wheat could not be made into one mass and one bread without moisture, so we, like many things, could not be made one in Christ Jesus without water from heaven. And just as dry earth does not bear fruit unless it receives moisture, so we, being originally a dry tree, would never produce the fruit of life without voluntary watering from above. For our bodies received unity (with each other) through the bath, leading to incorruption, and our souls through the Spirit. Therefore, both are necessary, since both contribute to the life of God, for our Lord, having mercy on that Samaritan 68 harlot - who did not remain with one husband, but committed fornication in many marriages - showed her and promised living water, so that she would no longer thirst or labor to acquire refreshing water, having in herself drink flowing into eternal life; and the Lord, having received this gift from the Father, Himself gave it to those who become His partakers, sending the Holy Spirit to the whole earth. 3. Gideon - that Israeli whom God chose to deliver the Israeli people from the power of foreigners - seeing this merciful gift, changed his request (Judges 6:37ff.), prophesying that there would be dryness on the sheep's fleece, on which only at first there was dew - and the fleece was the image of the people - i.e. that they would no longer have the Holy Spirit from God, as he says Isaiah: “And I will command the clouds so that they do not give rain on it” (Isa. 5:6), and there will be dew on all the earth, that is, the Spirit of God descending on the Lord, “The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and piety, the Spirit of the fear of God” (Is. 11:2). He again gave this Spirit to the Church, sending the Comforter from heaven to the whole earth, from where the devil, according to the words of the Lord (Luke 10:18), fell like lightning. Therefore, just as the dew of God is necessary, so that we do not get burned and become unfruitful, and where we have an accuser, there we also have a Comforter, since the Lord entrusts to the Holy Spirit His man 69 who fell among the thieves, over whom He took pity and bound his wounds, giving two royal denarii, so that we, receiving through the Spirit the image and writing of the Father and the Son, with benefit used the denarius entrusted to us, attributing its profit to the Lord. 4. When in this way the Spirit descended according to the predestined dispensation, and when the Only Begotten Son of God, Who is also the Word of the Father, with the onset of the fullness of time became incarnate, becoming man for man’s sake, and fulfilled all the conditions of human nature, when our Lord Jesus Christ is One and the same, as the Lord Himself testifies and the Apostles confess and the prophets proclaim: then all the teachings of these people who invented the imaginary Octagons and The quaternities and divisions 70 eliminate the Spirit, they think that one was Christ, and the other Jesus, and they teach that there was not one Christ, but many, and although they say that they were united, they again separate them, imagining that one (Christ) underwent suffering, and the other remained a stranger to it, and that the latter ascended to the Pleroma, and the other remained in the middle place 71, that one feasts and enjoys in the invisible and unnameable (places), and the other is with Dimiurge, depriving him of his power. Therefore, both you and everyone who reads this work and cares about their salvation should not succumb when they hear from the outside the speech of these people: for speaking similar to (the teachings of) believers, as I said before, they contain opinions that are not only different, but also completely opposite and full of blasphemy, with which they kill those who, through the similarity of words, assimilate into themselves a poison that is not akin to their disposition, as if someone, giving an alabaster cup, filled with water instead of milk, he was deceived by the similarity of color, as someone better than me said about all those who pervert (the works of) God and distort the truth: “alabaster mixes badly with the milk of God” 72 . About the incarnation of the Son of God, and that He was not imaginary, but truly incarnate. 1. When it is clearly shown that the Word that was in the beginning with God, by whom all things were created, which also was always inherent in the human race, in the last times, according to the time predetermined by the Father, was united with His creation and became a man capable of suffering, then every objection of those who say: and if He was born at that time, then there was no Christ before, is eliminated.” For I have shown that the Son of God, who at first existed with the Father, did not (exist) then begin, but having become incarnate and becoming man, he again began the long series of human (beings) and briefly granted us salvation, so that what we lost in Adam, that is, being in the image and likeness of God, we again received in Christ Jesus. 2. For it was impossible for a person who had once been defeated and perished through disobedience to recreate himself and receive the reward for victory; It was also impossible for one who fell under the power of sin to receive salvation: the Son did both, Who is the Word of God, proceeding from the Father, Who became incarnate and descended even to death and completed the economy of our salvation. Undoubtedly exhorting us to believe him, (Paul) again says: “Do not say in your heart: Who will ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ together. Or who will go down into the abyss? that is, to raise Christ from the dead” (Rom. 10:6–7); then he continues: “For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). And he presented the reason why the Word of God did this, saying: “For this is why Christ lived and died and rose again, that he might be Lord over the living and the dead (Rom. 14:9). And writing to the Corinthians, he says: “But we preach Christ Jesus crucified” (1 Cor. 1, 23); and adds: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16). 3. Who took part in the food with us? Is it the heavenly Christ they are imagining, who stretched out across the Limit and gave the image of their Mother, or Emmanuel from the Virgin, who ate butter and honey, and about whom the prophet says: “And He is Man, and who knows Him” (Jer. 17:9)? This is what Paul preached: “For I delivered to you from the beginning,” he said, “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). It is clear that Paul knew no other Christ except the One who suffered and was buried and rose again, who was born and whom he called man. For having said: “If it is preached about Christ that He rose from the dead,” he adds to explain the reason for His incarnation: “since death came through man, then through man also the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:12,21). And wherever he speaks about the suffering of our Lord, about His humanity and about death, he uses the name of Christ, as for example in the following place: “Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died” (Rom. 14:15). And again: “but now in Christ, you who were once far away have become near through the Blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13). And again: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Gal. 3:13; Deut. 21:23). And again: “and through your knowledge the weak brother for whom Christ died will perish” (1 Cor. 8:11), showing that Christ, unable to suffer, did not descend on Jesus, but that He Himself, being Jesus Christ, suffered for us, He who rested and rose again, who descended and ascended. The Son of God, who became the Son of man, as the name itself shows. For in the name of Christ is meant the one who anointed and the anointed, and the very anointing with which He is anointed. The Father anointed, and the Son is anointed through the Spirit, who is the anointing, as the Word says through Isaiah: “The Spirit of God is on Me, because He has anointed Me” (Isa. 65:1), denoting both the anointing Father and the anointed Son and the anointing, which is the Spirit. 4. And the Lord Himself clearly indicates who suffered. For when He asked the disciples: “Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, am?” and when Peter answered: “You are the Christ the Son of the living God,” and was approved by Him, “because it was not revealed to him by flesh and blood, but by the Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:13, 16–17), he showed that He, the Son of Man, is Christ the Son of the living God: “for from that time,” it says, “He began to reveal to the disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the priests, be rejected and crucified and on the third day to rise” (Matthew 16:21) 73. He, who was recognized by Peter as Christ, who called him blessed, because the Father revealed to him the Son of the living God, He Himself said that He must suffer much and be crucified; and then He reproached Peter, who considered Him to be Christ in accordance with human opinion and rejected His suffering, and said to the disciples: if anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Matthew 16:24-25). This Christ spoke openly, Himself being the Savior of those who were put to death for confessing Him and losing their souls. 5. If He Himself did not have to suffer, but had to fly away from Jesus, then why did He exhort the disciples to take up their cross and follow Him - a cross that He Himself did not take, according to these (heretics), but avoided suffering? For what He says is not about the recognition of the High Cross (Stavros), as some dare to interpret, but about the suffering that He had to endure, and His disciples themselves had to bear, He showed this in the words: “Whoever wants to save his soul will lose it; and whoever loses will find it.” And that His disciples had to suffer for His sake, He said to the Jews: “Behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers, and some of them you will kill and crucify (Matthew 23:34); and he said to the disciples: “Before the rulers and kings, you will stand for Me, and some of you will be beaten and put to death and driven from city to city” (Matthew 10:17-8). So He knew those who were about to suffer persecution, He also knew those who were about to be beaten and killed for Him; and He did not speak about another Cross, but about the suffering that He Himself, and then His disciples, had to undergo first. Therefore, He gave them this admonition: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; but fear him more than he who is able to send both soul and body to hell” (Matthew 10:28), and (exhorted) to observe the confession (of faith) in relation to Him. For He promised to confess before His Father those who confess His name before men, and to deny those who deny Him, and to put to shame those who are ashamed of confessing Him, and with all this, some (of the heretics) have reached such recklessness that they despise martyrs and blame those who are killed for confessing the Lord and undergo (the disasters) foretold by the Lord, and in this regard they try to follow in the footsteps Lord, having become martyrs of the Suffering One (Christ): such we hand over (to judgment) to the martyrs themselves. For when their blood is required and they receive glory, then those who dishonored their martyrdom will be put to shame by Christ. From what the Lord said on the cross: “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk. 23:34), the generosity, patience, mercy and goodness of Christ are revealed, so that He suffered and forgave those who did evil to Him. For the Word of God, which He told us: “love your enemies and pray for those who hate you” (Matthew 5:44), He Himself fulfilled on the cross, loving the human race to such an extent that He prayed for those who put Him to death. If someone, as if admitting two existing (Christs), begins to judge them, then he will turn out to be much better and more patient and, truly, good, who, in the midst of wounds and defeats and other (sufferings) inflicted on Him, does good and does not remember the evil done to him, than the one who flew away and did not suffer any insult or reproach. 6. The same goes for those who say that He suffered only in appearance. For if He did not truly suffer, then there is no thanks to Him when there was no suffering, and if we begin to really suffer, He will turn out to be deceiving us, exhorting us to endure blows and turn the other cheek, when He Himself did not really suffer this before; and just as He deceived them by appearing to be what He was not, so He deceives us by exhorting us to endure what He Himself did not endure. We will be even higher than the Teacher when we endure and endure what the Teacher did not tolerate and did not bear. But just as our Lord is the only truly Teacher, so the Son of God is truly good and patient, the Word of God the Father, who became the Son of Man. For He fought and conquered; for He was a man who fought for the fathers and through obedience stopped disobedience; for He bound the strong and loosed the weak, and granted salvation to His creation by destroying sin. For He is the most holy and merciful Lord and lover of the human race. 7. So He united, as I have already said, man with God. For if man had not defeated the human enemy, then the enemy would not have been legally defeated. And again, if God had not granted salvation, we would not have it firmly. And if man had not united with God. he could not become a participant in incorruption. For the Mediator of God and men had to, through His kinship with both, bring both into friendship and harmony and introduce man to God, and reveal God to men 74 . For how could we be partakers of His adoption as sons, if we had not again received from Him through the Son fellowship with Him, if His Word, having become flesh, had not been united with us? That is why He passed through every age, restoring fellowship with God to everyone. So those who say that He appeared fictitiously and was not born in the flesh and did not become truly man are still under the ancient condemnation, giving sin dominion, since, in their opinion, death has not been defeated, “which reigned from Adam to Moses and over those who did not sin, like the crime of Adam” (Rom. 5:14). The law, given through Moses, came and testified about sin, since (man) is a sinner, although it abolished his kingdom, denouncing that he was a thief, not a king, and showed him to be a murderer, but aggravated the man who had sin in himself, showing him guilty of death. For although the law was spiritual, it only revealed sin, but did not destroy it, for sin ruled not over the spirit, but over man. For the One who undertook to kill sin and redeem man guilty of death had to become what he was. He, that is, by Man, was brought into slavery by sin and was under the power of death, so that sin would be put to death by man and man would escape death. For just as through the disobedience of one man, who was originally created from uncultivated soil, many became sinners and lost their lives, so it was fitting that through the obedience of one man, who was first born of the Virgin, many should be justified and receive salvation. Thus, the Word of God became man, just as Moses says: “God, His works are true” (Deut. 32:4). If He, not having become flesh, seemed to be flesh, then His work was not true. But what He seemed to be, He was - God, restoring in Himself the ancient creation of man in order to kill sin and abolish death and revive man: and therefore His works are true. Christ was not just a man, born of Joseph, but true God, born of the Father, and true Man, born of the Virgin. 1. And again, those who claim that He was only a simple man born of Joseph, being in the slavery of ancient disobedience, die, not yet united with the Word of God the Father and not receiving freedom through the Son, as He Himself, says: “if the Son sets you free, you will be truly free” (John 8:36). Not knowing Him who is Emmanuel of the Virgin, they are deprived of His gift, which is eternal life; Without accepting the Word of incorruptibility, they remain in mortal flesh and are debtors of death, without receiving the antidote of life. The Word speaks to them, mentioning his gift of mercy: “I said: you are all gods and sons of the Most High; but you will die like men” (Ps. 81:6-7). This, without a doubt, He speaks to those who do not accept the gift of adoption, but dishonor the incarnation of the pure birth of the Word of God and remove man from ascending to God and become ungrateful to the Word of God made flesh for them. For for this purpose the Word of God became man, and the Son of God the Son of Man, so that (Man), being united with the Son of God and receiving adoption as sons, would become the Son of God. For we could not possibly receive incorruptibility and immortality if we were not united with incorruptibility and immortality. But how could we be united with incorruptibility and immortality, if incorruptibility and immortality had not first become what we are, so that the corruptible would be swallowed up by incorruptibility and the mortal by immortality, so that we would receive adoption as sons? 2. Therefore (it is said): “Who will tell His generation” (Is. 53:8)? Since “He is a man and who can recognize Him” (Jer. 17:9)? He knows Him to whom the heavenly Father has revealed Him, in order to understand that “the Son of man was born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,” he is Christ, the Son of the living God. For I have shown from the Scriptures that none of the sons of Adam is completely and absolutely called God or called Lord. And that He, in fact, exclusively before all the people living then, is God and the Lord and the Eternal King, the Only Begotten and the Word incarnate, proclaimed by all the prophets, the Apostles and the Spirit Himself, this can be seen by everyone who has comprehended at least a small part of the truth. The Scriptures would not testify to this about Him if He were only a man like everyone else. But that He had an exclusively glorious birth from the Highest Father before everyone, and that He also experienced a glorious birth from a Virgin, both of which the Divine Scriptures testify about Him. And that He was an ugly man and subject to suffering, sitting on a donkey’s foal; He took vinegar and gall to drink, was despised by the people and even descended to death, and that He is also the Holy Lord, the Wonderful, the Counselor, beautiful in appearance, the mighty God, coming on the clouds, the Judge of all - all this the Scriptures prophesied about Him (Is. 53:8; 7:14; 53:2; Zech. 9:9; Ps. 68:22; Is. 9, 6; Dan. 7, 13, 26). 3. For as He was a man to be tested, so was the Word to be glorified, just as the Word rested, that He might be tempted, mocked, crucified, and die, and man might be swallowed up in that (Word) which overcomes, endures (temptation), does good, rises again, and ascends (to heaven). So this Son of God, our Lord, the very Word of the Father, (is) also the Son of Man, because he was born according to humanity from Mary, who came from men and was herself a man, and became the son of man. Therefore, the Lord himself gave us a sign in depth and height, which man did not ask for, because he did not hope that the Virgin would conceive and, remaining a Virgin, could give birth to a Son, and that what was born would be “God with us” and descend into the low land, looking for the lost sheep, which was His own creation; and ascended on high, bringing and presenting to the Father the found man, having in Himself made the firstfruits of the resurrection of man; so that just as the head was raised from the dead, so also the rest of the body of all humanity that is in life, after the fulfillment of the time of judgment appointed for disobedience, would be resurrected, joined together through connections and joints and strengthened by the increase of God (Eph. 4:16), each of the members having its own and proper position in the body. For the Father has many mansions, just as there are many members in the body. How God showed His goodness in man's disobedience. 1. God was long-suffering when man fell away, foreseeing the victory that was to be given to him through the Word. For when power was made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9), this showed God's goodness and majestic power. For how He patiently allowed Jonah to be swallowed up by a whale (Jon. 2:1), not so that he would be swallowed up and completely perish, but so that, cast out again, he would submit more to God and glorify Him more, who had granted him unexpected salvation, and led the Ninevites to firm repentance, so that they would turn to the Lord who delivered them from death, frightened by the sign that happened to Jonah, as he says about them Scripture: “And they turned each one from his evil way and from the iniquity that was in their hands, saying: Who knows whether God will not repent and turn His wrath from us, and we will not perish” (Jon. 3:8-9)? So in the beginning, God allowed man to be swallowed up by the great whale, which was the culprit of the crime, not so that the one swallowed up would perish completely, but by arranging and preparing the plan of salvation perfected by the Word through the sign of Jonah for those who, like Jonah, thought about the Lord in the same way and confessed and said: “I am the servant of the Lord and I honor the Lord God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land” (Jon. 1:9); (He did this) so that a person, receiving unexpected salvation from God, would rise from the dead and glorify God and repeat the words spoken prophetically by Jonah: “I cried to the Lord my God in my tribulation, and He heard me from the belly of hell” (Jon. 2:2), and always continued to glorify God and incessantly thanked for the salvation received from Him, “so that no flesh should boast before God” ( 1 Cor. 1:29), and so that a person would never have a contrary opinion about God, thinking that incorruption belongs to him by nature and, having deviated from the truth, would not boast in vain arrogance, as if he were naturally like God. For he (Satan) thus made (man) ungrateful to his Creator, darkened the love that God had for man, and blinded his mind so that he thought unworthily about God, comparing himself and putting himself on an equal footing with God. 2. This consisted of God's long-suffering, so that man, having gone through everything and received the knowledge of morality, then having achieved the resurrection from the dead and having learned by experience from what he was freed, would always be grateful to the Lord, having received from Him the gift of incorruptibility, in order to love Him more, for “whoever is forgiven the more, he loves the more” (Luke 7:43), and would know himself that he is mortal and weak, and understand God that He so immortal and powerful that he grants both immortality to the mortal and eternity to the temporal, and understood all the other perfections of God revealed in relation to him, and from them learned to think about God in accordance with His greatness. For the glory of man is God, and the companion of the activity of God and of all His wisdom and power is man. Just as a doctor reveals himself to the sick, so God reveals himself to people. Therefore, Paul also says: “God put everyone in disobedience in order to have mercy on everyone” (Rom. 11:32), saying this not about spiritual eons, but about a person who was disobedient to God and deprived of immortality, then received mercy, receiving adoption through the Son of God. For he, observing without arrogance and vanity the true glory in relation to created things and to the Creator, Who is God, who is sovereign over all and has given existence to all, and remaining in love, submission and gratitude to Him, will receive from Him great glory and will achieve such perfection 75 when he will become like the One who died for him, because He also became “in the likeness of sinful flesh” ( Rom. 8:3), to condemn sin and, as already condemned, to cast it out of the flesh) and to call man into His likeness, making him an imitator of God and placing on him the law of the Father, so that he could see God, and giving him the power to receive the Father, because the Word of God dwelt in man and became the Son of Man, in order to accustom man to receive God and God to dwell in man, according to the will of the Father. 3. Therefore, the Lord Himself 76 is the sign of our salvation - Emmanuel from the Virgin, since the Lord Himself had to save them, for they could not be saved by themselves; why Paul, showing human weakness, says: “I know that no good thing dwells in my flesh” (Rom. 7:18), letting us know that the good of our salvation does not come from us, but from God. And again (he says): “I am a poor man, who will deliver me from the body of this death” (Rom. 7:24)? and immediately indicates the deliverer: “the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord” 77. Isaiah also says this: “Be strong, weak hands and weak knees; take heart, you faint-hearted, be strong, do not be afraid: behold, our God has rendered judgment and will reward; He himself will come and save us” (Is. 35:3-4). Here we see that we must be saved not by ourselves, but by the help of God. 4. Again, that the one who has to save us will not be a man only, nor a (creature) without flesh - for angels are without flesh - (the same prophet) announced, saying: “neither an intercessor nor an angel, but the Lord Himself will save them, because He loves them and will spare them: He Himself will deliver them” (Isa. 63:9). And that He, being the saving Son, will become a true, visible man, Isaiah again says: “Behold, the city of Zion, your eyes will see our salvation” (Is. 33:20). And that he who died for us was not only a man, Isaiah says: “And the Holy Lord remembered His dead Israel, who died in the land of burial, and came down to them to preach His salvation to save them” 79 . And the prophet Amos 80 says the same thing: “He will turn and have compassion on us; He will destroy our iniquities and cast our sins into the depths of the sea.” And still pointing to the place of his coming, he says: “The Lord spoke from Zion and from Jerusalem gave His voice” (Joel 3:16; Hab. 1:2). And that the Son of God, who is God, will come from the country that lies to the south of the inheritance of Judah, and that from Bethlehem, where the Lord was born, will send His praise to all the earth. This is what the prophet Habakkuk says: “God will come from the south, and the Holy One will come from Mount Ephraim. His power has covered the heavens, and the earth is full of His glory. The Word will go before His face, and His feet will walk through the fields” (Hab. 3:3-4). He clearly shows that this is God and that His coming (will be) in Bethlehem and from Mount Ephraim, which lies to the south of the inheritance, and that He is a man; for he said, “His feet shall walk through the fields,” and this is the sign of a man. Defense of the prophecy of Isaiah (Is. 7:14) and history of the translation of the seventy. 1. So God became Man and the Lord Himself saved us, giving us the sign of the Virgin. But unfairly, some of those who now dare to expound the Scripture interpret it this way: “Behold, a young woman will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son,” as interpreted by Theodotion, a native of Ephesus, and Aquila from Pontus, 81 both Jewish proselytes. Following them, the Ebionites say that He was born of Joseph, destroying, if possible, such a great dispensation of God and canceling the testimony of the prophets that came from God. And this (prophecy) was predicted before the migration of the people to Babylon, that is, before the Medes and Persians received dominion, and was translated into Greek by the Jews themselves much earlier than the time of the coming of our Lord, so that there would not remain any suspicion that the Jews translated it this way to please us. If they had known that we would (live) and use these testimonies from the Scriptures, they would not have hesitated to burn the Scriptures themselves, which declare that all other nations share in the (eternal) life, and show that those who boast that they are the house of Jacob and the people of Israel are deprived of the inheritance of God's mercy. 2. Before the Romans received their kingdom, when the Macedonians still owned Asia, Ptolemy the son of Lagus, 82, trying to decorate the library he founded in Alexandria with the wonderful works of all people, asked the Jerusalemites for their writings translated into Greek. They - for at that time they were still under the rule of the Macedonians - sent to Ptolemy the most knowledgeable among them in the scriptures and both languages, seventy elders to carry out what he wanted 83 . Wanting to test them separately and fearing that they would, by mutual agreement, conceal through translation the truth contained in the scriptures, he separated them from each other and ordered everyone to translate the same scripture; He did the same with regard to all (other) books. When they gathered together at Ptolemy and compared their translations, God was glorified and the scriptures were recognized as truly divine, because they all read the same thing in the same words and with the same names from beginning to end, so that the pagans present understood that the scriptures were translated by the inspiration of God. And it is not surprising that God did this. He, Who, when during the captivity of the people by Nebuchadnezzar the scriptures were damaged and after 70 years the Jews returned to their country, then during the time of Artharxerxes, the Persian king, inspired Ezra the priest from the tribe of Levi to restore all the words of the former prophets and restore to the people the law of Moses. 3. When in this way the scriptures were translated with such faithfulness and with God's grace, and when from them God prepared and formed our faith in His Son, preserving for us the scriptures intact in Egypt, where the house of Jacob flourished, avoiding famine in the land of Canaan, where our Lord was saved, escaping the persecution of Herod, and when this translation of the scriptures was made before the descent of our Lord (to earth) and before the advent of Christians - for our Lord was born about the forty-first year of the reign of Augustus, and Ptolemy, under whom the scriptures were translated, was much earlier - then, truly, those who now want to translate differently turn out to be shameless and impudent, since we denounce them from the scriptures themselves and lead them to faith in the coming of the Son of God. Our faith is firm, not fictitious, and only the truth, having clear proof from those scriptures that are translated in the above manner; and the preaching of the Church is genuine. For the Apostles, being older than all these (heretics), agree with the aforementioned translation, and the translation agrees with the tradition of the Apostles. For Peter and John, and Matthew, and Paul and others (the Apostles), as well as their followers, proclaimed all the prophetic (sayings) as the translation of the elders contains them. 4. One and the same Spirit of God, who through the prophets proclaimed what the coming of the Lord was going to be, and through the elders well interpreted what was well said by the prophets, He also preached through the Apostles that the fullness of the times of adoption has come, and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and lives in people who believe in Emmanuel, who was born of the Virgin. So they testify that before Joseph was united with Mary, when she therefore remained in virginity, “She was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18), and that the angel Gabriel said to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon You and the power of the Most High will overshadow You, therefore the Holy One born of You will be called the Son of God” (Lk. 1, 35), and what the angel said to Joseph in a dream: “This happened, that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: behold, the Virgin will receive with child (Matthew 1, 22-23). And the elders conveyed the words of Isaiah this way: “And the Lord said to Ahaz: Ask yourself from the Lord your God for a sign into the depths of the valley or into the heights of the mountain. And Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor will I tempt the Lord. And he said: It is not a small thing for you to trouble people, and how does the Lord trouble (them)? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin will be with child and give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Immanuel. He will eat butter and honey; before he knows or chooses evil, he will change it to good; for before a child knows good or evil, he will not agree to unrighteousness in order to choose good” (Is. 7:10-17). With these words, the Holy Spirit carefully indicated His birth from the Virgin and His essence, that He is God - for this is what the name Emmanuel means - and reveals that He is a man when He says: “He will eat butter and honey,” and calls him a child and says: “Before he knows good and evil”; for these are all signs of a human child. And that he “will not agree to evil in order to choose good” is characteristic of God; so that, because he will eat oil and honey, we do not think that He is just a man, and on the other hand, by the name of Emmanuel, we do not consider Him God without flesh. 5. And when he says: “Listen to the house of David,” he shows that the one whom God promised David from the fruit of his womb to raise (as) an eternal king is the same one who was born of a virgin from the line of David. That is why He promised the king “from the fruit of his womb,” which was proper (to say) regarding a virgin who conceived, and not from the fruit of his thighs and not from the fruit of his loins, which is proper regarding a husband giving birth and a woman conceiving from a husband. Scripture omitted the male members from this promise and did not even mention this, because the one who was to be born was not of the will of the husband. But it firmly placed the “fruit of the womb” in order to announce the birth of the one who was to be of the Virgin, just as Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, testified, saying to Mary: “Blessed are You among women, and blessed is the Fruit of Your womb” (Luke 1:42), and thus the Holy Spirit showed those who wished to hear that God’s promise to raise up the king “from the fruit of his womb” was fulfilled in the birth of the Virgin, i.e. e. from Mary. Therefore, those who change the words of Isaiah like this: “Behold, a young woman will conceive in her womb,” and honor Him (the Lord) as the son of Joseph, let them also change the promise given to David, in which God promised him to raise from the fruit of his womb the horn of Christ the King. But they did not understand this; otherwise they would have dared to change this too. 6. And the words of Isaiah: “to the depths of the valley or to the height of the mountain,” meant that “he who descended is also the one who ascended” (Eph. 4:10). With the words: “The Lord Himself will give a sign,” he pointed out something extraordinary in His birth, which would not have happened otherwise if God, the Lord of all, had not given a sign in the house of David. For what great thing or what sign would it be if a young woman conceived from her husband to give birth, as happens to all women who give birth? But since the unexpected salvation of people followed the help of God, the birth from the Virgin was also unexpected, since God gave this sign, and not man acted. 7. Therefore, Daniel, foreseeing His coming (says) that a stone cut off without hands came into this world (Dan. 2:34). For (the word) “without hands” indicated that His coming into the world was not from the action of human hands, that is, from those men who usually cut stones, that is, not from the action of Joseph, but from the fact that Mary alone contributed to the dispensation. For this stone exists from the earth and from the power and wisdom of God. Therefore, Isaiah says: “Thus says the Lord: I lay for the foundation of Zion a stone, precious, chosen, chief, cornerstone, honorable” (Is. 26:16), so that we understand that His coming in human nature was not from the will of man, but from the will of God. 8. Therefore, Moses, showing the image, threw the rod to the ground (Ex. 7:9), so that it, being made flesh, would expose and absorb all the resistance of the Egyptians, which rebelled against the order of God, and so that the Egyptians themselves would testify that the dust of God brings salvation to the people, and not the son of Joseph. For if He were the son of Joseph, how could He be greater than Solomon, or Jonah, or David, when He was born of the same seed and was their descendant? Why did He call Peter blessed because he recognized Him as the Son of the living God? 9. Moreover, if He were the son of Joseph, then, according to Jeremiah, he could not be either a king or an heir. For Joseph turns out to be the son of Joachim and Jehoiachin; just as Matthew sets out its origin. Jehoiachin and his descendants were deprived of the kingdom, as Jeremiah says: “I live, says the Lord, if Jehoiachin the son of Jehoiakim, king of the Jews, shall have a ring on My right hand; I will tear him out of here and deliver him into the hand of those who seek your life” (Jer. 22:24-25). And again: “Jechoniah was dishonored as a dishonorable vessel, because he was cast into a land he did not know. Earth, listen to the word of the Lord: write down this man as a rejected man, for from his seed will not come one who sits on the throne of David (or) a prince in Judah” (Jer. 22:23-30). And God also speaks about Joachim his father: “Therefore, thus says the Lord against Joachim his father, king of Judah: There will be no one from him to sit on the throne of David; and his corpse will be thrown out into the heat of the day and the cold of the night; and I will look upon him and his sons, and will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, upon the land of Judah, all the evils which I have declared upon them” (Jer. 36:30-31). So, those who claim that He was born of Joseph and that they trust in Him alienate themselves from the kingdom, falling under the curse and reproach directed at Jehoiachin and his seed. For this is why this was said about Jeconiah by the Spirit, who knew in advance the teachings of the evil teachers, so that they would know that He would not be born from his seed, that is, from Joseph, but in accordance with the promise of God, an eternal King was raised from the womb of David, who in Himself restores everything. 10. And He restored in Himself the ancient creation (man). For just as through one man’s disobedience sin entered, and through sin death came into being, so through one man’s obedience the introduced righteousness will bring forth fruitful life to people who were once dead (Rom. 5:19). And just as the primordial Adam himself received his composition from uncultivated and still virgin land - “for God had not yet rained, and man had not tilled the earth” (Gen. 2:5) - and was created by the hand of God, that is, by the Word of God, for “all things came into being through Him” (John 1:3), and the Lord took dust from the earth and created man: so He Himself, the Word, restoring in Himself Adam, rightly received birth for the restoration of Adam from Mary, who was still a virgin. If the first Adam had a human father and was born from the seed of a man, then one could say that the second Adam was born from Joseph. If he was taken from the earth and created by the Word of God, then the Word itself, restoring Adam in Himself, should have resembled his birth. Why didn’t God take the dust again, but made a creature from Mary? In order that there should be no other creature, and that there should be no other creation that required salvation, but that the same (Adam) should be restored, with respect for the similarity (in origin). Christ took on real flesh by being born of a Virgin. 1. So, those who say that He did not receive anything from the Virgin are mistaken, (since) in order to reject the inheritance of the flesh, they also reject the likeness (between Him and Adam). For if one from the earth received his composition and education from the hand and art of God, and the other not from the hand and art of God, then he no longer retained the likeness of man, created in the image and likeness of Himself (God), and the art (of God) will turn out to be untenable, not having anything to show its wisdom. And this means to say that He appeared imaginary and as if a man, when He was not a man, and became a man, without accepting anything from a man. For if He did not receive from man the essence of flesh, then He neither became man nor the Son of Man; and if He did not become what we were, then He did not do great that He suffered and suffered. Everyone will agree that we consist of a body taken from the earth, and a soul that receives spirit from God. This became the Word of God, restoring His creation within Himself; and, therefore, He recognizes Himself as the Son of man and pleases “the meek, because they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5.5). And the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians clearly says: “God sent His Son, who was made of a Woman” (Gal. 4.4). And also in the letter to the Romans he says: “Concerning His Son, who was made from the seed of David according to the flesh and was predestined (as) the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead” (Rom. 1.3,4). 2. Moreover, His descent into Mary is unnecessary (in this case); for why did He descend into Her if He did not want to accept anything from Her? And if He did not accept anything from Mary, then He would never have eaten the dishes originating from the earth, which feed the body taken from the earth, He would not have become hungry, fasting for forty days, like Moses and Elijah, since His body required the food characteristic of it; and His disciple John, writing about Him, would not have said: “Jesus, weary, sat on the way” (John 4.6); and David would not have proclaimed about Him: “And they added to the pain of My wounds” (Ps. 68:27); He would not have cried over Lazarus, would not have shed a drop of blood, would not have said: “My soul is sorrowful” (Matthew 26.38), and blood and water would not have come out of the perforated rib. For all these are signs of flesh taken from the earth, which He restored in Himself, saving His creation. 3. Therefore, Luke shows that the genealogy from the birth of our Lord to Adam contains seventy-two genera, connecting the end with the beginning and making it known that He in Himself restored all the nations that had spread from Adam and all the languages ​​and (the entire) race of people along with Adam himself. This is why Adam is called by Paul “the image of the future” (Rom. 5.14), because the Creator of all things, the Word, prefigured in relation to Himself the future dispensation of the human race through the Son of God, since God predestined that the first natural man should be saved by a spiritual man. For when the One who saves pre-existed, it was necessary that what is being saved should also come into being, so that the One who saves would not be in vain. 4. In accordance with this, Virgin Mary also appears obedient when she says: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1.38). Eve (was) disobedient, for she did not show obedience when she was still a virgin. How she, having a husband Adam, but being still a virgin - for “they were both naked in paradise and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2.25), since not long before they were created had no idea about the birth of children, but they had to first mature and then multiply - she showed disobedience and became the cause of death both for herself and for the entire human race; so Mary, having a destined husband, but remaining a Virgin, through obedience became the cause of salvation for herself and for the entire human race. And therefore, the law calls the betrothed to her husband, although she was still a virgin, the wife of the betrothed, thereby indicating the relationship between Mary and Eve; because the bound could not be broken in any other way than through the destruction of the connecting bonds, so that the first bonds are broken through the second, and the second in turn free the first. And it turned out that the first connection was resolved from the second connection, and the second served to resolve the first. And therefore the Lord said that the first will be last, and the last will be first (Matthew 19.30; 20.16). And the prophet shows the same thing, saying: “Instead of fathers, sons were born to you” (Ps. 44.17). For the Lord, being “the firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1.18) and receiving the ancient fathers into His bosom, regenerated them into the life of God, Himself becoming the beginning of the living, just as Adam became the beginning of those dying. Therefore, Luke, beginning the genealogy of the Lord, raised him up to Adam, showing that it was not they (his forefathers), but He who revived them into the gospel of life. Thus, Eve’s knot of disobedience was resolved through Mary’s obedience. For what the Virgin Eve bound through unfaithfulness, the Virgin Mary loosed through faith. It is proven, contrary to Tatian, that Adam should have been the first to participate in the salvation of Christ. 1. Therefore it was necessary that the Lord should come to the lost sheep and, performing such a great restoration and searching for His creation, save that very man who was created in His image and likeness, that is, Adam, who fulfilled the times of His condemnation for disobedience - (times) “which the Father ordained in His power” (Acts 1:7), since the whole dispensation of man’s salvation took place according to the will Father, so that God would not be defeated and His wisdom would not be humbled. For if man, created by God for life, having lost life through defeat from the serpent that harmed him, had not returned to life, but had been completely abandoned to death, then God would have been defeated and the wickedness of the serpent would have surpassed the will of God. But since God is invincible and long-suffering, He showed Himself to be long-suffering in the matter of correcting man and testing everything, as I have already said; through the second man he bound the strong man and plundered his vessels and abolished death, reviving the dead man. For Adam became the first vessel in his (the devil’s) possession, whom he held in his power, i.e. maliciously introducing sin into him and, under the pretext of immortality, causing him death. For promising that they would be like gods, which was completely impossible for him, he brought about death in them; why the one who captivates a person is rightly in turn captured by God, and the captive person is released from the bonds of condemnation. 2. And this is Adam, if we must speak the truth, that primordial man about whom, according to Scripture, the Lord said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26); We are all from him, and since we (descend) from him, we inherited his name. When a person is saved, the person who was originally created must receive salvation. For it is very unreasonable to say that the one who was greatly wounded by the enemy and was the first to be captured is not freed by the conqueror of the enemy, but his sons, whom he gave birth to in the same captivity, are freed. And the enemy will not seem defeated when the most ancient spoils remain with him. For example, if the enemies conquer someone and take the bound captives and keep them in slavery for a long time, so that they give birth to children from them, and someone, grieving for the enslaved, conquers those enemies, then it would be unfair if he freed the sons of those taken into captivity from the power of those who took their fathers into slavery, and left them (the fathers) who were captured captive in enslavement from the enemies - (the fathers) for whose sake he took revenge, and thus the sons receive freedom for the sake of revenge on the fathers, but the fathers themselves, who were captured, are not freed 84. For God is not powerless or unjust, who helped man and restored him to His freedom. 3. For this reason, at the beginning of Adam’s crime, as Scripture tells (Gen. 3:16, etc.), God cursed not Adam himself, but the earth in relation to his deeds, as one of the ancients said: “God transferred the curse to the earth so that it would not remain on man.” As punishment for the crime, man received (what he must bear) the tedious labor of cultivating the land and eating bread by the sweat of his brow and returning to the ground from which he was taken; in the same way, the wife (received) sorrows, labors, groaning and illnesses of birth and subordination, that is, to serve her husband, so that they would not completely perish, being cursed by God, and would not begin to despise God, being left without reproach. And the whole curse falls on the serpent who deceived them. “And God said, it is said, to the serpent: because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock and among all the beasts of the earth” (Gen. 3:14). The Lord in the Gospel says the same thing to those on the left side: “Come, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which My Father has prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25, 41) 85, - showing that eternal fire was originally prepared not for man, but for the one who deceived and subjected man to fall, for him, I say, who is the head of apostasy, and for his angels, who together with him became apostates; Those who, like them, remain in evil deeds without repentance and without return, will rightly be subjected to this fire. 4. Such is Cain, who, having received an admonition from God to calm down, because he did not correctly share brotherly fellowship, but with envy and malice suspected that he could dominate him, not only did not calm down, but also added sin to sin, revealing his disposition in his deeds. For what he planned, he did: he dominated over him and killed him, because God subjected the righteous to the unjust, so that he would prove righteous from what he suffered, and the latter would appear unrighteous through his action. And by this he was not tamed and did not calm down in his crime; but when asked where his brother was, he answered: “I don’t know; Am I my brother’s keeper” (Gen. 4:7-9), - with my answer, expanding and multiplying evil. For if it is evil to kill a brother, then it is even greater evil to respond so impudently and disrespectfully to the omniscient God, as if he could deceive Him. Therefore, he himself bore the curse, because he brought sin on his own account, not fearing God and not being ashamed of fratricide. 5. Adam’s case is not at all similar to this, but in everything it is opposite. For, deceived by another under the pretext of immortality, he is immediately overcome with fear and hides, not as if he could escape God, but embarrassed by the fact that, having transgressed His commandment, he is unworthy to appear before God and converse with Him. “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 1, 7; 9, 10), the consciousness of the crime produced repentance, and God grants His mercy to those who repent. For (Adam) actually showed his repentance through the girdle, covering himself with fig leaves 86, although there were many other leaves that could have bothered his body less. He, however, made a robe appropriate to his disobedience, struck by the fear of God; and taming the strong desire of his flesh - for he had lost his natural property and childish disposition and came to understand the worst - he put the bridle of abstinence on himself and on his wife, fearing God, and expecting His coming, and as if showing something like this: since - he said - through disobedience I have lost the garment of holiness that I had from the Spirit, I now realize that I am worthy of such clothing, which does not give any pleasure, but stabs and wounds the body. And he would always have worn these clothes, humbling himself, if the merciful Lord had not clothed them with leather clothes instead of fig leaves. And for this (God) asks them to transfer the blame to the wife, and again asks her to transfer the blame to the serpent. For she said what happened: “The serpent deceived me, and I tasted” (Gen. 3:13). But He did not ask the snake, for he knew that he was the culprit of the crime, but first he pronounced a curse on him in order to turn to the man with a second reproach. For God hated the one who deceived a person, but little by little he took pity on the deceived one. 6. Therefore, He expelled him from paradise and removed him from the tree of life, not envying him in the tree of life, as some dare to say, but having mercy on him, so that he would not remain a sinner forever, and so that his sin would not be immortal and evil - endless and incurable. But He delayed sin by putting death and stopping sin and making an end of it through the destruction of the flesh that should be in the earth, so that man, having once ceased to live for sin and dying to it, began to live for God. 7. For this purpose, He placed enmity between the serpent and the woman and her seed, which they preserve among themselves: one will be bruised in the heel, but he himself can step on the head of the enemy, and the other will wound, kill and hinder the walk of a person until the predestined Seed comes to trample his head, which was born of Mary; the prophet says about him: “you will tread on the asp and the basilisk and you will trample the lion and the dragon” (Ps. 90:13), showing that sin, which rebelled and spread against man and made him subject to death, will lose its power along with the reigning death, and that in the last times the lion attacking the human race 87, that is, the Antichrist, will be trampled upon by Him, and that He will bind “the dragon, the ancient serpent” (Rev. 20:2) and will subject him to the power of man, once defeated, to crush all his power. Adam was defeated and lost all life; therefore, with the victory in turn of the enemy, Adam returned life; “The last enemy will be abolished by death” (1 Cor. 15:26), which previously ruled over man. Therefore, with the liberation of man, what is written will come true: “death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? death, where is your sting” (1 Cor. 15:54–55)? And this could not be said fairly if the person over whom death had previously prevailed had not been freed. For his salvation is the destruction of death. When the Lord revives man, that is, Adam, then death is destroyed. 8. So, all those who deny his (Adam’s) salvation speak falsely, eliminating themselves forever from life, because they do not believe that the lost sheep has been found. If it is not acquired, then the entire human race is still in a state of destruction. Therefore, the liar who first introduced this idea, or rather this ignorance and blindness, is Tatian, 88 who became a mixture of all heretics, as I showed, and this he invented on his own, so that, by introducing something new against others and speaking nonsense, he would gain listeners devoid of faith, wanting to be revered as a teacher and sometimes trying to use the words constantly used by Paul: “in Adam we all die” (1 Cor. 15, 14), but omitting the fact that “when sin abounded, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). When this is clearly shown, his followers who argue about Adam should blush, as if they would gain a lot if Adam was not saved, whereas they would achieve nothing through this, just as the serpent gained nothing by inclining man (to sin), except that this showed him to be a criminal, using man as the firstfruits and object of his apostasy, but he did not know God. Likewise, those who deny Adam gain nothing except that they make themselves heretics and apostates from the truth and show themselves to be defenders of the serpent and death. A general view of the teachings of heretics; their contrast with the consistent and constant teaching of the Church. 1. So, now all those who introduce wicked opinions about our Creator and Maker, who created this world, above whom there is no other God, have been exposed, and their evidence has been refuted, containing a false teaching about the being of our Lord and about the economy that He accomplished for the sake of His man. On the other hand, I showed that the preaching of the Church is constant everywhere and remains unchanged and has testimony from the prophets and apostles and all the disciples in the beginning and in the middle and last 89 and in the whole dispensation of God and His firm action regarding the salvation of man, which is contained in our faith: having received it from the Church we observe, and it always through the Spirit of God, like a precious treasure in a beautiful vessel, retains its freshness and makes the vessel itself fresh, which contains. For this gift of God is entrusted to the church, just as the breath (of life) was given to the first-created man, so that all members who receive it may be quickened; and this contains communion with Christ, i.e. The Holy Spirit, the guarantee of incorruption, the confirmation of our faith and the ladder for ascent to God. For in the church - it is said - God placed apostles, prophets, teachers (1 Cor. 12:28) and all other (means) of the action of the Spirit, of which all those who do not agree with the Church, but deprive themselves of life by bad teaching and the worst way of action, do not participate. For where the church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace, and the Spirit is truth. Therefore, those who do not participate in Him do not feed for life from their mother’s breasts, nor use the purest source that comes from the body of Christ, but dig broken wells for themselves (Jer. 2:13) from the earth’s ditches and drink rotten water from the mud, withdrawing from the faith of the Church, so as not to be converted, and rejecting the Spirit, so as not to come to their senses. 2. Having become alienated from the truth, they are naturally carried away by any error, excited by it, at times thinking differently about the same objects and never having solid knowledge, wanting to be more sophists of words than students of truth. For they are not founded on one stone, but on sand, which contains many stones. Therefore they invent many gods and always have an excuse to seek (the truth), since they are blind, but they can never find it. They blaspheme the Creator, that is, the One who in truth is God, who gives the power to find (the truth), thinking that they have found another God above God or another Pleroma (fullness) or another economy. Therefore, the light that comes from God does not shine on them, because they humiliated and despised God, valuing Him very little, since He, out of His love and immeasurable goodness, came into the knowledge of men - into knowledge, however, not in greatness and not in essence, for no one measured Him or touched Him, but in the sense that we knew that He, who created, and created, and breathed the breath of life, and nourished us through creation, establishing everything with His Word and binding us with His Wisdom - He is the only true God; but they rave about a non-existent God above Him, so as to seem as if they have found a great God, Whom no one can recognize as having communion with the human race or governing earthly affairs; Thus, it means that they found the God of Epicurus, who does nothing to himself or to others, that is, does not provide for anything. The world is governed by the Providence of God, just and good. 1. God provides for everything, therefore He gives advice, and in giving advice, He is present with those who care about morality 90. Then it is necessary that those (beings) who are subject to His providence and management know their Ruler: namely, those who are not devoid of reason and are not empty, but have reason received from the Providence of God. And therefore some of the pagans, who were not given over to sensual pleasures and not so immersed in superstition regarding idols, moved by His providence, although weakly, were called to say that the Creator of this universe is the Father, who provides for and governs our world. 2. And again, in order to remove from the Father the power to punish and judge, considering it unworthy of God, and thinking that they invented a God without anger and goodness, (the heretics) said that one judges, and the other saves, foolishly robbing both of them of reason and justice. For if the one who judges (God) is not at the same time good in order to show mercy to those who are due, but to condemn those who should, then he will turn out to be an unjust and unwise judge. On the other hand, the good (God), if he is only good and does not approve of those to whom he shows goodness, will be outside of justice and His goodness will turn out to be weak, because it does not save everyone if it is not accompanied by judgment. 3. So Marcion, dividing God into two, calling one good and the other judgmental, destroys God in both. For the one who judges, if he is not good at the same time, is not God, because he who does not have goodness is not God; and the good, if he does not have judicial power, will not be, like the first, God, being deprived of the quality of God. How can they call the Father of all wise if they do not attribute to Him the ability to judge? For if He is wise, then at the same time He approves; and to the one who approves belongs the judging faculty, and justice follows it, in order to judge fairly; justice calls the court; judgment, if done with justice, will lead to wisdom. Therefore, the Father must surpass all human and angelic wisdom in wisdom, because He is Lord, Judge and Righteous and Ruler over all. For He is good and merciful and patient and saves whom He should, and His goodness is not devoid of justice and His wisdom is not diminished; for he saves whom he must save, and judges those who are worthy of judgment. And justice does not turn out to be unmerciful, because goodness goes ahead and precedes. 4. Therefore, God, who graciously commands his sun to rise on all and sends rain on the just and the unjust, will judge those who, taking advantage of His equally distributed goodness, did not live according to the gifts of His generosity, but spent their days in pleasures and luxury contrary to His goodness and even blasphemed against the One who showed so many benefits to them. 5. Plato turns out to be much more pious than these (heretics), for he recognized the One and the same God as just and good, having power over everything and creating judgment, saying this: “God, who is also the original Word, owning the beginning, the end and the middle of all existing things, acts righteously, treating them in accordance with their nature, but justice always follows with him, punishing those who deviate from the divine law.” 91. Then he shows that the Creator and Creator of this universe is good. “The Good One,” he says, “never has envy about anything,” 92 and puts the goodness of God as the beginning and reason for the creation of the world, but not ignorance, nor the wandering zone, nor the fruit of imperfection, nor the sad and weeping Mother, nor another God or Father. 6. The Mother could justly beat them, the inventors and inventors of such (teachings); for they worthily lied to their heads (saying) that their Mother is outside the Pleroma, that is, outside the knowledge of the Father, and their speculation turned out to be an ugly and absurd creation, for it contains nothing true; she fell into emptiness and darkness, and their teaching is empty and covered in darkness; The limit did not allow her to enter Pleroma, and their Spirit did not accept them into the place of coolness. For the Father, giving birth to ignorance, wrought in them the sufferings of death. We do not slander them, but they themselves affirm, they themselves teach, they themselves boast of this, and they think highly of the Mother, who, according to them, was born without a Father, that is, without God, woman from woman, that is, corruption from error. 7. We pray that they will not remain in the hole that they themselves dug, but will separate from such a Mother and come out of the Depth, remove themselves from the void and leave the darkness, and that they will be legitimately born by turning to the Church of God and that Christ will be formed in them, and that they will know the Creator and Maker of this universe, the one true God and Lord of all. We pray this for them, loving them much better than they think they can love themselves. For our love, as true, is saving for them, if only they accept it. For it is like powerful medicine, taking away the unusable and excess flesh of the wound; for it destroys their pride and arrogance. Therefore, we are not tired of trying with all our might to extend a hand to them. In addition to what has already been said, I decided to cite the words of the Lord in the next book, so that at least some of them, through the very teaching of Christ, may be persuaded to abandon such error and abandon blasphemy against their Creator, Who alone is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. This passage from the words “Thus, Matthew” in Greek is also found in Eusebius 5.8. In the Latin text this passage reads: ad hanc enim ecclesiam propter potiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire ecclesiam. Here the word necesse est, corresponding to the Greek αναγκη, does not mean a moral obligation, but a natural necessity, according to which every church keeping the apostolic tradition is consistent with the same tradition kept in the Roman Church through the succession of bishops. This passage from the beginning of the paragraph is found in Greek in Eusebius 5, 6. From these words to the end of paragraph 4, this place in Greek was preserved by Eusebius 4.14. The ancient Latin translation calls him the eighth bishop, but this does not contradict Eusebius, who preserved this place in Greek, because in one case the succession of bishops is considered from the Apostles, and in the other from Linus, as the first bishop. This passage about Isaiah is recognized as a copyist's insertion. Irenaeus points to another work of his that has not reached us. So according to the reading of the ancient Italian translation; but this is not how the passage is read in the existing Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. 70 interpreters read: “beggars”; and others (Aquila, Theodotion and Simmon) also translate: “humble”; the same in the epistle of Barnabas Chapter XIV. These words are not in the Gospel of Luke. The accepted text of Luke reads: in the city of David. Here the words: “to people of good will” correspond to the reading of Vudgata and, according to Harvey, belonged to the Latin translator. See the teachings of the Marcosians in book 1. Irenaeus XV, 3. The words “before You” are omitted here, just like in the Syrian and other translations. Harvey. Irenaeus cites this text more than once with the same punctuation. Examples of this are found in Tertullian, Origen, Hilary, Gregory the Theologian, Cyril Alex., Augustine and Jerome. Grabe. Here our transition is sudden that Grabe suggests the loss of part of the text of Irenaeus before these words. In the Greek text of Anastasius (Quaest. et Pesp. CXLIV) there is a difference from the ancient Latin translation: there the first Testament is presented under Noah; the second - under Abraham. Here ends the Greek text, which, starting from § 8 of this chapter, was preserved by Anastasius. The Montanists, who exclusively arrogated to themselves the possession of the Spirit of prophecy, denying it in the Church; and therefore they rejected the Gospel of John, in which the promise of the Comforter Spirit to the Apostles is clearly expressed, and Montanus presented himself alone as the organ of the Paraclete. St. Chrysostom in his list of Acts also read: “my words,” instead of: “these words.” (Conversations on Acts VI). The word missing here is: αβοντες (having taken), just as it is not found either in the Codex Alexander or in the Latin and Arabic translations. Grabe. Reading: “ada” vm. “death” is found in St. Polycarp (in the epistle to Philip. I), in Epiphanius (see Aps. 34), in the Vulgate and the Syriac translation. The words “raise up Christ in the flesh” are not found here in Irenaeus, nor in the Codex Alexis; nor in the Vulgate and Syrian and Ethiopic translations. Grabe. The accepted text of the New Testament states: “his soul.” Harvey says that in the ancient copies of the Greek text there was the word "endowment", as is evident from the quotations in Didin Alex. (de Spir. S. III), Rufinus, Rupert and Bede. The addition of the word “for judgment” is also found in Beza’s code. Grabe. This is reading VM. "renounced" is also in the code. Bezy. The word “evil” is also added by Beza. The words: “like your leaders” are omitted here. The word “from time immemorial” is omitted, as in Beza. The word: “Jesus” is omitted here, as in Sirsky lane. Harvey. The words: “and there is salvation in no one else” are omitted here. This is how Grabe corrects this place; and the Latin translator vn. "δειξια" accepted "δοξη" translated gloria sua (glory). In lat. the translation costs tarctatur, and Harvey explains the reading of Irenaeus by the fact that he sometimes stuck to the Syriac text. This reading: κατα οροθεσιαν could be formed from “και τας οροθεσιας “; Beza also has it. See book. II, Chapter XXX, 2. Thus, according to the testimony of Tertullian (adu Marc. IV and V), Marcion did not accept the Epistles of Paul to Timothy and Titus, the Acts of the Apostles and the Revelation of John. This work did not reach us, or, what is more likely, it was not written by Irenaeus. So, according to Grabe’s remark, it reads vm. “from us” and to alexand. code. p Instead of τουτω, Irenaeus or his translator read ουτος, as is also found in the code. Bezy. Grabe. The word “all” is omitted here, as in Alex. and other lists. Harvey. Here instead of sets. “works” “works” is used because it speaks only of the conversion of the pagans. Instead of “from being defiled by idols.” Irenaeus, citing the words of Paul, gives them a completely different meaning than what is contained in them according to the accepted text. According to Massuet, Jerome speaks of the variety of readings of this text in the copies of the New Testament, of which some retained and others omitted the negative particle. Tertullian denounces Marcion for eliminating negation (“Adv. Marc”, V, 3). Here in Irenaeus and in the Codex of Beza there is “Lord”; and in other manuscripts of the New Testament: “Lord and God”; in Syriac: "Christ". Harvey. See the third book above. XII, 12. Among others, the Ebionites considered Paul an apostate from the law. The Latin translator used the word “communes” instead of catholicus: this word in his time had not yet entered Latin speech in its ecclesiastical sense. Harvey. Harvey thinks that the Latin text here erroneously puts "Christum" instead of Totum (Παντα). See Book II. XIII, 6.!!!!! That is, the human nature of Jesus Christ. In these words of Isaiah we found the earliest mysterious indication of the worship of the Magi. Sl. Justina “Conversation with Tryphon”, Tertullian “Adv. iud", 9; "With. Marc", III, 13. This place in the Latin text is dark, since there is an omission in it, translated in accordance with the Syrian passage of the work of Irineov, printed with a Latin translation by Harvey. “Participare compendii poculo”, to participate in drinking, which is produced through the transformation of water into wine compendialiter (in short, by the direct action of God), as Irenaeus says above (chapter XI, 4). According to Grabe, such a reading, different from the accepted text, is found in the Latin Vulgate, in Origen and partly in Tertullian (Adv. Marc, 5, 16). Socrates in the Church. East. (VII, 32) says that this place was damaged by those who separated the humanity of the Lord from His Divinity and that in the ancient lists it stands: Θεου ουκ εστι. St. Polycarp (in the Epistle to Philip. VII) favors the current reading. The words “by the glory of the Father” are also omitted from Tertullian (“De Resurr. carn,” p. 47). Irenaeus points to this woman as an image of the pagan world, for among the Jews the Samaritans were considered on a par with idolaters. This passage is preserved in Greek by Theodoret (Dial. 1). This passage is translated from a Syriac passage published by Harvey. Pliny (“N. N.”, XXXVI, 24) talks about one case of death from drinking a solution of lime. Harvey. The word: “to be rejected” was either inserted by Irenaeus from Mark (Mark 8:31) and Luke (Luke 9:22) or was previously in some codices of Matthew. This place in the Latin text reads: et facere, ut et Deus assameret hoininem et homo so dederel Deo (and made it so that God would accept man and man would surrender to God), and differs significantly from the Greek reading in Theodoret (“Dial.”, II), according to which we made our translation. Grabe and other publishers will prefer reading Feodoritovo. In lat. the text reads: majorem ab eo gloriam percipiet provectus accipiens dum consimilis fiat... The word provectus caused a lot of difficulty for publishers. Grabe takes it for communion, Massuet it for blame. plural noun name, and Harvey will give birth. case from gloriam. We follow Massuet, with whom Stiern apparently agrees. This place, by its design in lat. the text is not clear. We follow Massuet's reading. This passage in Irenaeus reads differently from the accepted text, perhaps because it was brought from memory. Grabe notes that the word πρεσβυς, translated here “senior,” means “intercessor.” Irenaeus cites these words here under the name of Isaiah, and in Book IV. 22 - under the name of Jeremiah, but neither one nor the other prophet has them; Justin (“Conversation with Tr.”, chapter 72) also cites them under the name of Jeremiah, accusing the Jews of deliberately excluding them from Scripture. But since those words are not found in any ancient translation of the Bible, they were probably borrowed by Justin and Irenaeus from some apocryphal book. books. You should read Micah: (Micah 7:19). According to Epiphanius (de Monsuris XIV, XVII), Theodotion, a Jewish proselyte, called Ebionite by Eusebius (III, 8), made his translation of the Scriptures in the 2nd year of the reign of Commodus, i.e., around 181 AD, and Aquila half a century earlier, around 129. Clement Alex. (“Strom.”, 1, 22), citing Irenaeus’ story about the translation of the 70, says that, according to others, this translation was made under Ptolemy Philadelphus: the latter is adhered to, in addition to the legend known under the name of Aristeas, Philo, Josephus and Tertullian (Apolog. 18). Justin (“Apol.,” 1, 31) cites the name of Philadelphus, omitting the nickname, and speaks of a two-time embassy to Jerusalem. Grabe explains this discrepancy by the fact that the embassy is for the priest. the books of the Jews were at the time when Ptolemy Lagov accepted his son Philadelphus as co-ruler, and the translation was, if not completed, then begun under Ptolemy Lagov. Eusebius, who preserved the Greek text of this story (V, 8), reads: πνιησαντος του θεου οπερ εβουιλετο - “so God created what He wanted.” In lat. the text reads: sed non relictis ipsis patribus. The reading is obscure, in Grab he considers it necessary to exclude the particle “non”, but Massuet rejects this. Be that as it may, the context of speech shows the meaning of the translated passage. Irenaeus’ reading of this passage is in accordance with Beza’s code. According to the remark of Philo (“iu Gen.”, 1, 41), the fruit of the fig tree is more pleasant than others, but the leaves are rough. Harvey believes that the Latin translator erroneously read Λεων vm. Δκων (ορακν). About Tatian and his apology for Christians, see our edition of “Works of ecclesiastical writers of the 2nd century who defended Christianity,” Moscow, 1867. Of course, the primitive period of the history of the world or the times of the patriarchs, the middle - the prophets and the last - the time of Christ and the Apostles. In lat. in the text this place is dark: qut morum providentiam habent. You might be interested in: