Книга четвертая

1. By sending you, my dear friend, this fourth book of the work entitled “Reproaching and Refuting False Knowledge,” I, according to my promise, will confirm with the words of the Lord what I have said, so that you, as you asked, receive from me arguments from all sides for the defeat of all heretics, and those who are afflicted in every way, you would not allow further to plunge into the depths of error, nor to suffocate in the sea of ignorance, but having turned them into the haven of truth, he helped them to receive salvation. 2. Anyone who wishes to convert them must know exactly the systems of their teaching. For it is impossible for anyone to treat the sick when he does not know the illnesses of unhealthy people. Therefore, my predecessors, and, moreover, much better than me, could not satisfactorily refute the followers of Valentinus, because they did not know their teaching, which I conveyed to you with all care in the first book, in which I also showed that their teaching is a reduction of all heretics. That’s why in the second book we saw their complete defeat as if in a mirror. For whoever refutes them as he should (Valentinian) refutes all false teachers, and whoever defeats them defeats all heresy. 3. For their teaching is most blasphemous, since they say that the Creator and Maker, who, as I have shown, is one God, came from a lack or a falling away. They also blaspheme against our Lord, cutting off and separating Jesus from Christ, and Christ from the Savior, and the Savior again from the Word, and the Word from the Only Begotten. And just as they represent the Creator as having come from a lack, so they taught about Christ and the Holy Spirit that they were produced because of this lack, and the Savior is the product of aeons that came from a lack, so that they have nothing without blasphemy. In the previous book the teaching of the Apostles was presented about all this, and it turned out that those who from the very beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word of truth did not think anything of the kind, but also commanded us to avoid such teachings, foreseeing through the Spirit those who would deceive the simple. 4. How the serpent deceived Eve, promising her what he himself did not have; so these (heretics), who claim to possess the highest rank and ineffable mysteries and promise acceptance, as they say, into the Pleroma, plunge into death those who believe them, making them apostates from the Creator of them. And then the apostate angel, who through the snake brought about the disobedience of people, thought that he would remain unknown to the Lord; therefore God gave it the same image and name (snake). Now, when the last times have come, evil is spreading among people, making them not only apostates; but also blasphemers against the Creator through many tricks, that is, through all the above-mentioned heretics. For all of them, although they came from different places and expound different teachings, agree on the same blasphemous intention, causing mortal wounds by teaching blasphemy against God our Creator and Nourisher and undermining the salvation of man. Man is a combination of soul and flesh: he is created in the likeness of God and formed by His hands, i.e. through the Son and the Holy Spirit, to whom (God) said: “Let us make man” (Gen. 1:26). This is the intention of the one who envies our lives, to make people unbelievers in their salvation and blasphemers against the Creator God. For all that all the heretics have said with the greatest importance, in the end, comes down to this, that they blaspheme the Creator and deny the salvation of the creation of God, which is, among other things, the flesh, for the sake of which, as I have shown in many ways, the Son of God completed the whole economy, and revealed that the Scriptures call no one else God, except the Father of all and the Son and those who have received adoption as sons. The Lord recognized only One God and Father 1. When it is certain and true that no other God or Lord has been proclaimed by the Spirit, except the God who rules over all with His Word, and those who receive the Spirit of adoption, that is, believe in the one and true God and Jesus Christ the Son of God; and also the Apostles themselves did not call anyone else God and did not call them Lord, much less our Lord, Who commanded us not to confess anyone as Father except Him Who is in heaven, and is the One God and the One Father; then the teachings of these deceivers and the most perverse sophists clearly turn out to be false, who say that by nature there is a God and Father, the one whom they invented, the Creator is by nature neither God nor God, but is only called so in words, because he rules over the creation: so say the perverse grammarians who invent against God, and by abandoning the teaching of Christ and themselves inventing lies, they increase against the entire economy of God. For they say that their aeons are called gods, and fathers, and lords, and, moreover, heaven together with their Mother, who is also called earth and Jerusalem and many other names. 2. Who is not clear that if the Lord knew many fathers and gods, He would not have commanded His disciples to know one God and only call Him Father? On the contrary, He distinguished those who are gods only in words from Him who is truly God, so that they would not be mistaken regarding His teaching and would not mistake one for the other. If He commanded us to call the One Father and God, and meanwhile He himself from time to time confesses in the same sense other fathers and gods, then He will turn out to be commanding the disciples differently and doing something else. And this is not characteristic of a good teacher, but of a deceiver and an envier. And the Apostles, according to them, turn out to be transgressors of the commandment when they confess the Creator, as I have shown, as God, Lord and Father, whereas He alone is not God and Father. For them, Jesus will be the culprit and teacher of such a crime, because he commanded to call the One Father, imposing on them the need to confess the Creator as Their Father, as has already been shown. Evidence from the testimonies of Moses and other prophets, whose words are the words of Christ, that there is One God, the Creator of the world, whom the Lord preached and called His Father 1. Moses, in Deuteronomy, making an abbreviated repetition of the law received from the Creator, says this: “Hear the heavens and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words from my mouth” (Deut. 32:1). Even David, saying that help came to him from the Lord, said: “My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 124:8). And Isaiah admits that his words came from God, who created heaven and earth and rules over them: “Hear the heavens,” he said, “and listen with your ears, the earth, for the Lord has spoken” (Is. 1:2). And again: “Thus says the Lord God, who made the heavens and established them, who set up the earth and the things that are in it, and who gives breath to the people who live on it and spirit to those who walk on it” (Is. 42:5). 2. Our Lord Jesus Christ also confesses Himself as His Father when He says: “I glorify You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth” (Luke 10:21). What kind of Father should we understand according to these wicked sophists of Pandora? Is it the depth they invented, or their Mother or the Only Begotten? Whether it is the one whom the Marcionites or others (heretics) imagined - that he is not God, this has already been shown in detail - or what is true, the Creator of heaven and earth, whom the prophets preached, and Christ confesses as His Father and the Law proclaims, saying: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one” (Deut. 6:46-47). 3. And that the Scriptures of Moses are the words of Christ, He Himself speaks to the Jews, as John narrates in the Gospel: “If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me. If you do not believe his writings, you will not believe my words” (John 5:46–47), clearly showing that the writings of Moses are His words. If this is true of Moses, then the words of the other prophets are undoubtedly His words, as I have shown. And again, the Lord Himself imagines that Abraham said to the rich man about everyone who had lived until now: “If Moses and the prophets. If they do not listen, even if someone were to rise from the dead and come to them, they would not believe him” (Luke 16:31). 4. He, of course, did not convey to us the legend of the poor and the rich, but first of all he taught us the lesson that no one should indulge in pleasures and, spending life in worldly pleasures and constant feasts, serve their passions and forget God. “There was,” it is said, “a rich man who dressed himself in purple and fine linen and enjoyed brilliant feasts” (Luke 16:19). About such people the spirit said through Isaiah: “They drink wine with harps, timbrels, psalters and pipes, but they do not look at the works of God, and do not meditate on the works of His hands” (Is. 5:12). So that we would not be subjected to the same punishment along with these people, the Lord reveals their end and together shows that if they had listened to Moses and the prophets, they would have believed in Him Whom they preached, in the Son of God, risen from the dead and giving us life, and He shows that everything is from one essence, that is, Abraham, Moses and the prophets and the Lord Himself, risen from the dead, in whom many believe and from circumcision, listening to Moses and the prophets who preached the coming of the Son of God. Those who despise (the truth) say that they are of a different essence, and do not know the firstborn from the dead, separately meaning Christ, who remained a stranger to suffering, and separately Jesus who suffered. 5. For they do not receive knowledge of the Son from the Father, nor do they know the Father from the Son, who clearly and without parables teaches about Him who is truly God. “Do not swear at all,” He said, “neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King” (Matthew 5:34–35). These words are obviously spoken regarding the Creator, just as Isaiah says: “Heaven is My throne, earth is My footstool” (Is. 66:1). And besides this there is no other God, otherwise the Lord would not have called Him either God or the great King, for (a being) of this kind does not allow either comparison (with another) or superiority (above itself). For whoever has someone above him and is under the authority of another cannot be called either God or great King. 6. And it cannot be said that these words were spoken ironically, when the words themselves convince that they were spoken truly. For he who spoke the truth and truly defended his house, driving out of it the money changers who bought and sold, saying to them: “It is written: My house shall be called a house of prayer; but you made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13). And what reason had He to do this and say this, if He had proclaimed another God? But (He did this) in order to expose the transgressors of the law of his Father, for he did not pronounce accusations against the house, nor condemn the law that he came to fulfill, but denounced those who did not use the house well and transgressed the law. And therefore the scribes and Pharisees, who from the time of the law began to despise God, did not accept His Word, that is, they did not believe Christ; Isaiah says about them: “your princes are disobedient, accomplices of thieves, they love gifts, they pursue bribes, they do not judge the orphans and do not delve into the affairs of widows” (Is. 1:23). And Jeremiah says in a similar way: “The rulers of My people did not know Me; they, foolish and foolish sons, are wise to do evil, but do not understand to do good” (Jer. 4:22). 7. Those who feared God and cared about His Law ran to Christ and were all saved; for He said to His disciples: “Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). And the Samaritans, it is said, when the Lord stayed with them for two days, “an even greater number believed according to His words, and said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we ourselves have heard and know that He is truly the Savior of the world” (John 4:41–42). And Paul says: “and in this way all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:26); but he also called the law "our nurture" (Gal. 3:24) in Christ Jesus. So let them not attribute to the Law the unbelief of some; for the law did not forbid them to believe in the Son of God, but even exhorted them (to believe), saying that people cannot be saved from the ancient bite of the snake except through faith in Him who, in the likeness of sinful flesh, ascended from the earth on the tree of martyrdom and draws everything to Himself (John 12:32; 3:14) and gives life to the dead 93. Reply to the Gnostic Objection Concerning the Changeability of Heaven and Earth 1. As for their malicious conclusion that if heaven is the throne of God, and earth His footstool, and heaven and earth, as it is said, will pass away, then as if with their passing, God, who sits on them, must also pass, and therefore He is not the Most High God, then firstly, they do not know what it means: heaven is a throne and earth is a footstool. For they do not know that there is a God, but they think that He sits in the image of man and is contained in something, but is not contained. And they do not understand the transcendence of heaven and earth; Paul understood this when he says: “The image of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31). Further, David resolves their question, for he says that when the form of this world passes away, not only God abides, but also His servants, as expressed in Psalm 101: “In the beginning, O Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but You will remain, and they will all wear out like a garment, and You will change them like a veil, and they will change. You are still the same and Your years will not become scarce. The sons of Your servants will live and their seed will be established forever” (Ps. 101:25-280, and this clearly shows what passes and who abides forever - God with His servants. Isaiah says in a similar way: “Lift up your eyes to heaven and look down on the earth, for the heaven is established as smoke, and the earth wears out wear and tear like clothing; and those who live on them will die like them. But My salvation will endure forever, and My righteousness will not pass away” (Isaiah 51:6). Reply to another objection, borrowed from the destruction of Jerusalem 1. Further, about Jerusalem and about the Lord, they dare to say that if it were “the city of the great King,” it would not have been abandoned. This is similar to if someone said that if the stem were the creation of God, it would never be left as grains, and the branches of the vine, if they were created by God, would never be pruned and deprived of their tassels. Thus, these (branches) were initially created not for their own sake, but for the sake of the fruit growing on them, after the ripening and removal of which they are abandoned and that which is no longer useful for fertilization is taken away from them; so (it happened) with Jerusalem, which bore within itself the yoke of slavery - under which man was given, who had not previously submitted to God, when death reigned, and having been tamed, he became fit for freedom - when the fruit of freedom came, grew and ripened and was laid in the granary, and from it (Jerusalem) those who can fertilize were taken and scattered throughout the world. Isaiah speaks about this: “the children of Jacob will grow, and Israel will prosper, and the whole earth will be filled with its fruit” (Is. 27:6). When the fruit is scattered throughout the whole earth, then it (Jerusalem) is rightly abandoned and, once bearing fruit well, is eliminated; for from it Christ and the Apostles came into being as fruit in the flesh, but now it is no longer suitable for bearing fruit. 2. Since the Law began with Moses, then of necessity it ended with John, when Christ came, His fulfillment; and therefore “they had the law and the prophets until John” (Luke 16:16). Therefore, Jerusalem, which received its beginning from David, after the fulfillment of its time, had to have the end of legislation. when the New Testament came; for God does everything in measure and in order, and with Him nothing is unmeasured, because nothing is disordered. And someone beautifully said that the immeasurable Father Himself took measure in the Son, for the measure of the Father is the Son, because He embraces Him. And that their dispensation was temporary, Isaiah says about this: “the daughter of Zion will be left as a hut in a vineyard and as a guard in a cucumber garden” (Is. 1:8). When will this be abandoned? Is it not when the fruit is removed and only the leaves remain, which can no longer bear fruit? 3. But why did we speak about Jerusalem, when the image of the whole world must pass away at the time of his coming, so that the fruit may be gathered into the barn, and the stubble left behind may be burned? “For the day of the Lord (will come) like a burning furnace, and all sinners who practice iniquity will be stubble, and the coming day will burn them up” (Mal. 4:1). And who is this Lord who brings such a day, John the Baptist shows when he speaks of Christ: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire; a shovel is in His hand to cleanse His threshing floor, and He will gather the fruit into the barn, and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:11–12; Luke 3 et seq.). So, he who makes the wheat is not different from the one who makes the straw, but one and the same who judges them, that is, separates them. But wheat and straw, as inanimate and unreasonable objects, became so by nature. Man, gifted with reason and in this respect similar to God, created free in choice and autocratic, is for himself the reason that he sometimes becomes wheat, sometimes straw. Therefore, he will be condemned justly, because, created by reason, he lost true reason and, living unreasonably, opposed the truth of God, betraying himself to every earthly spirit and serving all passions, as the prophet says: “man, being in honor, did not understand: he became equal to senseless cattle and became like them” (Ps. 48:21). One God, proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets, whom Christ confesses to be His Father and who revealed Himself in both testaments 1. Therefore, it is one and the same God, who folds the heavens like a book, and renews the face of the earth, who created temporary things for man, so that, ripening among them, he would bring forth the fruit of immortality, and who, according to his goodness, brings forth eternal (goods), in order to “reveal to the coming ages the unspeakable riches of his goodness” (Eph. 2:7), who was proclaimed by the law and the prophets, and of whom Christ confessed by His Father. He is the Creator, He is the Most High God, as Isaiah says: “I am a witness, says the Lord God, and My servant, whom I have chosen, that they might know, believe and understand, that I am. There was no other God before Me and there will be no other God after Me. I am God and besides Me there is no one who can save. I have declared and saved” (Isaiah 43:10–12). And again: “I am God first and I am above the future” (Is. 12:4). He does not say this ambiguously, arrogantly, or vainly; but since it was impossible to know God without God, He teaches people through His Word to know God. And to those who do not know this and therefore think to reveal another Father, someone will rightly say: “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God” (Matthew 17:29). 2. For our Lord and Teacher, in the answer given by the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection and therefore dishonor God and despise the Law, both showed the resurrection and revealed God, saying this: “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For concerning the resurrection of the dead,” He said, “have you not read what God said: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?” And he added: “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:29-32), therefore for Him everyone is alive. With these words He clearly showed that He who spoke to Moses from the bush and declared Himself the God of the fathers is the God of the living. Who is the God of the living if not He who is God, and above whom there is no other God? Daniel the prophet, when King Cyrus of Persia said to him: “Why don’t you worship God?”, you proclaim, saying: “Because I worship not idols made with hands, but the living God, who set heaven and earth and is ruler over all flesh”; and he also said: “I will worship the Lord my God, for He is the living God” (Dan. 14:3–4,24). So, He whom the prophets worshiped as the living God is the God of the living; and His Word spoke to Moses, and denounced the Sadducees, and gave the resurrection, revealing both to those who were blind, that is, the resurrection and God. For if God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, and He is called the God of the fathers who have fallen asleep, then without a doubt they are alive to God and have not perished, since they are the sons of the resurrection. Our Lord Himself is the resurrection, as He says: “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). And the fathers are His sons; for the prophet said: “In place of Your fathers Your sons became You” (Is. 44:17). So, Christ Himself with the Father of the living is God, who spoke to Moses and revealed Himself to the fathers. 3. And teaching this very thing, He said to the Jews: “Abraham your father rejoiced to see My day, and he saw and was glad” (John 8:56). Why? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3). Firstly (he believed) that He is the Creator of heaven and earth, one God, and secondly, that He would make his seed like the stars of heaven. This is what Paul expresses (in the words): “as lights in the world” (Phil. 2:15). Therefore, rightly, having left his earthly kinship, he followed the Word of God, wandering with the Word of God in order to be at home with the Word. 4. It is right that the Apostles, descended from Abraham, left the ship and their father and followed the Word of God. It is fair that we, having the same faith as Abraham, having taken up the cross, like Isaac took the wood, follow Him. For in Abraham man learned in advance the skill to follow the Word of God. For Abraham, by his faith, following the commandment of the Word of God, willingly offered up his only begotten and beloved son as a sacrifice to God, so that God would also be pleased for all his seed to present his only begotten and beloved Son as a sacrifice for our redemption. 5. When Abraham was thus a prophet, and in the Spirit saw the day of the coming of the Lord and the dispensation of suffering, through which he and all who believed in God like him were to be saved, he rejoiced greatly. So Abraham did not know the Lord, whose day he desired to see, nor the Father of the Lord, for he knew from the Word of the Lord and believed in Him; which is why it was counted to him by the Lord as righteousness. For faith in God justifies a person, and therefore he said: “I will stretch out my hand to the Most High God, who created heaven and earth” (Gen. 14:22). But those malicious (teachers) are trying to overthrow all this because of one saying that they misunderstood. Explanation of the words of Christ: no one knows the Father except the Son 1. The Lord, revealing Himself to the disciples that He is the Word, imparting knowledge of the Father, and reproaching the Jews, who imagined that they had (knowledge) about God, while they rejected His Word, through which God is known, said: “no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and to whom the Son chooses to reveal it” (Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22). So Matthew conveyed this passage, as well as Luke and Mark the same 94, but John omitted it. And they (the heretics), wanting to be more knowledgeable than the Apostles, present it this way: “no one knew the Father except the Son, nor the Son except the Father, and to whomever the Son chose to reveal Him,” and they explain it as if the true God was not known to anyone before the coming of our Lord, and they say that the God proclaimed by the prophets is not the Father of Christ. 2. Even if Christ had (only) begun to exist when he came (to the world). as a man, and if the Father (only) in the time of Tiberius Caesar remembered to take care of people and His Word turned out to not always exist with the creation; then even in this case it was not necessary to proclaim another God, but (rather) to investigate the reasons for such carelessness and negligence of Him. For it is not necessary for such research to arise and go so far as to change God and destroy our faith in the Creator, who nourishes us through creation. For just as we place our faith in the Son, so we must have steadfast and unfailing love for the Father. And Justin says well in his essay against Marcion 95: “I would not have believed the Lord himself if He had proclaimed another God other than our Creator, Maker and Nourisher. But since from the one God, who created this world and created us and contains and governs everything, the Only Begotten Son (His) came to us, restoring His creation in Himself, then my faith in Him is firm and my love for the Father is unchanging, because God gives us both.” 3. For no one can know the Father unless the Word of God, that is, the Son, reveals Him, and no one can know the Son unless the Father is pleased. The favor of the Father is fulfilled by the Son, for the Father sends, and the Son is sent and comes. And the invisible and infinite Father, in relation to us, knows His own Word, and since He is inexplicable, He himself explains (Him) to us, and on the other hand, only the Father knows His Word: and both of these (truths) were declared by the Lord. And therefore, the Son reveals the knowledge of the Father through His revelation. For the revelation of the Son is the knowledge of the Father, since all things are revealed through the Word. And so that we might know that the Son who came imparts to those who believe in Him the knowledge of the Father, He said to the disciples: no one knows the Son except the Father, nor the Father (no one knows) except the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal Himself, showing Himself and the Father as He is, so that we do not accept another Father except the One who is revealed by the Son. 4. But this (Father) is the Creator of heaven and earth, as is evident from His words, and not that false father invented by Marcion, or Valentinus, or Basilides, or Carpocrates, or Simon, or other falsely called Gnostics. For none of them was the Son of God, but (only) Christ Jesus our Lord, contrary to Whom they set forth their teaching, daring to proclaim an unknown God. But against themselves they must hear: how is He unknown, Who is known to them? For He who is known even by a few is not unknown. And the Lord did not say that the Father and the Son cannot be known at all: otherwise His coming would have been in vain. For why did He come here? Is it to tell us: “Do not seek God; He is unknown and you will not find Him,” how do the followers of Valentsh lie, as if Christ (so) told them to the Aeons? But this is nonsense. For the Lord taught us that no one can know God unless God teaches, that is, that God is not known without God, but for God to be known, this is the will of the Father. For those to whom the Son will reveal Him will know Him. 5. And for this purpose the Father revealed the Son, so that through Him He might reveal Himself to everyone and receive the righteous who believe in Him into incorruptible eternal rest. To believe in Him means to do His will, and those who do not believe and therefore those who avoid His light are rightly imprisoned in the darkness that they themselves have chosen. Therefore, the Father revealed Himself to everyone, making the Holy Word visible to everyone; and vice versa, the Word showed the Father and the Son to everyone, becoming visible to everyone, therefore the righteous judgment of God (will be) on everyone who saw like (others) but did not believe, like (others). 6. For through creation itself the Word reveals God the Creator, and through the world the Creator of the world, the Lord, and through the formation of (man) the Artist who formed it and through the Son of the Father who begot Him; and they all say the same things, but they do not believe the same. Through the Law and the Prophets, the Word also proclaimed Himself and the Father, and all the people heard alike, but not everyone believed alike. And through the Word Himself, which became visible and tangible, the Father appeared, although not everyone believed equally, but everyone saw the Father in the Son, for the Father is the invisible of the Son, and the Son is the visible of the Father. And therefore everyone spoke to Christ during His presence (on earth) and called Him God. And the demons, seeing the Son, said: “We know You who You are, the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). And the devil the tempter, seeing Him, said: “If you are the Son of God” (Matthew 4:3; Luke 4:3), and thus everyone saw and named the Son and Father, but not everyone believed. 7. Because it was necessary. so that the truth would receive testimony from everyone and be a means of judgment for the salvation of believers and the condemnation of unbelievers, so that everyone would be judged fairly, and faith in the Father and the Son would be confirmed by everyone, receiving testimony from everyone, both from its own, since they are its friends, and from outsiders, since they are its enemies. For that proof is true and indisputable, which even from the very opponents provides detailed evidence, when they are convinced by their own vision regarding a real matter and testify and certify about it, and then fall into enmity, slander and do not want their testimony to be (recognized) true. Therefore, there was no other knowable and another who said: “no one knows the Father,” but One and the same, as the Father Himself subjected everything to Him, and He receives the testimony of everyone that He is truly man and truly God, from the Father, from the Spirit, from the angels, from creation itself, from people, from fallen spirits and demons, and from the enemy, and after all, from death itself. But the Son, having arranged everything for the Father, completes it from beginning to end, and without Him no one can know God. For the Son is the knowledge of the Father, and the knowledge of the Son is in the Father and through the Son openly, and therefore the Lord says: “no one knows the Son except the Father, and the Father (no one knows) except the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal it.” It is said “will reveal” not only in relation to the future, as if the Word then began to reveal the Father when he was born of Mary, but extends generally to all time. For from the beginning, co-present with his creation, the Son reveals the Father to everyone to whom he wants and when he wants, and as the Father wants, and therefore in everything and through everything there is One God the Father and One Word and Son 96 and One Spirit and one salvation for all who believe in Him. Abraham, by revelation of the Word, knew the Father and the coming of the Son of God 1. And Abraham, knowing the Father through the Word, who created heaven and earth, confessed Him 97 as God, and taught by revelation 98 that the Son of God would be a man among men and through His coming his seed would be like the stars of heaven, desired to see that day in order to embrace Christ himself; and when he saw him through the Spirit of the Prophet, he rejoiced. Therefore, Simeon, one of his descendants, fulfilled the joyful feeling of the patriarch and said: “Now you are releasing Your servant, O Master, 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 2:29-33). And the Angels also announced great joy to the shepherds who were guarding the flock at night. And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46–47). For the joy of Abraham descends from him to his descendants who are awake, seeing Christ and believing Him, and in turn the joy from his children returns to Abraham, who also desired to see the day of Christ's coming. So our Lord gave testimony to him, saying: “Abraham your father rejoiced to see My day, and he saw and was glad” (John 8:56). 2. And He said this not only for the sake of Abraham, but also in order to show that all who knew God from the beginning and predicted the coming of Christ received a revelation from the Son Himself, who in the last times became visible and capable of suffering and spoke to the human race, that He could raise up the sons of Abraham from stones and fulfill the promise given to Him by God and make his seed like the stars of heaven, as John the Baptist says: “God is able to raise up from these stones children of Abraham" (Matthew 3:9). This is what Jesus did, turning us away from the veneration of stones and distracting us from rude and fruitless thoughts and confirming in us a faith similar to Abraham. So Paul also testifies, saying that we are children of Abraham in the likeness of the faith and in the promise of the inheritance (Rom.4:12; Gal.4:28). 3. So, it is the same God who called Abraham and gave him the promise. He is also the Creator, who through Christ prepares the lights in the world - (namely) believers from the pagans. “You,” it is said, “are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14), that is, like the stars of heaven. Therefore we rightly say about Him that no one knows Him except the Son and the one to whom the Son reveals it. The Son reveals the Father to everyone to whom He wants to become known, and without the good will of the Father and without the action of the Son, no one knows God. That is why the Lord told the disciples: “I am the way, the truth and the life. And no one can come to the Father except through Me. If you knew Me, you would also know My Father, and from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (John 15:6-7). From these (words) it is obvious that (God) is known through the Son, that is, through the Word. 4. Therefore the Jews apostatized from God, not accepting His Word, but imagining that they could know the Father in himself without the Word, that is, the Son, not knowing that God who in human form spoke to Abraham and then to Moses, saying: “I saw the oppression of my people in Egypt and came down to deliver them” (Ex. 3: 7-8). For this was ordained from the beginning by the Son, who is the Word of God, not because the Father lacked angels to create the creation and form man, for whom creation was created, and not because He lacked servants to create created things and to order the things that pertain to man; but He has a rich and ineffable multitude of ministers. For He is served in everything by His generation and His likeness, that is, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Word and Wisdom, to whom all the angels serve and are subject. So, they are vain who, based on the words: “no one knows the Father except the Son,” introduce another unknown Father. Christ saved not only Abraham, but also his descendants, fulfilling and not destroying the Law 1. Marcion and his followers are vain in excluding from the inheritance of Abraham, to whom the Spirit through many and especially through Paul gives testimony that he “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3): and the Lord (gives him testimony), first, raising up his children from stones and making his seed like the stars of heaven and saying: “that they will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south and will sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 8:11), and then saying to the Jews: "When you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the Kingdom of Heaven, and yourselves cast out" (Luke 18:28). Therefore, it is clear that those who reject his salvation and invent another God besides the One who gave the promise to Abraham remain outside the kingdom of God and are alien to the inheritance of incorruptibility, because they humiliate and blaspheme God, who through Christ Jesus introduces Abraham into the kingdom of heaven and his seed, that is, the Church, to which the adoption and inheritance promised to Abraham passes. 2. For the Lord freed his seed, freeing him from bondage and calling him to salvation, as He did regarding the woman He healed, clearly saying to those who did not have faith like Abraham: “You hypocrites! Doesn't each one of you on the Sabbath day untie his ox or donkey and lead it to water? This same daughter of Abraham. whom Satan had bound for eighteen years, should not she have been freed from these bonds on the Sabbath day” (Luke 13:15-16). It is evident that He loosed and revived those who, like Abraham, believed in Him, and did nothing against the Law when He healed on the Sabbath day. For the Law did not forbid people to be healed on the Sabbath; on the contrary, it even circumcised them on this day and commanded the priests to perform services for the people, and did not even forbid the healing of dumb animals. And at the Pool of Siloam and often (on other occasions) He healed on the Sabbath day, which is why many resorted to Him on the Sabbath day. The law commanded them to abstain from all servile activity, i.e. from the love of acquisition, supported by trade and other earthly affairs, but encouraged him to engage in affairs of the soul, consisting of reflection and good speeches and helping others. And therefore the Lord rebuked those who unjustly reproached Him for healing on the Sabbath day. For He did not destroy, but fulfilled the Law, performing the works of the High Priest, propitiating God for the people and cleansing the lepers, healing the sick, and Himself accepting death, so that the exiled man would emerge from condemnation and return fearlessly to his inheritance. 3. And further, the Law did not forbid the hungry from eating on the Sabbath day from what was at hand, but forbade reaping and gathering into the barn. And therefore the Lord to those who reproached His disciples for plucking and... ate the ears of corn, said: “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread and gave it to those with him, but no one was allowed to eat it except the priests” (Luke 6:3–4)? – justifying the disciples with the words of the Law and showing that priests can act freely. David was appointed priest by God, although Saul persecuted him. For all the righteous have the priestly rank. And all the Apostles of the Lord are priests who own neither fields nor houses here, but always serve the altar and God. Moses speaks about such people in Deuteronomy with the blessing of Levi: “Whoever says to his father and mother: I do not know you, and does not recognize his brothers, and has abandoned his sons; he kept Your commandments and kept Your covenant” (Deut. 33:9). And who left their father and mother and abandoned all their loved ones for the sake of the Word of God and His covenant, if not the disciples of the Lord? About such Moses again says: “They will have no inheritance; for the Lord himself is their inheritance” (Num. 18:20). And again: “The Levitical priests will have no part in the whole tribe of Levi, nor an inheritance with Israel; theirs is the inheritance of the offering of the Lord, of which they shall eat” (Deut. 18:1). Therefore, Paul says: “I do not seek giving, but I seek fruit” (Phil. 4:17). The disciples of the Lord, he says, having a Levitical meaning, can, in case of hunger, eat seeds. For “the worker is worthy of his food” (Matthew 10:10). And the priests in the church broke the Sabbath, but were not guilty. Why weren't they guilty? Because, while in the church, they performed not worldly, but the Lord's services, fulfilling the Law, and not breaking the Law, as did the one who brought dry wood into the camp of God on his own and was rightly stoned (Num. 15:32). “For every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10); and “whoever destroys the church of God, God will punish him” (1 Cor. 3:17). One Author and One Purpose of the Old and New Testaments 1. So everything is of the One and the Same Essence, that is, from the One and the Same God, just as the Lord says to the disciples: “Therefore every scribe who has been taught in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a master who brings out from his treasury new and old” (Matthew 13:52). He did not teach that one endures the old. and the other is new, but that it is one and the same. For the Lord is the master who rules the entire house of the Father: He gives the appropriate law to the slaves and those who have not yet been trained, but He gives the appropriate commandments to the free and justified by faith and reveals His inheritance to the sons. And He called His disciples scribes and teachers of the Kingdom of Heaven, about whom He also speaks in another place as Jews: “Behold, I am sending to you wise men and scribes and teachers, and some of them you will kill, and others you will drive from city to city” (Matthew 23:34). By the old and the new, taken out of the treasury, He undoubtedly means two covenants: the old is the former legislation, and the new represents the way of life according to the Gospel, about which David says: “sing to the Lord a new song” (Ps. 96:1); and Isaiah: “Sing a new song to the Lord. His dominion and His name are glorified from the ends of the earth; His powers are proclaimed in the isles” (Isa. 62:10–12). And Jeremiah says: “Behold, I will establish a new covenant, not like the one I made with your fathers,” on Mount Horeb (Jer. 31:31). But both covenants were made by the same householder - the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who spoke with Abraham and Moses, and in recent times restored us to freedom and increased the grace that comes from Him. 2. He said: “Here is He who is greater than the church” (Matthew 12:6). The words “more” and “less” are used not about things that have no communication with each other, are opposite in nature and oppose each other, but about those that have the same essence and are in mutual communication and differ only in number and size; so water from water, light from light and grace from grace. Therefore, the law given into freedom is greater than the law given into slavery; and therefore it is extended not to one (only) people, but to the world here. The one and same Lord, who is greater than the church, and greater than Solomon and greater than Jonah, bestows on people, that is, His presence and resurrection from the dead, but does not change God and does not preach another Father, but the same One, who can always give more for His household and with the increase of their love for God imparts more and greater gifts, just as the Lord told the disciples: “you will see more than these” (John 1:50). ). And Paul says: “Not that I have already attained or been justified or already perfect; For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect comes, then that which is in part will cease.” 99 Therefore, as with the advent of the perfect, we will see not another Father, but the One whom we now desire to see, for “blessed are the pure in heart, because they will see God” (Matthew 5:8), and we will expect not another Christ and the Son of God, but the One who was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered, in whom we believe and in whom we love, as Isaiah says: “and they will say in that day: behold, the Lord God ours, in whom we trusted and rejoiced in our salvation" (Isa. 25:9), and as Peter says in his epistle: "Whom you have not seen, you love, and whom you have not seen yet, but believe, you rejoice with inexpressible joy" (1 Peter 1:8), and we will receive no other Holy Spirit, but the One who is with us and who cries: "Abba Father" (Rom.8:15); and we will have an increase in the same things (in which we are now) and will achieve the fact that no longer through dark glass and riddles, but face to face we will enjoy the gifts of God: so now, receiving more than the church, and more than Solomon, that is, the coming of the Son of God, we have recognized no other God than the Creator and Maker of everything revealed to us from the beginning, and no other Christ the Son of God besides Him. Which was announced by the prophets. 3. Since the prophets knew the New Testament and proclaimed it, He, who had to arrange it in accordance with the will of the Father, was proclaimed and revealed to people, as it pleased God, so that they, believing in Him, could always prosper and through (successive) Testaments gradually achieve perfect salvation. For there is one salvation and one God; and there are many commandments that form a person, and not a few steps that lead him to God. An earthly and temporary king, although he is a man, can at times give his subjects great advantages; But is it not permissible for God, Who is always the same and wants to bestow ever greater grace on the human race, to constantly honor with great gifts those who are pleasing to Him? If success consists in inventing another Father besides the One Who was first proclaimed, and then, in addition to the one Who was invented in second place, inventing a third, then a transition will follow from the third to the fourth and from this again to another and so on, and thus such a mind, thinking to keep moving forward, will never stop at the one God. Having started from the One who is, and returning back, he will search everything, but will never find God, and will always float in the depths of incomprehensibility, unless he turns through repentance and returns to where he fell, believing and confessing the One God the Father, the Creator proclaimed by the law and the prophets, attested by Christ, as He Himself says to those who accused His disciples for not observing the tradition of the elders: “Why do you transgress the commandment of the Lord for the sake of your tradition? For God said: Honor your father and mother, and let him who curses father or mother die” (Matthew 15:3–4). And He also says to them: “And you have made void the word of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matthew 15:6). Here Christ very clearly confesses as Father and God the One who commanded in the law: “Honor your father and mother, that it may be good for you” (Ex. 20:12). For the true God recognized the commandment of the law as the word of God and called no one else God except His Father. The Old Testament Scriptures announced the Son of God, His coming and suffering 1. Therefore, John rightly quotes the words of the Lord to the Jews: “Test the Scriptures, in which you think you have eternal life: they testify of Me. But you do not want to come to Me that you may have life” (John 5:39–40). How could they testify about Him if they were not from One and the Same Father, did not anticipate the coming of His Son and did not foretell salvation through Him? “For if they had believed Moses, they would have believed Me, because he wrote about Me” (John 5:46): it is the Son of God who is scattered everywhere in his Scriptures, now as talking with Abraham when he had food from him, now with Noah, giving him measurements (of the ark), now as seeking Adam, now bringing judgment on the Sodomites, now as appearing and showing Jacob the way, now speaking with Moses from the bush. It is even impossible to list the cases in which Moses portrays the Son of God. He knew the day of His suffering and figuratively predicted it under the name of Passover, and on this very holiday, predicted by Moses so long ago, the Lord suffered while celebrating Passover. And not only did Moses indicate the day, but also the place and limit of time and the sign of the sunset, saying: “You cannot slay the Passover lamb in any other of your cities that the Lord God gives you, except the place that the Lord your God chooses to call on His name; you must slay the lamb in the evening at sunset” (Deut. 16:5-6). 2. He also revealed His coming, saying: “The prince of Judah will not fail, nor the ruler from between his feet, until He comes to whom this is reserved, and He is the hope of the nations; He will tie His foal to the vine tree and the colt of His donkey to the vine. He will wash His clothes in wine and His shirt in the blood of grapes, His eyes are merry with wine and His teeth are white as milk” (Gen. 49:10-12). Let those who, according to their words, search everything, determine the time in which the prince and leader in Judah became poor, and who is the hope of the nations, and who is the grape, who is His foal, what is His clothing, eyes, teeth, wine and each of these words - and find that none other than our Lord Jesus Christ is proclaimed here. Therefore, Moses, reproaching the people for ingratitude, says: “a rude and foolish people, is this what you repay to the Lord” (Deut. 32:6)? Further, he makes it clear that the Word, which from the beginning created them and created them, and in the last times redeems and revives us, turns out to be hanging on the tree, and that they will not believe in Him. For he says: “Your life will hang before your eyes, and you will not believe your life” (Deut. 28:66). And again: “Is it not this very Father of yours who acquired you, and created you, and created you” (Deut. 32:6)? Prophets and righteous people knew about the coming of the Lord 1. And that not only the prophets, but also many righteous people, foreseeing His coming by the Holy Spirit, prayed to live until the time when they would see their Lord face to face and hear His words, the Lord showed, saying to the disciples: “Many prophets and righteous people wanted to see what you see, but did not see, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear” (Matthew 13:17). So they wanted to hear and see, if they did not know in advance about His future coming? How could they know in advance if they did not receive knowledge about Him from Him? How could the Scriptures testify about Him, if everything were not revealed and shown to believers by one and the same God through the Word? He now conversed with His creation, now gave the law, now reproached, now admonished, and finally freed the slave and adopted him, and in due time will give the inheritance of incorruption to the perfection of man. For He created it for growth and multiplication, as the Scripture says: “increase and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). 2. And God is distinguished from man by the fact that God creates, and man is created, and that the Creator is always One and the Same, and the creature must have a beginning, a middle, an increase and a multiplication. God does good, and man receives good. God is perfect in everything and is equal and similar to Himself, because He is all light, all mind, all being and the source of all blat; and man increases and prospers in relation to God. Just as God is always the same, so a person who is in God will always advance towards God. For neither God ever ceases to do good and provide favors to man, nor does man cease to receive benefits and be favored from God. A person who is grateful to his Creator is a vessel of goodness and an organ of His glorification, and a person who is not grateful, despising the Creator and disobedient to His Word, is a vessel of His righteous judgment. He promised to give much to those who always bear fruit and have more than the talents of the Lord. “Well,” He said, “good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in small things. I will put you over many things; enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 13:17): thus the Lord Himself promises very much. 3. Just as, therefore, He promised to give very much to those bearing fruit by the gift of His goodness, and not by a change in “knowledge,” for the Lord remains the same, and the same Father is revealed, so the same Lord, through His coming, gave to later people a greater gift of His goodness than in the Old Testament. Those heard through the slaves about the future coming of the King and rejoiced to some extent, awaiting His coming, and the latter saw His presence and, having received freedom and taking advantage of His gift, have great grace and abundant joy, rejoicing about the coming of the King, just as David says: “My soul will rejoice in the Lord, it will rejoice in His salvation” (Ps. 34:9). And therefore, at the time of His entry into Jerusalem, everyone who was on the street of David recognized Him in spiritual sorrow as His King and spread their clothes for Him and decorated the road with green branches, exclaiming with great joy and delight: “Hosanna to the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:8). When the bad rulers were indignant, who deceived the lower and dominated the foolish and therefore did not want the coming of the King, and said to Him: “Do you hear what these are saying,” then the Lord said: “Have you never read: out of the mouths of babes and sucklings You have ordained praise” (Matt. 21:16; Ps. 8:3), showing that what David said about the Son of God was fulfilled on Him, and admonishing that they They do not know the power of Scripture and the dispensation of God, but that He is the Christ proclaimed by the prophet, whose name is praised throughout the whole earth and who, from the mouths of babes and sucklings, gave praise to His Father. why His glory ascended above the heavens. 4. If our Lord Jesus Christ is the same one who was foretold by the prophets, and if His coming brought to those who accepted Him abundant grace and great gifts, then it is obvious that the Father is the same one who was announced by the prophets, and the Son who came taught knowledge not of another Father, but of Him who was preached from the beginning, from whom He brought freedom to those who rightly and willingly and with all their hearts serve Him; and to those who despise and do not submit to God, who for the sake of human glory observe external purifications - which were given as an image of the future, since the Law depicted, as it were, a shadow and represented the eternal in the temporal and the heavenly in the earthly, and who imagine that they fulfill more than what is commanded and place their zeal above God himself, but inside are full of hypocrisy, sensuality and all kinds of evil, brought eternal destruction, excommunicating them from life. Christ, rejecting traditions and customs contrary to the Old Testament Law, confirmed its main commandments and taught that He is the end of Moses' Zanon 1. For the tradition of the elders themselves; which they supposed to observe on the basis of the Law was contrary to the Law given by Moses. Therefore, Isaiah says: “Your innkeepers mix wine with water” (Is. 1:22), showing that the elders mixed the watery tradition with the pure commandment of God, that is, they added false and contrary to the Law, as the Lord showed, saying to them: “Why do you transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matthew 15:3). For not only with their crimes did they despise the Law by mixing wine with water, but in opposition to it they established their own law, which even to this day is called the Pharisees. In this law they cancel some things, add others, and interpret others in their own way, which their teachers each use for themselves; and wanting to protect these traditions, they did not want to obey the Law of God, which prepared them for the coming of Christ, but even reproached the Lord for healings on the Sabbath days, which, as I said above, the Law did not prohibit. For they themselves, in some respects, performed healings by circumcising a person on the Sabbath, but they did not accuse themselves of transgressing the commandment of God through tradition and the above-mentioned Pharisaic law and of non-observance of the (main) commandment of the Law, that is, love of God. 2. And that this is the first and most important commandment, and the second after it is (love) for one’s neighbor, the Lord showed this, saying that the whole Law and the Prophets hang on these commandments. And He Himself did not bring another more important commandment than this, but only this very one to His disciples, commanding them to love God with all their hearts and others as themselves. If He had come from another Father, He would never have used the first and most important commandment from the Law, but would have tried in every possible way to imagine some greater commandment than this from the perfect Father, so as not to use the one given by God of the Law. I Paul says: “The fulfillment of the Law is love” (Rom. 13:10), and that when everything else is abolished, “faith, hope and love abide, and most of all there is love” ( 1 Cor.13:13), and without love for God, neither knowledge brings any benefit (1 Cor. 13:2), nor comprehension of mysteries, nor faith, nor prophecy, but everything is vain and in vain without love; love makes a person perfect and he who loves God is perfect both in the present age and in the future. For we never cease to love God, and the more we contemplate Him, the more we love Him. 3. Since in the Law and in the Gospel the first and most important commandment is to love the Lord God with all your heart, and then follows a similar one - to love your neighbor as yourself, it turns out that the Author of the Law and the Gospel is the same. For since in both Testaments the rules of perfect life are the same, they point to One God, Who, although he prescribed the commandments that were especially appropriate for both, gave the same ones in both (Testaments) but the most important and important ones, without which salvation is impossible. 4. Whom will not the Lord put to shame when He shows that the Law is not from another God, thus speaking to the people and disciples whom He taught: “The scribes and Pharisees sat in the seat of Moses. Therefore whatever they tell you, observe and do; But do not act according to their deeds, for they speak and do not do. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves do not want to move them with a finger” (Matthew 23:24). So He did not condemn the Law given by Moses, which He ordered to be observed when Jerusalem was still intact, but reproached them for the fact that they proclaimed the words of the Law, but remained without love and therefore were unjust in relation to God and their neighbors. So Isaiah says: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they honor Me, teaching the doctrines and commandments of men” (Is. 29:13). He calls the commandments of men not the Law given by Moses, but the traditions of the elders themselves, invented by them, in defense of which they despised the Law of God, and therefore did not submit to His Word. This is precisely what Paul says regarding them: “not knowing the righteousness of God and desiring to establish their own (own) righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God. For the end of the Law is Christ for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:34). And how is Christ the end of the Law, if He is not the beginning of It? For he who brought (with Himself) the end brought also the beginning; and He Himself says to Moses: “I saw the oppression of My people in Egypt and came down to deliver them” (Ex. 3:7); because from the beginning the Word of God was accustomed to ascend and descend for the salvation of those in need. 5. And what the Law previously instilled in man about the need to follow Christ, He Himself showed this when to the one who asked what he should do to receive eternal life, he answered: “if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments,” and to the question “which ones,” the Lord again said: “do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself,” offering those who wish to follow Him the commandments of the Law as would be steps for entering life: what He said then to one, He said to everyone. When He said: “I have fulfilled everything,” - or perhaps I did not fulfill it, for otherwise it would not have been said to him: “Keep the commandments,” - the Lord, denouncing his passion, said to him: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell all your possessions and distribute to the poor, and come and follow Me (Matthew 19:17-22), promising a portion of the apostles to those who do so. But He did not proclaim to His followers any other God, the Father, besides the One who was originally proclaimed by the Law, and no other Son, no Mother, the Thought of the Aeon, which underwent suffering and fall, nor the Pleroma of the thirty Aeons, which turned out to be empty and untenable, nor the fable invented by other heretics, but taught to fulfill the commandments prescribed by God from the beginning, to renounce the former passion through good works and following Christ. And that the distribution of property to the poor destroys the former passion, this was shown by Zacchaeus, saying: “Behold, I will give half of my property to the poor, and if I have offended anyone, I will repay him fourfold” (Luke 19:8). Christ did not abolish the natural commandments of the Law, but removed the yoke of the Old Testament, so that man could serve God freely and with filial devotion. 1. And that the Lord did not destroy the natural (commandments) of the Law, by which man is justified and which before the legislation were observed by those who were justified by faith and pleased God, but extended and completed, this is revealed from His words. “It was said to the ancients,” He says, “You shall not commit adultery; But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And again: “it is said: do not kill; But I tell you that whoever is angry with his brother without cause will be subject to judgment.” And - it is said: “Do not break your oath; But I say to you: do not swear at all, but let your word be: yes, yes; no, no” (Matthew 5:21–22,27–28,33–37), and so on. All this does not contain the denial and destruction of the past, as Marcion’s followers claim, but the replenishment and expansion, as He himself says: “unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). What does “surpass” mean? Firstly, to believe not only in the Father, but also in His Son, already revealed, for it is He who brings man into communion and unity with God. Secondly, not only to speak, but also to do - for they spoke, but did not do it - and to abstain not only from evil deeds, but also from wishing for them. And this He taught not in opposition to the Law, but by completing the Law and instilling in us the (varied) righteousness of the Law. It would be contrary to the Law if the Law forbade doing something and He commanded His disciples to do this very thing. And that He commanded to abstain not only from (acts) prohibited by the Law, but also from their desires, this is not contrary to the Law, as I said, and is characteristic of someone who does not destroy the Law, but completes, expands and distributes. 2. For the Law, being given for slaves, taught the soul through external bodily things, drawing it, as it were, by bonds to obedience to the commandments, so that man would learn to serve God. The Word freed the soul and taught us to cleanse the body through it. After this, the bonds of slavery, to which man had already become accustomed, had to be destroyed, and he must follow God without bonds, while the definition of freedom should expand and obedience to the King increase, so that the convert would not be unworthy of his Deliverer; obedience and love to the householder should be the same among slaves and free, but the free should have greater confidence, because the effect of freedom is greater and more glorious than obedience in slavery. 3. That’s why the Lord, instead of “do not commit adultery,” commanded not to have even lust, and instead of “do not kill,” not to be angry, and instead of giving tithes, to divide all your property to the poor, and to love not only your neighbors, but also your enemies, and not only to be generous givers, but to give gifts to those who take ours. “To the one who takes away your outer clothing,” He says, “give back your shirt, and do not demand it back from the one who took yours; and as you want people to do to you, so do you to them” (Luke 6:29-31), - so that we do not grieve as those who do not want to suffer loss, but as if we voluntarily gave and rejoiced, more out of goodwill towards our neighbors than yielding to necessity. “And if anyone forces you,” He said, “to walk a thousand steps with him, go with him the other two” (Matthew 5:41), so that you do not follow him like a slave, but go ahead as a free man, showing yourself ready for anything and useful for your neighbor, and despite their evil dispositions doing good deeds, likening yourself to the Father, “who commands His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). All this, as I have already said, is characteristic of one who does not destroy the Law, but replenishes, spreads and expands it in us - as if someone had said that with the greater effect of freedom, complete obedience and love for our Liberator is implanted in us. For He freed us not so that we would depart from Him - for no one can acquire the means of salvation for himself apart from the good deeds of the Lord - but so that, having received more of His mercy, we would love Him more. And the more we love Him, the greater glory we will receive from Him, since we will always be before the face of the Father. 4. So, all natural commandments are common to us and to them (the Jews); From them they received beginning and origin, and from us they received increase and replenishment. For to obey God, to follow His Word, and most of all to love Him and your neighbor as yourself - and man is man's neighbor - and to abstain from every evil deed and the like are common to both (Covenants), and this shows the One and the same God. This is why our Lord the Word first attracted slaves to God, and then freed those who submitted to Him, as He says to the disciples: “I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father” (John 15:15). With the words: “I no longer call you slaves,” He showed very clearly that He first established slavery in people in relation to God through the Law, and then gave them freedom. And with the words: “the servant does not know what his master is doing,” He expresses the ignorance of the slave people about His coming. And by calling His disciples friends, He clearly shows that He is the Word of God, which Abraham voluntarily and without bonds, out of the nobility of his faith, followed and became “a friend of God” (James 2:23). But the Word of God accepted Abraham’s friendship not out of His need, being perfect from the beginning, for “before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). He said; but in order, by His goodness, to grant Abraham himself eternal life, because the friendship of God grants immortality to those who enter into it. God subjected man to the Law for the good of man himself 1. At the beginning, God created Adam not because He needed a person, but so that He could have someone to pour out His blessings on. For not only before Adam, but also before all creation, the Word abiding in Him glorified His Father, and He Himself was glorified by the Father, as He says: “Father, glorify Me with the glory that I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5). And it was not because of the need for our service that He commanded us to follow Him, but to grant us salvation. For to follow the Savior means to participate in salvation, and to follow the light means to receive the light. And those who are in the light do not illuminate the light themselves, but are illuminated and illuminated by it: they themselves do not deliver anything to it, but when they receive a benefit, they are illuminated by the light. Likewise, serving God does not bring anything to God, and God does not need human obedience, but He gives life and incorruptibility and eternal glory to those who follow and serve Him, showing benefits to those who serve Him for serving, and to those following for following, and does not receive benefit from them, for He is rich, perfect and needs nothing. Therefore, God requires service from people, so that He, as good and merciful, can benefit those who serve Him. For as much as God needs nothing, man needs communication with God. This is the glory of man, to remain in the service of God. That is why the Lord said to His disciples: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you” (John 15:16), thereby showing that it was not they who, by following Him, glorified Him, but that they themselves, by following the Son of God, were glorified by Him. And also (He said): “I want them too to be where I am, so that they may see My glory” (John 17:24), not being vainglorious about this, but wanting to communicate His glory to His disciples, about whom Isaiah says: “From the east I will draw Your seed and from the West I will gather You; and I’ll tell the north. give, and to the south: do not withhold; bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth, as many as are called by My name. For in My Glory I prepared, formed and created him” (Is. 43:5-7). Since “where a corpse is, there the eagles gather together” (Matt. 24:28), then we participate in the glory of the Lord, who created and prepared us so that we could be with Him and participate in His glory. 2. So in the beginning God created man according to His goodness, chose patriarchs for the sake of their salvation and prepared the people to teach the unlearned to follow God, and He placed prophets on earth to teach man to bear His Spirit and have fellowship with God. He Himself does not need anyone, but He gives His fellowship to those who need Him: He arranges the work of salvation for those who please Him, like an architect, He gives Himself a leader to those who have not seen in Egypt, He gives the most suitable Law to those wandering in the desert, He gives a worthy inheritance to those who have entered the good land, and for those who turn to the Father He slaughters a well-fed calf and gives them the first clothing, and in various ways arranges the human race in harmony with salvation. And that's why John speaks in Revelation. “And His voice is like the sound of many waters” (Rev. 1:15). For truly there are many waters of the Spirit of God, because the Father is both rich and great. And the Word, passing through them all, unenviably brought benefit to those who obeyed Him, drawing out a suitable and suitable Law for the whole creation. 3. Thus He prescribed for the people (Jewish) the building of the tabernacle and the building of the church, and the election of the Levites, sacrifices and offerings and statutes, and all the other services of the Law. He Himself does not need any of this, for He is always full of all good things, having in Himself every sweet smell and every fragrant incense before Moses was; but He taught the people inclined to return to idols, by various means of calling, setting them up to be constant and serve God, and through the secondary calling to the primary, that is, through images to the truth, through the temporary to the eternal, through the fleshly to the spiritual, through the earthly to the heavenly, as it was said to Moses: “You must do everything according to the pattern of what you saw on the mountain” (Ex. 25:40). He (Moses) studied the words of God, heavenly marks, spiritual images and transformations of the future for forty days, just as Paul says: “they drank from the rock that followed, and the rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4). Then, after citing what was said in the Law, he added: “all these things happened to them as examples, but they were described for our instruction, who have reached the last centuries” (1 Cor. 10:11). For through images they learned to fear God and remain in obedience to Him. God gave the Law to curb people and added some commandments due to their hardness of heart 1. So, the Law was for them (the Jews) both a means of teaching and a prophecy of the future. For God first instructed them through the natural commandments, implanted in people from the beginning, that is, through the Decalogue - he who does not fulfill them has no salvation - and did not demand anything more from them. So Moses says in Deuteronomy: “These words the Lord spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel on the mountain, and did not add anything, but wrote it on two boards, and gave it to me” (Deut. 5:22), so that those who wish to follow Him would keep the commandments. But when they decided to make a calf and turned their hearts again to Egypt, wanting to be slaves instead of free ones; then they received other service in accordance with their wishes, although it did not separate them from God, but kept them under the yoke of slavery. So the prophet Ezekiel, explaining the reason for such legislation, says: “their eyes followed the lust of their hearts, and I gave them evil commandments and excuses in which they would not live” (Ezek. 20:24). And Luke wrote about Stephen, who was the first chosen by the Apostles for the diaconate and the first to kill, as a martyr of Christ, that he said this about Moses: “He received the commandments of the living God,” 100 to convey to you, to whom your fathers did not want to be obedient, but rejected Him and turned their hearts to Egypt, saying to Aaron: Make us gods who will precede us; for we do not know what happened to Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt. And in those days they made a calf and sacrificed to the idol and rejoiced in the work of their hands. God turned away and gave them over to serve the armies of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: the house of Israel! Did you offer Me sacrifices and slaughters for forty years in the wilderness? You received the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of God Remphan, the images which you made to worship them” (Acts 7:38–43; Amos 5:25–26), clearly showing that it was not another God, but the same, who gave them such a Law, adapted to their servile condition. Therefore in Exodus He says to Moses: “I will send My angel before you; for I will not go down with you, because you are a stiff-necked people” (Ex. 33:2–3). 2. And not only this, but the Lord showed that some of the commandments were given to them by Moses because of their rudeness and disobedience. When they asked Him: “Why did Moses command to give a letter of divorce and to divorce your wife,” He said: “Because of your hardness of heart, he allowed you to do this; but at first it was not so” (Matthew 19:7-8), - excusing Moe as a faithful servant, but confessing the One God, who from the beginning created man and woman, and rebuking them for rudeness and disobedience. And therefore they received from Moses the commandment about divorce, consistent with their hardness of heart. But why am I saying this about the Old Testament, when in the New the Apostles turn out to do exactly the same thing for the above-mentioned reason? So Paul says: “It is I, however, who speaks, not the Lord” (1 Cor. 7:12); and again: “I say this as permission, and not as a commandment” (1 Cor. 7:6); and again: “Concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give advice as one who has received mercy from the Lord to be faithful” (1 Cor. 7:25); and in another place he says: “lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control” (1 Cor. 7:5). So, if in the New Testament the Apostles, as it turns out, give some commandments out of condescension, due to the intemperance of some, so that such people, having become hardened, would not completely despair of their salvation and would not become apostates from God; then it should not be surprising if in the Old Testament God allowed something like this for the benefit of the people and, through the above-mentioned rites, attracted them to receive salvation through them, observing the Decalogue, and those restrained by Him did not return to idolatry and did not fall away from God, but learned to love Him with all their hearts. If some, because of the rebellious and depraved Israelites, call the Teacher of the Law weak, then they will find in the calling regarding us that “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 20:16), that there are those who are wolves inside, but outside are dressed in sheep skins (Matthew 7:15), and that God in His admonition has always maintained freedom and autocracy in man, so that with justice those who disobey Him were punished for disobedience, but those who obeyed and believed Him were honored with incorruption. Circumcision and other rites did not bring perfect righteousness and were abolished by Christ, and the commandments of the Decalogue were left in force 1. Moreover, from the Scripture itself we learn that God gave circumcision not as a work of righteousness, but as a sign by which the race of Abraham would be recognized; for it says: “And God said unto Abraham, All your males shall be circumcised, and ye shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, as a sign of the covenant between Me and you” (Gen. 17:10-11). The prophet Ezekiel also says about the Sabbaths: “And I have given My Sabbaths to them, that they might serve as a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them” (Ezek. 20:12). And in Exodus, God says to Moses: “And you shall keep My Sabbaths, for this will be a sign between Me and you for your generations” (Exodus 31:13). So, these (establishments) were given as signs, but the signs were not without a symbol, that is, without content and idle, because they were given by the wise Artist; but carnal circumcision foreshadowed spiritual circumcision. For “we are circumcised,” says the Apostle, “with a circumcision made without hands” (Col. 2:11). And the prophet says: “Cut off the coarseness of your heart” (Deut. 10:16). The Sabbath taught us to remain every day in the service of God. For the Apostle Paul says, “we are counted every day as sheep (doomed) to the slaughter” (Rom. 8:36), that is, we are dedicated (to God) and at all times we serve our faith and abide in it, and we abstain from all covetousness, we do not acquire or possess any treasures on earth. In addition (Saturday) it was pointed to the rest of God after creation, that is, to the Kingdom (of God), in which a person who has been in the service of God will calm down and will participate in God’s meal. 2. And that man was not justified by these (institutions), but they were given to the people as a sign, is shown by the fact that Abraham himself, without circumcision and keeping the Sabbath, “believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, and was called the friend of God” (James 2:23). And Lot was brought out of Sodom without circumcision, receiving salvation from God. Also, Noah pleased God, although he was not circumcised, and received measurements of the world for the second generation (people). And Enoch, although he was a man without circumcision, pleased God, fulfilled the embassy of God to the angels 101 and was converted and has been preserved to this day as a witness of the righteous judgment of God; therefore, the angels who sinned fell to earth for condemnation, and the godly man was translated into salvation. And all the rest of the multitude of the righteous before Abraham and the patriarchs who were before Moses were justified without the above-mentioned (institutions) and without the Law of Moses. So Moses himself says to the people in Deuteronomy: “The Lord your God made a covenant at Horeb; And the Lord did not make this covenant with your fathers, but with you” (Deut. 5:2-3). 3. Why didn’t the Lord make a covenant with the fathers? Because “the law is not made for the righteous” (1 Tim. 1:9); and the fathers (were) righteous, having the power of the Decalogue written in their hearts and souls, for they loved God who created them and refrained from injustice to their neighbor; why there was no need to admonish them with prohibitory letters, since they had the truth of the Law within themselves. But when this truth and love for God fell into oblivion and disappeared in Egypt, it was necessary that God, out of His great good will towards people, revealed Himself through His voice and with force led the people out of Egypt, so that man would again become a disciple and follower of God; and he smote the disobedient, so that they would not despise Him who created them, and fed them with manna, so that they would take reasonable food; as Moses says in Deuteronomy: “And he fed you with manna, which your fathers did not know, so that you might know that man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God that proceeds from His mouth” (Deut. 8:3). He commanded love for God and instilled justice in his neighbors, so that man would not be unjust and unworthy of God, but through the Decalogue he would shape man into His friendship and harmony with his neighbor: this, of course, was useful for man himself, since God does not need anything from man. 4. Therefore, Scripture says: “These words the Lord spoke to all the congregation of the children of Israel on the mountain, and added nothing” (Deut. 5:22); for He, as I said above, did not need anything from them. And Moses also says: “And now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, except that you should fear the Lord your God, and walk in all His ways, and love Him, and serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul?” (Deut.10:12). This brought glory to man by replenishing what he lacked, that is, the friendship of God; but nothing was brought to God, for God did not need man’s love. Man lacked the glory of God, which he could not receive otherwise than through obedience to God. And therefore again Moses said to them: “Choose life, that you and your seed may live: love the Lord your God, obey His voice and hold fast to Him, for this is your life and the length of your days” (Deut. 30:19-20). Preparing man for this life, the Lord Himself spoke the same words of the Decalogue to everyone; and therefore they also remain with us, having received expansion and growth through His fleshly coming, and not destruction. 5. The commandments of slavery (God) separately gave through Moses to the people, suitable for their education and admonition, as Moses himself says: “and the Lord commanded me at that time to tell you decrees and judgments” (Deut. 4:14). These latter, which were given to them as slaves and as signs, He abolished with the New Testament of freedom. He expanded and multiplied the natural, noble and common (commandments) of all, hatefully and generously granting people through adoption to know God the Father and to love Him with all their hearts and to follow His Word without resistance, refraining not only from evil deeds, but also from desires for them. But He increased the fear (of God); for sons should fear the Father more and have greater love for Him than slaves. Therefore, the Lord says: “For every idle word that people speak, they will give an answer on the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36); and: “Whoever looks at a wife lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28); and: “Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause is liable to judgment” (Matthew 5:22) - so that we know that we will give an account to God not only for our deeds, as slaves, but also for our words and thoughts, since we have received the power of freedom under which. It becomes clearer whether a person honors the Lord, whether he fears and loves Him. And therefore Peter says: “we must have freedom not to cover up evil” (1 Peter 2:16), but to testify and demonstrate faith. God did not establish the Levitical ministry for Himself or because He needed it 1. Moreover, the prophets fully show that God commanded certain institutions in the Law, not because he needed their servile service, but for their own sake. And the Lord clearly taught, as I have already shown, that God does not need their offering, but (commanded it) for the sake of the person offering it. For when he saw that they were careless of justice and alien to the love of God and thought that God was appeased by sacrifices and other educational institutions, Samuel spoke to them like this: “God does not desire burnt offerings and sacrifices, but wants His voice to be obeyed. Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and to obey than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22). David also says: “You did not want sacrifices and offerings; but You have opened my ears; and You did not require burnt offerings for sin” 102, teaching them that God wants more obedience, which saves them. than sacrifices and burnt offerings, which do not help them in the least towards righteousness, and at the same time foreshadowing the New Testament. But he speaks about this even more clearly in Psalm 50: “For if You wanted a sacrifice, I would give: You will not delight in burnt offerings. A sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit: a broken heart, and the Lord will not despise the humble” (Ps. 50:18-19). And that God does not need anything, he says in the previous psalm: “I will not accept bulls from your house, nor goats from your flocks, for all the beasts of the earth are Mine, the cattle and oxen on the mountains; I know all the birds of the air and the beauty of the field is with Me. If I become hungry, I will not tell you: for the earth and the fullness of it are Mine. Will I really eat the flesh of oxen or drink the blood of goats” (Ps. 49:9-13). Then, so that they would not think that He was rejecting this in His anger, He continues advising: “offer to God a sacrifice of praise and pay your vows to the Most High; and call on Me in the day of your tribulation, and I will deliver you and you will glorify Me” (Ps. 49:14-15), rejecting what sinners thought to appease God with, and showing that He does not need anything, but instilling and pointing out what a person is justified by and draws closer to God. Isaiah says the same thing: “Why do I need the multitude of your sacrifices? The Lord speaks. I am full” (Isaiah 1:11). And having rejected burnt offerings, sacrifices and offerings and, in addition, new moons, Sabbaths and holidays and all other rites that follow them, he exhorts them to saving (deeds): “Wash yourselves, be clean, remove unrighteousness from your hearts in my sight; leave behind your evil deeds, learn to do good, strive for (just) judgment, deliver the one who is offended, give justice to the orphan, intercede for the widow, and come and let us reason together, says the Lord” (Is. 1:16-18). 2. For He did not, as an angry man, reject their sacrifices, as many dare to assert, but out of compassion for their blindness, and out of a desire to teach them the true sacrifice, by offering which they would propitiate God, that they might receive life from Him; as He says somewhere: “Sacrifice to God is a broken heart; and a fragrance pleasing to God is a heart that glorifies the Creator" 103 . For if He, in His anger, had rejected these sacrifices of theirs, as if they were unworthy of His mercy, then He would not have instilled in those same people that by which they could be saved. But since God is merciful, he did not deprive them of good advice. For, having said through Jeremiah: “Why do you bring me incense from Sheba and cinnamon from a far country? Your burnt offerings and sacrifices are distasteful to Me,” He added: “Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah. This is what the Lord God of Israel says: Correct your ways and your desires, and I will make you dwell in this place. Do not rely on deceitful speech, because it will not help you at all, saying, “Here is the church of the Lord, the church of the Lord” (Jer. 6:20; 7:2-3). 3. And again, showing that He did not bring them out of Egypt so that they would offer sacrifices to Him, but so that they would forget the idolatry of Egypt and could obey the voice of the Lord, which was their salvation and glory, He thus says through the same Jeremiah: “This is what the Lord says: Gather up your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and eat the meat. For I did not speak to your fathers, nor did I command burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day that I brought them out of Egypt, but this is the word I commanded them, saying: Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people, and walk in all My ways that I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen and did not heed, but began to walk in the thoughts of their evil hearts, and went backwards and not forwards” (Jer. 7:21-25). And again through the same (prophet), saying: “Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows that I am the Lord, who works mercy, righteousness and judgment on earth,” adds: “For in this I am well pleased, says the Lord” (Jer. 9:24), and not in sacrifices, nor burnt offerings, nor offerings. For the people did not receive this initially, but subsequently and for the reason stated above, as Isaiah again says: “The sheep of your burnt offering were not for Me, and you did not glorify Me with your sacrifices; You did not serve Me with your sacrifices and did not bother to burn incense; You did not buy Me incense with money, and I did not desire the fat of your sacrifices, but you came before Me in your sins and your iniquities” (Is. 43:23-24). “And to whom will I look,” he says, “only to him who is humble and silent and trembles at My words” (Is. 46:2). “For fatness and fatty meat will not take away your iniquities from you” (Jer. 11:15). “This is not the kind of fasting that pleases Me,” says the Lord. Allow every unrighteous alliance, destroy the ties of forced contracts, release the dejected to rest and tear up every incorrect scripture. Break your bread for the hungry with all your heart, and bring the homeless stranger into your house: if you see him naked, cover him, and do not despise the servants of your seed. Then your morning light will arise and your healings will quickly shine, and your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will surround you: and while you still speak, I will say, “Here I am” (Is. 58:69). And Zechariah, one of the twelve prophets, proclaiming to them the will of God, says: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: judge righteously and let everyone show kindness and mercy to his brother. Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the stranger, or the needy, and let each one not remember in his heart the evil of his brother” (Zechariah 7:9-10). And again: “These are the words that you must fulfill. Speak the truth, every man to his neighbor, and judge peacefully within your gates, and let no one think in his heart the evil of his brother, and do not love a false oath, for I hate all this, says the Lord Almighty” (Zechariah 8:16-17). Likewise, David says: “What kind of person wants life and wants to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking evil. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Ps. 33:13–15). 4. From all this it is clear that God did not require of them sacrifices and burnt offerings, but faith, obedience and righteousness for the sake of their salvation. So God, teaching them his will from the prophet Hosea, says: “I want mercy more than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). And our Lord also inspired them, saying: “If you knew what it means: I want mercy, and not sacrifice, you would never condemn the innocent” (Matthew 12:7). Thus, He gives evidence to the prophets that they preached the truth, and denounced them for being foolish through their own fault. 5. More. Instructing His disciples to offer God the firstfruits of what He had created, not because He was in need, but so that they themselves would not be barren and ungrateful, He took bread from what He had created and gave thanks and said: “This is My body” (Matthew 26:27). Likewise, He confessed the cup from the creation around us with His blood and taught the new offering of the New Testament, which the Church, having received from the Apostles, throughout the world brings to God, who gives us food, the firstfruits of His gifts in the New Testament. One of the 12 prophets, Malachi, predicted this: “I have no favor with you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not accept sacrifice at your hands. For from the east of the sun to the west, my name is glorified among the nations, and in every place incense and a pure sacrifice is offered to my name, because my name is great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty” (Mal. 1:10-11), through this very clearly showing that the former people (the Jews) will cease to make offerings to God, but in every place a sacrifice will be offered to Him, and a pure one, and His name is glorified between peoples. 6. What other name is glorified among the nations besides the name of our Lord, through whom the Father is glorified and man is glorified? Since this is (the name of) His own Son, Who from Him became man, He calls him His own. Just as a king, if he himself paints an image of his son, rightly calls this image his own in a double sense, both because it is an image of his son and because he himself wrote it: so the name of Jesus Christ 104, glorified throughout the whole world in the Church, the Father calls his own both because it is (the name of) His Son, and because he himself wrote it and gave it for the salvation of men. So, since the name of the Son is characteristic of the Father and in Almighty God the Church makes an offering through Jesus Christ, He says well in both respects: “and in every place incense and a pure sacrifice will be offered to My name.” John in Revelation calls incense “the prayers of the saints” (Rev. 5:8). About sacrifices and offerings and about those who truly offer them 1. So, the offering of the Church, which the Lord taught to bring throughout the world, is considered by God to be a pure sacrifice and pleasing to Him; not that He needs a sacrifice from us, but the one who offers is himself glorified by the offering when his gift is accepted. For through the gift, reverence and love for the King are shown; and the Lord, inspiring us to make an offering in all simplicity and innocence, preached this way: “When you bring your gift to the altar, you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift before the altar and go first to be reconciled with your brother, and then, returning, offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). Therefore, one must offer to God the firstfruits of His creation, just as Moses says: “You shall not appear empty before the Lord your God” (Deut. 16:16), so that a person gives thanks for that, thereby expressing his gratitude and receiving the honor that is from Him. 2. And it is not the offerings that have been abolished at all, for there are offerings there (in the Old Testament), there are offerings here (in the New); there are sacrifices among the people (Jewish), there are sacrifices in the Church (Christian); but only the appearance is changed, since the offering is no longer made by slaves, but by freemen. For one and the same Lord; but its own character as a slave offering, and its own as a free offering, so that through the very offerings the sign of freedom is revealed. There is nothing idle with Him, nothing without a sign or without a thought. And therefore those (Jews) dedicated the tithes of their (estates) to Him; and those who have received freedom designate all their property for the purposes of the Lord, cheerfully and freely giving no less, in the hope of receiving more; So the poor widow gave all her wealth into the treasury of God. 3. At the beginning, God respected the gifts of Abel, because he offered them in simplicity and righteousness, but did not respect the sacrifice of Cain, because his heart was divided by envy and malice against his brother, as God says, exposing his secret: “Have you not sinned if you offer correctly, but divide incorrectly? Calm down” (Gen. 4:7), for God is not appeased by sacrifice. If someone, only outwardly, begins to make an offering sincerely, correctly and legally, but in his soul does not have proper communication with his neighbor, nor the fear of God, then, having sin inside, he will not deceive God by the fact that the sacrifice was brought correctly outwardly, and such an offering will not be at all useful to him, but (only) the elimination of the evil conceived within, so that through a feigned action, or better yet, through sin, it does not make a person his own murderer. That is why the Lord said: “Woe to you, hypocrites and scribes and Pharisees, for you are like whitewashed tombs. On the outside, the tomb seems beautiful, but inside it is full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness, so you, on the outside, seem righteous to people, but on the inside you are filled with malice and hypocrisy” (Matthew 23:26). For outwardly it seemed that they were bringing correctly, but in themselves they had envy, like Cain; that is why they killed the Righteous One, rejecting the advice of the Word, like Cain. To this It said: “calm down,” but he did not listen. And It said to them: “Blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup, so that the outside may also be clean” (Matthew 23:26); but they did not listen. For Jeremiah says: “Your eyes and your heart are not kind, but they are directed towards covetousness and the shedding of righteous blood, towards unrighteousness and towards committing murder” (Jer. 22:17). And Isaiah says: “You have made counsel, but without Me, and you have made covenants, but not according to My Spirit” (Is. 30:1). So that their inner disposition and thought would show by their discovery that God is innocent and does not do evil - He who reveals only the hidden, but does not produce evil - He said to Cain, when he did not calm down: “His appeal is to you, and you will rule over him” (Gen. 4:7). In a similar way, He said to Pilate: “You have no power over me unless it were given to you from above” (John 19:11), since God always allows the righteous to be shown good and accepted for what they have endured and suffered, while the wicked are condemned and expelled for their deeds. So, it is not sacrifices that sanctify a person, for God does not need sacrifice, but the clear conscience of the offerer sanctifies the sacrifice and makes it so that God accepts it as from a friend. “But a sinner,” He says, “who kills a calf for Me, is as if he had killed a dog” (Is. 66:3). 4. Since the Church makes the offering in simplicity, then in justice her gift was considered by God to be a pure sacrifice. Just as Paul says to the Philippians: “I am abundant, having received from Epaphroditus what you sent as fragrant incense, an acceptable sacrifice, acceptable to God” (Phil. 4:18). For we must make an offering to God and be grateful in everything to the Creator God, in pure thought and unfeigned faith, in firm hope and ardent love, bringing Him the firstfruits of His creations. And only the Church makes such a pure offering to the Creator, offering Him with thanksgiving from His creation. The Jews do not bring it to Him; for their hands are full of blood, because they have not received the Word by which an offering is made to God. And all the hosts of heretics do not make offerings to God. For some of them claim that the Father is different from the Creator, and therefore, bringing to Him the creations around us, they present Him as greedy for the things of others and desiring the things of others. Others, considering the world around us to be a product of lack, ignorance and passion, when they bear the fruits of ignorance, passion and imperfection, thereby sin against their Father, insulting Him rather than giving thanks. How can they say that the bread on which thanksgiving is made is the body of their Lord and the cup is His blood, when they claim that He Himself is not the Son of the Creator of the world, that is, His Word, through which the tree bears fruit, springs flow, “the earth first yields greenery, then an ear, finally a full grain in the ear” (Mark 4:28)? 5. Again, how do they say that the flesh is subject to corruption and does not participate in life - flesh that is nourished by the body and blood of the Lord? Let them either change their minds or stop bringing the named (things). Our teaching is in agreement with the Eucharist, and the Eucharist, in turn, confirms the teaching. For we offer Him what is His, consistently proclaiming the fellowship and unity of flesh and spirit 105 . For like bread from the earth, after calling on God over it, it is no longer ordinary bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two things, earthly and heavenly; so our bodies, having received the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, having the hope of resurrection. 6. We offer to Him, not as if he were in need, but thanks to Him, sovereignty and sanctifying creation. For just as God does not need anything from us, so we have the need to bring something to God, as Solomon says: “He who is merciful to the poor lends to God” (Prov. 19:17). God, who does not need anything, takes upon himself our good actions in order to reward us with His blessings, as our Lord says: “Come, you blessed of My Father, receive the Kingdom prepared for you. For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and they accepted Me; I was naked and you covered Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me” (Matthew 25:34-36). Therefore, just as He does not need any of this, but wants us to do it for our own sake, so that we are not unfruitful; so this very Word gave the people (the Jews) the commandment about offerings, although they did not need them, so that they would learn to serve God; so and for the same reason he wants us to bring the gift to the altar often and unfailingly. So, in heaven there is an altar, for our prayers and offerings are directed there, and a church, as John says in revelation: “and the church of God was opened” (Rev. 11:19), and a tabernacle: “for behold,” he says, “the tabernacle of God, in which He will dwell with men” (Rev. 21:3). Earthly things can be images of heavenly things, but heavenly things cannot be images of other higher and unknown things. 1. The (Jewish) people received gifts, offerings and all sacrifices representatively, as was shown to Moses on the mountain, from the One and Same God, whose name is still glorified in the Church among all nations. But it is fitting for the earthly things built around us to be images of heavenly ones, created after all by the same God. For otherwise He could not bring (to our understanding) the likeness of spiritual things. On the contrary, calling higher heavenly and spiritual and, in relation to us, invisible and ineffable things images of other heavenly and another Pleroma and God the image of another Father is characteristic of those who deviate from the truth and are completely stupid and stupid. For such, as I have already shown more than once, will be forced to constantly invent types of types and images of images and will never establish their minds on the One and True God. For they soared with their thoughts above God, surpassed the Teacher himself in their hearts and in their dreams ascended (above Him), but in reality they deviated from the true God. 2. To such, anyone can rightly say, as Scripture itself suggests: why exalt your thoughts above God, you foolishly arrogant ones? You have heard that “the heavens are measured by hand” (Is. 15:12). Tell me the measure, count the countless cubits, show me the fullness, width, length and height, the beginning and end of the measurement - which the human heart does not understand or comprehend. For, truly, great are the treasures of heaven, God is immeasurable in the heart and inconceivable in the mind; He embraces the earth with His hand. Who sees the measure of His right hand? Who knows His finger? Or who comprehends His hand, which measures the immeasurable, which with its measure spreads out the measure of the heavens and in its palm holds back the earth with its deeps, which in itself embraces the width and length, the depth below and the height above of all creation, which is seen, heard and known and which is invisible? And therefore God is “above all principality, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named” (Eph. 1:21) of created and created things. He fills the heavens, penetrates the depths, and is present with each of us. For “I am,” he says, “a God who is close, and not a God from afar. If a man hides himself in secret (places), will I not see him” (Jer. 23:23)? His hand embraces everything: it illuminates the heavens and illuminates the heavenly things, tests the wombs and hearts, is present in our secrets and clearly nourishes and preserves us. 3. If a person does not comprehend the fullness and greatness of His hand, how can anyone understand or know in his heart such a great God? And it is as if they have measured and penetrated Him and explored everything, and above Him they invent another Pleroma of the aeons and another Father; Of course, they do not penetrate to the heavenly, but truly descend into the lower Depth of madness. They say that their Father ends at the boundary of what is outside the Pleroma, and the Demiurge, in turn, does not reach the Pleroma, and thus, in their opinion, neither one nor the other is imperfect and does not embrace everything. For the first will lack the entire universe, which is outside the Pleroma, and the second will lack the world created within the Pleroma, and neither one nor the other will be God of all. And that no one can explain the greatness of God from what He has created is obvious to everyone, and that His greatness is not limited, but contains everything and reaches us and is present with us - everyone who worthily thinks about God will agree on this. The One God created everything in the world with the Word and the Holy Spirit, and although He is invisible and incomprehensible in this life, He is not unknown 1. So, by the greatness of God it is impossible to know Him, for it is impossible to measure the Father, but by His love - for it leads us through His Word to God - when we obey Him, we always recognize that there is such a great God, and He Himself arranged, chose and adorned and contains everything, and in everything, us and this world of ours. And we were created by Him, along with everything that He contains. The Scripture says about Him: “And God created man, taking dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7). So, it was not angels who created or formed us, and angels could not create the image of God, no one else except the Word of the Lord, nor any power far removed: from the Father of all. For God did not need any of this to create what He predestined to be, as if He did not have His hands. With Him is always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, through whom and in whom He freely and of His own free will created all things, and to whom He says: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26), borrowing from Himself the essence of creatures and the pattern of created things and the design of ornaments in the world. 2. Scripture says well: “First of all, believe that there is One God, who created and arranged everything and brought everything from non-existence into being. He embraces everything, but He Himself is not encompassed by anything” 106. Well, the prophet Malachi says: “Didn’t God alone create us? Isn’t it one Father for us all” (Mal.2:10)? According to this, the Apostle also says: One God the Father, who is above all and in us all” (Eph. 4:6). Likewise, the Lord said: “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father” - obviously, by the One who created everything, for He handed over to Him not someone else’s, but His own. And in “everything” that is not excluded, and therefore He is the Judge of the living and the dead, “having the key of David: he will open and no one will forbid, forbidden and no one will open” (Rev. 3:7). For no one, neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth, could open the book of the Father and see it, except the Lamb who was slain and redeemed us with His blood, who from Him, having created all things by His Word and ordered by His Wisdom, received authority over all when “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14), so that as the Word of God had authority in heaven, so had authority in earth; because He was a righteous man, “Who committed no sin, neither was any deceit found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22); so that he might have authority over what is under the earth, having himself become “the firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:18); so that everything, as I have already said, would see His King, and so that the light of the Father would descend on the flesh of our Lord and from His shining flesh would pass on to us, and thus a person surrounded by the Father’s light would receive incorruption. 3. That the Word, that is, the Son, was always with the Father, and has already shown in detail; and that Wisdom, that is, the Spirit, was with Him before every creation, He says through Solomon: “God founded the earth with wisdom and established the heavens with His understanding; with His understanding the deeps were opened and the clouds poured out dew” (Prov. 3:19-20). And again: “The Lord created Me as the beginning of His ways to His works, before the ages He founded Me in the beginning, before He created the earth, before He filled the deeps, and before there were springs of water, before the mountains were established; Before all the hills He begat Me” (Prov. 8:22–25). And again: “When He built the heavens, I was with Him, and when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when He strengthened the foundations of the earth, I was with Him and built them. He rejoiced in Me, and I rejoiced daily in His presence, always when He rejoiced over the perfection of the universe and rejoiced over the sons of men.” 107 4. So, there is One God, who created and ordered everything by His Word and Wisdom; He is also the Creator (Demiurge), who gave this world to the human race, Who, by His greatness, is unknown to all His creatures - for none of the ancients who have passed away, nor of those now living, have explored His heights - but by His love is always known through Him by Whom He arranged everything. This is His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in recent times became a man among men, in order to unite the end with the beginning, that is, man with God. Therefore, the prophets, receiving prophetic gift from the same Word, predicted His coming in the flesh, through which, by the good pleasure of the Father, the union and communion of God and man was accomplished; for the Word of God from the beginning foretold that God would be visible to men and would live with them on earth and speak, and would be present with His creation, saving them and making himself available to them and freeing us from the hands of all those who hate us, i.e. from every spirit of transgression, and enabling us to serve Him in holiness and righteousness all our days, so that man, having received the Spirit of God, may enter into the glory of the Father. 5. This was prophetically proclaimed by the prophets, and not that, as some say, he (God) Who was visible to the prophets was different from the Father of all, Who is invisible. The people who are speaking do not know at all what a prophecy is. For prophecy is a prediction of the future, that is, a forewarning of what will happen after. So, the prophets foretold that God would be visible to people, just as the Lord says: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” According to His greatness and wondrous glory, “no one will see God and live” (Ex. 33:20), for the Father is incomprehensible; but out of love and goodwill towards people, as well as due to His omnipotence, He grants those who love Him this too, that is, to see God, as the prophets predicted. For “what is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). Man by himself does not see God. But He, when He wants, is seen by the people whom He wants to be seen, when and how He wants. For God is omnipotent: then He was seen prophetically through the Spirit, He is also visible (and now) through the Son by adoption, and will be seen paternally in the Kingdom of Heaven, since the Spirit prepares man for the Son of God, and the Son brings him to the Father, and the Father grants incorruption into eternal life, which for everyone comes from the vision of the Father. Just as those who see the light are within the light and participate in its radiance, so those who see God are in God and participate in His radiance. His radiance gives life to them, therefore, those who see God participate in life. And therefore He, incomprehensible, immense and invisible, made Himself visible, comprehendible and comprehensible to believers, in order to quicken those who receive and see Him with faith. For just as His greatness is unsearchable, so His goodness is inexpressible. by which He is visible and gives life to those who see Him. It is impossible to live without life; and the existence of life comes from communication with God; fellowship with God consists of recognizing God and enjoying His goodness. 6. So, people will see God in order to live, through vision becoming immortal and reaching even to God. This, as I said, the prophets figuratively showed (namely) that people who bear His Spirit and always expect His coming will see God. So Moses says in Deuteronomy: “In that day we will see that God will speak to man and live” (Deut. 5:24). For some of them saw the Spirit of prophecy and His actions, extending to all kinds of gifts; others (saw) the coming of the Lord and the dispensation that existed from the beginning, through which He accomplished the will of the Father both in heaven and on earth; others (saw) the glory of the Father, in accordance with the times and with those who saw and who then heard them, and with all who then had to hear them. This is how God was revealed; for through all this God the Father appears, since the Spirit acts, the Son serves, the Father approves, and man is perfected to salvation. This is what He said through the prophet Hosea: “I multiplied the visions and appeared in likeness by the hands of the prophets” (Hosea 12:10). The Apostle also stated the same thing, saying: “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of services, but the same Lord, and diversities of actions, but the same God, who does all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for his benefit” (1 Cor. 12:4-7). But since God acts in everything in everything, He, although by His nature and greatness is invisible and ineffable for all creatures, is not unknown; for they all know through His Word that there is One God the Father, who contains everything and gives existence to everything, as it is written in the Gospel: “No one has seen God except the Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father: He declared Him.” 7. So, the Son of the Father, who from the beginning was with the Father, from the beginning reveals (Him): He showed the prophetic visions and various gifts (of the Spirit) and His ministry and the glory of the Father to the human race consistently and coherently at the appropriate time for its benefit. Because where is the consistency? where there is constancy, where there is constancy, there is timeliness, where there is timeliness, there is benefit; and therefore the Word became the dispenser of the Father’s grace for the benefit of people, for whose sake He made such great orders, showing God to people, and introducing man to God, and preserving the invisibility of the Father, so that man would not become a despiser of God and would always have something to strive for, and on the other hand; through many orders, showing God visibly to people, so that man does not completely fall away from God and cease to exist. For the glory of God is living man; and man's life is a vision of God. If the revelation of God through creation brings life to all who live on earth, how much more does the revelation of the Father through the Word give life to those who see God. 8. Since the Spirit of God through the prophets announced the future, preparing us for obedience to God, and man was still to see (God) in the future by the good will of the Holy Spirit, it was necessary for those through whom the future was predicted to see God, about whose vision they themselves announced to people, so that God and the Son of God, the Son and Father, would not only be prophetically announced, but also be visible by all members, sanctified and instructed in divine, so that man would be educated in advance and prepared to participate in that glory. which will later be revealed to those who love God. For the prophets predicted not only with words, but also with visions and the way they lived and the actions they performed in accordance with the promptings of the Spirit. On this basis they saw the invisible God, just as Isaiah says: “I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts” (Is. 6:5), indicating that man will see with the eyes of God and hear His voice. On the same basis, they saw the Son of God as a man dealing with people, while they predicted the future, saying that He who has not yet come is already present, presenting the impassive one as subject to suffering and proclaiming that He who is in heaven has descended “into the dust of death” (Ps. 21:16). And His other orders for the fulfillment of the work He had taken upon Himself, they partly saw through visions, partly proclaimed them in word, partly signified them figuratively by action, seeing with their eyes what was to be seen, preaching in words what was to be heard, and by action doing what was to be done, and all declaring prophetically. Therefore Moses is to the people. to those who transgressed the Law, he said that God is a destroying fire (Deut. 4:24), threatening that God would bring a fiery day upon them, and to the God-fearing he said: “The Lord God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. and is true, and exercises righteousness and mercy upon thousands, forgiving iniquities, iniquities and sins” (Ex. 34:6-7). 9. And the Word Himself appeared and spoke to Moses, “as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex. 33:11). But Moses wanted to clearly see the one who spoke to him, and he was told: “Stand on a high place of the rock, and I will cover you with My hand. When My glory passes away, you will see My behind, but you will not see My face, for man will not see My face and live” (Ex. 33:20-22). Here both are indicated, and that it is impossible for man to see God and that, according to the wisdom of God, man in the last times will see Him on the height of the rock, that is, after His coming as a man. And therefore He talked with him face to face on the height of the mountain, in the presence also of Elijah, as the Gospel tells (Matthew 17:3), and finally fulfilled the ancient promise. 10. So, the prophets did not see the very face of God, but the orders and sacraments through which man had to see God. So Elijah was told: “Go out in the morning and stand before the Lord, and behold, the Lord will pass by: and behold, a great and strong wind will (rise) that will destroy the mountains and rend the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord is not in the wind; and after the wind there will be an earthquake, but the Lord is not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake there is fire, but the Lord is not in the fire; and after the fire there will be a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11–12). Through this, the prophet, who was greatly indignant at the crime of the people and the murder of the prophets, was admonished to act more meekly, and together the coming of the Lord was signified as a man who, after the Law given by Moses, would be quiet and meek, in which He did not crush the broken reed, nor quench the smoking flax; the meek and peaceful rest of His kingdom was also shown. For after the wind that crushes the mountains, after the earthquake and after the fire, there come the quiet and peaceful times of His kingdom, into which the Spirit of God, with all silence, revives and restores man. Ezekiel shows even more clearly that the prophets partially saw the orders of God, but not God himself. For when he saw the vision of God - the cherubim and their wheels, and when he told the mystery of their entire conversion, and when he saw above them the likeness of a throne and on the throne the likeness of a human image, and what was above his loins in the form of amber, and what was below in the form of fire, and when he presented the rest of the vision of thrones, then so that no one would think that he saw God himself here, he added: “This is a vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” (Ezek.2:1). 11. If therefore neither Moses, nor Elijah, nor Ezekiel, who had many heavenly visions, saw God, and what they saw was the likeness of the glory of the Lord and prophecies of the future; then it is obvious that the Father is invisible, just as the Lord said: “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18); and His Word, as He Himself wanted and for the benefit of those who saw it, revealed the glory of the Father and explained His orders, just as the Lord said: “The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He declared” 108 and He is called the Word of the Father; being rich and great, It did not appear in one form or in one character to those who saw Him, but in accordance with the reasons or purposes of His orders, as it is written in Daniel. For once It seemed to those around Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael to be present with them in the burning furnace and delivering them from the fire; “And the image of the fourth,” it is said, “is like the Son of God” (Dan. 3:26). Another time, It appeared “as a stone cut out of the mountain without hands” (Dan. 2:34–35) and striking the temporary kingdoms and destroying them and filling the whole earth with itself. Then it appears as the Son of Man, coming on the clouds of heaven and approaching the Ancient of Days and taking from Him all power and glory and kingdom. “And His power,” it is said, “is everlasting power, and His kingdom will not perish” (Dan. 7:13–14). And John, the disciple of the Lord, seeing in the revelation the priestly and glorious coming of His kingdom, says: “I turned to see whose voice spoke to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the lamps one like the Son of Man, clothed in a robe and girded across the chest with a golden belt. His head and hair are white as white wool, like snow, and His eyes are like a flame of fire; and His feet are like halkolivan, as if heated in a furnace; and His voice is like the sound of waters. And He has in His right hand seven stars; and out of His mouth came a sword, sharp on both sides, and His face was like the sun shining in its power” (Rev. 1:12-17). In these words he points to something glorious from the Father, like the head, to something priestly, like the undershirt - and therefore Moses gave clothing to the high priest according to this pattern - and to something related to the end (of the world), like chalcoliban, red-hot in a furnace, which signifies firmness of faith and constancy in prayer, due to the coming fiery ignition at the end of times. When John did not bear the vision, for he says, “I fell at His feet as if dead” (Rev. 1:17), so that what is written might be fulfilled: “No one will see God and live,” then the Word, reviving Him and reminding Him that He is the One on Whose chest He reclined at the supper and asked who was going to betray Him, said: “I am the first and the last and the living; and I was dead and now am alive forever and ever, and have the keys of death and hell” (Rev. 1:17). Then in the second vision, seeing the same Lord, he says: “And I saw in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6). And about the same Lamb he says: “And behold, the white horse, and he who sat on it was called Faithful and True, Who judges righteously and makes war; His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems. He had a written name, Which no one knows except Himself. He was clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies of heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, with which to smite the nations. He shepherds them with a rod of iron; He tramples the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh is written the name: King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:11–16). So the Word of God always has, so to speak, the outlines of future things and showed, as it were, the types of orders of the Father to people, teaching us the things of God. 12. However, not only through visions that were visible, and not through words proclaimed, but also in actions He appeared as a prophet, in order through them (prophets) to foreshadow and foretell the future. Therefore, the prophet Hosea took a “harlot wife,” prophesying that “the earth will commit fornication from the Lord” (Hosea 1:2–3), i.e., people living on earth, and from this kind of people God is pleased to take the Church, which will be sanctified through communion with His Son, just as that woman was sanctified through communion with the prophet. And that is why Paul says that “the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband” (1 Cor. 7:14). Then the prophet calls his children “those who have not received mercy and are not a people” (Hos. 1:6–9), so that, as the Apostle says, “not a people became a people, and not a beloved became beloved; and in the place where they were not called a people, they were called sons of the living God” (Rom. 9:25-26). What the prophet figuratively represented through action, the Apostle shows that it was truly done by Christ in the Church. So Moses took an Ethiopian wife, whom he made an Israelite, foreshadowing that the wild olive would be grafted onto the noble one and would contribute to her fatness. For since Christ, who was born according to the flesh, was to be sued by the people for murder, but to be saved in Egypt, that is, among the pagans, and sanctified the infants who were there - for Egypt was pagan from the beginning, like Eoiopia - then through the marriage of Moses the marriage of the Word was signified, and through the Ethiopian wife - the Church of the pagans, and whoever reviles her and accuses and mocks her will not be pure, but They will become lepers and be driven out of the land of the righteous. So the harlot Rahab, who condemned herself for being a pagan guilty of all sins, received three spies 109 who were looking around the whole earth, and hid them within herself, that is, the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit. And then, as the entire city to which she lived turned into ruins at the sound of seven trumpets, finally the harlot Rahab was syasen with all her house by faith in the red sign, just as the Lord said to those who did not accept His coming, namely by the Pharisees, who counted the red sign as nothing, which meant Easter, liberation and the exodus from Egypt, saying: “Publicans and harlots will precede you in the Kingdom of Heaven” 110 . Abraham's faith was the same as ours, and this faith was foreshadowed by the words and actions of the ancient patriarchs 1. And that our faith was also prefigured in Abraham, and that he was the patriarch of our faith and, as it were, a prophet, this was fully demonstrated by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Galatians, saying: “He who gives you the Spirit and contains miracles among them, does he do this through the works of the law or through the hearing of faith? So Abraham believed God and (this) changed him into righteousness. Know then that those who believe are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, foretold to Abraham that in him all nations would be blessed. Therefore those who believe will be blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal. 3:5–9). For this he called him not only a prophet of faith, but also the father of the Gentile believers in Christ Jesus, because his faith and ours are one and the same, for he believed for the sake of God's promise in the future. as if it had already been accomplished, we, in the same way, according to the promise of God, look with faith at the inheritance in the Kingdom (of Heaven). 2. The story of Isaac is also not without a sign. For the Apostle in his letter to the Romans says: “And Rebekah, when she conceived at once (two sons) by Isaac our father,” she received an answer from the Word, “so that the purpose of God in election would not come from works, but from him who calls (and), it was said to her: “There are two nations in your womb and two tribes in your womb, and one nation will surpass the other and the greater will serve the younger” ( Rom.9:10–12). From this it is clear that not only the predictions of the patriarchs, but also the generations of Rebekah were a prophecy about two nations, of which one is greater and the other is smaller, and one (will be) in slavery and the other free, but (both) from the same father. Our God and theirs are one and the same; He knows the unseen and knows everything before it happens; and therefore he said: “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau” 111. 3. If anyone looks into the actions of Jacob, he will find that they are not idle, but fulfilled (meaning relative to) the orders (of God). And first of all, in his birth, he grabbed his brother’s heel and received the name Jacob, that is, the kicker, who holds, but does not hold on, binds his feet, but is not tied, fights and wins, holds in his hand the heel of the enemy, that is, victory. For for this purpose the Lord was born, whose birth he prefigured, and about whom John in Revelation says: “and he went out (as) conquering to overcome” (Rev. 6:2). Then (Jacob) received the birthright when his brother neglected him; So the younger people accepted the first-born Christ when the older people rejected Him, saying: “We have no other king but Caesar” (John 19:15). In Christ is every blessing; and therefore the younger people snatched the blessings of the Father from the older people, just as Jacob snatched the blessing from Esau. Therefore, the brother suffered hatred and persecution from his brother, just as the Church suffers the same from the Jews 112. The twelve tribes of the people of Israel were born in a foreign land, just as Christ in a foreign land was to give birth to the twelve-pillar foundation of the Church. Jacob received the multi-colored sheep as a reward; and Christ's reward consists of people who from diverse and varied nations have gathered into one cohort of the Faith, as the Father promised Him saying: “Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thy inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Thy possession” (Ps. 2:8). And since the prophets of the Lord arose from the many sons of Jacob, it was necessary for him to give birth to sons from two sisters, just as Christ (gave birth to them) from two laws of the One and the same Father, and also from handmaids to signify that Christ will raise up sons of God from free men and slaves according to the flesh, equally bestowing on all the gift of the life-giving Spirit. And (Jacob) did everything for the sake of the youngest, who had the beautiful eyes of Rachel, who was also a type of the Church for whose sake Christ suffered, who then, through His patriarchs and prophets, foreshadowed and foretold the future, preparing His part for the orders of God and accustoming His inheritance to obey God, to live in the world as on a pilgrimage, to follow the Word and foreshadow the future. For with God nothing is idle or without meaning. Christ came not for people of one time, but for all who, living godly, believed in Him and who will believe 1. In the last times, when the fullness of the time of freedom had come, the Word Himself “washed away the uncleanness of the daughters of Zion” (Is. 4:4), when He washed the feet of the disciples with His own hands! For this is the end of the human race, which constitutes the inheritance of God - so that just as in the beginning, through the first (people), we all fell into slavery, becoming debtors of death, so subsequently, through the New (man), all of His disciples from the beginning were cleansed and washed from mortals and received the life of God. For He who washed the disciples’ feet sanctified the whole body and brought it clean. Therefore, when they reclined. He gave them food, meaning those lying in the ground to whom He came to give life. Thus Jeremiah says: “The Holy Lord remembered His dead Israel, who slept in the burial ground, and came down to them to proclaim His salvation to them, to save them.” 113 Therefore, the eyes of the disciples were heavy when Christ went to suffer and found them sleeping. The Lord first left them, showing God’s patience regarding people’s sleep, and the second time he woke them up and raised them up as a sign that His tradition is the restoration of the sleeping disciples, for whom He “descended into the depths of the earth” (Eph. 4:4), so that with His own eyes he could see the state of those who had fallen asleep from their labors 114, about which He told the disciples: “many prophets and righteous people desired to see and hear what you see and hear” ( Matthew 13:17). 2. For Christ did not come only for the sake of those who believed in Him in the time of Tiberius Caesar, and the Father showed His thoughts not for the sake of only the people now living, but for all people in general who from the beginning in their generation feared and loved God with strength, behaved righteously and piously in relation to their neighbors and desired to see Christ and hear His voice. Therefore, at His second coming, He will first raise all such from sleep, and both them and others who are on trial, He will resurrect and place in His kingdom. For “there is one God, who directed the patriarchs according to His orders and justified those who were circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith” (Rom. 3:30). For just as we were foreshadowed and foreshadowed in the first, so they are reflected in us, that is, in the Church, and receive a reward for their labors. Patriarchs and prophets, predicting the coming of Christ, paved the way for their descendants to faith in Christ, and therefore the work of the Apostles was less, since they collected the fruits of other people's labors 1. Therefore, the Lord said to the disciples: “Behold, I say to you: lift up your eyes and look at the fields, how they are already white for the harvest. For he who reaps receives reward and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that both he who sows and he who reaps will rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true: one sows, and another reaps. I have sent you to reap what you did not labor for; others labored, but you entered into their labor” (John 4:35–38). Who worked and contributed to the orders of God? It is obvious that the patriarchs and prophets, who prefigured our faith and scattered the coming of the Son of God throughout the earth, what and what it will be like, so that subsequent people would have the fear of God and, taught by the prophets, would easily meet the coming of Christ. And therefore, when Joseph noticed that Mary was not idle, and thought to secretly let her go, the Angel said to him in a dream: “Do not be afraid to accept Mary 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 he added, inspiring him: “all this happened, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, who says: “Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Immanuel” (Matthew 1:20-23; Isaiah 7:14). with the words of the prophet, convincing him and justifying Mary by pointing out that Mary is the Virgin foretold by Isaiah, who should give birth to Emmanuel. Therefore, Joseph, undoubtedly convinced, accepted Mary and joyfully submitted to all the rest of Christ's upbringing until he went to Egypt, returned from there and settled in Nazareth. And those who did not know the Scriptures and the promises of God and the orders of Christ called him the father of the child. That is why the Lord Himself in Capernaum read the prophecies of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for He has anointed Me; I have sent Me to preach good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind” (Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1). And He, pointing to Himself as the one foretold by the prophecy of Isaiah, said to them: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21). 2. Therefore also Philip, when he found that the eunuch of the queen of Ethiopia was reading the words of Scripture: “Like a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth; in His humility His judgment was taken away” (Isa. 53:7; Acts 8:27) and other things that the prophet said about His suffering and coming in the flesh and how He was dishonored by unbelievers, he was easily convinced to believe that this is Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate and who endured what was predicted by the prophet, and that He is the Son of God, giving people eternal life. And immediately, having baptized the eunuch, he departed from him. For he lacked nothing else (except baptism), which had already been announced in advance by the prophets: he knew neither God the Father nor the rules of morality. but only the coming of the Son of God, and soon, having recognized Him, he joyfully continued his journey to preach the coming of Christ in Ethiopia. Therefore, Philip did not work much on him, for he had already been prepared by the prophets in the fear of God. Therefore, the apostles, gathering the lost sheep of the house of Israel, spoke to them from the Scriptures and proved that the crucified Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God, and convinced of this the great multitude, which, however, already had the fear of God, and in one day three thousand people, four and five thousand were baptized (Acts 2:41; 4:4). The conversion of the Gentiles was more difficult than the conversion of the Jews, and the labors of the Apostles who dealt with the former were greater than the labors of converting the Jews 1. Therefore, Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, says: “I have labored more than all of them” (1 Cor. 15:10). For for them the announcement (of the Jews) was easy, since they had evidence from the Scriptures; those who heard Moses and the prophets easily accepted the First-born of the dead and the Author of the life of God, who, by stretching out his hands, smote Amalek and through faith in Him revived a man from the bite of a snake. And the Apostle, as I showed in the previous book 115, for the first time announced to the pagans to abandon idolatry and to honor the One God, the Creator of heaven and earth and the Creator of the whole world, and that there is a Son, His Word, through whom He created, and Who in the last time became Man among men, transformed the human race, crushed and defeated the enemy of man, and gave His creation victory over the enemy. And although the circumcised (Jews) did not fulfill the Words of God, because there were despisers (of them), they were already taught not to commit adultery, not to commit fornication, not to steal, not to deceive, and that everything that is done to harm others is evil and hateful to God. Therefore, they easily agreed to abstain from this, for they had been taught so. 2. And the pagans were to be taught that such things are evil, base, and useless and harmful to those who do them. Therefore, he who took upon himself the apostleship among the pagans had more labor than those who preached the Son of God among the circumcision. For this was helped by the Scriptures, which the Lord confirmed and fulfilled, having come as He was preached, and there (appeared) some alien preaching and new teaching, that the gods of the nations are not only not gods, but also idols of demons, but One God, who is “above all principality, dominion, and power, and every name that is named” (Eph. 2:20), and that His Word, invisible according to nature, became tangible and visible among people and descended “even to death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8), and those who believe in Him will be incorruptible and free from suffering and will receive the Kingdom of Heaven. And this was preached to the pagans orally without (the help of) the Scriptures; therefore, those who preached among the pagans suffered greater labor. And the faith of the pagans, in turn, turns out to be nobler, for they obeyed the word of God without being taught through the Scriptures. Both covenants were foreshadowed in Abraham and the birth of Tamar, and the One God of both covenants 1. And in this way the sons of Abraham were to be, whom God raised up from stones and set before him, who became the forerunner and forerunner of our Faith, and he received the covenant of circumcision after justification by faith, which he had while still uncircumcised, so that in him both covenants were foreshadowed, and he was the father of all who follow the Word of God and sojourn in this age, that is, believers both from the circumcision and the uncircumcised, like Christ, “the great cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20) bears everything and gathers into the one faith of Abraham those fit for the building of God from both covenants. This faith of the uncircumcised, as connecting the end with the beginning, became the first and the last. For, as I have shown, it was in Abraham and the rest of the righteous who pleased God before circumcision; and in recent times she appeared again in the human race through the coming of the Lord. Circumcision and the law of works occupied the middle period of time. 2. This is figuratively represented by many other (examples), especially Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah. For when she conceived twins, one of them first extended his hand, but the grandmother, thinking that he was the firstborn, tied a red thread on his hand. After this, when he took his hand back, his brother Perez came out first, and then Zara followed, who had a red thread on him: through this Scripture clearly shows that the people who had the red sign, that is, the faith of the uncircumcised, which was first manifested in the patriarchs, and then hid itself so that a brother was born, - that people who should have been the first was born second and was recognized by the red sign that was on them, which means suffering The Righteous One, first depicted in (the story of) Abel and described by the prophets, but fulfilled in the last times in the Son of God. 3. For it was necessary that some things should be foreshadowed by the fathers in a paternal manner, and some things should be lawfully foreshadowed by the prophets, and some things should be depicted in the image of Christ by those who received adoption as sons, but all things are revealed in one God. Abraham, although alone, prefigured in himself two covenants, in which some sowed and others reaped, for in this case it is fair that one people sows and another reaps; but there is one God, who gives good things to both—seed to the sower, and bread to the reaper for food. In the same way, one plants and another waters, but there is one God who gives increase (1 Cor. 3:7). The patriarchs and prophets sowed the word about Christ, and the Church reaped, that is, received fruit. Therefore, they themselves pray to have residence in it, as Jeremiah says: “Who will finally give me residence in the desert?” (Jer. 9:2), so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together in the kingdom of Christ, present in all whom God was originally pleased to bestow the presence of His Word. The treasure hidden in the Scriptures is Christ, and the Church alone understands the Scriptures rightly 1. If anyone begins to carefully read the Scriptures, he will find in them speech about Christ and a pre-depiction of the new calling. For (the Scriptures) are the treasure hidden in the countryside, that is, in the world - for “the countryside is the world” (Matthew 13:38) - and the treasure hidden in the scriptures is Christ, who was portrayed through images and parables, because what relates to His humanity could not be understood before the fulfillment of the prophecies, i.e. the coming of Christ 116. And, therefore, it was said to the prophet Daniel: “Shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end, until many learn and knowledge is completed. For at the time when the dispersion is completed, they will know all this” (Dan.12:4,7). And Jeremiah says: “in the last days they will understand this” (Jer. 23:20). For every prophecy, before it comes true, is full of mysteries and ambiguity for people. When the time comes and what is predicted comes true, then the prophecies have a clear and definite interpretation. And therefore, when the law is read by a Jew at the present time, it is like a fable, for they have no explanation of everything pertaining to the coming of the Son of God as a man; and when read by Christians, it is a treasure hidden in the countryside, but revealed and illustrated by the cross of Christ, which enriches the human mind and shows the wisdom of God, announces His decrees regarding man, foreshadows the Kingdom of Christ, foretells the inheritance of the Holy Jerusalem and foretells that the person who loves God will achieve that he will see God and hear His speech and from hearing it will be so glorified that others cannot look upon the face of His glory, as Daniel said: “Those who understand will shine like the light of the firmament, and many righteous ones will be like the stars forever and ever” (Dan.12:3). Thus, as I have shown, if anyone reads the Scriptures - for the Lord, after His resurrection from the dead, so inspired the disciples, showing from the Scriptures themselves that “Christ must suffer and enter into His glory, and the remission of sins should be preached in His name in the whole world” (Luke 24:26) - then he will be a perfect disciple and will be like that householder who brings out of his treasury new and old. 2. Therefore, those who, as I have shown, have succession from the Apostles and, together with the succession of the episcopacy, by the good will of the Father, have received a certain gift of truth, should follow the presbyters in the Church, while others who deviate from the original succession and gather anywhere should be suspected, either as heretics and false teachers, or as schismatics, proud and self-indulgent, or as hypocrites who do so. for the sake of self-interest and vanity. All these have fallen away from the truth. Heretics who bring alien fire to the altar of God, that is, alien teachings, will be burned by heavenly fire, like Nadab and Abihu (Lev.10:1-2). Those who rebel against the truth and stir up others against the Church of God will remain in hell, swallowed up by the earth. as the followers of Korah, Dathan and Abiron (Num. 16:33). But those who dissect and tear apart the unity of the Church will receive from God the same punishment as Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:10 et seq.). 3. But those who are considered by many to be elders, but serve their own pleasures and do not present the fear of God in their hearts, but behave with contempt for others and are proud of their presidency, and do evil in secret, saying: “no one sees us” (Dan. 13:20), will be convicted by the Word, which judges not by appearance and looks not on the face, but on the heart, and will hear the words of the prophet Daniel: “seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you, lust has corrupted your heart. Having grown old in evil days, now your sins have come, which you did before, for you judged unrighteously, condemned the innocent, and released the guilty, while the Lord says: do not kill the innocent and the righteous” (Dan. 13:56,52-53; Exod. 23:7). The Lord said about such people: “If an evil servant says in his heart: My master will not come soon; and begins to beat his companions and maidservants, to eat and drink and get drunk, then the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect it, and at an hour when he does not think, and will divide him and assign him a portion with the unbelievers” (Matthew 24:48-51; Luke 12:45). 4. One must move away from all such; to adhere to those who, as I said above, preserve the teaching of the Apostles and, together with the rite of the presbytery, lead sound speech and a temptation-free life to the confirmation and correction of others. So Moses, to whom such great leadership was entrusted, relying on a good conscience, justified himself before God, saying: “I did not take anything from them out of greed, and I did not harm any of them” (Num. 16:15). And Samuel, who was the judge of the people for so many years and ruled Israel without any exaltation, in the end justified himself, saying: “I have lived in your sight from my childhood until now; Answer me before God and before His anointed, from whom of you I took a bull or a donkey, or against whom I abused, or whom I oppressed, or from whose hand I received a reward, speak against me, and I will repay you” (1 Samuel 12 et seq.). When the people said to him: “You have not done violence, nor oppressed us, nor received anything from anyone’s hands,” he called the Lord as a witness, saying: “The Lord is witness and His anointed witness this day, that you found nothing in my hand and said to him: He is a witness.” So the Apostle Paul, having a good conscience, said to the Corinthians: “For we do not corrupt the Word of God, as many do, but sincerely, as from God, we speak before God in Christ” (2 Cor. 2:4). “We have not offended anyone, we have not spoiled anyone, we have not sought gain from anyone” (2 Cor. 7:2). 5. Such elders are nourished by the Church; about them the prophet says: “And I will give your rulers in peace and your bishops in righteousness” (Is. 60:17). The Lord said about them: “Who will be the faithful servant, good and prudent, whom the master has appointed over his household to give them food in season? Blessed is that servant whom the master, when he comes, finds doing so” (Matthew 24:45–46). Paul, teaching us where to find such, says: “God has appointed (others) in the Church, firstly, apostles, secondly, prophets, thirdly, teachers” (1 Cor. 12:28). So, where the gifts of the Lord are, there we must learn the truth from those who have ecclesiastical succession from the Apostles, a sound and impeccable life and an undistorted and undamaged teaching. For they preserve our faith in the One God, who created everything, and partake of the love of the Son of God, who for our sake fulfilled such great commands, and safely present to us the Scriptures, without blaspheming God, without dishonoring the patriarchs, without disparaging the prophets. About the sins of people of ancient times 1. As I heard from a certain elder 117 who heard from those who saw the Apostles and were their disciples, the punishment (declared) in the Scriptures was sufficient for the ancient people for what they did without the guidance of the Spirit. For, since God is not a partiality, He imposed punishment in accordance with those deeds that were displeasing to Him. So, when David suffered persecution from Saul for the truth and avoided King Saul and did not take revenge on his enemy, he sang the coming of Christ and taught the nations wisdom, did everything according to the guidance of the Spirit and pleased God. When, out of his passion, he took Bathsheba as his wife, Uriah, the Scripture said about him: “The deed done by David seemed evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Sam. 11:27); and the prophet Nathan was sent to him to expose his sin, so that, having reflected on himself, he would condemn himself and gain mercy and forgiveness from Christ: “And (Nathan) said to him: there were two men in one city - one rich and the other poor; The rich man had many herds of sheep and bulls, but the poor man had nothing but one lamb, which he kept and fed, and she was with him and his children on an equal basis: she ate from his bread and drank from his cup and was like a daughter to him. And a guest came to a rich man and was stingy to take sheep from his flock and oxen from his herd and treat the guest: he took the poor man’s sheep and offered it to the one who came to him. David was very angry with the man and said to Nathan: As the Lord lives, the man who did this must die; and he must return the sheep fourfold because he did this and did not spare the poor man. And Nathan said to him, “You have done this” (2 Samuel 12 et seq.); and then finished the rest, reproaching him and counting God’s benefits to him and (showing) that he had offended the Lord by such an act; for such things are displeasing to God, and great wrath threatens his house. Touched by this, David said: “I have sinned against the Lord,” and sang a psalm of repentance, awaiting the coming of the Lord, washing and cleansing a person wounded by sin. The same thing happened with Solomon; he judged righteously, explained the wisdom of God, built a church - the image of Truth, expounded the glory of God, announced the coming peace to the nations, prefigured the Kingdom of Christ, spoke three thousand parables about the coming of the Lord and five thousand songs praising God, and revealed the wisdom of God in creation physiologically from every tree, every grass, from every bird, four-legged animal and fish, and said: “Shall God, whom the heavens cannot contain, begin to dwell with men on earth” (1 Kings 13:27)? And he pleased God, and everyone marveled at him, and all the kings of the earth sought to see him in order to listen to the wisdom given to him by God. The queen of the south from the ends of the earth came to him to verify his wisdom - the one about whom the Lord says that she will rise in judgment along with the people listening to His words and not believing in Him, and will condemn them, because she submitted to the wisdom proclaimed through the servant of God, and they despised the wisdom given by the Son of God, for Solomon was a servant, and Christ is the Son of God and the Lord of Solomon. So, when he served God blamelessly and obeyed His orders, then he was glorious; When he took for himself wives from all nations and allowed them to erect idols in Israel, then the Scripture said about him: “And King Solomon was a lover of women and took for himself foreign wives, and it happened during Solomon’s old age that his heart was not completely with the Lord God; his heart and the foreign wives seduced his heart into following other gods. And Solomon did evil before the Lord, and did not follow the Lord, as David his father did. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, for his heart was not perfect in the Lord, like the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 11 et seq.). 2. And, therefore, the Lord descended into the nether regions of the earth, preaching here also about His coming and declaring remission of sins to those who believe in Him. All who trusted in Him believed in Him, that is, the righteous, prophets and patriarchs who foretold His coming and served His orders, for whom, just like us, He forgave sins, which we should not impute to them if we do not despise the grace of God. For just as they did not impute to us 118 our intemperances, which we indulged in before Christ was revealed among us, so it is unfair for us to blame those who sinned before the coming of Christ. All people “fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23); they are justified not by themselves, but by the coming of the Lord, those who strive for the light. And for our instruction the actions of those (ancient) people are described, so that we know, firstly, that our God is one and theirs, and sins are displeasing to Him, even if they were committed by glorious people; secondly, to abstain from evil. For if the ancient people, who preceded us in gifts, for whom the Son of God had not yet suffered, when they sinned in some way and indulged in carnal passions, were subjected to such dishonor, then what will the people of the present time be subjected to, who despised the coming of the Lord and indulged in their own pleasures. For those, the death of the Lord was healing and remission of sins; and for those who now sin, Christ will die no more, for death will no longer prevail over Him; but the Son of God will come in the glory of the Father, demanding from His officers and stewards the money entrusted to them with profit, and to whomever He has given more, He will exact more from them. Therefore, we should not,” said that elder, “be proud, nor reproach the ancients, but we ourselves should be afraid that by doing what is displeasing to God, when we have come to know Christ, we may no longer receive remission of sins, and we will be excluded from His Kingdom. And therefore Paul said: “For if God did not spare the natural branches, then see if He will also spare you, who, being a wild olive tree, was grafted into the juice of the olive tree and became a partaker of its juice” (Rom. 11:21). 3. In the same way, you will see that the crimes of the common people are not described for the sake of those who then committed them. these crimes, but for our instruction and so that we know that it is one and the same God against whom they sinned and against whom some who call themselves believers are now sinning. And this (according to the presbyter) the Apostle very clearly showed in his letter to the Corinthians, saying: “I do not want to leave you, brethren, in ignorance, that your fathers were all under the cloud and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual stone that followed them, and the stone was Christ. But God was not pleased with many of them, for they were slain in the wilderness. This was a way for us so that we would not lust after evil. how lustful they were. Also, do not be idolaters like some of them, as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play” (Ex. 32:6). “And let us not commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and in one day twenty-three thousand of them perished. Let us not tempt Christ, as some of them tempted and were killed by snakes. Do not grumble, as some of them grumbled and were killed by the destroyer. All this happened to them as images, and is described for the instruction of us who have reached the ages. Therefore, if anyone thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:1-18). 4. When in this way the Apostle undoubtedly and unquestioningly shows that the same God judged former cases and tortures present ones, and presents the reason for the description of those cases, then all those who, due to the crimes of ancient people and the disobedience of many of them, say that they had another God, who is the Creator of the world and imperfect, and another - the Father, revealed by Christ and comprehended by the mind of each of them (heretics) - not understanding that just as there God did not favor many of them who sinned, so here “many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 20:16), just as there the unrighteous, idolaters and fornicators perished, so here, for the Lord predicts that such will be sent into eternal fire, and the Apostle says: “or do you not know that the unrighteous will they not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor wicked people, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-10); and that he is not saying this to outsiders, but to us, so that we would not be excluded from the Kingdom of God by doing anything like that, he added: “And such you were, but you were washed, but you were sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). And just as there those who lived wickedly and destroyed others were condemned and rejected, so here the tempting eye and foot and hand are put out, so that the whole body does not perish too (Matthew 18:8-9). And we have a commandment: “If anyone who is called a brother is a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or a predator, do not even eat with him” (1 Cor. 5:11). And the Apostle also says: “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for for this the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be their accomplices” (Eph. 5:6–7). And how there the condemnation of sinners extended to others who pleased them and converted with them; so here too, “a little leaven leavens the whole body” (1 Cor. 5:6). And just as there the wrath of God descended on the unrighteous, so here the Apostle says: “The wrath of God will be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18). And just as there God’s vengeance came upon the Egyptians, who unrighteously oppressed Israel, so it is here; for the Lord says: “Will not God protect His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night? I tell you, He will quickly protect them” (Luke 18:7–8). And the Apostle in his letter to the Thessalonians also predicts: “For God has righteousness to reward those who insult you with tribulation, and you who are insulted with joy along with us at the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with the angels of His power, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will suffer punishment, everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power when He comes to be glorified in His saints and He will appear marvelous to all who believe in Him” (2 Thess. 1:6-10). They are foolish who exaggerate the mercy of Christ, and are silent about judgment, and, relying on the great grace of the New Testament, overlook the great perfection that He requires, and invent a God different from the Creator of the world 1. Because in both Testaments the same truth of God is manifested in the punishment of those who offend God, and there (in the Old) it is representative, temporary and more moderate, and here (in the New) truly, eternally and much more severely, for eternal fire and the wrath of God revealed from heaven from the face of our Lord, as David says: “The presence of the Lord is against those who do evil, to destroy their memory from the earth” (Ps. 33:17), - inflicts great punishment on those subjected to it; then the elders exposed the senselessness of those who, on the basis of what happened to those who previously disobeyed God, are trying to introduce another Father, contrasting this with how much the Lord did in His mercy, coming to save those who accepted Him, and keeping silent about His judgment and what awaits those who heard His teaching and did not fulfill it, and that it would have been better if they had not been born and that Sodom and Gomorrah It will be more joyful at the judgment than for that city that did not accept the words of His disciples. 2. For just as in the New Testament people’s faith in God increased, having received the addition of the Son of God, so that man could become a partaker of God, so the demands regarding the way of life also increased, for we are commanded to abstain not only from evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts and from idle conversations, empty speeches and frivolous words; the punishment also increased for those who do not believe the Word of God, despise His coming and turn back, and became not only temporary, but also eternal. For to whom the Lord says: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41), they will always be condemned; and to whom He will say: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you forever” (Matthew 25:34), they receive the kingdom forever and prosper in it, for one and the same God the Father and His Word, always present in the human race through various orders and performing many actions and from the beginning saving those who are being saved, that is, those who love God and according to their kind follow the Word of God, and condemning the condemned, i.e. those who forget God, blasphemers and transgressors of His word. 3. And the heretics I mentioned above deceive themselves, accusing the Lord, in whom, as they themselves say, they believe. For what they notice in God, who then temporarily punished the unbelievers and smote the Egyptians, but saved those who obeyed Him, will no less be applied to the Lord, Who forever condemns those who are condemned and forever forgives those who are forgiven; and He will be found, according to their words, to be the author of the greatest sin of those who laid hands on Him and pierced Him. For if He had not come in this way, they would not have become the murderers of their Lord; and if he had not sent prophets to them, they would not have killed the prophets and the Apostles either. Therefore, to those who reproach us and say: if the Egyptians had not been struck with plagues and those pursuing Israel had not been drowned in the sea, then God could not have saved His people - the following answer will be given: if the Jews had not become the murderers of the Lord - which deprived them of eternal life - and, by killing the Apostles and persecuting the Church, had not aroused the greatest anger against themselves, then we could not have been saved. For just as they received salvation through the blindness of the Egyptians, so we through the blindness of the Jews, because the death of the Lord is condemnation for those who nailed Him to the cross and did not believe His coming, and salvation for those who believe in Him. For the Apostle also says in the second (epistle) to the Corinthians: “For we are a savor of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing—to some a savor of death unto death, and to others a savor of life unto life” (2 Cor. 2:15-16). For whom is the smell of death unto death, if not for those who do not believe and do not obey the Word of God? Who even then put themselves to death? Again, unbelievers and disobedient to God. Who were saved and received the inheritance? Those who believe in God and are in love for Him, like Caleb, the son of Jephthonia, and Joshua and the innocent youths who had no concept of evil. And who here are saved and receive eternal life? Are they not those who love God and believe His promises and become children through wickedness? Why did God harden the hearts of Pharaoh and his servants? 1. But they say: God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and his servants (Ex. 9:35). Those who object to this do not read the place in the Gospel where the Lord answered the disciples’ question to Him: “Why do you speak to them in parables”? He answered them: “Because it has been given to you to know the secret of the Kingdom of Heaven, and to them I speak in parables, so that seeing may not see, and hearing may not hear, and understanding may not understand, so that the prophecy of Isaiah will be fulfilled over them, which says: let the hearts of these people harden, make them hard of hearing and blind their eyes. Blessed are your eyes, which see what you see, and your ears, which hear what you hear." 119 For one and the same God brings blindness to those who do not believe but despise Him, just as the sun, His creation, (blinds) those who, due to weakness of vision, cannot look at its light, and bestows fuller and greater enlightenment on those who believe and follow Him. In accordance with this, the Apostle in the second (epistle) to the Corinthians says: “for those who do not believe, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, so that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should not shine” (2 Cor. 4:4). And also in (the epistle) to the Romans: “and because they did not care to have God in their minds, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do lewd things” (Rom. 1:28). In the second letter to the Thessalonians, speaking about the Antichrist, he clearly says: “Therefore God will send them strong delusion, so that they will believe a lie, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but loved unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:11-12). 2. If even now God, knowing that many would not believe - since He knows everything in advance - gave them up to their unbelief and turned His face away from such, leaving them in the darkness that they had chosen for themselves, then what is surprising if even then the unbelieving Pharaoh, together with his servants, gave them up to unbelief? As the Word from the Bush said to Moses: “I know that Pharaoh king of Egypt will not let you go unless I use a mighty hand” (Ex. 3:19). And why the Lord spoke in parables and brought blindness to Israel, so that seeing they would not see, knowing their unbelief, for the same reason He hardened the heart of Pharaoh, so that seeing that the finger of God was destroying the people, he would not believe, but was cast into the sea of ​​unbelief, for he thought that their exodus was accomplished by the action of magic, and that the Red Sea did not allow the people to pass through by the power of God, but it was so in a natural way. Why did God command the Jews to take vessels from the Egyptians during the exodus? 1. Those who reproach the fact that before their exodus, at the command of God, the people took from the Egyptians vessels of all kinds and clothing and so set off (with these things), from which the tabernacle was made in the desert, then they show themselves to be ignorant of God’s justifications and His orders, as the presbyter also says. For, if God had not deigned to do this in the representative exodus, then no one could now be saved in our true exodus, that is, in the faith in which we stand and through which we were separated from among the pagans. For we all belong to either a small or a large property, which we acquired “from mammon of unrighteousness” (Luke 16:9). For where do we get the houses in which we live, the clothes with which we cover ourselves, the vessels we use, and everything else necessary for our daily life, if not from what, being pagans, we acquired out of our own greed, or received from pagan parents, relatives or friends, having acquired it in untruth? - I don’t say that we gain it now that we have become believers. For who sells and does not want to make a profit from the buyer? And who buys and does not want. to profitably purchase something from a seller? What industrialist is engaged in his trade not in order to eat through it? And do not the believers who are at the royal court use supplies from Caesar’s property, and do not each of them, according to his ability, provide for the poor? The Egyptians were indebted to the people (Jewish), according to the former goodness of Patriarch Joseph, not only with their property, but also with their lives; and what do the pagans owe us for, from whom we receive both profits and benefits? What they acquire with difficulty, we believers use without difficulty. 2. Until that time, the people were in the most grievous slavery among the Egyptians, as the Scripture says: “The Egyptians did great violence to the children of Israel, and made life hateful to them with hard work, clay and clay-making, and all the work in the fields and all kinds of work, with which they greatly oppressed them” (Ex. 1:13-14); They built fortified cities for them, worked hard and increased their wealth over many years and all kinds of slavery, although they were not only not grateful to them, but also wanted to destroy them all. What injustice was done if they took a little from a lot? and when could we have had great wealth, if we had not been in slavery, and come out rich, received very little reward for our great slavery, and come out poor? As if someone free, forcibly taken away by another, served him for many years and increased his wealth, and then received some allowance and, apparently, had something of his wealth, but in fact, from his many labors and from his great acquisition, he took a little and left, and this would be blamed on him by someone, as if he had acted unfairly; then the judge himself will rather seem unfair to the one who was forcibly taken into slavery. Such are also those who blame the people who took little from much, and do not blame those themselves who did not give any gratitude due for the merits of their parents, and even brought them into the most painful slavery, and received the greatest benefit from them. These (accusers) say that (the Israelites) acted unjustly, taking for their labors, as I said, unchased gold and silver in a few vessels, and about themselves they say that - we must tell the truth, although this will seem ridiculous to some - they act justly when, for the labors of others, they carry in their purses minted gold, silver and copper with the inscription and image of Caesar. 3. If we make a comparison between us and them, then who will receive more justly - the people (Israel) from the Egyptians, who were their debtors in everything, or we from the Romans and other nations who owe nothing to us? And the world enjoys peace through them (the Romans), and we walk the roads without fear and sail wherever we want. Against such, the words of the Lord will be very helpful: “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see (how) to take the speck out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). For if the one who accuses you of this and boasts of his knowledge, separated himself from the society of the pagans and did not have anything alien, but was literally naked and with bare legs and lived homeless in the mountains, like some animal that feeds on herbs, then he deserves leniency because he does not know the needs of our community. If he uses what people call foreign, and (at the same time) condemns the prototype of this 120, then he shows himself to be very unfair and turns such an accusation against himself. For he will find himself carrying with him something that is not his own and desiring what is not his; and that is why the Lord said: “Judge not, lest ye be judged, for with the judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged” (Matthew 7:1-2). Not that we do not punish those who sin or approve of evil deeds, but that we do not unjustly condemn the orders of God, since He justly cares about everything that will serve for good. For, since He knew that we would make good use of our property, which we have to receive from another, He says: “Whoever has two coats, give to the poor, and whoever has food, do the same” (Luke 3:11). And: “I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was naked, and you clothed Me” (Matthew 25:35–36). And: “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 7:3). And we turn out to be right when we do any kind of good, as if redeeming ours from someone else’s hands: I say “from someone else’s hands” not in the sense that the world is alien to God, but because we receive such gifts from others, like those (Israelites) from the Egyptians who did not know God - and through this very thing we build the abode of God in ourselves, for God dwells with those who do good, as He says Lord: “make friends for yourself with unrighteous wealth, so that when you flee, they will receive you into eternal abodes” (Luke 17:9). For what we acquired through unrighteousness while we were pagans, having become believers, we turn to benefit the Lord and are justified. 4. So, this was necessary first in mind during that transformative action, and from those things the tabernacle of God is built, because those (Israelites) received justly, as I showed, and in them we were foreshadowed, who were then to serve God through the things of others. For the whole procession of the people from Egypt, according to the dispensation of God, was the type and image of the origin of the Church from the pagans, and therefore He at the end (of time) brings her out from here into her inheritance, which not Moses the servant of God, but Jesus the Son of God gives as an inheritance. And if anyone takes a closer look at the words of the prophets about the end and what John the Lord’s disciple saw in revelation, he will find that the nations will accept the same plagues in general that then struck Egypt piecemeal. We should not rashly blame the ancients for actions that Scripture did not condemn, but rather see in them images of future things: example - Lot's incest 1. Explaining this kind of legends about ancient people, the (previously mentioned) presbyter admonished us and said: “for those offenses in which the Scriptures themselves convict the patriarchs and prophets, we should not reproach them and become like Ham, who laughed at the shame of his father and was cursed, but we should thank God for them, because their sins were forgiven them at the coming of the Lord ours, for,” he said, “they too thank and are glorified for our salvation.” Regarding those (actions) that the Scriptures do not condemn, but which are simply stated, we should not be accusers, for we are not more careful than God and cannot be higher than the Teacher, but we must look for a type in them. For nothing that is set forth in the Scriptures without condemnation is without meaning. An example of this is Lot, who brought out of Sodom his daughters who had conceived from their father, and left his wife on the border, standing in the form of a pillar of salt to this day. For Lot (acting) not according to his own will and not according to his carnal lust, and without any knowledge, concept or thought of such an action, performed it as a type (of the future). So the Scripture says: “and the eldest (daughter) went in and slept with her father that night, and Lot did not know when she slept and when she arose” (Gen. 19:33). And the same thing about the younger one: “and he did not know,” it is said, “when she slept with him and when she arose” (Gen. 19:35). When a person did not know and did not serve his lust, then an order (of God) was made, according to which two daughters were designated, that is, two synagogues, from the same father, who gave birth to children without carnal desire. For there was no one else who could give them vital seed and procreation, as it is written: “The eldest said to the younger: Our father is old and there is no one on earth. who would come to us, as usual to the whole earth; Come, let us make our father drunk with wine and sleep with him, and let us raise up seed from our father” (Gen. 19:31–32). 2. These daughters spoke this way out of their simplicity and innocence, thinking that all people died like the Sodomites, and the wrath of God came upon the whole earth. Therefore, they deserve an apology, since they imagined that they alone remained with their father for the preservation of the human race, and therefore they carried away the father. Their words meant that no one else could impart to the older and younger Church the power of procreation, except our Father. And the Father of the human race is the Word of God, as Moses shows when he says: “Did not this your Father himself obtain you, create you, and create you” (Deut. 32:6)? And when did He pour out on the human race the seed of life, that is, the Spirit of remission of sins, through whom we are quickened? Was it not when He ate with people and drank wine on earth? For it is said: “The Son of Man came, eating and drinking” (Matt. 11:19), and when He lay down, He fell asleep and slept, as He Himself says through David: “I fell asleep and slept” (Ps. 3:6). And since He did this while living among us, He also says: “And My sleep became pleasing to Me” (Jer. 31:26). The whole meaning of the event with Lot was that the Son of the Father of all, i.e. The Spirit of God, by whom all things were created, copulated and united with the flesh, that is, with its creation, through which copulation and unity the two synagogues, that is, the two Churches, produced from their Father living children to the living God. 3. And when this happened, his wife remained in the land of Sodom no longer as corruptible flesh, but as a pillar of salt, always abiding 121, which through natural (departments) shows the usual in man, just as the Church, which is the salt of the earth, remained within the earth and is subject to human things; and while whole members are taken away from it, it remains a pillar of salt, that is, the foundation of faith, which strengthens and sends sons to their Father 122. One God is the author of both covenants, which is confirmed by the testimony of the presbyter, a disciple of the Apostles 1. In the same way, the presbyter, the apostolic disciple, spoke regarding the two covenants, proving that they were both from the same God. For there is no other God except the One who created and created us, and the teaching of those who say that this world surrounding us was created either by angels, or by some other power, or by another God, is not substantiated. For if anyone once turns away from the Creator of all and admits that the creation around us was created by someone else or through someone else, then he will inevitably fall into great absurdity and many contradictions, for which he will not provide any probable or true grounds. And therefore, the introducers of other teachings hide their thoughts about God from us, knowing the inconsistency and absurdity of their teaching and fearing to be defeated and endanger their salvation. But if anyone believes in One God, Who created everything with the Word, as Moses says: “The Lord said, Let there be light, and there was light” (Gen. 1:3), and as we read in the Gospel: “All things came into being through Him, and without Him nothing happened” (John 1:3), and the Apostle Paul similarly (says): “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father, who is above all, through all and in us all" (Eph. 4:5-6), - he, firstly, will "hold fast to the Head, from whom the whole body is composed and joined together, and through every connection, as each part serves, receives increase to build itself up in love" (Eph. 6:16). And then every word he has will be thorough if he carefully reads the Scriptures with the elders of the Church, who have the apostolic teaching, as I showed. 2. For all the Apostles taught that there were two Testaments among two peoples, but that it was one and the same God, who established both for the benefit of people who had faith in God, in accordance with which the Testaments were given, as I showed from the very teaching of the Apostles in the third book; and that it was not in vain, not without a purpose or by chance that the first Testament was given, but it subdued those to whom it was given into the service of God for their own benefit, for God does not need the service of people, and represented the type of heavenly things, since man could not yet see the divine with his own sight, and prefigured the images of what is in the Church, to confirm our faith, and contained a prophecy about the future, so that man would know that God foresees everything. He who recognizes the One God as the author of both Testaments and carefully reads the Scriptures of the Church elders is a truly spiritual disciple and will correctly understand everything said by the prophets about Christ and about the freedom of the New Testament 1. Such a spiritual disciple, truly receiving the Holy Spirit, who from the beginning was present with people in all the orders of God and announced the future, and shows the present and explains the past, judges everyone, but is himself judged by no one (1 Cor. 2:15). For He judges the pagans, “who serve the creature more than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25), and with their perverted minds use all their activities for vanity. He also judges the Jews, who do not accept the word of freedom and do not want to go out free, although they have a Liberator among them, but they think it is not timely to serve God, who needs nothing, beyond the law, and do not recognize the coming of Christ, arranged by Him for the salvation of people, and do not want to understand that all the prophets announced two comings of Him: one, when He became a man subject to suffering, knowing to bear weakness (Is. 53:3 ) and sitting on a donkey's foal (Zech.9:9), and (was) a rejected stone by the builders (Ps.118:22) and like a sheep was led to the slaughter (Is.63:7), and with the outstretching of His hands He smote Amalek (Ex.17:11), and gathered the scattered children from the ends of the earth into the Father's sheepfold ( Isa.11:12) and remembered His dead who had first fallen asleep, and went down to them to deliver them 123; the second, when He will come on the clouds (Dan.7:13), bringing a day that burns like an oven (Mal.4:1) and striking the earth with the word of His mouth (Isa.11:4), and killing the wicked with the breath of His lips, and having a spade in His hand, and clearing His threshing floor, and gathering the wheat into the barn, and burning the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matt.3:12; Luke 3:17). 2. He will also test the teachings of Marcion, how does he admit two gods separated from each other by an infinite distance? Or how will He (God) be good who distracts strangers from their Creator and calls them into His Kingdom? and why does His goodness become impoverished, not saving everyone? and why is He good towards people, but very unjust towards the Creator of people, robbing Him of His property? How did the Lord, if He belonged to another Father, take bread from the creation around us, call it His body and confess the dissolved cup with His blood? And why did He call himself the Son of Man if He did not take human birth? How could he forgive us the sins of which we are guilty before our Creator and God? How, if. He was not flesh, but only seemed to be human. Was He crucified and blood and water came out of His pierced ribs? What kind of body did those who buried Him put in the tomb? and which one rose from the dead? 3. (The spiritual man) will also judge the followers of Valentine, because, although they confess with their tongues One God the Father and that everything came from Him, they call the Creator Himself the fruit of lack or imperfection, and although they also confess with their tongues One Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, in their teaching they attribute their work to the Only Begotten, and their Word, and another to Christ, and another to the Savior, so that according to In their view, although everything is considered as one, each of them is understood separately (existing) and having its own origin in accordance with its combination. So they only with their tongues admit the unity (of God), and their thought and mind explore the depths, retreating from unity, and they are subjected to. to the manifold judgment of God, when they are interrogated about their inventions by Christ, of whom they also say that He was born after the pleroma of the Aeons and His generation was after diminution or sedimentation, and regarding the suffering experienced by Wisdom, they themselves helped during childbirth. They will be accused by their own prophet Homer, to whose lessons they owe their inventions, since he says the following: “Like the doors of hell, I hate the man who conceals one thing in his heart and expresses another” 124. (The spiritual man) will also judge the vanity of the evil Gnostics, showing that they are disciples of Simon the Magus. 4. He will judge the Ebionites: how can they be saved if the one who accomplished their salvation on earth is not God? And how will man pass into God if God has not passed into man? And how does a person avoid being born mortal, if not through a new birth, marvelously and unexpectedly given by God as a sign of salvation, that is, through rebirth from a virgin 125 through faith? Or how they will receive adoption from God, remaining in such a birth as is characteristic of man in this world. How did He (Christ) have more than Solomon, or more than Jonah, and be the Lord of David, if He was of the same essence as they? So He defeated the one who was strong against people and not only defeated the person, but also kept him under his power - and he defeated this winner, and freed the defeated person, if He was not higher than the person who was once defeated? Who is better and more excellent than man, created in the likeness of God, if not the Son of God, in whose likeness man was created? And therefore, in the end, He represents the likeness: the Son of God became man, taking into Himself the ancient creation (His), as I showed in the previous book 126. 5. He will also judge those who consider (Christ) illusory. For how do they themselves imagine that they are truly reasoning when their Teacher was a ghostly being? Or how can they have something solid from Him, if He was only a ghostly being, and not the truth? How can they truly participate in salvation if the One in whom they say they believe has shown Himself to be illusory? Therefore, everything with them is illusory, and not the truth; and now the question may arise: do not they, for the most part, since they are not people, but dumb animals, represent only shadows of people? 6. He will also judge the false prophets who, having not received the prophetic gift from God and not having the fear of God, out of vanity, or for the sake of self-interest, or something else, through the action of an evil spirit, take on the appearance of prophets, speaking lies against God. 7. He will also judge those who cause schisms - those who do not have love for God and who care more about their own benefit than about the unity of the Church, for unimportant and random reasons, cutting and tearing apart the great and glorious body of Christ and, as much as depends on them, destroying it, talking about peace and making war, in truth, “straining out a gnat and swallowing up a camel” (Matthew 23:24). For they cannot achieve as much correction of the matter as the harm that occurs from the schism is great. He will judge all those who are outside the truth, that is, outside the Church, but He Himself will not be judged by anyone. For with Him everything is firm: His faith is whole in the One God Almighty, from Whom are all things, and in the Son of God Jesus Christ our Lord, through Whom are all things, and in His dispositions, through which the Son of God became man, and His faith in the Spirit of God, who bestows knowledge of the truth and reveals the dispositions of the Father and the Son, according to which He was inherent in the human race in accordance with the will of the Father, is solid. 8. True knowledge is the teaching of the Apostles, and the original structure of the Church throughout the world, and the sign of the Body of Christ, consisting in the succession of bishops, to whom those (Apostles) handed down the Church existing everywhere; and it has come down to us in its entirety with a genuine observance of the Scriptures, without accepting any addition or subtraction: here is a reading (of the Scriptures) without distortion and a correct and careful interpretation of the Scriptures, safe and free from blasphemy, and an excellent gift of love, which is more precious than knowledge, and more glorious than prophecy, and more excellent than all other gifts. 9. Therefore, the Church in every place, out of her love for God, sends at all times many martyrs to the Father; while all the others (heretics) not only cannot show anything of the kind in themselves, but also say that such testimony (martyrdom) is not necessary at all, because, they say, their teaching is a true testimony (for Christ), except for the fact that during the entire time since the Lord appeared on earth, one or two of them at one time, together with our martyrs, suffered a reproach to their name, as if he also received mercy, and was led along with them (to death), so to speak, in addition to them. For the Church alone purely endures the reproach of those who, for the sake of truth, endure persecution and are subjected to all tortures and death itself for the sake of their love for God and for the confession of His Son; She, often weakened, immediately increases in her members and is replenished, like her prototype - the pillar of salt of Lot's wife. So the ancient prophets suffered persecution, as the Lord says: “So the prophets who were before you were persecuted” (Matthew 5:12), for in a new way, but the same Spirit of God resting on her (the Church), suffers persecution from those who do not accept the word of God. 10. And the prophets, along with other prophecies, also predicted that those on whom the Spirit of God rests, and who obey the Word of the Father and serve Him according to their strength, will be persecuted, stoned, and put to death. For the prophets depicted all this on themselves out of love for God and for His word. For since they themselves were members of Christ, each of them, as a member, accordingly manifested prophecy, but all together they represented One and proclaimed what pertained to One. How through our members the activity of the whole body is manifested, and the image of the whole man is expressed not by one member, but by all; so the prophets all prefigured One, and each of them, as a member, fulfilled it in accordance with this. the ministry assigned to him and prefigured the action of Christ corresponding to that member. 11. Some of them, beholding Him in glory, saw His glorious position at the right hand of the Father, others (saw) Him coming on the clouds as the Son of Man, and speaking of Him: “They will see Him whom they pierced” (Zech. 12:10), proclaimed His (second) coming, about which He Himself says: “Do you think that when the Son of Man comes, He will find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8), about which Paul says: “For it is right in the sight of God to repay tribulation to those who insult you, and joy to you who are insulted along with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His mighty angels and in flaming fire” (2 Thess. 1:6-8). Others, calling Him the Judge and the day of the Lord as a burning furnace, “Who gathers the wheat into the barn, and burns the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:12; Luke 3:17), threatened the unbelievers, about whom the Lord Himself says: “Depart from Me, cursed, into the everlasting fire, which My Father has prepared for the devil and His angels” (Matt. 25:41), and The Apostle also says: “who will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints and appear marvelously to those who believe in Him” (2 Thess. 1:9-10). Some say: “You are more beautiful in appearance than the sons of men” and: “God, your God has anointed You with the oil of joy more than Your companions” and: “Gird Your sword on Your thigh, O Mighty One, with Your beauty and Your goodness, go forward and prosper, and reign for the sake of truth, meekness and righteousness” (Ps. 45:3-5,8): these and others like them by sayings about Him they signified the beauty and splendor of His kingdom and His glorious exaltation above all He possessed, so that those who heard would wish to be there, doing what was pleasing to God. Some say: “He is a man, and who can recognize Him?” (Jer.17:9) and: “I came to the prophetess, and she gave birth to a Son, and His name was called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God” (Is.8:3; 9:6; 7:14), and proclaiming Him Emmanuel from the Virgin, they revealed the connection of the Word of God with His creation, namely, that the Word will be flesh and the Son of God the Son of Man, - Pure purely revealing a pure womb that regenerated people into God, which He himself purified - and having become what we are, He is a mighty God and has an ineffable birth. Others say: “The Lord spoke in Zion and gave His voice from Jerusalem” (John 3:16) and: “God is known in Judea” (Ps. 75:2), and this meant His coming to Judea. And those who said: “God is coming from the south and from the shady and thickly overgrown mountain” (Hab. 3:3), announced His coming from Bethlehem, - as I showed in the previous book 127 - from where the Prince and Shepherd of His Father’s people comes. The same ones who say that at His coming “the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will (speak) clearly, and the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear” (Is. 35:3,5–6), and that “weak hands and weak knees will be strengthened,” and that “the dead who are in the grave will rise” (Is. 26:19), and that He will “take upon Himself our infirmities and bear our sicknesses” (Is. 53:4), proclaimed the healings that came from Him. 12. Some, however, represent Him as a weak, dishonorable man, knowing to endure weakness, sitting on the colt of a donkey, going to Jerusalem and laying down His shoulders to be struck and His cheeks to be bitten, led like a sheep to the slaughter, watered with vinegar and gall, abandoned by His friends and relatives, stretching out His hands throughout the whole day, subjected to the ridicule and slander of those who look on. on Him and that His clothes will be divided and lots will be cast for clothes, and He will be brought into the finger of death, and all that - they predicted His human coming, how He entered Jerusalem, in which He suffered, was crucified and suffered all of the above. Others said: “The holy Lord remembered His dead, who had formerly fallen asleep in the dust, and came down to them to raise them up for their salvation,” 128 - presented the reason why He endured all this. And those who said: “On that day, says the Lord, the sun will go down at noon and there will be darkness on the earth on a clear day, I will turn your holidays into sorrow and all your songs into lamentation” (Am. 8: 9-10), clearly announced the eclipse of the sun that happened during His crucifixion from the sixth hour, and that after this event the holidays and songs that they had before the law will turn into sadness and lamentation when they are betrayed to the pagans. Jeremiah proves the same thing even more clearly when speaking about Jerusalem like this: “the one who gave birth became weak, her soul became sorrowful, the sun set for her while it was still noon, she was ashamed and reproached; and the remnant of them I will give to the sword in the presence of their enemies (Jer. 15:9). 13. Those who said that He fell asleep and slept and arose, because the Lord protected Him, and commanded the princes of heaven to open the eternal gates so that the King of glory could enter (Ps. 3:6; 23:7-9), proclaimed His resurrection from the dead through the Father and adoption into heaven. And with the words: “His departure from the edge of heaven and return to the edge of heaven, and no one will hide from His warmth” (Ps. 18:6), they proclaimed that He was taken to where He descended from, and that no one would escape His righteous judgment. And those who said: “The Lord reigns, let the nations be angry, - He who sits on the cherubim, let the earth shake” (Ps. 99:1), partly predicted the wrath of all nations after His ascension on those who believed in Him and the movement of the whole earth against the Church, and partly that when He comes from heaven with the angels of His Power, the whole earth will move, as He Himself says: “there will be a great earthquake, such as has not happened from the beginning” 129 . And with the words: “whoever is on trial, let him resist, and whoever is justified, let him draw close to the servant of God” (Is. 1:8–9); “Woe to you, for you will all wear out like a garment and moth will consume you” and: “every flesh shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted on high” (Is. 2:17), meaning that after His suffering and ascension, God will subdue under His feet all His opponents, and He will be exalted above all, and no one will be justified or compared with Him. 14. And those who say that God will establish a New Testament for people, not the same as He gave to the fathers on Mount Horeb, and will give people a new heart and a new spirit, and also: “Do not remember the ancient things; Behold, I am doing a new thing, which today will appear and you will know; “And I will make water in the desert and streams in the dry land to water the chosen race, My people, whom I have purchased, so that they may know My powers” (Is. 43:19-21), - clearly proclaimed the freedom of the New Testament and the new wine poured into new wineskins, that is, faith in Christ, through which He revealed the path of righteousness revealed in the desert and in the waterless land the streams of the Holy Spirit to irrigate the chosen race God, which He acquired so that His powers might be known, and not to blaspheme God who created this. 15. And about everything else that, as I have shown, the prophets spoke through so great a series of Scriptures, the truly spiritual will explain to what special feature of the order of the Lord each of the sayings refers and together will show the whole composition of the work of the Son of God, always knowing the same God and always knowing the same Word of God, although It has only now been revealed to us, and always knowing the same Spirit of God, although He only in the last times poured out on us in a new way, and from the creation of the world to the end (poured out) onto the human race, from which those who believe in God and follow His Word receive the salvation granted by Him. Those who depart from Him and despise His commandments and dishonor the Creator with their deeds and blaspheme their Nourisher with their teaching bring the most righteous judgment against themselves. So, This (Spiritual Man) tests everyone, but He Himself is not tested by anyone: He does not blaspheme His Father, does not disparage His orders, does not accuse the fathers, does not dishonor the prophets, saying that they (came from) another God or that their prophecies are from different essences. Evidence against the Marcionites that all the predictions of the prophets refer to Christ 1. Against all heretics, especially against the followers of Marcion and others like them, who speak. that the prophets are from another God, I will say: read more carefully the Gospel given to us by the Apostles and read more carefully the prophets, and you will find that all the activities, all the teaching and all the suffering of our Lord were predicted by them. If such a thought arises in you and you say: what new did the Lord bring with His coming? then know that He brought everything new by the fact that He, the proclaimed One, brought Himself. For this very thing was predicted, that something new would come, that would renew and revive man. And the coming of the King is announced in advance by the servants sent to prepare those who are about to receive their Lord. When the King comes and his subjects are full of the announced joy, receive freedom from Him, are honored to see Him and hear His words and enjoy gifts from Him, then reasonable people, of course, will no longer ask the question of what new things the King brought against those who announced His coming. For He brought Himself and gave to people the previously announced blessings into which the angels wanted to delve. 2. But the servants would have been liars, and not messengers of God, if Christ had not come as he was foretold, and had not fulfilled their words. Therefore He said: “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets; I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law and the prophets, until all is fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18). And He fulfilled everything by His coming and is still fulfilling in the Church, until the end (of everything), the New Testament foretold by the law. So the Apostle says in his letter to the Romans: “but now, regardless of the law, the righteousness of God has appeared. testified by the law and the prophets; for the righteous shall live by faith” (Rom.3:21; 1:17; Hab.2:4). And this, that the righteous will live by faith, was predicted by the prophets. 3. Where could the prophets predict the coming of the King and foretell the freedom He would give and everything that was accomplished by Christ, His words, deeds and suffering, and predict the New Testament, if they received prophetic inspiration from another God, not knowing, as you claim, the ineffable Father and His kingdom and His orders, which the Son of God, in the last days came, carried out on earth. You cannot say that this happened on some occasion, as if the prophets spoke about another person, and the like came true in the Lord. For all the prophets foretold the same thing, and it did not come true to any of the ancients. And if this had been fulfilled on any of the ancients, then the prophets who were after that would not have said that it would come true in the last times. Moreover, there is no one, neither of the fathers, nor of the prophets, nor of the ancient kings, over whom any of the things (predicted about Christ) would actually be fulfilled. For although everyone prophesied about the sufferings of Christ, they themselves were far from undergoing sufferings similar to those predicted. And the predicted details of the Lord’s suffering did not take place in any other case. For it did not happen at the death of any of the ancients that the sun set at noon, or the veil of the church was torn, or that there was an earthquake, or the stones were disintegrated, or the dead were raised, or that any of them rose on the third day, or was taken into heaven, or when taken, the heavens were opened, or in the name of any other the nations believed, or that any of them, having died and risen, inaugurated the New Testament of freedom. Therefore, the prophets spoke about no one else, but about the Lord, in Whom all the previously indicated signs converged. 4. If anyone, defending the cause of the Jews, says that the creation of the church, which followed the migration to Babylon under Zerubbabel, and the return of the people after seventy years (captivity) is the New Testament, then let him know that although the stone church was built again then - for the Law that was on the stone tablets was still preserved - no New Testament was given, but they used the Law given through Moses until the coming Gentlemen; and with the coming of the New Lord. The covenant that gives peace and the life-giving Law went out into the whole earth, as the prophets said: “For out of Zion the Law will go out, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem; Therefore, if another Law and the Word that proceeded from Jerusalem had given such peace to the nations who received Him, and through them had convicted many people of folly, then it would have seemed fair that the prophets spoke about someone else. But when exactly is the law of freedom, i.e. The Word of God, proclaimed to the whole earth by the Apostles who came out of Jerusalem, produced such a great transformation that the (peoples) themselves converted swords and military spears into plowshares and changed them into sickles, into peaceful instruments given for gathering grain, and no longer know how to fight, but, having received a blow, turn the other cheek, it is not about whom the prophets said this, but about the One who did this. This is our Lord, and in Him what was said was true; because He made a plowshare and brought a sickle, that is, the first settlement of man, which was expressed in the creation of Adam, and in recent times the fruits collected through the Word, and since He connected the beginning with the end and is the Lord of both, at the end he showed a plow in which wood was combined with iron and thus cleansed the earth, for the strong Word, united with flesh and nailed in this form, cleansed the wild earth. At the beginning, He figuratively represented the sickle through Abel, pointing to the gathering of the righteous human race. “For look,” He says, “how the righteous perish and no one pays attention to it, and righteous people are taken away and no one takes it to heart” (Is. 7:1). This was precisely what was presented in Abel, was foretold by the prophets, and was accomplished in the Lord and is also accomplished in us, since the body follows Its Head. 5. Against those who produce prophets from another God and from another Father - our Lord, such (evidence) is suitable, if only they can ever get away from such absurdity. For this is why we try to bring evidence from the Scriptures, in order to refute them as much as possible with the very words and to keep them from blasphemy and from the insane creation of many gods. Refutation of those who make some prophecies from the Most High God, others from the Demiurge 1. Again, against the Valentinians and other false-named Gnostics, who sometimes produce some sayings in the Scriptures from the heights (Pleroma) by means of a seed from there, sometimes from the middle through the brave mother Prunica, others from the Creator of the world, by whom the prophets were sent, I will say that it is very unreasonable to represent the Father of all in such great poverty, as if He did not have His instruments for pure proclamation of what is in the Pleroma. Who was He afraid of, that He could not reveal His will on His own and independently, freely and without mixing with the spirit, which had come to a state of humiliation and ignorance? Or was he afraid that too many would be saved when many would hear the undistorted truth? Or, on the other hand, was He powerless to prepare for Himself those who would herald the coming of the Savior? 2. If the Savior, after His coming to earth, sent His Apostles into the world to purely proclaim His coming and reveal the will of the Father, without in any way communicating with the teachings of the pagans or Jews, then much more He, when He was in the Pleroma, would have appointed His own preachers to announce His future coming into this world, having nothing to do with the prophecies originating from the Demiurge. And if, being inside the Pleroma, He used the prophets who were under the law and through them communicated His (revelation), much more, after coming to earth, He would have used those very teachers and through them would have proclaimed the Gospel to us. Then it should already be said that it was not Peter, not Paul and the other apostles who proclaimed the truth, but the scribes and Pharisees and others (teachers) through whom the Law was preached. If at His coming He sent His own Apostles in the spirit of truth, and not in the spirit of error, then He did the same in relation to the prophets, for the Word of God is always identical with Himself and if the Spirit from the Pleroma, according to their teaching, was the Spirit of light, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of perfection and the Spirit of knowledge, and the spirit from the Demiurge was the spirit of ignorance, imperfection and error and a product of darkness, then what How could there be perfection and deficiency, knowledge and ignorance, error and truth, light and darkness in one and the same thing? If this was not possible in the prophets, but they from God alone preached the Word of the Lord and announced the coming of His Son; Moreover, the Lord Himself never spoke either from height or from imperfection, and was not at the same time the Teacher of knowledge and ignorance; and would in no way glorify either the Creator of the world or the Father above Him, as He Himself says: “no one puts patches of new clothing on old clothing, and no one puts new wine into old wineskins” (Luke 5:36-37). So they must either completely abandon the prophets as something old, and not say that they, sent by the Demiurge, spoke something under that new influence that comes from the Pleroma, or they will be convicted by the Lord, who says that new wine is not put into old wineskins. 3. But how could the seed of their Mother learn the secrets in the Pleroma and speak about them? For the Mother, being outside the Pleroma, gave birth to this very seed; and what is outside the Pleroma, then, according to them, outside knowledge, is ignorance. How then could a seed conceived in ignorance proclaim knowledge? Or how did the Mother herself know the secrets of the Pleroma, formless and indefinite, thrown out like a premature baby, and then receiving a form and image and being kept by the Limit from entering the Pleroma and remaining until the very end (of everything) outside of it, that is, outside of knowledge? Also, when they say that the Lord’s suffering is the image of the prostrate Christ on high, which he made through the Limit and thereby communicated the appearance of their Mother, then they are convicted in the remaining details (of the Lord’s suffering), being no longer able to find for them the likeness of the image (with the prototype). For when was the Christ on high given vinegar and gall to drink? Or when his clothes were divided? Or when He was pierced and blood and water came out? Or when He shed drops of blood? (The same can be asked) about other events with the Lord predicted by the prophets. How did the Mother or her seed know about things that had not yet happened then, but were going to happen later? 4. Convicted by those (prophecies) which in the Scriptures refer to the coming of Christ, they say that besides these, some are spoken from the Pleroma. What kind of thing it is, they don’t agree on this, but they give contradictory answers. If anyone, wishing to test them, asks in private the most distinguished among them regarding any saying, he will find that one refers what is being asked to the First Father, i.e. the Depth, another to the beginning of everything, i.e. the Only Begotten, another to the Father of all, i.e. the Word, another to one of the Aeons of the Pleroma, another to Christ, and another to the Savior. And the most skilled among them, after a long silence, will answer that something has been said about the Limit; another will say that this signifies Wisdom, who is in the Pleroma, another, the Mother, who is outside the Pleroma, and another, God, who created the world. Such is the disagreement between them about one (place) and the difference of opinion about the same Scriptures; and when one particular place is mentioned, they frown, shake their heads and say that the saying is very sublime and not everyone can understand the greatness of the meaning contained in it, and therefore silence is the most important thing for the sages. For the mountainous Silence must have a corresponding image in the silence they maintain. So they all disagree with each other, disagreeing about the same thing and keeping their lofty concepts secret. And when they agree among themselves regarding the prophecies in the Scriptures, then they will be refuted by us. For having bad opinions, they, however, expose themselves by their disagreement about the same words. We, following the Teacher, the One true God, and having His words for ourselves as the rule of truth, all speak according to the same thing, knowing the one God, the Creator of this Universe, Who sent the prophets, brought the people out of the land of Egypt and in the last times revealed His Son to shame the unbelievers and seek the fruit of righteousness. The prophets were sent from the same Father from whom Christ was 1. Whom the Lord does not refute when He says that the prophets were not from another God, but from His Father, and not from any other essence, but from one and the same Father, and not another who created what exists in this world, but His Father, and thus teaches: “There was a certain householder who planted a vineyard, surrounded it with a fence, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, and having given it to the villagers, he went away. When the time for fruit approached, he sent his servants to the villagers to take its fruit. The villagers caught his ear, beat one, stoned another, and killed another. Again he sent more servants than before; and they did the same with them. Finally he sent his only son to them, saying: They will be ashamed of my son. But the villagers, seeing their son, said to each other: this is the heir, let's go kill him and take possession of his inheritance. And they seized him and took him out of the vineyard and killed him. So when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do with those villagers? And they said: He will put the evildoers to an evil death, and will give the vineyard to other villagers, who will give him the fruits in their own time. Again the Lord says: Haven’t you read that the stone that the builders rejected, the same one has become the head of the corner? He was made of the Lord and is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who bear the fruits thereof” (Matthew 21:33–44). With these words, He clearly pointed out to His disciples one and the same Householder, i.e., the One God the Father, Who created everything by Himself, but presented the farmers as not the same, some quarrelsome, proud, barren and murderers of the Lord, and others with all obedience giving the fruits in their own times: and the same Householder - sending first servants, then His Son. So, from That Father, from Whom the Son was sent to the villagers who killed him, from Him also the servants were sent. But the Son, coming from the Father as if with supreme dignity, said: “But I tell you.” The servants came from the Lord as if slavishly and therefore said: “Thus says the Lord.” 2. So, the Lord, whom those (prophets) preached to the unbelievers, Christ proclaimed to those who obeyed Him, and God, who called the former, that is, first through the rule of slavery, He also accepted the subsequent, that is, after through adoption. For God planted the vineyard of the human race, first through the creation of Adai and the election of the fathers, and handed it over to the vinedressers through the legislation of Moses and surrounded it with a fence, that is, he established their worship of God; built a tower, i.e., chose Jerusalem, and dug a winepress, i.e. prepared the abode of the Prophetic Spirit, and so sent prophets before the resettlement to Babylon, and after the resettlement even others more than before, demanding fruits who said: “Thus says the Lord: purify your ways and your morals” (Jer. 7:3); judge with righteous judgment and let each one show mercy and generosity to his brother; and do not do violence to the widow, the orphan, the stranger and the needy, and let each one not remember in your hearts the evil of his brother (Zech. 7:6-10); do not love a false oath (Zechariah 8:17); wash yourselves, be clean; remove evil thoughts from your hearts, learn to do good, seek righteousness, defend those who suffer violence, show justice to the orphan and justify the widow, and come, let us reason together, say the Lord” (Is. 1:16-19). And again: “Keep your tongue from evil and let your lips not speak deceit. Turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it” (Ps. 33:14-15). By preaching this, the prophets demanded the fruit of righteousness. Since they did not believe, in the last times God sent His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the evil tenants threw out of the vineyard when they killed Him. Therefore, the Lord God handed it over, no longer surrounded by a fence, but open to the whole world to other cultivators who bear fruit in their own time - and the tower of election rises beautifully everywhere. For the glorious Church is now everywhere; and everywhere the winepress is ground, for everywhere there are those who receive the Spirit. And because they despised the Son of God and cast Him out of the vineyard when they killed Him, God righteously despised them and handed over the cultivation of the vineyard to the pagans existing outside it. So the prophet Jeremiah says: “The Lord has rejected and rejected the generation that does this; For the children of Judah have done what is evil in My sight, says the Lord” (Jer. 7:29–30). And Jeremiah also says: “I have appointed guards over you; listen to the voices of the trumpet; but they said: We will not listen. Therefore, the Gentiles and those feeding their flocks heard” (Jer. 7:17-18). So it is one and the same God the Father, who planted the vineyard and brought out His people. who sent the prophets, who sent his Son, and who gave the vineyard to other cultivators, who bear fruit in their seasons. 3. And therefore the Lord spoke to His disciples, in order to make us good workers: “Take heed to yourselves and be constantly awake at all times, lest your hearts be weighed down with overeating and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and lest that day come upon you suddenly. For he will come as a snare on all who live on the face of the earth” (Luke 21:34–35). “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning, and you will be like men waiting for their master to return from marriage” (Luke 12:35–36). “For as it was in the days of Noah: they ate and drank, bought and sold, married and were given in marriage, and did not know until Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. And as it was in the days of Lot: they ate and drank, bought and sold, planted and built, until Lot came out of Sodom and fire rained down from heaven and destroyed everyone: so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:26-31). “Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day the Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42). (With these words) He proclaims the One and That Lord, Who in the time of Noah, for the disobedience of people, brought a flood, and in the time of Lot, for the multitude of sins of the Sodomites, brought down fire from heaven, and on the last day of judgment, on which, He says, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah will be more bearable than that city and house that does not accept the words of His Apostles. “And you, Capernaum,” He said, “will you really rise to heaven? You will be cast down to hell, for if the powers that were demonstrated in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that Sodom will be more bearable on the day of judgment than you.” 130 4. Since the Word of God is always the same and gives to those who believe in it a source of water (flowing) into eternal life, and immediately dries up the barren fig tree, then He righteously brought a flood in the time of Noah to destroy the corrupt race of people living then, who could no longer bear fruit to God when the sinful angels mixed with them, and in order to punish for their sins, but to preserve prototype, creation of Adam 131 ; and in the time of Lot he brought down fire and brimstone from heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah, “an example of the righteous judgment of God” (2 Thess. 1:5; Jude 1:7), so that everyone would know that “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matt. 3:10); and at the general judgment to deal more leniently with the Sodomites than with those who saw the powers revealed by Him and did not believe in Him and did not accept His teachings. For just as by His coming He bestowed greater grace on those who believe in Him and do His will, so He appointed greater punishment on the unbelievers, because He is just and will exact more from those to whom He gave more - more, not because He revealed the knowledge of another Father, as I have so often and in detail shown, but because by His coming He poured out on the human race a greater gift of the Father's grace. 5. However, if the above, I do not sufficiently convince anyone that the prophets were sent from One and That. Let the Father, from whom our Lord was sent, open the ears of his heart and, calling on our Teacher Jesus Christ, listen to what He says: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who held a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those invited to the wedding feast.” And when they did not want to obey, “he again sent other servants, saying: Tell those who were invited: Behold, I have prepared my dinner, my bullocks and all the fattened things have been killed, and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast. But they, neglecting him, went some to their field, and some to their trade; the rest, seizing the slaves, insulted some, and killed others. Hearing about this, the king was angry and sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city, and said to his servants: the wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. So, go to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast. And those servants, going out onto the roads, gathered everyone they found, both evil and good, and the wedding feast was filled with those reclining. The king, going in to look at those reclining, saw a man there, not dressed in wedding clothes, and said to him: friend, how did you come here without having wedding clothes? He was silent. Then the King said to the servants: Having tied his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For some are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:1-15). With these words, the Lord clearly shows everything - and that there is One King and Lord of all, the Father, about whom He had previously said: “Do not swear by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King” (Matthew 5:35), and that from the beginning He prepared a wedding feast for His Son and, out of immeasurable goodness, called through His servants the first people to the feast, and when they did not want to obey, He called other slaves to call them, but even so They did not listen and stoned and killed those who proclaimed the call; and He sent His armies and destroyed them and burned their city; He called His Son to the wedding feast from all the crossroads, i.e. from all nations, as he says through Jeremiah: “And I sent to you My servants the prophets, saying: Remove each of you from the way of unrighteousness and do better in your works” (Jer. 35:15) and also says through the same prophet: “And I sent to you all My servants the prophets in the day and before the light, and they did not listen to Me and did not incline their ears. And will you say these words: this generation did not listen to the voice of the Lord and did not accept the teaching; faith disappeared from their lips” (Jer. 7:25–29). The Lord, Who called us from everywhere through the Apostles, He called the ancient people through the prophets, as can be seen from the words of the Lord; and not from one were the prophets, but from another were the apostles, although they preached to different nations, but from One and the Same, some proclaimed the Lord, others preached the Father, some foretold the coming of the Son of God, and others preached Him who had already come to those who were far away. 6. Further, He also showed that after our calling we must be adorned with works of righteousness, so that the Spirit of God may rest on us, and this is the wedding garment, about which the Apostle says: “we do not want to be undressed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up in immortality” (2 Cor. 5:4). Those who were called to the supper of God and for their bad behavior did not receive the Holy Spirit, “will,” He said, “be thrown into outer darkness,” clearly showed that the same King, who called the faithful from everywhere to the wedding feast of His Son and gave them the immortal meal, will command that one who does not have a wedding garment, that is, a despiser, be sent into outer darkness. For just as in the first Testament “God was not pleased with many of them,” so here “many are called, but few are chosen” (1 Cor. 10:5; Matt. 22:14). So, it is not another God who judges, and it is not another Father who calls to salvation: it is not another who gives eternal light, but another who commands those who do not have the wedding garment to be cast into outer darkness. But one and the same God, the Father of our Lord, from whom the prophets were sent, in His immeasurable goodness calls even the unworthy, but looks to those called to see if they have clothing suitable for the wedding feast of His Son, for nothing indecent or evil pleases Him. So the Lord said to the healed man: “Behold, you are healed: do not sin, lest something worse happen to you” (John 5:14). For He who is good, just, pure and undefiled will not tolerate anything evil, unrighteous or unclean in His bridal chamber. Such is the Father of our Lord, by whose conduct everything exists and by whose command everything is governed: He gives freely to whomever it is due, and according to their deserts, righteously rewards the ungrateful and those who do not feel His goodness, as the Most Righteous Giver; and therefore it is said: “having sent His troops, He destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” He called them His armies because they are all God’s people: “for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness of it, the world and all who dwell in it” (Ps. 23:1). And therefore, the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Romans says: “There is no authority except from God, but the existing authorities were established by God. Therefore, those who resist the authorities resist God's institution; and those who resist will bring condemnation upon themselves. For those in authority are not a terror to good deeds, but to evil deeds. Do you want to not be afraid of power? Do good and you will receive praise. For (the ruler) is God's servant for your good. If you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is God's servant, an avenger to punish those who do evil. And therefore, be submissive not only out of (fear of) punishment, but also out of conscience. For this reason you pay taxes; for they are God’s servants, constantly occupied with this” (Rom. 13:17). So, both the Lord and the Apostles proclaim one God the Father - the One who gave the Law, sent the prophets and created everything; therefore he says: “having sent His troops,” for every man, as a man, is His creation, although he does not know his God. He gives existence to everyone, He who “commands His sun to shine on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). 7. And not only with the above words, but also with the parable of two sons, the younger of whom squandered his wealth by living with harlots, He taught about the One and the same Father, Who did not give even a kid to the eldest son, but for His lost youngest son He commanded to slaughter a fatted calf and gave him the first robe. And through the parable of the workers who were sent into the vineyard at different times, one and the same Lord is shown, calling some at the very beginning of the creation of the world, others after that, others in the middle of times, others after a long time, and others at the end, so that there are many workers at each time, but one Householder who calls them. For there is one vineyard, since there is one righteousness, and one Ruler, since there is one Spirit of God, who orders all things; and also one reward, for everyone received each a denarius, which has the image and inscription of the King - the knowledge of the Son of God, which is immortality. And therefore he began to give rewards from the last, because the Lord in the last times revealed and presented Himself to everyone. 8. And the publican, who surpassed the Pharisee in prayer, not because he prayed to another Father, received testimony from the Lord that he was more justified, but because with great humility, without exaltation and vanity, he made confession to the same God. And the parable of two sons sent into the vineyard, one of whom contradicted his father, and then repented when repentance was useless to him, and the other promised to go, and immediately after the promise did not go - because “every man is a liar” (Ps. 116:2), and there is a desire, but not finding (the strength) to do it - also shows the One and the Same Father. And the parable of the fig tree, about which the Lord says: “Behold, I have come for the third year to look for fruit on this fig tree, and find none” (Luke 13:7), showing His coming through the prophets, through whom He repeatedly came to seek from them the fruit of righteousness, but did not find it, clearly showed that the fig tree will be cut for the above reason. And without a parable, the Lord spoke to Jerusalem: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you! how many times have I wanted to gather your children like a bird gathers its chicks under its wings, but you did not want to! Behold, your house is left to you empty” (Luke 13 et seq.; Matt. 13 et seq.). The words of the parable: “Behold, I have come for the third year to seek fruit” and the direct words: “How often have I wanted to gather your children together” will be a lie if we do not here understand His coming through the prophets, for He (actually) once and only then came to them. And that He who chose the patriarchs is the same Word of God, which always visited them (the Jews) through the prophetic Spirit and us, who were called from everywhere, through His coming, about this, in addition to the above, He truly said: “many will come from the east and west and will lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. And the sons of the Kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:11-12) So, if those from the east and west believe in Him through the preaching of the Apostles, recline with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, participating with them in the evening, then it turns out that it is one and the same God who chose the patriarchs, visited the people and called the pagans. Man is free, and there are no good or evil people by nature 1. Words: “How often did I want to gather your children, and you did not want to!” show the original law of human freedom; because God from the beginning created him free, having his own power, as well as his soul, to voluntarily do the will of God, and not under compulsion from God. For God has no violence, but a good will is always inherent in Him. And therefore He gives good advice to everyone, but He placed in man freedom of choice, just as in the angels, for angels are reasonable, so that those who obey in justice have a good that, although given by God, is observed by themselves. And those who disobey in justice will not be found to have the good and will receive the deserved punishment, because God in His goodness bestowed the good, but they themselves did not carefully observe it and did not consider it precious, but despised His greatest grace. Therefore, by rejecting and, as it were, pushing away the good, they will all rightly undergo the righteous judgment of God, as the Apostle Paul testifies in his letter to the Romans, saying: “Or do you despise the riches of the goodness, patience and generosity of God, not realizing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But due to your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and the revelation of God’s righteous judgment. Glory and honor to everyone who does good” (Rom. 2:4–5,10). So, God has granted good, as the Apostle testifies in the same epistle, and those who do good will receive glory and honor, because they did good, although they might not have done it; and those who do not do it will be subject to the righteous judgment of God, because they did not do good when they could have done it. 2. And if some were by nature good, and others evil, then neither the good would deserve praise, for they were created that way, nor would they be worthy of blame, for they were created that way. But since everyone of the same nature can observe and do good, and on the other hand can omit and not do it, then it is fair for people who enjoy the benefits of laws, especially with God, that some are praised and receive worthy approval for choosing the good and remaining in it, while others are blamed and subject to worthy condemnation for rejecting the good and good. And therefore the prophets exhorted people to act justly and do good, as I have shown at length, because this is in our power, but due to extreme negligence we have forgotten this and need good advice, which the good God gave us through the prophets. 3. Therefore, the Lord said: “Let your light shine before people, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). And: “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with overeating and drunkenness and the cares of this life” (Luke 21:34). And: “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning; and be like people who wait for their master to return from marriage, so that when he comes and knocks, they open the door for him. Blessed is that servant whom the master, when he comes, finds doing so” (Luke 12:35–36). And again: “A servant who knows the will of his Master and does not do it will receive many stripes” (Luke 12:47). And: “Why do you call Me: Lord, Lord! and do you not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46). And again: “if that servant says in his heart, ‘The master will tarry,’ and begins to beat the servants, and eat, drink, and get drunk, then his master will come on a day when he does not expect it, and will cut him in pieces and subject him to the same fate as the hypocrites” (Luke 12:45–46; Matt. 24:48–51). All this shows that man has freedom, and that God inspires counsel, exhorting us to submission and discouraging us from disobeying Him, but not forcing us. 4. And if anyone does not want to follow the Gospel itself, it is in his power, but it is not beneficial to him. For it is in the power of a person not to obey God and not to do good, but this causes him no small harm and evil. And therefore Paul says: “all things are possible, but not all things are profitable” (1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23), showing the freedom of man, why “all things are possible,” since God does not force him, and setting out the consequence so that we do not abuse freedom to cover up evil, for “this is not profitable.” And he also says: “Tell each one the truth to his neighbor.” And: “Let no rotten word come out of your mouth; foul language, idle talk and ridicule are not proper, but on the contrary, thanksgiving” (Eph. 4:25,29; 5:4). And: “you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; As children of the light, walk honestly, not indulging in feasting and drunkenness, nor in sensuality and debauchery, nor in anger and envy (Rom. 13:13). And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified in the name of our Lord” (1 Cor. 6:11). If it were not in our power to do this or not to do it, then what reason had the Apostle, and even before the Lord Himself, to give an admonition to do something, and to abstain from something else? But since man initially has free will, just as God, in whose likeness he was created, has free will, he is always given advice to observe what is good, which is fulfilled through obedience to God. 5. And not only in deeds, but also in faith, the Lord preserved the freedom and autocracy of man, saying: “According to your faith, be it done to you” (Matthew 9:29), and showing that faith belongs to man, since he has his own will. And again: “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23) and: “go; as you have believed, so be it done to you” (Matthew 8:13). And all such (sayings) show a person’s own power regarding faith. Therefore, “he who believes in Him has eternal life; but he who does not believe in the Son does not have eternal life, but the wrath of God will remain on him” (John 3:36). Therefore, the Lord, showing His own goodness and at the same time the freedom and autocracy of man, said to Jerusalem: “How many times have I wanted to gather your children, like a bird gathering its chicks under its wings, and you did not want to! Therefore your house will be left empty.” 6. Those who argue the opposite of this, themselves represent the Lord as powerless, as if He could not do what He wanted, or, on the other hand, ignorant of those who are by nature “material,” as they say, and cannot accept His incorruptibility. But according to them, He should not have created either angels so that they could sin, or people so that they would immediately turn out to be ungrateful to Him, for they were created rational, endowed with the ability to test and judge, and not as unreasonable or inanimate beings who cannot do anything of their own free will, but are necessarily and involuntarily drawn to good, and have one feeling and one disposition, inflexible and alien reasoning, which cannot be anything other than what they were created. And in this case, neither good would be pleasant for them, nor communication with God would be precious, nor would goodness be highly desired, which would be achieved without one’s own aspiration, effort and labor, but would be implanted by itself and without any feat; Thus, the good would not have any dignity, because they would be such more by nature than by their will, and would have the good by themselves, and not by choice, and therefore would not understand that the good is beautiful, and would not enjoy it. For how can those who do not know it enjoy good? And what glory is there to those who did not strive for it? What crown is there for those who have not received it as winners in a competition? 7. And therefore the Lord said that “The kingdom of heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it away” (Matthew 11:12), that is, those who are constantly awake with effort and deed, take it away. That is why the Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the reward? So run to get it. Every ascetic is abstinent in everything - those to receive a perishable crown, but we an incorruptible one. And that’s why I don’t run at the wrong direction, I don’t fight as if I were beating the air; But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, so that, while preaching to others, I myself may not remain unworthy” (1 Cor. 9:24-27). So, the good ascetic exhorts us to achieve immortality through feat, so that we may be crowned and consider the crown precious—precisely the one that is acquired by us through deed, and does not come by itself. And the greater the feat we get, the more precious he is, and the more precious the more we will always love him. What comes to us by itself is not as valued as what is received with great care. Since it depends on us to love God more, then to achieve this by feat is what the Lord taught and the Apostle taught. Otherwise, our goodness would be unreasonable if it were not the fruit of exercise. And the ability to see would not be so desirable for us if we did not know what a great evil it is not to see; and health becomes more precious through the experience of illness, and light through comparison with darkness, and life through comparison with death. Likewise, the Kingdom of Heaven is more precious to those who know earthly things. And the more precious it is to us, the more we love it, and if we love it more, we will be more glorious before God. Therefore, the Lord allowed all this for us, so that we, taught in everything, would be prudent in everything about the future and would remain in all love for God, rationally taught to love Him; for God showed His generosity in the fall of man, and man was taught through this, just as the prophet says: “Your apostasy will correct you” (Jer. 2:19); and God predetermined everything for the perfection of man, for his edification and the revelation of His orders to him, so that goodness would appear, and truth would be accomplished, and the Church would be built in the image of His Son, and, finally, man would once mature, through this becoming capable of seeing and embracing God. Why was man not created perfect in the beginning? 1. If someone says: couldn’t God have presented man as perfect in the beginning? then let him know that God is always the same, without beginning, and regarding Himself, everything is possible for Him. The created beings, since they subsequently received their beginning, must therefore be less than the One who created them; for it could not have been uncreated that which just happened recently. And since they are not uncreated, they do not have perfection. As recent beings, they are therefore in an infantile state, and therefore untrained and untrained in relation to the perfect way of life. Just as a mother can provide perfect food to a baby, but he cannot yet accept food from an older age, so God could at first give perfection to man, but man could not accept it, for he was still a baby. Therefore, our Lord in recent times, restoring everything in Himself, came to us not as He could, but as we could see Him. For He could come to us in His ineffable glory, but we could not bear the greatness of His glory. And therefore He, the perfect bread of the Father, presented Himself to us infants as milk - such was His human coming - so that, as if sucked from the breasts of His flesh and through such milking accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, we could contain within ourselves the bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the Father. 2. And therefore Paul says to the Corinthians: “I fed you with milk, and not with (solid) food, for you were not yet able to take such food,” that is, you recognized the coming of the Lord as a man, but the Spirit of the Father does not yet rest on you because of your weakness, for, he says, if there is envy, disputes and disagreements among you, are you not carnal? and do you not act according to human (custom)? ( 1 Cor. 3:2-3 ). This means that the Spirit of the Father was not yet with them due to their imperfection and weakness in life. So, just as the Apostle could give food, for on whom the Apostles laid their hands, they received the Holy Spirit, Who is the food of life, but they were not able to accept Him, because their spiritual feelings were still weak and unaccustomed to dealing with God, so God could first give perfection to man, but he, who had just received being, was not able to accept Him, or, having accepted, to contain Him, or, having contained, to hold Him. And therefore, the perfect Son of God became man’s infancy, and not by Himself, but for the sake of man’s infancy, he became as accessible as man could accept Him. So, the inability and poverty is not in God, but in man, just created, because he was not an uncreated being. 3. God has at once power, wisdom and goodness: power and goodness are in this. that He voluntarily created and arranged what did not yet exist, and wisdom is that He created it in harmonious order and harmony. Some (creatures), which, by His immeasurable goodness, receive an increase and remain for a long period of time, reflect the glory of the Uncreated, for God gives good without envy. Since they are created, they are not uncreated (beings); insofar as they continue to exist for long centuries, they perceive the power of the Uncreated, for God freely gives them eternal existence. Thus, God is supreme in everything, the only uncreated one, who first exists and is the author of the existence of everything; everything else is subject to God. Submission to God is indestructible existence, and indestructibility is the glory of the Uncreated. In such an order, according to such orders and guidance, the created and created becomes in the image and likeness of the uncreated God, because the Father wants and commands, the Son acts and fulfills, and the Spirit nourishes and grows, while man gradually succeeds and ascends to perfection, that is, approaches the Uncreated, for the uncreated is perfect, and such is God. Man had to first come into being and having come to grow, having grown to mature, having matured to multiply, having increased to become stronger in strength, having become strengthened to become glorified and having become glorified to see his Master. For God has to be visible; the vision of God produces incorruption. and incorruption brings us closer to God. 4. Therefore, those who do not wait for the time of growth and attribute the weakness of their nature to God are completely unreasonable. Not knowing either God or themselves, insatiable and ungrateful, they, firstly, do not want to be what they were created, people subject to suffering, but, breaking the law of the human race and before they became people, they want to be like God the Creator, and do not believe any difference between the uncreated God and the now created man. They are more unreasonable than dumb animals; the latter do not blame God for the fact that He did not create them as people, but each of them, as it was created, gives thanks for what was created. And we blame Him for the fact that we were not created at first as gods, but first as men, and then as gods, although God, out of His pure goodness, did this so that no one would consider Him envious or stingy. “I said,” He says, “you are all gods and sons of the Most High,” but since we could not bear the power of the Divine, He adds: “Yet you will die like men” (Ps. 81:6-7), showing both the favor of His gift and our weakness, and also that we are free beings. For in His goodness He graciously gave us good and created us like Him - free people; by His providence He knew the weakness of people and the consequences that would arise from it, and by His love and power He would conquer the essence of created nature. It was necessary that first nature should appear, and then the mortal should be overcome and swallowed up by immortality, and the corruptible by incorruptibility, and man should become in the image and likeness of God, receiving the knowledge of good and evil. Man is given the ability to distinguish between good and evil for the free fulfillment of God's commandments 1. Man received the knowledge of good and evil. Good is to obey God, believe in Him and keep His commandments, and this is what human life consists of; and disobeying God is evil, and this is his death. By the generosity of God, man came to know both the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience, so that the eye of the mind, knowing both from experience, wisely chose the best, and he never became lazy or careless towards the commandments of God; but knowing from experience that what takes his life, that is, disobedience to God, is evil, he never attempted this, and knowing that obedience to God that preserves his life is good, he observed it with all care. Therefore, he had a double experience, which included knowledge of both, in order to choose the best with understanding. How could he understand good without knowing what is opposite to it? Direct testing of things that are subject to us is much firmer and more certain than presumptive opinion. For just as the tongue through taste receives knowledge of sweet and bitter, and the eye through vision distinguishes black from white, and the ear through hearing knows the difference between sounds, so the mind, through the testing of both, receives the knowledge of good, becomes firmer in preserving it, obeying God, while disobedience is first rejected through repentance as something bitter and evil, and then with reason it comprehends what is opposite to good and evil. sweets so that you will never again try to taste disobedience to God. If anyone avoids the knowledge of both and the dual understanding, then he quietly kills the person within himself. 2. How can one be God who has not yet become man? How will something just produced be perfect? How immortal, who in his mortal nature did not obey the Creator? For you must first observe the rank of man, and then participate in the glory of God. You do not create God, but God creates you. Therefore, if you are a creation of God, then wait for the hand of your Artist, who does everything at the proper time, at the proper time specifically in relation to you, the subject of His creation. The prototype that Art gave you has moisture in it, so that, having become hardened, you would not lose the traces of His fingers. By following your composition, you will achieve perfection. for the art of God will hide the clay in you. His hand formed your being; she will overlay you inside and out with pure gold and silver and adorn herself in such a way that “the King Himself will desire your beauty” (Ps. 44:12). If you, immediately becoming rude, reject His art and turn out to be ungrateful to Him for the fact that you were created by man, then through your ingratitude you are immediately deprived of both His art and your life. For to create is characteristic of the goodness of God, and to be a creature is a characteristic of human nature. Therefore, if you give Him yours, that is, faith in Him and obedience, then you will accept His art and will be a perfect work of God. 3. If you do not believe in Him and run away from His hand, then the cause of imperfection will be in you who disobeyed, and not in Him who called you. For He sent (the servants) to invite them to the wedding feast, but those who did not obey deprived themselves of the royal meal. So, it is not the art of God that is insufficient - for He can raise up the children of Abraham from stones - but the one who does not submit to Him is himself the cause of his own imperfection. It is not the light that becomes impoverished for those who have blinded themselves, but while it remains as it is, they themselves, blinded through their own fault, are in darkness: because the light does not enslave anyone by force, and God does not force anyone if someone does not want to take upon himself His art. Therefore, those who have cooled from the Father’s light and have transgressed the law of freedom through their own fault have retreated, since they were created free and autocratic. 4. God, who knows everything in advance, has prepared decent dwellings for both of them: to those who seek the light of incorruptibility and resort to it, He mercifully grants the light they desire, but to others, who despise it, turn away and avoid it and, as it were, blinding themselves, He prepared darkness worthy of the opponents of the light and gave appropriate punishment to those who did not want to submit to Him. Submission to God is eternal rest, so that those who flee the light have a place worthy of their flight, and those who flee eternal rest have a dwelling appropriate to their flight. And since all blessings are with God, then, of their own free will, those who run away from God deprive themselves of all blessings, and having deprived themselves of all blessings from God, they will naturally fall under the righteous judgment of God. Those who flee peace will rightly live in torment, and those who flee light will rightly remain in darkness. How those who flee this temporary light betray themselves to darkness, so that they themselves are the reason that they are deprived of light and live in darkness, and not light is the reason for their life, as I said before; Likewise, those who flee the eternal light of God, which contains all blessings, are themselves the reason that they will live in darkness, deprived of all blessings, because they themselves have become the reason for their existence. The same God punishes the rejected and rewards the elect 1. One and the same Father, who prepared a Code of good for those who desire His communion and remain in obedience to Him, and prepared eternal fire for the prince of apostasy, the Devil, and with him the fallen angels, into which, according to Goslod, those separated to the left will be sent (Matt. 25:41). And this is said by the prophet: “I am a jealous God, I give peace and send disasters” (Is. 45:7), giving peace and friendship to those who repent and turn to Him and entering into unity with them, and for those who do not repent and flee His light, preparing eternal fire and outer darkness - disasters for those exposed to them. 2. And if one were the Father who gives peace, and the other was God who prepared the fire, then they would have Sons, different from each other, one sending into the Kingdom of the Father, and the other into eternal fire. But since One and the Same Lord ordered the whole human race to be divided at the judgment, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and will say to some: “Come, you blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you,” and to others: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, which My Father has prepared for the Devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:32,34,41), then the One and the Same is very clearly shown The Father, “the giver of peace and the sender of disasters,” prepares what is worthy for both, just as One Judge sends both to the appropriate place. The Lord clearly showed this in the parable of the tares and wheat, saying: “Just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send His angels and gather from His kingdom all the temptations and the workers of iniquity, and throw them into the fiery furnace: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:40–43). So the Father, who prepared the Kingdom for the righteous, into which the Son accepted those worthy of Him, He also prepared a fiery furnace, into which the angels sent by the Son of Man will cast those worthy of it at the command of God. 3. The Lord sowed good seed in His field: “The field,” he says, “is peace. While the people were sleeping, the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went away” (Matthew 13:38). From that time on, His angel became an apostate and enemy when he envied God’s creation and tried to make it hostile to God. Therefore, God excommunicated from His fellowship the one who secretly sowed the tares on his own, that is, introduced crime, and the one who, although through inattention, but was badly involved in disobedience, took pity on the man, and the enmity into which (the Devil) wanted to plunge man in relation to God, he turned on the very author of the enmity, removing His enmity from man and directing and sending it to snake. So, according to Scripture, God said to the serpent: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and the seed of the woman. He will trample on your head, and you will keep his heel” (Gen. 3:15). And the Lord concentrated this enmity in Himself, becoming a man from a woman and trampling on his head (the snake), as I showed in the previous book. Those who do not believe in God and disobey Him are angels and sons of the devil, however, not by nature, but by imitation 1. Since the Lord called some the angels of the Devil, for whom He prepared eternal fire, and in the parable of the tares says: “The tares are the sons of the evil one,” it should be said that He counted all the apostates among those who are the culprit of this crime. But he did not create angels or people by nature. For the Devil has created absolutely nothing; on the contrary, he himself is a creation of God, like the other angels. For God created everything, just as David says about everything: “He spoke and it was done, He commanded and it was created” (Ps. 33:9; 149:5). 2. Since everything was created by God and the Devil himself was the cause of the apostasy of himself and others, then the Scripture rightly calls all those who are in apostasy the sons of the devil and the angels of the evil one. For the son, as someone before us said, of course in a double sense: one by nature, because he was born a son, and the other by what was made, is considered a son, although there is a difference between what is born and what is made (son). He was born from someone, and another became a son from him, either regarding the creation or teaching of the doctrine. For whoever is taught by someone is called the son of a teacher, and this one is called his father. So, regarding the created nature, we are all children of God, so to speak, because we are all created by God. And in relation to obedience and teaching, not all are sons of God, but only those who believe and do His will. Those who do not believe and do not do His will are the sons and angels of the Devil, because they do the works of the Devil. That this is so, He said in Isaiah: “I have begotten and raised up sons, but they have despised Me” (Is. 1:2). And he also calls them the sons of strangers: “The sons of strangers have lied to Me” (Ps. 17:46). For by nature they are sons, because they were created by Him, but by works they are not His sons. 3. As among people, sons who disobey their fathers, being deprived of an inheritance, although by nature they are their sons, are alienated by law, for they are not heirs of their natural parents; in the same way, with God, those who disobey Him are rejected by Him and cease to be His sons. Therefore, they cannot receive His inheritance, as David says: “Sinners are alienated from the womb; their wrath is like a serpent” (Ps. 57:4-5). And therefore, the Lord called those whom He knew over a generation of people “a generation of vipers” (Matthew 23:33), because they, like these animals, were deceitful and hurt others. “Beware,” He said, “of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6). And about Herod He says: “Tell this fox” (Luke 13:32), meaning his cunning and deceit. That is why David says: “a man set in honor is like cattle” (Ps. 48:21). And Jeremiah also says: they became horses, raging about the women, each of them neighing at his neighbor’s wife” (Jer. 5:8). Isaiah, preaching in Judea and arguing with Israel, called them “the princes of Sodom” and “the people of Gomorrah” (Is. 1:10), meaning a crime similar to that of the Sodomites and their sins identical to them and, by the similarity of their actions, calling them by the same name. And since they were not made this way by nature by God, but could act righteously, he spoke to them, giving good advice: “Wash yourselves, be clean, remove unrighteousness from your souls in my sight, leave behind your iniquities” (Is. 1:16). Precisely, since they transgressed and sinned like the Sodomites, they received the same reproof. For if they had turned, repented and abandoned evil, they could have been the sons of God and received the inheritance of incorruption given by Him. For this reason, He called the angels of the Devil and the sons of the evil one those who believe the Devil and do his works. All of them were originally created by the same God. And when they believe and obey God and constantly observe His teaching, then they are the sons of God; when they retreat and become criminals, they will be assigned to the leadership of the Devil, who became the cause of his retreat first, and then of others. 4. Since the sayings of the Lord are numerous and they all proclaim one and the same Father, the Creator of this world, it was necessary for me to refute those who were in many errors through many proofs, if only after many refutations they could turn to the truth and be saved. And it is necessary to add to this work in the next (book) after the sayings of the Lord the teaching of Paul, to examine his view, to explain the Apostle, to interpret everything that is explained differently by heretics who do not understand Paul’s Words at all, and to show the recklessness of their opinions; on the basis of the same Paul, from whose (writings) they offer us questions, to prove that they are lying, and the Apostle is a preacher of the truth and taught everything according to the preaching of the truth, namely, that there is One God the Father, who spoke with Abraham, who gave the Law, who sent the prophets first, and in the last times who sent His Son and bestowed salvation on His creation, which is a carnal being. So, other sayings of the Lord, in which He did not teach in parables, but in direct words about the Father, and an exposition of the epistles of St. Paul, I will present in another book, and thus, with the help of God, I will deliver to you the complete work “exposing and refuting false knowledge,” giving in these five books both myself and you an aid to confront all heretics. Protinus ex sese suggestu vulnera complet Dicitur et vivens alio jam corpore, sexus Munificos solito dispungere sanguine menses. These words of Irenaeus: “people cannot be saved...” are quoted by Augustine in his essay on original sin against Pelagius (I, 2). Photius (Bibl.125) mentions Justin's work against Marcion. Eusebius also cites the same passage in the Church. Stories. (IV, 17). Masset excludes the word "et Unus", which is omitted in some copies of Irenaeus's work. Stiern believes that the word “Fillius” should also be excluded. According to Grabe, the words given above (V, 5) are from Genesis 14:22. Feduardent sees here an allusion to the appearance of three angels to Abraham, one of whom was the Son of God, as explained by Justin in his “Conversation with Tryphon,” Tertullian (de carne Christi), Eusebius (C. Isa. I, 1), Athanasius (in the 3rd speech of Archpriest Ar.) and others. These words are brought to mind from Phil. 3 and 1 Cor. 4:4; 13:9–10. Harvey explains this reading instead of “living words” from the Syriac reading of the text. As Grabe notes, the Code of Acts of the Oxford College agrees with Irenaeus’s reading. Here Irenaeus, as Massuet notes, alludes to the story recounted in chapters 12–16. apocryphal book about Enoch: this righteous man was allegedly sent to the angels who had carnal relations with the daughters of men (VI, 2), to announce that they would not receive forgiveness of their sins. See Dilman on the Book of Enoch. Ps.39:7. The Latin translation reads: “aures autum perficisti mihi”; a reading that does not agree with either the Hebrew text or the translation 70 according to which this place is given in Hebrews 10:9. Harvey guesses that the text of the Latin translation said "perforasti", which is the same as the current Hebrew text. This saying is not in Holy Scripture; but part of it (the second) is given by Clement of Alexandria (Paed. III, 12). Massuet believes that Irenaeus and Clement after him borrowed it from Sir.39:14. Harvey guesses that it is taken from the apocryphal Gospel of the Egyptians. Harvey here sees an allusion to the name of Jesus (Jehovah, Joshua. Jehovah salvation). In John of Damascus, who cites this passage of Irenaeus in his “Parallels,” it reads: “proclaiming communion and unity and confessing the resurrection of the flesh,” but Grabe and Harvey consider this addition inappropriate. These words are taken from the book of Hermas “The Shepherd”. Proverbs 8:27–31. The quote is not entirely accurate. This text is given above at 6; according to Harvey, the present reading, consistent with the Syrian text of the Gospel, belongs to Irenaeus himself, and the previous one belongs to the translator or copyist who corrected it according to the Vulgate. By mistake “memory” instead of “two”. Matthew 21:31. Clement of Rome speaks about the harlot Rahab and the meaning of red in his authentic letter to the Corinthians (chapter 12) and in more detail by Justin in his “Conversation with Tryphon” (chapter 111). Rom.9:13; Mal.1:2. For the same information, see the Epistle of Barnabas (chapter 13), as well as Justin in his “Conversation with Tryphon.” See similar things in Justin’s “Conversation with Tryphon” (chapter 134). This is how Harvey understands the Latin translation of id quod erat inoperatun conbitionis. This place in lat. the text is incorrect. It is assumed that here by presbyter we mean Polycarp or someone else. That is, the pagans until the coming of Christ. These words come from the aforementioned presbyter and show that he was of pagan, not Jewish origin. Matthew 13:11–16 and Luke 8:10, 10:23; Isa.6:10. Irenaeus quotes the words of Isaiah not from the Gospel text, but from the prophetic. That is, he accuses the Israelis of allegedly robbing the Egyptians, which serves as a prototype of the Christian Church in relation to the pagans. See Klim. Roman 1 Cor.VI. Josephus (Antiq. I, 12) testifies that he himself saw this pillar. Harvey here means Εμμηνορροιας. This is explained by the following verses of the poem about Sodom (carm. de Sodoma), placed in the works of Tertullian and Cyprian: Quin etiam si quis mutilaverit advena formam Matthew 11:23–24. The first words of the given place in one of the Greek. fathers are not found in this form. Grabe believes that the ancient Latin translator or his copyists changed the words of Irenaeus, following the Latin translation of the Gospel. The Latin text is arcae typum. Massuet instead suggests reading archetypum, which is more consistent with the meaning of this place. According to some Fathers, from the mixing of angels or Sons of God with the daughters of men, a generation of unreal people who deviated from the prototype naturally arose. You might be interested in: