Книга пятая

In the previous four books that I delivered to you, dear friend, I brought all the heretics and set forth their teaching with a refutation of the inventors of wicked opinions, which I made part of through each of them’s own teaching, left in their writings, and partly on the basis of general considerations; presented the truth and showed the preaching of the Church, which, as I showed, was foreshadowed by the prophets, but Christ completed it, and was taught by the Apostles, from whom the Church, having received and only one well preserved it in the whole world, passed it on to all her children; solved all the objections offered to us by heretics, revealed the teaching of the Apostles and explained much of what was said and done by the Lord in parables. In this fifth book of the entire work, containing “the denunciation and refutation of false knowledge,” I will try to present evidence from other sayings of our Lord and from the apostolic epistles, in accordance with your demand: for I obey my command, because I was appointed for the ministry of words, and in every possible way, to the best of my ability, I try to provide you with the greatest possible benefit against the wrangling of heretics, and to distract and convert those who are in error to the Church of God, and at the same time, to strengthen the minds of converts, so that they firmly observe the faith that they received intact from the Church and are in no way seduced by those who try to introduce evil teachings and deviate from the truth. You and everyone who has to read this work should read more carefully what I said before, in order to know the very teachings against which I am writing a refutation. For in this way you will object to them correctly and will readily accept the evidence against them, by means of heavenly Faith rejecting their teachings like droppings and following only one true and firm Teacher, the Word of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, who by His immeasurable goodness became what we are, in order to make us what He is. Christ alone could teach us the divine and redeem us; and for this He did not imaginary, but actually took flesh from the Virgin Mary; remarks against Valentin and Evion 1. We could in no other way have known what pertains to God if our Teacher, the Word, had not become man. For no one else could tell us about the Father except His own Word. For “who else has known the mind of the Lord? or who was His counselor (Rom. 11:34)? And again, we could not have learned in any other way if we had not seen our Teacher and heard His voice with our own ears, so that, having become imitators of His work and doers of His words, we could have fellowship with Him. Recently created by the one All-Good and Good One, we receive perfection from the Perfect and Existing One before any creation, and from Him who has the gift of incorruptibility, created to be like Him - for we who have not yet existed, according to the foreknowledge of the Father, were predestined for being - created as the firstfruits of creation, we in foreknown times, in accordance with the ministry of the Word perfect in all things, received what the mighty Word and the true man, rationally redeeming us with His blood, He gave Himself as an atonement for those who were subjected to captivity. And since apostasy unjustly prevailed over us, and we, who by nature constituted the property of almighty God, were unnaturally alienated (from Him) and made us His own disciples, then the Word of God, omnipotent, but not meager in His justice, righteously turned against apostasy itself and redeemed its property from it, not by force, as that (apostasy) prevailed over us, insatiably stealing someone else's, but with conviction, as befits God, persuading, and not forcing, to receive what He pleases - so that neither the truth is violated, nor the ancient creation of God perishes. So, when the Lord redeemed us with His blood and gave His soul for our souls to His flesh for our flesh and poured out the Spirit of the Father for the reunion and communion of God with man, putting God to men through the Spirit, and on the other hand drawing man to God through His incarnation and undoubtedly and truly by His coming granting us incorruptibility through communion with God, then all the teachings of the heretics will be unraveled. 2. Those who say that He appeared in ghosts are foolish. For this was not imaginary, but in the essence of truth. If He, not being a man, seemed to be a man, then He did not remain that He was in truth the Spirit of God, because the Spirit is invisible, and there was no truth in Him, because He was not what He seemed. I have already said that Abraham and the other prophets prophetically contemplated Him and through a vision predicted what would happen. If even now He appeared like this, not really being what He seemed to be, then some kind of prophetic vision happened to people, and we should expect another coming of Him, when He will be such as He is now prophetically contemplated. And I have already shown that this is what it means to say that He appeared ghostly and received nothing from Mary. For He would not, in fact, have had flesh and blood, through which He redeemed us, if He had not reunited in Himself the ancient creation of Adam. So, the followers of Valentinus are foolish, who affirm this in order to exclude the salvation of the flesh and reject the creation of God. 3. The Ebionites are also foolish, who do not accept into their souls by faith the union of God and man, but remain in the old leaven of (carnal) birth, and do not want to understand that the Holy Spirit descended on Mary and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, why that which was born is holy and the Son of the Most High God, the Father of all, who brought about His incarnation and showed a new birth, so that just as through the previous birth we would inherit death, so through this birth inherited life. So, they reject the union of heavenly wine and allow only worldly water, not accepting God into union with themselves, but remaining in Adam, defeated and expelled from paradise; because it's not. they understand that at the beginning of our creation in Adam, the breath of life from God, uniting with the creation, animated man and showed him to be a rational being; so in the end the Word of the Father and the Spirit of God, uniting with the ancient being of Adam’s creation, made man alive and perfect, containing the perfect Father, so that just as in the spiritual (Adam) we all died, so in the spiritual we were all quickened. For Adam never escaped the hands of God 132 to which the Father said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). Therefore, in the end, His hands, neither from the will of the flesh, nor from the will of man, but according to the will of the Father, made man alive, so that Adam would become in the image and likeness of God. Christ, having visited us with His grace, did not come into someone else’s place and gave our flesh a share in salvation 1. Those who say that God, as if greedy for someone else’s property, came into someone else’s (property) in order to present man, created by another, to that God who did not create and did not create, but from the very beginning was deprived of his own creation of people, are also unreasonable. So, His coming is unjust, when, according to them, He came into someone else’s, and He did not truly redeem us with His blood, if He did not truly become man. returning to His creation what was said about him at the beginning, i.e., that man was created in the image and likeness of God, not stealing someone else’s property by cunning, but receiving His own property justly and graciously - regarding apostasy, the right of the judgment, redeeming us from it with His blood, and this is good regarding us who have been redeemed. For we have not given Him anything in advance, and He does not demand anything from us, as if He were in need; we, on the contrary, need communion with Him, and therefore He graciously poured out Himself 133 in order to gather us into the bosom of the Father. 2. Those who despise the dispensation of God and deny the salvation of the flesh and reject its rebirth, saying that it does not participate in incorruption, are completely foolish. But if she is not saved, then (it means) the Lord did not redeem us with His blood, and the cup of the Eucharist is not the communion of His blood, and the bread that we break is not the communion of His body. For blood can only come from veins and flesh and other things that constitute the essence of man, by which the Word of God truly became and redeemed us with His blood, as His Apostle says: “In Him we have redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:14). And since we are His members and feed on His creation, and He provides the creation to us, commanding the sun to rise and the rain to fall as He pleases, He called the cup from what was created His blood, from which He irrigates our blood, and the bread from creation He confessed to be His body, with which He strengthens our bodies. 3. When the dissolved cup and the prepared bread receive the Word of God and become the Eucharist of the body and blood of Christ, from which the being of our flesh is strengthened and supported; then how do they (the heretics) say that the flesh does not partake of the gift of God, that is, eternal life - the flesh that feeds on the body and blood of the Lord and is a member of Him? And St. Paul in his letter to Ephesians says: “for we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones” (Eph. 5:30), - speaking this not about any spiritual and invisible man, - for “the spirit has neither bones nor flesh” ( Luke 24:39), - but about the structure of true man, consisting of flesh, nerves and bones, and this flesh is nourished from His cup, which is His blood, and grows from the bread, which is His body. And just as a vine tree planted in the ground bears fruit in its season, or a grain of wheat that has fallen into the ground and decays, rises in many numbers through the Spirit of God, which contains everything, and this then, by the wisdom of God, benefits man, and by receiving the word of God it becomes the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ; so our bodies, nourished from it, buried in the earth and decomposed in it, will rise in due time, since the Word of God grants them resurrection to the glory of God the Father, who invests this mortal with immortality and gives to the corruptible the gift of incorruption, because “the power of God is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9), so that we, as if we had life from ourselves, should not become arrogant and conceited against God, having an ungrateful thought, but by experience they learned that by His power, and not by our nature, we have eternal existence, and they did not diminish the glory of God as it is, and were not ignorant of our nature, but knew what God can and what kind of good deeds a person receives, and never deviated from the true concepts of what exists as it is, that is, about God and man. And perhaps, as I have already mentioned, God allowed our decay into the earth, so that, having been admonished in every possible way, we would be careful in everything regarding the future, knowing God and ourselves. In the weakness of human flesh, the power of God is revealed, giving our body the sacrament of resurrection and immortality 1. The Apostle shows very clearly that man is devoted to his weakness, so that he, having once been exalted, does not deviate from the truth, when in the second (epistle) to the Corinthians he says: “And so that I would not become exalted in the loftiness of revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to oppress me. And therefore I first prayed to the Lord to leave me alone; but (the Lord) said to me: My grace is sufficient for you; for strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me” (2 Cor. 12:7-9). What then? - will anyone say - the Lord wanted the Apostle to be so depressed and endure such weakness? Exactly so, says the Word. For strength is made perfect in weakness, making better the one who through his weakness knows the power of God. For how would a person know that he is weak and by nature mortal, but God is immortal and powerful, if he did not know both by experience? To recognize your weakness through patience is not evil; on the contrary, it is good not to be mistaken about your nature. But rebellion against God and exaggeration of one’s glory, making a person ungrateful, causes him a lot of evil, so that a person alienates both the truth and love for the Creator of him 134. The experience of both gave him true knowledge of God and man, and increased his love for God. And where love abounds, there great glory is accomplished by the power of God for those who love Him. 2. So, they (heretics) reject the power of God and pay no attention to the Word (of God), looking only at the weakness of the flesh, but not seeing the power of Him who raises it from the dead. For if he does not give life to a mortal and bring the corruptible into incorruption, then God is not powerful. And that He is powerful in all this, we must understand from our origin, for God took dust from the earth and created man. But it is much more difficult and incredible to bring into existence from non-existent bones, nerves, veins and other constituent parts of a person and create an animated and intelligent being, a person, than to restore something that was created and then turned into earth, for the reasons stated above, again, after it has passed into that from which a person was first created, which did not yet exist. For He Who at first brought a non-existent (man) into existence when He wanted, is all the more able, by His will, to return those who already existed to the life He bestows. And the flesh will be able to receive and accommodate the power of God when it first took upon itself the artistry of God; so one became the seeing eye, another the hearing ear, another the touching and acting hand, another the nerves stretching everywhere and connecting members, another the artery and veins, conductors of blood and respiration, another the various internal organs, another the blood, serving as the connection between the soul and the body. What? It is impossible to retell the entire structure of human members, which occurred only through the great wisdom of God. And what partakes of the wisdom of God also partakes of His power. 3. So, the flesh is not deprived of the sacrament of artistic wisdom and the power of God. But if His power, which brings life, is made perfect in weakness, that is, in the flesh, then those who claim that the flesh is not capable of receiving the life given by God, let them tell us whether they say this as living now and participating in life, or, as having no life at all, they recognize themselves as dead at the present time. If they are dead, then how do they move, speak and do other things characteristic not of the dead, but of the living? If they are alive now and their whole body participates in life, then how dare they say that the flesh does not participate in life, recognizing themselves as alive at the present time? This is as if someone, holding a sponge with water or a lamp with fire, said that the sponge cannot be involved in water or the lamp in fire. In the same way, they, calling themselves alive and having life in their members, then, contrary to themselves, say that their members do not participate in life. If temporary life, which is much weaker than that eternal life, can nevertheless revive our mortal members, then why does not the stronger eternal life revive the flesh, already familiar with life and accustomed to it? And that the flesh is capable of receiving life is revealed by the fact that it lives; She lives as long as God wants her to live. That God can give her life is clear, for we live because He gave us life. So, when the Lord is able to revive His creation and the flesh is capable of being revived, then what prevents it from participating in incorruption, which is the blessed and endless life given by God? Those who invent another God the Father beyond the Creator of the world are mistaken, Who is necessarily weak and useless or evil and envious if he cannot or does not want to give our bodies eternal life 1. Those who invent another Father besides the Creator of the world and call Him good deceive themselves; for they represent Him as powerless, useless and careless, not to say evil and envious, in the sense that our bodies, in their opinion, are not revived by Him. For when they talk about things known to everyone, such as the spirit, soul, and so on, that they remain immortal because they are quickened by the Father, and about other things that are quickened only by God, who gives life, (they say) that they interfere with life, then this shows their Father either weak and powerless or evil and envious. When the Creator here also animates our mortal bodies and, as I have shown, promises them resurrection through the prophets, then who turns out to be more powerful, stronger and truly good - the Creator (Dimiurt), who animates the whole person, or their falsely called Father, Who seems to animate that which by nature is immortal and by nature has life, but does not revive with goodness what needs His help in order to live, but carelessly leaves it to death? Does their Father really not give this life, although He can, or He cannot give? If He cannot, then He is no longer powerful and is more imperfect than the Creator, for the latter gives, as can be seen, what the Creator cannot give. If He does not give when He can give, then He turns out to be no longer a good Father, but an envious and evil Father. 2. If they point out some reason why their Father does not animate bodies, then the reason itself is necessarily greater than the Father, when it delays His goodness, and His goodness is weakened by the reason given by them. That bodies can accept life is clear to everyone. For they live as long as God wants them to live, and can it really not be said that they are not able to accept life? So, if what is capable of life is not quickened by necessity and for some other reason, then their Father will be a slave of necessity and that reason, and no longer free and autocratic in His will. The length of life of the ancients, the examples of Elijah and Enoch and others show that God can restore our bodies to eternal life 1. That bodies exist for a long time, as long as God gives them health, let them (heretics) read the Scripture about this, and they will find that our ancestors lived through seven hundred, eight hundred and nine hundred years, and their bodies enjoyed longevity and participated in life as long as God pleased them to live. What can we say about them when Enoch, who pleased God, was transposed in the body in which he pleased, foretelling the transposition of the righteous? And Elijah was taken, as he was, in the created being, prophesying the ascension of the spiritual 135, and the body did not in any way hinder them from transformation and ascension. Through the very hands with which they were first created, they received ascension and transformation. For in Adam the hands of God were accustomed to form their creation, to hold, carry and place it where they wanted. Where was the first man placed? It was in paradise, as Scripture says: “And God planted paradise in Eden to the east and placed there the created man” (Gen. 2:3). But from there he was cast out into this world for disobedience. Therefore, the elders, the disciples of the apostles, say that those who were added are added there - for paradise is prepared for the righteous and spirit-bearing people, and the Apostle Paul was caught up there when he heard verbs that were not spoken for us in the present state - and that those who were transferred will remain there until the end (of the world), beginning incorruption. 2. If anyone considers it impossible for them to remain for so long, and says that Elijah was not taken in the flesh, but his flesh was burned in a fiery chariot, then let him realize that Jonah, although he was thrown into the depths (of the sea) and swallowed up by the belly of the whale, was, at the command of God, again vomited up onto the earth intact (John 1-2). Also, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, thrown into a fiery furnace seven times hotter, did not suffer any harm, and they did not even smell the fire. The hand of God inherent in them did something marvelous and impossible for human nature over them: what is surprising if, in obedience to the will of God and the Father, it did something marvelous in those who were transformed (the righteous)? And this is the Son of God, as according to Scripture, King Nebuchadnezzar said: “Did we not throw three men into the oven? and behold, I see four walking in the midst of the fire, and the fourth is like the Son of God” (Dan. 3:19–25). And so neither the nature of the created being nor the weakness of the flesh will overcome the will of God. For God is not subordinate to creatures, but creatures are subordinate to God, and everything serves His will. Therefore, the Lord says: “What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). As to real people, who do not know the order of God, it seems incredible and impossible that anyone could live for such a long time, and yet our ancestors lived so long and those who have been handed down live as an example of the future length of days; so that they would emerge unharmed from the belly of the whale and from the burning furnace, and yet come out as if carried out by the hand of God to demonstrate His power: so now, although some, not knowing the power and promise of God, resist their salvation, considering it impossible that God could resurrect the body and grant them eternal stay, yet the unbelief of such people will not destroy the faithfulness of God. God grants salvation to the whole person, consisting of body and soul 1. God will be glorified in His creation, making it conformable and like His Child. For by the hands of the Father, that is, through the Son and the Spirit, man, and not a part of man, is created in the likeness of God. The soul and spirit can be part of a person, but not a person; perfect man is the union and union of the soul, which receives the Spirit of the Father, with the flesh, which is created in the image of God. Therefore, the Apostle says: “We speak wisdom among the perfect” (1 Cor. 2:6), calling those perfect who have received the Spirit of God and through the Spirit of God speak with all tongues, as He also spoke. In the same way, we heard many brothers in the Church who had prophetic gifts and through the Spirit spoke in different languages, and for the common benefit brought out the hidden (secrets) of people and explained the mysteries of God: the Apostle also calls such “spiritual”, and they are spiritual by the communion of the Spirit, and not because they did not humiliate and eliminate the flesh and not because they became only one (spirit). For if anyone destroys the being of the flesh, i.e. creation, and only one spirit will understand - such a being will no longer be a spiritual man, but the spirit of man or the Spirit of God. When this spirit, united with the soul, is united with creation, then man becomes, due to the outpouring of the Spirit, spiritual and perfect, and this is (man) created in the image and likeness of God. If there is no Spirit in the soul, such a person in truth is a spiritual person and, remaining carnal, will be imperfect: he has the image (of God) in creation, but does not receive the likeness through the Spirit, and therefore he is imperfect. In the same way, if someone takes away the image and rejects the creation, then he can no longer understand a person here, but either some part of a person, as I said above, or something else besides a person. For the carnal creature in itself is not a perfect man, but is the body of man and a part of man; neither the soul in itself is a man, but the soul of a man and a part of a man; neither the spirit is a man, for it is called a spirit, and not a man. The union and union of all these constitutes a perfect man. And therefore the Apostle, explaining himself, explained the saved man as perfect and spiritual, thus, saying in the first letter to the Thessalonians: “Now may the God of peace sanctify you, who are perfect, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). What reason did he have to pray for these three, that is, for the soul, body and spirit of whole and perfect preservation at the coming of the Lord, if he did not know about the restoration and unification of these three and about the same salvation? Therefore, he calls those perfect who present these three to the Lord without blemish. So those are perfect who have the Spirit of God abiding within them and keep their souls and bodies blameless, keeping the faith of God, that is, in God, and observing righteousness in relation to their neighbor. 2. Therefore he calls this creation the church of God: “Do you not know that you are the church of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” If anyone destroys the church of God, God will destroy him, for the church of God is holy, and this (church) is you (1 Cor. 3:16-17), clearly calling the body the church in which the Spirit lives. So the Lord says about Himself: “Destroy this church, and in three days I will raise it up. And this He spoke about His body” (John 2:19,21). And not only the church, but the church of Christ (the Apostle) calls our bodies in the following words to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? And so shall I take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot?” (1 Cor. 6:15). He did not say this about any other spiritual person, for this one does not deal with a harlot, but our body, that is, the flesh that remains in holiness and purity, is called members of Christ, and when it has dealings with a harlot, it becomes members of the harlot. That is why he said: “If anyone destroys the church of God, God will destroy him.” So, is it not the greatest blasphemy to say that the church of God, in which the Spirit of the Father lives, and the members of Christ do not participate in salvation, but are destroyed? And that our bodies will rise not according to their essence, but by the power of God, he says to the Corinthians: “The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body, but God raised the Lord and will raise us up by His power” (1 Cor. 6:13). The resurrection of Christ proves our resurrection in the flesh 1. Therefore, just as Christ was resurrected in the being of the flesh and showed to the disciples the marks of nails and the piercing of the side, which serve as signs of flesh raised from the dead, so “he will also raise us,” he says, “by His power.” And also (in the letter) to the Romans he says: “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies” (Rom. 8:11). What are mortal bodies? Are they souls? But souls are incorporeal in comparison with mortal bodies. For “God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7); and the breath of life: incorporeal. And they cannot say that the breath of life is mortal. Therefore, David says: “My soul will live for Him” (Ps. 21:31), because its being is immortal. On the other hand, they cannot even call the spirit a mortal body. What remains to be called a mortal body, if not the creation, that is, the flesh, which is what we are talking about, that God animates it? For it dies and is destroyed, not the soul and not the spirit. To die means to lose vitality and then become lifeless, lifeless and motionless and decompose into (component parts) from which something received the beginning of its existence. But this does not happen either with the soul, for it is the breath of life, or with the spirit, for the spirit is uncomplicated, simple, cannot decompose, and itself is life for those who receive it. From this it follows that death refers to the flesh, which, after the soul descends from it, becomes without breath and life and little by little turns into the earth from which it was taken. So, she is mortal, and about her (the Apostle) says: “to revive your mortal bodies.” Therefore, he speaks about it in the first (epistle) to the Corinthians: “So is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:42). For he explains: “what you sow will not come to life unless it dies.” 2. What, like a grain of wheat, is sown and decays in the ground, if not bodies buried in the ground where the seeds are thrown? Therefore (the Apostle) said: “It is sown in humiliation, but is raised in glory” (1 Cor. 15:36,43). And what is more humiliating than the flesh of the dead? And what again is more glorious than her when she rises and receives incorruption? “It is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength,” in its weakness, because, being earth, it goes back to earth, but in the power of God, raising it from the dead. “The natural body is sown, the spiritual body is raised” (1 Cor. 15:44): (with these words) he undoubtedly shows that he is not talking about the soul and not about the spirit, but about dead bodies. These are spiritual bodies, that is, participating souls, having lost which they die; and then, having risen through the Spirit, they become spiritual bodies, because through the Spirit they have everlasting life. “For now,” he says, “we know in part and we prophesy in part, but then face to face” (1 Cor. 13:9,12). This is also said by Peter: “Whom, having not seen, you love, and Whom, having not yet seen, you believe, but believing in Him you will rejoice with joy unspeakable” (1 Peter 1:8). For our face will see the face of the Lord and will rejoice with joy unspeakable, that is, when it sees its own joy. The gifts of the Holy Spirit prepare us for incorruption and make us spiritual, unlike carnal people, which in the Law is designated by clean and unclean animals 1. Now we receive a certain part of His Spirit for our perfection and preparation for incorruption, little by little learning to accept and bear God: Alostol called this a deposit, that is, a part of the glory promised to us by God, when in the Epistle to the Ephesians he says: “In Him you also are, having heard the word. truth, the gospel of your salvation, and having believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the earnest of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:13); This pledge, living in us, makes us spiritual, and the mortal absorbs immortality; for “you,” he says, “do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom. 8:9). And this happens not through the loss of the flesh, but through communication with the Spirit. For those to whom he wrote were not without the flesh, but they received the Spirit of God, “by whom we cry: Abba Father” (Rom. 8:15). So if now, having a pledge, we cry: Abba Father, then what will happen when, having risen, we see Him face to face, when all members, in abundance of joy, lift up a song glorifying the One who raised them from the dead and gave them eternal life? For if the pledge, gathering a person into himself, already produces what he cries out: Abba Father, what will the full grace of the Spirit, which is given to people from God, do? She will make us like Him and accomplish the will of the Father, for she will make man in the image and likeness of God. 2. And those who have the deposit of the Spirit and do not serve the lusts of the flesh, but submit to the Spirit and act wisely in everything, the Apostle rightly calls spiritual, because the Spirit of God lives in them. But spiritual people will not be disembodied spirits; and our being, that is, the union of soul and flesh, receiving the Spirit of God, constitutes a spiritual man. Those who reject the counsel of the Spirit and serve the pleasures of the flesh, live unreasonably and unbridledly indulge in their lusts, having no desire for the divine Spirit, but live like cats and dogs. – The apostle rightly calls them carnal, because they think of nothing else but the carnal. And for this reason, the prophets compare such people for their unreasonable lifestyle to unreasonable animals, saying: “they have become violent horses towards women, each of them neighs at his neighbor’s wife” (Jer. 5:8). And again: “man being in honor became like cattle.” This means that a person, through his own fault, becomes like cattle, imitating an unreasonable life. And we usually call such people brutes and irrational animals. 3. All this was figuratively predicted by the Law, depicting man in distinguishing between animals: those that have cloven hooves and chew food are called clean, and those who have neither one nor the other or one of the other, he singles out as unclean. Who are the clean ones? Those who by their faith firmly march towards the Father and the Son - for this means the firmness of those who have cloven hooves - meditate day and night on the words of God, in order to be adorned with good deeds, for this means the characteristic of those who regurgitate the cud. Unclean (animals) that do not have a double hoof and do not regurgitate the cud mean those who neither believe in God nor meditate on His words: such is the abomination of the pagans. Animals that chew, but do not have cloven hooves, are also unclean: this is a figurative representation of the Jews, who, although they have the words of God on their lips, do not establish their firm root in the Father and the Son; therefore their race is prone to fall. For animals with one hoof fall easily, and those with a double hoof are much harder, because the divided hooves replace each other along the way and one supports the other. Animals that have double hooves, but do not regurgitate their cud, are an image of all heretics and those who do not meditate on the words of God and are not adorned with works of righteousness, to which the Lord says: “Why do you say to Me, Lord, Lord, and do not what I say?” (Luke 6:46). Such people say that they believe in the Father and the Son, but they never reflect, as they should, on the words of God, and are not adorned with works of righteousness, but, as I said, they have adopted the lifestyle of pigs and dogs, indulging in uncleanness, gluttony and other negligence. The Apostle rightly called all those who, due to their unbelief and intemperance, do not accept the divine Spirit and with their various properties repulse the life-giving Word from themselves and unreasonably act according to their own lusts, “carnal” and “spiritual”, the prophets - cattle and beasts, custom called them beasts and foolish, and the Law designated them unclean. Explanation of the words of the Apostle: flesh and blood will not inherit the Kingdom of God 1. The Apostle, among other things, says the following: “that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). All heretics cite these words as support for their madness and try to stop us and show that God’s creation has no salvation, not paying attention to the fact that a perfect person, as I have shown, consists of three - flesh, soul and spirit; of which one, that is, the spirit, saves and forms; the other, that is, the flesh, is united and formed, and the middle between these two, that is, the soul, sometimes, when it follows the spirit, is elevated by it, sometimes, pleasing the flesh, it falls into earthly lusts. So, everyone who does not have that which saves and brings life into being will naturally be called flesh and blood, because they do not have the Spirit of God in them. Therefore, such are called dead by the Lord: “Leave,” he says, “the dead to bury their dead” (Luke 9:60), because they do not have the Spirit that gives life to man. 2. On the other hand, all who fear God and believe in the coming of His Son and through faith plant the Spirit of God in their hearts. Such are rightly called pure people, spiritual and living for God, because they have the Spirit of the Father, who cleanses man and elevates him into the life of God. For just as “the flesh is weak,” so the spirit is willing, according to the testimony of the Lord (Matthew 26:41). For He is able to do whatever He wants to do. Therefore, if someone adds the readiness of the spirit, as an incitement (stimulus), to the weakness of the flesh, then, of necessity, the strong must overcome the weak, so that the weakness of the flesh is absorbed by the strength of the spirit, and such a person is no longer a carnal, but a spiritual person, as a result of the communion of the Spirit. Thus the martyrs give their testimony and despise death not because of the weakness of the flesh, but because of the vigor of the spirit. For when the weakness of the flesh is consumed, it reveals the spirit to the mighty; on the other hand, the spirit, absorbing the weakness (of the flesh), inherits the flesh as its property, and from both comes a living person. alive by the participation of the Spirit, but man by the essence of the flesh. 3. So the flesh without the spirit of God is dead, as having no life, and cannot receive the kingdom of God: blood is foolish, like water spilled on the ground. And therefore (the Apostle) says: “as is the earthy, so are the earthy.” And where the Spirit of the Father is, there is a living man: rational blood, preserved by God for vengeance (on those who shed it), flesh taken into possession by the Spirit, forgetting about itself, but perceiving the quality of the Spirit and becoming consistent with the Word of God. And therefore he says: “just as we have borne the image of earthly, let us also bear the image of heavenly things” (1 Cor. 15:48–49). What is earthly? Created (flesh). What is heavenly? Spirit. Therefore,” he says, “just as without the heavenly Spirit we once lived in oldness of the flesh, not submitting to God, so now, having received the Spirit, we will walk in new life, obeying God. Since we cannot be saved without the Spirit of God, the Apostle exhorts us to observe the Spirit of God by faith and pure life. so that, having become deprived of the divine Spirit, they would not lose the kingdom of heaven, and exclaimed that flesh and blood itself cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 4. And if we speak the truth, then the flesh does not inherit, but is inherited, just as the Lord says: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5), as if in the kingdom the land from which the being of our flesh comes will be inherited. And therefore (the Apostle) wants the church to be clean, so that the Spirit of God may delight in it like a bridegroom. And just as a bride cannot take the groom, but can be taken by the groom when the groom comes and takes her; so this flesh itself cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but it can be taken into it by the Spirit as an inheritance. For he who lives inherits the property of a dead man; and it is another thing to inherit, another thing to receive by inheritance. He dominates and disposes of what he has by inheritance as he wants; and the other is in power, subject to the order and dominance of the owner. What lives? Spirit of God. What is the property of the deceased? Members of man, which decay in the earth. These are inherited by the Spirit, being transferred to the kingdom of heaven. For this reason Christ died, so that the covenant of the Gospel, revealed and declared to the whole world, would first free His servants, and then make them heirs of His property, for, as I have shown, the spirit inherits. For the living inherits, but the flesh inherits. So that we do not lose life by losing the Spirit who owns us, the Apostle exhorts us to communicate with the Spirit, and wisely said the above words that flesh and blood cannot receive the kingdom of heaven. As if he were saying this: do not be mistaken; for if the word of God does not dwell and the Spirit of the Father is not in you, and you live vainly and carelessly, as if you were only flesh and blood, then you cannot receive the kingdom of God. Explanation of the above through comparison with a wild olive 1. So that we, pleasing the flesh, do not reject the grafting of the Spirit, (the Apostle) says: “You, a wild olive tree, were grafted into a good olive tree and became a sharer of the olive juice” (Rom. 11:17,24). And like a grafted wild olive, if it remains in its previous state, that is, wild, it is “cut off and thrown into the fire”; if it holds the graft and turns into a good olive tree, then it becomes fruitful, as if planted in a royal garden; so people, if through faith they become better and receive the Spirit of God and give His fruits, then they will be spiritual, as if planted in the paradise of God. And if they reject the Spirit and remain in their previous state, wanting to belong more to the flesh than to the Spirit, then it is very rightly said about such that “flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God,” just as someone would say that the wild olive tree is not accepted into the paradise of God. So the Apostle amazingly shows our nature and the whole order of God in his discourse about flesh and blood and about the wild olive tree. For just as a good olive tree, neglected and neglected for some time in the wild, bears wild fruit and becomes a wild olive of its own accord; or on the other hand, a wild olive, with careful care, once grafted, returns to its previous natural fruiting; so people, having given themselves up to negligence and giving birth to carnal lusts like the fruits of the forest, through their own fault, become unfruitful in righteousness. For while men sleep, the enemy sows tares; and therefore the Lord commanded his disciples to stay awake (Matthew 13:25; 24:42; 25:13; Mark 13:33). And again, people who do not bear the fruits of righteousness and are, as it were, entangled with thorns, if they use diligence and receive the Word of God, as it were, grafted in, they return to their former nature, that which was created in the image and likeness of God. 2. But just as a grafted wild olive tree does not lose the essence of the tree, but changes the quality of the fruit and receives a different name, and is and is no longer called a wild, but a good olive tree: so a person grafted in by faith and having received the Holy Spirit does not lose the essence of the flesh, but changes the quality of the fruits of works and receives a different name, meaning its change for the better, and already there is and is called not flesh and blood, but a spiritual man. Again, just as a wild olive tree, not being grafted in, due to its wildness, remains useless for its master, and like a barren tree is cut down and thrown into the fire: so a person, not receiving the grafting of the Spirit through faith, remains what he was before, and being flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Therefore, the Apostle says well: “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” and “those who live according to the flesh cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8), - not in order to reject the being of the flesh, but to attract the outpouring of the Spirit. Therefore he says: “This mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on incorruptibility” (1 Cor. 15:53). And he also says: “You do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Rom. 8:9). He shows this more clearly when he says: “The body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.” But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:10-11). And also in the letter to the Romans he says: “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die” (Rom. 8:13-14), - not denying their life in the flesh, for he himself, being in the flesh, wrote to them, but cutting off the lusts of the flesh that kill a person. And therefore he added: “If you put to death the deeds of the flesh in the Spirit, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” About the affairs of carnal and spiritual people 1. (The Apostle), foreseeing the slander of unbelievers, listed the works that he called carnal, and explaining himself so that there would be no doubt left for those who misinterpret him, in his letter to the Galatians he says this: “The works of the flesh are known - they are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, quarrels, envy, anger, strife, disagreements, irritations. heresies, hatred, drunkenness, disorderly behavior and the like: “I warn you, as I said before, that those who do this “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-23), and this shows the listeners more clearly the meaning of the words: “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” For those who do this, truly living according to the flesh, cannot live to God. And then he added spiritual works that revive a person, that is, the instillation of the Spirit, thus saying: “the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, mercy, faith, meekness, self-control, purity; There is no law against this." Therefore, as one who has become better and has produced the fruit of the spirit, he is saved in every way because of communion with the Spirit; Thus, one who continues in the numbered deeds of the flesh is rightly considered to be carnal, because he does not receive the Spirit of God and cannot receive the kingdom of heaven. The Apostle himself testifies to this, saying to the Corinthians: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will 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. And that's how you were. but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11). (With these words) he very clearly shows through what a person perishes if he continues in the life of the flesh, and through what he is saved. What saves, according to him, is the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. 2. Having thus enumerated the works of the flesh, alien to the Spirit and deadly, he, in accordance with the above, at the end of the epistle briefly expressed himself: “just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. For I tell you, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:49–50). His words: “as we bore the image of earth” are similar to the saying: “and such ye were: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” When did we bear the image of the earthly one? Then, of course, when the above-mentioned works of the flesh were done in us. And when (we wear) the image of heaven? Then, he says, when “you were washed,” believing in the name of the Lord and receiving His Spirit. We were washed neither in the essence of the body, nor in the image of the creation, but in relation to the former vain life. So, in the same members in which we perished doing (works of) corruption, we are quickened, doing the works of the Spirit. About the difference between death and life, about the breath of life and the life-giving Spirit 1. For the flesh is both capable of corruption and of incorruption, and both (capable of) death and of life. They replace each other, and both do not exist together, but one is replaced by the other, and in the presence of one the other is destroyed. Therefore, if death, having taken possession of a person, removed life from him and made him dead, much more life, having taken possession of a person, drives out death and restores man alive to God. For if death kills, then why does not life, by its coming, revive a person? As the prophet Isaiah says: “a mighty death has devoured,” and again: “God has taken away every tear from every face” (Is. 25:8). The old life was expelled because it was given not through the Spirit, but through breath. 2. There is another breath of life, which makes a person spiritual, and another is the life-giving Spirit, which makes him spiritual. Therefore, Isaiah says: “Thus says the Lord, who created the heavens and established it, and founded the earth and what is on it, and gave breath to the people who live on it, “The Spirit to those who trample upon it” (Is. 42:5), calling the breath given in general to every people living on the earth, and the Spirit to those who trample upon earthly lusts. Therefore, again the same Isaiah, distinguishing between the two, says: “Spirit will go out from me, and every breath I have created” (Is. 57:16), - positing the Spirit actually in God, Who in recent times poured It out on the human race through the adoption of people, and attributing breath in general to creation and representing it as a creature. But what is created is different from him who created Breath is temporary; The spirit is eternal. The breath, increasing somewhat and remaining for some time, then leaves, leaving what it was previously in, lifeless. The spirit, surrounding a person inside and outside, always abides and never leaves him. “But the spiritual is not first,” says the Apostle, saying this as if in relation to us people, “but the natural is first, then the spiritual” (1 Cor. 15:46), according to reason. For man had to first be created and created to receive a soul, and then to receive the fellowship of the Spirit. Therefore, “the first Adam became” from the Lord “a living soul, the second Adam (is) a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45). So, as he who was created with a living soul, having turned to the worst, lost his life; so the same one, returning to the better and receiving the life-giving Spirit, will find life. 3. For there is nothing else that dies and nothing else that comes to life, except something that perishes and nothing else that is found, but the Lord came to find the lost sheep itself. What was dying? A being of flesh who lost the breath of life and became lifeless and dead. The Lord came to revive it, so that just as in Adam we all die, because we are spiritual, so in Christ we lived, because we are spiritual, putting aside not the creation of God, but the lusts of the flesh, and receiving the Holy Spirit, as the Apostle says in the letter to the Colossians: “And so put to death your members on the earth.” What is this, he himself explained: “fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust and covetousness, which is idolatry” ( Col. 3:5 ). The Apostle preaches the putting aside of these (works), and about those who do them, since they are only flesh and blood, he says that they cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. For their soul, inclined towards the worse and immersed in earthly lusts, becomes a participant in the name that belongs to them; and, commanding them to be put aside, he again says in the same epistle: “having put off the old man with his deeds” (Col. 3:9). In saying this, he does not reject the ancient creation; otherwise we should be separated from this life through suicide. 4. And the Apostle himself, being formed in the womb and emerging from it, wrote to us and confessed in the letter to the Philippians that “life in the flesh (gives) fruit to the work.” The fruit of the work of the Spirit is the salvation of the flesh. For what other visible fruit of the invisible Spirit is there than that it makes the flesh mature and capable of incorruption? So. if (he says that) life in the flesh “brings fruit to my work,” then with the words: “having put off the old man with his works,” he did not despise the being of the flesh, but pointed to the rejection of our former way of life, which is decaying and damaged, and therefore added: “and having put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him (Col. 3:10). With the words: “who is renewed into knowledge,” he showed that the same person who was previously ignorant, that is, ignorant of God, is renewed through the knowledge of Him. For the knowledge of God renews a person. And with the words: “in the image of the Creator,” he showed the restoration of the same man who was first created in the image of God. 5. And that he, the Apostle, was the same man who was born from the womb, that is, the old being of the flesh, he expressed in the Epistle to the Galatians: “When God, who took me from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me, so that I might preach His gospel to the Gentiles” (Gal. 1:15-16). It was not another who was born from the womb, as I have already said, but another who preached the good news of the Son of God, but the one who previously did not know and persecuted the Church, after the revelation to him from heaven and the Lord’s conversation with him, as I showed in the third book, he preached the Son of God Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate; because his former ignorance was supplanted by subsequent knowledge, how the blind, healed by the Lord, lost their blindness, but returned the perfect essence of the eyes, and with the same eyes with which they had not seen before, they began to see, because only darkness from vision was removed, and the essence of the eyes was preserved, so that again, seeing with those eyes with which they had not seen before, they thanked him who restored their sight, and the withered hands and all those healed did not change the members they first received from the womb, but received the same most members are in good health. 6. For the Word of God, who created all things, who also at the beginning created man, seeing his creation damaged by malice, healed him in every possible way - now in relation to each individual member that is in his creation, then at once he restored the whole man healthy and whole, preparing him for Himself perfect for the resurrection. For what reason did He have to heal (individual) members of the flesh and restore them to their original form, if the (parts) healed by Him could not receive salvation? If the benefit He provided was only temporary, then He did nothing great for those healed. Or what. How do they (the heretics) say that the flesh that has received healing from Him is incapable of life, which He bestows? For through healing life is achieved, and through life incorruption. He who gives healing (gives) and life, and he who gives life grants to His creation incorruption. The dead raised by Christ are the strongest evidence of the resurrection 1. Let those who claim the opposite, that is, those who contradict their own salvation, tell us in what bodies the dead daughter of the high priest 136, the dead son of the widow, carried near the (city) gate (for burial), and Lazarus, who spent four days in the tomb, were resurrected? Of course, in the same ones in which they died. For, if not in the same ones, then it means that those who died were not resurrected. But it is said: “The Lord took the hand of the dead man and said to him: young man, I say to you, get up, and the dead man sat down, and (the Lord) commanded that he should be given something to eat and gave it to his mother.” 137 And Lazarus “called with a loud voice, saying, Lazarus, come out; and the dead man came out, wrapped hand and foot in graveclothes” (John 11:43–44). This is a symbol of a person bound by sins. And so the Lord said: “Untie him and let him go.” So, just as those who were healed received healing in the very members that had previously suffered, and the dead were resurrected in the same bodies, because their members and bodies received both healing and life, which the Lord gave them, through the temporary prefiguring the eternal and showing that He is able to give to His creation both healing and life, so that they would believe His words about the resurrection, so in the end, when the Lord calls with the last trumpet, the dead will rise, as He says: “It will come.” the hour in which all the dead who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of man, and those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29). 2. Those who do not want to see so clear and obvious, but run away from the light of truth, blinding themselves like the tragic Oedipus, are vain and truly unhappy. And how people who have not learned gymnastics, in a fight with others, grab with all their hands one part of the body (their opponent), and through this. that they hold on, fall, and, falling, imagine that they are winning because they stubbornly hold on to the first grasped member, and beyond the fall they are ridiculed: so are the heretics (regarding the words): “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” taking two words from Paul, they did not understand the thoughts of the Apostle and did not explore the power of the sayings, but simply grabbed hold of these sayings and die on them, perverting, as much as possible, the entire economy of God. 3. By saying that this is said specifically about the flesh, and not about the works of the flesh, as I have proven, they (the heretics) present the Apostle as contradicting himself. For, further in the same epistle, he expressively speaks about the flesh like this: “For this corruptible must put on incorruptibility, and this mortal must put on immortality. When the mortal puts on immortality, then the word that is written will come true: death is swallowed up in victory. Death! where is your sting? Death, where is your victory? (1 Cor. 15:53–55). These words will be true (only) when this mortal and corruptible flesh, subject to death and, as it were, oppressed by the dominion of death, rises to life and is clothed with incorruptibility and immortality. For then, in truth, death will be defeated when the flesh possessed by it comes out from under its dominion. And he also says to the Philippians: “our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also await the Savior the Lord Jesus, who will transform our lowly body into conformity with the body of His glory, as He is able by the working of His power” 138 . What kind of “humiliated body” is this, which the Lord will transform according to the body of His glory? It is obvious that the body, which is flesh, falls into the ground and is humiliated. Its transformation consists in the fact that it, mortal and corruptible, will become immortal and incorruptible, not by its own essence, but by the action of the Lord, who is able to clothe the mortal with the immortal and the corruptible with the incorruptible. And that is why in the second letter to the Corinthians he says: “so that what is mortal may be swallowed up into life. For this very reason God created us and gave us the pledge of the Spirit” (2 Cor. 5:4-5), saying this very clearly about the flesh, for neither the soul is mortal, nor the spirit. The mortal will be swallowed up by life, when the flesh, no longer dead, but living, will remain incorruptible, singing the glory of God, who created us for this very purpose. And in order for us to achieve this, (the Apostle) says well to the Corinthians: “glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20). God is the author of incorruption. 4. And that he does not say this about any other body, but about the body of the flesh, he speaks about this clearly, undoubtedly and without any reciprocity to the Corinthians: “we always bear the death of Jesus in our body, so that the life of Jesus Christ may be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:10–11). And that the Spirit holds the flesh, he says in the same letter: “you are our letter, made by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:3). So, if now the hearts of the flesh are partakers of the Spirit, then what is surprising if at the resurrection they receive the life given by the Spirit? The Apostle speaks about this resurrection in his letter to the Philippians: “being conformed to His death, so as to attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:10-11). In what other mortal flesh can the revelation of life be understood, if not in this being, which you kill for confessing God? As he himself said: “According to human reasoning, when I fought with the beasts in Ephesus, what good is it to me if the dead do not rise? For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen; and if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain.” Moreover, we also turn out to be false witnesses about God, because we testified that He raised Christ, Whom He did not raise. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not risen, then your faith is in vain, because you are still in your sins. So those who died in Christ also perished. If we only hope in Christ in this life, then we are the most miserable of all people. But “Christ has risen from the dead, the firstborn of those who have fallen asleep; For as death came through man, so also came the resurrection of the dead through man” (1 Cor. 15:32,13-21). 5. So in all these sayings, either they must, as I have already said, present the Apostle as contradicting himself regarding the words: “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” or they will again be forced to invent malicious and strained explanations of all sayings, leading to a transformation and change in the meaning of his words. What sound can they say if they try to interpret differently what he writes: “This corruptible must put on incorruptibility, and this mortal must put on immortality”; and: “so that the life of Jesus might be revealed in our mortal flesh,” and all the other (words) in which the Apostle clearly and obviously preaches the resurrection and incorruptibility of the flesh? So they, not wanting to understand one well, will be forced to incorrectly interpret these so many (sayings). If the flesh had not participated in salvation, then the Word would not have taken on flesh of the same essence as ours. 1. Since the Apostle did not speak against the very essence of flesh and blood, that it does not inherit the kingdom of God, the same Apostle everywhere used the word “flesh and blood” in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, both to show His humanity, for He called Himself the Son of Man, and to confirm the salvation of our flesh. For if the flesh had not been saved, the Word of God would not have become flesh. And if the blood of the righteous had not been collected, then the Lord would not have had blood. But since the blood cried out from the beginning (of the world), God said to Cain after killing his brother: “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me” (Gen. 4:10). And since the blood of the righteous had to be exacted, God said to those who were with Noah: “For the blood of your souls I will exact from the hand of all beasts”; and again: “Whoever sheds a man’s blood, his blood will be shed for him” (Gen. 9:5–6). In the same way, the Lord spoke to those who had to shed His blood: “All righteous blood shed on earth will be required, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachi, whom you killed between the church and the altar; yea, I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation” (Deut. 23:35–36; Luke 11:50), showing that the restoration of the blood shed from the beginning of all the righteous and prophets will be in Yahim Himself, and the collection of their blood will follow through Him. But she would not have been sought if she had not been saved; and the Lord would not have restored it in Himself if He Himself had not become flesh and blood in accordance with the original creation, saving in Himself in the end what had first perished in Adam. 2. If the Lord became incarnate for the sake of some other order and took flesh from another essence, then He did not restore man within Himself, and cannot be called flesh. For the flesh is truly the successor of the first creation of dust. If He were to have matter from another essence, then the Father would have initially produced its composition from another essence. Now the saving Word has become what the lost man was, through Himself creating communication with Himself (man) and achieving his salvation. And the deceased had flesh and blood. For the Lord, taking dust from the ground, created man, and for his sake the whole arrangement of the Lord's coming was made. So, He Himself had flesh and blood, since He restored in Himself not any other, but the original creation of the Father, seeking the lost. And therefore the Apostle in the letter to the Colossians says: “And you, who were once condemned and enemies of His purpose through evil works, have now been reconciled to the body of His flesh through His death, in order to present you holy, pure and innocent before Him” (Col. 1:21-22). He says, “You are reconciled in the body of His flesh”; T. It means that righteous flesh reconciled the sin-bound flesh and brought it into friendship with God. 3. If anyone says that the Lord’s flesh was different from our flesh because it had no sin and there was no deception in His soul, and we are sinners, then he will say rightly. If he invents another essence of the flesh for the Lord, then he cannot talk about reconciliation. For what was once hostile is reconciled. If the Lord took flesh from another essence, then that which became hostile through crime is no longer reconciled with God. And now, through communication with Himself, the Lord has reconciled man with God the Father, reconciling us to Himself through the body of His flesh, redeeming us with His blood, as the Apostle says to the Ephesians, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins”; and also to them: “you who were once far away have become close by the blood of Christ”; and again: “Having abolished hostility through His flesh, and the law of commandments through doctrine” (Eph. 1:7; 2:13–15). And throughout the entire epistle the Apostle clearly testifies that we are saved by the flesh of our Lord and His blood. 4. So, if flesh and blood give us life, then it is not actually said about flesh and blood that they cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but about the above-mentioned carnal deeds, which, inclining a person to sin, deprive him of life. And therefore he says in the letter to the Romans: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so that you must obey it; And do not yield up your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness” (Rom. 6:12-13). Therefore, with the same members with which we served sin and brought forth fruit for death, he wants us to serve righteousness, so that we may bear fruit for life. And so remember, beloved, that you have been redeemed by the flesh of our Lord and restored by His blood, and “holding fast to the head from which the whole body of the Church grows together” (Col. 2:19), that is, the carnal coming of the Son of God, and confessing Him as God and firmly accepting His humanity, use the evidence from the Scriptures; then you can easily refute, as I have shown, all the subsequently invented teachings of the heretics. Evidence for the Resurrection from Isaiah and Ezekiel 1. That He who first created man promised him a second birth after his decomposition into the earth, Isaiah says about this: “The dead will rise, and those who are in the graves will rise, and those who are in the earth will rejoice. For the dew that comes from You is health for them” (Is. 26:19). And again: “I will comfort you and you will be comforted in Jerusalem; and you will see and your heart will rejoice, and your bones will grow up like grass, and the hand of the Lord will be known to those who honor Him” (Isaiah 66:13-14). Ezekiel says this: “And the hand of the Lord was upon me, and the Lord took me away with the spirit, and set me in the midst of a field, and it was full of bones, and He led me around among them, and behold, a multitude of them lay in the field, they were very dry. And He said to me: son. human, will these bones come to life? And I said: Lord, You who created them know this. And He said to me: Prophesy about these bones and say to them: dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says to these bones: Behold, I will bring the spirit of life upon you and give you nerves and make flesh upon you and spread skin over you and put My spirit in you and you will live and know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied. as the Lord commanded me, And when I prophesied, there was an earthquake, and the bones began to copulate, each to its composition; and I saw, and behold, veins and flesh appeared on them and rose above their skin, but there was no spirit in them. And He said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, son of man, and say to the spirit, This is what the Lord says: Come from the four winds and give life to these dead men, and they will live. And I prophesied as the Lord commanded me, and the spirit entered into them, and they lived, and a great multitude stood on their feet” (Ezek. 37:1-10). And he also says: “This is what the Lord says: Behold, I will open your graves and bring you out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel, and you will know that I am the Lord when I open your graves to bring My people out of their graves; And I will put My Spirit in you, and you will live, and I will establish you in your land, and you will know that I am the Lord. I have spoken and I will do, says the Lord” (Ezek. 37:12–14). And so here, as you can see, the Creator revives our dead bodies and promises them resurrection and rising from the graves and grants incorruption: for, he says, “their days will be like the tree of life” (Is. 65:22); and it turns out that there is only God who does this, and as a good father, mercifully giving life to those who do not have life from themselves. 2. And therefore the Lord very clearly pointed to His disciples to Himself and to the Father, so that they would not look for another God besides the One who created man and gave him the breath of life, and would not reach such madness as to invent another Father besides the Creator (Demiurge). Therefore, He healed with a word all others who had suffered illnesses because of sin: He said to them: “Behold, you are made whole; sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you” (John 5:14), showing that illnesses befell people because of the sin of disobedience. And he gave sight to the man born blind, no longer by word, but by action, and this was not in vain and by chance, but to show the hand of God that first created man. Therefore, when the disciples asked why he was born blind, either through his own fault or through the fault of his parents, (the Lord) answered them: “Neither he sinned nor his parents, but so that the works of God might be revealed in him” (John 9:3). The work of God is the creation of man. He did this by action, as the Scripture says: “The Lord took dust from the earth and created man” (Gen. 2:7). Therefore, the Lord spat on the ground and made clay and placed it on the eyes, showing how the original creation was accomplished, and revealing to those who can understand the hand of God by which man was created. For what the Artist left the Word to form in the womb 139 He clearly accomplished so that the works of God would be revealed in him, and we would no longer look for another hand by which man was created or another Father, knowing that the hand of God, which created us in the beginning and formed us in the womb, in the last times sought us lost, returning his lost sheep and taking it for his shoulder, and joyfully restoring it to the court of life. 3. And that the Word of God forms us in the womb, Jeremiah speaks about this: “Before I created you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you and appointed you to be a prophet among the nations” (Jer. 1:5). Likewise, Paul says: “When God, who took me from my mother’s womb, was pleased that I should preach His gospel to the Gentiles” (Gal. 1:15). If the Word creates us in the womb, then the same Word formed sight for the man born blind, clearly showing Him who is our Creator in secret, since the Word himself appeared as a man, and, explaining the initial creation of Adam, how he was created and by what hand he was created, and through the part revealing the whole. For the Lord, who formed sight, He also created all man, obeying the will of the Father. And since man, as he was created in Adam, having become criminal, needed the bath of regeneration, then (the Lord), after putting clay on the eyes (of the man born blind, said to him: “Go to Siloam and wash yourself” (John 9:7), rewarding him with both the (initial) creation and rebirth through the font. And therefore, having washed himself, he came sighted, so that he too would recognize his Creator and man would recognize the One who gave him life. 4. The followers of Valentine are also mistaken when they say that man was not created from this earth, but from liquid and flowing matter. For from the earth from which the Lord formed vision, man was obviously created in the beginning. It would be incongruous if the eyes were created from one thing, and the rest of the body from another, just as it is incongruous for one to create the body and another the eyes. - But the same One who first created Adam, with whom the Father said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness,” in the last times, Himself, appearing to people, formed sight for those who were blind (in the body descended) from Adam. And therefore the Scripture, denoting what was to be, says that when Adam hid himself due to disobedience, God came to him in the evening, called him and said to him: “Where are you?” This means that in recent times the same word of God has come to call out to man, reminding him of the deeds in which he hid himself. from the Lord. For, as God then spoke to Adam in the evening, seeking him, so in the last times with the same voice He sought and visited his generation. From the fact that our bodies return to the earth, it follows that they originated from it; through the coming of the Word the Image of God appeared in us more clearly 1. So, as Adam was created from this land of ours, the Lord, according to the words of Scripture, said to him: “By the sweat of your face you will eat your bread until you return to the land from which you were taken” (Gen. 3:19). If, therefore, our bodies turn after death to some other land, then it follows that they originated from it. If into this very earth, then obviously they were formed from it, just as the Lord showed when he formed eyes from the same (earth). And when the hand of God by which Adam was created, and also we, is clearly visible, when one and the same Father, whose voice is inherent in His creation from beginning to end, and the essence from which we are created is clearly shown by the Gospel, then we should not look for another Father besides Him, nor another essence of our creation, except the one previously mentioned and indicated by the Lord, nor another hand of God, except that which from beginning to end forms us and prepares us for the life that is inherent in His creation and completes him in the image and likeness of God. 2. This Word was revealed when the Word of God became man, likening Himself to man and man to Himself, so that through the likeness with the Son man would become precious to the Father. For, although in former times it was said that man was created in the image of God, this was not shown (by the deed itself), for the Word, in whose image man was created, was still invisible. That's why he easily lost his likeness. When the Word of God became flesh, It confirmed both, for it truly showed the image, Himself becoming what was His image, and firmly restored the likeness, making man through the visible Word similar to the invisible Father. 3. But the Lord revealed both the Father and Himself not only through the above, but also through His very suffering. For He, destroying the disobedience of man, which existed in the beginning regarding the tree, “was obedient even to death, even death on the cross” (Phil. 2:8), correcting the disobedience that was on the tree through obedience on the tree (of the cross). But He would not have come to destroy through the same (image) the disobedience shown to our Creator if He had proclaimed another Father. But since by the very same thing by which we disobeyed God and did not believe His Word, He brought obedience and submission to His Word, He thereby clearly showed the same God, whom we offended in the first Adam by not fulfilling His commandment, and with whom we were reconciled in the second Adam, “having been obedient even to death.” For it was not to whom we were debtors, but to Him whose commandment we transgressed in the beginning. There is one Lord God, Father and Creator of all, who loved us in Christ, gave the commandments and forgave us our sins; Christ showed Himself to be His Son and Word when He forgave sins 1. He is the Creator (Demiurge), Who is the Father in His love, and the Lord in power, and our Creator and educator in wisdom; and we transgressed His commandment and became His enemies. And therefore, in recent times, the Lord, through His incarnation, returned us to friendship, becoming “a mediator between God and men” (1 Tim. 2:5), propitiating for us the Father, against whom we sinned, and with His obedience covering our disobedience and granting us communion with our Creator and obedience. Therefore, He taught us to say in prayer: “and forgive us our debts” (Matthew 6:12), since He is our Father, to whom we became debtors, having transgressed His commandment. Who is He? Is there some unknown Father who has never given commandments to anyone? Or the God preached by the Scriptures, to whom we were debtors, having transgressed His commandment? The commandment was given to man through the Word: “For,” it is said, “Adam heard the voice of the Lord God” (Gen. 3:8,10). Therefore, His Word says well to man: “Your sins are forgiven” (Matthew 9:2; Luke 5:20), so that the same One against whom we sinned in the beginning grants forgiveness of sins in the end. And if we transgressed the commandment of one, and another said: “Your sins are forgiven,” he is neither good, nor true, nor just. For how is he good who gives not from his own? Or how is he just who steals what belongs to others? And how are sins truly forgiven, if not the very one against whom we sinned granted remission “according to the gracious mercy of our God, with whom He visited us” (Luke 1:78) through His Son. 2. Therefore, when He healed the paralytic, it is said: “Seeing this, the nations glorified God, who had given such power to men” (Matthew 9:8). What kind of God did the coming nations glorify? Is the Father unknown, invented by heretics? And how did they glorify Him Who was completely unknown to them? It is evident that the Israelites glorified God, preached by the Law and the Prophets, who is the Father of our Lord; and therefore He taught people to clearly glorify God through the signs He performed. And if He came from one Father, and another Father was glorified by people who saw His miracles, then He made them ungrateful to the Father who sent healing. But since the Only Begotten Son came from Him who is God to save people, and He caused unbelievers to glorify the Father with the miracles He performed, then the Pharisee, who did not accept the coming of His Son and therefore did not believe in the remission (of sins) given by Him, He says: “so that you may know that the Son of man has the power to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6) and, having said this, commanded the paralytic man take up the bed on which he lay and go to his house; With such an action He put the unbelievers to shame and proved that He is the voice of God, through which man received the commandments, which he transgressed and became a sinner, for sins resulted in illness. 3. So, by remitting sins, He healed the man and clearly showed who He is. For if no one can forgive sins except God alone, and the Lord forgave them and healed people, then it is clear that He was the Word of God made the Son of Man, and received from the Father the power to forgive sins, and that He is a man and at the same time God, so that, as a man, He would have compassion for us, and, as God, He would have mercy on us and forgive us our debts that we owe to God our Creator. And therefore David predicted: “Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin” (Ps. 31:1-2), foretelling the remission (of sins) that would follow through His coming—a remission through which He destroyed the handwriting of “our debt and nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:14), so that just as through a tree we became debtors to God, and through the tree we received remission of our debt. 4. This is clearly shown through many other (prophets), especially through the prophet Elisha. For when the prophets who were with him were cutting down trees to build a dwelling and the iron fell from the ax into the Jordan and was not found by them, Elisha came to the very place and, having learned what had happened, threw the tree into the water, and after that the iron of the ax floated up, and those who had lost it took it from the surface of the water (2 Kings 6:4-7): by this action the prophet showed that the strong word of God, which through negligence we lost through the tree and we didn’t find it, we will get it again through the building of the tree. And that the Word of God is like an ax, John the Baptist says about this: “even the ax lies at the root of the trees” (Matthew 3:10). Jeremiah also says: “The word of the Lord is like a hammer breaking down a stone” (Jer. 23:29). This Word, hidden from us, was revealed, as I said, by the economy of the tree. For when we lost Him through the tree, it again became clear to everyone through the tree, showing in itself the height, length, width and depth, and as one of our predecessors said, through the outstretching of hands, gathering two peoples to the One God. Two hands, because two peoples are scattered to the ends of the earth, and in the middle there is one head, because One God is above all, and through all in us all. Everything was created by the power and wisdom of God the Father and His Word, and did not come from imperfection or ignorance; otherwise the Son of God, having received all power from the Father, would not have taken flesh 1. And He accomplished such a great economy not through strangers, but through His own creatures, and not through those who came from ignorance and imperfection, but through those who received their essence from the wisdom and power of His Father. For He is not unjust, so as to desire the things of others, and He is not stingy, so as not to give life to His (creatures) through His own (means), but He uses His creation for the salvation of man. For the creature could not bear Him if it were the fruit of ignorance and imperfection. That the very Word of God incarnate was hanged on a tree, I have shown this more than once, and the heretics themselves admit that He was crucified. How then could a product of ignorance and imperfection bear Him who contains the knowledge of everything and is true and perfect? Or how did the creature, hidden from the Father and far removed, bear His Word? If it was created by angels who do not know or know the Most High God, then how, when the Lord said: “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me” (John 14:1), could the creation of angels bear the Father and at the same time the Son? How did the creature outside the Pleroma receive the One who contains all the fullness? So, if all this is not possible and has no evidence, then only the preaching of the Church is true, that His own Creation, existing from the power, art and wisdom of God, bore Him: it is invisibly carried by the Father, but apparently, on the contrary, it is carried by His Word, and this is true. 2. For the Father bears the creation and at the same time His Word, and the Word, carried by the Father, gives the Spirit to all (creatures), as the Father wants - to some by creation that which is characteristic of the creature, that is, creation, to others by adoption, that is, birth from God. And thus there appears to be One God the Father, Who is above all, and through all, and in all. The Father is above all and He is the head of Christ; through everything is the Word and He is the head of the Church, but in us all is the Spirit, and He is the living water, which the Lord delivers to those who rightly believe in Him and love Him and know that “there is one Father, who is above all and through all and in us all” (Eph. 4:6). The Lord's disciple John testifies to this in the Gospel. saying this: “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and God was the Word. It was with God in the beginning. Everything happened through Him, and without Him nothing happened.” Then he said about the Word itself: “He was in this world, and the world came into being through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His Own, and His Own did not receive Him. And to those who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the power to become children of God.” And again, pointing to the economy regarding human nature, he said: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” And he added: “And we have seen His glory, the glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-3,10-12,14). In this way he clearly shows those who want to hear, that is, those who have ears, that He is One. God the Father is above all, and One Word of God through all, by whom all things were created, and that this world is His own and through Him was created according to the will of the Father, and not through angels, nor through apostasy, imperfection and ignorance, nor through some kind of power of Prunik, which some also call Mother, and not through another and some Creator of the world, an ignorant Father. 3. The Creator of the world is the Word of God, and this is our Lord, who in recent times became man and existed in this world, but invisibly contains all created things and is embedded in all creation, because the Word of God rules and disposes of everything; and for this purpose apparently he came to His own, and became flesh, and stretched out on a tree, in order to restore everything within himself. “And His own people did not receive Him,” as Moses revealed to the people: “And your life will hang before your eyes, and you will not believe your life” (Deut. 28:66). Therefore, those who did not receive Him did not receive life. To those who accepted Him, He gave the power to become children of God. For He has from the Father power over everything, as the Word of God, and is a true man with invisible (creatures), having communication through reason and correctly establishing the law so that everything and everyone remains in its order, over visible and human (creatures), reigning clearly and worthily carrying out His righteous judgment on everyone, as David clearly shows, saying: “Our God will clearly come and will not be silent”; Then he says about His judgment: “A fire will kindle before it and a strong storm will surround it. He will call the heavens above and the earth to judge His people” (Ps. 49:3-4). Comparison between disobedient Eve and the holy Virgin Mary; mention of various heresies 1. So, clearly the Lord came to His own and was carried by His own creation, which was carried by Himself, and corrected the disobedience that was about the tree by His obedience on the tree; and the seduction to which the virgin Eve, already betrothed to her husband, was unfortunately subjected, is destroyed through the truth, about which the virgin Mary, also betrothed to her husband, happily received the gospel from the Angel. For just as she was deceived by the words of the angel to run away from God, transgressing His word, so the other through the words of the Angel received the gospel in order to bear God, obeying His Word. And just as she was disobedient to God, so this one bowed to obedience to God, so that the Virgin Mary would be the intercessor of the virgin Eve. And just as through the Virgin the human race was subjected to death, so through the Virgin it is saved, because the Virgin’s disobedience is balanced by the Virgin’s obedience. The sin of the first-created man received correction through the punishment of the First-born, and the cunning of the serpent was defeated by the simplicity of the dove, and thus the bonds by which we were tied to death were broken. 2. Heretics are all ignorant and do not know the orders of God; they do not know His economy regarding human nature, because they are blind to the truth and speak against their own salvation. Some introduce another Father, above and beyond the Creator of the world, others say that the world and its substance were created by certain angels. Some say that (the substance of the world) is far removed from the Father they supposed, and arose and came into being from itself. Others say that in the region contained by the Father it arose from imperfection and ignorance. Some clearly reject the coming of the Lord, not accepting His incarnation. Others, not knowing the economy of the Virgin, say that He was born of Joseph. Further, some say that neither their soul nor their body can receive eternal life, but only the inner man: by this they mean their inherent mind, which alone, according to their definition, ascends to the Perfect. Others, while allowing the salvation of the soul, reject the participation of their body in salvation from God, as I mentioned in the first book, where I outlined the teachings of all of them, and in the second I showed their powerlessness and groundlessness. We must listen to the shepherds to whom the Apostles entrusted the Church, who contain the same teaching about salvation, and avoid heretics; and it is wise to philosophize about the mysteries of faith 1. All (heretics) are much later than the bishops to whom the Apostles entrusted the Church, and I showed this with all care in the third book. Therefore, the above-mentioned heretics, being blind to the truth and having gone astray, necessarily wander along different roads; and that is why traces of their teaching are scattered here and there without any agreement or connection. The path of those who belong to the Church goes to the whole world, because it has a firm tradition from the Apostles and allows us to see that everyone has the same faith; for everyone accepts one and the same God the Father, and believes in the same dispensation of the incarnation of the Son of God, and knows the same gift of the Spirit, keeps the same commandments, and contains the same image of the structure of the Church, and expects the same coming of the Lord, and allows the same salvation of the whole person, that is, soul and body. And the preaching of the Church is true and firm, since it (the Church) indicates the same path of salvation throughout the world. For she has been entrusted with the light of God, and therefore the “wisdom of God,” through which she saves all people, “is sung as she goes out, openly utters her voice in the streets, preached on the high walls, and spoken constantly at the gates of the city” (Ps. 31:1-2). For the Church preaches the truth everywhere, and she is the seven-branched lamp bearing the light of Christ. 2. Therefore, those who leave the preaching of the Church do not expose the learning of the holy presbyters, not realizing how much more important a simple believer is compared to a blasphemous and shameless sophist. And such are all heretics and those who dream of finding something more besides the truth; following the above-mentioned (teachings), not firmly walking along many and different roads, not always agreeing with each other regarding the same things, they, like the blind, are led by the blind and deservedly fall into the pit of ignorance unnoticed by them, always seeking and never finding the truth. Therefore, one must avoid their teachings and carefully observe so as not to suffer harm from them, but must also resort to the Church and be brought up in its bosom and feed on the Lord’s Scriptures. For the Church is planted (as) paradise in this world. Therefore, “you can eat from every tree of paradise” - says the Spirit of God (Gen. 2:16), that is, eat from every Scripture of the Lord, but do not eat with an arrogant mind and do not touch heretical dissent. For these people preach about themselves that they have the knowledge of good and evil, and exalt their wicked minds above God who created them. They think beyond the measure of understanding. Therefore, the Apostle says: “Do not philosophize more than you ought to philosophize, but philosophize wisely” (Rom. 12:3), so that by eating from their “knowledge”, which philosophizes more than we ought, we will not be cast out from the paradise of life. The Lord introduces into this paradise those who obey His commandment, “heading in themselves all things in heaven and on earth” (Eph. 1:10). By heavenly we mean the spiritual, and by earthly we mean the economy regarding human nature.. This He led in Himself; uniting man with the Spirit and putting the Spirit into man, He Himself became the head of the Spirit and gives the Spirit as the head of man, for through Him (the Spirit) we see and hear and speak. The head of everything is Christ; He had to be a messenger from the Father, the Creator of all, to take human nature and be tempted by Satan in order to fulfill the promises and achieve perfect victory 1. So He took charge of everything, raising war against our enemy and defeating him who first captivated us in Adam, and trampling on his head, as you can read in Genesis that God said to the serpent: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he will keep your head, and you will keep his heel” (Gen. 3:15). For from that time on it was preached about the one who was born of the Virgin wife in the likeness of Adam, as about the head of the serpent, that is, about the seed, about which the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Galatians: “The law of works was given, until the seed came to whom the promise relates” (Gal. 3:19), and shows even more clearly in the same epistle, saying: “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent the Son His own, born of a woman” (Gal.4:4). For the enemy would not have been defeated justly if the one who defeated him had not been a man from a wife. For through his wife he first prevailed over man and made himself man’s enemy. Therefore, the Lord also confesses Himself to be the Son of man, restoring in Himself the firstborn man, from whom woman was created. so that just as through a defeated man our race descended into death, so again through a victorious man we ascended into life, and just as through a man death gained victory over us, so again through a man we received victory over death. 2. But the Lord would not have restored in Himself that ancient and primordial enmity against the snake through the fulfillment of the Creator’s promise and the fulfillment of His commandments, if He had come from another Father. And since the One and the Same created us in the beginning and sent His Son at the end, the Lord, born of a woman, fulfilled His commandment, crushing our enemy and making man in the image and likeness of God. And, therefore, He crushed him by no other means than the utterances of the Law, and took the help of the commandment of the Father to crush and defeat the apostate angel. Like Moses and Elijah, fasting for forty days, He then became hungry, firstly, so that we would understand Him as a true and real man, for it is common for a person to endure hunger when fasting, and secondly, so that the enemy would be able to join the fight. For just as in the beginning he seduced a person who did not suffer from hunger through eating to transgress the commandment of God, so in the end he could not persuade someone who was suffering from hunger to accept food that came from God. When he tempted and said: “If you are the Son of God, then command that these stones become bread,” the Lord reflected him with the commandment of the Law, saying: “It is written: Man cannot live by bread alone” (Matt. 4:3–4; Deut. 8:3). To the words: “if you are the Son of God,” (the Lord) remained silent, but He blinded (the enemy) by recognizing Himself as a man and repelled his first attack through the saying of the Father. Thus, the damage to man that was in paradise through eating both (ancestors) was destroyed through deprivation (of the Lord) in this world. Having been refuted by the Law, (the enemy) himself tried to make an attack also through the introduction of the commandment of the Law. Having brought (the Lord) to the highest wing of the church, he said: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written: God has commanded His angels concerning You, and in their hands they will bear You up, lest You dash Your foot against a stone” (Matt. 4:6; Ps. 90:11), hiding lies through Scripture, as all heretics do. For it is written that “he commanded his angels concerning him,” but no scripture says about throwing himself down, but the Devil himself brought this suggestion. The Lord also refuted it through the Law, saying: “It is also written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God” (Matt. 4:7; Deut. 6:16), and with these words of the Law He showed, of course, what applies to man, because man should not tempt God, but in relation to him (the enemy), since he appeared as a man, he indicated that he should not tempt the Lord his God. Therefore, the exaltation of reason that was in the serpent was crushed by the humility of man, and the Devil was twice defeated by the Scriptures, because he was exposed as the instigator of the contrary to the commandment of God and the enemy of God by his disposition. Greatly ashamed, he, as if gathering with his strength and concentrating all his power in a lie, for the third time “showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them,” saying, as Luke mentions: “I will give all this to you, because it has been committed to me and to whom I want to give it, if you will fall down and worship me” (Luke 4:6-7). The Lord, exposing who he was, said: “Get thee behind, Satan, for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and serve Him only” (Matthew 4:10), - with this name exposing him and at the same time showing Himself who He was. For the Hebrew word "Satan" means apostate. So, having defeated him for the third time, He finally drove him away from Himself, as if he had been legally defeated; and the transgression of the commandment of God that was in Adam was destroyed through the commandment of the Law, which the Son of Man kept, without transgressing the commandment of God. 3. Who is the Lord God, of whom Christ testifies, whom no one should tempt, whom all should worship and serve alone? This is, without a doubt, the same God who gave the Law. For this was foretold in the Law and the Lord showed by the saying of the Law that the Law from the Father proclaims the Word of the Lord, but the angel who departed from God is brought down through His voice, having been convicted of what he is, and defeated by the Son of Man, who kept the commandment of God. For just as at the beginning He persuaded man to transgress the commandment of the Creator, which is why he had him in his power, and his power consists in crime and apostasy, with which he bound man, on the other hand, he himself had to be defeated through man and be bound by the same bonds with which he bound man, so that man, freed, would return to his Lord, leaving those bonds with which he was bound, i.e. crime. For his binding was the liberation of a person, because “no one can enter the house of a strong man and plunder his things, unless he first binds the strong man (Matthew 12:29; Mark 3:27). Therefore, the Lord convicts him of contradicting God, who created everything, and defeats him through the commandment, and the commandment of God is the Law. As a man, He showed him as a fugitive and a criminal of the Law and an apostate from God, and then, as the Word, He bound him tightly as His fugitive, and plundered his vessels, that is, the people whom he owned and unjustly used. And rightly the one who unjustly captured the man was taken captive; and the previously captive man was rescued from the power of the possessor by the mercy of God the Father, Who took pity on His creation and granted him salvation, restoring it through the Word, that is, through Christ, so that man would know by experience that not by himself, but by the gift of God, he received incorruptibility. The true Lord and One God is proclaimed by the Law and revealed through His Son Christ in the Gospel; We must worship Him alone and expect every good thing from Him. 1. When in this way the Lord clearly shows that the one proclaimed by the Law is the true Lord and the One God, - for that God, Whom the Law proclaimed, Christ declares to be the Father, Whom the disciples of Christ must serve, and with the sayings of the Law defeats our enemy, - the Law commands us to glorify the Creator as God and serve Him alone - then we should not look for another Father besides Him or above Him, “for there is One God who justifies circumcised by faith and uncircumcised by faith" (Rom. 3:30). For if there was another perfect Father above this (God), then (Christ), of course, would not have refuted Satan through His sayings and commandments. Ignorance cannot be destroyed through another ignorance, just as a deficiency cannot be eliminated by (another) deficiency. If, therefore, the law arose from ignorance and deficiency, then how could the sayings contained in it defeat the ignorance of the Devil and defeat the strong? For the strong cannot be defeated by the weaker or the equal, but only by the strongest. But most powerful of all is the Word of God, which cries in the Law: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God.” and: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul”; and: “Worship Him and serve Him alone” (Deut. 6:4–5,13). In the Gospel, striking apostasy with the same sayings, He defeated the mighty one with the word of the Father and recognized the commandment of the Law as His sayings, saying: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” For it was not by means of others, but by means of His Father’s own utterance that He struck down the adversary and defeated the mighty one. 2. By the same commandment He taught us, liberated, to accept, when we feel hunger, the food given by God, but when we are placed at the height of every gift, we should not at all - relying on works of righteousness, or adorned with the highest degree of service - be exalted and tempt God, but in everything to be humble and always keep in mind (the words): “Do not tempt the Lord your God,” just as the Apostle teaches, saying: “Do not be arrogant, but follow the humble” (Rom. 12:16); (we should not) be carried away by either wealth, or worldly glory, or a real ghost, but know that we must “worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone” and not trust the one who falsely promised something that was not his own, saying: “I will give all this to you if, having fallen, you will worship me.” He himself admits that to worship him and do his will means falling away from the glory of God. And what pleasure or benefit can a fallen one have? And what else can such a person hope or expect except death? For death is very close to the fallen. Moreover, he cannot deliver what he promised. For how will this be delivered to the fallen? Further, since God rules over people and over himself, and without the will of our Heavenly Father even a sparrow will not fall to the ground, he said the words: “all this has been handed over to me and to whomever I want I will give it,” he said, pompous with pride. For creation is not in his power, since he himself is one of the creatures. And he cannot give people the kingdom of man, but all other things and human affairs are arranged by order of God the Father. The Lord says that “The devil is a liar from time immemorial and does not stand in the truth” (John 8:44). If he lies and does not stand in the truth, then it means that he was not telling the truth: “all this has been given to me, and I will give it to whomever I want,” but he was lying. Through the lies of the Devil, Adam sinned on the sixth day of creation, on which he was restored through Christ. 1. He is already accustomed to lying about God to deceive people. For, in the beginning, when God gave man many different foods and forbade him to eat from only one tree, as, according to the Scriptures, God said to Adam: “We can eat from every tree in paradise; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; the day you eat of it, you will die” (Gen. 2:16–17); then he, speaking a lie against God, tempted the man, as, according to Scripture, the serpent said to the wife: “Why did God say: do not eat from every tree of paradise?” And when she pointed out the lie and simply retold the commandment in the words: “we can eat from every tree of paradise, but from the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of paradise, God said: do not eat from it and do not touch it, lest you die,” then, having learned from the wife the commandment of God, he used cunning and again deceived her with a lie, saying “you will not die the death: for God knew that on the day on which you eat from it, your eyes, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:1-4). Firstly, in the paradise of God he talked about God as if He did not exist, for he did not know the greatness of the Divine. Then, having learned from his wife that God said that they would die if they ate the named tree, he told a third lie: “You will not die.” And that God is true and the serpent is deceitful, this turned out to be true when death befell those who tasted it. For along with eating they also accepted death, because they tasted in disobedience, and disobedience to God brings death. Therefore, from that time they were put to death, becoming her debtors. 2. So they died on the very day on which they tasted and became debtors to death, because there is one day of creation. For it is said: “there was evening and there was morning, one day” (Gen. 1:5). And on that very day that they ate, on that very day they died. In accordance with the circle and course of days, according to which one is called the first, another the second, and another the third day, if anyone wants to carefully find out which of the seven days Adam died, he will discover this from the dispensation of the Lord. For, restoring the whole man in Himself from beginning to end, He repeated his death. Therefore, it is obvious that the Lord, obeying the Father, accepted death on the same day on which Adam died, disobedient to God. On the day he died, on that day he ate. For God said: “The day you eat of it, you will die.” Restoring this day in Himself, the Lord came to suffer on the day before the Sabbath, that is, on the sixth day of creation on which man was created, through His suffering giving him a new creation, that is, (liberation) from death. Some still believe the death of Adam in the thousandth year; for since “the day of the Lord is as a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8), he did not cross a thousand years, but died within its boundaries, fulfilling the sentence for a crime. So, whether in relation to disobedience, which is death, or because from that time they were given over to death and became debtors to it, or in relation to the same day on which they ate and died, since one day of creation, or in relation to the course of days, since they died on the same day on which they ate, that is, on Friday, which is called the Clean Supper, i.e., on the sixth day, which the Lord indicated by suffering on this day 140, or because he did not cross a thousand years, but died within its boundaries - in all respects God turns out to be true, for those who ate of the tree died, but the serpent appeared as a liar and a murderer, as the Lord says about him: “he is a murderer from time immemorial and does not stand in the truth.” About the constant lies of the Devil and about earthly authorities that must be obeyed, since they were established by God and not by the Devil 1. Just as (the Devil) lied at the beginning, so he lied in the end, saying: “all this has been handed over to me and I give it to whomever I want.” For it was not he who determined the kingdom of this age, but God: “for the heart of the king is in the hand of God” (Prov. 21:1). And through Solomon the Word says: “By me kings reign and nobles administer justice. By me are princes exalted, and by me do rulers reign over the earth” (Prov. 8:15) and the Apostle Paul says about the same thing: “Be submissive to all higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God; the existing authorities have been established by God.” And he also says about them: “for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is God’s servant, an avenger to punish those who do evil.” And that he said this not about angelic authorities, not about invisible princes, as some dare to interpret, but about human authorities, he shows this with the words: “For this reason you pay taxes, for they are God’s servants, constantly occupied with this” (Rom. 13: 1, 4, 6). The Lord confirmed this, not doing what was suggested by the Devil, but commanding that taxes be given to the tax collectors for Himself and for Peter, for they are “God’s servants, constantly busy with this.” 2. Since man, having departed from God, reached such a frenzy that he considered his half-blood an enemy and fearlessly indulged in all kinds of violence, murder and greed, God imposed human fear on him, since people did not know the fear of God, so that those subordinate to human power and bound by the law would achieve a certain degree of justice and mutually restrain themselves from the fear that is in the sight of everyone, the sword, as the Apostle says: “For he beareth not the sword in vain; he is God’s servant, an avenger to punish those who do evil.” And therefore, the rulers themselves, who have laws as clothing of truth, will not be punished for their fair and legal actions. And if they act to overthrow justice, wickedly, illegally and tyrannically, then they will die for this, because the righteous judgment of God equally extends to everyone and bypasses no one. So, for the benefit of the nations, an earthly government was established by God - and not by the Devil, who is never calm and does not want to leave the nations alone - so that, fearing human power, people would not eat each other like fish, but through legislation they would suppress the various untruths of the nations. And therefore, those who take taxes from us (rulers) are “God’s servants, who carry out their service for this very purpose.” 3. “The existing authorities have been established by God,” it is obvious that the Devil is lying when he says: “(all this) has been handed over to me and I give it to whomever I want.” For by whose command men are born, by the command of the same kings are appointed, fit for those who at that time are ruled by them. Some of them are given for the improvement and benefit of the subjects and for the preservation of truth, some for intimidation, punishment and reproach; others for seduction. reproach and arrogance, as (subjects) deserve, because the righteous judgment of God, as I said above, extends to everyone equally. The devil, as an apostate angel, can only do what he did in the beginning - to seduce and seduce the human soul into transgressing the commandments of God and little by little blind the hearts of those trying to serve him, so that they forget the true God and worship him as God. 4. How if an apostate takes someone’s country as an enemy, he will outrage its inhabitants, so that those who do not know that he is an apostate and a robber will appropriate for themselves the glory of a king; so the Devil, being one of the angels who rule over the air, as the Apostle Paul declared in his letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 2:2), having envied man, became an apostate from the Divine law, for envy is contrary to God. And since his apostasy was revealed through man and man was a means to test his favor, therefore he became more and more hostile to man, envious of his life and wanting to consolidate him in his apostate power. But the organizer of everything, the Word of God, defeating him through human nature, and exposing his apostasy, on the contrary, subdued him to human power, saying: “Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19), so that, just as through apostasy he received power over man, so again that apostasy would be abolished through man again turning to God. Deceit, pride and the tyrannical reign of the Antichrist as described by Daniel and Paul 1. And not only from the above, but also from what will happen under the Antichrist, it is clear that he, being an apostate and a robber, wants to be worshiped as God, and, being a slave, wants to be proclaimed king. He, having received all the power of the Devil, will come not as a righteous and lawful king, consisting in obedience to God, but as a wicked, unrighteous and lawless, as an apostate, a villain and a murderer, as a robber, repeating in himself the devil’s apostasy; he will eliminate idols in order to suggest that he himself is God, but he will exalt himself as one idol and will concentrate in himself various errors relating to other idols, so that those who worship the Devil through various abominations will serve him through this idol: about him the Apostle in the second letter to the Thessalonians says this: “until the apostasy comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who resists and exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits in the church of God, presenting himself as if he were God” (2 Thess. 2:3-4). The Apostle clearly shows his apostasy and that he will exalt himself above everything called God or that is sacred, that is, above every idol, for the gods that people call are not gods, and that he will tyrannically [by violence, threats] try to present himself as God. 2. Moreover (the Apostle) also revealed what I have repeatedly pointed out - namely, that in Jerusalem the church was built by order of the true God. For the Apostle himself, on his own behalf, definitely called it the church of God. And I showed in the third book that not a single Apostle on his own behalf called anyone God, except the true God, the Father of our Lord, at whose command the Jerusalem Temple was built for the reasons I have given: the enemy will sit in it, trying to present himself as Christ, just as the Lord says: “When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything from his house. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor will there ever be” (Matthew 24:15–17,21). 3. Daniel, regarding the end of the last kingdom, that is, the last ten kings, among whom their kingdom will be divided and on whom the son of destruction will come, says that the beast will grow ten horns and in the middle of them another small horn will grow, and that three of the first horns will be cut off from his face. He says: “And behold, this horn had eyes like the eyes of men, and a mouth that spoke all sorts of things, and its appearance was greater than others. I saw, and this horn raised war against the saints and prospered against these, until the Ancient of Days came and gave judgment to the saints of the Most High God, and the time came and the saints received the kingdom” (Dan. 7: 8, 20-22, 23-25). Then in the explanation of the visions it was said to him: “Fourth - here will be the fourth kingdom on earth, which will surpass the other kingdoms and devour the whole earth, trample it and crush it. And his ten horns - ten kings will rise, and after them another will rise, who will surpass in evil (deeds) all those who were before him, and will humble the three kings, and will speak words against the Most High God and destroy the saints of the Most High God and will plan to change the times and the Law; and (everything) will be given into his hands until the time of times and half a time,” that is, for three years and six months, during which he will reign on earth. About him the Apostle Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians, also showing the reason for his coming, says this: “And then the wicked one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the manifestation of His coming, whose coming, according to the work of Satan, will be with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception for those who are perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth for their own sake. salvation. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, so that they will believe a lie, so that all who did not believe the truth, but loved unrighteousness, may be condemned” (2 Thess. 2:8-12). 4. And the Lord said the same thing to those who did not believe Him: “I came in the name of My Father, and you did not receive Me; when another comes in his name, you will receive him” (John 5:43), by “another” we mean the Antichrist, who is alien to the Lord: he is “an unrighteous judge, about whom the Lord said that “he neither feared God nor was ashamed of men” (Luke 18:2 et seq.), to whom a widow who had forgotten God, that is, earthly Jerusalem, resorted to take revenge on the enemy. This is what he will do during his reign: he will move the kingdom to this (city) and sit in the church of God, deceiving those who worship him, as if he were Christ. Therefore, Daniel also says: “and the holy place will be desolate: and sin is given as a sacrifice, and righteousness is thrown to the ground, but he did it and prospered well” (Dan. 8:12,23 et seq.). And the angel Gabriel, explaining his vision, says about this: “and at the end of their kingdom a king will arise, very shameless in face and understanding (dark) questions; His power is great and amazing, and he will destroy, build and create, and destroy the mighty and the holy people; and his yoke will be like a golden chain around his neck; deceit is in his hand, and he will be magnified in his heart, and by his deceit he will destroy many, and will bring destruction to many, and will break it with his hand like an egg.” Then it also means the time of his tyranny, in which the saints will be recognized as offering a pure sacrifice to God: “and in half a week,” he says, “the sacrifice and drink offering will be destroyed, and the abomination of desolation will be in the church, and until the end of time there will be complete desolation” (Dan. 9:27), half a week means three years and six months. 5. From all this, not only the details of the apostasy and the deeds of the one who will restore in himself all the devil’s delusions are revealed, but also that God is the same Father, proclaimed by the prophets and revealed by Christ. For if the Lord confirmed Daniel’s prophecies about the end, saying: “when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel” (Matthew 24:15), - the angel Gabriel explained the vision to Daniel, and he is the archangel of the Creator of the world, who announced to Mary the visible coming and incarnation of Christ - then it obviously turns out that it is the same God who sent the prophets, and promised the Son, and called us to His knowledge. John and Daniel predicted the destruction of the Roman Empire, preceding the end of the world and the eternal Kingdom of Christ 1. The disciple of the Lord John showed even more clearly about the last time and about its ten kings, among whom the now ruling kingdom will be divided, in Revelation, explaining what the ten horns, seen by Daniel, are; he says that he was told this: “And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received the kingdom, but will take power with the beast as kings for one hour. They have the same thoughts and will transfer their strength and power to the beast. They will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings” (Rev. 17:12-14). So, it is obvious that the one who is coming will kill three of them, and will subject the rest to his power, and he will be the eighth among them; and they will devastate Babylon and burn it with fire and hand over their kingdom to the beast and persecute the Church, and then they will be crushed by the coming of our Lord. For the fact that the kingdom must be divided and thus perish, the Lord says about this: “every kingdom divided against itself will be desolate, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand” (Matthew 12:25). The kingdom, the city, and the house must be divided into ten, and therefore He has already indicated fragmentation and division in advance. Daniel also clearly calls the end of the fourth kingdom the feet of the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar, into which the cut-off stone did not strike with hands, and as he says: “the feet—one part of iron, and the other of clay—until the stone came off without hands and struck the image at the feet of iron and clay and finally crushed them.” Then in the explanation he says; “Since you saw the feet and fingers, one part of them was clay and the other was iron, the kingdom will be divided, but at the base it will be iron, just as you saw that iron was mixed with clay. And the toes are one part iron and the other clay.” So, ten toes are ten kings, among whom the kingdom will be divided and of which some are strong and active, and others are sluggish, useless and discordant, just as Daniel says: “one part of the kingdom will be strong, and the other weak. Since you saw iron mixed with clay, there will be confusion in the human race and one will not be in bond with the other, just as iron is not bonded with clay.” And that this will end, he says: “and in the days of those kings, the God of Heaven will raise up a Kingdom that will never be crushed, and His kingdom will not be left to another people, but it will crush and scatter all kingdoms, and will itself be exalted forever. As you saw that a stone without hands was torn away from the mountain and crushed clay, iron, copper, silver and gold, then the Great God through this showed the king what would happen in time, and the dream is true and its interpretation is correct” (Dan. 2:33-34,41-45). 2. So, if the great God through Daniel showed the future, and through the Son confirmed it, and Christ is a stone, cut off without hands, who will destroy temporary kingdoms and establish an eternal (kingdom), that is, the resurrection of the righteous, as it is said: “The God of Heaven will raise up a kingdom that will never be destroyed,” then let those who reject the Creator of the world and do not recognize that there were prophets be ashamed and come to their senses sent by the same Father from whom the Lord came, but they claim that the prophecies came from different powers. For what was predicted by the Creator of the world equally through all the prophets, Christ fulfilled in the end, obeying the will of His Father and carrying out His orders regarding the human race. Therefore, those who blaspheme the Creator of the world, either in direct words and openly, like the followers of Marcion, or through a perversion of the teaching (Scripture), like the followers of Valentinus and all those falsely called Gnostics, should be recognized by all who worship God as instruments of Satan, through which Satan now, and not before, apparently turned out to slander God, who prepared eternal fire for all apostasy. For he did not dare to openly blaspheme his Lord on his own, just as in the beginning he deceived man through the serpent, as if hiding from God. Justin said well that “before the coming of the Lord, Satan never dared to blaspheme God, because he did not yet know his condemnation. since the prophets also spoke about him in parables and allegories; after the coming of the Lord, having clearly learned from the speeches of Christ and His disciples that eternal fire was prepared for him, who, according to his own thoughts, apostatized from God, and for all those who unrepentantly remained in apostasy, he (now) through such people blasphemes the Lord, who subjected him to judgment, as if he had already been condemned, and the sin of his own apostasy is attributed to the Creator of him, and not to his own will, just like the criminals of the law who are subjected after punishment, they complain about legislators, and not about themselves” 141. So these people, filled with the spirit of the devil, make countless accusations against our Creator, Who gave us the spirit of life and established a Law suitable for all, and they do not want to recognize God’s judgment as fair. That’s why they invent some other Father, who does not care or provide for our affairs, or even approves of all sins. About the future judgment of Christ, about communication with God, about the eternal torment of unbelievers 1. If the Father does not judge, then either it does not belong to Him, or He approves of all actions, and if He does not judge, then everyone will be equal and will be considered in the same state. Then, it means that the coming of Christ will be unnecessary and even inconsistent with anything, because He does not judge. For “He came to divide a man with his father, and a daughter with her mother, and a daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law” (Matthew 10:35), and when there are two on one bed; take one and leave the other, and when the two lie together, take one and leave the other” (Luke 17:34-35); in the end, order the reapers to first gather the tares and bind them into bundles and consign them to unquenchable fire, and put the wheat into the granary (Matthew 13:30), and to call the sheep into the prepared Kingdom, and send the goats into the eternal fire prepared by His Father for the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25 et seq.). And what else? The Word came to the fall and rising of many. To the fall, of course, of those who did not believe Him, whom He threatened with greater punishment in judgment than to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, but to the uprising of those who believe and do the will of His Heavenly Father. So, if the coming of the Son applies equally to everyone and He is the Judge and Separator of believers and unbelievers, because believers do His will according to their own will, and unbelievers do not approach His teaching according to their own will, then it is obvious that His Father created everyone equally and everyone has his own will and free reasoning, and that He looks at everything and provides for everything, “commanding His sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sending rain on the righteous and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). 2. And to all who keep love for Him, He gives His fellowship. Communication with God is life and light and enjoyment of all the good things that He has. And those who of their own free will depart from Him, He subjects them to excommunication from Himself, which they themselves chose. Separation from God is death, and separation from the light is darkness, and alienation from God is the deprivation of all the blessings that He has. Therefore, those who, through their apostasy, have lost the above, as deprived of all goods, are in all kinds of torment, not because God Himself subjected them to punishment in advance, but punishment befalls them as a result of their deprivation of all goods. But the blessings of God are eternal and without end, therefore their deprivation is eternal and without end, just as those who blind themselves or are blinded by others in relation to the immeasurable light are always deprived of the sweetness of light, not because the light causes them the torment of blindness, but blindness itself causes them misfortune. And therefore the Lord said: “he who believes in Me is not condemned,” that is, he is not separated from God, for through faith he is united with God. “But the unbeliever is already condemned, because he did not believe in the name of the Only Begotten Son of God,” that is, he voluntarily separated himself from God. “The judgment is that light has come into this world, but people loved darkness rather than light. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed. But he who does what is right comes to the light, so that his deeds may be made clear, because he has worked in God” (John 3:18–21). About the difference between the righteous and the wicked; about the future apostasy under the Antichrist and the end of the world 1. So, since in this world some come to the light and through faith are united with God, while others turn away from the light and themselves are separated from God, the Word of God comes and prepares a decent home for everyone - those who are in the light to enjoy it and its benefits, and those who are in darkness to endure its disasters. And therefore He says that those on the right side are called to the Kingdom of the Father, and those on the left side He will send into eternal fire, for they have deprived themselves of all blessings. 2. And therefore the Apostle says: “Because they did not accept the love of God 142 for their salvation, for this reason God will send them strong delusion, so that they will believe a lie, so that all who do not believe the truth, but who have loved unrighteousness, will be condemned” (2 Thess. 2:10-12). For when he (the Antichrist) comes, he will, at his own request, restore apostasy to God, and according to his own will he will do the works that please him, and will sit in the church of God, so that those deceived by him will worship him as Christ, which is why he will rightly be “thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 19:20). God, in His foreknowledge, knows all this in advance and at the appropriate time will send such a person, “so that they will believe lies, so that all who do not believe the truth, but love unrighteousness, will be condemned.” John depicted his coming in Revelation this way: “And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; His legs are like those of a bear, and his mouth is like the mouth of a lion; and the dragon gave him his strength and his throne and great authority. As I saw, one of his heads seemed to be mortally wounded; but this mortal wound was healed, and all the earth marveled, watching the beast, and they worshiped the dragon, who gave power to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying: Who is like this beast? And who can fight him? And a mouth was given to him speaking proudly and blasphemously, and authority was given to him to continue for forty-two months. And he opened his mouth to blaspheme God, to blaspheme His name, and His habitation, and those who dwell in heaven. And authority was given to him over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all who dwell on the earth worshiped him, whose name was not written in the book of life of the Lamb, which was slain from the foundation of the world. He who has ears, let him hear. He who leads into captivity will himself go into captivity; whoever kills with the sword must himself be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of the saints” (Rev. 13:2-10). Then he speaks of his armor bearer, whom he also calls a false prophet: “he spoke like a dragon, and acted before him with all the power of the first beast; and forced the whole earth and those living on it to worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. And he will do great signs, so that fire will also come down from heaven on the earth before men, and it will deceive those who live on the earth” (Rev. 13:11-14). This (is said) so that no one thinks that he will do the sign by divine power, and not by magic. And it should not be surprising that when he is served by demons and apostate angels, through them he performs signs with which he deceived those living on earth. Further (John) says: “and he will command that an image of the beast be made, and he will give spirit to the image, so that the image (of the beast) will speak and act in such a way that those will be killed; who will not worship him. For a mark will be placed on the forehead and on the right hand, so that no one can buy or sell except he who has the mark of the name of the beast or the number of his name; and the number thereof is six hundred and sixty and six” (Rev. 13:15–18), that is, six times one hundred, six times ten, and six ones, to restore all the apostasy that had existed for six thousand years. 3. For in as many days as this world was created, so many thousands of years will it last. And therefore the book of Genesis says: “And the heavens and the earth were finished, all their adornment. And God finished on the sixth day all His works that He had done, and on the seventh day He rested from all His works that He had done” (Gen. 2:1-2). And this is both a legend about the past, how it happened, and a prophecy about the future. For the day of the Lord is like a thousand years, and since creation was completed in six days, it is obvious that it will end in the six thousandth year. 4. And therefore at all times man, first created by the hands of God, that is, through the Son and the Spirit, is made in the image and likeness of God, since the tares, which are apostasy, are cast away, and the wheat, that is, the grain that bears fruit in God, is put into the granary. Therefore, for those who are being saved, tribulation is necessary, so that in some way those who have been polished, refined, and through patience imbued with the Word of God and purified by fire, will be fit for the Royal feast. So one of our people, condemned to be eaten by beasts for witnessing about God, said: “I am the wheat of Christ and will be ground with the teeth of beasts, so that I may become the pure bread of God” 143 . Everything was created for the benefit of man; about the deceit and malice of the Antichrist 1. In the previous books I presented the reasons why God allowed this, and showed that all this was created for man to be saved, in order to make that which has free will and autocracy ripe for immortality and more conveniently prepare it for eternal obedience to God. And therefore the creation is adapted to man, for man was not made for the creation, but the creation was created for man. The peoples, who did not even raise their eyes to heaven, did not offer thanks to their Creator and did not want to see the light of truth, but like blind mice were immersed in the depths of ignorance, the Word (of God) rightly called “as if a drop from a tub, as if by a small inclination of the scales and as if by nothing” (Isa. 40: 15,17): they are as useful and suitable for the righteous as the stem is useful for growth. wheat and straw for burning and processing gold. Therefore, when the church at the end is suddenly taken from here, then “there will be,” it is said, “trouble, such as was not from the beginning and will not be” (Matthew 24:21). For this is the last struggle of the righteous, in which, having won, they are crowned with immortality. 2. And therefore in the coming beast there will be a restoration of all wickedness and all deceit, so that all the apostate power, having gathered and been confined in him, will be cast into the fiery furnace. And by the way, his name will have the number 666, because he restores in himself all the confusion of evil that existed before the flood and occurred from the angelic apostasy. For Noah was 600 years old when the flood came upon the earth to destroy the rebellion of the earth because of the wicked generation that was in the time of Noah. And he (the Antichrist) will restore all the delusion of fictitious idols and the killing of the prophets and the burning of the righteous that happened after the flood. For the image erected by Nebuchadnezzar had a height of 60 cubits and a width of six cubits, and because of it Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, who did not worship him, were thrown into the fiery furnace, through their adventure prophetically showing the burning of the righteous that was to take place in the end. For all that image was a foreshadowing of his coming and indicated that all people should worship him alone. So, the 600 years of Noah, during which there was a flood due to apostasy, and the number of cubits of the image, because of which the righteous were thrown into the burning furnace, mean the number of the name of the one in whom all six thousand years of apostasy, untruth, wickedness, and false prophecy and deception are restored, which is why the fiery flood will come (to the earth). Although the number of the name of the Antichrist is known, we should not rashly assert anything about the name itself, because the number applies to many names; about the kingdom and the death of the Antichrist 1. In this state of affairs, and when this number is in all the best and ancient lists (of Revelation), and those who personally saw John testify to this, and when reason teaches us that the number of the name of the beast, in accordance with the Greek number, according to the letters contained in it, concludes, six hundred and sixty-six, that is, as many tens as hundreds, and as many hundreds as units, - for the same repetition of the number “six” indicates the restoration of everything apostasy (Antichrist), which was in the beginning and in the middle and will be at the end of time - then I do not know how some, out of ignorance, fell into error, distorting the average number of the name, subtracting five to ten from it and putting one ten instead of six tens. I think that this arose from a scribal error, as usually happens, since numbers are represented by letters, and the Greek letter expressing the number sixty easily turned into the Greek letter iota. Others later accepted this without investigation, and moreover, they simply and blindly used the number ten, while some, out of their foolishness, dared to look for a name containing an erroneous and incorrect number. To those who did this in simplicity and without malicious intent, I think God will grant forgiveness. As for those who, out of their vanity, decide to determine the names of an erroneous number and assign some name invented by them to the one who is coming (the Antichrist), then they will not come out without harm, because they deceived both themselves and those who believed them. And the first harm is that they deviated from the truth and accepted non-existent things as true, then they will certainly be subject to considerable punishment, which will be the one who adds or subtracts anything from Scripture. In addition, another considerable danger threatens those who falsely arrogate to themselves knowledge of the name of the Antichrist. For if they assume such and such a name, and he comes with another, they will easily be deceived by him, (thinking) that there is no one yet whom they should beware of. 2. Therefore, such people must learn and return to the true number of the name, so as not to be counted among the false prophets. But those who know the correct number announced by Scripture, i.e. the number 666, let, firstly, allow the division of the kingdom between ten, then, secondly, when these kings reign and begin to correct their affairs and multiply their kingdom, and suddenly someone who has the above-mentioned number in his name comes, appropriating the kingdom for himself and bringing fear to the mentioned (kings), let them admit that this one is truly an abomination desolation. This is what the Apostle says: “When they say: peace and security, then destruction will suddenly befall them” (1 Thess. 5:3). Jeremiah revealed not only his sudden coming, but also the tribe from which he would come, saying: “from Dan we will hear the neighing of his swift horses, and at the sound of the neighing of his galloping horses the whole earth will shake, and he will come and devour the earth with its fullness, and the city with its inhabitants (Jer. 8:16). And therefore this tribe is not counted in Revelation among those being saved (Rev. 7:5-7). 3. Therefore, it is more correct and safer to wait for the fulfillment of the prophecy than to assume and predict any names, for many names may be found containing the above-mentioned number, and yet this question will remain unresolved. For, if there are many names containing this number, then, the question arises, which one will he who is coming (the Antichrist) wear? I say this not because of the lack of names containing the number of his name, but because of the fear of God and zeal for the truth, for the name Evanphas (ΕYΑΝΘΑΣ) contains the desired number, but I do not assert anything about it. And the name Latin (ΛΑΤΙΝΟΣ) has the number 666, and it is very likely that the last kingdom will bear this name: for now the Latins reign, but I do not want to boast about it. But of all the names we find, Titan - if we write the first syllable using two Greek vowels Ε and Ι (ΤΕΙΤΑΝ) - is the most likely, for it contains the above-mentioned number and consists of six letters, each syllable having three letters; it is ancient and uncommon, because none of our kings was called Titan, and not one of the idols openly revered by the Greeks and barbarians has such a name; but among many it is revered as divine, so that the sun is also called Titan by the current rulers and contains some allusion to vengeance and the avenger, since he (the Antichrist) pretends to be avenging the oppressed. In addition, it is an ancient, plausible, royal name, and more suitable for a tyrant. Therefore, if the name “Titan” has so many reasons in its favor, then there is a very high probability of concluding that the coming one (the Antichrist) may be called Titan. However, I do not dare to affirmatively declare this as the name of the Antichrist, knowing that if it were necessary at this time to openly proclaim his name, it would be declared by the very one who saw the revelation. For the revelation took place not long before our time, but almost in our century, at the end of the reign of Domitian. 4. He shows the number of the name (of the Antichrist) so that we may beware when he comes, knowing who he is; His name was kept silent, because it was unworthy to be proclaimed by the Holy Spirit. For; if it had been announced by Him, then perhaps he would have remained for a long time. And now, since “he was and is not, and will come out of the abyss and go into destruction” (Rev. 17:8), as if he did not exist, then his name is not proclaimed, for the name of one who does not exist is not proclaimed. When the Antichrist will devastate everything in this world, reign for three years and six months and sit in the temple of Jerusalem, then the Lord will come from heaven on the clouds in the glory of the Father, and will send him and those who obey him into the lake of fire, and will give the righteous the times of the Kingdom, that is, rest, the sanctified seventh day, and will restore to Abraham the promised inheritance, the Kingdom, in which, according to the Lord, “many from the east and west they will come to lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Matthew 8:11). The preservation of our bodies is confirmed by the resurrection and ascension of Christ; the souls of the saints are awaiting the time when they will receive full glory 1. But some of those who are revered as true believers transgress the established order of exaltation of the righteous and do not know the ways of preparing for incorruption, containing heretical opinions; for the heretics, disparaging the creation of God and not recognizing the salvation of their flesh, despising the promise of God and exalting themselves above God in their thoughts, say that immediately after their death they will ascend above the heavens and the Demiurge and go to the Mother or to the Father they have invented. Those who reject the complete resurrection and, as much as they can, completely eliminate it, what is surprising if they do not know the order of the resurrection? They do not want to understand that if this were so, then the Lord Himself, in whom, according to them, they believe, would not have risen on the third day, but having died on the cross would have immediately ascended, leaving the body to the earth. But He stayed for three days in the place where the dead were, as the prophet says about Him: “The Lord remembered His saints who had died, who had previously fallen asleep in the burial ground, and He came down to them to bring them out and save them.” 144 And the Lord Himself says: “As Jonah remained in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). And the Apostle says: “And He ascended - what does it mean if not that He also descended into the depths of the earth” (Eph. 4:9). David also, prophesying about Him, says: “And You delivered My soul from the lowest hell” (Ps. 75:13; 29:4). Having risen on the third day, He said to Mary, who was the first to see Him and worshiped: “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father, but go to the disciples and tell them: I am ascending to My Father and your Father” (John 20:17). 2. So, if the Lord kept the law of the dead in order to be the firstborn from the dead and remained until the third day in the underworld of the earth, and then, rising in the flesh, so that he even showed the disciples the marks of the nails, so he ascended to the Father: then how will they not be ashamed who say that “the underworld of the earth” is the world around us, and that their inner man, leaving his body here, ascends to a heavenly place? For when the Lord “walked among the darkness of death” (Ps. 22:4), where the souls of the dead were, and then rose bodily and ascended after the resurrection: it is obvious that the souls of His disciples, for whose sake the Lord did this, will go to the invisible place assigned to them by God, and there they will remain until the resurrection, waiting for Him *****, then having taken on bodies and having been completely resurrected, that is, bodily, just as the Lord was resurrected, so they will go into the presence of God. “For no disciple is greater than his teacher; but when everyone is perfected, everyone will become his teacher” (Luke 6:40). Therefore, just as our Teacher did not immediately fly away and depart (to heaven), but waiting for the time of His resurrection determined by the Father, which was also indicated through Jonah, after three days he rose and ascended, so we must wait for the time appointed by God for our resurrection, foretold by the prophets, and, having thus risen, ascend as much as the Lord finds worthy of this 145. The saints in that flesh, in which they suffered much here, will receive the fruits of their exploits 1. Since the thoughts of some are carried away by heretical speeches and they do not know the orders of God and the mystery of the resurrection of the righteous and the Kingdom, which is the beginning of incorruption and through which the worthy gradually become accustomed to containing God; then it must be said that the righteous must first, having risen to see God, in a renewed creation, receive the promised inheritance that God promised to the fathers, and reign in it, and then judgment will come. For it is right that in the same creation in which they labored or were subjected to tribulations, tested in every possible way in suffering, they should receive the fruits of their suffering, and in the creation in which they were killed for love of God, they should be revived in the same, and in the creation in which they suffered slavery, they should reign in the same. For God is rich in everything, and everything belongs to Him. It is also necessary that the creation itself, restored to its primitive state, should serve the righteous without hindrance; and the Apostle showed this in his letter to the Romans, saying thus: “For the creation waits with hope for the revelation of the sons of God; because the creation was subjected to vanity, not voluntarily, but for the sake of him who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself would be freed from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19-21). 2. So the promise of God given to Abraham remains firm. For He said. “Lift up your eyes and look from this place where you are, north and south and east and west, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your seed forever.” And he also says: “Arise and walk through the land in its length and breadth, for I will give it to you” (Gen. 13:14–15,17); however, (Abraham) did not receive even a single step of inheritance in it, but was always a stranger and stranger in it. And after the death of his wife Sarah, when the Hittites wanted to give him a place for her burial for free, he did not want to accept, but bought a place for burial, paying four hundred didrachms of silver, from the Hittite Ephron Saar, expecting the promise of God, and not wanting it to seem that he was receiving from people what God promised to give him, also saying: “To your seed I will give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates" (Gen. 15:18). So, if God promised him the inheritance of the earth, but he did not receive it throughout his entire existence, then he must receive it with his seed, that is, those who fear God and believe in Him, at the resurrection of the righteous. For his seed is the church, which receives adoption to God through the Lord, as John the Baptist says: “God is able to raise up the children of Abraham from these stones” (Luke 3:8) And the Apostle says in the letter to the Galatians: “you, brethren, are the children of promise according to Isaac” (Gal.4:28). And he also clearly says in the same epistle that those who believe in Christ receive Christ, the promise to Abraham, in the following words: “The promises were given to Abraham and to his seed.” It is not said: “and to your descendants, as if they were many, but as one, and to your seed, which is Christ.” And, again confirming what was said, he says: “So Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know then that those who believe are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the Gentiles by faith, foretold to Abraham: in you all nations will be blessed. Therefore those who believe will be blessed with faithful Abraham” (Gal.3:16,6-9). Thus the believers will be blessed with faithful Abraham, and they are the sons of Abraham. God promised Abraham and his seed the inheritance of the land, but neither Abraham nor his seed, i.e. Those who are justified by faith do not receive the inheritance therein at this time, but they will receive it at the resurrection of the righteous. For God is true and faithful; and therefore He called the meek “the meek, because they will inherit the earth” blessed (Matthew 5:5). Confirmation of the same from the promises of Christ the Savior and from the blessing of James, according to the interpretation of Papias and the elders 1. Therefore, going to suffer in order to preach the gospel to Abraham and to those who are with him the revelation of the inheritance, (Christ) gave thanks, holding the cup and drinking from it and giving it to the disciples, saying to them: “Drink from it, all of you; For this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the growth of this vine until that day when I drink new wine with you in the kingdom of My Father” (Matthew 26:27-29). Thus He Himself will renew the inheritance of the earth and restore the mystery of the glory of His sons, as David says: “He has renewed the face of the earth” (Ps. 103:30). He promised to drink from the vine with His disciples, showing both the inheritance of the land on which the new vine is drunk, and the fleshly resurrection of His disciples. For the new flesh is resurrected, and it also receives a new cup. And He cannot be imagined drinking from the growth of the vine, when He, together with His own, is in a heavenly place; Those who have Him again cannot be without the flesh, for the drink obtained from grapes belongs to the flesh, and not to the spirit. 2. And therefore the Lord said: “When you make lunch or dinner, do not invite the rich, nor friends, nor neighbors and relatives, lest they in turn invite you and you receive reward from them, but call the lame, the blind, the poor, and you will be blessed that they cannot repay you, for you will be rewarded at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:12-14). And He also says: “And whoever leaves his lands or home or parents or brothers or children for My sake will receive a hundredfold in this age and will inherit eternal life in the future” (Matthew 19:20; Luke 18:29-30). For what is a hundredfold reward in this century for lunches and dinners given to the poor? This takes place during the time of the Kingdom, that is, on the sanctified seventh day, on which God rested from all His works, which is the true Sabbath of the righteous, when they will not do anything earthly, but will have a meal prepared by God, providing them with all kinds of food. 3. The same meaning is contained in the blessing of Isaac, with which he blessed his youngest son, saying: “This is the smell of my son, like the smell of a full field, which the Lord has blessed”; the field is peace, and therefore he added: “God will give you from the dew of heaven and from the fatness of the earth an abundance of wheat and wine. And the nations will serve you, and princes will worship you, and you will be the master of your brother, and the sons of your father will worship you. Whoever curses you will be cursed, and whoever blesses you will be blessed” (Gen. 27:27-29). If anyone does not understand this in relation to the predetermined kingdom, he will fall into great contradiction and inconsistency, as happened with the Jews, who were entangled in every incongruity. For not only in this life did the nations not serve this Jacob, but even after the blessing, he set out (from his home) and served his Syrian uncle Laban for twenty years, and not only did he not become his brother’s master, but he also bowed to his brother Esau when he returned from Mesopotamia to his father, and brought him many gifts. Moreover, how did he inherit an abundance of wheat and wine, who, due to famine in the land in which he lived, moved to Egypt and submitted to the Pharaoh who then reigned in Egypt? So the above blessing undoubtedly refers to the times of the Kingdom, when the righteous will reign, having risen from the dead, when the renewed and liberated creation will bear fruit in abundance of all kinds of food from the dew of heaven and from the fatness of the earth. So the elders, who saw John the disciple of the Lord, said that they heard from him how the Lord taught about those times and said: “The days will come when grape trees will grow, and on each there will be ten thousand vines, on each vine there will be 10 thousand branches, on each branch there will be 10 thousand twigs, on each twig there will be 10 thousand tassels, and on each bunch there will be 10 thousand berries and Each squeezed berry will yield twenty-five meters of wine. And when one of the saints takes up a brush, the other (brush) will cry out: “I am the best brush, take me; bless the Lord through me. in the same way, a grain of wheat will bear 10 thousand ears, and each ear will have 10 thousand grains, and each grain will yield 10 pounds of pure flour; and other fruit trees, seeds and herbs will produce in accordance with this measure, and all animals, using the food received from the earth, will be peaceful and in harmony with each other and in perfect submission to people” 146. 4. Papias, the disciple of John and the companion of Polycarp, an ancient man, testifies to this in writing in his fourth book, for he compiled five books 147. He added the following: “This is worthy of faith for believers. When Judas the traitor did not believe this and asked how the Lord would create such an abundance of growth, the Lord said: those who reach those (times) will see this.” About these times, Isaiah, prophesying, says: “And the wolf will graze with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat, and the calf, and the ox, and the lion will graze together, and a little boy will lead them. And the ox and the bear shall feed together, and their children shall feed together, and the lion shall eat chaff like the ox; and the little child shall lay his hand on the cave of the asps and on the bed of the children of the asps, and they will do no harm and cannot destroy anyone on My Holy Mountain” (Isaiah 11:6-9). And, repeating again, he says: “Then wolves and lambs will graze together, and the lion will eat chaff like the ox, and the serpent will eat the earth like bread; and they will not harm or do evil in My Holy Mountain, says the Lord” (Isaiah 65:25). I know that some are trying to attribute this to wild people belonging to different nations and different occupations, who will believe and, having believed, will come together with the righteous. But, although even now this (is true) in relation to some people from different tribes who come to the same mind of faith, nevertheless, at the resurrection of the righteous it will come true in relation to those animals, as it is said: for God is rich in everything. And it is necessary that with the renewal of creation, all animals should submit and obey man and return to the original, God-given food, as they were (initially) subdued by Adam, i.e., the growths of the earth. The fact that the lion will eat chaff indicates something other than the present tense. This means the abundance and nutritional value of fruits; for if the animal lion eats chaff, then what kind of wheat will be from which the chaff will be suitable for lions to eat? Confirmation of the opinion about the earthly kingdom of the saints by the testimonies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel, as well as the parable of the watchful servants 1. Isaiah himself clearly announced that there would be such joy at the resurrection of the righteous, saying: “The dead will rise, and those who are in the graves will rise, and those who are on the earth will rejoice” (Is. 26:19). Ezekiel says the same thing: “Behold, I will open your graves and bring you out of your graves, when I have brought My people out of the graves, and I will give you spirit and you will live; and I will establish you in your land, and you will know that I am the Lord” (Ezek. 37:12-14). And he also says: “Thus says the Lord: I will gather Israel from all the nations, wherever they are scattered, and I will be sanctified in them in the sight of the children of the nations; and they will live in their land, which I gave to my servant Jacob, and they will live in it in hope, and they will build houses and plant vineyards; and they will live on it in hope, when I will judge all those who have reproached them, who live around them; and they will know that I am the Lord their God and the God of their fathers” (Ezek. 28:25–26). A little higher I already said that the church is the seed of Abraham; and therefore, so that we know that the One who, according to the Old Testament, has to gather those who are being saved from all nations, in the New Testament raises up the children of Abraham from stones, Jeremiah says: “Behold, the days will come, says the Lord, and they will say no more: as the Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel (from the land of Egypt; but as the Lord lives, who brought them) from the north and from every country; where they were exiled, and will return them to their land, which He gave to their fathers" 148. 2. That all creation, by the will (of God), will achieve great growth, so that they will give birth and bear such fruits, Isaiah says about this: “And there will be water flowing on every high mountain and on every exalted hill on that day when many will perish, when the walls will fall. And the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and (the light of the sun will be) seven times that day, when (the Lord) will heal the brokenness of His people and heal the disease of His plague” (Isaiah 30:25-26). “The disease of the plague” means the one with which man was initially struck for disobedience in Adam, that is, death: it will be healed by God, who raises us from the dead and returns us to our father’s inheritance, as Isaiah also says: “You will trust in the Lord and will bring you into all the earth and feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father” (Is. 58:14). This is what the Lord said: “Blessed are those servants whom the Lord comes and finds awake; Truly I say to you, he will gird himself and make them sit down, and he will go over and serve them. And if he comes at the evening watch and finds them like this, blessed are they. because he will plant them and serve them, and if the second time (he comes), they are blessed” (Luke 12:37–38). And in Revelation: “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:6). Isaiah also announced the time when this would happen: “And I said,” he says, “How long, Lord? Until the cities are desolate, so that they are not inhabited, and the houses are not without people, and the earth remains empty: And after this God will continue us people, and those who are left will multiply in the earth” (Is. 6:11). And Daniel says the same thing: “And the kingdom, and the power, and the majesty of them that are under heaven, are given to the saints of the Most High God, and His everlasting kingdom and all powers will serve and obey Him” (Dan. 7:27). And so that they would not think that the promise refers to the present time, the prophet is told: “And you also come and stand in your lot at the end of days” (Dan. 12:13). 3. And that the promises were announced not only to the prophets and fathers, but also to the churches made up of nations, which the Spirit also calls “islands” - because they are placed in the midst of disturbances and endure a storm of blasphemies and serve as a refuge for those in danger and a refuge for those who love the heights (heavenly) and try to avoid the depths, that is, error - Jeremiah says this: “Hear, O peoples, the words of the Lord, proclaim to these islands, say that the Lord, who scattered Israel, will gather him and keep him, like a shepherd his flock of sheep; for the Lord delivered Jacob and snatched him out of the hand of his mightiest. And they will come and rejoice on Mount Zion, and they will come to good things (of the Lord) and to a land of wheat, wine, fruits, animals and sheep, and their soul will be like a fruitful tree, and they will no longer hunger. And then the virgins will rejoice in the assembly of the young men, and the elders will rejoice, and I will turn their mourning into joy and comfort them, and I will magnify and give joy to the soul of the priests, the sons of the Levi, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness” (Jer. 31:10-15). And I showed in the previous book 149 that all the disciples of the Lord are Levites and priests: they violated the Sabbath in the church, but are not guilty. Such promises very clearly point to the feast of that creature in the Kingdom of the righteous, which God himself promises to serve. 4. Again about Jerusalem and about His kingdom in it, Isaiah says: “Thus says the Lord: Blessed is he who has seed in Zion and servants in Jerusalem. Behold, a righteous king will reign and princes will rule with judgment” (Is. 31:9, 32:1). And about the foundation on which it will be recreated, he says: “Behold, I will prepare for you a carbuncle stone and a sapphire for your foundation, and I will make your fences of jasper, and your gates of crystal stone and your fence of chosen stones, and all your sons (will be) taught by God, and your sons (will be) in great peace, and you will be built on righteousness” (Is. 54:11-14). And He also says: “Behold, I bring joy to Jerusalem and to My people; neither the voice of crying, nor the voice of crying will be heard in it anymore, there will be neither a baby nor an old man who will not fulfill his time; For the youth will be a hundred years old, and the sinner will die a hundred years and will be cursed. And they will build houses and live themselves, and plant vines, and they themselves will eat their fruit and drink wine. They will not build, but others will live, and they will not plant, but others will eat. For the days of my people will be like the days of the tree of life, for the works of their labors will remain” (Isa. 65:18-23). 1. If anyone tries to take this kind of promise as an allegory, then they will not find themselves in agreement with themselves in everything and will be convicted by the power of those very sayings; these are the words: “when the cities of the nations are so desolate that they will not be inhabited, and the houses will be without people, and the land will remain desolate” (Is. 6:11); for behold, says Isaiah, the day of the Lord is coming without healing, full of wrath and wrath, to devastate the city and the land and destroy the sinners from it” (Is. 13:9); and again: “the wicked will be taken not to see the glory of the Lord” (Is. 26:10), and when this is accomplished, “God will continue the people, but those who remain will multiply on the earth; and they will build houses and live in them, and plant vines and eat themselves” (Is. 6:12; 65:21). For all these and other (words) are indisputably spoken regarding the resurrection of the righteous, which is to take place after the coming of the Antichrist and the destruction of all nations under his rule: - at that time the righteous will reign on earth, growing from the vision of the Lord and through Him they will learn to embrace the glory of God and will enjoy in the kingdom conversion and communication with the holy angels and unity with spiritual beings - and regarding those whom the Lord will find in flesh of those waiting for Him from heaven, who suffered persecution, but escaped the hand of the wicked: about them the prophet says: “And those who remain will multiply on the earth.” And that believers, how many of them God has prepared so that those who remain will multiply on earth, will serve this Jerusalem and the Kingdom (of Christ) in it in the Kingdom of Saints - Jeremiah speaks about this: “Look, O Jerusalem, to the east and you will see joy coming to you from God Himself. God, your sons whom you sent forth will come, gathered from east to west by the word of that saint, rejoicing in the glory of your God. Take off, O Jerusalem, the garment of thy weeping and sorrow, and put on the beauty of eternal glory from thy God; put on the double robe of righteousness from your God, put on your head the miter of eternal glory. For God will show your lordship to all under heaven. For your name will forever be called from God Himself - peace of righteousness and glory to him who honors God. Arise, O Jerusalem, and stand on high, and look to the east, and you will see your sons gathered from the rising of the sun to the west by the word of that Holy One, rejoicing in the memory of God. For they left you on foot when they were led by enemies, but God will bring them to you, carried with glory, like the throne of a kingdom. For God has determined that every high mountain and everlasting hill should be humbled, and that the valleys should be filled to level the surface of the earth, so that Israel, the glory of God, might walk in safety. The forests will provide shade and every tree will provide fragrance for Israel itself by the command of God. For God will come with joy, the light of his glory, with mercy and righteousness from him” 150. 2. All such sayings cannot be understood in relation to the heavenly world; for it is said: “God will show your lordship to all under heaven, but it refers to the times of the kingdom, when the earth will be called back by Christ (to its primitive state) and Jerusalem will be recreated in the image of the Jerusalem above, about which the prophet Isaiah speaks: “Behold, I have written your walls on My hands, and you are always in My sight” (Is. 49:16). In the same way, the Apostle in the Epistle to the Galatians says: “But Jerusalem which is above is free; he is the mother of us all" (Gal. 4:26): and this he speaks not with the thought of the wandering Aeon or of any power that came out of the Pleroma, and of the Pruik, but of Jerusalem written on the hands (of God). And this same (Jerusalem) John in Revelation saw descending to a new earth. For after the times of the kingdom, “I saw,” he says, “a great white throne and him sitting on it, from whose presence heaven and earth fled, and no place was found for them.” And he sets forth what pertains to the general resurrection and judgment, saying that he “saw the dead, great and small. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell gave up the dead that were in them; and the books were opened. But the book of life was also opened, and the dead were judged from what was written in the books, according to their deeds; and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, the second death.” This is called Gehenna, which the Lord called eternal fire. “And whoever,” it is said, “was not written in the book of life, was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:11-15). Then he says: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and God. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, neither mourning, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:14). And Isaiah says the same thing: “there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and they will not remember the former, and it will not come into their hearts, but they will find joy and gladness in it” (Is. 65:17-18). This is also said by the Apostle in the words: “the image of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31). Likewise, the Lord says: “earth and heaven will pass away” (Matthew 5:18). With the passing of these, according to the disciple of the Lord John, the new heavenly Jerusalem will descend to earth, like a bride adorned for her husband, and this is the tabernacle of God, in which God will dwell with people. This Jerusalem is an image—Jerusalem on the former earth, in which the righteous are first prepared for incorruption and prepared for salvation. And Moses received the image of this tabernacle on the mountain, and nothing can be taken as an allegory, everything is true, true and essential, having been created by God for the enjoyment of righteous people. For just as there truly is God who resurrects man, so truly man rises from the dead, and not allegorically, as I have repeatedly shown. And just as truly he is resurrected, so truly he will be prepared for incorruption and will grow and strengthen during the times of the kingdom, so that he will be capable of receiving the glory of the Father. Then, when everything is renewed, he will truly dwell in the city of God. For (John) says: “And he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I will make all things new. And the Lord says: Write everything, for these words are true and true. And he said to me, “It is finished” (Rev. 21:56). And that's how it should be. People will truly be resurrected; the world will not be destroyed, but there will be different abodes for the saints according to the dignity of each; everything will submit to God the Father and He will be all in all 1. Since people are true (people), then their location must also be true and not turn into insignificance, but succeed in its existence. For neither the substance nor the essence of creation is destroyed - for He who created it is true and faithful - but “the image of this world passes away,” that is, that in which the crime was committed, because man became worn out in it. And therefore this image was created temporary, according to God’s foreknowledge of everything, as I showed this in the previous book 151, and also showed, if possible, the reason for the creation of temporary things of the world. When this image passes and man is renewed and strengthened for incorruption so that he can no longer decay, then there will be a new heaven and a new earth, in which a new man will dwell, always conversing with God about something new. And that this will always continue without end, Isaiah says: “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I create remain before Me, so will your seed and your name become (Is. 66:22). And, as the elders say, then those worthy of heavenly sojourn will move there, i.e. to heaven, others will enjoy the pleasures of paradise, others will possess the beauty of the city, but God will be visible everywhere, as those who see Him will be worthy. 2. Moreover (they say) there is a difference between the habitation of those who bear fruit a hundredfold, and those who bear fruit sixtyfold, and those who bear fruit thirtyfold; some of them will be taken to heaven, others will live in paradise, others will live in the city; and therefore the Lord said that the Father has many mansions (John 14:2). For everything belongs to God, who gives a decent dwelling to everyone; just as His Word says that everything is divided by the Father according to how someone is or will be worthy. And this is the table at which those invited to the wedding feast will sit down to dine. This, according to the elders, the disciples of the apostles, is the distribution and order of those who are saved, and through such gradualness they are perfected - through the Spirit they ascend to the Son, and through the Son to the Father, because the Son will then transfer His work to the Father, just as it was said to the Apostles: “For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy will be destroyed by death.” For, during the time of the kingdom, a righteous person, while on earth, will already forget to die: “When it is said that everything is subdued, it is clear that except for Him who subdued (Him) everything. When everything submits to Him, then the Son Himself will submit. He who has put all things in subjection to Him, may God be all in all” (1 Cor. 15). 3. So, John clearly foresaw the first resurrection of the righteous and their inheritance in the kingdom of the earth; The prophets also predicted about him according to him. The Lord also taught about the same thing, promising with his disciples to have a new dissolution of the cup in the kingdom (Matthew 26:29). And the Apostle confessed that the creation will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the sons of God (Rom. 8:21). And in all this and through everything, the same God the Father is revealed, who created man and promised the fathers an earthly inheritance, bringing her (from slavery) into the resurrection of the righteous, and fulfilling the promises in the kingdom of His Son, and then fatherly giving what the eye has not seen, nor the ear has heard, and what has not entered the hearts of people. For there is one Son, who accomplished the will of the Father, and one human race, in which the sacraments of God are performed, “which the angels desire to see” (1 Peter 1:12), and cannot comprehend the wisdom of God, through which His creation is perfected, becoming conformed and co-corporeal with the Son, so that the generation of His first-born Word descends into creation, i.e. creation (bodily) is embraced by it, and on the other hand, creation receives the Word and ascends to Him, rising above the angels, and becomes in the image and likeness of God 152. That is, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, as Irenaeus says in IV.20 and V.6. That is, from the depths of the Father into the world. This passage is very incorrect in the Latin text, and therefore it is translated conjecturally, in accordance with the train of thought of Irenaeus. In lat. the text uses patrum instead of “spiritual”, as read in Greek. text in the Parallels of John of Damascus. Mark 5:22, which speaks not of the high priest, but of the ruler of the synagogue. See Mark 5:41–43 and Luke 7:14–15. Irenaeus combines in his text the details of two events told by the evangelists. Phil.3:20–21. The last words of this place do not agree with either the Greek text of the Apostle or the Vulgate. That is, the vision of a person born blind. The Greek text of Justin's quoted words was preserved by Eusebius (Church history IV, 18); but the work of Justin, from which they are extracted, has not reached us and remains unknown. Elsewhere (25:3) Irenaeus reads: “the love of truth.” Ignatius of Antioch. Epistle to the Romans. Translated by Fr. Peter Preobrazhensky's mistake. According to the original text of St. Irenaeus’s souls do not expect “Him” (God), but the resurrection. So in both the Greek and Latin versions: “ἀναστάσεως φοιτῶσι περιμένουσαι τὴν ἀνάστασιν”, “ad resurrectionem cominorabuntur, sustinentes resurrectionem." The correct translation of this fragment from the ancient Greek language would be as follows: “Souls go to the place established for them by God, and remain there until the resurrection (ἀναστάσεως), awaiting the resurrection (ἀνάστασιν): then, having received bodies and being completely resurrected, that is, bodily, as the Lord himself was resurrected, they will go and appear before God’s gaze.” Elsewhere, St. Irenaeus of Lyons points out that the martyrs go to the Father: “The Church in every place, out of its love for God, sends at all times many martyrs to the Father” (Against heresies, book 4, chapter 33, paragraph 9). The next five chapters, omitted in some of Irenaeus's handwritten codes, were first published by Feyardeus according to the Vossian codex; He explains their omission by the fact that medieval scribes rejected them because of the teaching they contained about the thousand-year reign of Christ, which was not recognized by the Church. Harvey published quotations from these chapters, which are preserved in Syriac and Armenian manuscripts. Excerpts from these same chapters are preserved in Eusebius and in the Parallels of Damascus. These words of the elders exist in an Armenian translation, a fragment of which was found in an Armenian manuscript of the 12th century. and published by Pitroy (Specil Solesm, 1852); from here Harvey reprinted it in his edition. Titled: “Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord.” Evs. Church ist. III, 39. Jer.23:7–8. The words placed in brackets are omitted from the copies of Irenaeus's work, probably due to a copyist error. These words are not found in Jeremiah, but in a non-canonical book (IV, 36 and V to the end). Grabbe and others guess that what is missing here is the conclusion of Irenaeus’s work, which is probably lost. You might be interested in: