Chapter 12. The Agreement of the Laws in the Old and the New Covenants Proves the Identity of God in Both.
Chapter 12
1. In point of fact, the tradition of the elders, which they pretended to observe as part of the Law, was contrary to the Law given by Moses. On this account Isaiah, too, said, Your dealers mix the wine with water. Thus he showed that the elders mixed with God’s severe precept the watered-down tradition, that is, they set up a spurious law, one contrary to the Law. This the Lord made clear when he said to them, Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? But they not only set at naught God’s Law by transgression, mixing wine with water; they also set up, in opposition to it, their law, which even now is called Pharisaical. In it they remove some precepts but add others, and others still they interpret as they please. These precepts their teachers especially employ. Since they wished to defend them as traditions, they refused to submit to God’s Law, which instructs them about Christ’s coming. Why, they blamed the Lord when he healed on the Sabbath, which, as we have said, the Law did not forbid. Really, they themselves, in a certain sense, heal on the Sabbath by circumcising on the Sabbath. But they did not rebuke themselves for transgressing God’s precept by the tradition and the Pharisaical law mentioned, and for not keeping the precept of the Law, that is, the love for God.
2. The Lord taught us that that is the first and greatest commandment, and that the next is the one toward our neighbor, when he said that the entire Law and the Prophets depend on these commandments. He himself did not bring a greater commandment than this; no, he renewed this very one, ordering his disciples to love God with their whole heart and others as themselves. Now if he had descended from some other father, he would never have adopted from the Law the first and greatest commandment, but would certainly have striven by every means to refer this greater commandment to the perfect Father, and not use the one given by the God of the Law. Paul, moreover, said, Love is the fulfilling of the Law; and that, when all things have been abolished, faith, hope and love abide, but that the greatest of these is love; and that knowledge without love toward God is worthless, so are also the knowledge of mysteries and faith and prophecy—all are, without love, meaningless and futile, whereas love perfects the perfect man; and that the man who loves God is perfect in this world and in the future. In truth, we will never cease to love God; rather, the more we will see him, so much the more will we love him.
3. So, just as in the Law and in the Gospel the first and the greatest commandment is to love the Lord God from our whole heart, and after that, one similar to it, to love one’s neighbor as oneself, so the Author of the Law and of the Gospel is shown to be one and the same. To be sure, since the commandments of the perfect life are the same in both covenants, they manifest the same Lord who prescribed particular precepts suitable to each covenant, but for the more excellent commandments, even the best, without which one cannot be saved, he ordered the same ones in both [covenants].
4. Now, the Lord does not confound (this God) by showing that the Law is from another God, when he says as follows to the crowds and the disciples whom he used to teach: The Scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe all things whatever they tell you; but not what they do; for they preach but do not practice. They bind heavy sacks and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. So he did not blame the Law given by Moses, which he exhorted to be kept, while Jerusalem was still intact. But he did rebuke those who, though they proclaim the words of the Law, are devoid of love, and for this reason were unjust toward God and their neighbor. As Isaiah said, This people honors me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and precepts of men. The Law given by Moses he did not call “precepts of men” but the traditions that the priests themselves fabricated and that they defended, and so set at naught God’s Law and were, in consequence, not subject to his Word. In fact, that is what Paul said concerning them, Being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the Law, that everyone who has faith may be justified. And how is Christ the end of the Law if he is not also its beginning? For he who brought on the end is the same one who wrought the beginning. He it is who says to Moses, I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I am come down to deliver them. So the Word of God was accustomed from the beginning to ascend and descend for the sake of the salvation of those who were ill.
5. That the Law taught man in advance that he must follow Christ, he himself made clear to the one who asked him what he must do to inherit eternal life. He answered, If you would enter life, keep the commandments. And when he asked, Which? Our Lord said, You shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Thus to those who wish to follow him, he proposed the commandments as steps for entering life. He addressed these points to one, but he meant them for all. The man, however, said, All these I have observed. But perhaps he had not, since it would not have been said to him, Keep the commandments. So the Lord, exposing his avarice, said to him, If you would be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and divide them among the poor and come, follow me. To them, then, who would do this, he promised the portion of the apostles. He did not announce to those who would follow him a God the Father different from the one who had been announced from the beginning by the Law, nor another Son, nor mother, the Intention of the Aeon that was in suffering and in degeneracy, nor the Fullness of thirty Aeons, which was shown to be empty and unstable, nor a fable that was invented by other heretics. No, he taught them to keep the commandments that God ordered from the beginning, and to do away with their former avarice by good works, and to follow Christ. Zacchaeus made it clear that one does away with the past avarice when one divides his possessions among the poor. He said, Behold, one half of my possessions I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.