Chapter 33. The True Disciple of the Apostles
Chapter 33
1. Such a disciple, truly spiritual, who receives the Spirit of God—the Spirit who was with men in all God’s economies from the beginning, and announced future things and pointed out present things and narrated past things—such a one judges all men but is himself judged by no one. He judges the Gentiles, who serve the creature rather than the Creator, and with a base mind consume all their energy without gain. He judges also the Jews, who do not receive the message of liberty, and who refuse to go free, though they have the Liberator present; but who are out of date in pretending, [by practices even] beyond the Law, to serve God who is in need of nothing. They do not acknowledge Christ’s coming, whom he made Man for the salvation of men; and they refuse to understand that all the Prophets proclaimed two comings of Christ. In the one, he became Man subject to stripes, knowing how to bear infirmity, and sitting on the foal of an ass, and rejected by the builders as a stone, and led to slaughter like a sheep, and who destroyed Amalech by stretching out his hands; who gathered from the ends of the earth into the Father’s sheepfold the children who had been scattered; who remembered his dead who had fallen asleep before, and descended to them in order to free and save them. In the second coming, however, he will come upon clouds, and will bring on the Day which is like a burning furnace, and will strike the earth with the sword of his mouth, and will slay the wicked with the breath through his lips,and will have a winnowing fork in his hands, and he will clear his threshing floor, and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
2. The spiritual disciple will also judge the doctrine of Marcion. How does he hold that there are two gods, though they are separated from each other by an infinite distance? Or how can he be good if he draws men who do not belong to him away from the one who made them and calls them to his kingdom? And why is his goodness deficient for not saving all? And why does he seem to be good toward men, but is most unjust toward him who made men, inasmuch as he deprives him of his possessions? Moreover, how could the Lord, if he is of another Father, rightly have professed that the bread from this creation of ours is his Body, and that the mixture of the chalice is his Blood? And why did he acknowledge himself to be the Son of Man, if he did not experience human birth? Again, how could he forgive us our sins, for which we were responsible to our Maker and God? How, too, if he was not flesh, but appeared as man, was he crucified, and blood and water flowed from his side when it was pierced? Since they buried his body, what was it that rose again from the dead?
3. The spiritual disciple will also judge all the followers of Valentinus, who, though with the tongue they profess one God and Father and that all things are from him, assert that he who made all things is the fruit of degeneracy. Likewise, though with the tongue they profess one Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, in their teaching they make a special emission of Only-begotten, and a special one of Word, and another of Christ, still another of Savior, with the result that according to them, though these are all spoken of as one, they are really all understood separately, and each has a special emission by his own conjugal couple.
And so only their tongues concede a unity; but their doctrine and thought, when examined thoroughly, fall short of unity; and they will fall into the multiform judgment of God, when they will be questioned about the things which they have thought up,—by the Christ, who, they assert, had a later birth than the Fullness of the thirty Aeons, and whose emission occurred after the degeneracy [of wisdom] and because of the passion that wisdom suffered, according to their assertion, at whose childbirth they themselves assisted.
Now, Homer, their own prophet, will accuse them—by whom they have been instructed and in whom they have discovered such things. This is what he says, “In truth, a man who hides something in his heart, different from what he tells, is as much an enemy as the gates of Hades.” He [the spiritual disciple] will also judge the empty speeches of the depraved Gnostics, showing them to be the disciples of Simon Magus.
4. He [the spiritual disciple] will also judge the Ebionites: How can they be saved unless God is the one who worked their salvation upon the earth? How can man pass over to God if God has not passed over to man? How can men forsake the birth unto death if they are not regenerated by faith into the new birth, the one from the Virgin, that has been given in an unexpected manner by God, as a sign of salvation? Or what sort of adoption can they receive if they remain in the human birth in this world? How did he possess more than Solomon and more than Jonah, and how was he Lord of David, who was of the same nature as they? How did he overcome him who was stronger than men, who had not only conquered man, but had held him subject under his power; and how did he conquer him who had conquered, but loosed man who had been conquered, if he was not superior to man who had been conquered? Who else is superior to and more eminent than the man who was made after the likeness of God, if not God’s Son, after whose likeness man was made? And for this reason he manifested the likeness in the last times, when God’s Son was made man, assuming the ancient handiwork unto himself, as we have demonstrated in the preceding book.
5. He will also judge those who hold that Christ is man only putatively. For how do they think that they are truly debating if their Teacher was imaginary? Or how can they have anything secure from him if he was only putative and not the Truth? How can they truly partake of salvation, if he, in whom they claim to believe, showed himself as putative? So, if with them everything is putative, and not the Truth, then one might ask: Perhaps, since they themselves are not men but dumb animals, do they not parade before many as shades of men?
6. He will also judge the false prophets, who have not received the grace of prophecy from God and do not fear God but, either because of vainglory, or because of some gain, or for some other reason according to the influence of the evil spirit, pretend to prophesy but are lying against God.
7. He will also judge those who bring about schisms and are devoid of God’s love, who consider rather their own advantage than the unity of the Church, and for slight and chance reasons cut to pieces and divide the great and glorious Body of Christ and, as far as is in their power, kill it. They speak of peace, but wage war; they truly strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. To be sure, they cannot bring about restoration that will be as great as the destruction of the schism.
He will also judge those that are outside the Truth, namely, who are outside the Church. He, however, will be judged by no one. Really, all things are consistent for him. There is the faith intact in the one God Almighty, from whom are all things. There is the secure persuasion in God’s Son, Christ Jesus Our Lord, through whom are all things, and in the economies relative to him, through which God’s Son was made man. This [persuasion] is by God’s Spirit, who furnishes us with the knowledge of the Truth and has set forth the economies of the Father and the Son, by virtue of which he dwelt among men, for the benefit of men, in keeping with each generation, just as the Father wills.
8. The true knowledge is the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church in the whole world, and the distinctive character of the Body of Christ according to the succession of the bishops, to whom they [apostles] handed down the Church, which is in every place. This [knowledge] has come down even to us. It is a safeguarding without fictional matter, the fullest account of the Scriptures, with neither addition nor subtraction; it is, likewise, a reading [of the Scriptures] without falsification; it is a correct and harmonious explanation according to the Scriptures, without danger and without blasphemy; it is, finally, the preeminent gift of love, which is more precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, more excellent than all the rest of the charisms.
9. On this account, the Church, because of her love for God, sends a multitude of martyrs ahead to the Father everywhere and always. All these others not only have no such thing to show among themselves, but they claim that it is not even necessary to have such martyrdom (witness), because their doctrine is the true martyrdom (witness). Yet they might concede that during the entire time since Our Lord appeared on earth, one or two have at times borne the opprobrium of the Name together with our martyrs, as having obtained mercy and been led forth with them [to death], and as having been given to them as an adjunct. Really, only the Church upholds intact the opprobrium of those who suffer persecution for the sake of justice, and who endure all the pains and are put to death on account of love for God and on account of the confession of his Son. She is always having members amputated, but soon increases her members and becomes whole again, just as her type, the salt statue of Lot’s wife. They endure persecutions, just like the ancient Prophets, as the Lord said, For so they persecuted the prophets before you, because, since the same Spirit rests upon her, though in a new manner, she suffers persecution at the hands of those who do not accept the Word of God.
10. In fact, the Prophets also foretold, along with the rest of the things they prophesied, this: that those upon whomever God’s Spirit would rest, and who would obey the Father’s Word, and serve him according to [their] capacity, would suffer persecution and be stoned and killed. Really, the Prophets prefigured all this in themselves, on account of the love for God and his Word. For, since they themselves were members of Christ, each one of them, according to his own membership, manifested a prophecy. All of them, many as they were, prefigured the One [Christ], and announced the things that pertained to that One. For example, by our members the activity of the entire body is manifested; the shape, however, of the entire man is not manifested by one member, but by all. So all the Prophets prefigured the One, but each of them according to his membership fulfilled an economy and performed in advance that activity of Christ which was in keeping with his membership.
11. Some of them saw him in glory and beheld his glorious mode of life at the right of the Father. Others saw him coming on the clouds like the Son of Man, and said of him, They will look on him whom they have pierced, thus pointing out his coming. He himself said of his coming, When the Son of Man comes will he find faith on earth? Paul, too, refers to this event when he says, God deems it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant rest with us to you who are afflicted when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire. Others calling him the Judge and the Day of the Lord a burning furnace, who gathers the wheat into the granaries but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire, threatened the unbelievers. Of these the Lord himself said, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels. The Apostle speaks in the same strain, They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed in him. There are those who said, You are the fairest of the sons of men; and, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness about your fellows; and, Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one. In your majesty and your beauty ride forth victoriously, and reign for the sake of truth and meekness and right. And whatever similar things were said of him pointed out the beauty in his kingdom, both the splendor and the majesty that are more radiant and more eminent than all who reign under him, in order that those who would hear this would long to be present there, doing what is pleasing to God.
Again, there were those who said, He is a man and who will know him? and, I went to the prophetess, and she bore a son and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, God the Mighty; as also those who preached that he would be Emmanuel, born of the Virgin. These manifested the union of the Word of God with his handiwork; namely, that the Word would be flesh; and the Son of God, the Son of Man; that the pure One would open, in a pure manner, the pure womb that regenerated men unto God and that he himself had made pure. So, though he was made what we are, still he is God the Mighty and has an ineffable generation.
Then there were those who said, God roared in Sion, and uttered his voice from Jerusalem; and, In Judah God is known. These pointed out his coming in Judea. There were those who said that God will come from the South, and from the shady and dense mountain. These spoke of his coming from Bethlehem, as we have shown in the preceding Book. From there comes the one who is in charge of and shepherds his Father’s people. There were those, moreover, who said that at his coming the lame man shall leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free, and the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the weak hands and the feeble knees shall be strengthened, and that the dead who are in tombs shall rise; and, he himself will bear our griefs, and will carry our sorrows. These are the cures effected by him, which they announced.
12. Some of them, moreover, prophesied his coming as Man, as he entered Jerusalem, where he suffered and was crucified and endured all things that were prophesied; namely, that he would be a man of griefs, and lacking in beauty, and one who would know how to bear griefs; that he would enter Jerusalem riding on…the foal of an ass; that he would bend his back to the scourge, and give his cheeks to the palms, and that he would be led like a sheep to slaughter, and be given vinegar and gall to drink; and would be forsaken by friends and relatives, and extend his hands all the day long; that he would be ridiculed and cursed by those who would look upon him, and his garments would be divided and lots cast for his tunic, and that he would be brought down to the dust of death. And all other similar things.
Others said, “The Lord was mindful of his dead, who had fallen asleep in the dust of the earth, and he descended to them that he might raise them up for the sake of saving them”; by that they gave the reason for his suffering all those things. Some said, And it shall come to pass on that day, says the Lord, the sun will set at noon, and darkness will be over the earth in broad daylight; and will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentations. They clearly announced the setting of the sun that took place when he was crucified from the sixth hour onward; and that after this had happened the festivals that were according to the Law and the songs would be turned into grief and lamentation when they would be handed over to the Gentiles. Jeremiah pointed out the same thing still more clearly, She who bore has languished; she has swooned away; her sun went down while it was yet midday; she has been shamed and disgraced; and the rest of them I will give up to the sword before their enemies.
13. Those, however, who said that he lay down and slept and rose again, for the Lord sustained him; and those who commanded the rulers of the heavens to open the eternal gates, that the King of glory may come in, heralded his resurrection from the dead through the Father and his reception into heaven. But when they said, Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and his circuit to the end of them; and there is nothing can hide from its heat, they announced that he was taken up to the place from where he had come down, and that there is no one who will escape his judgment. Those who said, The Lord reigned, let the people be angry; he sits enthroned upon his cherubim; let the earth quake,—they both prophesied the anger of all peoples against those who believed in him after his ascension, and the insurrection of the whole earth against the Church; and they prophesied that when he will come from heaven with his mighty angels, the entire earth will quake; as he himself said, And there will be a great earthquake, such as has not been from the beginning. Again when he says, Who is to be judged? Let him stand over against me. Who is to be vindicated? Let him come near the servant of the Lord; and, Woe to you, because you will wear out like a garment, and the moth will eat you up, and the haughtiness of man will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. By this is pointed out that after his passion and ascension, God will subject under his feet all who were against him, and he will be exalted above all, and there will be no one who can be vindicated or compared with him.
14. There were those, too, who would say that God would prepare a new covenant for men, not like the one he made with their fathers on Mount Horeb, and that he would give a new heart and a new spirit to men; and again, Consider not the things of old. Behold, I am doing new things; and now they spring forth, you shall know; and I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, to the people whom I have formed, that they might declare my powers. They clearly announced the liberty of the new covenant, and that the new wine, which is put into fresh wine skins is the faith in Christ, the way of righteousness, which has arisen in the wilderness and the rivers of the Holy Spirit in the waterless land, to water God’s chosen race, which he acquired, that his miracles might be declared, but not that they might blaspheme the God who made these things.
15. The man who is truly spiritual will explain that the Prophets spoke all the other things which we have demonstrated by such abundance [of Scripture texts]. He will point out regarding which feature of the Lord’s economies each one of the things mentioned was spoken, and [he will manifest] the organic whole of the work of God’s Son. He will always know the same God; he will always recognize the same Word of God, even though he has now appeared to us; and he will always recognize the same Spirit of God, even though in the last times he is poured out on us in a new manner, but [was poured out] on the entire human race from the creation until the end. From him [the Spirit], those who believe in God and follow his Word, receive salvation that comes from him. Those, however, who separate from him, and hold his precepts in contempt, and by their deeds dishonor him who made them, and by their doctrines blaspheme him who nourished them, heap up against themselves a most just judgment.
So, this [spiritual man] judges all men; but is himself judged by no one. For he neither blasphemes his Father, nor sets aside as worthless his economies; nor makes accusations against the Patriarchs, nor dishonors the Prophets, nor says that the Prophets were from another god, or that the prophecies were from different substances.