Chapter 2. What Is Meant By: “I Praise You, Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth”?
Chapter 2
1. Now, Moses made a summary of the whole Law, which he had received from the Creator. He spoke thus: Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. David said his help was from the Lord. My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Isaiah, too, confessed that words come from the God who made heaven and earth and rules over them: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken. And again, Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth, and what comes from it; who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it.
2. Again, Our Lord Jesus Christ professes the same one as his Father when he says, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. What Father do these most perverse sophists of Pandora wish us to understand? Is it Profundity, whom they invented of themselves; or their mother, or Only-begotten? Or is it the god whom the Marcionites or the rest thought up? He really is not God, as we have shown in many ways. Or, as is true, is it the Maker of heaven and earth, whom also the Prophets preached, whom Christ, too, professes as his Father, whom in turn the Law announces when it says, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one God.
3. That the writings of Moses speak of Christ, he himself told the Jews, as John has recorded in the Gospel: If you believed Moses, you would believe me also, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, neither will you believe my words. He pointed out very clearly that the writings of Moses are his words. If, therefore, the words of Moses are his, without doubt, as we have demonstrated, those of the rest of the Prophets are his too. The Lord himself showed that Abraham said to the rich man concerning all those who were still alive, If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they believe if someone should rise from the dead.
4. Now, it is not a fable that is told us about a poor man and a rich man. No, he has taught us, first, that no one should indulge in pleasures; nor should one be a slave to his lusts and forget God by spending the time in worldly entertainments and in many banquets. For there was a certain rich man, he said, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. Of such the Spirit, too, spoke through Isaiah: They drink wine to the accompaniment of harps and timbrels, lyres and flutes, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord or see the works of his hands. Lest we too, therefore, should incur the same punishment as these men, the Lord shows us their end, and at the same time he points out that if they were obedient to Moses and the Prophets, they would believe in him whom these had announced, God’s Son, who rose from the dead and bestows life on us. He shows, too, that all things, that is, Abraham and Moses and the Prophets, even Christ himself who rose from the dead, are from one substance. In him even many who are of the circumcision believe, who listen to both Moses and the Prophets preaching the coming of God’s Son. But these scoffingly assert that those men [of the Old Testament] are of another substance; neither do they acknowledge the firstborn of the dead. They understand two distinct beings: Christ, who remained impassible, and Jesus, who suffered.
5. Certainly, they do not receive from the Father the power to know the Son, nor do they learn of the Father from the Son, who clearly and without parables teaches about him who is truly God. Do not swear at all, he said, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Surely, these things are said openly of the Maker, just as Isaiah said, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Besides this God there is no other. For then he would not be called God or great King by the Lord, because no one can be compared with or extolled about above such a one. To be sure, anyone who has someone superior to himself and is under someone’s power can be called neither God nor great King.
6. Nor can they assert that these words were spoken ironically, since they are convicted by the very words, which were spoken truthfully. He who spoke was Truth itself, and truly did he vindicate his house, casting out of it the money changers, who engaged in buying and selling. He said to them, It is written: my house shall be called a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves. Now, if he preached another God, what justification did he have to do and say this and to vindicate his house? [He did it] in order to show up the transgressors of his Father’s Law. He did not bring an accusation against the house, nor did he rebuke the Law, which he came to fulfill, but he did accuse those who did not make good use of the house and who transgressed the Law. And so [he accused] the Scribes and the Pharisees who since the days of the Law began to condemn God and did not receive his Word, that is, did not believe in Christ. Of them Isaiah said, The princes are rebels and companions of thieves. They love bribes and run after gifts. They do not defend the fatherless, and they do not attend to the widows’ cause. Jeremiah speaks in the same strain: They who rule my people know me not; they are senseless and stupid children, they are skilled in doing evil, but how to do good they know not.
7. On the other hand, as many as feared God and were anxious about his Law ran to meet Christ and were all saved. He said to the disciples, Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Of the Samaritans, when the Lord sojourned among them for two days, it is said, Many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” Paul, too, said, And so all Israel will be saved. Moreover, he called the Law our tutor toward Christ Jesus. And so they did not ascribe the infidelity of certain ones to the Law, for the Law did not forbid them to believe in God’s Son, but it even admonished them, saying that men can be saved from the ancient wound of the serpent in no other way except they believe in him who, in the likeness of sinful flesh, is exalted from the earth on the tree of witness and draws all things to himself, and gives life to the dead.