Book 5: The Christian Faith, as Drawn from Further Teaching of Christ and the Apostles

Book 5

The Christian Faith, as Drawn from Further Teaching of Christ and the Apostles

In the four preceding books, I have exposed all the heretics, brought their doctrines to light, and refuted them by adducing something from the teachings peculiar to each of them as found in their writings, as well as by using more general arguments which apply to them all. Then I have pointed out the truth and shown the preaching of the Church, which the prophets proclaimed (as I have shown), but which Christ brought to perfection and the apostles have handed down. The Church has received it, she alone has preserved it in its integrity throughout all the world, and she has transmitted it to her children. Having thus disposed of all the questions the heretics pose to us, and also having presented the apostles’ doctrine and clearly set forth much of what was said and done by our Lord in parables, in this fifth book of this work which exposes and refutes what is falsely called knowledge I will present further proofs from the rest of the Lord’s teaching and the letters of the apostles.

In this way I hope to fulfill the request you made of me, as one who has been granted responsibility for the ministry of the Word. Further, by every means in my power I will try to furnish you with considerable assistance against the heretics’ contradictions, to give you what you need to reclaim the wanderers and convert them to the Church of God and, at the same time, to confirm the minds of the neophytes. That way they too will steadfastly preserve the faith they have received, which has been guarded by the Church in its integrity, so that they may not be even slightly turned aside by those who try to teach them false doctrines and lead them away from the truth.

It will be incumbent on you, though, and all who read this work to attend carefully to what I present, so that you will obtain a knowledge of the subjects against which I am contending. That way you will be prepared to answer these false teachers appropriately and to use the arguments brought forward against them. Then with the heavenly faith you will be able to repudiate their teachings as refuse. You must follow the only true and steadfast teacher, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who through his transcendent love became what we are, that he might make us to be what he is. (5:pref)

There is no other way we could have learned the things of God, unless our master, who is the Word, had become human. No other being had the power to reveal to us the things of the Father except his own proper Word. For what other person “has known the mind of the Lord” or who else “has been his counselor?” [Rom 11:34]. We could have learned in no other way than by seeing our teacher and hearing his voice with our own ears. Now, having become imitators of his works and doers of his words, we may have communion with him, receiving benefit from the perfect one, who is prior to all creation. We have only recently been created by the only best and good being, who alone has immortality: we were formed after his likeness, predestined according to the foreknowledge of the Father, so that we (who as yet did not exist) might come into being and be made the first-fruits of creation. At his appointed time we received the blessings of salvation through what the Word has done, who as the mighty Word is perfect in all things and is genuine man. Redeeming us by his own blood in a fitting manner, he gave himself as a ransom for those who had been led into captivity. The apostasy tyrannized over us unjustly: though by nature we belonged to the omnipotent God, the fall alienated us contrary to nature, turning us into its own disciples. The Word of God, powerful and thoroughly just in all things, righteously turned against that apostasy and redeemed from it what belonged to him. He did not do so by violent means, even though that apostasy had obtained dominion over us at the beginning by greedily snatching away what was not its own; he did so through persuasion, as was fitting for a God of counsel who does not use violence to obtain what he desires. In this way, justice was not infringed on and the ancient handiwork of God was not allowed to go to destruction. The Lord has redeemed us through his own blood, giving his soul for our souls and his flesh for our flesh, and has poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion of God and humankind, imparting God to humanity by means of the Spirit. On the other hand, he has united humanity to God by his own incarnation and, through communion with God, genuinely and lastingly bestowed immortality on us by his coming. With this, all the teachings of the heretics fall to ruin. (5:1,1)

Those who allege that he merely seemed to appear in the flesh speak falsehood. These things were not done only in appearance, but in actuality. . . . He would not have truly possessed flesh and blood, by which he redeemed us, unless he had summed up in himself the ancient formation of Adam. . . . (5:1,2)

. . . The Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, so that what was generated was a holy child, the Son of the Most High God the Father of all [Luke 1:35], who accomplished this incarnation. He thus showed forth a new kind of generation—that, as through the former generation we inherited death, so by this new generation we might inherit life. . . . So in these last times, the Word of the Father and the Spirit of God, having become united with the ancient substance of Adam’s formation, formed man living and perfect, receptive of the perfect Father—so that, as in the natural Adam we were all dead, so in the spiritual Adam we may all be made alive [1 Cor 15:22]. For at no time did Adam escape from the hands of God [that is, the Son and the Spirit], to whom the Father said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness” [Gen. 1:26]. (5:1,3)

. . . He could not have truly redeemed us by his own blood, if he had not really become human, restoring to his own handiwork what was said about it in the beginning—that humanity was made after the image and likeness of God. He did not steal what belonged to someone else by stratagem; he took possession again of what belonged to him, in a righteous and gracious manner. As to the apostasy, he redeems us righteously from it by his own blood; as regards us who have been redeemed, he does this graciously. We have given nothing to him previously, and he does not desire anything from us, as if he needed something. But we need fellowship with him. This is why he graciously poured himself out, that he might gather us into the bosom of the Father. (5:2,1)

But deluded in every respect are those who despise the way God has accomplished all this, disallow the salvation of the flesh, and treat its regeneration with contempt, maintaining that it is not capable of incorruption. If the flesh cannot be saved, then the Lord did not redeem us with his blood—nor is the cup of the Eucharist the communion of his blood, nor the bread which we break the communion of his body [1 Cor 10:16]. Blood can only come from veins and flesh and whatever else makes up the human substance, and this is the way the Word of God was actually made. By his own blood he redeemed us, as his apostle also declares, “In whom we have redemption [through his blood], the forgiveness of sins” [Col 1:14]. As his members, we are nourished by the creation which he himself grants to us, for he causes his sun to rise, and sends rain when he wills [Matt 5:45]. He has acknowledged the cup, a part of the creation, as his own blood from which he invigorates our blood, and he has established the bread, also a part of the creation, as his own body from which he gives increase to our bodies. (5:2,2)

When the mingled cup and the ground bread receive the Word of God, and the Eucharist of the blood and the body of Christ is made, through which the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can the heretics claim that the flesh is incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal? Flesh is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord and is a member of him. The blessed Paul declares in his Letter to the Ephesians that “we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones” [Eph 5:30]. He does not say these words about some spiritual and invisible man, for a spirit does not have bones or flesh [Luke 24:39]; rather, he refers to the way the Lord became an actual man, with flesh, nerves, and bones—that flesh which is nourished by the cup which is his blood and receives increase from the bread which is his body. A cutting from a vine planted in the ground bears fruit in its season. A grain of wheat, falling into the earth and decomposing, rises with plentiful increase through the Spirit of God who contains all things. Through the wisdom of God, that grain serves for our use. Grain also, receiving the Word of God, becomes the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ. So also our bodies, nourished by it but deposited in the earth and suffering decomposition there, shall rise at their appointed time. The Word of God will grant them resurrection to the glory of God the Father, who freely gives to this mortal immortality, and to this corruptible incorruption [1 Cor 15:53]. The strength of God is thus made perfect in weakness [2 Cor 12:9], so that we may never, with ungrateful minds, become puffed up (as if we had life from ourselves) and exalted against God. . . . (5:2,3)

. . . God’s power is made perfect in weakness [2 Cor 12:9], rendering that person better who comes to know the power of God through his own weakness. . . . There is nothing wrong about learning one’s infirmities by endurance; rather, it has the beneficial effect of preventing one from forming an undue opinion of himself. . . . (5:3,1)

The heretics set aside the power of God and do not consider what the Word declares when they focus on the weakness of the flesh but do not take into consideration the power of him who raises it from the dead. If he does not give life to what is mortal and does not bring back the corruptible to incorruption, he is not a God of power. But from our origin we ought to perceive that he is powerful in all regards, since God, taking dust from the earth, formed humankind. Surely it is much more difficult and incredible to bring humanity into existence as living and thinking creatures out of non-existent bones, nerves, veins, and all the rest of what is included than it is to bring together again what had been created but had afterwards decomposed into dust and become again the material from which humanity was first formed. If in the beginning, as God pleased, he gave being to humanity, which had never previously existed, then he can easily bring back to life those who formerly lived when it pleases him. Flesh will then again be found fit for and capable of receiving the power of God, which at the beginning received the skillful touch of God. . . . (5:3,2)

. . . Since the Lord has power to infuse life into what he has fashioned, and since the flesh is capable of being brought to life, what can keep it from participating in incorruption, which is a blissful and never-ending life granted by God? (5:3,3)

. . . Neither the nature of any created thing nor the weakness of the flesh can prevail against the will of God. God is not subject to created things, but created things are to God, and all things obey his will [Jdt 16:18]. The Lord has declared, “What is impossible for mortals is possible for God” [Luke 18:27]. . . . Human unbelief cannot nullify divine faithfulness [Rom 3:3–4]. (5:5,2)

God is glorified in his handiwork; he fits it so that it conforms to and is modelled after his own Son. By the hands of the Father—that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit—human beings, not merely parts of them, were made in the likeness of God. The soul and the spirit comprise part of a human but not the entire person, for a complete human being is composed by the commingling and union of the soul which has received the spirit of the Father, plus the fleshly nature which was molded after the image of God. . . . The flesh which has been molded is not a complete human being in itself, but only part of one; neither is the soul itself, considered alone, the human being: it is part of one. Neither is the spirit a complete human being, for it is called the spirit, and not a human being. It is the commingling and union of all these which constitutes a complete human being. This is why the apostle, explaining himself, makes it clear that the saved person is complete as well as spiritual, as he says in the First Letter to the Thessalonians: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” [1 Thess 5:23]. What was his purpose in praying that these three (soul, body, and spirit) be preserved to the coming of the Lord, unless he knew of the future reintegration and union of the three, and that they would share one and the same salvation? That is why he also declares that those are complete who present to the Lord the three component elements without blemish. Those alone are “complete” (i.e., “perfect”) who have the Spirit of God remaining in them and have preserved their souls and bodies blameless, holding fast faith in God and dealing righteously with their neighbours. (5:6,1)

This is why he says that this handiwork is “the temple of God,” declaring: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” [1 Cor 3:16]. With this he clearly declares that the body is the temple in which the Spirit dwells. When the Lord said in reference to himself, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up, . . . he was speaking of the temple of his body” [John 2:19, 21]. Not only does the apostle acknowledge our bodies to be a temple, but even the temple of Christ: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?” [1 Cor 6:15].

In this, he is not speaking to some “spiritual” person, for a being like that could have nothing to do with a prostitute. He declares that our bodies—that is, the flesh which perseveres in holiness and purity—are “the members of Christ.” However, if a body is joined to a prostitute, it becomes a member of the prostitute. That is why he says, “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person.” Is it not then the height of blasphemy to allege that the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the Father dwells, the members of Christ, does not partake of salvation but is thrown into perdition? As well, to indicate that our bodies are not raised by their own power but by the power of God, he says to the Corinthians, “The body is not meant for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power” [1 Cor 6:13–14]. (5:6,2)

In the same way that Christ arose in the substance of his flesh and pointed out to his disciples the mark of the nails and the opening in his side [John 20:20]—which are tokens of the flesh which rose from the dead—so will he also raise us by his power. Again, he says to the Romans, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies” [Rom 8:11]. (5:7,1)

But we now receive a certain portion of his Spirit, who leads us towards perfection and prepares us for incorruption, as little by little we become accustomed to receive and bear God. The apostle terms this a “pledge”—that is, a first portion of what has been promised to us by God—when he says in the Letter to the Ephesians, “In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance” [Eph 1:13–14]. This pledge, already dwelling in us, renders us spiritual even now, and the mortal is swallowed up by immortality [2 Cor 5:4]: “You are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you” [Rom 8:9]. This does not come to pass by getting rid of the flesh, but by granting the Spirit: those to whom he was writing were not without flesh, but were those who had received the Spirit of God, by whom “we cry, Abba, Father” [Rom 8:15]. So, if already now we have that pledge and cry, “Abba, Father,” what will it be like when, on rising again, we see him face to face, when all the members burst out in a continuous hymn of triumph, glorifying him who raised them from the dead and granted them eternal life? If the pledge authorizes us even in the present time to cry, “Abba, Father,” what will the complete grace of the Spirit accomplish, which will be given by God? It will render us like him and accomplish the will of the Father, for it will remake humanity after the image and likeness of God. (5:8,1)

The apostle rightly calls those persons who have the pledge of the Spirit and are not enslaved by the lusts of the flesh but are subject to the Spirit and who in all things live by the light of reason “spiritual,” for the Spirit of God dwells in them. . . . But those who reject the Spirit’s counsel are slaves to fleshly lusts, leading lives contrary to reason. Without restraint, they plunge headlong into their own desires, having no yearning for the divine Spirit, and live like swine and dogs. The apostle properly calls such people “carnal” because they take no thought for anything but carnal things [1 Cor 2:14—3:1]. (5:8,2)

. . . As I have shown, a perfect human being is composed of three things—flesh, soul, and spirit. One of these—the spirit—preserves and fashions. By another—the flesh—it is united and formed. Then there is the one which is between these two—the soul, which sometimes follows the spirit and is raised up by it, but sometimes sympathizes with the flesh and falls into carnal lusts. . . . (5:9,1)

On the other hand, all those who fear God and trust in his Son’s advent, and who through faith establish the Spirit of God in their hearts, are properly called “pure,” “spiritual,” and “those living to God,” because they have the Spirit of the Father, who purifies human beings and raises them up to the life of God. The Lord has testified that “the flesh is weak” and that “the spirit is willing” [Matt 26:41]: it is able to effect what it desires. So, if anyone allows the Spirit to become a stimulus to his weak flesh, it inevitably follows that what is strong will prevail over the weak, so that the weakness of the flesh will be absorbed by the strength of the Spirit. The one in whom this takes place cannot in that case be carnal but spiritual, because of the fellowship of the Spirit. That is the way the martyrs were able to make their witness and despise death—not through the weakness of the flesh, but by the assistance of the Spirit. . . . (5:9,2)

. . . For this reason the apostle declares, “As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven” [1 Cor 15:49]. What, then, is “of dust”? It is what was formed out of dust. And what is “of heaven”? That is the Spirit. So when he says that we were destitute of the heavenly Spirit and walked in former times in the oldness of the flesh, not obeying God, so now let us, receiving the Spirit, walk in newness of life, obeying God. Since without the Spirit of God we cannot be saved, the apostle exhorts us through faith and chaste living to preserve the Spirit of God, lest the divine Spirit forsake us and we lose the kingdom of heaven—for he declares that flesh and blood, in themselves alone, cannot possess the kingdom of God [1 Cor 15:50]. (5:9,3)

. . . This is why Christ died, that the gospel covenant being manifested and known to the whole world might in the first place free the slaves who rightly belong to him; and then afterwards, as I have already shown, that he might make them his heirs, when the Spirit possesses them as his inheritance. . . . (5:9,4)

. . . This is why he says, “This perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality” [1 Cor 15:53]; and again, “But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you” [Rom 8:9]. He sets this forth still more plainly when he says, “Though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you” [Rom 8:10–11]. He goes on to say, “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die” [Rom 8:13]. By this he does not prohibit them from living their lives in the flesh, for he himself was in the flesh when he wrote to them; rather, he cuts away the lusts of the flesh which bring death. And for this reason he goes on to say, “But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” [Rom 8:13–14]. (5:10,2)

Recognizing what unbelievers might say in response, he specified what he calls carnal, explaining himself so there would be no room for doubt left to those who dishonestly try to pervert his meaning. He writes in the Letter to the Galatians, “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” [Gal 5:19–21]. He thus points out to his hearers more explicitly what he means when he declares, “Flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Those who do these things, since they walk after the flesh, are unable to live unto God. He goes on to specify the spiritual actions which bring life, the gift of the Spirit: “By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things” [Gal 5:22–23]. So, as the one who has sought the better things and has produced the fruit of the Spirit will be saved by communion in the Spirit, so also the one who has continued in the works of the flesh listed above, being rightly reckoned as carnal for not receiving the Spirit of God, will not be able to inherit the kingdom of heaven. The same apostle testifies elsewhere, writing to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” [1 Cor 6:9–11]. He thus shows in the clearest manner how one goes to destruction—by continuing to live after the flesh; on the other hand, he points out how one is saved—he says that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God are what save. (5:11,1)

The breath of life by which man became a living being [Gen 2:7] is one thing, and the life-giving Spirit, which caused him to become spiritual, is another. That is the background for what Isaiah says, “Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it” [Isa 42:5]—thus telling us that breath is given in common to all people on earth, but that the Spirit is theirs alone who tread down earthly desires. . . . (5:12,2)

For it is not one thing which dies and another which is given life, just as it is not one thing which is lost and another which is found: the Lord came seeking that same sheep which had been lost. What was it, then, that was dead? Without question, it was the substance of the flesh, which had lost the breath of life and had become dead. This was what the Lord came to bring to life, that as in Adam we all die, since we are of an animal nature, so in Christ we may all live [1 Cor 15:22], as being spiritual—laying aside, not God’s handiwork, but the lusts of the flesh, and receiving the Holy Spirit. To this end, the apostle says in the Letter to the Colossians, “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly,” which he goes on to list: “fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry)” [Col 3:5]. Laying these aside is what the apostle preaches, but he declares that those who do such things, since they are only flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. . . . (5:12,3)

. . . The end result of the Spirit’s work is the salvation of the flesh. What other visible fruit is there of the invisible Spirit than making the flesh mature and capable of incorruption?. . . (5:12,4)

The maker of all things, the Word of God, the one who formed humankind from the beginning, when he found his handiwork impaired by wickedness, worked all kinds of healing in it. Sometimes he has done so for individuals, who are his handiwork; at other times, he has done so for all, to restore humanity sound and complete in all points, working to make humankind whole for himself, in preparation for the resurrection. For what was his purpose in healing some afflictions of the flesh and restoring them to their original condition, if those parts which he had healed were not going to obtain salvation? . . . (5:12,6)

. . . Death will then be genuinely vanquished, when that flesh which it holds down finally escapes its dominion. He wrote to the Philippians, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to him” [Phil 3:20–21]. What then is this “body of humiliation” which the Lord will transform, to conform it to “the body of his glory”? Clearly, it is the body made of flesh, which is certainly humbled when it falls into the earth. Although mortal and corruptible, it becomes immortal and incorruptible in this transformation, not through its own powers but through the mighty working of the Lord, who is able to invest the mortal with immortality and the corruptible with incorruption. (5:13,3)

The same apostle who has declaimed against the substance of flesh and blood, that it cannot inherit the kingdom of God, has everywhere adopted the term “flesh and blood” with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ—partly to establish his human nature (for he spoke of himself as the son of man), and partly to confirm the salvation of our flesh. For if the flesh were not in a position to be saved, the Word of God would certainly not have become flesh. And if the blood of the righteous were not to be inquired after, the Lord would certainly not have had blood. But blood cries out from the beginning of the world: God said to Cain, after he had killed his brother, “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground!” [Gen 4:10]. And as to their blood being inquired after, he said to those with Noah, “For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another. . . . Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed” [Gen 9:5–6]. To the same effect the Lord said to those who would afterwards shed his blood, “The blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary . . . will be charged against this generation” [Luke 11:50–51]. He thus points to the recapitulation which would take place in himself—the pouring out of blood, from the beginning, of all the righteous ones and the prophets, and that through himself their blood would be required. Now this blood could hardly be thus required unless it also had the capability of being saved; nor would the Lord have summed up these things in himself, unless he himself had been made flesh and blood as Adam originally was. Thus at the end of time he saved in his own person what in the beginning had perished in Adam. (5:14,1)

. . . The Word has saved what was created—namely, humanity which had perished. He accomplished this by taking it unto himself and seeking its salvation. The thing which had perished had flesh and blood. The Lord, taking dust from the earth, formed humanity; and it was for humanity that all the dispensation of the Lord’s advent took place. He himself therefore had flesh and blood, so that he could recapitulate in himself, not something else, but the original handiwork of the Father, seeking out what had perished. And because of this the apostle, in the Letter to the Colossians, says, “And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him” [Col 1:21–22]. He says, “You have been reconciled in his fleshly body,” because his righteous flesh has reconciled that flesh which was kept in bondage to sin and brought it into friendship with God. (5:14,2)

If anyone alleges that in this respect the flesh of the Lord was different from ours because it did not commit sin and no deceit was found in his soul, while we, on the other hand, are sinners, that person speaks the truth. But if that person pretends that the Lord possessed a different kind of flesh, then the apostolic sayings about reconciliation will not agree with what that person says. That is reconciled which formerly had been opposed. Now, if the Lord had taken some other kind of flesh, he would not have reconciled that flesh to God which had become an enemy by transgression. But now, through communion with himself, the Lord has reconciled humankind to God the Father, reconciling us to himself by the body of his own flesh [Col 1:22] and redeeming us by his own blood, as the apostle says to the Ephesians, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” [Eph 1:7]. He also says to them, “You who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” [Eph 2:13]. And in all his letters the apostle plainly testifies that we have been saved through the flesh and blood of our Lord. (5:14,3)

So, if flesh and blood are the things in which we have life, it was not declared in the literal meaning that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. These words refer to the carnal deeds already mentioned, which turn human beings toward sin and rob them of life. This is why he says in the Letter to the Romans, “Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness” [Rom 6:12–13]. With these same members in which we used to serve sin and produce fruit unto death, he desires us to be obedient unto righteousness, so that we may bring forth fruit unto life [Rom 6:13]. Remember, therefore, my beloved friend, that you have been redeemed by the flesh of our Lord, reestablished by his blood, and “holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God” [Col 2:19]—that is, acknowledging the Son of God’s advent in the flesh and his divinity, and steadfastly relying on his human nature, availing yourself of these proofs drawn from Scripture. Then you will easily overthrow all those notions of the heretics which were concocted afterwards. (5:14,4)

. . . To the man who had been blind from birth he gave sight, not by a word, but by an outward action. He did not do this without a purpose, or just because it happened that way, but so that he might manifest the hand of God which had formed humankind at the beginning. So when his disciples asked him why the man had been born blind, whether for his own or his parents’ sins, he replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” [John 9:3]. Now “God’s work” was the creation of humankind. Scripture indicates that he made humanity by a kind of process: “The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground” [Gen 2:7]. That is why the Lord spat on the ground and made clay and smeared it upon the eyes [John 9:6]: he thus pointed out how humanity had originally been formed, showing the hand of God to those who can understand by whose hand humanity was formed out of the dust. What the artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb he then supplied in public, so that God’s works might be manifested in him. . . . (5:15,2)

The Word of God forms us in the womb, as he says to Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” [Jer 1:5]. Paul also writes in this manner: “God . . . had set me apart before I was born . . . , that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles” [Gal 1:15–16]. Therefore, just as we are formed by the Word in the womb, so this same Word formed the power of sight in him who had been blind from birth. In this, he showed openly who it is who fashions us in secret, since the Word himself had been revealed to humankind. He also thus set forth the original formation of Adam, the way in which he was created, and by whose hand he was fashioned, indicating the whole from a part. For the Lord who formed the visual powers is he who made the whole human being, carrying out the will of the Father.

As to that formation in Adam, humanity had fallen into transgression and needed the laver of regeneration. So the Lord said to him upon whom he had conferred sight, after he had smeared his eyes with the clay, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” [John 9:7]. In this way he granted him complete healing, and that regeneration which takes place by means of the laver. That is why, when he was washed, he came seeing—that he might both know him who had fashioned him and that we might learn to know him who has conferred life upon us. (5:15,3)

. . . Scripture, pointing out what should come to pass, says that when Adam had hid himself because of his disobedience, the Lord came to him in the evening, called him forth, and asked, “Where are you?” [Gen 3:9]. In the last times the very same Word of God came to call humankind, reminding them of their doings, lives which they had tried to hide from the Lord. For just as at that time God spoke to Adam in the evening, searching him out, so in the last times, by means of the same voice searching out his posterity, he has visited them. (5:15,4)

This Word was manifested again when the Word of God became human, assimilating himself to humanity and humanity to himself, so that by its resemblance to the Son humankind might become precious to the Father. For in times long past, it was said that humanity was created after the image of God. That could not be seen, though, for the Word after whose image humanity had been created remained invisible, and so humankind easily lost the similitude. However, when the Word of God became flesh, he confirmed both of these: he showed forth the image truly, since he himself became what was his image, and he re-established the image after a sure manner, by assimilating humanity to the invisible Father by the visible Word. (5:16,2)

The Lord has shown himself not only by these things, but also by his passion. He did away with that human disobedience which had taken place at the beginning through a tree: “He became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” [Phil 2:8], rectifying that disobedience which had occurred by reason of a tree through an obedience wrought on a tree. . . . By the tree we disobeyed God and did not believe his word, so by a tree he was obedient and yielded to his Word. By so doing, he clearly shows forth God himself, whom we had offended in the first Adam, who did not obey his commandment. In the second Adam, however, who was obedient even unto death, we are reconciled, being made obedient even unto death. For we were debtors to no one but to him whose commandment we broke at the beginning. (5:16,3)

This being is the creator: in regards to his love, he is the Father; in regard to his power, he is Lord; and in regard to his wisdom, he is our maker and fashioner. By transgressing his commandment we became his enemies. In the last times the Lord has restored us to friendship through his incarnation, having become the “one mediator between God and humankind” [1 Tim 2:5], propitiating the Father against whom we had sinned for us and cancelling our disobedience by his own obedience. In this way he also conferred upon us the gift of communion with and subjection to our maker. This is why he also has taught us to say in prayer, “And forgive us our debts” [Matt 6:12], for he is our Father, whose debtors we were, since we had transgressed his commandments. But who is this being? Is he some unknown one, a Father who gives no commandment to anyone? Or is he the God proclaimed in the Scriptures, to whom we were debtors, since we had transgressed his commandment? The commandment was given to humankind by the Word, for Adam “heard the voice of the LORD God” [Gen 3:8 LXX]. It is proper that his Word says, “Your sins are forgiven” [Mark 2:5]. The one against whom we had sinned in the beginning grants forgiveness of sins in the end. If we had disobeyed the command of any other, but it had been another being who said, “Your sins are forgiven,” then such a person would be neither good, nor true, nor just. How can one be good who gives what is not his own? . . . (5:17,1)

By remitting sins, he healed humankind, while also manifesting who he was. For if no one can forgive sins but God alone, while the Lord remitted them and healed human beings, it is plain that he himself was the Word of God made the son of man, who had received from the Father the power to remit sins. He was man and God, so that, since as man he suffered for us, so as God he might have compassion on us and forgive us our debts, in which we were made debtors to God our creator. That is why David said beforehand, “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the LORD imputes no iniquity” [Ps 32:1–2]. David thus points to the forgiveness of sins which comes with his advent, “erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands” and “nailing it to the cross” [Col 2:14], so that as by means of a tree we were made debtors to God, so also by means of a tree we may obtain the remission of our debt. (5:17,3)

The Father bears the creation and his own Word simultaneously, and the Word borne by the Father grants the Spirit to all as the Father wills. To some he gives what is made according to the order of creation, but to others what is from God (i.e., regeneration) according to the order of adoption. Thus one God the Father is declared, “who is above all and through all and in all” [Eph 4:6]. The Father is above all, and he is the head of Christ; the Word is through all things and is himself the head of the Church; while the Spirit is in us all, and he is the living water [John 7:38–39], which the Lord grants to those who rightly believe in him, love him, and know that there is one Father, who is above all, and through all, and in us all. . . . (5:18,2)

The creator of the world is truly the Word of God. This is our Lord, who in the last times was made human. Existing now in this world unseen, he contains all things created and is immanent throughout the entire creation, for the Word of God governs and arranges all things. He came to his own in a visible manner, was made flesh, and hung upon the tree, so that he might recapitulate all things in himself. “His own people did not accept him” [John 1:11], as Moses had foretold: “Your life shall hang in doubt before you” [Deut 28:66]. Those who did not accept him did not receive life, “but to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” [John 1:12]. . . . (5:18,3)

It was joyfully declared that the Lord was clearly coming to what he had made and was sustaining them through that creation he always supports; that he was recapitulating the disobedience which had occurred in connection with a tree through the obedience on a tree; and that he was doing away with that deception by which that virgin Eve, who was already espoused to a man, was unhappily misled. This was joyfully announced in the angel’s declaration to the virgin Mary, who was also espoused to a man. As the former was led astray by the word of an angel, so that she fled from God when she had transgressed his Word, so the latter, by an angelic communication, received the glad tidings that she should bear God, being obedient to his Word. While the former disobeyed God, the latter was persuaded to be obedient to God; thus, the virgin Mary became the patroness of the virgin Eve. And so, as the human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so it is rescued by a virgin, virginal disobedience being balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. So also the sin of the first-created man receives amendment by the correction of the first-begotten, the coming of the serpent is conquered by the harmlessness of the dove, and the bonds are loosened by which we had been fast bound to death. (5:19,1)

All the heretics are unlearned and ignorant of the way God works; they are unacquainted with the plan by which he took human nature upon himself. They have thus blinded themselves from seeing the truth, with the result that what they teach makes salvation impossible. . . . (5:19,2)

All the heretics came along much later than the bishops to whom the apostles committed the Churches—a fact which I have taken much pain to demonstrate in the third book. It is no surprise, then, that these heretics, since they are blind to the truth and turn aside from the right way, walk in various paths. Because of that the footsteps of their doctrine are scattered here and there, without agreement or connection. But the path of those belonging to the Church circumscribes the whole world, since the Church possesses the sure tradition from the apostles. She thus enables us to see that the faith of all is one and the same, since all receive one and the same God the Father, believe in the same dispensation regarding the incarnation of the Son of God, know the same gift of the Spirit, recognize the same commandments, preserve the same form of ecclesiastical constitution, expect the same advent of the Lord, and await the same salvation of the total person—that is, of soul and body. And without question the preaching of the Church is true and steadfast, in which one and the same way of salvation is shown throughout the whole world. God has entrusted the light to her. . . . The Church preaches the truth everywhere. She is the seven-branched candlestick which bears the light of Christ [Rev 1:20]. (5:20,1)

Therefore, those who forsake the preaching of the Church call in question the knowledge of the holy presbyters, not pausing to reflect that, even as an individual, a religious man is much more reliable than a blasphemous and impudent sophist—which is what all the heretics are, who imagine that they have hit upon something beyond the truth. Following their own ideas, proceeding on their ways variously, inharmoniously, and foolishly, not keeping always to the same opinions with regard to the same things, they are blind men led by the blind who will deservedly fall into the ditch of ignorance lying in their path [Matt 15:14], ever seeking and never finding out the truth [2 Tim 3:7]. It behooves us, therefore, to avoid their doctrines and take careful heed that we do not suffer any injury from them, but to flee to the Church, be brought up in her bosom, and be nourished with the Lord’s Scriptures. For the Church has been planted as a garden in this world. That is why the Spirit of God said, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden” [Gen 2:16]—that is, eat from all the Lord’s Scriptures. But you must not eat with a proud mind or touch any heretical falsehood. These heretics profess that they themselves have the knowledge of good and evil, and they set their own impious minds above the God who made them. That is why they form opinions on what is beyond the limits of the understanding. This is why the apostle forbids us to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think but to use careful judgment, so that we not be cast out of the garden for eating the “knowledge” of these people, knowledge which supposedly knows more than it possibly can! . . . (5:20,2)

In his work of recapitulation, Christ has summed up all things, waging war against our enemy and crushing him who at the beginning led us away captive in Adam, and trampling on his head. This you can already understand from what God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” [Gen 3:15]. From that time onwards, he who was to be born of a woman—from the virgin, after the likeness of Adam—was preached as keeping watch for the head of the serpent. This is the seed of which the apostle says in the Letter to the Galatians that “the law . . . was added . . . until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made” [Gal 3:19]. This is exhibited in a still clearer light in the same letter, where he writes: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” [Gal 4:4]. The enemy would not have been vanquished fairly unless he had been conquered by a man born of a woman, since it was by means of a woman that he got the advantage over humanity at first, thus setting himself up as humanity’s opponent. And so the Lord presents himself as the son of man, comprising in himself that original man out of whom the woman was fashioned, so that, as our species went down to death through a vanquished man, so we might also ascend to life again through a victorious one. As it was through a man that death received the palm of victory over us, so it was also by a man that we received the palm against death. (5:21,1)

The Lord would not have recapitulated in himself the ancient and original enmity against the serpent, fulfilling the promise of the creator and obeying his command, if he had come from another father. But since he is the same one who formed us at the beginning and sent his Son at the end, the Lord fulfilled his own Word, having been made of a woman, by destroying our adversary and perfecting humankind after the image and likeness of God. He did not draw the means of confounding him from any other source than from the words of the law; he used the Father’s commandment as a help to destroy and confuse the apostate angel.

Fasting forty days, like Moses and Elijah, he was hungry afterwards—first, so that we might perceive that he was a real and substantial man (for it is natural for a human being to be hungry when fasting), and secondly, so that his opponent might have an opportunity of attacking him. At the beginning it was by means of food that the enemy persuaded humanity (which was, however, not suffering from hunger) to transgress God’s commandment, but in the end he did not succeed in persuading him who was hungry to take that food which proceeded from God. For when tempting him he said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” [Matt 4:3]. But the Lord repulsed him by the commandment of the law, saying, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone’” [Matt 4:4, citing Deut 8:3]. As to those words, “If you are the Son of God,” he made no remark: by thus acknowledging his human nature he baffled his adversary and exhausted the force of his first attack through his Father’s word. Thus the corruption of humanity, which occurred in paradise by our first parents’ eating, was done away with by the Lord’s foregoing food in this world.

But the enemy, thus vanquished by the law, tried again to make an assault by quoting a commandment of the law himself. Taking him to the highest pinnacle of the temple, he said, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone’” [Matt 4:6, citing Ps 91:11–12]—thus trying to hide a falsehood under an appeal to Scripture, as all the heretics do. For it was indeed written that “He will command his angels concerning you,” but Scripture never calls him to “cast yourself down”—that idea came from the devil. So the Lord answered him from the law, telling him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’” [Matt 4:7, citing Deut 6:16]. Thus he pointed out by the word contained in the law what the duty of a human being is, that he should not tempt God—and, in regard to himself (since he appeared in human form), that he would not tempt the LORD his God. The serpent’s proud reason was thus nullified by the humility found in the man. Thus, the devil had been conquered from Scripture twice: he had been unmasked as advising things opposed to God’s commandment, and he had been shown to be God’s enemy by his thoughts.

So, roundly defeated so far, he concentrated his forces, as it were, pulling together the full panoply of his abilities for falsehood and “showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” [Matt 4:8], saying (as Luke relates), “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours” [Luke 4:6–7]. But the Lord exposed him in his true character when he responded, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him’” [Matt 4:10, citing Deut 6:13]. In this he both revealed him by this name and showed who he himself was, for the Hebrew word “Satan” signifies an apostate. Vanquishing him for the third time, he drove him away as having finally been conquered out of the law. He thus overcome the violation of God’s commandment by Adam by holding steadfastly to the law, which the son of man observed, who did not transgress the commandment of God. (5:21,2)

Who, then, is this Lord God to whom Christ bears witness, whom no one is to tempt, whom all should worship, and alone serve? It is beyond all doubt the God who gave the law. . . . In the beginning Satan enticed humankind to transgress its maker’s law, and in so doing obtained power over humanity. His power consists in transgression and apostasy, and with these he bound humanity. So it was necessary that through a human being Satan, when conquered, should be bound with the same chains with which he had bound humanity—so that humanity, being set free, might return to its Lord, leaving to Satan those bonds by which he himself had been fettered (that is, sin). For when Satan is bound, humankind is set free, since “no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man” [Mark 3:27]. That is why the Lord shows that he [Satan] is speaking contrary to the Word of the God who made everything; he subdues him by way of the commandment.

The law is the commandment of God. The son of man shows Satan to be a fugitive from and a transgressor of the law, an apostate from God. Then the Word bound him securely as a fugitive from himself and spoiled his goods [Matt 12:29; Mark 3:27]—namely, those whom he held in bondage, whom he unjustly used for his own purposes. Justly is he led captive who had led humanity unjustly into bondage, while humankind, which had been led captive in times past, was rescued from the grasp of its possessor. This comes through the tender mercy of God the Father, who had compassion on his own handiwork and granted it salvation, restoring it by means of the Word—that is, by Christ—so that human beings might learn by actual proof that they receive incorruptibility not by their own efforts, but by the free gift of God. (5:21,3)

By his commandment he taught that when we who have been set free are hungry, we should accept whatever food is given by God. If we receive abundant grace, we should not be lifted up with pride because of special privilege or tempt God by relying on the righteousness we have done [Titus 3:5]. We should be humble in everything and keep in mind the prohibition, “Do not put the LORD your God to the test” [Deut 6:16]. The apostle also taught, “Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly” [Rom 12:16], meaning that we should not be ensnared by riches, temporal glory, or present status. We must remember that we should “worship the LORD your God, and serve only him” [Matt 4:10], and not listen to the one who falsely promises things not his own, as when he said, “All these will I give you, if you will fall down and worship me” [Matt 4:9]. By what he says he acknowledges that to adore him and do his will is to fall from the glory of God. What can a person who has fallen enjoy that is either pleasant or good? What else can such a person hope for or expect but death? Death is next-door neighbor to one who has fallen. We should recognize that he will not give what he has promised. How can he make grants to the one who has fallen?

Moreover, since God rules over humankind and him, too, and without the will of our Father in heaven not even a sparrow falls to the ground [Matt 10:29], it follows that his declaration, “All this has been given over to me, and I give them to whomever I wish,” flows out of his vaunted pride. The creation is not under his power, for he himself is one of the creatures. He cannot give away his rule over humankind to anyone, for everything and all human affairs are arranged according to God the Father’s disposal. Besides, the Lord declares that “the devil . . . is a liar and the father of lies” [John 8:44]. So, if he is a liar and the truth is not in him, he certainly did not speak truth but a lie when he said, “All this has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.” (5:22,2)

He was already used to lying about God in order to lead people astray. At the beginning, God had given humankind a variety of things for food, while forbidding them to eat from only one tree. The Scripture tells us that God said to Adam, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” [Gen 2:16–17]. But the devil, lying against the Lord, tempted our first parents. The Scripture shows that the serpent asked the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” [Gen 3:1]. She exposed the falsehood and simply related God’s command: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die’”[Gen 3:2–3]. When he had heard the command of God from her, he brought his cunning into play and finally deceived her by a falsehood, saying, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” [Gen 3:4–5]. He first of all disputed about God in the garden as if God were not there, for he was ignorant of the greatness of God. As well, after he had found out from the woman that God had said that they would die if they ate of that tree, he opened his mouth and uttered the third falsehood, “You will not die.”

But that God was true and the serpent a liar was proved by the result, for death passed upon the ones who had eaten. By eating the fruit they fell under the power of death, since they ate in disobedience—and disobedience to God entails death. So at that very moment they became forfeit to death and were handed over to it. (5:23,1)

In the same day that they ate, they also died and became debtors to death. If anybody diligently tries to discover on what day out of the seven it was that Adam died, that person will find it by examining the dispensation of the Lord. In summing up in himself the whole human race from the beginning to the end, he also summed up its death. From this it seems clear that the Lord suffered death, in obedience to his Father, on the very day on which Adam died when he disobeyed God. He died on the same day in which he ate, for God had said, “In the day that you eat of it you shall die.” The Lord, recapitulating this day in himself, underwent his sufferings on the day preceding the Sabbath—that is, the sixth day of the creation, the day on which humanity was created. He thus granted humankind a second creation through his passion, which is the creation out of death. . . . (5:23,2)

As the devil lied at the beginning, so he did also in the end when he said, “All these are given over to me, and I give them to anyone I please.” He was not the one who has appointed the kingdoms of this world—God is, for “the king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord” [Prov 21:1]. The Word also says by Solomon, “By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by me rulers rule” [Prov 8:15–16]. The apostle Paul also says upon this same subject, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God” [Rom 13:1]. . . . (5:24,1)

In departing from God, human beings reached such a pitch of fury as even to look upon one’s brother as an enemy and engage recklessly in all kinds of restless conduct, murder, and avarice. So God imposed on humankind the fear of human rulers, since they did not acknowledge the fear of God, so that by being subjected to the authority of other human beings and thus kept under restraint by their laws, they might attain to some degree of justice and show mutual forbearance through fear of the sword suspended full in their view, as the apostle says, “The authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer” [Rom 13:4]. This is why magistrates, with laws covering them like righteous garments when they act in a just and legitimate manner, are not to be called into question for their conduct or be liable to punishment. But if they act in a way that subverts justice—iniquitously, impiously, illegally, or tyrannically—then in these things they also shall perish, for God’s just judgment comes equally upon all and is never defective. Earthly rule, thus, was appointed by God for the benefit of nations, not by the devil. . . . (5:24,2)

. . . Since the devil is the apostate angel, he can only go as far as he did at the beginning—namely, to deceive and lead astray human minds disobeying God’s commandments. He gradually darkens the hearts of those in his bondage, so that they forget the true God and adore him as God. (5:24,3)

This is as if some rebel, having hostilely seized another person’s territory, should harass its inhabitants, so that he might claim for himself the glory of a king among those who did not know about his apostasy and robbery. In the same way, the devil, as one of those angels who are placed over the spirit of the air, as the apostle Paul declared in his Letter to the Ephesians [Eph 2:2], having become envious of humankind [Wis 2:24], became an apostate from the divine law—for envy is foreign to God. His apostasy was exposed by what he did with humankind, and humanity ended up thus discovering his thoughts. He has gone this same way with greater and greater determination, in opposition to human beings—envying their life, and wishing to involve them in his own apostate power. However, the Word of God, the maker of all things, has conquered him by human nature, shown him to be an apostate, and put him under the power of humankind. . . . (5:24,4)

Not only what has happened since the beginning, but also what will transpire in the time of Antichrist shows that he, always an apostate and a robber, wants to be adored as God, and that, although a mere slave, he wants to be proclaimed king. Endowed with all the power of the devil, Antichrist will come, not as a righteous king or as a legitimate king subject to God, but as an impious, unjust, and lawless one—as an apostate, full of iniquity, and a murderer. He will come as a robber, concentrating satanic apostasy in himself. He will repudiate idols and attempt to persuade people that he is God. He will raise himself up as the only idol, in whom will be concentrated all the multifarious errors of the other idols. He will do this so that those who worship the devil in many different abominable ways may serve himself by this one idol, about whom the apostle speaks in the Second Letter to the Thessalonians: “The rebellion comes first and the lawless one is revealed, the one destined for destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God” [2 Thess 2:3–4]. The apostle thus clearly points out his apostasy, and that he is lifted up above all that is called God or that is worshipped—that is, above every idol, for that is what humans call them, even though they are not truly gods—and that he will tyrannically try to present himself as God. (5:25,1)

. . . When the apostles are speaking, they call no one “God” except him who truly is God, the Father of our Lord, by whose directions the temple at Jerusalem was constructed. . . . In that temple the enemy will sit, trying to show himself as the Christ, as the Lord declares: “When you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; the one on the housetop must not go down to take what is in the house. For at that time there will be great suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be” [Matt 24:15–17, 21]. (5:25,2)

Daniel, looking forward to the end of the last kingdom (i.e., the ten last kings, amongst whom the kingdom of those men will be partitioned [Dan 7:23–24] and upon whom the son of perdition shall come), declares that ten horns shall spring from the beast, that another little horn shall arise in the midst of them, and that three of the former shall be rooted up before his face [Dan 7:8]. He says, “There were eyes like human eyes in this horn, and a mouth speaking arrogantly. . . . As I looked, this horn made war with the holy ones and was prevailing over them, until the Ancient One came; then judgment was given for the holy ones of the Most High, and the time arrived when the holy ones gained possession of the kingdom” [Dan 7:8, 21–22]. Further on, in the interpretation of the vision, he was told: “As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth that shall be different from all the other kingdoms; it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them. This one shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High, shall wear out the holy ones of the Most High, and shall attempt to change the sacred seasons and the law; and they shall be given into his power for a time, two times, and half a time” [Dan 7:23–25]—that is, for three years and six months, during which he will reign over the earth. Speaking about this one in his Second Letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle Paul tells why he comes: “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned” [2 Thess 2:8–12]. (5:25,3)

The Lord also said to those who did not believe in him: “I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him” [John 5:43], calling the Antichrist “another” because he is alienated from the Lord. . . . Daniel also says, “Because of wickedness, the host was given over to it together with the regular burnt offering; it cast truth to the ground, and kept prospering in what it did” [Dan 8:12]. In explaining the vision, the angel Gabriel states with regard to this person: “At the end of their rule, when the transgressions have reached their full measure, a king of bold countenance shall arise, skilled in intrigue. He shall grow strong in power, shall cause fearful destruction, and shall succeed in what he does. . . . By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall be great. Without warning he shall destroy many and shall even rise up against the Prince of princes” [Dan 8:23–25]. Then he points out how long this tyranny will last, during which the holy ones who offer pure sacrifice to God will be put to flight: “For half of the week he shall make sacrifice and offering cease; and in their place shall be an abomination that desolates, until the decreed end is poured out upon the desolator” [Dan 9:27]—three years and six months constitute the half-week. (5:25,4)

These passages reveal to us not only what the apostasy will be like and what he in whom every satanic error is concentrated will do but also that there is one and the same God the Father, who was declared by the prophets but made manifest by Christ. For if what Daniel prophesied concerning the end has been confirmed by the Lord when he said, “When you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken of by the prophet Daniel” [Matt 24:15]—as the visions of Daniel were interpreted by the angel Gabriel, who is the archangel of the creator and the one who proclaimed to Mary the visible coming and incarnation of Christ—then one and the same God is most clearly pointed out, who sent the prophets, promised the Son, and called us into his knowledge. (5:25,5)

In a still clearer way, in the Apocalypse John indicated to the Lord’s disciples what will happen in the last times regarding the ten kings who will arise then, among whom the empire which now rules the earth shall be partitioned. He teaches us what the ten horns which Daniel saw will be, telling us what he had been told: “And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. These are united in yielding their power and authority to the beast; they will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings” [Rev 17:12–14]. It is clear, then, that he who is to come will kill three of these kings and subject the rest to his power, and that he himself will be the eighth among them. They will lay Babylon waste, burn her with fire, give their kingdoms to the beast, and put the Church to flight. After that they will be destroyed by the coming of our Lord.

That the kingdom must be divided and thus come to ruin is clear from what the Lord says, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand” [Matt 12:25]. Consequently, it must happen that the kingdom, the city, and the house will be divided into ten—and that is why he foreshadowed the partition and division. Daniel says particularly that the end of the fourth kingdom consists in the toes of the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar, which was struck by the stone cut out without hands: “Its feet [were] partly of iron, and partly of clay. As you looked on, a stone was cut out, not by human hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces” [Dan 2:33–34]. Afterwards, interpreting this, he said, “As you saw the feet and toes partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but some of the strength of iron shall be in it, as you saw the iron mixed with the clay. As the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay” [Dan 2:41–42]. The ten toes are those ten kings, among whom the kingdom shall be partitioned; some of them will be strong and active, or energetic; the others, though, will be slow to act, weak, and will not agree. Daniel indicates this, too: “The kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle. As you saw the iron mixed with clay, so will they mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay” [Dan 2:42–43]. And since an end will come, he says, “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall this kingdom be left to another people. It shall crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever; just as you saw that a stone was cut from the mountain not by hands, and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The great God has informed the king what shall be hereafter. The dream is certain, and its interpretation trustworthy” [Dan 2:44–45]. (5:26,1)

Thus the great God showed future things by Daniel and confirmed them through his Son. Christ is the stone cut out without hands, who shall destroy temporal kingdoms and introduce an eternal one, which is the resurrection of the righteous. . . . So let all those persons who blaspheme the creator, whether by what they say openly (like the disciples of Marcion), or by perverting the sense of Scripture (like those of Valentinus and all the Gnostics falsely so called), be recognised as agents of Satan by all who worship God. By them Satan has recently been seen as speaking against God, who has prepared eternal fire for every kind of apostasy. Satan has not dared to blaspheme his Lord openly himself, just as in the beginning he led humanity astray by means of the serpent, concealing himself as it were from God.

Justin has rightly remarked1 that before the Lord’s appearance Satan never dared to blaspheme God, since he did not yet know his own sentence, which had been contained in parables and allegories, but that after the Lord’s appearance, when he had clearly ascertained from the words of Christ and his apostles that eternal fire has been prepared for him for his freely chosen apostasy from God, and likewise for all who continue unrepentant in apostasy, through such people he now blasphemes the Lord who brings judgment upon him as one condemned. He imputes the guilt of his apostasy to his maker, not to his own free choice. That is the way it is with those who break the laws when punishment overtakes them: they throw the blame on those who framed the laws, not upon themselves. In the same way those heretics, filled with a satanic spirit, bring innumerable accusations against our creator, who has given us the spirit of life and established a law adapted for all, and they will not admit that the judgment of God is just. That is why they set about imagining some other father who neither cares about nor exercises providential concern for our affairs—one, even, who approves of all sins! (5:26,2)

If the Father does not exercise judgment, either judgment is not his or else he consents to whatever transpires. If he does not judge, all persons will be equal and accounted in the same condition. The advent of Christ would then have no purpose; indeed, it would be absurd, since he exercises no judicial power. But he says, “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” [Matt 10:35]; and that when two are in one bed, he will take the one and leave the other, and while two women are grinding meal, he will take one and leave the other [Luke 17:34–35]; and that at the end of time he will tell the reapers, “Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn” [Matt 13:30]; and that he will call the lambs into the kingdom prepared for them but will send the goats into everlasting fire, prepared by his Father for the devil and his angels [Matt 25:33, 34, 41]. And why is this? Has the Word come for the ruin and the resurrection of many? Unquestionably, he came for the ruin of those who do not believe him, to whom he has threatened a greater damnation in the day of judgment than what fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah [Luke 10:12], and for the resurrection of believers and those who do the will of his Father in heaven. If the advent of the Son comes alike to all but is for the purpose of judging and separating the believing from the unbelieving, since those who believe do his will freely, by their own choice, and since—also freely, by their own choice—the disobedient do not consent to his teaching, it is clear that his Father has put everyone in a similar condition, with each person having free choice and understanding, and that he oversees all things and exercises providence over all, “for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” [Matt 5:45]. (5:27,1)

To all who continue in their love towards God he grants communion with him. But communion with God is life and light, and the enjoyment of all the benefits which he has in store. But on all who by their own choice depart from God he inflicts that separation from himself which they have chosen of their own accord. Separation from God is death, separation from light is darkness, and separation from God includes the loss of all the benefits which he has in store. So those who by their apostasy cast away these things, being destitute of all good, experience every kind of punishment. However, God does not punish them immediately himself; punishment falls on them because they are destitute of all that is good. Since good things are eternal and without end with God, so the loss of these is also eternal and never-ending. In this matter it is like what happens in the case of overwhelming light: those who have blinded themselves or have been blinded by others are forever kept from enjoying light. The light has not inflicted the penalty of blindness on them; their blindness has brought this calamity upon them. That is why the Lord declared, “Those who believe in him are not condemned” [John 3:18]—that is, they are not separated from God, for they are united to God by faith. On the other hand, he says, “Those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God” [John 3:18]—that is, they separated themselves from God of their own accord: “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God” [John 3:19–21]. (5:27,2)

Since, then, in this world some persons turn toward the light and unite themselves by faith with God, but others shun the light and separate themselves from God, the Word of God comes, preparing a fit habitation for both—for those who are in the light, that they may enjoy it and the good things that come with it, but for those in darkness, that they may endure its calamities. That is why he says that those on his right hand are called into the kingdom of heaven, but that those on his left he will send into eternal fire, for they have deprived themselves of all good. (5:28,1)

So also the apostle says, “Because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned” [2 Thess 2:10–12]. For when Antichrist comes, he will be glad to concentrate the apostasy in himself and accomplish whatever he will do by his own will and choice, to the point of sitting in the temple of God so that his dupes may adore him as the Christ. He will deservedly be thrown into the lake of fire [Rev 19:20]. Foreseeing all this, at the right time God will send such a person “so that all who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness will be condemned” [2 Thess 2:12]. John has described his coming in the Apocalypse: “And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave it his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have received a death blow, but its mortal wound had been healed. In amazement the whole earth followed the beast. They worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’ The beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. It was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slaughtered. Let anyone who has an ear listen: If you are to be taken captive, into captivity you go; if you kill with the sword, with the sword you must be killed. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints” [Rev 13:2–10].

After this he likewise describes his armor bearer, whom he also terms a false prophet: “It spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and it makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound had been healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of all; and by the signs that it is allowed to perform on behalf of the beast, it deceives the inhabitants of earth” [Rev 13:11–14]. Let no one imagine that he performs these wonders by divine power, but by magic. And we must not be surprised if, since the demons and apostate spirits are at his service, by their means he performs wonders, through which he leads the inhabitants of the earth astray.

John says further that he will order them to make “an image of the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet lived; and it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast could even speak and cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is 666” [Rev 13:14–18]—that is, six times a hundred, six times ten, and six units. This is the sum of the whole of that apostasy which has taken place during six thousand years. (5:28,2)

For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years will it be concluded. Scripture says, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done” [Gen 2:1–2]. This is an account of the things originally created, but it is also a prophecy of what is to come, for one day with the Lord is as a thousand years [2 Pet 3:8]. Creation was all completed in six days; it is clear that they will come to an end at the six-thousandth year. (5:28,3)

In the previous books I have set forth the reasons why God permitted these things to be made and have pointed out that everything was created for the benefit of that human nature which is saved, ripening for immortality that which has its own free will and power, and preparing and adapting it better for everlasting subjection to God. So the creation was made for humankind; humanity was not made for the sake of creation, but creation for the sake of humankind. . . . (5:29,1)

When this beast comes, there will be a recapitulation of all kinds of iniquity and of every deceit, so that all apostate power, flowing into and being confined within him, may be sent into the furnace of fire. It is therefore fitting that his name possesses the number 666, since he sums up in his own person all the commixture of wickedness which took place before the flood, as brought on by the apostasy of the angels. For Noah was six hundred years old when the deluge came upon the earth, sweeping away the rebellious world because of that infamous generation in Noah’s time. And Antichrist sums up all the errors of idolatry since the flood, together with the slaying of the prophets and the righteous. As well, the image set up by Nebuchadnezzar had a height of sixty cubits, while the breadth was six cubits. When Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael refused to worship it, they were cast into a furnace of fire, thus pointing out prophetically, by what happened to them, the wrath against the righteous which shall arise at the end of time. That image, taken as a whole, prefigured the coming of this one, who will enact that he alone should be worshipped by all. Thus, the six hundred years of Noah, in whose time the flood occurred because of the apostasy, and the number of the cubits of the image for which these righteous men were sent into the fiery furnace, indicate the number of the name of that one in whom the whole apostasy of six thousand years, plus unrighteousness, wickedness, false prophecy, and deception will be concentrated—because of which a cataclysm of fire will also come upon the earth. (5:29,2)

So, this is the state of the case. This number is found in all the most approved and ancient copies of the Apocalypse, and those who saw John face to face bear their testimony to it. Reason also leads us to conclude that the number of the name of the beast, if reckoned by the Greek mode of calculating the numerical value of letters, will amount to 666. The number of tens is equal to that of the hundreds, and the number of hundreds equal to that of the units; the number six is found in each place, indicating the recapitulations of apostasy in its full extent, from the beginning, through the intermediate periods, and down to the end. I do not understand how some have erred following the ordinary manner of speech, and have changed the middle number in the name, deducting the amount of fifty from it, so that instead of six tens they assert that there is only one [so, 616]. Others have accepted this reading without examination—some simplistically, upon their own responsibility, have made use of this number expressing one ten; some, in their inexperience, have tried to discover a name which would contain the erroneous and spurious number.2 As to those who have done this in simplicity, and without evil intent, we are free to assume that God will pardon them; but as for those who for pride’s sake lay it down as a certainty that names counting up to the spurious number should be accepted, and who teach that this name, which they have hit upon by themselves, is the one of him who is to come—such persons shall suffer loss, since they have led both themselves and those who relied upon them into error. As to those in the first category, it is a loss if one wanders from the truth and takes something to be true when it is not; worse, such a person will certainly fall under the serious punishment which will be meted out to anyone who either adds to or subtracts anything from the Scripture [Rev 22:18–19]. As to those who falsely presume that they have figured out the name of the Antichrist, another daunting danger will overtake them: if they assume one number, when the Antichrist comes with another, they will be easily led away by him, since they will not recognize him as the expected one who must be guarded against. (5:30,1)

These people therefore ought to learn aright and go back to the true number of the name, so that they may not be numbered among false prophets. But knowing the sure number declared by Scripture—666—let them first await the division of the kingdom into ten; then, when these kings are reigning and beginning to set their affairs in order and advancing their kingdom, let them learn to acknowledge that the one who will come claiming the kingdom for himself, who will terrify those people about whom we have been speaking (since he will have a name containing the number noted above), is truly the desolating sacrilege. . . . (5:30,2)

It is therefore more certain and less dangerous to await the fulfilment of the prophecy than to make guesses and cast about for names that might present themselves, since many names can be found possessing the number mentioned. The question will, after all, remain unsolved. Since many names possess this number, it will be asked which of them the coming man will bear. I urge this, not because of a lack of names which amount to that number, but out of fear of God and zeal for the truth. . . .3 We will not incur the risk of pronouncing positively as to the name of Antichrist; if it were necessary that his name should be distinctly revealed in this present time, it would have been announced by him who beheld the apocalyptic vision, for that was seen not so long ago, but almost in our day, towards the end of Domitian’s reign. (5:30,3)

He sets forth the number of the name now, so that when this man comes we may avoid him, recognizing who he is. However, the name is suppressed because it is not worthy of being proclaimed by the Holy Spirit. For if it had been declared by him, the Antichrist might perhaps continue for a long period. He “was, and is not, and is about to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to destruction” [Rev 17:8], like one who has no existence; that is why his name has not been declared, for the name of that which does not exist is not proclaimed. But when this Antichrist will have devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire, but bringing in for the righteous the times of the kingdom—that is, the rest, the hallowed seventh day—and restoring to Abraham the promised inheritance, the kingdom in which the Lord declared that “many will come from east and west and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” [Matt 8:11]. (5:30,4)

As well, some who are otherwise orthodox in faith depart from the pre-arranged plan for the exaltation of the righteous and do not recognize the ways they are disciplined ahead of time for incorruption. Because of this they entertain some heretical opinions. . . . If they do not believe in a resurrection for the entire person, but as far as they can cut it out of Christian teaching, can it be a surprise that they also know nothing about the plan of the resurrection? They choose not to understand that if these things are as they say, the Lord himself, in whom they profess to believe, did not rise again on the third day, but that immediately upon his expiring on the cross he undoubtedly departed into heaven, leaving his body to the earth. But for three days he dwelled in the place where the dead were. . . . The Lord himself said, “Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth” [Matt 12:40]. As well, the apostle wrote, “When it [Scripture] says, ‘He ascended,’ what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?” [Eph 4:9]. . . . (5:31,1)

. . . As the Lord went away into “the valley of the shadow of death” [Ps 23:4], where the souls of the dead were, but afterwards arose in the body and after his resurrection ascended into heaven, it is clear that the souls of his disciples also, for whom the Lord did all this, will go away into the invisible place allotted to them by God, to remain there until the resurrection. They await that event when they will receive their bodies again and rise in their entirety—that is, bodily, just as the Lord arose. This is the way they will come into the presence of God. . . . Our master did not at once depart, taking flight into heaven; he awaited the time of his resurrection prescribed by the Father, which had been shown forth in Jonah, and rising again after three days, he was taken up into heaven. So we also will await the time of our resurrection determined by God and foretold by the prophets, and so, rising, all whom the Lord will account worthy will be taken up. (5:31,2)

Since, then, the views of certain orthodox persons are influenced by heretical discourses, they end up ignorant of God’s plans, of the mystery of the resurrection of the righteous, and of the kingdom which will be the beginning of incorruption, that kingdom in which those who are accounted worthy will be gradually enabled to partake of the divine nature [2 Pet 1:4]. Consequently, it is necessary to tell them about those things, that it is proper for the righteous first to receive the inheritance which God promised to the fathers and to reign in it when they rise again to behold God in this renovated creation, and that the judgment will take place subsequently. It is appropriate that in the very creation in which they struggled and were afflicted, being tested in every way by suffering, they should receive the reward of their suffering; that in the creation in which they were slain because of their love to God they should be revived again; and that in the creation in which they endured servitude they should reign. For God is rich in all things, and all things are his. Therefore, it is fitting that the creation itself, being restored to its primeval condition, should be entirely under the dominion of the righteous. The apostle has made this plain in the Letter to the Romans when he said, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” [Rom 8:19–21]. (5:32,1)

So the promise which God gave to Abraham remains steadfast: “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever” [Gen 13:14–15]. And he went to on say, “Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you” [Gen 13:17]. Yet Abraham did not receive an inheritance in it, not even a footstep, but was always a stranger and a pilgrim in it [Acts 7:5]. . . . If, then, God promised him the land as his inheritance, but he did not receive it during all the time he was there, it must be that, together with his descendants—that is, those who fear God and believe in him—he will receive it at the resurrection of the righteous. For his seed is the Church, which has been adopted by God through the Lord, as John the Baptist said, “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” [Luke 3:8]. The apostle also says in the Letter to the Galatians, “Now you, my friends, are children of the promise, like Isaac” [Gal 4:28]; and again, in the same letter he plainly declares that those who have believed in Christ receive Christ, the promise to Abraham: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, ‘And to his offsprings,’ as of many; but it says, ‘And to your offspring,’ that is, to one person, who is Christ” [Gal 3:16]. And again, confirming his former words, he says, “Just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,’ so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.’ For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed” [Gal 3:6–9]. So, then, those who believe will be blessed with faithful Abraham, and these are the children of Abraham. God promised the earth to Abraham and his seed, but neither Abraham nor his seed—that is, those who are justified by faith—receive any inheritance in it now; they will receive it at the resurrection of the righteous. God is true and faithful, and regarding all this he said, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” [Matt 5:5]. (5:32,2)

This is why, when he was about to undergo his sufferings, to declare to Abraham and those who were then with him the good news that the inheritance was being thrown open, after he had given thanks, while holding the cup and having drunk of it and given it to the disciples, he said to them: “Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” [Matt 26:27–29]. . . . He promised to drink of the fruit of the vine with his disciples, indicating by this both the inheritance of the earth in which the new fruit of the vine will be drunk and the resurrection of his disciples in the flesh. . . . (5:33,1)

. . . The blessing promised belongs unquestionably to the times of the kingdom, when the righteous will rule after their resurrection from the dead. Then the creation, having been renovated and set free, will be fruitful, abounding in all kinds of food from the dew of heaven and the fertility of the earth. The elders who saw John, the disciple of the Lord, related that they had heard from him how the Lord used to teach about these times and say, The days will come, in which vines will grow, each with ten thousand branches, and in each branch ten thousand twigs, and in each twig ten thousand shoots, and in each of the shoots ten thousand clusters, and on every cluster ten thousand grapes, and every grape when pressed will give twenty-five measures of wine. And when any of the saints will lay hold of a cluster, another will cry out, “I am a better cluster, take me; bless the Lord through me.” In the same way, that a grain of wheat will produce ten thousand ears, and every ear will have ten thousand grains, and every grain will yield ten pounds of clear, pure, fine flour; and that all other fruit-bearing trees and seeds and grass will produce in similar proportions; and that all animals, feeding on what the earth produces, will become peaceful and harmonious among each other, and be completely subject to humankind. (5:33,3)

Papias, who heard John and was a companion of Polycarp, bears witness to these things in his fourth book (for he compiled five books). He says, “These things are credible to believers.”4 . . . Prophesying of these times, Isaiah said, “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain” [Isa 11:6–9]. I am quite aware that some persons try to refer these words to savage peoples of different nations and various habits who come to believe and, when they have believed, act in harmony with the righteous. But although this is true now with regard to some people coming from various nations to the harmony of the faith, nevertheless in the resurrection of the righteous the words will also apply to the animals mentioned. . . . (5:33,4)

According to God’s will, the whole creation will enjoy a vast increase, so that it may bring forth and sustain such fruit, as Isaiah declares: “On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water—on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the LORD binds up the injuries of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow” [Isa 30:25–26]. Now “the wounds inflicted by his blow” refers to what was inflicted at the beginning upon disobedient humanity in Adam—that is, death—which the Lord will heal when he raises us from the dead. . . . (5:34,2)

If anyone tries to allegorize prophecies of this kind, they will not be found consistent with themselves in all points. . . . The resurrection of the righteous takes place after the coming of Antichrist and the destruction of all nations under his rule. In that resurrection the righteous will reign in the earth, growing stronger in the sight of the Lord. In him they will become accustomed to partake in the glory of God the Father, and in that kingdom they will enjoy interaction and communion with the holy angels (the spiritual beings), as well as with those whom the Lord will find in the flesh awaiting him from heaven, who have suffered tribulation and escaped the hands of the wicked one. . . . (5:35,1)

. . . In the Apocalypse John saw this new Jerusalem descending upon the new earth [Rev 21:2]. After the times of the kingdom, he says, “Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them” [Rev 20:11]. And he sets forth, too, the things connected with the general resurrection and the judgment, mentioning “the dead, great and small” [Rev 20:12]. He says, “the sea gave up the dead that were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done, according to their works, as recorded in the books” [Rev 20:13, 12]. Moreover, “another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death” [Rev 20:12,14]. This is what is called Gehenna, which the Lord called “eternal fire” [Matt 25:41]. “And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire” [Rev 20:15]. After this, he says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away’” [Rev 21:1–4]. Isaiah declares the same: “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. Be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating” [Isa 65:17–18]. This is also what the apostle said: “The present form of this world is passing away” [1 Cor 7:31]. To the same purpose the Lord also declared, “Heaven and earth will pass away” [Matt 24:35]. . . . (5:35,2)

. . . Neither the substance nor the essence of the creation will be annihilated, for the one who established it is faithful and true, but “the present form of this world is passing away” [1 Cor 7:31]—that is, all that in which transgression has occurred and humankind has aged. . . . But when this present fashion of things passes away, and humanity has been renewed and flourishes in an incorruptible state, which will preclude the possibility of becoming old, then the new heaven and the new earth will be, in which a new humanity will remain forever, always communing with God. . . . (5:36,1)

John distinctly foresaw the first “resurrection of the righteous” [Luke 14:14] and the inheritance in the kingdom of the earth; what the prophets have prophesied concerning it harmonizes with his vision. The Lord also taught this when he promised that he would drink the cup new with his disciples in the kingdom [Matt 26:29]. The apostle also has confessed that the creation will be free from the bondage of corruption and will pass into the liberty of the children of God [Rom 8:21].

In all these things, and by them all, the same God the Father is manifested, who fashioned humanity and promised the inheritance of the earth to the fathers, who will bring humankind forth at the resurrection of the righteous, and who fulfills the promises about the kingdom of his Son. He will in due course bestow in a paternal manner what “no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived” [1 Cor 2:9]. For there is one Son, who accomplished his Father’s will; and one human race in which the mysteries of God are accomplished—“things into which the angels long to look” [1 Pet 1:12]. But they are not able to search out the wisdom of God, through which his handiwork, confirmed and incorporated with his Son, is brought to perfection—that his offspring, the first-begotten Word, should descend to the creature (that is, to what had been made) and should be contained in it; and, on the other hand, that the creature should contain the Word and ascend to him, passing beyond the angels, and be made after the image and likeness of God. (5:36,3)

1. None of the extant works of Justin Martyr include the passage to which Irenaeus here refers; it must have been from one that has been lost.

2. In several of the cultures of the ancient world, letters of the alphabet received numerical values. Irenaeus is referring here to attempts by some Christians to use this practice to decode the number and thus identify the person who was (or would be) the Antichrist.

3. In the omitted section, Irenaeus goes on to suggest three names that would be the numerical equivalent of 666, to make his point.

4. Papias served as bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor. He authored a five-volume work known as Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord, which some early Christian leaders held in high esteem. However, only fragments of the work remain; they are available in AposFrs 562–95.

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