------------------------
[1579] Gallandi, Vet. Patr., ii. 451. Two fragments of this discourse are extant also in the Parallela Damascenica Rupefucaldina, pp. 755, 789. [Compare Justin, vol. i. p. 273; Tatian, ii. 65; Athenagoras, 130, and Clement passim; vol. iii. Tertullian, 129; Origen, iv. p. 412. This is a fragment from Hippol. Against the Greeks.
[1580] The reading in the text is hoperi daimonon topos; others read logos for topos = thus far the discussion on demons.
[1581] akataskeuastos.
[1582] Or it may be "seasonable," proskaroius.
[1583] tropon. There is another reading, topon = of the places.
[1584] Hades, in the view of the ancients, was the general receptacle of souls after their separation from the body, where the good abode happily in a place of light (photeino), and the evil all in a place of darkness (skotiotero). See Colomesii Keimelia litteraria, 28, and Suicer on hades. Hence Abraham's bosom and paradise were placed in Hades. See Olympiodorus on Eccles., iii. p. 264. The Macedonians, on the authority of Hugo Broughton, praying in the Lord's words, "Our Father who art in Hades" (Pater hemon ho en ade) (Fabricius). [Hippolytus is singular in assigning the ultimate receptacle of lost spirits to this Hades. But compare vol. iii. p. 428, and vol. iv. pp. 293, 495, 541, etc.]
[1585] Cf. Constitut. Apostol., viii. 41.
[1586] [They do not pass into an intermediate purgatory, nor require prayers for "the repose of their souls."]
[1587] tribolos. [Also the Pindaric citation in my note, vol. i. 74.]
[1588] In the Parallela is inserted here the word epigelontes, deriding them.
[1589] geenna.
[1590] According to the reading in Parallela, which inserts xanthen = red.
[1591] The text reads kai hou, and where. But in Parallela it is kai houtoi = and these see, etc. In the same we find hos mete for kai tous dikaious.
[1592] [It would be hard to frame a system of belief concerning the state of the dead more entirely exclusive of purgatory, i e., a place where the souls of the faithful are detained till (by Masses and the like) they are relieved and admitted to glory, before the resurrection. See vol. iii. p. 706.]
[1593] metensomaton, in opposition to the dogma of metempsychosis.
[1594] In the Timæus.
[1595] The first of the two fragments in the Parallela ends here.
[1596] [The text Eccles. xi. 3 may be accommodated to this truth, but seems to have no force as proof.]
[1597] The second fragment extant in the Parallela begins here.
[1598] Ps. cxix. 137.
[1599] [It is not the unrighteous, be it remembered, who go to "purgatory," according to the Trent theology, but only true Christians, dying in full communion with the Church. Hippolytus is here speaking of the ultimate doom of the wicked, but bears in mind the imagery of Luke xvi. 24 and the appeal to Abraham.]
[1600] The second fragment in the Parallela ends here.
[1601] ekbrassomene.
[1602] 1 Cor. ii. 9.
Against the Heresy of One Noetus. [1603]
1. Some others are secretly introducing another doctrine, who have become disciples of one Noetus, who was a native of Smyrna, [1604] (and) lived not very long ago. [1605] This person was greatly puffed up and inflated with pride, being inspired by the conceit of a strange spirit. He alleged that Christ was the Father Himself, and that the Father Himself was born, and suffered, and died. Ye see what pride of heart and what a strange inflated spirit had insinuated themselves into him. From his other actions, then, the proof is already given us that he spoke not with a pure spirit; for he who blasphemes against the Holy Ghost is cast out from the holy inheritance. He alleged that he was himself Moses, and that Aaron was his brother. [1606] When the blessed presbyters heard this, they summoned him before the Church, and examined him. But he denied at first that he held such opinions. Afterwards, however, taking shelter among some, and having gathered round him some others [1607] who had embraced the same error, he wished thereafter to uphold his dogma openly as correct. And the blessed presbyters called him again before them, and examined him. But he stood out against them, saying, "What evil, then, am I doing in glorifying Christ?" And the presbyters replied to him, "We too know in truth one God; [1608] we know Christ; we know that the Son suffered even as He suffered, and died even as He died, and rose again on the third day, and is at the right hand of the Father, and cometh to judge the living and the dead. And these things which we have learned we allege." Then, after examining him, they expelled him from the Church. And he was carried to such a pitch of pride, that he established a school.
2. Now they seek to exhibit the foundation for their dogma by citing the word in the law, "I am the God of your fathers: ye shall have no other gods beside me;" [1609] and again in another passage, "I am the first," He saith, "and the last; and beside me there is none other." [1610] Thus they say they prove that God is one. And then they answer in this manner: "If therefore I acknowledge Christ to be God, He is the Father Himself, if He is indeed God; and Christ suffered, being Himself God; and consequently the Father suffered, for He was the Father Himself." But the case stands not thus; for the Scriptures do not set forth the matter in this manner. But they make use also of other testimonies, and say, Thus it is written: "This is our God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him. He hath found out all the way of knowledge, and hath given it unto Jacob His servant (son), and to Israel His beloved. Afterward did He show Himself upon earth, and conversed with men." [1611] You see, then, he says, that this is God, who is the only One, and who afterwards did show Himself, and conversed with men." And in another place he says, "Egypt hath laboured; and the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, (and they shall be slaves to thee); and they shall come after thee bound with manacles, and they shall fall down unto thee, because God is in thee; and they shall make supplication unto thee: and there is no God beside thee. For Thou art God, and we knew not; God of Israel, the Saviour." [1612] Do you see, he says, how the Scriptures proclaim one God? And as this is clearly exhibited, and these passages are testimonies to it, I am under necessity, he says, since one is acknowledged, to make this One the subject of suffering. For Christ was God, and suffered on account of us, being Himself the Father, that He might be able also to save us. And we cannot express ourselves otherwise, he says; for the apostle also acknowledges one God, when he says, "Whose are the fathers, (and) of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." [1613]
3. In this way, then, they choose to set forth these things, and they make use only of one class of passages; [1614] just in the same one-sided manner that Theodotus employed when he sought to prove that Christ was a mere man. But neither has the one party nor the other understood the matter rightly, as the Scriptures themselves confute their senselessness, and attest the truth. See, brethren, what a rash and audacious dogma they have introduced, when they say without shame, the Father is Himself Christ, Himself the Son, Himself was born, Himself suffered, Himself raised Himself. But it is not so. The Scriptures speak what is right; but Noetus is of a different mind from them. Yet, though Noetus does not understand the truth, the Scriptures are not at once to be repudiated. For who will not say that there is one God? Yet he will not on that account deny the economy (i.e., the number and disposition of persons in the Trinity). The proper way, therefore, to deal with the question is first of all to refute the interpretation put upon these passages by these men, and then to explain their real meaning. For it is right, in the first place, to expound the truth that the Father is one God, "of whom is every family," [1615] "by whom are all things, of whom are all things, and we in Him." [1616]
4. Let us, as I said, see how he is confuted, and then let us set forth the truth. Now he quotes the words, "Egypt has laboured, and the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabeans," and so forth on to the words, "For Thou art the God of Israel, the Saviour." And these words he cites without understanding what precedes them. For whenever they wish to attempt anything underhand, they mutilate the Scriptures. But let him quote the passage as a whole, and he will discover the reason kept in view in writing it. For we have the beginning of the section a little above; and we ought, of course, to commence there in showing to whom and about whom the passage speaks. For above, the beginning of the section stands thus: "Ask me concerning my sons and my daughters, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth, and man upon it: I with my hand have stablished the heaven; I have commanded all the stars. I have raised him up, and all his ways are straight. He shall build my city, and he shall turn back the captivity; not for price nor reward, said the Lord of hosts. Thus said the Lord of hosts, Egypt hath laboured, and the merchandise of Ethiopia and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be slaves to thee: and they shall come after thee bound with manacles, and they shall fall down unto thee; and they shall make supplication unto thee, because God is in thee; and there is no God beside thee. For Thou art God, and we knew not; the God of Israel, the Saviour." [1617] "In thee, therefore," says he, "God is." But in whom is God except in Christ Jesus, the Father's Word, and the mystery of the economy? [1618] And again, exhibiting the truth regarding Him, he points to the fact of His being in the flesh when He says, "I have raised Him up in righteousness, and all His ways are straight." For what is this? Of whom does the Father thus testify? It is of the Son that the Father says, "I have raised Him up in righteousness." And that the Father did raise up His Son in righteousness, the Apostle Paul bears witness, saying, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." [1619] Behold, the word spoken by the prophet is thus made good, "I have raised Him up in righteousness." And in saying, "God is in thee," he referred to the mystery of the economy, because when the Word was made incarnate and became man, the Father was in the Son, and the Son in the Father, while the Son was living among men. This, therefore, was signified, brethren, that in reality the mystery of the economy by the Holy Ghost and the Virgin was this Word, constituting yet one Son to God. [1620] And it is not simply that I say this, but He Himself attests it who came down from heaven; for He speaketh thus: "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." [1621] What then can he seek beside what is thus written? Will he say, forsooth, that flesh was in heaven? Yet there is the flesh which was presented by the Father's Word as an offering,--the flesh that came by the Spirit and the Virgin, (and was) demonstrated to be the perfect Son of God. It is evident, therefore, that He offered Himself to the Father. And before this there was no flesh in heaven. Who, then, was in heaven [1622] but the Word unincarnate, who was despatched to show that He was upon earth and was also in heaven? For He was Word, He was Spirit, He was Power. The same took to Himself the name common and current among men, and was called from the beginning the Son of man on account of what He was to be, although He was not yet man, as Daniel testifies when he says, "I saw, and behold one like the Son of man came on the clouds of heaven." [1623] Rightly, then, did he say that He who was in heaven was called from the beginning by this name, the Word of God, as being that from the beginning.