[4553] Luke xi. 8.
[4554] Tam cito.
[4555] Luke xi. 11-13.
[4556] Apud quem.
[4557] Luke xi. 14.
[4558] Isa. xxix. 18.
[4559] Luke xi. 19.
[4560] Luke xi. 18.
[4561] Luke xi. 20.
[4562] Ex. viii. 19.
[4563] Significaret.
[4564] Vetustatum scilicet suarum.
[4565] Apud.
[4566] Applicuit.
[4567] Luke xi. 21, 22.
[4568] Ceterum.
[4569] Defluendo.
[4570] The scorpion here represents any class of the lowest animals, especially such as stung. The Marcionites impiously made it a reproach to the Creator, that He had formed such worthless and offensive creatures. Compare book i. chap. 17, note 5. p. 283.
[4571] Luke xi. 27, 28.
[4572] See above, on Luke viii. 21.
[4573] Natura.
[4574] Proinde.
Chapter XXVII.--Christ's Reprehension of the Pharisees Seeking a Sign. His Censure of Their Love of Outward Show Rather Than Inward Holiness. Scripture Abounds with Admonitions of a Similar Purport. Proofs of His Mission from the Creator.
I prefer elsewhere refuting [4575] the faults which the Marcionites find in the Creator. It is here enough that they are also found in Christ. [4576] Behold how unequal, inconsistent, and capricious he is! Teaching one thing and doing another, he enjoins "giving to every one that seeks;" and yet he himself refuses to give to those "who seek a sign." [4577] For a vast age he hides his own light from men, and yet says that a candle must not be hidden, but affirms that it ought to be set upon a candlestick, that it may give light to all. [4578] He forbids cursing again, and cursing much more of course; and yet he heaps his woe upon the Pharisees and doctors of the law. [4579] Who so closely resembles my God as His own Christ? We have often already laid it down for certain, [4580] that He could not have been branded [4581] as the destroyer of the law if He had promulged another god. Therefore even the Pharisee, who invited Him to dinner in the passage before us, [4582] expressed some surprise [4583] in His presence that He had not washed before He sat down to meat, in accordance with the law, since it was the God of the law that He was proclaiming. [4584] Jesus also interpreted the law to him when He told him that they "made clean the outside of the cup and the platter, whereas their inward part was full of ravening and wickedness." This He said, to signify that by the cleansing of vessels was to be understood before God the purification of men, inasmuch as it was about a man, and not about an unwashed vessel, that even this Pharisee had been treating in His presence. He therefore said: "You wash the outside of the cup," that is, the flesh, "but you do not cleanse your inside part," [4585] that is, the soul; adding: "Did not He that made the outside," that is, the flesh, "also make the inward part," that is to say, the soul?--by which assertion He expressly declared that to the same God belongs the cleansing of a man's external and internal nature, both alike being in the power of Him who prefers mercy not only to man's washing, [4586] but even to sacrifice. [4587] For He subjoins the command: "Give what ye possess as alms, and all things shall be clean unto you." [4588] Even if another god could have enjoined mercy, he could not have done so previous to his becoming known. Furthermore, it is in this passage evident that they [4589] were not reproved concerning their God, but concerning a point of His instruction to them, when He prescribed to them figuratively the cleansing of their vessels, but really the works of merciful dispositions. In like manner, He upbraids them for tithing paltry herbs, [4590] but at the same time "passing over hospitality [4591] and the love of God." [4592] The vocation and the love of what God, but Him by whose law of tithes they used to offer their rue and mint? For the whole point of the rebuke lay in this, that they cared about small matters in His service of course, to whom they failed to exhibit their weightier duties when He commanded them: "Thou shalt love with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, the Lord thy God, who hath called thee out of Egypt." [4593] Besides, time enough had not yet passed to admit of Christ's requiring so premature--nay, as yet so distasteful [4594] --a love towards a new and recent, not to say a hardly yet developed, [4595] deity. When, again, He upbraids those who caught at the uppermost places and the honour of public salutations, He only follows out the Creator's course, [4596] who calls ambitious persons of this character "rulers of Sodom," [4597] who forbids us "to put confidence even in princes," [4598] and pronounces him to be altogether wretched who places his confidence in man. But whoever [4599] aims at high position, because he would glory in the officious attentions [4600] of other people, (in every such case,) inasmuch as He forbade such attentions (in the shape) of placing hope and confidence in man, He at the same time [4601] censured all who were ambitious of high positions. He also inveighs against the doctors of the law themselves, because they were "lading men with burdens grievous to be borne, which they did not venture to touch with even a finger of their own;" [4602] but not as if He made a mock of [4603] the burdens of the law with any feeling of detestation towards it. For how could He have felt aversion to the law, who used with so much earnestness to upbraid them for passing over its weightier matters, alms--giving, hospitality, [4604] and the love of God? Nor, indeed, was it only these great things (which He recognized), but even [4605] the tithes of rue and the cleansing of cups. But, in truth, He would rather have deemed them excusable for being unable to carry burdens which could not be borne. What, then, are the burdens which He censures? [4606] None but those which they were accumulating of their own accord, when they taught for commandments the doctrines of men; for the sake of private advantage joining house to house, so as to deprive their neighbour of his own; cajoling [4607] the people, loving gifts, pursuing rewards, robbing the poor of the rights of judgment, that they might have the widow for a prey and the fatherless for a spoil. [4608] Of these Isaiah also says, "Woe unto them that are strong in Jerusalem!" [4609] and again, "They that demand you shall rule over you." [4610] And who did this more than the lawyers? [4611] Now, if these offended Christ, it was as belonging to Him that they offended Him. He would have aimed no blow at the teachers of an alien law. But why is a "woe" pronounced against them for "building the sepulchres of the prophets whom their fathers had killed?" [4612] They rather deserved praise, because by such an act of piety they seemed to show that they did not allow the deeds of their fathers. Was it not because (Christ) was jealous [4613] of such a disposition as the Marcionites denounce, [4614] visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the fourth generation? What "key," indeed, was it which these lawyers had, [4615] but the interpretation of the law? Into the perception of this they neither entered themselves, even because they did not believe (for "unless ye believe, ye shall not understand"); nor did they permit others to enter, because they preferred to teach them for commandments even the doctrines of men. When, therefore, He reproached those who did not themselves enter in, and also shut the door against others, must He be regarded as a disparager of the law, or as a supporter of it? If a disparager, those who were hindering the law ought to have been pleased; if a supporter, He is no longer an enemy of the law. [4616] But all these imprecations He uttered in order to tarnish the Creator as a cruel Being, [4617] against whom such as offended were destined to have a "woe." And who would not rather have feared to provoke a cruel Being, [4618] by withdrawing allegiance [4619] from Him? Therefore the more He represented the Creator to be an object of fear, the more earnestly would He teach that He ought to be served. Thus would it behove the Creator's Christ to act.
[4575] Purgare.
[4576] From the Marcionite point of view.
[4577] Luke xi. 29.
[4578] Luke xi. 33.
[4579] Luke vi. 28, also xi. 37-52.
[4580] Fiximus.
[4581] Denotari.
[4582] Tunc.
[4583] Retractabat.
[4584] Circumferret.
[4585] Luke xi. 39.
[4586] Lavacro.
[4587] Matt. ix. 13, xii. 7; comp. Hos. viii. 6.
[4588] Luke xi. 41.
[4589] The Pharisees and lawyers.
[4590] Holuscula.
[4591] Marcion's gospel had klesin (vocationem, perhaps a general word for hospitality) instead of krisin, judgment,--a quality which M. did not allow in his god. See Epiphanius, Hæres. xlii., Schol. 26 (Oehler and Fr. Junius).
[4592] Luke xi. 42.
[4593] Deut. vi. 5.
[4594] Amaxam.
[4595] Nondum palam facto.
[4596] Sectam administrat.
[4597] Isa. i. 10.
[4598] Ps. cxviii. 9.
[4599] Quodsiquis.
[4600] Officiis.
[4601] Idem.
[4602] Luke xi. 46.
[4603] Suggillans.
[4604] Vocationem: Marcion's klesin.
[4605] Nedum.
[4606] Taxat.
[4607] Clamantes.
[4608] See Isa. v. 5, 23, and x. 2.
[4609] Isa. xxviii. 14.
[4610] The books point to Isa. iii. 3, 4 for this; but there is only a slight similarity in the latter clause, even in the Septuagint.
[4611] Legis doctores: the nomikoi of the Gospels.
[4612] Luke xi. 47.
[4613] Zelotes.
[4614] Arguunt.
[4615] Luke xi. 52.
[4616] As Marcion held Him to be.
[4617] A Marcionite position.
[4618] Sævum.
[4619] Deficiendo.
Chapter XXVIII.--Examples from the Old Testament, Balaam, Moses, and Hezekiah, to Show How Completely the Instruction and Conduct of Christ [4620] Are in Keeping with the Will and Purpose of the Creator.
Justly, therefore, was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees displeasing to Him, loving God as they did with their lips, but not with their heart. "Beware," He says to the disciples, "of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy," not the proclamation of the Creator. The Son hates those who refused obedience [4621] to the Father; nor does He wish His disciples to show such a disposition towards Him--not (let it be observed) towards another god, against whom such hypocrisy indeed might have been admissible, as that which He wished to guard His disciples against. It is the example of the Pharisees which He forbids. It was in respect of Him against whom the Pharisees were sinning that (Christ) now forbade His disciples to offend. Since, then, He had censured their hypocrisy, which covered the secrets of the heart, and obscured with superficial offices the mysteries of unbelief, because (while holding the key of knowledge) it would neither enter in itself, nor permit others to enter in, He therefore adds, "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, which shall not be known," [4622] in order that no one should suppose that He was attempting the revelation and the recognition of an hitherto unknown and hidden god. When He remarks also on their murmurs and taunts, in saying of Him, "This man casteth out devils only through Beelzebub," He means that all these imputations would come forth to the light of day, and be in the mouths of men in consequence of the promulgation of the Gospel. He then turns to His disciples with these words, "I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them which can only kill the body, and after that have no more power over you." [4623] They will, however, find Isaiah had already said, "See how the just man is taken away, and no man layeth it to heart." [4624] "But I will show you whom ye shall fear: fear Him who, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell" (meaning, of course, the Creator); "yea, I say unto you, fear Him." [4625] Now, it would here be enough for my purpose that He forbids offence being given to Him whom He orders to be feared; and that He orders Him to be respected [4626] whom He forbids to be offended; and that He who gives these commands belongs to that very God for whom He procures this fear, this absence of offence, and this respect. But this conclusion I can draw also from the following words: "For I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before God." [4627] Now they who shall confess Christ will have to be slain [4628] before men, but they will have nothing more to suffer after they have been put to death by them. These therefore will be they whom He forewarns above not to be afraid of being only killed; and this forewarning He offers, in order that He might subjoin a clause on the necessity of confessing Him: "Every one that denieth me before men shall be denied before God" [4629] --by Him, of course, who would have confessed him, if he had only confessed God. Now, He who will confess the confessor is the very same God who will also deny the denier of Himself. Again, if it is the confessor who will have nothing to fear after his violent death, [4630] it is the denier to whom everything will become fearful after his natural death. Since, therefore, that which will have to be feared after death, even the punishment of hell, belongs to the Creator, the denier, too, belongs to the Creator. As with the denier, however, so with the confessor: if he should deny God, he will plainly have to suffer from God, although from men he had nothing more to suffer after they had put him to death. And so Christ is the Creator's, because He shows that all those who deny Him ought to fear the Creator's hell. After deterring His disciples from denial of Himself, He adds an admonition to fear blasphemy: "Whosoever shall speak against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him." [4631] Now, if both the remission and the retention of sin savour of a judicial God, the Holy Ghost, who is not to be blasphemed, will belong to Him, who will not forgive the blasphemy; just as He who, in the preceding passage, was not to be denied, belonged to, Him who would, after He had killed, also cast into hell. Now, since it is Christ who averts blasphemy from the Creator, I am at a loss to know in what manner His adversary [4632] could have come. Else, if by these sayings He throws a black cloud of censure [4633] over the severity of Him who will not forgive blasphemy and will kill even to hell, it follows that the very spirit of that rival god may be blasphemed with impunity, and his Christ denied; and that there is no difference, in fact, between worshipping and despising him; but that, as there is no punishment for the contempt, so there is no reward for the worship, which men need expect. When "brought before magistrates," and examined, He forbids them "to take thought how they shall answer;" "for," says He, "the Holy Ghost shall teach you in that very hour what ye ought to say." [4634] If such an injunction [4635] as this comes from the Creator, the precept will only be His by whom an example was previously given. The prophet Balaam, in Numbers, when sent forth by king Balak to curse Israel, with whom he was commencing war, was at the same moment [4636] filled with the Spirit. Instead of the curse which he was come to pronounce, he uttered the blessing which the Spirit at that very hour inspired him with; having previously declared to the king's messengers, and then to the king himself, that he could only speak forth that which God should put into his mouth. [4637] The novel doctrines of the new Christ are such as the Creator's servants initiated long before! But see how clear a difference there is between the example of Moses and of Christ. [4638] Moses voluntarily interferes with brothers [4639] who were quarrelling, and chides the offender: "Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?" He is, however, rejected by him: "Who made thee a prince or a judge over us?" [4640] Christ, on the contrary, when requested by a certain man to compose a strife between him and his brother about dividing an inheritance, refused His assistance, although in so honest a cause. Well, then, my Moses is better than your Christ, aiming as he did at the peace of brethren, and obviating their wrong. But of course the case must be different with Christ, for he is the Christ of the simply good and non-judicial god. "Who," says he, "made me a judge over you?" [4641] No other word of excuse was he able to find, without using [4642] that with which the wicked, man and impious brother had rejected [4643] the defender of probity and piety! In short, he approved of the excuse, although a bad one, by his use of it; and of the act, although a bad one, by his refusal to make peace between brothers. Or rather, would He not show His resentment [4644] at the rejection of Moses with such a word? And therefore did He not wish in a similar case of contentious brothers, to confound them with the recollection of so harsh a word? Clearly so. For He had Himself been present in Moses, who heard such a rejection--even He, the Spirit of the Creator. [4645] I think that we have already, in another passage, [4646] sufficiently shown that the glory of riches is condemned by our God, "who putteth down the mighty from their throne, and exalts the poor from the dunghill." [4647] From Him, therefore, will proceed the parable of the rich man, who flattered himself about the increase of his fields, and to Whom God said: "Thou fool, this night shall they require thy soul of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?" [4648] It was just in the like manner that the king Hezekiah heard from Isaiah the sad doom of his kingdom, when he gloried, before the envoys of Babylon, [4649] in his treasures and the deposits of his precious things. [4650]