Address to Marcianus

1 Knowing, my beloved Marcianus, your desire to walk in godliness, which alone leads man to eternal life, I rejoice with you and pray that you may keep your faith whole and so be pleasing to God who made you. I wish it were possible for us to be always together, to help each other and to lighten the labor of our earthly life by constant conversation about the things that are profitable. But since at present we are separated from one another in the body, we will not fail, as far as we are able, to speak with you a little in writing, and to set out briefly the preaching of the truth for the confirmation of your faith. We send you a kind of manual of essentials, so that through a little you may attain to much, learning in a short space all the members of the body of the truth, and receiving in brief form the demonstration of the things of God. In this way it will bear fruit for your own salvation, and you will put to shame all who teach falsehood, and will bring with all confidence our sound and pure teaching to everyone who desires to understand it. For the way leading upward is one for all who see, lit with heavenly light, but the ways of those who do not see are many, dark and contrary. This way leads to the kingdom of heaven, uniting man to God, but those ways bring down to death, separating man from God. So it is necessary for you and for all who care for their own salvation to make your course unswerving, firm and sure by means of faith, so that you do not falter, are not held back and detained by material desires, and do not turn aside and wander from what is right.

2 Now, since man is a living being compounded of soul and flesh, he must exist by both of these, and since offenses come from both of them, purity of the flesh is the restraining abstinence from all shameful things and all unrighteous deeds, and purity of the soul is keeping faith toward God whole, neither adding to it nor taking away from it. For godliness is obscured and dulled by the soiling and the staining of the flesh, and is broken and polluted and no longer whole if falsehood enters the soul, but it will keep itself in its beauty and its measure, when truth is constant in the soul and purity in the flesh. For what profit is it to know the truth in words, and to pollute the flesh and perform the works of evil? Or what profit can purity of the flesh bring, if truth is not in the soul? For these rejoice with one another, and are united and allied to bring man face to face with God. So the Holy Spirit says through David: “Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly,” that is, the counsel of the nations that do not know God, for those who do not worship the God who truly is are ungodly. And so the Word says to Moses: “I am He who is.” But those who do not worship the God who is are the ungodly. “And has not stood in the way of sinners.” But sinners are those who have the knowledge of God and do not keep His commandments, that is, disdainful scorners. “And has not sat in the seat of the pestilent.” Now the pestilent are those who by wicked and perverse doctrines corrupt not only themselves, but others also. For the seat is a symbol of teaching. Such are all heretics: they sit in the seats of the pestilent, and those who receive the venom of their doctrine are corrupted.

The Rule of Faith

3 So that nothing of this kind may happen to us, we must hold the rule of the faith without deviation, and do the commandments of God, believing in God and fearing Him as Lord and loving Him as Father. Now this doing comes from faith, for Isaiah says: “If you do not believe, neither will you understand.” And faith comes from the truth, for faith rests on things that truly are. For we believe in things that are, as they are, and believing in things that are, as they always are, we keep our confidence in them firm. Since then faith is the perpetuation of our salvation, we must take great care to maintain it, so that we may have a true comprehension of the things that are. Faith does this for us, just as the Elders, the disciples of the Apostles, have handed down to us. First of all, it tells us to keep in mind that we have received baptism for the remission of sins, in the name of God the Father, and in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was incarnate and died and rose again, and in the Holy Spirit of God. And that this baptism is the seal of eternal life, and is the new birth to God, so that we should no longer be the sons of mortal men, but of the eternal and perpetual God, and that what is everlasting and continuing is made God, and is over all things that are made, and all things are put under Him, and all the things that are put under Him are made His own, for God is not ruler and Lord over the things of another, but over His own. And all things are God’s, and so God is Almighty, and all things are of God.

4 For things that are made must have the beginning of their making from some great cause, and the beginning of all things is God. For He Himself was not made by anyone, and by Him all things were made. And therefore it is right first of all to believe that there is One God, the Father, who made and fashioned all things, and made what was not so that it should be, and who, containing all things, alone is uncontained. Now this world of ours is among all things, and man is in the world, so this world also was formed by God.

5 So it is shown that there is One God, the Father, not made, invisible, creator of all things, above whom there is no other God, and after whom there is no other God. And since God is rational, He created the things that were made by the Word, and since God is Spirit, He adorned all things by the Spirit, as the prophet also says: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by his spirit.” Since the Word establishes, that is, gives body and grants the reality of being, and the Spirit gives order and form to the diversity of the powers, the Word is rightly and fittingly called the Son, and the Spirit the Wisdom of God. His apostle Paul also says well: “One God, the Father, who is over all and through all and in us all.” For the Father is over all, and the Son is through all, for through Him all things were made by the Father, and the Spirit, who cries “Abba, Father,” is in us all and fashions man into the likeness of God. Now the Spirit makes the Word known, and therefore the prophets announced the Son of God, and the Word utters the Spirit, and therefore is Himself the announcer of the prophets, and leads and draws man to the Father.

6 This is the order of the rule of our faith, and the foundation of the building, and the stability of our way of life: God, the Father, not made, not material, invisible, one God, the creator of all things. This is the first point of our faith. The second point is the Word of God, Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who was manifested to the prophets according to the form of their prophesying and according to the method of the dispensation of the Father, through whom all things were made, who also at the end of the times, to complete and gather up all things, was made man among men, visible and tangible, in order to abolish death and bring life to light and produce a community of union between God and man. And the third point is the Holy Spirit, through whom the prophets prophesied, and the fathers learned the things of God, and the righteous were led forth into the way of righteousness, and who in the end of the times was poured out in a new way on mankind in all the earth, renewing man to God.

7 And for this reason the baptism of our regeneration proceeds through these three points: God the Father grants us regeneration through His Son by the Holy Spirit. For all who carry the Spirit of God in them are led to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son brings them to the Father, and the Father causes them to possess incorruption. Without the Spirit it is not possible to see the Word of God, and without the Son no one can draw near to the Father, for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of the Son of God is through the Holy Spirit, and according to the good pleasure of the Father, the Son ministers and dispenses the Spirit to whomever the Father wills and as He wills.

God the Father of All

8 And by the Spirit the Father is called Most High and Almighty and Lord of hosts, so that we may learn about God that He is the creator of heaven and earth and all the world, and maker of angels and men, and Lord of all, through whom all things exist and by whom all things are sustained, merciful, compassionate and very tender, good, just, the God of all, both of Jews and of Gentiles, and of those who believe. To those who believe He is as a Father, for in the end of the times He opened up the covenant of adoption, but to the Jews as Lord and Lawgiver, for in the intermediate times, when man forgot God and departed and revolted from Him, He brought them into subjection by the Law, so that they might learn that they had for Lord the maker and creator, who also gives the breath of life, and whom we ought to worship day and night; to the Gentiles as maker and creator and almighty; and to all alike as sustainer and nourisher and king and judge. For no one will escape and be delivered from His judgment, neither Jew nor Gentile, nor a believer who has sinned, nor an angel, but those who now reject His goodness will know His power in judgment, as the blessed apostle says: “Not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance, but by your hardness and impenitent heart you are storing up anger for yourself on the day of anger and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will repay every man according to his works.” This is He who is called in the Law the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of the living, although the majesty and greatness of this God are beyond words.

The Seven Heavens

9 Now this world is surrounded by seven heavens, in which powers and angels and archangels live, serving God, the Almighty and Maker of all things, not as though He were in need, but so that they may not be idle and unprofitable and ineffectual. So the Spirit of God is also manifold in His indwelling, and the prophet Isaiah counts Him in seven forms of service, as resting on the Son of God, that is, the Word, in His coming as man. “The Spirit of God,” he says, “will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and of godliness; the Spirit of the fear of God will fill him.” Now the heaven that is first from above, and surrounds the rest, is the heaven of wisdom; the second from it, of understanding; the third, of counsel; the fourth, counting from above, of might; the fifth, of knowledge; the sixth, of godliness; and the seventh, this firmament of ours, is full of the fear of that Spirit who gives light to the heavens. For as the pattern of this, Moses received the seven-branched lampstand, which shone continually in the holy place, for he received this service as a pattern of the heavens, as the Word said to him: “You shall make it according to all the pattern of the things that you have seen on the mountain.”

10 Now this God is continually glorified by His Word, who is His Son, and by the Holy Spirit, who is the Wisdom of the Father of all, and the powers of these, namely of the Word and Wisdom, which are called Cherubim and Seraphim, glorify God with unceasing voices, and every created thing that is in the heavens offers glory to God the Father of all. He has created the whole world by His Word, and the angels are in the world, and to all the world He has given laws in which each separate thing should remain, and, according to what is determined by God, should not pass its bounds, each fulfilling his appointed task.

The Creation of Man

11 But He formed man with His own hands, taking from the earth what was purest and finest, and mixing His own power with the earth in measure. For He traced His own form on the formation, so that what would be seen should be of divine form, for man was formed as the image of God and set on the earth. And so that he might become living, He breathed the breath of life on his face, so that man should be like God in both the breath and the formation. Moreover he was free and self-controlled, being made by God for this purpose, that he might rule all those things that were on the earth. And this great created world, prepared by God before the formation of man, was given to man as his place, containing all things within itself. And the servants of the God who formed all things were also in this place with their tasks, and the steward, who was set over all his fellow servants, received this place. Now the servants were angels, and the steward was the archangel.

12 Now, having made man lord of the earth and all things in it, He secretly appointed him lord also of those who were servants in it. They, however, were in their perfection, but the lord, that is, man, was small, for he was a child, and he needed to grow, and so come to his perfection. And so that he might have his nourishment and growth with festive and delicate foods, He prepared him a place better than this world, excelling in air, beauty, light, food, plants, fruit, water, and all the other necessities of life, and its name is Paradise. And this Paradise was so beautiful and good that the Word of God continually went there, and walked and talked with the man, foreshadowing the things that would come in the future, namely that He would live with him and talk with him, and would be with men, teaching them righteousness. But man was a child, whose understanding was not yet perfected, and so he was easily led astray by the deceiver.

Adam and Eve in Paradise

13 And while man lived in Paradise, God brought before him all living things and commanded him to give names to them all; “and whatever Adam called a living soul, that was its name.” And He also decided to make a helper for the man, for God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make a helper fit for him.” For among all the other living things there was not found a helper equal and comparable and like to Adam. But God Himself “cast a trance on Adam and made him sleep,” and, so that work might be accomplished from work, since there was no sleep in Paradise, this was brought on Adam by the will of God, and God “took one of Adam’s ribs and filled up the flesh in its place, and the rib that He took He built into a woman, and so He brought her to Adam,” and when he saw her he said: “This is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh: she will be called woman, because she was taken from her husband.”

14 And Adam and Eve—for that is the name of the woman—“were naked, and were not ashamed,” for they had an innocent and childlike mind, and it was not possible for them to conceive and understand anything of what is born in the soul by wickedness through lusts and shameful desires. For at that time they were whole, preserving their own nature, since they had the breath of life that was breathed on their creation, and while this breath remains in its place and power, it has no comprehension and understanding of things that are shameful. And so they were not ashamed, kissing and embracing each other in purity, as children do.

The Commandment and the Fall

15 But so that man would not conceive thoughts too high, and be exalted and uplifted, as though he had no lord, because of the authority and freedom granted to him, and so transgress against God his maker, going beyond his measure, and entertain selfish imaginings of pride in opposition to God, a law was given to him by God, so that he might perceive that he had as lord the Lord of all. And He set him certain limitations, so that, if he kept the commandment of God, he would always remain as he was, that is, immortal, but if he did not keep it, he would become mortal and be dissolved into the earth from which his formation had been taken. Now the commandment was this: “You may freely eat of every tree that is in the Paradise, but you shall not eat of that tree alone from which is the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat of it, you will surely die.”

16 The man did not keep this commandment, but was disobedient to God, being led astray by the angel who, for the great gifts of God which He had given to man, was envious and jealous of him, and both brought himself to nothing and made man sinful, persuading him to disobey the commandment of God. So the angel, becoming by his falsehood the author and originator of sin, was himself struck down, having offended against God, and he caused man to be cast out of Paradise. And because, guided by his own disposition, he rebelled and departed from God, he was called Satan, according to the Hebrew word, that is, Apostate, but he is also called Slanderer. Now God cursed the serpent that carried and conveyed the Slanderer, and this curse came on the beast himself and on the angel hidden and concealed in him, that is, on Satan. And He put man away from His presence, removing him and making him live on the way to Paradise at that time, because Paradise does not receive the sinful.

Cain and Abel

17 And when they were put out of Paradise, Adam and his wife Eve fell into many troubles of anxious grief, going about in this world with sorrow and toil and lamentation. For under the rays of this sun man worked the earth, and it produced thorns and thistles, the punishment of sin. Then what was written was fulfilled: “Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain,” and after him she bore Abel. Now the apostate angel, who led man into disobedience and made him sinful and caused his expulsion from Paradise, not content with the first evil, worked a second on the brothers, for filling Cain with his spirit he made him a fratricide. And so Abel died, killed by his brother, which showed from then on that some would be persecuted and oppressed and killed, the unrighteous killing and persecuting the righteous. At this God was angered even more, and cursed Cain, and it came about that everyone of that race in successive generations was made like the one who fathered it. And God raised up another son to Adam, in place of Abel who was killed.

The Fallen Angels and the Flood

18 And for a very long time wickedness extended and spread, and reached and took hold of the whole race of mankind, until a very small seed of righteousness remained among them, and illicit unions took place on the earth, since angels were united with the daughters of the race of mankind, and they bore them sons who were called giants because of their extraordinary size. And the angels brought their wives teachings of wickedness as gifts, for they brought them the powers of roots and herbs, dyeing in colors and cosmetics, the discovery of rare substances, love potions, aversions, love affairs, lust, constraints of love, spells of bewitchment, and all sorcery and idolatry hateful to God. And as these things entered the world, evil extended and spread, while righteousness was diminished and enfeebled.⁠a

19 This went on until judgment came on the world from God by means of a flood, in the tenth generation from the first-formed man, when Noah alone was found righteous. And for his righteousness he himself was delivered, and his wife and his three sons, and the three wives of his sons, being shut up in the ark. And when destruction came on everything on the earth, both man and animals, what was preserved in the ark escaped. Now the three sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth, from whom the race multiplied again, for these were the beginning of mankind after the flood.

The Sons of Noah

20 Now of these one fell under a curse, and the other two inherited a blessing because of their works. For the younger of them, who was called Ham, having mocked his father, and having been convicted of the sin of impiety because of his outrage and unrighteousness against his father, received a curse, and he involved all the descendants who came from him in the curse, and so his whole race after him was cursed, and they increased and multiplied in sins. But Shem and Japheth, his brothers, obtained a blessing because of their piety toward their father. Now the curse of Ham, with which his father Noah cursed him, is this: “Cursed be Ham the child; he will be a servant to his brothers.” When this had come on his race, he fathered many descendants on the earth, for fourteen generations, growing up in a wild condition, and then his race was cut off by God, being delivered up to judgment. For the Canaanites and Hittites and Perizzites and Hivites and Amorites and Jebusites and Girgashites and Sodomites, the Arabians also and the inhabitants of Phoenicia, all the Egyptians and the Libyans, are descendants of Ham, who have fallen under the curse, for the curse lasts a long time over the ungodly.

21 And just as the curse passed on, so also the blessing passed on to the race of him who was blessed, to each in his own order. For Shem was blessed first of them, in these words: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and Ham will be his servant.” The power of the blessing lies in this, that the God and Lord of all should be Shem’s own possession for worship. And the blessing extended and reached Abraham, who was counted as descended in the tenth generation from the race of Shem, and so the Father and God of all was pleased to be called the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, because the blessing of Shem reached out and attached itself to Abraham. Now the blessing of Japheth is this: “God will enlarge Japheth, and he will live in the house of Shem, and Ham will be his servant.” That is, at the end of the ages he blossomed, at the appearing of the Lord, through the calling of the Gentiles, when God enlarged the calling to them, and “their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” The enlarging, then, is the calling from among the Gentiles, that is, the Church. “And he lives in the house of Shem,” that is, in the inheritance of the fathers, receiving in Christ Jesus the right of the firstborn. So each, in the rank in which he was blessed, received through his descendants in that same order the fruit of the blessing.

The Covenant with Noah

22 Now after the Flood God made a covenant with all the world, with every living thing, animals and men, that He would never again destroy with a flood all that grew on the earth. And He gave them a sign, saying: “When the sky is covered with a cloud, the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember my covenant, and will never again destroy every moving thing on the earth by water.” And He changed the food of men, giving them permission to eat meat, for from Adam the first-formed until the Flood men ate only seeds and the fruit of trees, and they were not permitted to eat meat. But since the three sons of Noah were the beginning of a race of men, God blessed them to multiply and increase, saying: “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and rule it, and the fear and dread of you will be on every living animal and on all the birds of the air, and they will be food for you, just like the green plants, but you shall not eat the flesh with the blood of life, for I will also require your blood at the hand of all beasts and at the hand of man. Whoever sheds a man’s blood, his blood will be shed in return.” For He made man the image of God, and the image of God is the Son, after whose image man was made, and for this reason He appeared at the end of the times, so that He might show the image to be like Himself. According to this covenant the race of man multiplied, springing up from the seed of the three. And “on the earth there was one lip,” that is, one language.

The Tower of Babel

23 And they arose and came from the land of the east, and as they went through the land, they came upon the land of Shinar, which was extremely broad, and there they set about building a tower. In this way they sought a means to go up to heaven, and be able to leave their work as a memorial to the people who would come after them. And the building was made with burnt bricks and bitumen, and their bold audacity went forward, as they were all of one mind and consent, and by means of one speech they served the purpose of their desires. But so that the work would advance no further, God divided their tongues, so that they would no longer be able to understand one another. And so they were scattered and planted out, and took possession of the world, and lived in groups and companies, each according to its language, and from this came the different tribes and various languages on the earth. So, since three races of men took possession of the earth, and one of them was under the curse, and two under the blessing, the blessing first of all came to Shem, whose race lived in the east and held the land of the Chaldeans.

The Call of Abraham

24 In the course of time, that is, in the tenth generation after the Flood, Abraham appeared, seeking the God who was due and proper to him by the blessing of his ancestor. And when, urged on by the eagerness of his spirit, he went all over the world, searching for where God is, and failed to find out, God took pity on him who alone was silently seeking Him, and He appeared to Abraham, making Himself known by the Word, as by a beam of light. For He spoke with him from heaven, and said to him: “Leave your country and your kindred and your father’s house, and come into the land that I will show you,” and live there. And he believed the heavenly voice, being by then of mature age, seventy years old, and having a wife, and together with her he went forth from Mesopotamia, taking with him Lot, the son of his brother who was dead. And when he came into the land that is now called Judea, in which seven tribes descended from Ham lived at that time, God appeared to him in a vision and said: “I will give this land to you, and to your seed after you, for an everlasting possession,” and He said that his seed would be strangers in a land not their own, and would be mistreated there, being afflicted and in slavery for four hundred years, and in the fourth generation would return to the place that was promised to Abraham, and that God would judge the race that had brought his seed into slavery. And so that Abraham might know both the number and the glory of his seed, God brought him outside at night, and said: “Look up at the sky, and see the stars of the sky, if you are able to count them: so will your seed be.” And when God saw the undoubting and unwavering certainty of his spirit, He bore witness to him by the Holy Spirit, saying in the Scripture: “And Abraham believed, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” And he was uncircumcised when this witness was given, and so that the excellence of his faith should be made known by a sign, He gave him circumcision, “a seal of the righteousness of that faith which he had in uncircumcision.” And after this there was born to him a son, Isaac, from Sarah who was barren, according to the promise of God, and he circumcised him, according to what God had covenanted with him. And Jacob was born of Isaac, and in this way the original blessing of Shem reached to Abraham, and from Abraham to Isaac, and from Isaac to Jacob, the inheritance of the Spirit being imparted to them, for He was called the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And Jacob fathered twelve sons, from whom the twelve tribes of Israel were named.

The Exodus

25 And when famine had come on all the earth, it happened that there was food in Egypt alone, and Jacob with all his seed moved and lived in Egypt, and the number of all who migrated was “seventy-five souls,” and in four hundred years, as the oracle had declared beforehand, they became six hundred and sixty thousand. And because they were severely afflicted and oppressed by cruel slavery, and sighed and groaned to God, the God of their fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, He brought them out of Egypt by the hand of Moses and Aaron, striking the Egyptians with ten plagues, and in the last plague sending a destroying angel and killing their firstborn, both of man and of beast, from which He saved the children of Israel, revealing in a mystery the sufferings of Christ by the sacrifice of a lamb without spot, and giving its blood to be smeared on the houses of the Hebrews as a sure precaution. And the name of this mystery is Passion, the source of deliverance. And dividing the Red Sea, He brought the children of Israel in complete safety to the wilderness, and the pursuing Egyptians, who followed them and entered the sea, were all overwhelmed, this judgment of God coming on those who had wickedly oppressed the seed of Abraham.

The Law and the Tabernacle

26 And in the wilderness Moses received the Law from God, “the Ten Words on tablets of stone, written with the finger of God”—now the finger of God is what is stretched out from the Father in the Holy Spirit—and the commandments and ordinances that he delivered to the children of Israel to observe. And by the command of God he constructed the tabernacle of witness, the visible form on earth of the things that are spiritual and invisible in the heavens, and a figure of the form of the Church, and a prophecy of things to come, in which were also the vessels and the altars of sacrifice and the ark in which he placed the tablets of the Law. And he appointed Aaron and his sons as priests, assigning the priesthood to all their tribe, and they were of the seed of Levi. He also summoned this whole tribe by the word of God to accomplish the work of service in the temple of God, and gave them the Levitical law, to show what kind of men those ought to be who are continually employed in performing the service of the temple of God.

The Spies and the Wilderness

27 And when they were near the land that God had promised to Abraham and his seed, Moses chose a man from every tribe, and sent them to explore the land and the cities in it and the inhabitants of the cities. At that time God revealed to him the Name that alone is able to save those who believe in it, and Moses changed the name of Hoshea the son of Nun, one of those who were sent, and named him Jesus, and so he sent them out with the power of the Name, believing that he would receive them back safe and sound through the guidance of the Name, which is what happened. Now when they had gone and explored and inquired, they returned bringing with them a bunch of grapes, and some of the twelve who were sent cast the whole multitude into fear and dismay, saying that the cities were extremely large and walled, and the sons of the giants lived in them, so that it was not possible for them to take the land. And then it happened that the whole multitude wept, failing to believe that it was God who would grant them power and bring everything under them. And they also spoke badly of the land, as if it were not good, and as though it were not worthwhile to face the danger for the sake of such a land. But two of the twelve, Jesus the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, tore their clothes over the evil that was done, and begged the people not to be disheartened or lose their courage, for God had given everything into their hands, and the land was extremely good. And when they did not believe, but the people still continued in the same unbelief, God changed and altered their way, so that they would wander desolate and badly beaten in the desert. And according to the days that those who had spied out the land spent going and returning, which numbered forty, setting a year for a day, He kept them in the wilderness for forty years, and because of their unbelief He counted none of those who were fully grown and had understanding worthy to enter the land, except only the two who had testified about the inheritance, Jesus the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and those who were quite young and did not know the right hand from the left. So all the unbelieving multitude perished and were consumed in the wilderness, each receiving the due reward of their lack of faith, but the children, growing up in the course of forty years, filled up the number of the dead.

Deuteronomy and the Promised Land

28 When the forty years were fulfilled, the people drew near to the Jordan, and were assembled and drawn up opposite Jericho. Here Moses gathered the people together and summed everything up anew, proclaiming the mighty works of God up to that day, shaping and preparing those who had grown up in the wilderness to fear God and keep His commandments, imposing on them a kind of new legislation, adding to what had been made before. And this was called Deuteronomy, and in it were written many prophecies concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and concerning the people, and also concerning the calling of the Gentiles and concerning the kingdom.

29 And when Moses had finished his course, God said to him: “Go up into the mountain, and die,” for you will not bring my people into the land. So he “died according to the word of the Lord,” and Jesus the son of Nun succeeded him. He divided the Jordan and made the people cross over into the land, and when he had overthrown and destroyed the seven races that lived in it, he assigned to the people the temporal Jerusalem, in which David was king, and Solomon his son, who built the temple to the name of God, in the likeness of the tabernacle that had been made by Moses after the pattern of the heavenly and spiritual things.

The Prophets

30 The prophets were sent here by God through the Holy Spirit, and they instructed the people and turned them to the God of their fathers, the Almighty, and they became heralds of the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, declaring that His flesh would blossom from the descendants of David, so that according to the flesh He might be the son of David, who was the son of Abraham by a long succession, but according to the spirit the Son of God, pre-existing with the Father, begotten before all the creation of the world, and at the end of the times appearing to all the world as man, the Word of God gathering up in Himself “all things that are in heaven and that are on earth.”

The Word Made Flesh

31 So He united man with God, and established a community of union between God and man, since we could not participate in incorruption in any other way except by His coming among us. For as long as incorruption was invisible and unrevealed, it did not help us at all, so it became visible, so that in all respects we might participate in the reception of incorruption. And, because in the original formation of Adam all of us were tied and bound up with death through his disobedience, it was right that we should be released from death through the obedience of Him who was made man for us, and because death reigned over the flesh, it was right that through the flesh it should lose its force and let man go free from its oppression. So “the Word was made flesh,” so that through that very flesh which sin had ruled and dominated, sin should lose its force and no longer be in us. And so our Lord took that same original formation as His entry into flesh, so that He might draw near and contend on behalf of the fathers, and conquer by Adam what had struck us down by Adam.

32 Where, then, does the substance of the first-formed man come from? From the Will and the Wisdom of God, and from the virgin earth. “For God had not sent rain,” the Scripture says, on the earth, before man was made, “and there was no man to work the earth.” From this, then, while it was still virgin, God took dust of the earth and formed the man, the beginning of mankind. So the Lord, summing up this man anew, took the same dispensation of entry into flesh, being born from the Virgin by the Will and the Wisdom of God, so that He too should display the likeness of Adam’s entry into flesh, and there should be what was written in the beginning, “man after the image and likeness” of God.

Eve and Mary

33 And just as through a disobedient virgin man was struck down and fell into death, so through the Virgin who was obedient to the Word of God man was reanimated and received life. For the Lord came to seek again the sheep that was lost, and it was man that was lost, and for this reason no other formation was made, but in the same one that was descended from Adam He preserved the likeness of the first formation. For Adam had to be summed up in Christ, so that mortality might be swallowed up and overwhelmed by immortality, and Eve summed up in Mary, so that a virgin should be a virgin’s intercessor, and by a virgin’s obedience undo and put away the disobedience of a virgin.

The Tree and the Cross

34 And the trespass which came by the tree was undone by the tree of obedience, when, obeying God, the Son of man was nailed to the tree, in this way putting away the knowledge of evil and bringing in and establishing the knowledge of good. Now it is evil to disobey God, just as obeying God is good. And for this reason the Word spoke through Isaiah the prophet, announcing beforehand what was to come—for they are prophets because they proclaim what is to come—and through him the Word spoke this way: “I do not refuse or speak against it: I gave my back to scourging, and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn my face away from the shame of spitting.” So by the obedience with which He obeyed even to death, hanging on the tree, He put away the old disobedience that was committed in the tree. Now since He is the Word of God Almighty, who in an unseen way in our midst is universally extended in all the world, and encompasses its length and breadth and height and depth—for by the Word of God the whole universe is ordered and arranged—the Son of God is crucified in it, inscribed crosswise on it all, for it is right that He, being made visible, should set the sharing of His cross on all visible things, so that He might show His operation on visible things through a visible form. For it is He who illuminates the height, that is, the heavens, and encompasses the deep that is beneath the earth, and stretches and spreads out the length from east to west, and steers across the breadth of north and south, summoning all that are scattered in every quarter to the knowledge of the Father.

The Promises to Abraham and David

35 He also fulfilled the promise made to Abraham, which God had promised him, to make his seed like the stars of heaven. For Christ did this, who was born of the Virgin who was of Abraham’s seed, and constituted those who have faith in Him “lights in the world,” and by the same faith with Abraham justified the Gentiles. For “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” In the same way we too are justified by faith in God, for “the just will live by faith.” Now “the promise to Abraham is not by the law, but by faith,” for Abraham was justified by faith, and “the law is not made for a righteous man.” In the same way we too are justified not by the law, but by faith, which is witnessed to in the law and in the prophets, whom the Word of God presents to us.

36 And He fulfilled the promise to David, for God had promised him that “of the fruit of his body” He would raise up an eternal King, whose kingdom would have no end. And this King is Christ, the Son of God, who became the Son of man, that is, who became the fruit of that Virgin who had her descent from David. And for this reason the promise was, “Of the fruit of your body,” so that He might declare the particular uniqueness of Him who was the fruit of the virgin body that was from David, of Him who was King over the house of David, and of whose kingdom there will be no end.

Redemption and the Resurrection

37 So He gloriously achieved our redemption, and fulfilled the promise of the fathers, and abolished the old disobedience. The Son of God became Son of David and Son of Abraham, perfecting and summing this up in Himself, so that He might make us possess life. The Word of God was made flesh by the dispensation of the Virgin, to abolish death and make man live. For we were imprisoned by sin, being born in sinfulness and living under death.

38 But God the Father was very merciful. He sent His creative Word, who in coming to deliver us came to the very place and spot in which we had lost life, and broke the bonds of our fetters. And His light appeared and made the darkness of the prison disappear, and made our birth holy and destroyed death, loosing those same fetters in which we were chained. And He revealed the resurrection, Himself becoming “the firstborn of the dead,” and in Himself raising up fallen man, lifting him up far above the heaven to the right hand of the glory of the Father, just as God promised through the prophet, saying: “And I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,” that is, the flesh that was from David. And our Lord Jesus Christ truly fulfilled this when He gloriously achieved our redemption, so that He might truly raise us up, setting us free to the Father. And if anyone will not accept His birth from a virgin, how will he accept His resurrection from the dead? For it is nothing wonderful and astonishing and extraordinary if one who was not born rose from the dead. In fact, we cannot speak of a resurrection of one who came into being without birth. For one who is unborn and immortal, and has not undergone birth, will also not undergo death. For how could one who did not take on the beginning of man receive his end?

39 Now, if He was not born, neither did He die, and if He did not die, neither did He rise from the dead, and if He did not rise from the dead, neither did He conquer death and bring its reign to nothing, and if death is not conquered, how can we, who from the beginning have fallen under death, ascend to life? So those who take away redemption from man, and do not believe God that He will raise them from the dead, also despise the birth of our Lord, which He underwent on our behalf, so that the Word of God should be made flesh in order that He might reveal the resurrection of the flesh, and might have pre-eminence over all things in the heavens, as the firstborn and eldest offspring of the thought of the Father, the Word, fulfilling all things, and Himself guiding and ruling on earth. For He was the Virgin’s firstborn, a just and holy man, God-fearing, good, well-pleasing to God, perfect in all ways, and delivering from hell all who follow Him, for He Himself was “the firstborn of the dead,” the Prince and Author of life to God.

40 So the Word of God “has the preeminence in all things,” for He is true man and “Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God,” calling men anew to fellowship with God, so that by fellowship with Him we may partake of incorruption. So He who was proclaimed by the law through Moses, and by the prophets of the Most High and Almighty God, as Son of the Father of all, He from whom all things are, He who spoke with Moses—He came into Judea, generated from God by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, who was of the seed of David and of Abraham, Jesus the Anointed of God, showing Himself to be the One who was proclaimed beforehand by the prophets.

John the Baptist and the Apostles

41 And His forerunner was John the Baptist, who prepared and made ready the people beforehand for the reception of the Word of life, declaring that He was the Christ, on whom the Spirit of God rested, mingling with His flesh. His disciples, the witnesses of all His good deeds, and of His teachings and His sufferings and death and resurrection, and of His ascension into heaven after His bodily resurrection—these were the apostles, who after receiving the power of the Holy Spirit were sent out by Him into all the world, and brought about the calling of the Gentiles, showing mankind the way of life, to turn them from idols and sexual immorality and greed, cleansing their souls and bodies by the baptism of water and of the Holy Spirit. They had received this Holy Spirit from the Lord, and they distributed and imparted It to those who believed, and in this way they ordered and established the Churches. By faith and love and hope they established what was foretold by the prophets, the calling of the Gentiles, according to the mercy of God that was extended to them, bringing it to light through the ministry of their service, and admitting them to the promise of the fathers, namely that to those who believed in and loved the Lord in this way, and continued in holiness and righteousness and patient endurance, the God of all had promised to grant eternal life by the resurrection of the dead, through Him who died and rose again, Jesus Christ, to whom He has delivered over the kingdom of all existing things, and the rule of the living and the dead, and also the judgment. And they counseled them by the word of truth to keep their flesh undefiled for the resurrection and their soul unstained.

42 For such is the state of those who have believed, since the Holy Spirit continually remains in them, who was given by Him in baptism, and is retained by the receiver, if he walks in truth and holiness and righteousness and patient endurance. For this soul has a resurrection in those who believe, the body receiving the soul again, and along with it, by the power of the Holy Spirit, being raised up and entering into the kingdom of God. This is the fruit of the blessing of Japheth, in the calling of the Gentiles, made visible through the Church, standing in readiness to receive its dwelling in the house of Shem according to the promise of God. The Spirit of God declared beforehand through the prophets that all these things would happen in this way, so that the faith of those who worship God in truth should be confirmed with regard to them. For what was impossible for our nature, and therefore likely to make mankind disbelieve, God caused to be made known beforehand through the prophets, so that, because it had been foretold long before and then at last came to pass in this way, just as it was foretold, we might know that it was God who proclaimed our redemption to us beforehand in this way.

The Son in the Beginning

43 So we must believe God in all things, for in all things God is true. Now that there was a Son of God, and that He existed not only before He appeared in the world, but also before the world was made, Moses, who was the first to prophesy, says in Hebrew: “Baresith bara Elowin basan benuam samenthares.” And this, translated into our language, is: “The Son in the beginning: God then established the heaven and the earth.” Jeremiah the prophet also testified to this, saying: “Before the morning star I fathered you, and before the sun is your name,” and that is, before the creation of the world, for the stars were made together with the world. And again the same says: “Blessed is he who was, before he became man.”⁠b For to God the Son was as the beginning before the creation of the world, but to us He was only then, when He appeared, and before that He did not exist for us, who did not know Him. So His disciple John also, in teaching us who the Son of God is, who was with the Father before the world was made, and that all the things that were made were made by Him, says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made,” showing with certainty that the Word, who was in the beginning with the Father, and by whom all things were made, is His Son.

The Son Appears to Abraham and Jacob

44 And again Moses tells how the Son of God came near to converse with Abraham: “And God appeared to him by the oak of Mamre in the middle of the day. And looking up with his eyes he saw three men standing opposite him. And he bowed down to the earth, and said: Lord, if indeed I have found favor in your sight.” And in all that follows he spoke with the Lord, and the Lord spoke with him. Now two of the three were angels, but one was the Son of God, with whom Abraham also spoke, pleading on behalf of the men of Sodom, that they should not perish if at least ten righteous people were found there. And while they were speaking, the two angels entered Sodom, and Lot received them. And then the Scripture says: “And the Lord rained sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven,” that is, the Son, who spoke with Abraham, being Lord, received power to punish the men of Sodom “from the Lord out of heaven,” that is, from the Father who rules over all. So Abraham was a prophet and saw things to come, which were to take place in human form, namely that the Son of God would speak with men and eat with them, and then would bring in the judgment from the Father, having received from Him who rules over all the power to punish the men of Sodom.

45 And Jacob, when he went into Mesopotamia, saw Him in a dream, standing on the ladder, that is, the tree that was set up from earth to heaven, for by it those who believe in Him go up to the heavens.⁠c For His sufferings are our ascension on high. And all such visions point to the Son of God, speaking with men and being in their midst. For it was not the Father of all, who is not seen by the world, the Maker of all who said: “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will you build me, or what is the place of my rest?” and who “holds the earth in his hand, and the heaven in his span”—it was not He who came and stood in a very small space and spoke with Abraham, but the Word of God, who was always with mankind, and made known beforehand what would happen in the future, and taught men the things of God.

The Son Speaks with Moses

46 It is He who spoke with Moses in the bush, and said: “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have come down to deliver them.” It is He who came out and came down for the deliverance of the oppressed, bringing us out of the power of the Egyptians, that is, from all idolatry and impiety, and delivering us from the Red Sea, that is, delivering us from the deadly confusion of the Gentiles and the severe torment of their blasphemy. For in them the Word of God prepared and rehearsed beforehand the things concerning us. Then He set out in types beforehand what was to be; now in very truth He has brought us out of the cruel service of the Gentiles, and has made a stream of water flow out in abundance in the desert from a rock, and that rock is Himself, and He has given twelve springs, that is, the teaching of the twelve apostles. And He brought the obstinate unbelievers to an end and consumed them in the wilderness, but those who believed in Him, and were children in malice, He made to enter the inheritance of the fathers, whom not Moses but Jesus puts in possession of the inheritance, and He also delivers us from Amalek by the stretching out of His hands, and brings us to the kingdom of the Father.

The Father and the Son

47 So the Father is Lord and the Son is Lord, and the Father is God and the Son is God, for what is begotten of God is God. And so in the substance and power of His being one God is shown, but according to the economy of our redemption there is also both Son and Father. Because the Father of all is invisible and unapproachable to created things, those who are to draw near to God must have their access to the Father through the Son. And David speaks even more plainly and clearly about the Father and the Son as follows: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; you have loved righteousness and hated unrighteousness; therefore God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.” For the Son, as being God, receives from the Father, that is, from God, the throne of the everlasting kingdom, and the oil of anointing above His companions. The oil of anointing is the Spirit, with which He has been anointed, and His companions are prophets and righteous men and apostles, and all who receive the fellowship of His kingdom, that is, His disciples.

48 And again David says: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord will send out the rod of your strength from Zion; rule in the midst of your enemies. With you is the beginning in the day of your power, in the brightness of the holy ones; from the womb before the morning star I fathered you. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And the Lord at your right hand has shattered kings in the day of anger; he will judge among the Gentiles, he will fill up the ruins, and will shatter the heads of many on the earth. He will drink from the brook on the way; therefore he will lift up his head.” In this way he proclaimed that He came into being before all, and that He rules over the Gentiles and judges all mankind and the kings who now hate Him and persecute His name, for these are His enemies, and in calling Him God’s priest forever, he declared His immortality. And so he said: “He will drink from the brook on the way; therefore he will lift up his head,” proclaiming the exaltation with glory that followed His humanity and humiliation and lack of glory.

49 And again Isaiah the prophet says: “This is what the Lord God says to my Anointed the Lord, whose right hand I have held, that the Gentiles should listen to him.” And David declares how the Christ is called Son of God and King of the Gentiles, that is, of all mankind, and that He is not only called but is Son of God and King of all: “The Lord said to me: You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the Gentiles as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” These things were not said of David, for he did not rule over the Gentiles or over the ends of the earth, but only over the Jews. So it is plain that the promise to the Anointed to reign over the ends of the earth is made to the Son of God, whom David himself acknowledges as his Lord, saying: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand,” and so on, as we have said above. For he means that the Father speaks with the Son, as we showed a little earlier with Isaiah, who said: “God says to my Anointed the Lord, that the Gentiles should listen to him.” For the promise through the two prophets is the same, that He would be King, so that the speech of God is addressed to one and the same, I mean, to Christ the Son of God. Since David says: “The Lord said to me,” it must be said that it is not David who speaks, nor any of the prophets, in his own person, for it is not a man who speaks the prophecies, but the Spirit of God, conforming and likening Himself to the persons represented, speaks in the prophets, and utters the words sometimes from Christ and sometimes from the Father.

The Servant of the Father

50 So it is very fitting that Christ says through David that He converses with the Father, and it is very appropriate that He says the other things about Himself through the prophets, as in other instances, and so also in this way through Isaiah: “And now this is what the Lord says, who formed me as his servant from the womb, to gather Jacob and to gather Israel to him: and I will be glorified before the Lord, and my God will be my strength. And he said: It will be a great thing for you to be called my servant, to establish and confirm the tribe of Jacob, and to bring back the dispersed of Israel; and I have made you a light of the Gentiles, so that you may be salvation to the end of the earth.”

51 Here, first of all, it is seen that the Son of God preexisted, from the fact that the Father spoke with Him, and revealed Him to men before He was born, and next, that He had to be born a man among men, and that the same God forms Him from the womb, that is, that He would be born of the Spirit of God, and that He is Lord of all men, and Savior of those who believe in Him, both Jews and others. For the people of the Jews is called Israel in the Hebrew language, from Jacob their father, who was the first to be called Israel, and He calls the whole of mankind Gentiles. And the Son of the Father calls Himself servant on account of His subjection to the Father, for among men also every son is the servant of his father.

52 That Christ, then, being Son of God before all the world, is with the Father, and being with the Father is also near and close and joined to mankind, and is King of all, because the Father has subjected all things to Him, and Savior of those who believe in Him—the Scriptures declare such things. For it is not practical or possible to list every scripture in order, and from these you may also understand the others that have been spoken in the same way, believing in Christ, and seeking understanding and comprehension from God, so as to understand what has been spoken by the prophets.

Emmanuel

53 And that this Christ, who was with the Father, being the Word of the Father, was afterward to be made flesh and become man and undergo the process of birth and be born of a virgin and live among men, the Father of all bringing about His incarnation—Isaiah says: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: look, the virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and you will call him Emmanuel; he will eat butter and honey; before he knows or selects the evil, he chooses the good, for before the child knows good or evil, he rejects wickedness to choose the good.” So he proclaimed His birth from a virgin, and he declared beforehand that He was truly man by His eating, and also because he called Him the child, and further by giving Him a name, for this is also the custom for one who is born. And His name is twofold: in the Hebrew language Messiah Jesus, and in ours Christ Savior. And the two names are names of works actually done. For He was named Christ because through Him the Father anointed and adorned all things, and because on His coming as man He was anointed with the Spirit of God and His Father. As He also says of Himself through Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” And He was named Savior for this reason, that He became the cause of salvation to those who at that time were delivered by Him from all sicknesses and from death, and to those who afterward believed in Him, the author of salvation in the future and forevermore.

54 This is why He is Savior. Now Emmanuel, when translated, is “With you God,” or it is a yearning cry uttered by the prophet, such as this: “God will be with us,” and in this sense it is the explanation and revelation of the good news proclaimed. For “Look,” He says, “the virgin will conceive and will bear a son,” and He, being God, is to be with us. And as if completely astonished at these things, he proclaims about these future events that “God will be with us.” And again the same prophet says about His birth in another place: “Before she who was in labor gave birth, and before the pains of labor came on, she escaped and was delivered of a male child.” In this way he showed that His birth from the virgin was unforeseen and unexpected. And again the same prophet says: “To us a son is born, and to us a child is given, and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God.”

Wonderful Counselor

55 He calls Him Wonderful Counselor, meaning of the Father, by which it is declared that the Father works all things together with Him, as is contained in the first book of Moses, which is titled Genesis: “And God said, Let us make man after our image and likeness.” For in this place the Father is seen speaking to the Son, the Wonderful Counselor of the Father. He is also our Counselor, giving advice, not compelling as God, even though He is Mighty God, as he says, but giving advice that we should abandon ignorance and acquire knowledge, and depart from error and come to the truth, and put away corruption and receive incorruption.

56 And again Isaiah says: “And they will wish that they had been burned with fire, for to us a child is born, and to us a son is given, whose government is on his shoulders, and his name is called Angel of great counsel. For I will bring peace on the rulers, peace and health to him again. Great is his rule, and there is no limit to his peace, on the throne of David and on his kingdom, to prosper and complete, to aid and undertake, in righteousness and judgment from this time on and forevermore.” For in this way the Son of God is proclaimed both as being born and as eternal King. But “they will wish that they had been burned with fire” is said of those who do not believe in Him, and who have done to Him all that they have done, for they will say in the judgment, “How much better if we had been burned with fire before the Son of God was born, than that we should not have believed in Him when He was born.” For those who died before Christ appeared there is hope that they may obtain salvation in the judgment of the risen, namely those who feared God and died in righteousness and had the Spirit of God in them, such as the patriarchs and prophets and righteous men. But for those who did not believe in Him after Christ’s appearing, there is a vengeance without pardon in the judgment. Now in the words “Whose government is on his shoulder,” the cross is declared in a figure, on which He was nailed with His back to it. For what was and is a reproach to Him, and for His sake to us, the cross, is itself, he says, His government, being a sign of His kingdom. And he says “Angel of great counsel,” that is, of the Father, whom He has made known to us.

The Expectation of the Gentiles

57 That the Son of God should be born, and in what way He was to be born, and that He would be shown to be Christ—from what has been said it is plain how this was made known beforehand by the prophets. And in addition to this, in what land and among which people He was to be born and to appear was also proclaimed beforehand in words such as these. Moses in Genesis says: “A prince will not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he comes for whom it is reserved, and he will be the expectation of the Gentiles, washing his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.” Now Judah was the ancestor of the Jews, the son of Jacob, from whom they also took their name. And a prince and a leader did not fail among them until the coming of Christ. But from the time of His coming the might of the quiver was captured, the land of the Jews was handed over in subjection to the Romans, and they no longer had a prince or king of their own. For He had come, for whom the kingdom is reserved in heaven, who also “washed his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape.” His robe and His garment are those who believe in Him, whom He also cleansed, redeeming us by His blood. And His blood is said to be “blood of the grape,” for just as no man makes the blood of the grape, but God produces it and gladdens those who drink it, so also no man made His flesh and blood, but God made them. “The Lord Himself gave the sign” of the virgin, that is, the Emmanuel who was from the virgin, who also gladdens those who drink of Him, that is, who receive His Spirit, with everlasting gladness. So He is also “the expectation of the Gentiles,” of those who hope in Him, because we expect Him to establish the kingdom again.

58 And again Moses says: “A star will rise out of Jacob, and a leader will be raised up out of Israel,” showing even more plainly that the dispensation of His coming in the flesh would be among the Jews. And He who was born from Jacob and from the tribe of Judah, coming down from heaven, took this economy of dispensation on Himself, for the star appeared in heaven. And by leader he means king, because He is the King of all the redeemed. And at His birth the star appeared to the Magi who lived in the east, and from it they learned that Christ was born, and they came to Judea, led by the star, until the star came to Bethlehem where Christ was born, and entered the house in which the child was laid, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and it stood over His head, declaring to the Magi the Son of God, the Christ.

The Root of Jesse

59 Isaiah himself also says further: “And a rod will come out of the roots of Jesse, and a flower will come up from his root. And the spirit of God will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness; the spirit of the fear of God will fill him. He will not judge according to opinion, and he will not reprove according to speech, but he will judge with justice for the humble, and show mercy to the humble of the earth. And he will strike the earth with the word of his mouth, and he will kill the impious man with the breath of his lips. And righteousness will be bound around his loins, and truth will encircle his sides. And the wolf will feed with the lamb, and the leopard with the young goat, and the calf and the lion will graze together. And a nursing child will put his hand on the hole of the asps, and on the den of the offspring of the asps, and they will not hurt him. And on that day there will be a root of Jesse, and he who rises up to rule the Gentiles; the Gentiles will hope in him, and his rising up will be honor.” By these words he states that He was born from her who was of the race of David and of Abraham. For Jesse was the descendant of Abraham, and the father of David, and the virgin who conceived Christ was David’s descendant. Now as to the rod, it is for this reason that Moses also showed the mighty works to Pharaoh with a rod, and among other people too the rod is a sign of rule. And by flower he means His flesh, for it budded from spirit, as we have said before.

60 Now by “He will not judge according to opinion, and he will not reprove according to speech, but he will judge with justice for the humble, and will show mercy to the humble on the earth,” he establishes and declares His divinity all the more. For to judge without favoritism and partiality, not favoring the illustrious, but giving the humble worthy and like and equal treatment, fits the height and summit of the righteousness of God, for God is influenced and moved by no one except the righteous. And to show mercy is the particular attribute of God, who is able to save by mercy. And “He will strike the earth with a word,” and kill the impious with a word alone: this belongs to God, who does all things with a word. And in saying, “Righteousness will be bound around his loins, and truth will encircle his sides,” he declares His human form and aspect, and His own surpassing righteousness.

61 Now as to the union and concord and peace of the animals of different kinds, which by nature are opposed and hostile to each other, the Elders say that it will truly be so at the coming of Christ, when He is to reign over all. For he already announces in a symbol the gathering together in peace and concord, through the name of Christ, of men of different races and yet of similar dispositions. For when they are united in this way, those who in former times were like wild beasts in manners and disposition because of their greed, both men and women, do no harm at all to the righteous, who are compared to calves and lambs and young goats and nursing children. Some of them were so much like wild beasts that they were like wolves and lions, ravaging the weaker and making war on their equals, while the women were like leopards or asps, who killed perhaps even their loved ones with deadly poisons, or because of lustful desire. But now, coming together in one name, they have acquired righteous habits by the grace of God, changing their wild and untamed nature. And this has come to pass already. For those who were extremely wicked before, so that they left no work of ungodliness undone, on learning about Christ and believing in Him, have at once believed and been changed, so as to leave no excellence of righteousness undone, so great is the transformation that faith in Christ the Son of God brings about for those who believe in Him. And he says: “Rising up to rule the Gentiles,” because He is to die and rise again, and be confessed and believed as the Son of God and King. For this reason he says: “And his rising up will be honor,” that is, glory, for He was glorified as God when He rose.

The Tabernacle of David

62 So the prophet says again: “On that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,” plainly declaring that the body of Christ, which, as we have said before, is born of David, rises from the dead after death. For the body is called a tabernacle. For by these words he says that He who according to the flesh is of the race of David will be Christ the Son of God, and that He will die and rise again, and that He is a man in appearance, but God in power, and that He Himself will be the judge of all the world and as the only worker of righteousness and redeemer—all this the Scripture declared.

Born in Bethlehem

63 And again the prophet Micah speaks of the place where Christ would be born, that it would be in Bethlehem of Judea, saying: “And you, Bethlehem of Judea, are you the least among the princes of Judah? For out of you will come a prince who will shepherd my people Israel.” But Bethlehem is the hometown of David, so that He is of David’s race not only with regard to the Virgin who bore Him, but also with regard to His birth in Bethlehem, the hometown of David.

64 And again David says that Christ is to be born of his race, speaking in this way: “For the sake of David my servant, do not turn away the face of your Christ. The Lord swore truth to David, and he will not disappoint him: I will set one of the fruit of your body on your throne; if your children keep my covenant and my testimonies, which I covenanted with them, their sons will sit on your throne forevermore.” But none of the sons of David reigned forevermore, nor was their kingdom forevermore, for it was brought to nothing. But the king who was born of David is Christ. All these testimonies declare in plain terms His descent according to the flesh, and the race and place where He was to be born, so that no one should look among the Gentiles or elsewhere for the birth of the Son of God, but in Bethlehem of Judea, from Abraham and from David’s race.

The Entry into Jerusalem

65 And the prophet Isaiah declares the manner of His entry into Jerusalem, which was the capital of Judea, where His royal seat and the temple of God also were: “Say to the daughter of Zion, Look, a king is coming to you, meek and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” For He entered Jerusalem in this way, sitting on a donkey’s colt, while the crowds spread and laid down their garments for Him. And by “the daughter of Zion” he means Jerusalem.

66 So the prophets declared in this way that the Son of God would be born, and in what manner, and where He was to be born, and that Christ is the one eternal King. And again they foretold about Him how, sprung from mankind, He would heal those whom He healed, and raise the dead whom He raised, and be hated and despised and undergo sufferings and be put to death and crucified, just as He was hated and despised and put to death.

The Healings

67 At this point let us speak of His healings. Isaiah says: “He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses,” that is, He will take them, and will bear them. For there are passages in which the Spirit of God through the prophets recounts things that are to be as having already taken place. For what is undertaken by God and conceived as determined to take place is counted as having already taken place, and the Spirit, considering and seeing the time in which the outcomes of the prophecy are fulfilled, utters the words accordingly. And He will mention the kind of healing, saying: “On that day the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see in darkness and in mist.” And the same prophet says again: “Be strong, you weak hands and feeble and trembling knees; take courage, you who are of a fearful mind. Be strong, do not fear. Look, our God will repay judgment; He will come and save us. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will hear; then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the stammerers will speak plainly.” And about the dead, that they will be raised, he says: “The dead will be raised, and those who are in the tombs will be raised.” And in bringing these things to pass He will be believed to be the Son of God.

The Suffering Servant

68 And Isaiah says that He will be despised and tormented and in the end put to death: “Look, my son will understand, and will be exalted and greatly glorified. Just as many will be astonished at you, so your form will be without glory among men. And many races will be astonished, and kings will shut their mouths, for those to whom nothing was declared about him will see, and those who have not heard will consider. Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We declared before him like a child, like a root in dry ground, and he has no form or glory, and we saw him, and he had no form or beauty, and his form was without honor, lower than that of other men, a man under punishment, and familiar with bearing pain, for his face was turned away, he was dishonored and counted as nothing. He bears our sins, and suffers pain for our sakes, and we considered him to be in pain and punishment and affliction. But he was wounded for our iniquities, and was tormented for our sins. The discipline of our peace was on him; by his stripes we were healed.” By these words it is declared that He was tormented, as David also says: “And I was tormented.” Now David was never tormented, but Christ was, when the command was given that He should be crucified. And again His Word says through Isaiah: “I gave my back to scourging, and my cheeks to blows, and I did not turn my face away from the shame of spitting.” And Jeremiah the prophet says the same: “He will give his cheek to the one who strikes him; he will be filled with insults.” All these things Christ suffered.

69 Now what follows in Isaiah is this: “By his stripes we were healed. We all went astray like sheep; each man went astray in his own way, and the Lord handed him over to our sins.” So it is clear that these things happened to Him by the will of the Father for the sake of our salvation. Then he says: “And because of his suffering he did not open his mouth; he was brought like a sheep to the slaughter, like a lamb silent before the shearer.” See how he declares His voluntary coming to death. And when the prophet says: “In the humiliation his judgment was taken away,” he signifies the appearance of His humiliation: the taking away of judgment corresponded to the form of the abasement. And the taking away of judgment is for some to salvation, and for others to the torments of perdition. For there is a taking away for a person, and also from a person. So it is with the judgment: those for whom it is taken away have it to the torments of their perdition, but those from whom it is taken away are saved by it. Now those who crucified Him, and after doing this to Him did not believe in Him, took the judgment away to themselves, for they will be destroyed with torments through the judgment that was taken away by them. And the judgment is taken away from those who believe in Him, and they are no longer under it. And the judgment is the one that by fire will be the destruction of the unbelievers at the end of the world.

70 Then he says: “Who will declare his generation?” This was said to warn us, so that we would not despise Him as a lowly and contemptible man because of His enemies and the outrage of His sufferings. For He who endured all this has a generation that cannot be declared, for by generation He means descent, for He who is His Father cannot be declared or described. Know, then, that the one who endured these sufferings was of such descent, and do not despise Him because of the sufferings He endured on purpose for your sake, but fear Him because of His descent.

71 And in another place Jeremiah says: “The Spirit of our face, the Lord Christ,” and how He “was taken in their snares, of whom we said, Under his shadow we will live among the Gentiles.” The Scripture declares that Christ, being the Spirit of God, was to become a suffering man, and is, so to speak, amazed and astonished at His sufferings, that He was to endure sufferings in such a way, He “under whose shadow we said that we would live.” And by shadow he means His body. For just as a shadow is made by a body, so also Christ’s body was made by His Spirit. But further, he indicates the humiliation and contemptibility of His body by the shadow. For as the shadow of bodies standing upright lies on the ground and is trampled on, so also the body of Christ fell on the ground by His sufferings and was indeed trampled on. And he called Christ’s body a shadow because the Spirit overshadowed it, so to speak, with glory and covered it. Also, often when the Lord passed by, they laid those who were gripped by various diseases in the road, and whoever His shadow fell on was healed.

72 And again the same prophet says this about the sufferings of Christ: “See how the righteous one is destroyed, and no one takes it to heart, and righteous men are taken away, and no one understands. For the righteous one is taken away from the face of iniquity; peace will be his burial; he has been taken away from the midst.” And who else is perfectly righteous but the Son of God, who makes righteous and perfects those who believe in Him, who are persecuted and put to death like Him? But in saying, “Peace will be his burial,” he declares how He died for the sake of our redemption, for it is in the peace of redemption, and he also declares that by His death those who were formerly enemies and opposed to one another, believing in Him with one accord, would have peace with one another, becoming friends and beloved because of their common faith in Him, as indeed they have become. But in saying, “He has been taken away from the midst,” he signifies His resurrection from the dead. And because He was no longer seen after His death and burial, the prophet declares that after dying and rising again He was to remain immortal, saying: “He asked life, and you gave it to him, and length of days forever and ever.” Now what does he mean by saying, He asked life, since He was about to die? He proclaims His resurrection from the dead, and that being raised from the dead He is immortal. For He received both life, that He should rise, and “length of days forever and ever,” so that He would be incorruptible.

Death and Resurrection

73 And again David says this about the death and resurrection of Christ: “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord received me.” David did not say this of himself, for he was not raised after death, but the Spirit of Christ, who also spoke about Him in other prophets, says here through David: “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord received me.” By sleep he means death, for He rose again.

Herod and Pilate

74 And again David says this about the sufferings of Christ: “Why did the Gentiles rage, and the people plot vain things? Kings rose up on the earth, and princes were gathered together, against the Lord and his Anointed.” For Herod the king of the Jews and Pontius Pilate, the governor of Claudius Caesar, came together and condemned Him to be crucified. For Herod was afraid that He was to be an earthly king and that he would be driven out of the kingdom by Him. But Pilate was forced against his will by Herod and the Jews who were with him to hand Him over to death, for they threatened him if he did not do this rather than act against Caesar by letting go a man who was called a king.

75 And the same prophet says further about the sufferings of Christ: “You have rejected and despised us, and have cast away your Anointed. You have broken the covenant of your servant; you have thrown his holiness to the ground. You have torn down all his hedges; you have made his strongholds tremble. Those who pass along the road have plundered him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors. You have raised the right hand of his oppressors; you have made his enemies rejoice over him. You have turned back the help of his sword, and did not give him a hand in the battle. You have removed him and thrown him down from purification; you have overturned his throne on the ground. You have shortened the days of his time, and have poured out shame on him.” He clearly declared that He would endure these things, and that by the will of the Father, for He was to endure sufferings by the will of the Father.

76 And Zechariah says: “Sword, awake against my shepherd, and against the man who is my companion. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.” And this happened when He was taken by the Jews, for all the disciples abandoned Him, afraid that they would die with Him. For they did not yet believe in Him steadfastly, until they had seen Him risen from the dead.

77 Again He says in the Twelve Prophets: “And they bound him and brought him as a present to the king.” For Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and at that time he had a resentful hostility toward Herod the king of the Jews. But then, when Christ was brought to him bound, Pilate sent Him to Herod, ordering that he be questioned, so that he might know for certain what Herod wanted done with Him, making Christ a convenient occasion for reconciliation with the king.

The Descent into Hell

78 And in Jeremiah He declares His death and descent into hell in this way, saying: “And the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, remembered his dead, who had formerly fallen asleep in the dust of the earth, and he went down to them, to bring the news of his salvation, to deliver them.” In this place He also gives the reason for His death, for His descent into hell was the salvation of those who had passed away.

The Cross

79 And again, Isaiah says about His cross: “I have stretched out my hands all day long to a disobedient and defiant people.” For this is an indication of the cross. And David says even more clearly: “Hunting dogs surrounded me; the assembly of evildoers closed in on me. They pierced my hands and my feet.” And again he says: “My heart became like wax melting in the midst of my body, and they pulled my bones apart,” and again he says: “Spare my soul from the sword, and nail my flesh, for the assembly of evildoers has risen up against me.” In these words he signifies with unmistakable clarity that He would be crucified. And Moses says this same thing to the people: “And your life will be hanging before your eyes, and you will be afraid by day and by night, and you will not believe in your life.”

80 And again David says: “They looked at me; they divided my garments among them, and for my robe they cast lots.” For at His crucifixion the soldiers divided His garments as they usually did, and they divided the garments by tearing them, but for the robe, because it was woven from the top and was not sewn, they cast lots, so that whoever it fell to should take it.

81 And again Jeremiah the prophet says: “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one who was sold, whom they bought from the children of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.” For Judas, being one of Christ’s disciples, agreed with the Jews and made a deal with them when he saw that they wanted to kill Him, because he had been rebuked by Him, and he took the thirty staters of the province and betrayed Christ to them. And then, regretting what he had done, he gave the silver back to the rulers of the Jews and hanged himself. But they, thinking it was not right to put it into their treasury, because it was the price of blood, used it to buy a certain potter’s field for the burial of strangers.

82 And at His crucifixion, when He asked for a drink, they gave Him vinegar mixed with gall to drink. And this was declared through David: “They gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”

The Ascension

83 And that, being raised from the dead, He was to ascend into heaven, David says: “The chariot of God is ten-thousandfold, thousands are the drivers; the Lord is among them in Sinai, in his sanctuary. He ascended on high, he led captivity captive; he received, he gave gifts to men.” And by captivity he means the destruction of the rule of the apostate angels. He also declares the place where He was to ascend into heaven from the earth. For the Lord, he says, “ascended on high from Zion.” For opposite Jerusalem, on the mountain that is called the Mount of Olives, after He had risen from the dead, He assembled His disciples, and explained to them the things concerning the kingdom of heaven, and they saw that He ascended, and they saw how the heavens were opened and received Him.

84 And David says the same again: “Lift up your gates, you rulers, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates, and the King of glory will come in.” For the everlasting gates are the heavens. But because the Word descended invisible to created things, He was not made known in His descent to them. Because the Word was made flesh, He was visible in His ascension, and when the powers saw Him, the angels below cried out to those who were on the firmament: “Lift up your gates, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates, so that the King of glory may come in.” And when they marveled and said, “Who is this?” those who had already seen Him testified a second time: “The Lord strong and mighty, he is the King of glory.”

85 And being raised from the dead and exalted at the Father’s right hand, He awaits the time appointed by the Father for the judgment, when all enemies will be put under Him. Now the enemies are all those who were found in apostasy, angels and archangels and powers and thrones, who despised the truth. And the prophet David himself says: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” And David says that He ascended to where He had come down from: “His going out is from the end of heaven, and his resting place at the end of heaven.” Then he signifies His judgment: “And there is no one who will be hidden from his heat.”

The Preaching of the Apostles

86 If, then, the prophets prophesied that the Son of God was to appear on the earth, and also prophesied where on the earth and how and in what manner He would make His appearance known, and the Lord took all these prophecies on Himself, then our faith in Him was well founded, and the tradition of the preaching is true, that is, the testimony of the apostles, who were sent out by the Lord and preached in all the world the Son of God, who came to suffer, and endured it for the destruction of death and the bringing to life of the flesh, so that by putting away the hostility toward God, which is unrighteousness, we should obtain peace with Him, doing what is pleasing to Him. And this was declared by the prophets in the words: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring news of peace, and of those who bring news of good things.” And Isaiah says that these were to go out from Judea and from Jerusalem, to declare to us the word of God, which is the law for us: “For the law will come out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” And David says that they were to preach in all the earth: “Their speech went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

87 And Isaiah says that men were to be saved not by the many words of the law, but by the brevity of faith and love: “A word brief and short in righteousness, for God will make a short word in the whole world.” And so the apostle Paul says: “Love is the fulfilling of the law,” for he who loves God has fulfilled the law. And the Lord, when He was asked which is the first commandment, said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your strength. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments,” He says, “hang all the law and the prophets.” So by our faith in Him He has made our love for God and our neighbor grow, making us godly and righteous and good. And so God has made a short word on the earth in the world.

88 And Isaiah says that after His ascension He was to be exalted above all, and that there will be no one to compare with Him or equal Him: “Who is he who enters into judgment with me? Let him stand up against me. And who is he who is justified? Let him draw near to the Lord’s Son. Woe to you, for you will grow old like a garment, and the moth will devour you. And all flesh will be humbled and brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in the highest.” And Isaiah says that in the end those who served God would be saved by His name: “And a new name will be called on those who serve me, which will be blessed on the earth, and they will bless the true God.” And Isaiah declared that He Himself would bring about this blessing, and would Himself redeem us by His own blood, saying: “No mediator, no angel, but the Lord himself saved them, because he loved them and spared them; he himself redeemed them.”

The New Covenant

89 That He would not send back the redeemed to the legislation of Moses—for the law was fulfilled in Christ—but would have them live in newness by the Word, through faith in the Son of God and love, Isaiah declared, saying: “Do not remember the former things, nor call to mind the things that were in the beginning. Look, I am making new things, which will now spring up, and you will know them. And I will make a way in the wilderness, and streams in the waterless place, to give drink to my chosen race, and to my people whom I have purchased to declare my virtues.” Now the calling of the Gentiles was at first a wilderness and a waterless place, for the Word had not passed through them, nor given them the Holy Spirit to drink, He who fashioned the new way of godliness and righteousness, and made abundant streams spring up, spreading the Holy Spirit over the earth, just as it had been promised through the prophets, that at the end of the days He would pour out the Spirit on the face of the earth.

90 So our calling is “by newness of the spirit,” and not “in the oldness of the letter,” just as Jeremiah prophesied: “Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will accomplish for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah the covenant of the testament that I covenanted with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in the covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant of the testament that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people, and they will no longer teach each one his neighbor, and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will pardon and be merciful to the sins of their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

The Calling of the Gentiles

91 And Isaiah says that the calling from among the Gentiles, to whom the new testament was also opened, would inherit these promises: “This is what the God of Israel says: On that day a man will trust in his Maker, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel, and they will not trust in altars, nor in the work of their own hands, which their fingers have made.” For this was very plainly said of those who have abandoned idols and believed in God our Maker through the Holy One of Israel. And the Holy One of Israel is Christ, and He became visible to men, and we look to Him eagerly and see Him, and we do not trust in altars, nor in the works of our hands.

92 And the Word Himself says in Isaiah that He would become visible among us—for the Son of God became Son of man—and be found by us who before had no knowledge of Him: “I became visible to those who did not seek me; I was found by those who did not ask for me. I said, Here I am, to a race that did not call on my name.”

93 And it was declared in the Twelve Prophets by Hosea that this race was to become a holy people: “I will call what was not my people, my people, and her who was not beloved, beloved. It will come about that in the place where it was called not my people, there they will be called sons of the Living God.” This is also what was said by John the Baptist: “That God is able to raise up sons to Abraham from these stones.” For our hearts, withdrawn and taken away from the stony worship, see God by means of faith, and become sons of Abraham, who was justified by faith. And so God says through Ezekiel the prophet: “And I will give them another heart, and I will give them a new spirit, and I will withdraw and take away the stony heart from their flesh, and I will give them another heart of flesh, so that they will walk in my precepts, and will keep my ordinances and do them. And they will be my people, and I will be their God.”

94 So by the new calling a change of hearts came about in the Gentiles through the Word of God, when “He was made flesh and tabernacled” with men, as His disciple John also says: “And his Word was made flesh and lived among us.” So the Church bears much fruit of the redeemed, because no longer Moses as mediator nor Elijah as messenger, but the Lord Himself has redeemed us, granting many more children to the Church than to the first Synagogue, as Isaiah declared, saying: “Rejoice, you barren one, who did not bear.” The barren one is the Church, which never at all presented sons to God in former times. “Cry out and call, you who were not in labor, for the children of the desolate one are more than those of her who has a husband.” Now the first Synagogue had as husband the Law.

95 Moses also says in Deuteronomy that the Gentiles would be the head, and the unbelieving people the tail. And again he says: “You provoked me to jealousy with those who are no gods, and angered me with your idols, and I will provoke you to jealousy with what is no nation, and I will anger you with a foolish nation.” Because they abandoned the God who is, and worshiped and served the gods who are not, and they killed the prophets of God, and prophesied for Baal, who was the idol of the Canaanites. And they despised and condemned the Son of God, who is, but they chose Barabbas the robber who had been arrested for murder, and they disowned the eternal King, and they acknowledged the temporal Caesar as their king. So it pleased God to grant their inheritance to the foolish Gentiles, that is, to those who were not of the commonwealth of God and did not know what God is. Since, then, life has been given to us by this calling, and God has summed up the faith of Abraham again for Himself in us, we should no longer turn back—I mean, to the first legislation. For we have received the Lord of the Law, the Son of God, and by faith in Him we learn to love God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves. Now the love of God is far from all sin, and love for the neighbor does the neighbor no harm.

Freedom from the Law

96 So we also do not need the Law as a tutor. Look, we speak with the Father, and we stand in His presence, being children in malice, and grown strong in all righteousness and self-control. For the Law will no longer say, “Do not commit adultery,” to one who has no desire at all for another’s wife, and “You shall not kill,” to one who has put away all anger and hostility from himself, and “You shall not covet your neighbor’s field or ox or donkey,” to those who have no concern at all for earthly things, but store up the heavenly fruits, nor “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” to one who counts no man his enemy, but all men his neighbors, and so cannot stretch out his hand at all for revenge. It will not require tithes of him who consecrates all his possessions to God, leaving father and mother and all his kindred, and following the Word of God. And there will be no command to remain idle for one day of rest to one who perpetually keeps the Sabbath, that is, who serves God in the temple of God, which is man’s body, and works righteousness every hour. “For I desire mercy,” He says, “and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But the wicked man who sacrifices a calf to me is like one who kills a dog, and the one who offers fine flour, as though he offered pig’s blood. But whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And there is no other name of the Lord “given under heaven by which men are saved,” except that of God, which is Jesus Christ the Son of God, to which also the demons are subject and evil spirits and all apostate energies.

The Name of Jesus

97 By the invocation of the name of Jesus Christ, crucified under Pontius Pilate, there is a separation and division among mankind, and wherever any of those who believe in Him invoke and call on Him and do His will, He is near and present, fulfilling the requests of those who call on Him with pure hearts. Receiving salvation in this way, we continually give thanks to God, who delivered us by His great, inscrutable and unsearchable wisdom, and proclaimed the salvation from heaven—namely, the visible coming of our Lord, that is, His living as man—which we could not attain by ourselves, for “the things that are impossible with men are possible with God.” So Jeremiah also says about her, that is, Wisdom: “Who has gone up into heaven, and taken her, and brought her down from the clouds? Who has gone over the sea, found her, and will bring her back for choice gold? There is no one who has found her way, nor anyone who understands her path. But he who knows all things knows her by his understanding; he who prepares the earth forevermore has filled it with four-footed beasts; he sends out the light and it goes; he called it, and it obeyed him with fear; and the stars shone in their watches, and were glad; he called them, and they said, Here we are; they shone with gladness for the one who made them. This is our God; no other will be counted in comparison with him. He has found out every way by knowledge, and has given it to Jacob his servant, and to Israel who is beloved by him. Afterward he appeared on earth, and lived among men. This is the book of the commandments of God, and of the law that endures forever. All who hold it fast are appointed to life, but those who abandon it will die.” Now by Jacob and Israel he means the Son of God, who received power from the Father over our life, and after receiving it brought it down to us who were far from Him, when He “appeared on earth and lived among men,” mingling and mixing the Spirit of God the Father with the creature formed by God, so that man might be “after the image and likeness” of God.

The Way of Life

98 This, beloved, is the preaching of the truth, and this is the manner of our redemption, and this is the way of life, which the prophets proclaimed, and Christ established, and the apostles delivered, and the Church in all the world hands on to her children. We must keep this with all certainty, with a sound will that is pleasing to God, with good works and a rightly willed disposition.

Warning against Heresy

99 So that no one should suppose God the Father to be other than our Creator, as the heretics suppose, for they despise the God who is, and make gods of what is not, and they fashion a Father of their own above our Creator, and suppose that they have discovered for themselves something greater than the truth. For all these are impious and blasphemers against their Creator and against the Father, as we have shown in the Exposure and Overthrow of Knowledge Falsely So Called. And others again reject the coming of the Son of God and the dispensation of His incarnation, which the apostles delivered and the prophets declared beforehand, the dispensation that was to be the summing up of mankind, as we have shown you briefly, and they too are counted among those who lack faith. And others do not receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and cast away from themselves the prophetic grace, watered by which man bears the fruit of life to God, and these are the ones of whom Isaiah speaks: “For they will be,” he says, “like an oak that is stripped of leaves, and like a garden that has no water.” And such people are of no use to God, since they cannot bear any fruit.

100 So with regard to the three points of our seal, error has strayed widely from the truth. For either they reject the Father, or they do not accept the Son and speak against the dispensation of His incarnation, or else they do not receive the Spirit, that is, they reject prophecy. And we must beware of all such people, and avoid their ways, if we truly desire to be well-pleasing to God and to attain the redemption that is from Him.