Exposition of the Faith 1 part 15/15

God, knowing the grossness and flesh-loving nature of the people of Israel, their whole inclination toward material things, and at the same time their lack of discernment,

first, that the servant and the beast of burden might rest, as it is written;

since 'a righteous man has compassion on the souls of his cattle'—and at the same time, that having leisure from the distraction over material things, they might gather themselves to God in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and in the study of the divine Scriptures, spending the whole seventh day and resting in God.

For when there was no law, no God-inspired Scripture, neither was the Sabbath consecrated to God.

But when the God-inspired Scripture was given through Moses, the Sabbath was consecrated to God, so that on it those who do not devote their whole life to God might occupy themselves with the study of it—those who do not serve the Master with longing as a Father,

but as ungrateful slaves who set apart for God even a small and least portion of their own life, and this out of fear of the punishments and penalties for transgression;

for the law is not laid down for a righteous man, but for the unrighteous.

Since Moses first, having waited upon God in fasting for forty days, and again for another forty, surely on the Sabbaths also afflicted himself by fasting, though the law commanded that they not afflict themselves on the day of the Sabbath.

But if they should say that this was before the law, what will they say about Elijah the Tishbite, who completed a journey of forty days on a single meal? For he, not only by fasting but also by his journeying on the Sabbaths of those forty days, afflicted himself and broke the Sabbath; yet He who gave the law was not angry with him, but rather, as a prize for virtue, manifested Himself to him at Horeb.

And what will they say about Daniel? Did he not pass three weeks without food? And what of all Israel? Do they not circumcise the child on the Sabbath, if it happen to be the eighth day? Do they not also fast the great fast appointed by law, if it fall on a Sabbath? And do not the priests and the Levites profane the Sabbath in the works of the tabernacle, and yet are guiltless? Moreover, if a beast fall into a pit on the Sabbath, he who pulls it out is guiltless, but he who overlooks it is condemned.

And what of all Israel? Did they not, carrying the ark of God around for seven days, march around the walls of Jericho, among which days the Sabbath certainly was? So then, as I have said, the keeping of the Sabbath was devised for the sake of leisure unto God, that they might assign to Him even the smallest portion and that both the servant and the beast of burden might rest—devised for those still infants and enslaved under the elements of the world, the carnal, who could conceive nothing beyond the body and the letter.

But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His only-begotten Son, made man of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

For as many of us as received Him, to those who believe in Him He gave authority to become children of God.

So that we are no longer slaves but sons, no longer under law but under grace;

no longer serving the Lord partially out of fear, but bound to devote to Him the whole time of our life, and ever causing the servant—I mean anger and desire—to rest from sin, and permitting it to be at leisure for God;

ever stretching all desire toward God, and arming anger against the enemies of God;

and likewise causing the beast of burden, that is, the body, to rest from the slavery of sin, while urging it to serve the divine commandments.

These things the spiritual law of the Lord commands us, and those who keep it have become superior to the Mosaic law;

for when the perfect came, that which is in part was done away; and when the veil of the law—that is, the curtain—was rent through the Saviour's crucifixion, and the Spirit shone forth in tongues of fire, the letter was abolished, the bodily things ceased, the law of slavery was fulfilled, and a law of freedom was bestowed on us.

And we celebrate the perfect rest of human nature—I mean the day of the resurrection—on which the Lord Jesus, the Author of life and Saviour, led us into the inheritance promised to those who worship God spiritually; into which He Himself entered as our forerunner, having risen from the dead; and, the heavenly gates being opened to Him, He sat down bodily at the right hand of the Father, where those also who keep the spiritual law shall enter.

For us, then, who walk by the Spirit and not by the letter, there is the complete laying aside of carnal things, spiritual worship, and union with God.

For circumcision is the laying aside of bodily pleasure and of things superfluous and unnecessary;

for the foreskin is nothing other than skin, the superfluity of the organ of pleasure.

And every pleasure that is not from God and in God [is to be cut away].

And the Sabbath is rest from sin.

So that both are one and the same; and thus both being fulfilled together by the spiritual, they do not commit even the least transgression.

Moreover, one must know that the number seven signifies all the present age, as the all-wise Solomon says:

'Give a portion to seven, and also to eight.'

And David, the God-inspired, singing concerning the eighth, sang concerning the state to come after the resurrection from the dead.

The law, then, commanding that the seventh day be kept as a rest from bodily things, and that one occupy oneself with spiritual things, mystically intimated to the true Israel—who has a mind that beholds God—that he should present himself to God throughout all time and rise above bodily things.

Concerning virginity. The carnal disparage virginity, and the pleasure-lovers put forward as their witness the saying, 'Cursed is everyone who does not raise up seed in Israel.'

But we, taking courage from God the Word who was made flesh of a virgin, say that virginity was implanted in human nature from above and from the beginning;

for man was fashioned from virgin earth, Eve was created from Adam alone, in paradise virginity was the way of life.

The divine Scripture says, indeed, that they were both naked, Adam and Eve, and were not ashamed.

But when they transgressed, they knew that they were naked, and being ashamed they sewed for themselves coverings.

And after the transgression—'You are earth, and to earth you shall return'—when through the transgression death entered into the world, then Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore.

So that, lest the race be utterly worn away and consumed by death, marriage was devised, in order that through procreation the human race might be preserved.

What, then, do 'male and female' mean, and 'Be fruitful and multiply'? To this we will say that 'Be fruitful and multiply' does not by any means signify the increase that comes through marital union.

For God could have multiplied the race in another way also, had they kept the commandment unbroken to the end.

But God, knowing by His foreknowledge—He who knows all things before they come to be—that they would fall into transgression and be condemned to death, anticipated this and made them male and female and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply.

Let us, then, proceed in order and behold the glories of virginity—

and it is the same thing to speak also of chastity.

Noah, being commanded to enter into the ark and entrusted with preserving the seed of the world, is commanded thus:

'Enter you,' He says, 'and your sons, and your wife, and the wives of your sons.'

He separated them from the women, so that with chastity they might escape that flood and that universal shipwreck.

However, after the abating of the flood:

'Go forth you,' He says, 'and your wife, and your sons, and the wives of your sons.'

Behold, again, for the sake of multiplication marriage is permitted.

Then Elijah, the fire-breathing pursuer of sinners and traverser of heaven—did he not embrace celibacy, and was he not attested by his being caught up above the lot of men? Who shut the heavens? Who raised the dead? Who divided the Jordan? Was it not Elijah the virgin? And Elisha, his disciple, having shown forth equal virtue, did he not inherit the grace of the Spirit in double measure, having asked for it? And what of the three children? Having practiced virginity, did they not prove mightier than fire, their bodies being made unconsumed by fire through the virginity of their bodies? Did not Daniel, his body steeled in virginity, prove such that the teeth of beasts could not fasten upon him? When God was about to appear to the Israelites, did He not command them to sanctify the body? Did not the priests sanctify themselves and so enter the holy places and offer the sacrifices? Did not the law proclaim chastity a great vow? One must therefore take the legal command in a more spiritual sense.

For there is a spiritual seed, conceived through the love and fear of God in the womb of the soul that travails and brings forth the spirit of salvation.

And thus also is to be understood the saying, 'Blessed is he who has seed in

Zion and kindred in Jerusalem.'

For what? Even if a man be a fornicator, a drunkard, and an idolater, is he blessed, if only he has seed in Zion and kindred in Jerusalem? No one of sound mind will say this.

Virginity is the manner of life of the angels, the property of every incorporeal nature.

We say these things not as disparaging marriage—God forbid—(for we know that the Lord blessed marriage by His presence, and that He who said,

'Marriage is honourable, and the bed undefiled'), but knowing virginity to be better than that which is good.

For in the virtues there are degrees of more and less, and likewise also in the vices.

We know that all mortals after the progenitors of the race are the offspring of marriage.

For those first ones are the workmanship of virginity and not of marriage.

By as much, therefore, as an angel is superior to a man, by so much is virginity more honourable than marriage.

But why do I say 'an angel'? Christ Himself is the glory of virginity—not only begotten of the Father without beginning and without conjugal union, but also, having become man like us yet above us, He was made flesh of a virgin without union, Himself showing forth in Himself the true and perfect virginity.

Wherefore He did not indeed lay this down for us as law (for not all can receive the saying, as He Himself said), but by deed He instructed us and empowered us toward it.

For to whom is it not plain that virginity now has its place among men? Childbearing is good, which marriage established, and marriage is good because of fornications, curbing these and not allowing the raging madness of desire, through lawful intercourse, to be driven to lawless deeds.

Marriage is good for those who do not have self-control;

but better is virginity, which increases the childbearing of the soul and offers to God ripe fruit, namely prayer.

Marriage is honourable, and the bed undefiled;

but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

Concerning circumcision. Circumcision was given before the law to Abraham, after the blessings, after the promise, as a sign distinguishing him and his household from the nations among whom he lived.

For when Israel spent forty years in the wilderness by themselves alone, not mingled with any other nation, those who were born in the wilderness were not circumcised;

but when Joshua brought them across the Jordan, they were circumcised, and there came to be a second law of circumcision.

For under Abraham the law of circumcision was given, then it ceased in the wilderness for forty years.

And again, a second time, God gave to Joshua the law of circumcision after the crossing of the Jordan, as it is written in the book of Joshua the son of Nun:

'At that time the Lord said to Joshua:

Make for yourself flint knives from sharp rock, and sit down and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time'; and after a little:

'For forty-two years Israel wandered in the wilderness of Battaris, and therefore most of their fighting men who had come out of the land of Egypt were uncircumcised—those who had disobeyed the commandments of God, to whom also He decreed that they should not see the good land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.'

In their place He set up their sons, whom Joshua circumcised, because they had been born uncircumcised along the way.

So that circumcision was a sign setting Israel apart from the nations among whom they lived.

And it was a type of baptism.

For just as circumcision cuts off not a useful member of the body but a useless superfluity, so through holy baptism we are circumcised from sin;

and sin, evidently, is a superfluity of desire and not a useful desire (for it is impossible for anyone to desire nothing at all or to be wholly without taste of pleasure), but the useless part of pleasure, that is, the useless desire and pleasure—that is, sin—which holy baptism circumcises, giving us as a sign the precious cross upon the forehead, not setting us apart from the nations (for all the nations have attained baptism and been sealed with the sign of the cross), but distinguishing within each nation the believer from the unbeliever.

[When the reality] has been manifested, the type and the shadow are profitless.

So that it is now superfluous to be circumcised, and contrary to holy baptism.

For he who is circumcised is obligated to keep the whole law;

but the Lord, in order to fulfil the law, was circumcised, and He kept the whole law and the Sabbath, that He might fulfil and establish the law.

But from the time He was baptized and the Holy Spirit was manifested to men, descending upon Him in the form of a dove, from then on the spiritual worship and way of life and the kingdom of heaven have been proclaimed.

Concerning the Antichrist. One must know that the Antichrist must come.

Everyone, then, who does not confess that the Son of God and God has come in the flesh, and is perfect God and has become perfect man while remaining God, is antichrist.

Nevertheless, in a special and particular sense, he is called Antichrist who comes at the consummation of the age.

It is therefore necessary that first the gospel be proclaimed among all the nations, as the Lord said, and then he will come for the conviction of the God-opposing Jews.

'I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me;

another comes in his own name, and him you will receive.'

Inasmuch as they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, therefore God will send them a working of error, that they should believe the lie, so that all may be judged who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in unrighteousness.

The Jews, then, did not receive the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God and God; but the deceiver who calls himself God they will receive.

That he will call himself God, the angel teaching Daniel speaks thus:

'He will pay no regard to the gods of his fathers'; and the apostle:

'Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in the temple of God, displaying himself that he is God.'

But 'in the temple of God'—not ours, but the old, the Jewish.

For he will not come into ours, but to the Jews;

not on behalf of Christ but against Christ and against those who belong to Christ, wherefore also he is called antichrist.

It is necessary, then, that first the gospel be proclaimed among all the nations.

'And then the lawless one will be revealed, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness in those who are perishing—whom the Lord will destroy with the breath of His mouth and abolish by the appearing of His coming.'

It is not, then, that the devil himself becomes man, after the manner of the Lord's incarnation—God forbid—but a man is born of fornication and receives all the working of Satan.

For God, foreknowing the perversity of his future choice, permits the devil to dwell in him.

He is born, then, of fornication, as we have said, and is reared secretly, and suddenly rises up and rebels and reigns.

And in the beginnings of his reign—or rather his tyranny—he feigns righteousness;

but when he has become dominant, he persecutes the Church of God and discloses all his wickedness.

He will come with signs and lying wonders, fabricated and not true, and will deceive those whose mental foundation is rotten and unstable, and will draw them away from God, so as to make stumble, if possible, even the elect.

But Enoch and Elijah the Tishbite will be sent and will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children—that is, the synagogue to our Lord Jesus Christ and to the preaching of the apostles—and they will be slain by him.

And the Lord will come from heaven, in the manner in which the holy apostles beheld Him going into heaven—perfect God and perfect man, with glory and power—and will destroy the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition, with the breath of His mouth.

Let no one, then, look for the Lord from earth,

but from heaven, as He Himself assured us.

Concerning the resurrection. We believe also in the resurrection of the dead.

For there shall be—truly there shall be—a resurrection of the dead.

And when we speak of resurrection, we mean a resurrection of bodies.

For resurrection is the second standing-up of that which has fallen;

for the souls, being immortal, how shall they rise again? For if they define death as the separation of the soul from the body, the resurrection is assuredly the reunion again of soul and body, and the second standing-up of the living being that was dissolved and fallen.

This very body, then, which is corrupted and dissolved, this same shall rise incorruptible;

for He who in the beginning formed it from the dust of the earth is not powerless, when it has again been dissolved and returned to the earth from which it was taken according to the Creator's decree, to raise it up again.

For if there is no resurrection, 'let us eat and drink,' let us pursue the life of pleasure and enjoyment.

If there is no resurrection, in what do we differ from the irrational beasts? If there is no resurrection, let us count blessed the wild beasts of the field that have a life free from pain.

If there is no resurrection, neither is there God nor providence, but all things are carried and borne along automatically.

For behold, we see very many righteous men in poverty and suffering wrong and obtaining no relief in the present life, while sinners and the unrighteous flourish in wealth and every luxury.

And who in his right mind would suppose this to be the work of righteous judgment or of wise providence? There shall be, then—there shall be—a resurrection.

For God is just, and becomes the rewarder of those who patiently wait for Him.

If, then, the soul alone contended in the struggles of virtue, the soul alone shall also be crowned.

And if it alone wallowed in pleasures, it alone would justly be punished;

but since the soul had neither its existence separate, nor did it pursue virtue or vice apart from the body, both together shall justly receive their recompense.

And the divine Scripture also testifies that there shall be a resurrection of bodies.

God says to Noah, indeed, after the flood:

'As the green herbs I have given you all things.

Only flesh with the blood of its life you shall not eat;

for surely your blood, the blood of your lives, I will require; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of every man, his brother, I will require the life of man.

Whoever sheds the blood of man, in return for his blood shall it be shed, for in the image of God I made man.'

How will He require the blood of man from the hand of all the beasts, except that He will raise up the bodies of the men who die? For the beasts shall not die in the place of the man.

'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'

God is not the God of the dead—the God of those who have died and will be no more—but of the living, whose souls indeed live in His hand, and whose bodies shall live again through the resurrection.

And David, the ancestor of God, says to God:

'You take away their breath, and they expire and return to their dust.'

Behold, the word is about bodies.

'You send forth Your Spirit, and they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.'

'The dead shall rise, and those in the tombs shall be raised.'

And it is evident that it is not the souls that are laid in the tombs, but the bodies.

And the blessed Ezekiel also:

'And it came to pass,' he says, 'as I prophesied, behold, an earthquake, and the bones came together, bone to bone, each to its own joint.'

'And I looked, and behold, sinews came upon them, and flesh grew, and skin came up over them and was stretched over them above.'

Then he teaches how, at the command, the spirits returned.

'And at that time Michael shall arise, the great prince who stands over the sons of your people;

and there shall be a time of distress, such tribulation as has not been since a nation came to be upon the earth, until that time.

And at that time your people shall be delivered—everyone who is found written in the book.

And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to reproach and shame.

And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and among the many righteous, like the stars forever and ever they shall shine.'

In saying 'many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall be raised,' it is plain that he indicates a resurrection of bodies;

for surely no one would say that the souls sleep in the dust of the earth.

Moreover, the Lord also in the holy Gospels has clearly handed down the resurrection of bodies.

'For,' He says, 'those in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they shall come forth: those who have done good, to a resurrection of life, but those who have practiced evil, to a resurrection of judgment.'

But would anyone of sound mind ever say that it is the souls in the tombs? And not in word only, but also in deed, the Lord made manifest the resurrection of bodies.

First, by raising Lazarus, who was already four days dead and corrupted and stinking;

for He raised not a soul deprived of body, but a body together with the soul—and not another, but that very one which had been corrupted.

For how could the resurrection of the dead man be recognized or believed, unless the distinctive properties of the person established it? But He raised Lazarus as a demonstration of His own deity and as confirmation of His own resurrection and ours—though Lazarus was to return again to death.

But the Lord Himself became the firstfruits of the perfect resurrection that is no longer subject to death.

Wherefore indeed the divine apostle Paul said:

'If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised.

Then our faith is vain;

then we are still in our sins'; and: 'But Christ has been raised, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep'; and:

'The firstborn from the dead'; and again:

'For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.'

He spoke thus: even as the Lord rose.

And that the Lord's resurrection was the union of a body made incorruptible with the soul (for these are the things that had been separated), is plain:

'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'

A trustworthy witness is the holy Gospel, that He spoke concerning His own body.

'Handle Me and see,' the Lord says to His own disciples, who thought they were seeing a spirit, 'that it is I and I am not changed;

for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see Me having.'

And having said this, He showed them His hands and His side, and offered them to Thomas to handle.

Are not these things sufficient to confirm the resurrection of bodies? Again the divine apostle says:

'For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality'; and again:

'It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption;

it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory;

it is sown a natural body, that is, gross and mortal; it is raised a spiritual body, unchangeable, impassible, refined.'

For this is what 'spiritual' signifies: such as was the Lord's body after the resurrection, passing through closed doors, unwearied, having no need of food, sleep, or drink.

'For they shall be,' says the Lord, 'as the angels of God'—no more marriage, no more childbearing.

The divine apostle says, indeed:

'For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory'—not meaning the change into another form—away with that!—but rather the transformation from corruption into incorruption.

'How are the dead raised?' Oh, the unbelief!

He who by His will alone changed the dust into a body, He who commanded a small drop of the matter of seed to grow in the womb and to bring to completion this manifold and many-formed instrument of the body—will He not all the more, when He wills, raise up again that which has come to be and has dissolved? 'And with what kind of body do they come?' Foolish one!

If your hardness will not allow you to believe the words of God, at least believe His works.

For what you sow is not made alive unless it dies;

and what you sow, you do not sow the body that shall be, but a bare grain,

of wheat, it may be, or of some other kind.

But God gives it a body as He has willed, and to each of the seeds its own body.

Consider, then, how, as in tombs, the seeds are buried in the furrows.

Who is it that puts in them roots, stalk and leaves, and ears and the finest beards? Is it not the Creator of all things? Is it not the command of Him who fashioned all things? So, then, believe also that the resurrection of the dead shall be, by the divine will and command;

for His power runs together with His will.

We shall therefore rise again, the souls being once more united to the bodies that have been made incorruptible and have put off corruption; and we shall stand before the fearful judgment seat of Christ; and the devil and his demons shall be delivered up, and his man—that is, the Antichrist—and the ungodly and the sinners, into the eternal fire: not material like ours, but such as God knows.

But those who have done good shall shine like the sun, together with the angels, unto life eternal, with our Lord Jesus Christ, beholding Him and being beheld, and reaping the unceasing gladness that is from Him.