Ancoratus 1 part 11/12

Enoch was in uncircumcision, and uncircumcision did not hinder the resurrection, nor the reception of the body throughout the whole of life; Elijah was in circumcision, so that the resurrection might not be thought to belong to some and not to others, but to be catholic, whole.

Elijah was in virginity, so that the preeminence of virginity might proclaim to the world immortality, and incorruption together with the body;

but so that the resurrection and the preservation of the body might not be thought to belong only to virginity because of its excellence, Enoch was not a virgin, but continent, and had begotten children.

And these two are among the living, remaining in body and soul, for the sake of our hope.

And so that no one might doubt again, he also brought others down into Hades together with their bodies.

For from that very hour they were handed over to judgment, their bodies neither being dissolved, nor any remnant or part being surrendered, but they were handed over whole, together with body and soul, to punishment.

Job says: 'until I become again'; and: 'you will raise up this body that endures these things'; and: 'you will renew me'; and again: 'your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's'; and Isaiah says: 'the dead shall rise, and those in the tombs shall be raised;'

for he came, releasing with might those who were bound, and likewise those who provoke him to bitterness, those who dwell in the tombs.

But Job says: 'yet a man, once he has fallen asleep, shall not rise again, nor shall he know his place;'

for indeed, in truth, the resurrection does not occur daily, but has been appointed for a single day.

And showing that he knew for what appointed time he was waiting, he immediately resolved the question: 'until the heaven shall no longer be sewn together.'

For as long as heaven and earth exist, so long the bodies also remain in the earth.

But when he comes who rolls up the heaven like a scroll and shakes the earth, then those who lie in the dust upon the earth will also be raised.

For this reason he says to Ezekiel: 'Son of man, say that bone be joined to bone, and joint to joint;' and it happened so;

and that sinews and veins came upon them, and flesh and hair and nails.

And again: 'Say, son of man: Come, O spirit, from the four corners of the earth' — that is, plainly, from the places where the souls have been stored away.

And for what reason does the Lord himself not speak, but commands the man to speak? Because whatever the Lord says, he does at the same time, and it is never undone;

but he commanded the man to speak, so that, after they had risen for that hour, our hope of salvation might be signified, while it would be a man's word that was undone, and not the Lord's.

For those bones were destined to die again.

But when the Lord says, 'Rise,' they are raised and do not die again;

for the word of God shall not be undone.

'Rise, come forth' — until he comes and no longer says in the singular, 'Rise,' but 'Rise, all of you,' thereby bringing about the universal resurrection;

for he himself is the resurrection of the dead.

For here, after he rose from the dead, he raised no one except those who had recently died;

for many bodies of the sleeping saints rose together with him and appeared to many, entering with him into the bridal chamber, according to what is written in the Gospel —

— of the bodies of the saints, but the bodies of the saints —

and they appeared to many, being none other than those who had died, but recognized by their own kin, because they had not died long before;

and wishing to show the wonder to others also, our Lord accomplished those very difficult things by showing them to be easy;

and when he comes to the maiden who had just died, the daughter of the synagogue ruler — since she had died that very hour — he deigned to say to her:

'Arise' — thereby strengthening that which was already loosed in death, since she was still upon the bed.

But the son of the widow of Nain, since he was already being carried out on the bier, he raised more readily;

for he touched the bier, and said nothing to the youth, but only touched the bier, and he arose.

But that which is still deeper, and far beyond human hope, was when he came to the four-days-dead Lazarus: he neither said, 'Arise,' nor touched the tomb with his hand, but thus, readily, by his own authority, called out: 'Lazarus, come forth.'

Now 'come forth' is far easier and readier than 'to touch'; and 'to touch,' again, is far easier than to call, 'Maiden, arise.'

And in all this the holy Word of God does everything, that he might show us the hope of the resurrection.

But if I should wish to select all the testimonies from all the Scriptures — though our mind is small, limited, and untrained — nevertheless, because of their multitude, I fear lest I extend the discourse to too great a length;

but, to sum up, I will say that our salvation is a brief matter, and alike in every respect, since one hope of the resurrection has been proclaimed to us.

But these things the unbelieving disbelieve, the false-minded corrupt, the contentious do not accept, the vainglorious reject.

But may God grant mercy to them all, and cause light to shine upon the darkened parts of their understanding.

For the Greeks, not having received the Holy Spirit, will be convicted by the truth and by all the testimonies stated above, and especially by you, the sons of the holy Church of God and of the orthodox faith;

for you teach, having received the Holy Spirit and having been deemed worthy of fitting speech at the opening of your mouth: first, that having been deemed worthy to be disciples of Christ, the chief shepherd and protector of our souls, you have gathered your own peoples as nurslings for the flocks of Christ, and take care how you might nourish both yourselves and God's flock — I mean anyone at all who wishes truly to be benefited — from the holy land hinted at by Moses.

And who among those who think rightly, looking upon you, the devout and faithful — O orthodox ones and sons of the Church (for in saying 'some,' I mean all the sons of the truth) — who could doubt concerning these things, as it is written? For being sons of a wise and most valiant woman, whose renown is with Solomon, who says, 'A valiant woman — who shall find her?' — as though she were rare, or rather unique — you will choose the better and love the profitable.

By the 'valiant woman,' understand me to mean the Church of God, your mother, than whom nothing is more valiant, since she dies at every persecution that arises, for the sake of the name of her own husband.

This most gentle Church, then, earnestly asks her own bridegroom, in the Book of Songs: 'Where do you shepherd? Where do you make your flock lie down at noon?' And Christ shepherds in the holy land aforementioned; and he not only shepherds, but also commands that the sandals of the shepherds' feet be loosed, as he says first to Moses:

from whom, having received this tradition, you yourselves also safely guide by the hand those who are being led into the holy knowledge, first taking care that the sandals of each be loosed.

But the sandals of each of us differ.

For each one has been shod according to his own particular deed.

And moreover, each one of you, obeying you, the disciples and good shepherds — he who had put on idolatry has been unshod through your admonition; another has been unshod of adultery; another of fornication; another of theft; and another of covetousness.

And not only this, but also renouncing hateful words and shameful speech, with blessed hopes, under the mighty hand of the Good Shepherd, through you the good ones, the disciples, each one hands himself over to be shepherded.

For each one will altogether abstain from error.

And you set the truth before their eyes, exposing the idols as counterfeit and openly proclaiming the error concerning them; for you do not consider them dead — since they never lived at all — but you rightly teach at all times that they are all empty and vain and non-existent.

For they never existed at all, that those idols might be something.

But they are wretched contrivances, a fabrication of human thought, which has fortified the occasions for pleasures.

And from this, each one's own passion, once ratified as an object of worship, has been ventured upon.

For first, as soon as this was introduced as a novelty among men through the wickedness of demons, this — the primal fornication of idolatry — was proclaimed, and the idols were first sketched out in shadow-drawings.

Then each one handed down to his own children, as an object of worship, the very craft which he practiced with his own hands, by which he had gained his livelihood, and through the material of their own craftsmanship they fashioned gods: the potter out of clay, the carpenter out of wood, the goldsmith out of gold, and the silversmith likewise.

And again, each one depicted his own passion in likenesses of form before his own eyes: a bloodthirsty man calling it Ares, an adulterer or adulteress calling it the promiscuous Aphrodite, and a tyrant giving wings to Victory.

For the squalid man, gaping after worldly gain, depicted the figure of Cronus, while the effeminate man depicted Cybele and Rhea, I suppose because of the fluid promiscuity of bodily mingling.

And why should I speak of the multitudes of countless passions existing among men? But beyond all others, the Egyptians, having gone astray, worshiped not only their own passions, but birds and quadrupeds, land and water creatures, and certain untamed beasts — and the very creatures that had been handed over to them by the holy God for servitude, they perverted in rank by worshiping them.

And since they are brutish in mind, they practice excessive impiety, deifying the animals among them without shame: the dog, the barking one; the cat, the reptile-eater; the goat, the wanton one; the sheep, the bleating one; the crocodile, the many-clawed and most joyless one; the ibis, the poison-eater; and the kite, the hawk, and the raven, the most servile creatures; and the serpent, the crooked and most disagreeable one.

And in short — O the great shame of those who neither perceive their own refutation with their eyes, nor take in understanding through their ears, nor comprehend with their mind the vain things happening among them!

They are, at any rate, struck by an evil fate, being illumined not even by their own philosophers, nor becoming fellow-witnesses with those who go about proclaiming the truth.

"Come now, Heracles, step forward and perform your thirteenth labor: cook our meal for us!"

And taking him and splitting him into kindling, mocking his own god as non-existent, he fed himself, jesting over the meal set before him.

And another, Heraclitus, says to the Egyptians:

"For they shrilly wail and lament Typhon and Osiris and other underworld deities, mourning them as though they had been buried."

"If they are gods, why do you lament them? But if they have died, you lament them in vain."

And another, a comic poet named Eudaemon, says: "If indeed there are gods, I cannot speak concerning them, nor declare what sort of form they have."

"For there are many things that hinder me."

And Homer too says: "The rule of many is not good."

And Philemon, another comic poet, says: "Those who worship one God have good hopes of salvation."

For straightway Apis, the chaff-eating calf, was struck in the thigh with a sword by Cambyses, king of the Assyrians, so that, if blood should flow, he might be proven not to be a god.

And the followers of Cronus do not deny that their own god is shut up in iron chains — holding this view:

"But if someone exists in confinement, it is not simply because he is subject to one who is greater; rather, such a one is in confinement also as an evildoer."

And if I am also to speak concerning Isis, who is also called Atthis and Io, daughter of Apis the Cappadocian, who is also called Inachus, I am perhaps ashamed to proclaim their deeds.

Yet I will not be ashamed to speak of the things which they themselves are not ashamed to worship.

Let those who worship her and the Foam-born be ashamed — they who urge their own daughters, wives, and sisters to imitate the deeds of their gods.

For at once, being in love with Osiris, their own brother, and with Typhon, the other brother, they set their own brothers to war against one another.

Great is the shame of the goddess who felt no reverence for her own brother, but being in love and not content with men from outside, went so far as her own brother.

And not only this, but she also displays fratricide to her dearest ones because of the insatiability of her own desire.

And she bore one child, Horus, she who was unable to establish who was truly his legitimate father.

For if she should name Typhon, she doubts lest he is not the father;

but if Osiris, who could establish the certainty of this? Such a mother taught him to become a fine god indeed — she who took him and played the harlot in Tyre for ten years.

And the children of the Sinopeans, deifying Serapis — Apis, who was called king — were enslaved rather to tyranny than to truth.

These are the wages of the gods honored among the Egyptians — to recount which one by one would consume much time.

But the Greeks, who suppose themselves to be something, philosophizing only in words and in sharpness of tongue, and not in deeds, have run aground more than all others.

They derive Cronus from Uranus, saying that he was begotten from Uranus and cut off his own father's private parts — O wicked deed, and shameful suspicion!

Had he not been mutilated, there would have been many Cronuses.

And being of noble parentage, so to speak, his son — Zeus by name — was in danger of becoming the husband of all women, as was his son Hermes.

Would that he had become one betrothed with a lawful dowry, according to the laws, and not always a thief of marriages and an evildoer!

For he corrupts Penelope, becoming a goat for the sake of pleasure;

and I suppose he became a goat because of the vigor of the twining of the beard.

... he was once able to become it, but being a charlatan, by bribing with gold he deceived the maiden.

And with Leda he becomes a swan once more, signifying the winged uprising of the blaze of his own desire.

And having become an eagle — though never actually taking flight — he sits enthroned as a teacher of corrupters of boys;

never truly having become an eagle, but sailing past Troy in a ship bearing an emblem, named "Eagle" because of its speed, he seized Ganymede, son of the king of the Trojans, and accomplished the violation.

And toward Pasiphaë he became a bull, and likewise toward Europa.

And why should I speak of the multitude of corruptions committed by this noble corrupter of virgins and teacher of corrupters? His tomb is well known to not a few.

For on the island of Crete, on the mountain called Lasion, it is pointed out with the finger even to this day.

And there have been Zeuses not one or two, but even three or four in number.

For one of them was the aforesaid son of Cronus, who cast his own father down into Tartarus on Mount Caucasus; another was called Latiaris, from whom the gladiators arose; and another was the tragic one, who also burned his own hand.

Perhaps, being a god, he forgot that fire burns, and lacked the foreknowledge of the one who said to the satyr goat — who had first discovered fire and drew near to kiss it — "Do not touch it, goat!"

"For if you touch it, you will set your beard ablaze."

And there have been Athenas not one, but many;

one wandering and roaming about Lake Tritonis; another the daughter of Oceanus; another the daughter of Cronus; and many others besides.

And Heracles, who is called among them the "averter of evil" — of whose deeds I shall pass over all in silence, but I will point out one among them all, which is perhaps praised among them:

"It will suffice for this man to have undertaken this labor, that salvation might come to human life."

"For if he had not corrupted fifty virgins in a single night, how would the world have been saved? Rather, it would have perished."

And simply I confess to you, I am utterly disheartened to record their evil deeds one by one in prose.

Moreover, most cruel kings and tyrants, having had certain beloved favorites and having buried them in the earth, having nothing further to bestow upon them — since they themselves too were mortal like them — out of goodwill toward them have handed down their tombs, to the deception of life, on an evil pretext, to be worshiped by their own subjects as gods; as Antinous, who was buried at Antinoöpolis, and who, reclining in a pleasure-barge, was thus enrolled among the gods by Hadrian.

And Timogenes in Asia, and Canobus, the pilot of Menelaus, and his wife Enmenouthis, having been buried in Alexandria, are honored on the seashore, standing twelve miles apart from each other; and Marnas, a slave of Asterius the Cretan, is honored among the Gazans; and Casius the shipmaster among the Pelusiotes.

So then, whenever you scrutinize all these things accurately in the midst of the church, you loose those who have thus been led astray from the evil †example of the deadly path, and you bring others from adultery to chastity, and you deliver them not only from marriage-theft, but also teach them, in continence, to think little even of their own wife's claims — since the time is still contracted, as the holy apostle says — and you instruct fornicators in the catechism, lest, having committed the unlawful deed before God and men, they be punished.

confirming this through your deeds, by which you first taught yourselves, so that you might also make disciples of others.

For even in your silence you persist, after the manner of the sun, which also teaches all people everywhere by its silence;

for as soon as it rises, silently it teaches all people anew their various crafts.

And whenever you hand over to your own children — or rather to your most faithful brothers — the benefit of all these things, you advance them to walk on earth while having their citizenship in heaven, and you engender in most of them a zeal for the monastic life.

Through the firmness that is in you, and through unfeigned faith, hating the heretics, muzzling the Manichaeans and the Marcionites and the rest like them, you drive them away from God's fold, dissolving all their pretexts and stopping their mouths.

For how many things do they boldly utter against God and against his holy prophets, being light and empty of the Holy Spirit! They blaspheme against the Creator of all things; and the good things which God graciously granted to all men through his holy prophets, by prophecy in the Spirit — these things they hate, together with the deepest matters of the Law and the Prophets, since they are, as it were, earthly and carnal, and judging in a merely natural manner, they do not understand.

Do not hesitate to shake off at once their error from those who hear them, refuting them by true proofs.

For by such words the vain-minded are swept away, like twigs in the current of a mighty river.

But they say that the God of the Law is 'good' — he who, not knowing where Adam was, asked, saying, 'Adam, where are you?' And he says to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' And to Abraham, 'Where is Sarah your wife?' And many other things of this kind.

But they themselves, who say such things, believe in the Savior as God with their lips and not in truth — though he is God and possesses foreknowledge — while yet he, in like manner to the Old Testament, asks these same kinds of questions: 'Where have you laid Lazarus?' And 'Who touched me?' And 'Do you have any loaves with you?' And 'What do you want?' Or 'Whom do you seek?'

The refutation of these, then, is easy and ready to hand.

For just as the Son asks while possessing foreknowledge, so too the Father — he himself — likewise asks in the Law, being ever the same and never changing.

For if he says, 'Where have you laid Lazarus?' — he is thereby ignorant neither in the Gospel nor in the Old Testament.

For he says, 'Where have you laid him?' wishing to expose the women who had not shown even equal faith to that of the Shunammite woman — even though she had faith toward a mere man, that is, Elisha the holy prophet, whereas Martha and her company had faith toward God himself.

And if he says, 'Who touched me?' he says this not out of ignorance, but so that he might persuade the woman to confess of her own accord, in order that the Son of God might not bear witness concerning himself, but be glorified by others.

And when he says, 'Do you have any loaves with you?' he says this to this end: that the fewness of the loaves might be made known to all, and the greatness of his wonder-working might be marveled at, in that so great a crowd was fed by so few loaves.

And when he says, 'Whom do you seek?' he shows that those who sought him were deceived, seeking Jesus — a name interpreted as 'physician' and 'savior' — so that when they killed him, they might forfeit his salvation.

Just as, then, we have shown that the things spoken concerning the dispensation of our Lord, though spoken in human fashion, are not without foreknowledge — for none of sound mind would say that he was ignorant of where they had laid Lazarus, since he was near the place, even though he asked in the manner we have described, having previously been far off in Galilee and having shown of himself that Lazarus had died — so also concerning the Old Testament do we resolve these matters with sound understanding.

For God to say, 'Adam, where are you?' was not the word of one who was ignorant, but of one showing from what height to what depth of shame Adam had fallen.

And 'Where is Abel your brother?' — meaning: he whom you ought always to have carried in your arms and always to have been with — this one has been cast down upon the earth by you.

For he shows, from what follows, that he was not asking out of ignorance, but was rebuking, in that he said, 'Cursed is the ground because of your deeds, and cursed are you from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.'

'For behold,' he says, 'his voice cries out to me.'

And 'Where is Sarah your wife?' — he did not say this out of ignorance.

For how could he be ignorant, when he knew that she was laughing inside the tent? He did not, then, ask out of ignorance, but so that he might set before her daughters — those who profess godliness — an example, that they might learn her manner of life, whenever they endeavor to minister to the saints out of their own labors.

For she, engaged in such great service, herself making the unleavened cakes and the bread baked in the ashes, and having prepared such great service together with her own servants, did not look upon the face of those she was serving, leaving to our generations a model of gracious modesty.

And let these things suffice as a demonstration against the counter-arguments of the vain.

And should they also say, 'The God of the Law is "good," who defrauded the Egyptians and taught his own people to plunder them as they went out from the land of Egypt' — the vain ones do not know that with God nothing is lost, and that there is righteous judgment, and God is not mocked.

For what did the Egyptians suppose — that they were seeking to make the Jews work these things without wages, and not for a chance number of years, but for two hundred fifteen years, together with the two hundred fifteen years of Joseph? For since a sojourning of four hundred thirty years was determined for Abraham and his seed, as it says, 'Your seed shall be a sojourner in a land not their own' — then was that which had been determined fulfilled.

By his own compassion, then, God divided the years of its sojourning.

And immediately, for two hundred fifteen years, while they were still in the land of Canaan, he sustained them; and the other two hundred fifteen years he allotted to those who had gone over into Egypt.

For the number of these years is reckoned as follows:

It was then the seventy-fifth year of Abraham.

There are, then, from the seventy-fifth year of Abraham until the birth of Isaac, twenty-five years.

Isaac begets Jacob in his sixtieth year, and there have been eighty-five years.

And Jacob, having become eighty-nine years old, begets Levi, and there are one hundred seventy-four years.

Levi, having become forty-four years old, begets Kohath.

And in the forty-seventh year of Levi, Jacob goes down into Egypt, and there are two hundred eleven years.

And after their entry into Egypt, four more years, and the two hundred fifteen years are completed.

From this point, again, the remaining two hundred fifteen years of the sojourning of the Israelites are reckoned for me.

And Kohath, after the descent into Egypt, in his sixty-fifth year, begets Abraham, the father of Moses.

There are, then, from the first Abraham — from his seventy-fifth year — until the birth of the last Abraham, two hundred eighty years; and from the descent into Egypt, sixty-five years.

And Abraham, being seventy years old, begets Moses; and there are, from the first Abraham, three hundred fifty years, and from the descent into Egypt, one hundred thirty-five years.

And Moses, in his thirtieth year, treads the Red Sea, going forth from Egypt together with the Israelites.

And there are, from the great Abraham, three hundred eighty years, and from the descent into Egypt, one hundred sixty-five years.

[...] to fight and to be hindered by the nations found along their way.

There are, then, from the seventy-fifth year of the great Abraham — from which this prediction was given to him by God — until Moses and the arrival of the sons of Israel in Palestine, four hundred thirty years; and from the descent into Egypt until their arrival in Palestine, two hundred fifteen years.

Was it not just, then — both before God and before men — that to the Jews, who had worked for so many years without wages, their wages should be given even at the end? God, therefore, is not unjust in casting out his own people from there with spoils.

But if anyone should doubt that the years are reckoned in this way, let him hear Moses saying, 'And the dwelling of the sons of Israel, in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, was four hundred thirty years.'

Since, then, the Lord took care of a most just wage, what vain counter-argument still remains for those who wish to bring blame against the holy God? No one could ever truly blame the true God, but those who blame him blame themselves.

And another vain counter-argument is proclaimed by them, similar to the first: that the God of the Law is 'good,' who defrauded the Canaanites, in order to give the Israelites their place — houses which they had not built, and olive-groves and fig-orchards and vineyards which they had not planted.

O vain ones! If God were as a man, the things said or done today would pass away and be of no account to him in his thought.

But since God is God and not man, in avenging the things that are referred to him he does not forget, even unto many generations.

For if they are ignorant of this matter, let them learn.

All know that righteous Noah became the remnant of the world after the flood.

As, then, he was left — both he himself and his three sons — being righteous as he was, and endeavoring to render his own children reverent, so that they might not fall into the same evils as those in the flood, he imparted reverence to them not only through words, but also by an oath, requiring from each one of them goodwill toward his brother.

And he, having been made by God the heir of the world, divided the whole world among his three sons, allotting it by lots and assigning each portion to each according to the lot.

And to Shem, the firstborn, fell the lot from Persia and Bactria unto India in length, and in breadth from India unto the region of Rhinocorura.

And this region of Rhinocorura lies between Egypt and Palestine, opposite the Red Sea.

And to Ham, the second, fell the lot from the same Rhinocorura unto Gades, toward the south.

And to Japheth, the third, from Media unto Gades and Rhinocorura, toward the north.

To Shem, then, there are twenty-five children and children's children, until the tongues were divided.

And they are scattered among tongues and tribes and kingdoms.

And their names are these:

And to Ham, the second, there are thirty-two children and children's children, until the same dividing of the tongues.

Ethiopians, Troglodytes, Angaei, Thaieni, Sabini, Ichthyophagi, Hellenici, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Marmaridae, Carians, Psyllitae, Mossynoeci, Phrygians, Macones, Macrones, Syrtitae, Leptimagnitae, Bithynians, Nomads, Lycians, Mariandyni, Pamphylians, Moschesidii, Pisidians, Augalaei, Cilicians, Mauri, Cretans, Magardae, Numidians, Afri (also called Byzacenes), Nasamones, Phasgeni, Mazices, Garamantes, Gaetuli, Blemmyes, Axumites.

These occupy the land from Egypt unto the Ocean.