Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 24/82

He excised what Peter did, when he struck and cut off the ear of the high priest's servant.

Those who held him mocked him, beating and striking him, and saying:

Prophesy, who is it that struck you?

He added, after the words 'We found this man perverting the nation,' the phrase 'and destroying the law and the prophets.'

An addition after 'forbidding to give tribute': 'and turning wives and children away.'

And when they came to a place called The Place of a Skull, they crucified him there and divided his garments, and the sun was darkened.

He cut out 'Today you will be with me in paradise.'

And crying out with a loud voice, he breathed his last.

And behold, a man named Joseph, taking down the body, wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a tomb hewn out of rock.

And the women returned and rested on the sabbath according to the law.

Those in shining clothing said:

Why do you seek the living among the dead? He has risen; remember what he told you while he was still with you, that the Son of Man must suffer and be delivered up.

He cut out what was said to Cleopas and the other man, when he met them: 'O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.'

Was it not necessary that these things be suffered? And instead of 'concerning the things which the prophets spoke,' he made it read 'concerning the things which I spoke to you.'

But he is refuted, because when he broke the bread, their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

Why are you troubled? Look at my hands and my feet, that a spirit does not have bones, as you see that I have.

We append still further these things also against the aforesaid heresiarch, to this treatise composed by us against him — things which we again discovered in his own text, namely in his arbitrary reception of the epistles of the apostle Paul, not all of them but only some, whose titles we have set down at the end of the whole treatise, as the Apostolikon is presented in his collection; and these too, as usual, have been mutilated by his knavery, just as also happened with the Gospel set at the head under that name. They are indeed remnants of the true Gospel, if the truth must be told; yet by monstrously contriving everything, he falsified the whole of it.

Of the Epistle to the Romans: in his collection it is fourth, but in the Apostolikon it is first.

For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and as many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

For circumcision indeed profits, if you practice the law;

but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

Having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law.

For while we were still weak, at the appointed time Christ died for the ungodly.

So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.

For Christ is the end of the law, unto righteousness for everyone who believes.

For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

1 Thessalonians: in his collection fifth, but in ours eighth.

2 Thessalonians: in his collection sixth, but in ours ninth.

Of the Epistle to the Ephesians: in his collection seventh, but in ours fifth.

Remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh — who are called 'the uncircumcision' by that which is called 'the circumcision,' made in the flesh by hands — that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by his blood.

For he himself is our peace, who made both one — and so forth.

And arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you.

'For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh' — as against [the simple phrase] 'to the wife.'

Of the Epistle to the Colossians: in his collection eighth, but in ours seventh.

Let no one therefore judge you in food or in drink, or with regard to a feast or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of the things to come.

To Philemon: in his collection ninth, but in ours thirteenth, or even fourteenth.

To the Philippians: in his collection tenth, but in ours sixth.

Of the Epistle to the Laodiceans: in his collection eleventh.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.

From the Epistle to the Galatians: in his collection first, but in ours fourth.

Know that 'the righteous shall live by faith.'

For as many as are under the law are under a curse;

but he who does them shall live by them.

Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

But he who was of the promise came through the free woman.

And I testify again to every man who is circumcised that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

Instead of 'a little leaven leavens the whole lump,' he made it read 'corrupts.'

For the whole law is fulfilled for you in [one word]:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, revelries — of which I forewarn you, just as I have also forewarned you before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

For not even those who are circumcised keep the law themselves.

Of the First Epistle to the Corinthians: in Marcion's collection second, and in ours likewise second.

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will set aside.

So that, as it is written, 'let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'

Of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

He who catches the wise in their craftiness.

The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are futile.

For indeed Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.

Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute is one body with her? For 'the two,' it says, 'shall become one flesh.'

For instead of 'in the law' he says 'in the law of Moses.'

Or does not the law also say these things?

Is it oxen that God is concerned about?

For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.

For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them;

but with most of them God was not pleased.

Now these things became types for us, so that we should not be desirers of evil things, as they also desired.

Neither become idolaters, as some of them were, as it is written:

The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

'Neither let us put Christ to the test' -- up to where it says, 'Now these things happened to them as a type, and they were written for us,' and what follows.

What then do I say? That a thing sacrificed in a temple is anything, or that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything? But that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.

But Marcion added the word 'sacrificed in a temple.'

A man ought not to wear long hair, since he is the glory and image of God.

But God has tempered the body together.

Marcion, in his error, after the words 'but in the church I want to speak five words with my mind,' added 'because of the law.'

In the law it is written, 'With other tongues and with other lips I will speak to this people.'

Let the women keep silent in the churches;

but let them be in submission, as the law also says.

Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I preached to you,

and that 'if Christ has not been raised, [our preaching is] vain,' and so on.

So we preach, and so you believed, that Christ died and was buried and was raised on the third day.

But when this mortal has put on immortality, then the saying that is written will come to pass:

Death is swallowed up in victory.

Of the [Epistle] to the Corinthians -- the second [in the church's numbering]; but in his [Marcion's arrangement] as well as in ours, it is the third [in order among the epistles].

For as many as are the promises of God, in him is the 'Yes';

therefore also through him is the 'Amen,' to [the glory of] God.

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake, because the God who said, 'Out of darkness light shall shine' [has shone in our hearts].

But having the same spirit of faith, we also believe, and therefore we also speak;

But he cut out the phrase 'according to what is written.'

This is the adulterated compilation of Marcion, having the character and form of the Gospel according to Luke, and of the apostle Paul not the whole, nor all of his epistles, but only that to the Romans, and to the Ephesians, and to the Colossians, and to the Laodiceans, and a part of that to the Galatians, and to the Corinthians the first and second, and to the Thessalonians the first and second, and to Philemon, and to the Philippians;

and missing from it are the first and second to Timothy, and to Titus, and to the Hebrews -- letters found among those in common circulation -- since what he does present is not the complete text, but as it were in a state of falsification.

and this same compilation has been tampered with throughout, and in certain expressions has an artificially contrived addition -- not for any benefit, but toward inferior and harmful, foreign turns of phrase against the sound faith -- all proceeding from that same brutish, stupefied mind of his, that beast.

Now this labor and painstaking investigation has been undertaken by us out of the writing previously mentioned as being current with him -- the Apostle and the Gospel according to Luke -- so that all who attempt to refute his error may know that the altered words have been inserted through tampering, while whatever does not appear in its proper place has been plundered away by his audacity;

for the brutish man supposed that these alone were the passages that stood contrary to his own fabricated way of thinking.

The third part of our labor of love is to gather together whatever has been found, both in his text and in ours, that agrees together and gives emphasis to the incarnate presence of the Savior, and to the testimony of the agreement of the New Testament with the Old, and to the confession of the Son of God in the Gospel confessing God to be the maker of heaven and earth, and that he himself spoke in the law and in the prophets, and that this one is properly his own Father.

And this, then, is the brief, scholion-formed, memorandum-like compilation of our aforesaid undertaking, drawn from copies of Marcion's text, written by us word for word, laid out for us as on a tablet.

But so that the things in it that are hard to understand may not remain obscurely unknown to some, I will once more, in order, go through the numbers of the headings -- I mean of the first, second, and third chapter -- explaining for what reason each expression was singled out and altered here.

I will begin to speak as follows:

Scholion 1, from the Gospel as it is with Marcion himself.

Go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing, as Moses commanded;

'that this may be a testimony to you' -- in place of what the Savior actually said, 'for a testimony to them.'

How could the Lord -- who, as you claim, holds a teaching set against the law and against the God of the law -- possibly say to those he healed, I mean to the leper:

By saying this, he does not set aside the priesthood of the law;

and 'offer for your cleansing' -- even if you cut out the word 'gift,' it will still be evident from the word 'offer' that he is speaking of a gift or offering;

'for your cleansing, as Moses commanded';

for if he advises that the command of Moses be carried out, he is not setting aside nor blaspheming the God of the law, but is confessing that both he himself and his Father, God, gave the law to Moses.

But you have distorted the saying, O Marcion, saying 'a testimony to you' instead of 'for a testimony to them.'

And in this you have plainly lied, to your own head's condemnation.

For if he said 'a testimony to you,' it would have made him a witness that 'I did not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them.'

'But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins'

If, then, he calls himself Son of Man, the Only-begotten does not deny his becoming man, and it is in vain that among you it is chanted that he appeared only in seeming.

And if he has authority on earth, then the earth is not foreign to his own works and to his own Father.

The Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

But instead of 'he went down with them,' he has 'he went down among them.'

Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

certainly of one who was seized -- yes, indeed -- and crucified, and who suffered many things.

How then, O Marcion, is he seized and crucified, this one who, according to your own account, does not fall under physical touch? For you say he was only an appearance.

But your supposition will be refuted by the fact that Judas is described in Scripture as a traitor.

For he betrayed him beforehand and delivered his own Master into the hands of men.

But it has profited you nothing to say 'he went down among them' instead of 'with them.'

For you cannot define as a mere phantom the one who, according to your own text, is later shown falling under physical touch, even against his will.

And the whole crowd sought to touch him.

And he lifted up his eyes, and so on.

How again could the crowd touch one who has no capacity for being touched? And what eyes did he lift up to heaven, if he were not fitted together out of flesh? But this was so that he might show that the mediator between God and men is the man Christ Jesus, possessing both natures -- from men the flesh, but from God the Father the invisible essence.

In the same way your fathers did to the prophets.

If he makes mention of prophets, he does not deny the prophets;

if he avenges the murder of the prophets and reproaches those who murdered and persecuted them, then he is no stranger to the prophets, but is their God, the one who takes up their cause.

I say to you, I have not found such great faith, no, not even in Israel.

If he did not find such faith even in Israel as he found in the centurion who came from among the Gentiles, then he is not condemning the faith of Israel.

For if this faith belonged to a God foreign to him, and not to himself and his own Father, he would not have made such praise of it.

Altered is the saying: 'Blessed is he who is not offended in me';

so that they might not fabricate for themselves things they had not heard from him.

But it has a deeper meaning, for which reason the Savior originally spoke it in this form:

so that no one, seeing John, whom he himself designated as the greatest among those born of women, might suppose him greater even than the Savior himself because he too was born of a woman -- against this he guards, and says, 'And blessed is whoever is not offended in me.'

Hence he says, 'but the one who is least in the kingdom is greater than he.'

For the Savior, in time, according to his birth from the flesh, was six months younger than he, John, yet was greater in the kingdom -- evidently as being his God.

For the Only-begotten came to speak nothing in secret, nor to give the lie to anything of his own proclamation.

For he says, 'I have not spoken in secret, but with boldness.'

For he is truth, as he says, 'I am the way and the truth.'

Therefore the way contains no error, nor does the truth, concealing itself, speak falsehood.

He is the one about whom it is written:

'Behold, I send my messenger before your face.'

If the only-begotten Son of God recognizes John and foreknows him, and in foreknowing him shows to those who wish to know the truth that this is the one about whom it is written, 'I send my messenger before your face,' then he who wrote and said, 'I send my messenger before your face' — the eternal God who spoke in the prophets and in the law — was not a stranger to his own Son, Jesus Christ.

For he sends his own messenger before his face — before the face of the Son who is honored by the Father.

For he did not send his own messenger to be of service to a stranger, one who, according to your reasoning, O Marcion, was even opposed to him.

'And he went into the house of the Pharisee and reclined at table.'

'And the sinful woman, standing behind at his feet, wet his feet with her tears, and anointed and kissed them.'

The word 'entered' indicates a body;

for it shows a house, and the measure of a body.

and to recline belongs to none other than one who has a solid body that lies down;

and the woman's wetting his feet with her tears was not the wetting of imaginary feet, nor of feet that were mere appearance;

for she anointed and wetted and kissed them, perceiving the touch of the body.

'This woman has wet my feet with her tears, and has anointed and kissed them.'

Lest you should think, O Marcion, that it was merely supposed by men that the sinful woman had wet, anointed, and kissed the Savior's feet, the Savior himself confirms it, teaching that these things happened not in appearance but in truth, insisting — as a refutation of the Pharisee, and of you, Marcion, and of those who follow you — and saying, 'This woman has anointed my feet and kissed them.'

But what feet, other than those consisting of flesh and bones and the rest? Scholion 12.

It did not have 'his mother and his brothers,' but only 'your mother and your brothers.'

Even if, above, you tamper with the wording of the Gospel, O Marcion, so as to make the evangelist not agree with the phrase spoken by certain persons, 'your mother and your brothers,' you cannot get beyond the truth.

For why did he not speak of many mothers? Why did he not speak of many fatherlands? How many people say how many different things about Homer? Some claim he was Egyptian, others Chian, others Colophonian, others Phrygian, others a Smyrnaean, son of Meles and Critheis;

while Aristarchus and his followers declared him to be an Athenian;

others say he was a Lydian, son of Maeon, others a Cypriot from Propodias, a village in the district of Salamis — and yet he was a single man.

The claim that he was born in many fatherlands has led many into divergent accounts.

But here, speaking of God and of Christ, they did not suppose many mothers, but the one who truly bore him, and not many brothers, but the sons of Joseph by his other, actual wife;

and you cannot arm yourself against the truth.

And do not let the word which the Lord spoke, 'Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?' lead you astray; for he did not say this by way of denying his mother, but in order to correct the untimeliness of the one who spoke, since so great a crowd stood around and his saving teaching was being poured out, and he himself was occupied with healings and preaching;

for it seemed to be a distraction, that the one who spoke should interrupt him by saying, 'Behold, your mother and your brothers.'

And had he not received it with joy — not as being ignorant that they had come, before hearing it, but foreknowing that they stood outside — he would have rebuked with a reproof the untimely voice of the one who spoke, just as he once said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan, for you do not think the things of God, but the things of men.'

'And as they sailed, he fell asleep.'

'And when he awoke, he rebuked the wind and the sea.'

You will not dare to say this of the Godhead;

but if you should even say it, you would blaspheme against your own head, you madman struck by God.

But it is clear to everyone that he who truly became man slept because, on account of his bodily nature, he was in need of sleep.

For those who woke him did not see an appearance, but a true incarnation.

Indeed, by moving him with their hands and calling out, they bear witness that they woke him.

For, it says, having risen up, the God who slept, bearing flesh — who came down from heaven and clothed himself in flesh for our sake — arose as man, but rebuked the sea as God, and made a calm.

'Now as they went, the crowds pressed around him.'

'And a woman who touched him was healed of her flow of blood.'

'And the Lord said, Who touched me? And again, Someone touched me.'

'For I perceived power going out from me.'

'As they went' — and it did not say 'as he went,' so as not to represent him in a manner different from the ordinary course of travelers.

As for 'the crowds pressed around him' — the crowds could not have pressed around a spirit.

And the woman who touched him and was healed did not touch air, but touched a truly human body.

For to show that the touching of his body by the woman did not take place merely in appearance, he teaches by saying, 'Who touched me? For I perceived power going out from me.'

'Looking up to heaven, he blessed over them.'

If he looked up to heaven and blessed over them, then he did not possess the forms of eyes and of his other members merely in appearance.

'Saying, the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be killed, and after three days rise again.'

If the only-begotten Son of God confesses himself to be Son of Man, and to suffer, and to be killed, then this is an axe against you, cutting off your whole root, O Marcion, born of thorns, waterless cloud, fruitless and autumnal tree.

For again it says, 'and after three days he will rise.'

But what was it that was raised, if not the very thing that had suffered and been buried in the tomb? For an appearance, or a wind, or a spirit, or a phantasm could not admit of a funeral, a burial, and a resurrection.

'And behold, two men were talking with him, Elijah and Moses, in glory.'

a falsehood devised against the law and the prophets

For since you were going to reject the law and the prophets, claiming that they were foreign to the Savior and to his glory and to his divinely inspired teaching, he brought both of them with him in his own glory and showed them to his disciples, and the disciples showed them to us and to the world — that is, to every man who wishes to live — so that, through the first, as with an axe, he might cut off your roots, and through the second, as with the sickle of the word of truth, he might lop off your branches, which produce for men hemlock and deadly, gluey venom of blasphemy.

For if Moses, who had long ago been entrusted with the law by Christ, were a stranger, and the prophets were strangers, he would not have revealed them together with himself in his own glory.

For observe the wonder: he did not show them at the tomb, nor at the cross, but when he was revealing to us a portion of his glory as a pledge, then he brought the saints — I mean Moses and Elijah — together with himself, so as to show that they were fellow heirs of his kingdom.

'This is my beloved Son.'

It is clear to everyone that the cloud is not the highest thing, nor does it exist above heaven, but is within our own creation, whence the voice was borne to the Savior.

If, then, the Father even speaks in a cloud, pointing out his Son to the disciples, the Creator is not someone else, but the very same one — the one who bore witness to his own Son through the cloud, and who does not rule only over what is above heaven, as you yourself claim.

And besides 'they were not able to cast it out,' it also had, addressed to them:

'O faithless generation, how long shall I bear with you?' Refutation 19.

The phrase 'how long' signifies a period of time belonging to his incarnate presence, and so does 'O faithless generation' — since the prophets, working divine signs in his name, were found to believe, as Elijah is found to have done, and Elisha, and the others.

'For the Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.'

The emphasis on 'Son of Man' and on his being delivered into the hands of men is not one of appearance nor of phantasm, but the manifest presence of a body and of members.

If he calls the house made by Moses' construction of the tabernacle 'the house of God,' he does not thereby reject the law, nor the God who spoke in the law.

For he calls him God — that is, his Father — or the only-begotten himself.

For the Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is accustomed to work both in the law and the prophets, and in the Gospels, and in the apostles.

'I thank you, Lord of heaven.'

But it did not have 'and of earth,' nor did it have 'Father.'

For below it did have, 'Yes, Father.'

He gives thanks to the Lord of heaven — even if you remove 'and of earth,' and even if you cut out 'Father,' O Marcion, so as not to show Christ pointing to the Creator as his Father.

For the limbs of the truth remain alive.

For just as in a remnant you left behind, through forgetfulness, O Marcion, the words 'Yea, Father.'

It has therefore been demonstrated from every consideration that Christ gives thanks to his own Father, and names him Lord of heaven.

And great is your derangement of mind, in not perceiving the pathway of the truth.

He said to the lawyer, 'What is written in the law?' And in response, after the lawyer's answer, he said, 'You have answered rightly.'

For he has come for the sake of the life of mankind.

Since, then, he is concerned about life, and shows through the law that life belongs to the one who keeps and does it, and since to the one who answered rightly according to the law he declared that he had spoken correctly, saying, 'Do this and you shall live' -- who could be so senseless as to be persuaded by Marcion, who blasphemes against the God who has granted to men both the law and the grace of the gospel, and yet to be led astray together with him who has nothing of true teaching, either from the law or from the Holy Spirit?

And he said, 'Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, asking for three loaves?' -- and further, 'Ask, and it shall be given you.'

For which of you fathers, if his son asks for a fish, will hand him a serpent instead of a fish, or a scorpion instead of an egg? If then you, being evil, know how to give good gifts, how much more the Father? Refutation 24.

The false, self-devised piety of this deceiver's manner of life has been refuted by this very saying.

For with him, this way of life is not practiced for the sake of self-control, nor for a good reward and the hope of the contest, but on account of impiety and the wicked disposition of an evil suspicion.

For this man teaches that one must not partake of anything that has a soul, claiming that those who partake of meats are liable to judgment, as though they were eating souls.

For the flesh is not the soul, but the soul is in the flesh; and we do not say that the soul in animals is the same as the honored soul of human beings, but that the animal has a soul only for the purpose of living.

But this pitiable man, together with those who think likewise, supposes that the same soul exists in human beings and in animals.

For this is vainly assumed by many of the heresies that have gone astray.

For indeed Valentinus and Colorbasus, and all the Gnostics, and the Manichaeans, likewise assert that there is a transference of souls, and reincarnations of the soul of those men who remain in ignorance, according to a certain myth-making of their own, as they themselves say.

They say that this soul returns and is reincarnated into each of the animals in turn, until it attains to knowledge; and having thus been purified and released, it passes over into the heavenly realms.

And first of all, his whole vain fabrication of this myth has been refuted.

For no one else can know the exact truth of these matters, beyond our Lord Jesus Christ, who came for the sake of the lost sheep, that is, for the sake of the souls of mankind.

He, in caring for these very souls, healed them both bodily and in soul, as one who has dominion over both body and soul, and who provides both the life that is here and the life to come.

As for those who had died -- I mean Lazarus, and the widow's son, and the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue -- he raised them from the dead, not restoring them to something evil, as these heretics dogmatize that the body is a prison, but doing a good deed, and knowing both that the continuance here in the flesh has been appointed by him, and also the future resurrection of flesh and soul.

And again, if he knew that there is one and the same soul in animals and in human beings, and yet he came to accomplish the salvation of the soul, then, after cleansing a single demoniac -- I mean the one coming out from the tombs -- he ought not to have commanded the demons to depart and to destroy two thousand swine, if the souls of human beings and of swine were equal.

For how, in caring for a single soul, would he bring about the destruction of two thousand? But if again, like a serpent, you twist and contrive, saying that he released those souls from their bodies so that they might ascend, then Lazarus, once released from the body, ought not to have returned again into the body -- or rather, he ought instead to have released the demoniac himself from the bond of the body.

But rather, he took forethought in this way, precisely because he knew what was beneficial for the body.

And concerning your pretended manner of life, I will speak again, because you say that partaking of meats is evil and unlawful.