Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 32/82

And so that no one might suppose there is some error in the Gospels — for the mystery is astonishing and the account is beyond man, and it is only to the sons of the Holy Spirit that everything is smooth and illumined — he says: he was about thirty years old, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthan; and he traces the birth back to Abraham, from whom Matthew also began, but he passes beyond Noah and reaches as far as Adam, so as to signify him who was formed first, the one who is sought through him who came from his own lump, that is, from the holy virgin Mary.

For he came for the sake of that one formerly formed, and those born of him who desire to inherit eternal life;

And going beyond Adam, he says: 'the son of God.'

From this, then, it was most evident that he was the Son of God, but that through the seed of Adam, by succession, he came into being in the flesh.

But again those who had gone astray did not receive illumination, but spoke against the word, deceiving themselves and loving the lie more than the truth.

And they claimed: 'Behold, the Gospel according to Luke is a third gospel.'

For this was granted to Luke, who was himself also one of the seventy-two who were scattered on account of the word of the Savior, but who, through the holy Paul, returned again to the Lord and was entrusted by him to preach the Gospel.

And his beginning was in Gaul, as this same Paul also says concerning some of his companions in his own epistles:

'Crescens,' he says, 'is in Gaul';

for it is not in Galatia, as some who have gone astray suppose, but in Gaul.

But I shall come to the matter at hand.

They did not understand that, when he made the genealogy from below upward, and, having arrived at the top, laid emphasis on the presence, from above, of the Word of God, joined at the same time to his enfleshed economy, it was in order to turn error away from those who had gone astray.

Therefore afterward the Holy Spirit compels John — who kept declining to write a Gospel out of reverence and humility — in his old age, after ninety years of his life, after his return from Patmos which took place under Claudius Caesar, and after he had spent a good number of years in Asia, he is compelled to set forth the Gospel.

And there was no need for him to speak in minute detail concerning the enfleshed presence;

but, as one walking behind certain others and seeing them going on ahead and giving themselves up to the roughest, most errant and thorny paths, he took thought beforehand to call them back to the straight way, and, to make it secure, to proclaim to them and say:

'Why do you go astray? Where are you turning? Where are you wandering off to, Cerinthus and Ebion and the rest? It is not as you suppose.'

Yes, it is clear that Christ was born according to the flesh;

for behold, I myself confess that the Word became flesh.

But do not suppose that he came into existence from the moment he became flesh;

for he does not exist only from the time of Mary, as each of us exists from the time we are born, and does not exist before being born.

'All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made,' and so on.

'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld him.'

'Then there came a man sent from God, whose name was John.'

'This man came for a witness, to bear witness concerning the light, that all might believe through him.'

'He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness concerning the light.'

'That was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world.'

'He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.'

'He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.'

'But as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become children of God;'

'who were born not of blood, nor of the flesh, but of God.'

'And the Word,' he says, 'became flesh and dwelt among us.'

'John bears witness and cries out, saying:'

'and that of his fullness we have all received.'

And he says: 'I am not the Christ, but a voice crying in the wilderness.'

And when he has narrated all these things, he says: 'These things took place in Bethabara;'

but in other copies, 'in Bethany, beyond the Jordan.'

And after this he shows that the disciples of John said to him:

'Rabbi, where are you staying?' And he said:

'Come and see.' And they went and remained with him that day. And on the next day, it being about the tenth hour, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who had followed him;

he first finds his own brother Simon and says to him:

'We have found the Messiah' (which, being interpreted, is 'the Christ').

And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus, looking upon him, said:

'You are Simon, the son of Jonah; you shall be called Cephas' (which is translated 'Peter').

On the next day he wanted to go out into Galilee, and he finds Philip, and Jesus says to him:

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, from the city of Andrew and Peter.

Philip finds Nathanael and says to him:

'We have found him of whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets — Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth.'

'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' Philip says to him:

'Come and see.' And Jesus, seeing Nathanael coming toward him, says concerning him:

'Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile.'

'How do you know me?' Jesus answered and said to him: 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.'

Nathanael answered him and said:

'Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.'

Jesus answered him and said to him:

'Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these.'

'Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.'

'And on the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee,' and so forth, in order to show that after the forty days of the temptation, and after his return from that very temptation and his setting out toward Nazareth and Galilee (as the other three evangelists have said), he came again to the Jordan.

as will also be shown from the word of John, who spoke thus: when he saw him coming, the next day he says, 'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.'

And again, the next day, when he saw him walking, he said:

'This is he of whom I said to you, He who comes after me has come to be before me, because he was before me.'

And John bore witness, it says, saying, 'I have beheld the Spirit descending like a dove and coming upon him.'

Now the words 'he bore witness' and 'this is he of whom I said to you' are spoken as of a time already past, one occasion distinct from another, so as to show that this occasion was not the same as that time of the baptism, but a different one besides it.

For he did not come to John immediately after the temptation, but first into Galilee, and then from Galilee to the Jordan—this being the occasion of his coming to John; therefore he says, 'This was he of whom I said to you,' and again the Gospel says, 'And John bore witness, saying, I have beheld,' as of something that had already happened some time before.

After this, the beginning of the calling of Peter and his companions is shown to begin from Andrew.

For Andrew, one of the two who had followed him, went up to him—they being disciples of John, yet still remaining in Galilee and attending upon John from time to time.

And immediately, when Andrew had remained that day (it was about the tenth hour), it happened that on that same day he met his own brother Simon and spoke the words mentioned before, 'We have found the Messiah,' and brought him to the Lord, and so forth; and as the sequence has it, he said to him:

'And the next day,' it says, 'he wished to go out into Galilee, and he finds Philip, and Jesus says to him:'

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, from the city of Andrew and Peter.

And you see that this leads us to consider that, of the two who followed, who were disciples of John, he has named only the one, saying that it was Andrew, but of the other he has not spoken.

So that we consider the one whose name he has not mentioned to be, on account of their sharing the same region, the same tent, the same trade, and the same work, either John or James, one of the sons of Zebedee.

For these had to be called first, and then Philip, according to the order as it is arranged in the Gospels:

Peter first, then Andrew, then James, then John, and after these Philip.

But let these matters be left aside from discussion for now.

For the sequence of this whole account is a lengthy one.

Being already disciples of John, and yet practicing their own trade while also attending to their discipleship, they likewise, after spending one day with Jesus, went away again the next day and busied themselves with fishing, as the accounts of the other Gospels have it.

For after Jesus went out the next day, the narrative immediately states that on the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

And Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

Now from both sets of these detailed words and from the subject matter, one must know that he had also taken along other disciples who remained with him—perhaps Nathanael and Philip, and certain others.

For those around Andrew withdrew;

but those who had remained with him were themselves also invited to the wedding.

And after performing this first sign, he went down to the region of Capernaum and settled there.

And thereafter he begins to work other signs there: he healed the man who had a withered hand, and also Peter's mother-in-law—Peter being from Bethsaida but having married a woman from Capernaum, these places not being far apart in distance—he released her from the fever, and once healed she ministered to them.

So that this is the sequence.

And after this, when he had returned again to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he then read the book of the prophet Isaiah, himself anticipating them and saying, 'Surely you will say to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself:'

'Whatever signs we have heard were done in Capernaum, do also here in your own homeland.'

And do you see how this is the true sequence? And he did no sign there, it says, because of their unbelief.

And from there he passed on and settled again in Capernaum.

And having come to the region of the sea, as Matthew says, he saw Simon Peter and Andrew his brother casting their nets, and likewise James and John the sons of Zebedee, and he called them decisively, and having cast down their nets they followed him.

But Luke also indicates the precision of the matter, that they thereupon followed without turning back, no longer delaying their calling, saying that when he had come to the lake of Gennesaret, he saw Simon and Andrew mending their nets, and he went up into the boat which was Simon's—Peter's and Andrew's, it says—and this indicates that he was already known to them; therefore, on account of their familiarity, they also received him gladly, and he went up and sat down.

When, after the teaching, he said to Peter, 'Put out into the deep and let down your nets,' they said, 'Master'—for already, because of John's testimony, those who had previously heard concerning him, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,' and who had remained with him one day, were calling him 'Master.'

And afterward they went out for a second catch, they marveling at the great number of fish, and Peter saying, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord.'

For perhaps he also felt remorse, because, having previously been called, he had turned back to the fish and to the whole business of fishing.

But he said, 'Do not be afraid,' encouraging him, since he was not rejected but could still hold fast to his calling, because, he says, 'From now on you will be catching men alive.'

When they also signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and share in the same catch.

For they were partners, as it says, with Simon.

Just as I have already made clear to myself above from this account, of the two who followed him, having heard from John—of whom Andrew was one, as we have said—we have very properly considered that the other was again perhaps one of the sons of Zebedee, on account of their being co-workers, partners, and associates.

And thereafter, after all these things, the four of them, leaving both the boats and simply everything, as it says, having brought them to land, followed him, as the testimony of Luke has it.

So that in every respect it is shown that no crookedness nor contradiction is found in the holy Gospels, nor among the evangelists, but all things are clear.

But there are intervals of time.

For from this point onward, Peter and John and their companions having now joined him and following him, he went about teaching in all Galilee and Judea, and as his preaching thereafter grew wider, he went on performing the divine signs that followed.

So that the sequence in every respect is as follows:

First, he was baptized, according to the Egyptian calendar, on the twelfth of Hathyr—as we have said—six days before the Ides of November, that is, sixty full days before the day of the Epiphany, which is the day of his birth according to the flesh, as the testimony of the Gospel according to Luke has it, that Jesus was beginning to be about thirty years of age, being the son, as was supposed, of Joseph.

For in fact he was twenty-nine years and ten months old when he came to the baptism—thirty years old, but not a full thirty.

Therefore it says, 'beginning to be about thirty years of age'—and thereupon he was driven out into the wilderness.

From this point, then, the forty days of the temptation accordingly appear, and also the two weeks a little more, plus two days, which he spent after returning from the temptation to Galilee, that is, to Nazareth and its surrounding region; and one day when he came to John, when John said, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world'; and the next day, when John was again standing there with two of his disciples, and, looking upon Jesus walking, he says:

'Behold, the Christ, the Lamb of God.'

Then it says, the two disciples heard him and followed Jesus.

Now this was the eighteenth day after the temptation, as we have said before, but the first day after leaving John, when Andrew and his companion followed Jesus and remained with him that day (it was about the tenth hour), when Andrew, having found his own brother Simon, brought him to Jesus.

Then the Gospel says, 'On the next day he wished to go out into Galilee, and he finds Philip, and the Lord says to him:'

Now this was the nineteenth day after the temptation, as the sequence of the Gospel has it, the calling of Philip and of Nathanael.

And then, on the third day, it says, a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee, after the two aforementioned days following John.

Adding, then, the twenty days to the forty of the temptation, two months are completed, which, joined to the ten months, complete a year—that is, the fulfillment of thirty years from the birth of the Lord; and it is found that Christ performed the first sign of the changing of water into wine at the end of the thirtieth year, as you may understand if you attend carefully to the sequences of the Gospels.

Thereafter, from this first sign, he works the other signs as well and teaches his message, his wonderful and ineffable love for mankind and evangelical wonder-working being shown to all men, as I have often been compelled to declare on account of the ignorance of those deceived persons who dare to contradict the precision of the Gospels, which was set forth in due order by the Holy Spirit.

For so exact a demonstration will leave no room for those who contradict themselves.

For I do not mean against the truth, since they are not even able to do that.

For it is made clear that the beginning of the rest of the account took place from the baptism;

for thus it is shown that, after the day of the baptism, the Lord underwent the temptation of the forty days in the wilderness, concerning which the Holy Spirit did not see fit to give a sign through John;

for this had already been signified through the three evangelists.

For indeed, when gathered from them all, the truth is shown to be one, and not in conflict with itself.

For from there, immediately after the temptation, as I have said, he comes to Nazareth and remains there, no disciple yet being with him.

And from there he goes down to John, when immediately Peter is called through Andrew, then Philip, and through Philip, Nathanael.

And let no one, doubting this too, trouble himself over-scrupulously about it, seeing that Andrew first met Jesus, and then Peter was also called through him, so as to begin to be troubled about this matter as well.

For the meeting occurred with Andrew first, though he was younger than Peter in age.

But afterward again, when their complete renunciation had taken place, it came about through Peter.

For he led his own brother, and the Lord knew this, since he is God who knows the inclinations of hearts and knows who is worthy to be ranked first, and he chose Peter to be the leader of his disciples, as has been clearly demonstrated everywhere.

For afterward — when they had come and stayed with him the first day, as I said, and traveled on the second, and on the third day the first sign was performed, with certain persons present with him, not Andrew nor Peter nor John nor James, but those around Nathanael and Philip and certain others, as one can understand — thereupon, after he came to Capernaum and went up again to Nazareth and from there again to Capernaum and performed some part of the signs, he went up again to Nazareth and read the book of Isaiah the prophet, where it says, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for which cause he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor,' and so on.

And this took place some days after the day of Epiphany.

And after John had been handed over, he went down again to Capernaum and thereafter took up residence there, when the complete calling of Peter and John and their companions took place, as he came by the lake of Gennesaret.

And thus the whole sequence corresponds consistently, with nothing contradictory present, but the entire arrangement of the gospels being most luminously clear and proclaimed in truth.

What, then, seemed good to these men, who deceived their own minds and vomited forth this heresy upon the world, that they should reject the Gospel according to John? For rightly have we called their heresy irrational (ἄλογος, 'Alogi' — 'without the Word'), because they do not accept the God-Word who came from above, proclaimed through John.

For not understanding the force of the gospels, they say:

'How is it that the other evangelists have said that Jesus went off in flight from before Herod into Egypt, and after the flight came and remained in Nazareth, then, having received baptism, departed into the wilderness, and after this returned, and after returning began to preach?'

'But the Gospel that bears the name of John,' they say, 'lies.'

'For after saying that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and a few other things, it immediately says that there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee.'

And these men, who draw folly upon themselves, do not recall that John himself, after saying that the Word had become flesh and had dwelt among us — that is, had become man — also says that he came to John the Baptist at the Jordan and was baptized by him.

For John himself testifies, saying that John the Baptist declared, 'This is he of whom I told you,' and again, 'I have seen the Holy Spirit descending like a dove and remaining upon him, and this is he who takes away the sin of the world.'

You see that he narrates nothing out of forgetfulness; rather, John omitted the matters that had already been treated by Matthew.

For there was no longer need of those things, but rather of a complete statement to refute those who suppose that only from Mary onward was he called Christ and Son of God, and that he was formerly a mere man, and by advancement received the title of Son of God.

He attends to necessary matters — all of them great and necessary indeed, but the heavenly ones exceedingly more so — as he composes the narrative of the dispensation from above.

But they say that the Gospel according to John is unreliable, since it did not say these things — I mean, the matters concerning the forty days' temptation — and they refuse to accept it, being altogether deceived and blind in their understanding.

For the blessed John, coming fourth among the evangelists in succession — though first in his calling after Peter and Andrew, together with James his brother, yet last in time to compose his gospel — did not concern himself with repeating what had already been well arranged before him, but gave priority to what had not been said among the things already said, and thus proceeds in his discourse.

For Matthew begins from Abraham, but after the beginning, and after two years from the birth, he again takes up the narrative.

Mark begins from the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, not narrating the interval of the years following the beginning.

But Luke introduced a beginning before the beginning, the account concerning Elizabeth and Mary, which occurred before they became pregnant.

But John, though earlier than these in calling, yet later than them in preaching, confirms the account of what preceded the incarnate coming.

For most of what was spoken by him was spiritual, since the fleshly matters had already been confirmed.

Therefore he composes his narrative spiritually, concerning the gift that came to us from above, from the beginningless Father, and which, according to the good pleasure of the Father, was dispensed in the womb of the holy Virgin.

Nor did he pass over in silence what was necessarily sought, but, moved by the Holy Spirit, he introduces the God-Word who exists before the ages, begotten of the Father without beginning and without time, and he declared that he had come in the flesh for our sake, so that from the four evangelists we might possess accurate and complete knowledge both according to the flesh and according to the deity.

For when everything concerning the baptism and the temptation had been completed, and Jesus had then come and spent a short time, as I have often said, staying in Nazareth and its borders and around Capernaum, and after meeting John at the Jordan, and having on the following day taken along some of the disciples with him, he performed this first sign in Cana on the third day after meeting John, and the twentieth day since his return from the temptation, and he begins his preaching.

For he does not claim that Christ attended a wedding before the temptation, nor did he perform any of the divine signs at all before he began his preaching, except for whatever is said about him to have done in play when he was a child.

For it was necessary that he also have childhood signs, lest an occasion be given to the other heresies to say that Christ came upon him from the Jordan, that is, the dove.

For they say this on account of the numerical value of omega and alpha, which equals 'dove' (περιστερά), since the Savior said, 'I am the Alpha, and I am the Omega.'

For this reason also, in the twelfth year of his birth, Luke introduces Jesus as having said to Mary, who was seeking him when he was conversing with the teachers in Jerusalem:

'Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?' — so that the claim of those who say that he became Son of God only from the time of the baptism, when the dove came upon him (which they claim to be the Christ), might fall to the ground; and so that it might be clearly known that the God-Word had come down from above and, having come, was made flesh from Mary, and that in the Jordan the Spirit descended upon him, in order to signify who it is that is testified to by the Father, namely, 'This is my beloved Son, hear him'; and so that this might become an example for those who were to be illumined in him, that they would be counted worthy of the Holy Spirit in the washing of the gift, and of the remission of sins through the grace given by him.

From that time he began to perform the perfect divine signs, in the time of his preaching; for 'this,' it says, 'is the first sign that Jesus did,' in Cana of Galilee — not before the baptism, as I have often said, but when he returned from the temptation, on the third day after the two days during which the two disciples of John, who had heard and followed him, stayed with him.

For immediately after the two days that they spent with him, it continues, saying, 'And he went out into Galilee, and finding Philip, he said...'

Then immediately, 'On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee.'

For it was necessary that he, having gone away, be immediately invited, when a wedding was being celebrated in their honor, for the blessing of the marriage.

And it says, 'On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and Jesus also, and his disciples who were with him, were invited to the wedding.'

'And when the wine ran out,' it says, 'the mother of Jesus says...'

'Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come.'

After he came from the wilderness, in the sequence of the temptation, and was taken to Jerusalem and set upon the pinnacle of the temple, and was carried up from Jerusalem to a very high mountain — which many say is Mount Tabor, which is interpreted 'Itabyrion' —

and this is in Galilee.

For this is the sequence Matthew laid down, who says, 'Now when Jesus heard that John had been handed over, he went into Galilee.'

But Luke, precisely indicating also the departure from the mountain, first speaks about the mountain and the kingdoms which the devil showed to the Lord, and afterward speaks about the pinnacle and Jerusalem, and how he returned to Galilee and Nazareth.

And Matthew says in harmony, 'Leaving Nazareth, he came to Capernaum.'

For he came to Nazareth, and from there to the Jordan to John, and after passing through the Jordan he again set out toward his own home, where he had been brought up, to his mother in Nazareth; and having remained there two days, during which time Andrew and his companions also stayed with him, he was thereafter eager, for the sake of the salvation of mankind, to begin his preaching.

And he stayed two days because he had come back after a length of time, having with him the disciples he had already received; and having dismissed the two who had followed him, he immediately went out into Galilee, for the sake of the preaching and for the work of the divine sign performed at the wedding.

For see how the narrative confirms us, as John the Baptist testifies, saying — after the event had already passed — 'And I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize said to me:'

'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove, this is he.'

For when the Father sent John to baptize, he granted him this sign, so that when he saw it, he might recognize the Savior sent from above to the world, the benefactor of our souls.