Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 61/82

and again, since the event took place on the eighth day about the third or fourth hour, this day was called 'the eighth.'

But the other evangelist speaks with precision and says 'after six days.'

For he did not count the day on which he spoke the word to the disciples, nor the day on which the deed was accomplished, but the six full days in between.

Having come to this point in the discourse, I shall now explain the expression: how, taking Peter, John, and James, he led them up into the mountain, and was transfigured, and his face shone like the sun — the face in the flesh being joined with the Godhead — and his garments became white as snow, that is, the flesh which was from Mary and belongs to our own race;

and it was being transfigured into glory, acquiring the glory of the Godhead — the honor, the perfection, and the heavenly glory which the flesh did not possess from the beginning, but had here received in its union with God the Word.

Understand the aforesaid statements in the same way: that he 'gave all judgment to the Son,' that he 'gave him authority that he might give life to whom he wills' — so that, on the one hand, he might show the first principle, the union of the one Godhead and the one will, referring all goodness to the Father and to the one first principle and Godhead, there being three perfect hypostases but one Godhead — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and, on the other hand, that the fleshly coming, in turn, together with the Godhead, received the gift, authority, and perfection of dignity graciously bestowed on it by the Father and the Son, being united into one spiritual union of the Godhead.

And with very great difficulty have we escaped this treacherous stretch of sea and all this hurling of beasts — the wild swelling of the waves, the fearsome foaming and surging — having burned up, by right reasoning in our mind, the missiles and shields of our adversaries, and having broken in pieces the bows of those arrayed against us, directed against this creeping, many-headed, misshapen form of the hydra; we the incapable ones, having received strength and grace from God, so that, being made strong in God, we might sing the victory-song which says:

'Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously glorified;'

'the horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea'; and having crushed the head of the dragon above the water that flows quietly — a water in which the young, who have obtained an inheritance along with the Jews, did not wish to share; against whom the prophet, addressing them, said: because you did not wish to have the water of Siloam that flows quietly, but wished rather to have Rezin the king and Tabeel son of Remaliah, 'behold, the Lord brings up against you the strong water of the river, the king of the Assyrians,' and so on.

But we, having received help in the Lord, and the spittle from true flesh cast upon the earth, and the mixture of clay made with the spittle applied to our eyes, so that we who were once in ignorance might now know the truth — going away and washing in Siloam, which being interpreted means 'Sent,' that is, in the incarnate coming and in the perfection of the Godhead — and having thereafter seen, we no longer deny the Lord, even if the successors of the Jews and of the faction of Arius should cast us out of the synagogue;

For these also, just like those Jews, have decreed that everyone who confesses the Lord should be put out of their synagogue, so that they might show the one who has recovered his sight to be a rebuke to those who cannot see.

For if their synagogue were not wholly blind, they would not have put out of the synagogue him whose eyes had been opened.

let us do his commandments; and we have trampled the serpent underfoot and crushed the head of the dragon by the power of God;

to whom be glory, honor, and dominion — to the Father in the Son, to the Son in the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Having now left behind this slain hydra, the seven-headed and many-forked one, let us, beloved, proceed as usual to what follows, calling upon God, our ever-present helper, to grant the same care to us and to those who wish to peruse this work, unto the healing of those who have been bitten and the correction of those not yet examined and found among the evils.

Concerning the Schism of the Audians — the fiftieth in this treatise, but the seventieth in order.

The Audians, or Odians as they are also called, are a sect.

These, having withdrawn from the world, have taken up their dwelling in monasteries, a sect found both in deserted places and nearer to cities, in the suburbs, and wherever they have their own monasteries or sheepfolds.

This Audius became the founder of these people in the days of Arius, at the time when the synod of those who condemned him was convened against Arius.

This man came from Mesopotamia, a man of note in his own homeland for the purity of his life and for his zeal and faith toward God;

who, often observing what was happening in the churches, would rebuke bishops and presbyters to their faces, opposing them and saying:

'These things ought not to happen thus, these things ought not to be done thus' — speaking as a man of truth, as is wont to happen among men who speak freely out of love for truth, especially among those who live their lives in the utmost strictness.

Therefore, seeing such things, as I have said, he was compelled to speak out in the churches for reproof, and he did not keep silent.

For if he saw anyone among the clergy who loved money — whether a bishop, a presbyter, or anyone else on the roll — he would certainly speak out.

And if he saw anyone living in luxury and extravagance, or someone corrupting what belongs to the church's proclamation and ordinance, the man, unable to bear it, put forth his word, as I have said.

And this was burdensome to those whose lives had not been found approved.

On account of this he was insulted and contradicted, he was hated; he endured being tossed about, thrust aside, and dishonored, still assembling in the churches for a considerable time, until some, bearing it grievously, thrust the man out on account of this very cause.

But he would not put up with it; rather he constrained himself to speak the truth, while not withdrawing from the bond of the one union of the holy catholic Church.

But when he himself and those with him were beaten and often suffered terrible things, groaning heavily, he took as his counselor the necessity imposed by the outrages he suffered.

For he separated himself from the church, and many along with him broke away, and thus he brought about the division — not having anything divergent in the faith, but he himself and those with him believing most rightly;

although it must be said, above all, that in some small matter he and those with him behaved contentiously.

For along with confessing concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit admirably, just as the catholic Church holds, and preserving most orthodox doctrine, he also had all the other things of his life admirable;

for he himself, working with his own hands, and the bishops and presbyters under him, and all the rest, are sustained by their own labor;

Afterward, after he had been thrust out of the church, he was ordained bishop by another bishop who held the same views and had likewise withdrawn from the church.

But concerning that of which I began to speak, since I have made a digression, I shall take it up again and continue my exposition — I mean concerning that harshest, most crude, and most contentious interpretation of a saying from the divine Scripture, chanted among his followers.

For 'according to the image,' which God bestowed on Adam, this man and those with him wish, in a crude manner, to define as being fulfilled with respect to the body, basing this on the supposedly stated text, 'let us make man according to our image and likeness.'

the divine word saying that God also made man, taking dust from the earth.

'Since,' he says, 'it says that he made man from the earth, observe that it most truly called the whole earthy creature man.'

'Therefore it is that very earthy substance which it foretold would be according to the image of God.'

And this, as I have said, is a harsh and crude thing — to define, in human fashion, in which part of man 'according to the image' is located, if indeed one ought to speak of a 'part' at all — because of the many things that run counter to human understanding regarding this expression, and that involve a multitude of questions.

For either we shall make God visible and corporeal, if indeed 'according to the image' is fulfilled in the body in a bodily and non-figurative manner, or, by asserting this, we equate man with God.

Therefore one ought by no means to define or insist in which part 'according to the image' is fulfilled, but rather confess that 'according to the image' is present in man, so that we may not set aside the grace of God nor disbelieve God.

For whatever things God says are true, even if in a few words it has escaped our understanding.

To deny, then, this 'according to the image' is not the mark of a believer, nor is it consonant with the holy church of God.

For every man is clearly according to the image, and none of those who have their hope in God will deny this — unless indeed some fashion myths for themselves, casting themselves out of the church and out of the tradition of the fathers drawn from the prophets, the law, the apostles, and the evangelists.

So then, those who take a more contentious stance in this matter also themselves step outside the tradition belonging to the ecclesiastical position — the tradition which believes that every man is according to the image, but does not attempt to define in what respect the 'according to the image' is established, since neither those who discourse mythically about these things, nor those who deny it, are able to demonstrate their case.

For some say that the 'according to the image' is fulfilled in the soul, supposing that only what pertains to the flesh is capable of reasoning; and such people do not know that what pertains to the soul also reasons — if indeed one ought to attend to syllogisms at all, rather than simply, with a single-minded understanding, drawing near to God and believing that the things spoken by God are truth, known only to him who alone knows all truth.

But others say it is neither in the soul nor in the body, but that virtue is the 'according to the image.'

Still others assert that it is not virtue, but baptism and the grace-gift given in baptism — presumably from the saying, 'as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear the image of the heavenly one.'

Others again do not accept this, but wish to say that the 'according to the image' existed in Adam only until the time he fell into disobedience, ate from the tree, and was driven out.

But from the time he was driven out, he lost the 'according to the image.'

There is indeed much myth-making among men, to which one ought not yield even for an hour — neither to these nor to those who argue this way or that — but one ought to believe that the 'according to the image' exists in man, and above all in the whole of him, not simply in some one part.

But where it is, or where the 'according to the image' has been fulfilled, is known to God alone, who by grace bestowed the 'according to the image' upon man.

For man has not lost the 'according to the image'; rather, if anything, he has debased the 'according to the image' by defiling himself in trivial matters and in incurable sins.

For behold, after Adam, he says to Noah: 'Behold, I have given you all things, as the green plants of the field; sacrifice and eat, but do not eat flesh with the blood of its life, for I will require your souls.'

'Whoever sheds the blood of man upon the earth, his own blood shall be shed in return for his blood, because I made man in the image of God; and I will require your blood from the hand of everyone who sheds it upon the face of the earth.'

'All things are vanity, every man that lives.'

The apostle says: 'A man ought not to have long hair, since he is the image and glory of God.' But after him, James too, speaking of the tongue, says that it is 'a restless evil, full of deadly poison.'

'With it we bless the God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made according to the image of God.'

'These things ought not to be so, my brothers.'

And observe that the argument of those who say that Adam lost the 'according to the image' has failed.

Now as for those who say, in turn, that the soul is the 'according to the image,' their argument and defense runs as follows:

'It is invisible,' they say, 'just as God is invisible; it is active, it is capable of motion, it is capable of thought, it is capable of reasoning — and for this reason it is the "according to the image," since it imitates God upon earth, moving and acting and doing all the other things that a man performs by his rational faculty.'

But these people, too, are found merely reasoning by syllogism.

For indeed, if the soul is called 'according to the image' on account of these things, then it can no longer truly be 'according to the image.'

For God is ten thousand times, and even more, beyond the soul; he is incomprehensible and inconceivable, knowing all things — things that pre-existed and things present, things seen and things unseen, the ends of the earth and the depths of the abyss, the extremities of the heavens and all things that exist — himself containing all things, yet contained by none.

But the soul is contained within the body; it does not know the depths of the abyss, it does not know the breadth of the earth, it does not know the boundaries of the inhabited world, it has not grasped the extremities of the heavens, nor how many things are yet to be, or when they will occur, nor how many things happened before it existed.

And there is much that could be said about it, and about such matters.

At the same time, it also has divisions and parts, whereas God is undivided.

For the apostle says: 'For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.'

'And there is no creature hidden from his sight,' and so forth.

And you see that the argument of these, too, has collapsed.

And again, the argument of those who say that the body is the 'according to the image' likewise collapses.

For how can the visible be similar to the invisible? How can the corporeal be like the incorporeal? How can that which can be touched be like that which cannot be grasped? For we see, with the eyes we have, what is before us, but we do not know what is behind us; whereas in God there is no passion, no deficiency — far be it! — but he is light on every side, eye on every side, glory on every side, God being spirit, and spirit beyond spirit, and light beyond all light.

For all things that came into being through him fall short of his glory.

Only the Trinity exists in incomprehensibility, in glory beyond all comparison and beyond comprehension.

As for those who say, in turn, that virtue is the 'according to the image' — virtue cannot exist apart from the keeping of the commandments, and many differ greatly from one another in virtue.

For there are many kinds of virtue.

For we ourselves know of some who were among the confessors, who gave up their own body and soul on behalf of their Master in their confession, who continued in purity and acquired a most true faith, who excelled in piety, in love of mankind and reverence, who spent their lives in fasting and in every kind of goodness and in the proofs of virtue.

Yet it happens that they have some deficiency — either being abusive in speech, or swearing by the name of God, or being given to myth-telling, or irascible, or possessing a livelihood of gold and silver and other things — all of which render the measure of virtue incomplete.

What then shall we say? That they acquired the 'according to the image' on account of virtue, but that because of a few human failings the image immediately ceases, and the image in them is no longer perfect? Here too the argument of these people has collapsed.

As for those who say, in turn, that baptism is the 'according to the image,' their argument falls apart all the more.

For neither did Abraham have baptism, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor Elijah, nor Moses, nor those before them — Noah and Enoch — nor those among the prophets, Isaiah and those who followed.

This refutation applies to them, just as it does against the followers of Audius, who contentiously insist on defining the 'according to the image' as residing in the body.

The same Audians also adduce certain other testimonies from the divine Scripture, saying that 'the eyes of the Lord look upon the poor, and his ears are open to their petition'; and 'the hand of the Lord has made all these things'; and 'has not my hand made all these things, you stiff-necked people?'; and 'heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet' — and whatever other such things are written concerning God.

and that 'I saw the Lord Sabaoth sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,' and 'his head was like white wool, and his garment like snow.'

'And do you see,' he says, 'how the body is according to the image of God?' And even in this matter there are those who object and who strain beyond human capacity, citing also the statement that 'the Lord appeared to the prophets.'

And indeed he did appear as he willed, being powerful in all things; and we do not deny that the prophets saw God — not only the prophets, but the apostles as well.

For the holy Stephen the protomartyr says: 'Behold, I see the heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God the Father.'

But by his own power, God who is all-good, in his love for the creature he himself formed, so acts that none of the unbelievers might suppose that what is said concerning God is merely word and not truth, and that the matters pertaining to God remain at the level of mere word without being fulfilled, and that what was spoken by the apostle might not be realized — that 'one who draws near to God must believe that he exists, and that he becomes a rewarder of those who love him.' In order, then, to encourage the man he himself formed, God reveals himself to his holy and worthy ones, so that they may see God in his very nature, be established in mind, hope in truth, proclaim him truly, and confirm the believing man — just as, no doubt, the children of the Greeks possess concerning God nothing more than word and imagination, whereas we truly know God: him who is true, and who truly exists in hypostasis as King, incomprehensible, maker of all things, one God; and from him the only-begotten God, differing in nothing from the Father; and his Holy Spirit, differing in nothing from the Father and the Son — just as, indeed, in every section against every heresy, we have spoken at length concerning the true faith regarding God.

And that God appeared to men, we have said many times, and we do not deny it.

For if we were to deny the divine Scriptures, we would not be truthful, and we would find ourselves fallen away from the truth.

Or, by casting out the Old Testament, we would no longer belong to the catholic Church.

But the Gospel says: 'No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten God has himself made him known.' And again, that same divine Scripture says that 'God appeared to Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia.' And the Lord himself says in the Gospel that 'their angels see the face of my Father who is in heaven.'

But someone will surely say that the divine Scripture, in stating that the prophets saw God, means in the mind — reasoning from the saying, 'and their angels see the face of my Father who is in heaven,' and again from, 'blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'

Having grasped this notion, and having juxtaposed the wording according to his own understanding, such a one might say that each person sees God in the mind, not with the eyes.

But the divine word opposes this, declaring through the prophet Isaiah: 'Woe is me, for I am pierced with compunction, for I am a man of unclean lips, dwelling among a people of unclean lips, and I have seen the Lord Sabaoth with my own eyes.'

And he did not say 'in the mind,' nor 'in the understanding,' but 'with the eyes' — confirming the true and firm realities of the faith.

What then shall we say, since the Gospel states that no one has ever seen God, while the prophets and apostles, and the Lord himself, affirm the contrary? Is there, then, some contradiction within the divine Scripture, against itself? Far be it!

Rather, the prophets and apostles did see him, and this is true.

But they saw him to the extent that they were able, and to the extent that it was possible, and God appeared to them as he willed.

And that God is invisible and incomprehensible — this is clear and has been acknowledged.

But again, he is able to do whatever he wills.

For no one sets himself against his will.

He is, then, invisible in nature, and incomprehensible in glory.

But when he wills to be seen by the man made by him, nothing stands opposed to his will.

For the divine is not bound by passion, such that it would fail to do what it wills, or would do what it does not will.

For he is able to do what he wills.

Rather, he does what is fitting to his own deity, since nothing whatsoever opposes his will, so that he is never unable to do, in a manner befitting his deity, what he wills.

And it is impossible, especially for human nature, to see God; the visible cannot see the invisible. But the invisible God, in his love for mankind and by his power, having strengthened what was impossible, made man worthy by his own power to see the invisible.

And the one who saw did see the invisible and infinite one — not as the infinite one truly is, but to the extent that his nature, having been empowered, was able to receive him — nature which of itself was incapable, now enabled toward the extension of what was made possible.

And there will be found no discrepancy in the divine Scripture, nor will any word be found set in contradiction to another.

The matter is, as I have often explained by way of illustration, like this: as if someone were to view the sky through a very small hole, and were to say:

'I see the heaven,' and such a one would not be lying.

But if someone should say to him sensibly, 'You have not seen the heaven,' that one too would not be lying.

For the one who says he has seen it does not lie, and the one who says to him that he has not seen it also speaks the truth.

For he saw neither its extension nor its breadth.

And the one who saw it spoke truly, and the one who objected that he had not seen it did not lie, but he too spoke truly.

For often, standing on the summit of a mountain, we behold the sea as well, and if we say we have seen the sea, we have not lied.

But if someone should object, saying, 'You have not seen it,' he too does not lie.

For to where its breadth extends, where its length, where its depth, where the recesses of the deep and its productions are — no one, being a man, can know.

If, then, such matters concerning created things are thus fulfilled among us, how much more in the grace which God granted to the prophets and apostles? They beheld God in reality indeed, and yet they did not behold him, but they beheld him as much as nature was able to bear; and this too according to the grace of a power with which he who is powerful in all things empowered them, on account of his love for man himself, for those who serve him in truth.

If, then, such people should suppose that God has hands in this way, or eyes, or the other members, because he appeared thus to the prophets and apostles, they are carried along contentiously, being refuted by the truth.

But as for whatever things Scripture says, one must believe that they are so; but how they are is known to him alone.

And that he appeared — indeed, yes, he appeared — but he appeared as he willed, and truly he appeared just as he appeared.

For God can do all things, and nothing is impossible for him.

But he is incomprehensible, being an inconceivable spirit, containing all things while himself being contained by none.

And such as the Father is, such also is the Son, and so too the Spirit, within the Godhead.

But the Only-begotten alone, having come, put on flesh, in which he also rose, and which he united with the Godhead, having united it into spirit; and he sat in glory at the right hand of the Father, according to what is written.

As, then, he is incomprehensible and inconceivable, so all the things said about him are truly and really true.

But as God is incomprehensible, so everything said about him is indeed true, but incomprehensible — such things as befit God, even as he exists in incomprehensible glory.

And these things we have spoken, as far as we were able, with a human mouth, for the glorification of God.

For we have no use of any other utterance beyond that given to us by God in measure, even though in mind we conceive more abundantly concerning God.

since that mind is confined by our bodily organs.

Therefore God is also forbearing, accepting from us the knowledge of him and the glorification which is stretched beyond our power — not because we wish to grant God some favor, but so as to glorify the Divine according to our power, in order that we may think piously and not fall away from his grace and truth.

These things, then, we have set forth in discussing this same Audius and the Audians, as being what is said by them — matters which they themselves relate in their unlearned manner, and to which, clinging out of contentiousness, they improperly hold fast.

But they also have certain other matters, on account of which especially they persist, having thereby made their division from the Church all the greater, by which also, often frightening others, they drag them away from the Church, having dragged along both men and women.

For they wish to celebrate Pascha together with the Jews, that is, at whatever time the Jews keep their Unleavened Bread, then they too contentiously insist on keeping Pascha.

And it is supposedly true that the Church was thus conducting itself, since indeed they even produce, for the churchmen on this point, a slanderously fabricated saying, alleging:

'Since Constantine,' he says, 'because of partiality toward the emperor, you have abandoned the fathers' observance concerning the feast of Pascha, and you have changed the day to suit the emperor's convenience.'

But some again, according to their own contentiousness, assert: 'It was when Constantine's birthday came,' he says, 'that you then altered Pascha.'

Now if indeed Pascha were kept on the same day every year, and it had been fixed at the council convened by Constantine to do this on that same day, what they say would be plausible.

But since the observance cannot follow the same computation in every single year, their argument collapses.

For it was not on account of his birthday that the emperor took this care, but on account of the unity of the Church.

For indeed God accomplished for us two very great things through the aforementioned Constantine, most beloved of God and ever-blessed: the convening of an ecumenical council, and the setting forth of the faith declared at Nicaea and confessed with the signature of the assembled bishops, whereby Arius was deposed, the purity of the faith was proclaimed to all, and the matter of Pascha was corrected by them for the sake of our unity.

For long ago, indeed from earlier times, this matter had caused division in the Church, being observed differently, giving rise to mockery every year — some keeping it a week before and contending with one another, others a week after, some anticipating it, others in the middle, and others still celebrating it afterward.

And it was simply much confusion and toil, as is not unknown to many learned men, in how many periods a disturbance was stirred up in the Church's proclamation over the question of this feast — in the times of Polycarp and Victor, when the East, being at variance with the West, would not accept greetings of peace from one another; and in other periods as well, in the times of Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, and Crescentius, when each of them is found writing to the other and contending — down to our own times.

From the time when the Church was thrown into confusion after the period of the circumcised bishops, it continued to be conducted in this manner.

Therefore the bishops from everywhere, having then assembled and examined the matter precisely, decreed that it should be done in concord, according to what is fitting for the computation and the observance.

For this purpose the same Audians adduce the Constitution of the Apostles, which is indeed disputed among many, but is not disreputable.

For every canonical order is contained in it, and nothing corrupted is found there, whether concerning the faith, the confession, or the Church's administration, canon, and creed.

But the saying from which, taking a pretext, the aforementioned wrongly misinterpret the matter of Pascha, and in ignorance construe it otherwise, is this:

'Apostles: that you should not reckon it yourselves, but do it whenever your brethren of the circumcision do it, and do it together with them at the same time.'