Book of Heresies 1 part 4/9

and especially having been constituted in flesh, in which his humility shone forth to the world, and his unspeakable goodness and his condescension to human frailty blazed out, in such abundant clemency and generosity that it might be made manifest to the human race — he deigned thus to work and to speak for our salvation, so that we might in some part be able to know, to grasp, and to understand something concerning God. There is another heresy which is in doubt about the diversity of the heavens. For Scripture declares that on the first day the heaven and the earth were made — these two elements — and that on the second day the firmament of the water was made, and it nonetheless testifies that this firmament too was called heaven. And David speaks thus concerning the heavens: 「Praise the Lord, the God of the heaven of heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens.」

Whether, therefore, one chooses to understand six heavens, according to David, and this firmament as the seventh, he does not err; for Solomon speaks of three heavens thus: 「The heaven and the heaven of heaven.」 Paul likewise, the blessed apostle, confesses that he was caught up to the third heaven. Whether, therefore, one understands seven, like blessed David, or three, or two, he does not err, because the Lord also says: 「The Father who is in the heavens.」 For even the most foolish pagans sometimes profess one heaven and one pole. Blessed David, then, taught what is complete; but Solomon taught what is in part, and likewise blessed Paul. The book of Genesis, however, has announced to us two heavens. There is another heresy which is in doubt concerning the earth, saying:

that this is the only earth and that no other exists, being ignorant that there is another, which is as it were the womb of all things and contains the universe, and which is found in the Scriptures as 「teha,」 that is, matter — invisible and unformed — which was made by God on the first day. But this earth, in which we dwell, is shown to be founded upon the water, as David said: 「Who founded the earth upon the water.」

For the womb of all things, that immense 「teha,」 is that prior one which was made on the first day, which contains the water and this earth that is inhabited by us — the earth which abundantly provides crops and fruits for the human race and for the birds, reptiles, cattle, and all the rest, having been commanded by Christ the Lord and Savior, as it is written in the book of Genesis, that is, of creation. There is another heresy which is in doubt concerning the water, asserting that it was not made by God, but that it exists always of itself, being ignorant that, if the greater element was made — that is, the earth — how much more was the lesser also made — that is, the water, which is contained by the earth — as the prophet Jonah says: 「I am a servant of God, who made the sea and the land.」

And David says the same, that the water was made by the Lord, and likewise the three young men. There is therefore one earth which contains the universe, and another earth which is founded upon the water — namely this one that is inhabited by us, concerning which the prophet says: 「Who founded the earth upon the water.」 *** Not that first one, to be sure. This earth, then, must be renewed and purged — the earth which we often know to be moved by earthquake — concerning which the Lord says: 「I make a new heaven and a new earth.」 And again the Lord says in the Gospel that heaven and earth shall pass away. This earth, therefore, is known to have its substance as it were from the roots of that prior one, the earth which was commanded to subsist above the water, which abundantly provides nourishment for the human race.

There is another heresy which says that the body of man was made before the soul, and that the image of God is the body, not the soul of man, and that the Lord spoke according to predestination — so they suppose — when Scripture says: 「And God made man. He made him to his own image; male and female he made them」; being ignorant of what the prophet said. For when he says 「Let us make,」 he promises that he will make; but when he says 「God made,」 he now shows the work as already done, and he declared that it was not flesh that was made, but the soul, which is rational. For there is no doubt that flesh without a soul cannot speak; therefore the flesh is the instrument of the soul, which is a rational thing.

When Scripture first says 「male and female,」 it does not here declare the sex of bodies, but the sign of the ruling and the subject soul. And it is not doubtful that bodies were not first made lying inert, as certain imprudent persons suppose, since the flesh of Adam and of the woman was made afterward; for on the seventh day Scripture says concerning Adam thus: 「And the Lord took earth from the clay, and formed the man whom he had made.」 You see, therefore, how he first shows the man — that is, the soul — to have been created rational and immortal by the Lord, which soul indeed has been called the image of God.

But the earth taken from the clay, joined to the soul — that is, the outer man, the fragile body — Scripture has made manifest as formed on the following day; and so, a deep sleep having been sent upon Adam, and afterward the Lord having taken from his rib, Scripture testifies and proclaims that he made the woman. And that the soul was first made — that is, on the sixth day — but on the seventh day the body of Adam was formed from the earth, and so from the body of the man — that is, from his side — the woman was made: this Scripture has shown beyond doubt; and that the soul was made first, but the flesh formed afterward, and so afterward, by the breathing-in of God's Spirit, a spiritual grace was at last bestowed, so that man, thus already capable of the divine law, might be shown by the Lord to be not powerless — the manifest reasoning of truth is this:

which blessed David also said, that the soul was made first, and so the body formed: 「Your hands,」 he says, 「made and formed me.」 And thus he declared that the spirit was afterward infused, saying: 「And take not your Holy Spirit from me.」 There is another heresy which says that the inbreathing is the soul, not that the inbreathing was given into the soul, being ignorant that, if the inbreathing is the soul, how can it properly be distinguished as that which is infused from God? Since they do not attend to the fact that the inbreathing of the divine Spirit is a certain grace and an advancement of dignity, so that man might be able to exist as one capable of the heavenly law. And that the inbreathing was given to Adam our father, who already had a soul — that it was not a soul breathed into him — the Lord shows in the Gospel.

For just as he had formerly breathed into Adam, so afterward, upon the apostles who already had a soul, after the resurrection he breathed in the greater grace of the divine Spirit, saying: 「Receive the Holy Spirit,」 and the rest. And he did not say 「Receive a soul,」 but 「the Holy Spirit.」 He, therefore, who breathed into the man already made and possessing a soul — Adam — he it is who afterward also breathed into the blessed apostles who possessed a soul, that it might be known that through him all things were made, and without him nothing was made. It is therefore against all reason that anyone should wish to think the inbreathing to be the soul, since the soul is known to have been made, the soul which, placed under the condition of the law, is found liable to judgment — concerning which he says: 「Fear not those who kill the body.」

「but they cannot kill the soul; rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.」 The inbreathing, therefore, is not the soul, but a grace of dignity, coming from the divine Spirit, from God through Christ, to all; those who have it and keep it receive an addition of graces — as do the apostles and prophets and all the just. But the unjust, being negligent and contemptuous, lose so great a merit of dignity — as did that Saul, of whom it was said: 「The Spirit of the Lord departed from him, and an unclean spirit troubled him.」 And that the spirit of wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, Scripture testifies.

There is another heresy which says that man's soul, not having been made by God, is so called 「soul,」 but that formerly, it says, it was called 「intellect,」 and was in heaven; and afterward, because it desired earthly things, it departed from heaven, and from that they suppose it was named 「soul」 — being ignorant that the soul was made by God in the beginning and created after the angels, and was called 「soul」 by the Lord, and received this name of property from God, so that it might be called 「soul,」 not 「intellect,」 as Scripture says: 「His soul shall dwell amid good things.」 And again: 「That you do not abandon my soul in hell.」 And again: 「Return, O my soul, into your rest.」 And again: 「My soul is exceedingly troubled.」 And again: 「So longs my soul for you, O God.」 And again:

「Blessed be the Lord, who made my soul.」 Therefore those empty opinions of the philosophers will stand there as nothing; divine Scripture does not proclaim it so.

There is another heresy which supposes that cattle, serpents, and birds are rational, like men, as the Manichaeans and the lost Gnostics and certain of the most foolish poets and Stoic philosophers imagine — being ignorant that rational man has an understanding of the mind concerning God, that is, the ability to know and believe concerning God, but has a sense of the body in common with the cattle and the rest of similar creatures, which can indeed have a sense of the body, but can in no way have an understanding of the mind concerning God, nor an immortal and rational soul, as man does, who was called the image of God — as Scripture says: 「Do not become like the horse and the mule, in which there is no understanding.」 And:

「Man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he is compared to the senseless beasts, and is made like to them.」 The sense, therefore, of cattle, birds, and serpents is common to us in respect of the body, but understanding belongs only to men — that is, the power of the immortal soul, infused into it from the Holy Spirit — which has been called the image of God, which commands all these, rules and possesses all things abundantly, as it is written: 「I have given you all things under your power.」

There is another heresy which says that evil kings and false prophets do not come and arise of their own will, but are sent in by God's command — being ignorant that the Scriptures do not announce that false prophets or evil kings are made by God, but they declare that, against God's will, by their own will and at the enemy's suggestion, such men come forth; as Jannes and Jambres came of their own will against blessed Moses and Aaron, the priests of God, under Pharaoh, since Scripture says: 「They reigned, but not by me, nor by my Spirit,」 says the Lord. And concerning the false prophets thus: 「Thus says the Lord to the false prophets: I did not send them, yet they went forth in my name to prophesy.」

On account of which the Lord also often decrees against them, by his announcement, the fitting sentence of death even in this world. False prophets, therefore, are not sent by God, nor the impious kings who fall away from the Lord; but although evil men are sometimes stirred up against evil men, the Lord permitting it, this comes about so that the evil may be consumed by the evil. For the good, enduring persecution and possessing righteousness with the Lord, await the great recompense of a future reward. But the evil are sometimes destroyed by the evil, not only by the good, so that their iniquity may be punished in part even in this world. There is another heresy which holds that an earthquake does not happen by God's command and indignation, but from the very nature of the elements, while it is ignorant of what Scripture says:

「Who looks upon the earth,」 it says, 「and makes it tremble with an earthquake.」 And again still further: 「I will move heaven and earth.」 Not attending to God's power, they dare to ascribe the power of motion to the nature of the elements — like certain vain-talking philosophers who, ascribing this to the nature of things, did not acknowledge God's power, by which even in matters of this kind the indignation and power of God operates and moves his own creature, for the sake of conversion and indeed for the benefit of the many who sin and who return to the Lord, the Savior and Creator.

There is another heresy which, after the vanity of the pagans, professes diverse names of the stars, like that Hermes Trismegistus — who is to be judged vain rather than great — and certain poets like him, who, raving, assert the names of comets and 「pogoniae」 (bearded stars) and Hyades, Kids, and other such things; whereas Scripture has spoken out only a few names of the stars to us, by the saying of blessed Job the prophet, before the pagans had transferred the names of the stars out of the holy Scriptures. For Job himself says: 「Who made the Pleiades and Arcturus,」 he says, 「and Hesperus and the treasure-house of the south, and Orion and the Morning Star.」 These names, then, we receive announced together out of the holy Scriptures:

Scripture did not name all the stars, but reserved this to the power of God, declaring it through the prophet and saying thus: 「Who numbers the multitude of the stars, and calls names to them all.」 These few names, then, the poets and the false philosophers, reading them out of the holy Scriptures, afterward dared, usurping them, to couple with their own lies many other things besides, and to proclaim to the world the seeds of impiety, so that from these they presumed to hope that they could also comprehend the names of all the stars, or of very many; whereas no one but God — Christ, through whom the Father made the universe — has appointed and known the names of all the stars, and has called each of them by name, as it is written.

There is another heresy which is in doubt concerning language and languages, although Scripture speaks both of one language and of languages. If, therefore, there was formerly one, because they were few, and afterward many, because many had grown — men already born into the world — it is not at all useless to think it thus. For from Adam down to holy Heber, after the fifteenth generation, there are two thousand seven hundred years, under whom the confusion of languages was sent, on account of the sin which they committed in building the tower and the city, and because, rebelling against God, they suffered this. For having angelic grace — that is, the knowledge of many languages — they did not acknowledge the Lord, the giver of so great a wisdom, and attempting to advance against him!

they lost the grace which they had received from God without any labor, and which had before been given without study by the Lord and naturally to all, as to the image of God. But afterward, through study and instruction, forgetfulness having been sent upon them by the Lord, scarcely could they prevail to learn — not all, nor many, but scarcely a few languages — so that one might be able to learn three or four, and even those to speak with difficulty. Yet all the knowledge of languages, which two thousand seven hundred years before men had lost through offending, the Lord under the blessed apostles, after his ascension, again conferred upon believers through the Holy Spirit without any labor, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles.

For it belongs to angelic power to know the languages of all men; but through faith in Christ, the knowledge of all languages is supplied to believers without labor — as we read — the divine Spirit teaching the apostles, and likewise the Gentiles believing at that time in Christ the Lord and Savior, that they preached the knowledge of all languages, given without labor; as was done under Peter and Paul and others, when they taught the Gentiles that the Spirit of God had come from God, and that they were able to speak in many languages, so that the people who heard marveled at the Gentiles, because they too, through faith in Christ, had received without instruction the knowledge of so many languages.

There is another heresy which says that the name of 「language」 first proceeded from the Jews, while others say from the pagans, whereas both, thinking thus, have been deceived by no small error. For man was made a partaker of reason: *** he, therefore, who spoke with reason — how was he a stranger to reason? It is, then, prior and more important to be a partaker of reason, and to be called rational, than to have the special and local name of some language and to possess something from the name of a man. For from Adam down to Heber two thousand seven hundred years had passed. There was therefore one name of language for all men, and one language. But from the time when they devised against God, that heavenly knowledge was withdrawn from them — that is, the prudence and wisdom of all languages.

And holy Heber indeed, because he did not depart from God according to his own name, God willed his offspring to sprout forth more abundantly, and to be named first in the world by this name, so that from Heber — who had not consented to the building of the tower of the rebels — they should be called by the name 「Hebrews.」 Prior, therefore, not only to the pagans but also to the Jews — that is, seven hundred years earlier — Heber is known to have been most righteous, who, believing in God and separated from the conspiracy of wicked men, merited to obtain from the Lord this first naming of his own name. Whence the vain poets too, transferring that building to their own lies, taught of giants — that those rebels, the Aloïdae, wished to ascend into heaven by the piling-up of mountains, up to the point

from there they were condemned. Their ravings have not escaped Christian knowledge and skill any longer. There is another heresy which is in doubt concerning the announced year, of which the prophet Isaiah says: 「To announce the acceptable year of God, and the day of recompense.」 Some, therefore, think that from the time the Lord came until the consummation of the age, the number of years will be made neither more nor less than three hundred and sixty-five, up to Christ the Lord's again divine presence from heaven. Which is found to be contrary, if anyone has thought so. For we know that four hundred years and more have now passed and been completed since the Lord came. How, therefore, will this reasoning about the year hold, as very many have wished to think it?

For the things which the Lord did and taught in one year — these alone he commanded to be written down, not the things which were done and said by him before, in the first thirty years, according to blessed John, who says that the world could not contain them, if all the things he had done were written. The prophet Isaiah, therefore, spoke of that year of the Lord the Savior, in which he taught up to his passion and resurrection and ascension into heaven, just as the most blessed apostles also handed down — not of three hundred and sixty-five years, as some suppose, but of that year after his baptism, in which, preaching, he unlocked to believers the mysteries of salvation, testifying and fulfilling those things which were of old spoken concerning the law and likewise concerning the prophets.

There is another heresy which asserts that the consummation of the age was not established by God Christ the Savior according to a definition of times, and from this they suspect that there is a fixed number of the consummation, and they hold that it will be neither more nor less; whereas the prophets have everywhere announced that the consummation of the age would come about around the five-hundredth year, and that thus the Lord would come again from the heavens. For Daniel reckons seventy weeks, hearing from Christ the Lord: 「Hear,」 he says, 「O man of desires, that seventy weeks have been appointed upon your people, up to Christ the leader, so that all things may come to pass which were spoken concerning the city of Jerusalem and the people that were to come.」

But this, just as it was spoken to Daniel before Christ came in the flesh and was nearly fulfilled, so also the same number, even after the Lord's incarnation *** up to the law which Moses received and up to the entrance into the promised land — you will find it does not differ far from the number of five hundred years. The Lord, therefore, when he spoke of diverse signs — famines, persecutions, floods, earthquakes, pestilences to come about around the end — said to blessed Peter also, by an enigma, concerning the multitude of years. When Peter said: 「Lord, how often shall I forgive a brother who sins?」 the Lord said:

「Not seven times, but seventy times seven,」 showing indeed the infinite number of the daily transgressions of the human race that ought to be forgiven by one man to another — to the Jew who returns or to the pagan, and to others who are carnal and who turn from impiety to faith in Christ and to his catholic Church — that to all believers every debt must be remitted by them. For the Jewish historians also taught, saying that from Daniel four hundred and eighty years and more had passed, and that thus the Lord came in the flesh. You have also in Genesis a mystery most evidently announced: concerning Cain a sevenfold vengeance, but concerning Lamech a seventy-times-sevenfold vengeance:

by which there is no doubt that Scripture foretold, without hesitation, in two persons the impiety of one of the two peoples and the iniquity of the other. For the law is spiritual, according to the apostle, and these, he says, are the two testaments. For neither do we set aside the history — that the people spent seventy years in Persia — nor do we spurn the spiritual knowledge. Therefore the seventy weeks also spoken of by Daniel — four hundred and ninety years — were then nearly completed, and thus Christ came in the flesh; and from Christ's presence up to the consummation of the age you will find nearly the same number of years to be completed.

For those first wise interpreters taught that the seventy weeks which Daniel saw are seven times seventy, that is, four hundred and ninety years *** which jubilee in the law the Jews — not these present ones, but the ancient and skilled ones — that is, the year of Christ's remission and indulgence — celebrating beforehand by a figure his carnal presence, awaited with the highest joy, as is contained in Leviticus. For the lesser jubilee has fifty years and not less; but it cannot have more; for the greater jubilee has five hundred years *** the lesser jubilee, fifty. The greater, therefore, has ten less than five hundred years, so that from this one jubilee might declare the presence of Christ and the consummation of the age.

The seventy years of the people's captivity in Persia, although they are taken historically — and after they returned to Jerusalem, even up to the incarnation of Christ the Lord nearly five hundred are found completed — yet this also is to be understood spiritually: that after seventy times seven, that is, after four hundred and about ninety years, the Jews must... under Antichrist, when he shall be found deceitful by the very Jews who first supposed him to be the Christ.

But not long afterward, his perfidy and deceit being recognized, then those who remain, bearing repentance, will all fly to faith in Christ the Lord, and, repenting of their sins, will obtain pardon from Christ the Lord himself, just as the rest, so that what was said may be fulfilled: 「Amen I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth, until you say: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord」; and that this may be fulfilled: 「Until the fullness of the Gentiles enters, and so all Israel shall be saved,」 as it is written; and: 「If the people of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.」 And what blessed Isaiah openly taught concerning Christ — that he would grant indulgence to all who return — the Lord himself said thus: 「The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.」

「Therefore he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and sight to the blind, to announce the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of recompense.」 Concerning which the Lord, when in the temple he had received the book and had read through this Scripture, said to the apostles, and in the hearing of all, that this had now been fulfilled in his own presence. Which most blessed Daniel also marked, that the Lord had said to him, saying: 「Hear, O man of desires, and attend, from the going-forth of the word of God」 — that is, from Christ's incarnation — 「and his divine presence again from heaven and the consummation of the age, which is to be at hand with the angels.」

There is another heresy which asserts, concerning the giants, that angels mingled themselves with women before the flood, and from this they suspect the giants were born; whereas Nimrod was born not from a spirit — that is, not from an angel — but from a man, Cush, who was the son of Ham, and was thence born afterward; and he was the one who in Scripture is first called a giant, because he began to be a hunter, and a mighty man, so that he was called a giant in the land. From this, it says, they would say, 「Like Nimrod the giant, so is he mighty,」 if anyone afterward appeared like him in might.

These men, therefore, were strong and rapacious from their youth, devastators, hurlers of weapons, runners about, given over to plundering; whence, as it were alien not only in their manners but even in their appearance, judged monstrous among men, perpetrating such crimes against the nature of other men, they came to be called giants. For 「giant」 (gigas), by etymology, is said to be a 「monster of the earth,」 composed from two names, whether in form, or in life, or in appearance, or in might, or in mass of limbs. For that you may know the giants were brought forth not from another nature, but from the offspring of men:

You also find the 'six-fingered one' in the books of Kingdoms, men whom the books of Kingdoms proclaimed to be of vast frame, with sprawling, massive limbs and immense strength, sprung from the race of giants, two thousand three hundred years after the Flood — just as that Goliath whom David, the most blessed king and prophet, struck down alone in single combat. Of him and of others like him it is said: 'A cart carried the array of their weapons.' Since, then, such men were given over from childhood to plunder after the manner of beasts, Scripture proclaimed them to be, as it were, strangers to the nature and the ways of men.

For that those angels who were cast down from heaven are not like in nature to men admits of no doubt — save only this, that by suggesting things wicked and contrary, against the law, as even now they do to men, they prevailed by entering into men, that is, by persuading them; just as the enemy of the human race persuaded the Jews to commit such crimes against the Lord and against the holy prophets, as it is written: 'Satan,' it says, 'entered into Judas.' So too, even earlier, unclean spirits, entering into the souls of men and women, had spread abroad over the whole world the crimes of their evil persuasion.

But if anyone should suppose it right to believe that angels thus sinned, transformed into flesh, and remained in that flesh, or were so made carnal, he distorts the history by a violent interpretation — just as the lies of the pagans and the poets assert that gods and goddesses, transformed, entered into unspeakable unions. But if this had ever happened, there would be no doubt that it would happen now too; whereas what has never happened is plainly shown not to happen now either. The term 'giant,' moreover, is also taken in a good sense, by reason of strength: 'For he shall rejoice as a giant to run his course.' This is shown to be proved and fulfilled in the divine presence of Christ.