基督教地誌 第 1 章 第 17/22 段

'You are my Son; today I have begotten you.'

'And that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thus:'

'I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.'

'You will not allow your Holy One to see corruption.'

'For David, having served the counsel of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was added to his fathers, and saw corruption;'

'But he whom God raised up did not see corruption.'

'Let it therefore be known to you, men and brethren, that through this man the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you; and from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses, in this man everyone who believes is justified.'

'Beware therefore, lest what is spoken in the prophets come upon you:'

'Behold, you despisers, and marvel, and perish; for I work a work in your days, a work which you will not believe, even if someone declares it to you.' And in these things likewise, recounting from the prophets, he said nothing other than what he had said before to the others — death, resurrection, and the kingdom of heaven — hastening in all things to persuade, God working together with him through signs and wonders and mighty deeds, which he himself and all the apostles performed before Greeks and Jews, believers and unbelievers, and moreover confirming them in all things by predictions and their fulfillments, things which surpass this world — he who also made them, as Paul writes, sufficient ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit;

'for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life' — that he might say:

'From God we became sufficient, through the signs of the Holy Spirit, to persuade, teaching such things.'

'For God appointed us ministers of the New and life-giving Testament, not of the old letter, that is, of the written law which threatens to put to death, but of the life-giving power, that is, of the Holy Spirit;'

'Now some have become puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.'

'But I will come to you quickly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but their power;'

'for the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power' — that he might say that the word of the kingdom of heaven surpasses every word, and that some are vainly puffed up trying to establish it through word alone;

for it is credible only through the power of the Holy Spirit and the signs that follow from it;

'If you seek proof of Christ speaking in me, who toward you is not weak, but is powerful among you' — as if to say:

'He is powerful, as shown by the signs done among you in his name.'

And so much concerning these things.

But some say that the angels are not in this world, but in the higher and heavenly place;

against whom, in part, we shall set forth a few things from the divine Scripture, showing that they dwell together with us in this place, and that none of them has yet been deemed worthy to obtain the things above.

First, the Lord, speaking thus to Nicodemus, says:

'And no one has ascended into heaven, except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven' — declaring more clearly that no one at all has ascended into the higher place, except the Master Christ;

And the apostle Paul says:

'we have become [a spectacle] to the world' — and signifying what world he means, he added 'to angels and to men,' that he might say:

'We are beheld by all as in a theater, in this very place' — I mean, by both angels and men, as all these and those are in one and the same place.

'For the earnest expectation of creation eagerly awaits the revealing of the sons of God' — and as though someone were perplexed and asking him for what reason, or doing what, it awaits this, he added and says:

'For creation was subjected to futility, not willingly' — that he might say:

In this world, corruptible and changeable — for this he calls futility — the angels were commanded, in subjection to God, to serve, even unwillingly;

hence we know, through the phrase 'not willingly,' that he speaks concerning rational beings, and this is a law for them.

'Very well,' says the one who is perplexed, 'but how again do they serve, now moving all things?' He answers:

'Yes,' he says, 'as far as concerns the sin of Adam, because he was condemned to death, they were not willing to serve and labor for us any longer in vain,'

'but,' he says, 'because of him who subjected it in hope' — saying this, that God gave them a certain hope that after a time something useful would come to men, and for this reason they were subjected and serve, awaiting their own freedom, whenever men also are freed from death and corruption and these vain things, and they will receive the hope of God and the glory laid up for them;

'because creation itself also will be set free from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.' And again, elsewhere he says:

'Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to serve for the sake of those who are about to inherit salvation?' — saying that all of them together are appointed to the service of men, as being together with them in this place;

That now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the Principalities and the Powers;

Here again he clearly indicated not only them, but also said that they are instructed by the things dispensed concerning man;

for by saying "through the Church" he plainly signified "through men."

Then again, also in the Old [Testament], the patriarch Jacob beheld a ladder from earth to heaven, and God standing at its top, and the angels ascending and descending upon it;

he seemed to see them first ascending, and then descending;

then again he himself also beheld a multitude of angels, which he called "the camp of God."

Likewise Moses mentioned only two heavens as having come into being — I mean, the one made in the beginning together with the earth, and the second, which came into being on the second day, which he also calls the firmament;

and likewise he himself also often says that other angels ministered to Hagar and to Abraham and to Lot and to Jacob himself in this same region.

And in the Great Ode he also speaks thus:

"Rejoice, O heavens, together with him, and let all the angels of God worship him" — after [naming] the heavens he named the angels [as being] in this same region;

"Rejoice, O nations, with his people" — again naming those who are in this same region;

Likewise David also, following the aim of Moses, being himself a prophet after Moses, distinguishing the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, speaks thus:

"Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the highest;"

"praise him, all his angels;"

"praise him, all his Powers;"

consistently beginning from the firmament and the height and proceeding downward, he named all the angels, calling the same ones also "Powers."

Next he again names the things together with them:

"Praise him, sun and moon;"

"praise him, all the stars and the light;"

from this point he ascends again to the upper region and says:

"Praise him, heavens of heavens" — instead of saying "the heaven of the heaven," calling the first [heaven] the heaven of the heaven, which is the heaven of this visible firmament;

[praise him] above the heavens — that is, so as to say, above the heaven;

having now expressly spoken of the things above, he clearly shows that he knows the former things to be below.

Then, having said that all the things in the heavens praise God, he adduces the reason for which they were obliged to hymn him, and says:

"For he spoke, and they came into being;"

"he commanded, and they were created;"

"he established them forever and ever;"

"he set a decree, and it shall not pass away;"

then he next proceeds also to speak concerning the earth, and names all the things that dwell in the air and the waters and on the earth, in which he also placed man, and again he exhorts, saying:

"Let them praise the name of the Lord" — and for what reason, he says:

"for his name alone is exalted;"

then finally he joins all things together, saying:

"his praise is upon earth and heaven" — thereby indicating at the same time that all things are contained within the earth and heaven, speaking in the same way as Moses himself, who said:

"For in six days God made heaven and earth and all that is in them" — thereby indicating even more clearly that all the angels are within heaven and earth and are circumscribed by them.

Yet again, in another place, David says:

"Stretching out the heaven like a curtain, he who roofs his upper chambers with waters" — clearly speaking concerning the firmament as existing in the manner of a roof over us, upon whose back the waters are;

for "curtains" [derreis] properly denotes the things covering the tent from above, whether they be [woven] cloths or made from hair.

Then he adds and says:

"He who makes the clouds his chariot, who walks upon the wings of the winds, who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire;"

again, having mentioned the clouds and winds [as being] below the firmament, he added that the angels also are together [with them] there, calling these same ones also "ministers";

Let us now pass also to the most sublime prophet Daniel.

What does he say, in the person of the Hymn of the Three Children? "Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord;"

"Bless the Lord, O heavens;"

"Bless the Lord, O angels of the Lord;"

"Bless the Lord, all you waters that are above the heaven" — and he too, having mentioned the angels after the heavens, did not leave unmentioned even the waters that are above the heaven.

Again, following the same order, he resumed his discourse, and, mentioning the angels a second time from among the things below, he called them "Powers," among whom he included the sun and moon and stars and rain-showers and dews and winds and fire and cold and heat and clouds and snowstorms and lightnings and all the things pertaining to the air and the waters and the earth;

following both David and Moses, he too afterwards spoke of the things concerning man, on account of whom all the former things had come into being;

for man, being a kind of bond of all creation and a pledge of friendship of the whole world, necessarily comprises all the aforementioned things according to a certain analogy.

For it has been well said, among those outside [the faith], that man is a "microcosm."

All, then, the God-bearing men, both prophets and apostles, adorned with a most reverent life, and having given themselves up for the sake of piety to countless sufferings and deaths, as it is written, [men] of whom the world was not worthy, and moreover having wrought very many wonders not to be conveyed in word, and various powers, and having been made sufficient by God to teach and persuade and travel throughout the world under heaven and to draw all nations to piety, have spoken concerning two such conditions [only], mentioning no others; and they have all together declared this [present] region to be [the region] of angels and men, and have likewise pronounced the upper region to be [the region] of angels and men after the resurrection from the dead.

What defense, then, do the sham Christians have, who disbelieve all these things and say that the heavens — in which our sure and abiding and indissoluble hope resides, which is laid up for us by God — will be dissolved? Concerning which Paul cries out:

"The sufferings of the present time are not worthy [to be compared] with the glory that is about to be revealed unto us;" and likewise again:

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen;"

"for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" — saying this, namely:

if you weigh in a balance against each other the afflictions of this world and the good things of the age to come, they will be found to outweigh exceedingly in glory the lightness and slightness of the exceedingly temporary afflictions of this world, which vanish away even alongside their occurring;

for these things, he says, that are seen, that is, the things of this world, are temporal, but the things that are not seen, that is, the things of the upper and heavenly region, or world, are eternal.

It is now necessary also to adduce testimony concerning this from the Catholic [Epistles]:

"into which things the angels desire to look" — that is, to say:

not even they themselves have yet attained the good things laid up for us in heaven, but neither are they themselves now deemed worthy even to see them;

for this also is similar to the saying of the Apostle, who says:

"that the whole creation groans together and travails together until now" — as if to say:

The angels too are burdened by the change, groaning together with all creation, longing for freedom.

How then is it possible to expect that the heavens will be dissolved and that other, new ones will be brought in? For all the aforesaid things are shown to be false, that they are both prepared and indissoluble, and that where Christ entered, we too enter.

But, according to the myth of these counterfeit Christians, all the things written in the divine Scripture are a kind of deception and fraud;

moreover, if, as they say, the heavens are dissolved and others are brought in their place, it is necessary that the Christ who is in them also be dissolved, and that another, new Christ be brought in together with the other, new heavens, if indeed we must be with Christ.

May this blasphemy recoil upon their own head!

"For our citizenship," says the Apostle, "is in heaven, from which also we eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus" — that is, to say:

I mean those [same] heavens, from which we also expect the Lord to come, transforming us from corruption into incorruption, and bearing us up to where he himself has already entered before us;

for this he also says elsewhere, that he entered as a forerunner on our behalf.

Since, then, some, corrupting the sense of the divine Scriptures, misinterpret what was said by the Lord, I mean:

'Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words shall never pass away' — not knowing that this was said hyperbolically, we shall explain to them the meaning:

It is possible that these [heaven and earth] are dissolved, but my words never [are].

And again, what was said to David:

'You, O Lord, in the beginning founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands;

they will perish, but you remain' — not understanding that here too, in contrast to the unbegotten God, he called the created things 'perishing,' as things that did not exist before but came to be afterward;

and if he should so will, the unbegotten [God], just as he brought them forth when they did not exist, can likewise destroy them when they do exist;

for the unbegotten, having come to be from no one, is likewise destroyed by no one;

but the created can indeed perish, especially if the one who made it should so will.

Likewise also what is said in the Catholic [Epistles]:

'in which the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements, burning, will melt, but according to his promises we look for new heavens and a new earth' — [some], understanding this too ignorantly and not comprehending what is said, say outright that these [heavens] are utterly destroyed and others, new ones, are introduced, which is contrary to the whole of divine Scripture,

and [say that] other new [heavens] are introduced? For if the region in the heavens is already now a dwelling place for the incorruptible, the immortal, and the unchangeable, how will it not also receive us when we are raised, becoming incorruptible, immortal, and unchangeable? Away, then, with such madness!

For God does not repent of what he has made, destroying these and introducing others; rather, he renews the whole creation for the better, as we have also said many times:

for if man, who is the bond of all creation, is renewed both in body, becoming incorruptible and immortal, and in soul, becoming unchangeable, is it not evident that all the elements of which man's body is also composed, and all rational beings — being themselves also akin [to man] in respect of man's soul — are renewed and come to a better state? For 'to sum up all things,' says the Apostle, 'in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth,' and again:

'If anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creation;

the old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new' — calling all things 'new' [meaning] the renewal of all existing things;

for by saying both 'recapitulation' and 'new creation,' he signified the same thing by each [term] — that which has already come to be in Christ.

For just as Christ, having risen according to the flesh from the dead, was not a different Christ from the one who had died, but was himself the one who both underwent death and likewise the resurrection, having become superior to sufferings and to death, so also all creation, not being destroyed, but remaining the same, is transposed for the better;

'For he established them forever, even forever and ever; he set a decree, and it shall not pass away,' says the divine oracle.

For this reason God did not take hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham, as it is written:

for if he had taken hold of angels, only rational beings would have hoped to be renewed, as being akin to them;

but now, having taken hold of the seed of Abraham, that is, of body and rational soul, and having led it up into the heavenly region, he has laid down beforehand the hope of salvation for all creation.

Therefore, what is said in the Catholic [Epistles], 'in which the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements, burning, will melt,'

and 'new heavens and a new earth,' has this meaning: that with a rushing sound, as in the twinkling of an eye, being set aflame and purified as if in a smelting furnace, all the elements — both the heavens and the earth — undergo the change for the better, these very things becoming new and being altered in the condition of their order [of existence], as what is said by Paul [states]:

'For the form of this world passes away' — [meaning] as it were the present ordered condition [passes away], the succession of night and day ceasing, and the stars no longer completing their course, and the air no longer moving, neither water nor earth any longer bearing fruit, but a certain other condition being introduced, one fitted for immortal, incorruptible, and unchangeable men and angels.

But we pass over in silence [the fact] that the Church has from of old held the Catholic [Epistles] as disputed, and that of all those who have written commentaries on the divine Scriptures, not even one of them has made mention of the Catholic [Epistles];

but also those who established the canon of the covenanted books of divine Scripture all placed them among the disputed [writings] — I mean Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, an eminent man of illustrious life who lived not long after the apostles; and Eusebius [son] of Pamphilus; and Amphilochius, who became bishop of Iconium, friend and companion of the blessed Basil, who himself in the Iambic verses written by him to Seleucus declared them disputed; likewise also Severian of Gabala, in his discourse Against the Jews, disavowed them.

For most say that they are not [the writings] of the apostles, but of certain other, simpler elders.

Hence [Eusebius] son of Pamphilus says in his Ecclesiastical History that in Ephesus there are two tombs, one of John the Evangelist, and one of another John, an elder, who wrote the two epistles of the Catholic [Epistles], the second and the third, where it is written beforehand [at the head]:

'The elder to the elect lady,' and:

'The elder to the beloved Gaius.'

As for the first [epistle] of Peter and the first of John, he himself, and Irenaeus too, do not say that they belong to the apostles; others likewise do not say that they belong to the apostles, but to the elders;

for they are written as First, Second, and Third of John, so that it is evident that the three belong to one person.

But others accept also the [epistle] of James along with the other two;

yet among the Syrians, none are found except only the three aforementioned, namely, that of James, and the first of Peter, and the first of John;

for the others are not even extant among them.

It is therefore not necessary for the mature Christian to be confirmed from the disputed [writings], since the covenanted and commonly acknowledged Scriptures sufficiently disclose everything concerning the heavens and the earth and the elements and the whole doctrine of the Christians.

Foolish, then, they seem to me to be, and utterly uninitiated in the divine Scriptures, these inventors of new doctrines who suppose that the heavens are to be destroyed.

For God, knowing and foreknowing from above and from the beginning, and always knowing, and never receiving any addition of knowledge, wishing also to impart existence to others and to fill them with his own goodness and knowledge and wisdom, made the whole world, having circumscribed it in heaven and earth;

and having placed the firmament in the middle and bound it to the first heaven, and having made the one space into two spaces, he assigned this [lower] space to the mortal and mutable order [of existence], having also prepared beforehand the upper [space] for the coming order [of existence] — just as the depiction of the diagram at the end also shows, as does the construction of the tabernacle, it too having become a mold of the whole world.

And in this present order [of existence], he approved that we should now pass our life as in a useful place of instruction, having painful and pleasant things, so that through the painful things we might be disciplined, and through the pleasant things we might not lose heart, being taught and led up to the recognition of the Maker through the variety of created things and the all-wise harmony and the difference of existing things — he who has also given us laws, appearing from time to time for the help of our weakness, leading up rational beings, as has been said, to the recognition of his all-good love of mankind, which is the chief point of all rational beings;

for since we are created beings, and have our existence from another, we always stand in need of him for our own subsistence and knowledge;

for it was not possible for us, as soon as we came into being, to have all knowledge at once;

for this is proper to the unbegotten God alone.

Since, then, God out of goodness ineffably made both animate and inanimate things, which are without a share of knowledge, for the teaching and help of us rational beings, God made rational beings as certain intermediaries between himself and these [creatures], as far as was possible, so that by the variety of the universe, and further by the laws handed down to us, by the discipline of learning, through the experience of painful and pleasant things, in longing, we might be led up part by part to the knowledge of him.

'For his invisible things,' says the divine Apostle, 'from the creation of the world are clearly perceived, being understood through the things that are made, both his eternal power and divinity, so that they are without excuse' — that is to say:

'His invisible things' — [meaning] the power and the wisdom and the providence and the goodness of God, and his very eternal divinity, we both perceive and see from the things that exist and are seen, through all created things, by analogy [perceiving] the Creator, so that we may not put forward any pretext of ignorance — for this is what 'without excuse' indicates — having in [our] hands, from all these things, the means to know by analogy their own Creator and that of the universe.

'God, having spoken of old in many parts and in many ways to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us in [his] Son' — dividing his word into parts and ways, into prophets and Son;

whether through himself or through the prophets — wishing to signify this, that from every side, both from existing things and from visions, God did not neglect to teach, having proposed [as his purpose] to instruct rational beings concerning the knowledge of himself, at one time through the prophets, and now through his own Son.

Then thus, accordingly, for those who have had experience, he has also prepared the coming order [of existence], in which, having made us incorruptible and immortal, he will establish us, filling us, as those experienced, also with the perfect knowledge of himself, as we ought to know.

For this reason he made the two orders [of existence] from the beginning, since we, as has been said before, are not able to receive all knowledge at once, altogether, without learning;

for only the divine is self-taught, and a fountain of knowledge, having received nothing from another, but able also to supply it to others; but we, being mortal and mutable, [must] again be taught from difficult things, since, says the Apostle:

'All discipline for the present does not seem to be a matter of joy, but of sorrow;'

for without discipline and painful things it is impossible for learning to come about.

For the sake of discipline, then, he made this world mortal and mutable and varied, so that by the discipline of learning and by the variety of the universe, through experience, we might be able to ascend to the knowledge of God.

For if from the beginning he had made us immortal and unchangeable, we would in no way differ from the irrational animals, which naturally possess something useful but do not know what they possess — such as the bee skillfully making the honeycomb, and the spider deftly weaving its web, and the ant preparing food in summer — these do not act by any rational knowledge; or [we would be] like gold and pearl, which are beautiful indeed, but do not perceive their own beauty.

Wisely, then, and very wisely, God made the two orders [of existence] from of old, so that, having had experience from here of pleasant and painful things, we might know perfectly in the second order [of existence] the power of his goodness, through the ineffable and eternal good things provided for us, and [know] from what things into what things we pass over.

These things, and things like them, all divine Scripture proclaims, and this is its entire purpose.

For these excellent [gentlemen] are ignorant of the purpose of the divine Scriptures, who destroy the heavens and introduce for us other, new ones.

For God was never ignorant, nor did he now come to know better [and decide] to make other heavens and a better order [of existence], according to the fable of the foolish and counterfeit Christians; rather, he always exists the same, being in like manner and in the same way, knowing how, and when, and how much, and where, and what sort [of world] he would make the whole world [to be].

But nevertheless they put forward to us, as though reasonably, the difficulty arising from this, saying:

'How, then, do embryos that die advance in the knowledge of God, not having experienced pleasant and painful things and been taught about God from that?' To these we shall reply that the rational embryo, having tasted, so to speak, of the maternal womb — the maternal womb being, in a dim way, as it were a symbol of this world, in which there is both heat and cold and dryness and moisture — [this embryo,] receiving knowledge in the coming order [of existence], is reminded and comes to a perception of the maternal womb, in which it too has had a partial experience of such a condition.

Moreover, it also sees the elements and the whole world standing [before it] as a teacher, and through perfect knowledge, reasoning [by analogy], it too immediately comes to full recognition of its past life, and at the same time also of the recognition of God who created all things.

But concerning their judgment, we leave it to God himself;

for it is not possible for us to know everything in this life.

We only say, as far as it is possible to say, that they are something intermediate, neither to receive crowns nor to undergo punishments; for on the one hand they are freed from punishment because they did not enjoy the good things of this life, and on the other hand they are deprived of crowns as not having labored in this life.

But if someone should also say this, that God, as he knows how each of them would have conducted their life and manner of living had they remained alive, will judge them accordingly, we do not reject this idea, but we yield [the matter] to those who know something more.