1 Corinthians 1
(a)
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
(b)
4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.
5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge—
6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you.
7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.
8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
(c)
10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.
11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.
12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”
13 Christ has not been divided.Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?
14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of youexcept Crispus and Gaius,
15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name.
16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.)
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
(d)
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,
29 so that no one may boast before him.
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Interesting Early Patristic References
1 Cor 1:3 - My preliminary remarks on the preceding epistle called me away from treating of its superscription, for I was sure that another opportunity would occur for considering the matter, it being of constant recurrence, and in the same form too, in every epistle. The point, then, is, that it is not (the usual) health which the apostle prescribes for those to whom he writes, but “grace and peace.” I do not ask, indeed, what a destroyer of Judaism has to do with a formula which the Jews still use. For to this day they salute each other with the greeting of “peace,” and formerly in their Scriptures they did the same. But I understand him by his practice 5390 plainly enough to have corroborated the declaration of the Creator: “How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good, who preach the gospel of peace!” 5391 For the herald of good, that is, of God’s “grace” was well aware that along with it “peace” also was to be proclaimed. 5392 Now, when he announces these blessings as “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus,” 5393 he uses titles that are common to both, and which are also adapted to the mystery of our faith; 5394 and I suppose it to be impossible accurately to determine what God is declared to be the Father and the Lord Jesus, unless (we consider) which of their accruing attributes are more suited to them severally. 5395 First, then, I assert that none other than the Creator and Sustainer of both man and the universe can be acknowledged as Father and Lord; next, that to the Father also the title of Lord accrues by reason of His power, and that the Son too receives the same through the Father; then that “grace and peace” are not only His who had them published, but His likewise to whom offence had been given. For neither does grace exist, except after offence; nor peace, except after war. [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.5]
1 Cor 1.5 - Odes of Solomon - 5 (p.260, l.1) BP1
1 Cor 1.7 - Ignatius Smyrnaeans - p.106, l.1) BP1
1 Cor 1:9 - This is the faithful servant, who is praised by the Lord. And when it is said, "God is faithful," it is intimated that He is worthy to be believed when declaring aught. Now His Word declares; and "God" Himself is "faithful." How, then, if to believe is to suppose, do the philosophers think that what proceeds from themselves is sure? [Clement of Alexandria Stromata 2.6]
1 Cor 1:9 - And “God,” who is known to those who love, “is love,”as “God,” who by instruction is communicated to the faithful, “is faithful; . and we must be allied to Him by divine love: so that by like we may see like, hearing the word of truth guilelessly and purely, as children who obey us. [Clement of Alexandria Strom 5.1] 5 13 § 1 (p.334, l.18) BP1
1 Cor 1.9 - May I always have joy of you, if indeed I be worthy of it. It is therefore befitting that you should in every way glorify Jesus Christ, who hath glorified you, that by a unanimous obedience “ye may be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment, and may all speak the same thing concerning the same thing,”505 and that, being subject to the bishop and the presbytery, ye may in all respects be sanctified. [Ignatius, Ephesians 2]
1 Cor 1.9 - Odes of Solomon 28 § 3 (p.358, l.2 - P) BP1
1 Cor 1.10 - Canon Muratorianus (p.7, l.10) BP1
1 Cor 1:10 - I therefore, yet not I, out the love of Jesus Christ, "entreat you that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment." [Ignatius to the Trallians]
1 Cor 1:10 - "that ye all speak the same thing, being of one mind, thinking the same thing, and walking by the same rule of faith," [Ignatius Philippians]
1 Cor 1:10 - "But you also oppose Scripture, seeing it expressly cries “Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things shall be added unto you.” 1555 But if all things have been conferred on you, and all things allowed you, and “if all things are lawful, yet all things are not expedient,” 1556 says the apostle. God brought our race into communion by first imparting what was His own, when He gave His own Word, common to all, and made all things for all. All things therefore are common, and not for the rich to appropriate an undue share. That expression, therefore, “I possess, and possess in abundance: why then should I not enjoy?” is suitable neither to the man, nor to society. But more worthy of love is that: “I have: why should I not give to those who need?” For such an one—one who fulfils the command, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”—is perfect. For this is the true luxury—the treasured wealth. But that which is squandered on foolish lusts is to be reckoned waste, not expenditure. [Clement Instructor 2:13]
1 Cor 1:10 - "And by so doing, he makes those to be not approved, who have fallen into heresies; more especially when with reproofs heexhorts men to turn away from such, teaching them that they should all speak and think the selfsame thing, 1 Corinthians 1:10 the very object which heresies do not permit." [Tertullian Prescription 5] 5 § 4 (p.191, l.11) BP1
1 Cor 1:10 - Although, even supposing that among intimate friends, so to speak, they did hold certaindiscussions, yet it is incredible that these could have been such as to bring in some other rule of faith, differing from and contrary to that which they were proclaiming through the Catholic churches, — as if they spoke of one God in the Church, (and) another at home, and described one substance of Christ, publicly, (and) another secretly, and announced one hope of the resurrection before all men, (and) another before the few; although they themselves, in their epistles, besought men that they would all speak one and the same thing, and that there should be no divisions and dissensions in the church,1 Corinthians 1:10 seeing that they, whether Paul or others, preached the same things. Moreover, they remembered (the words): Let your communication be yea, yea; nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than this comes of evil; Matthew 5:37 so that they were not to handle the gospel in a diversity of treatment. [Tertullian Prescription 26] 26 § 11 (p.208, l.28) BP1
1 Cor 1:10 - But since it is not in our power, according to the apostle's precept, to speak the same thing, that there be not schisms among us; 1 Corinthians 1:10 yet, as far as we can, we strive to demonstrate the true condition of this argument, and to persuade turbulent men, even now, to mind their own business, as we shall even attain a great deal if they will at length acquiesce in this sound advice. And therefore we shall, as is needful, collect into one mass whatever passages of the Holy Scriptures are pertinent to this subject. And we shall manifestly harmonize, as far as possible, those which seem to be differing or of various meaning; and we shall to the extent of our poor ability examine both the utility and advantage of each method, that we may recommend to all the brethren, that the most wholesome form and peaceful custom be adopted in the Church. [Anonymous Treatise on Baptism 1]
1 Cor Let my spirit be counted as nothing (περίψημα) for the sake of the cross, which is a stumbling-block 607 to those that do not believe, but to us salvation and p. 57 life eternal. “Where is the wise man? where the disputer?” 608 Where is the boasting of those who are styled prudent? For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment 609 of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water. [Ignatius, Ephesians 18]
1 Cor 1:10 For that fan they explain to be the cross (Stauros), which consumes, no doubt, all material2706 objects, as fire does chaff, but it purifies all them that are saved, as a fan does wheat. Moreover, they affirm that the Apostle Paul himself made mention of this cross in the following words: “The doctrine of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.”2707 And again: “God forbid that I should glory in anything2708 save in the cross of Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.” Irenaeus AH 1.3.2]
1 Cor 1.11 - Epiphanius Panarion (HOLL K., GCS 31 (1922), 5-210 ; 215-524) 42 12 § 3 (p.168, l.16) BP4
1 Cor 1.11 - De recta in Deum fide (p.16, l.23 - <) BP2
1 Cor 1.12 - De recta in Deum fide (p.18, l.3) BP2
1 Cor 1.13 - "Christ has not been divided" Protrepticus 112 § 3 (p.180, l.11) BP1
1 Cor 1.13 - De recta in Deum fide (p.16, l.23 - <) BP2
1 Cor 1.14 - Hypotyposeis (p.196, l.23) BP1
1 Cor 1.16 - Acta Pauli C (p.30, l.2) BP1
1 Cor 1.17 - Epiphanius Panarion 73 6 § 3 (p.275, l.23) BP4
1 Cor 1:18 - “The cross of Christ,” he says, “is to them that perish foolishness; but unto such as shall obtain salvation, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 5398 And then, that we may know from whence this comes, he adds: “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’” 5399 Now, since these are the Creator’s words, and since what pertains to the doctrine 5400 of the cross he accounts as foolishness, therefore both the cross, and also Christ by reason of the cross, will appertain to the Creator, by whom were predicted the incidents of the cross. But if 5401 the Creator, as an enemy, took away their wisdom in order that the cross of Christ, considered as his adversary, should be accounted foolishness, how by any possibility can the Creator have foretold anything about the cross of a Christ who is not His own, and of whom He knew nothing, when He published the prediction? [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.5] 5 5 § 5 (p.676, l.11) BP1
1 Cor 1:18 - As, then, the magnet, repelling other matter, attracts iron alone by reason of affinity; so also books, though many read them, attract those alone who are capable of comprehending them. For the word of truth is to some "foolishness," and to others a "stumbling-block;" but to a few "wisdom." So also is the power of God found to be. But far from the Gnostic be envy. For it is for this reason also that he asks whether it be worse to give to the unworthy, or not commit to the worthy; and runs the risk, from his abundant love of communicating, not only to every one who is qualified, but sometimes also to one unworthy, who asks importunately; not on account of his entreaty (for he loves not glory), but on account of the persistency of the petitioner who bends his mind towards faith with copious entreaty. [Theodotus Excerpts 27]
1.18 - Paedagogus 1 16 § 3 (p.100, l.1) BP1
1.19 - Justin Dialogue 38 § 2 (p.170, l.2) BP1
1:19 - This, I think, is signified by the utterance of the Saviour, "The foxes have holes, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." For on the believer alone, who is separated entirely from the rest, who by the Scripture are called wild beasts, rests the head of the universe, the kind and gentle Word, "who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. For the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they axe vain;" the Scripture calling those the wise (sofous) who are skilled in words and arts, sophists (sofistas) Whence the Greeks also applied the denominative appellation of wise and sophists (sofoi sofistai) to those who were versed in anything Cratinus accordingly, having in the Archilochii enumerated the poets, said: "Such a hive of sophists have ye examined." And similarly Iophon, the comic poet, in Flute-playing Satyrs, says: "For there entered A band of sophists, all equipped." Of these and the like, who devote their attention to empty words, the divine Scripture most excellently says, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." [Clement of Alexandria, Strom 1.3] 1 24 § 4 (p.16, l.7) BP1
1:19 - And of such it is said, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise: I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." The apostle accordingly adds, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?" setting in contradistinction to the scribes, the disputers of this world, the philosophers of the Gentiles. "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" which is equivalent to, showed it to be foolish, and not true, as they thought. And if you ask the cause of their seeming wisdom, he will say, "because of the blindness of their heart;" since "in the wisdom of God," that is, as proclaimed by the prophets, "the world knew not," in the wisdom "which spake by the prophets," "Him," that is, God, -- "it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching" -- what seemed to the Greeks foolishness -- "to save them that believe. For the Jews require signs," in order to faith; "and the Greeks seek after wisdom," plainly those reasonings styled "irresistible," and those others, namely, syllogisms. "But we preach Jesus Christ crucified; to the Jews a stumbling-block," because, though knowing prophecy, they did not believe the event: "to the Greeks, foolishness;" for those who in their own estimation are wise, consider it fabulous that the Son of God should speak by man and that God should have a Son, and especially that that Son should have suffered. Whence their preconceived idea inclines them to disbelieve. For the advent of the Saviour did not make people foolish, and hard of heart, and unbelieving, but made them understanding, amenable to persuasion, and believing. But those that would not believe, by separating themselves from the voluntary adherence of those who obeyed, were proved to be without understanding, unbelievers and fools. "But to them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God." Should we not understand (as is better) the words rendered, "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" negatively: "God hath not made foolish the wisdom of the world?" -- so that the cause of their hardness of heart may not appear to have proceeded from God, "making foolish the wisdom of the world." For on all accounts, being wise, they incur greater blame in not believing the proclamation. For the preference and choice of truth is voluntary. But that declaration, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise," declares Him to have sent forth light, by bringing forth in opposition the despised and contemned barbarian philosophy; as the lamp, when shone upon by the sun, is said to be extinguished, on account of its not then exert ing the same power. All having been therefore called, those who are willing to obey have been named "called." For there is no unright-eousness with God. Those of either race who have believed, are "a peculiar people." And in the Acts of the Apostles you will find this, word for word, "Those then who received his word were baptized;" but those who would not obey kept themselves aloof. To these prophecy says, "If ye be willing and hear me, ye shall eat the good things of the land;" proving that choice or refusal depends on ourselves. The apostle designates the doctrine which is according to the Lord, "the wisdom of God," in order to show that the true philosophy has been communicated by the Son. Further, he, who has a show of wisdom, has certain exhortations enjoined on him by the apostle: "That ye put on the new man, which after God is renewed in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth. Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole, steal no more; but rather let him labour, working that which is good" (and to work is to labour in seeking the truth; for it is accompanied with rational well-doing), "that ye may have to give to him that has need," both of worldly wealth and of divine wisdom. For he wishes both that the word be taught, and that the money be put into the bank, accurately tested, to accumulate interest. Whence he adds, "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth," -- that is "corrupt communication" which proceeds out of conceit, -- "but that which is good for the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers." And the word of the good God must needs be good. And how is it possible that he who saves shall not be good? [Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.18] 1 88 § 1 (p.56, l.17) BP1; 1 89 § 2 (p.57, l.20) BP1
1:19, 20 - Spiritually, therefore, the apostle writes respecting the knowledge of God,For now we see as through a glass, but then face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12 For the vision of thetruth is given but to few. Accordingly, Plato says in the Epinomis, I do not say that it is possible for all to be blessed and happy; only a few. Whilst we live, I pronounce this to be the case. But there is agood hope that after death I shall attain all. To the same effect is what we find in Moses: No man shall see My face, and live. Exodus 33:20 For it is evident that no one during the period of life has been able to apprehend God clearly. But the pure in heart shall see God, Matthew 5:8 when they arrive at the final perfection. For since the soul became too enfeebled for the apprehension of realities, we needed a divine teacher. The Saviour is sent down— a teacher and leader in the acquisition of the good— the secret and sacred token of the great Providence. Where, then, is the scribe? Where is the searcher of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?1 Corinthians 1:20 it is said. And again, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent, 1 Corinthians 1:19 plainly of those wise in their own eyes, and disputatious. Excellently therefore Jeremiah says, Thus says the Lord, Stand in the ways, and ask for the eternal paths, what is the good way, and walk in it, and you shall find expiation for your souls.Jeremiah 6:16 Ask, he says, and inquire of those who know, without contention and dispute. And on learning the way of truth, let us walk on the right way, without turning till we attain to what we desire. It was therefore with reason that the king of the Romans (his name was Numa), being aPythagorean, first of all men, erected a temple to Faith and Peace. And to Abraham, on believing, righteousness was reckoned. He, prosecuting the lofty philosophy of aerial phenomena, and the sublime philosophy of the movements in the heavens, was called Abram, which is interpreted sublime father. But afterwards, on looking up to heaven, whether it was that he saw the Son in the spirit, as some explain, or a glorious angel, or in any other way recognised God to be superior to the creation, and all the order in it, he receives in addition the Alpha, the knowledge of the one and only God, and is called Abraam, having, instead of a natural philosopher, become wise, and a lover of God. For it is interpreted, elect father of sound. [Clement Stromata 5.1] 5 8 § 1 (p.330, l.21) BP1;
1.19 - Epiphanius Panarion 42 11 § 8 (p.121, l.5 - *<) BP4; 42 12 § 3 (p.159, l.20 - *<) BP4; 42 12 § 3 (p.159, l.23) BP4; 76 33 § 4 (p.382, l.23 - < >) BP4
1.19 - Ignatius Ephesians 18 § 1 (p.87, l.19) BP1 At this, philosophers, and heretics, and the very heathen, laugh and jeer. For “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise”6084—that God, no doubt, who in reference to this very dispensation of His threatened long before that He would “destroy the wisdom of the wise.”6085Thanks to this simplicity of truth, so opposed to the subtlety and vain deceit of philosophy, we cannot possibly have any relish for such perverse opinions. Then, if God “quickens us together with Christ, forgiving us our trespasses,”6086 we cannot suppose that sins are forgiven by Him against whom, as having been all along unknown, they could not have been committed. Now tell me, Marcion, what is your opinion of the apostle’s language, when he says, “Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath, which is a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ?”6087 We do not now treat of the law, further than (to remark) that the apostle here teaches clearly how it has been abolished, even by passing from shadow to substance—that is, from figurative types to the reality, which is Christ. The shadow, therefore, is His to whom belongs the body also; in other words, the law is His, and so is Christ. If you separate the law and Christ, assigning one to one god and the other to another, it is the same as if you were to attempt to separate the shadow from the body of which it is the shadow. Manifestly Christ has relation to the law, if the body has to its shadow. But when he blames those who alleged visions of angels as their authority for saying that men must abstain from meats—“you must not touch, you must not taste”—in a voluntary humility, (at the same time) “vainly puffed up in the fleshly mind, and not holding the Head,”6088 (the apostle) does not in these terms attack the law or Moses, as if it was at the suggestion of superstitious angels that he had enacted his prohibition of sundry aliments. For Moses had evidently received the law from God. When, therefore, he speaks of their “following the commandments and doctrines of men,”6089 he refers to the conduct of those persons who “held not the Head,” even Him in whom all things are gathered together;6090 for they are all recalled to Christ, and concentrated in Him as their initiating principle6091—even the meats and drinks which were indifferent in their nature. All the rest of his precepts,6092 as we have shown sufficiently, when treating of them as they occurred in another epistle,6093 emanated from the Creator, who, while predicting that “old things were to pass away,” and that He would “make all things new,”6094 commanded men “to break up fresh ground for themselves,”6095 and thereby taught them even then to put off the old man and put on the new. [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.19]
1.20 - Clement of Alexandria Stromata 1:20 - 1 88 § 1 (p.56, l.19) BP1; 1 89 § 1 (p.57, l.14) BP1; 5 8 § 1 (p.330, l.19) BP1
1.20 - Ignatius Ephesians 18 § 1 (p.87, l.19) BP1
1.20 - But, again, how happens it, that in the system of a Lord 5402 who is so very good, and so profuse in mercy, some carry off salvation, when they believe the cross to be the wisdom and power of God, whilst others incur perdition, to whom the cross of Christ is accounted folly;—(how happens it, I repeat,) unless it is in the Creator’s dispensation to have punished both the people of Israel and the human race, for some great offence committed against Him, with the loss of wisdom and prudence? What follows will confirm this suggestion, when he asks, “Hath not God infatuated the wisdom of this world?” 5403 and when he adds the reason why: “For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God 5404 by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” 5405 But first a word about the expression “the world;” because in this passage particularly, 5406 the heretics expend a great deal of their subtlety in showing that by world is meantthe lord of the world. We, however, understand the term to apply to any person that is in the world, by a simple idiom of human language, which often substitutes that which contains for that which is contained. “The circus shouted,” “The forum spoke,” and “The basilica murmured,” are well-known expressions, meaning that the people in these places did so. Since then the man, not the god, of the world 5407 in his wisdom knew not God, whom indeed he ought to have known (both the Jew by his knowledge of the Scriptures, and all the human race by their knowledge of God’s works), therefore that God, who was not acknowledged in His wisdom, resolved to smite men’s knowledge with His foolishness, by saving all those who believe in the folly of the preached cross. [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.5] 5 5 § 7 (p.676, l.1) BP1; 5 5 § 7 (p.677, l.15) BP1; 5 6 § 1 (p.678, l.4) BP1
1:20 - One may no doubt be wise in the things of God, even from one’s natural powers, but only in witness to the truth, not in maintenance of error; (only) when one acts in accordance with, not in opposition to, the divine dispensation. For some things are known even by nature: the immortality of the soul, for instance, is held by many; the knowledge of our God is possessed by all. I may use, therefore, the opinion of a Plato, when he declares, “Every soul is immortal.” I may use also the conscience of a nation, when it attests the God of gods. I may, in like manner, use all the other intelligences of our common nature, when they pronounce God to be a judge. “God sees,” (say they); and, “I commend you to God.” 7308 But when they say, “What has undergone death is dead,” and, “Enjoy life whilst you live,” and, “After death all things come to an end, even death itself;” then I must remember both that “the heart of man is ashes,” 7309 according to the estimate of God, and that the very “Wisdom of the world is foolishness,” (as the inspired word) pronounces it to be. 7310 Then, if even the heretic seek refuge in the depraved thoughts of the vulgar, or the imaginations of the world, I must say to him: Part company with the heathen, O heretic! for although you are all agreed in imagining a God, yet while you do so in the name of Christ, so long as you deem yourself a Christian, you are a different man from a heathen: give him back his own views of things, since he does not himself learn from yours. Why lean upon a blind guide, if you have eyes of your own? Why be clothed by one who is naked, if you have put on Christ? Why use the shield of another, when the apostle gives you armour of your own? It would be better for him to learn from you to acknowledge the resurrection of the flesh, than for you from him to deny it; because if Christians must needs deny it, it would be sufficient if they did so from their own knowledge, without any instruction from the ignorant multitude. He, therefore, will not be a Christian who shall deny this doctrine which is confessed by Christians; denying it, moreover, on grounds which are adopted by a man who is not a Christian. Take away, indeed, from the heretics the wisdom which they share with the heathen, and let them support their inquiries from the Scriptures alone: they will then be unable to keep their ground. For that which commends men’s common sense is its very simplicity, and its participation in the same feelings, and its community of opinions; and it is deemed to be all the more trustworthy, inasmuch as its definitive statements are naked and open, and known to all. Divine reason, on the contrary, lies in the very pith and marp. 548 row of things, not on the surface, and very often is at variance with appearances. [Tertullian On the Resurrection of the Flesh 3]
1.20 - Epiphanius Panarion 69 20 § 4 (p.170, l.8 - <) BP4; 73 6 § 2 (p.275, l.22 - *<) BP4; 73 6 § 5 (p.276, l.6 - *<) BP4; 73 10 § 1 (p.280, l.21 - *) BP4; 76 20 § 13 (p.367, l.22) BP4
1.21 - Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1 88 § 3 (p.56, l.24) BP1
1.21 - Tertullian Against Marcion Aduersus Marcionem 2 2 § 5 (p.476, l.11) BP1; 5 5 § 7 (p.676, l.2) BP1; 5 5 § 7 (p.677, l.6 - *) BP1
Epiphanius 1.21 - 69 20 § 4 (p.170, l.6 - <) BP4; 73 6 § 2 (p.275, l.19 - *) BP4
1.22 - Justin Dialogue 38 § 2 (p.170, l.2) BP1
1.22 - Clement of Alexandria Instructor 1 16 § 3 (p.100, l.1) BP1
1.22 - Philosophy came into existence, not on its own account, but for the advantages reaped by us from knowledge, we receiving a firm persuasion of true perception, through the knowledge of things comprehended by the mind. For I do not mention that the Stromata, forming a body of varied erudition, wish artfully to conceal the seeds of knowledge. As, then, he who is fond of hunting captures the game after seeking, tracking, scenting, hunting it down with dogs; so truth, when sought and got with toil, appears a delicious 1838 thing. Why, then, you will ask, did you think it fit that such an arrangement should be adopted in your memoranda? Because there is great danger in divulging the secret of the true philosophy to those, whose delight it is unsparingly to speak against everything, not justly; and who shout forth all kinds of names and words indecorously, deceiving themselves and beguiling those who adhere to them. “For the Hebrews seek signs,” as the apostle says, “and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” [Clement Stromata 1.2] 1 21 § 3 (p.14, l.18) BP1
1.22 - Clement of Alexandria Stromata 1 88 § 4 (p.57, l.1) BP1
1.22 - “Because the Jews require signs,” who ought to have already made up their minds about God, “and the Greeks seek after wisdom,” 5408 who rely upon their own wisdom, and not upon God’s. If, however, it was a new god that was being preached, what sin had the Jews committed, in seeking after signs to believe; or the Greeks, when they hunted after a wisdom which they would prefer to accept? Thus the very retribution which overtook both Jews and Greeks proves that God is both a jealous God and a Judge, inasmuch as He infatuated the world’s wisdom by an angry 5409 and a judicial retribution. Since, then, the causes 5410 are in the hands of Him who gave us the Scriptures which we use, it follows that the apostle, when treating of the Creator, (as Him whom both Jew and Gentile as yet have) not known, means undoubtedly to teach us, that the God who is to become known (in Christ) is the Creator. The very “stumbling-block” which he declares Christ to be “to the Jews,” 5411 points unmistakeably 5412 to the Creator’s prophecy respecting Him, when by Isaiah He says: “Behold I lay in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.” 5413 This rock or stone is Christ. 5414 This stumbling-stone Marcion retains still. [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.5] 5 5 § 7 (p.677, l.15) BP1
1.23 - Epiphanius Panarion 69 34 § 6 (p.183, l.10 - * >) BP4; 76 35 § 12 (p.385, l.25) BP4
1.23 - Eclogae ex scripturis propheticis 27 § 6 (p.145, l.8) BP1
1.23 - Stromata 1 88 § 3 (p.56, l.24) BP1; 1 88 § 4 (p.57, l.1) BP1; 5 25 § 4 (p.341, l.22 - P) BP1; 6 127 § 1 (p.496, l.8) BP1
1.24 - Eclogae ex scripturis propheticis 27 § 6 (p.145, l.8) BP1
1.24 - Excerpta e Theodoto (SAGNARD F., SC 23 (1948)) - 4 § 2 (p.60, l.3) BP1; 12 § 3 (p.82, l.24) BP1; 27 § 6 (p.118, l.3) BP1
1.24 - Stromata 1 88 § 8 (p.57, l.12) BP1; 1 89 § 3 (p.57, l.24) BP1; 1 90 § 1 (p.57, l.31) BP1; 1 100 § 1 (p.63, l.30) BP1; 1 169 § 3 (p.105, l.23) BP1; 1 174 § 3 (p.108, l.11) BP1; 2 52 § 7 (p.141, l.21) BP1; 6 47 § 3 (p.455, l.29) BP1; 6 127 § 2 (p.496, l.11) BP1 7 7 § 4 (p.7, l.11) BP1
1.24 - Although at one time philosophy justified the Greeks, 2026 not conducting them to that entire righteousness to which it is ascertained to cooperate, as the first and second flight of steps help you in your ascent to the upper room, and the grammarian helps the philosopher. Not as if by its abstraction, the perfect Word would be rendered incomplete, or truth perish; since also sight, and hearing, and the voice contribute to truth, but it is the mind which is the appropriate faculty for knowing it. But of those things which co-operate, some contribute a greater amount of power; some, a less. Perspicuity accordingly aids in the communication of truth, and logic in preventing us from falling under the heresies by which we are assailed. But the teaching, which is according to the Saviour, is complete in itself and without defect, being “the power and wisdom of God;” 2027 and the Hellenic philosophy does not, by its approach, make the truth more powerful; but rendering powerless the assault of sophistry against it, and frustrating the treacherous plots laid against the truth, is said to be the proper “fence and wall of the vineyard.” [Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.20]
1.24 - And if the flock figuratively spoken of as belonging to the Lord is nothing but a flock of men, then He Himself is the good Shepherd and Lawgiver of the one flock, “of the sheep who hear Him,” the one who cares for them, “seeking,” and finding by the law and the word, “that which was lost;” since, in truth, the law is spiritual and leads to felicity. For that which has arisen through the Holy Spirit is spiritual. And he is truly a legislator, who not only announces what is good and noble, but understands it. The law of this man who possesses knowledge is the saving precept; or rather, the law is the precept of knowledge. For the Word is “the power and the wisdom of God.” 2113 Again, the expounder of the laws is the same one by whom the law was given; the first expounder of the divine commands, who unveiled the bosom of the Father, the only-begotten Son. Then those who obey the law, since they have some knowledge of Him, cannot disbelieve or be ignorant of the truth. But those who disbelieve, and have shown a repugnance to engage in the works of the law, whoever else may, certainly confess their ignorance of the truth. [Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.26]
1.24 - One righteous man, then, differs not, as righteous, from another righteous man, whether he be of the Law or a Greek. For God is not only Lord of the Jews, but of all men, and more nearly the Father of those who know Him. For if to live well and according to the law is to live, also to live rationally according to the law is to live; and those who lived rightly before the Law were classed under faith, 3273 and judged to be righteous,—it is evident that those, too, who were outside of the Law, having lived rightly, in consequence of the peculiar nature of the voice, 3274 though they are in Hades and in ward, 3275 on hearing the voice of the Lord, whether that of His own person or that acting through His apostles, with all speed turned and believed. For we remember that the Lord is “the power of God,” 3276 and power can never be weak. So I think it is demonstrated that the God being good, and the Lord powerful, they save with a righteousness and equality which extend to all that turn to Him, whether here or elsewhere. For it is not here alone that the active power of God is beforehand, but it is everywhere and is always at work. [Clement Stromata 6.6]
1.24 - Adamantius Dialogues (p.172, l.17 - <) BP2
1.24 - Acts of Thomas 1 WRIGHT W., Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles, 2, London 1871, 146-298. (p.154, l.9) BP2 (p.245, l.18) BP2
1.24 - Theognostus Hypotyposeis 4 (p.77, l.1 - < >) BP2; 4 (p.78, l.4 - >) BP2
1.24 - Pseudo Hippolytus Against All Heresies 1 § 5 (p.1402, l.19 - *) BP2
1.24 - If, now, it is in this sense that He stretches out the heavens alone, how is it that these heretics assume their position so perversely, as to render inadmissible the singleness of that Wisdom which says, When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him? Proverbs 8:27 — even though the apostle asks, Who has knownthe mind of the Lord, or who has been His counsellor? Romans 11:34 meaning, of course, to except that wisdom which was present with Him. Proverbs 8:30 In Him, at any rate, and with Him, did (Wisdom) construct the universe, He not being ignorant of what she was making. Except Wisdom, however, is a phrase of the same sense exactly as except the Son, who is Christ, the Wisdom and Power ofGod, 1 Corinthians 1:24 according to the apostle, who only knows the mind of the Father. For whoknows the things that be in God, except the Spirit which is in Him? 1 Corinthians 2:11 Not, observe,without Him. There was therefore One who caused God to be not alone, except alone from all othergods. But (if we are to follow the heretics), the Gospel itself will have to be rejected, because it tells us that all things were made by God through the Word, without whom nothing was made. John 1:3 And if I am not mistaken, there is also another passage in which it is written: By the Word of the Lordwere the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by His Spirit. [Tertullian Against Praxeas 19]
1.24 - The wisdom of the Lord-His Son. In the apostle: "Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God; "114 and in Solomon: "The wisdom of the Lord reacheth from one end to the other mightily." [Melito of Sardis]
1.24 - Christ, the power ... Origen
1.25 - Isaiah even so early, with the clearness of an apostle, foreseeing the thoughts of heretical hearts, asked, Who has known the mind of the Lord? For who has been His counsellor? With whom took He counsel?...or who taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding? With whom the apostle agreeing exclaims, Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!Romans 11:33 His judgments unsearchable, as being those of God the Judge; and His ways past finding out, as comprising an understanding and knowledge which no man has ever shown to Him, except it may be those critics of the Divine Being, who say, God ought not to have been this, and He ought rather to have been that; as if any one knew what is in God, except the Spirit of God.1 Corinthians 2:11 Moreover, having the spirit of the world, and in the wisdom of God by wisdomknowing not God, 1 Corinthians 1:21 they seem to themselves to be wiser than God; because, as the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, so also the wisdom of God is folly in the world's esteem. We, however, know that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1:25 Accordingly, God is then especially great, when He is small to man; then especially good, when not good in man's judgment; then especially unique, when He seems to man to be two or more. Now, if from the very first the natural man, not receiving the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Corinthians 2:14 has deemed God's law to be foolishness, and has therefore neglected to observe it; and as a further consequence, by his not having faith, even that which he seems to have has been taken from him — such as the grace of paradise and the friendship of God, by means of which he might have known all things of God, if he had continued in his obedience— what wonder is it, if he, reduced to his material nature, and banished to the toil of tilling the ground, has in his very labour, downcast and earth-gravitating as it was, handed on that earth-derived spirit of the world to his entire race, wholly natural and heretical as it is, and not receiving the things which belong to God? Or who will hesitate to declare the great sin of Adam to have been heresy, when he committed it by the choice of his own will rather than of God's? Except that Adam never said to his fig-tree, Why have you made me thus? He confessed that he was led astray; and he did not conceal the seducer. He was a very rude heretic. He was disobedient; but yet he did not blaspheme hisCreator, nor blame that Author of his being, Whom from the beginning of his life he had found to be sogood and excellent, and Whom he had perhaps made his own judge from the very first. [Tertullian Against Marcion 2.2] 2 2 § 5 (p.476, l.15) BP1
1.25, etc Now, what is that “foolishness of God which is wiser than men,” but the cross and death of Christ? What is that “weakness of God which is stronger than men,” 5416 but the nativity and incarnation 5417 of God? If, however, Christ was not born of the Virgin, was not constituted of human flesh, and thereby really suffered neither death nor the cross, there was nothing in Him either of foolishness or weakness; nor is it any longer true, that “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;” nor, again, hath “God chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty;” nor “the base things” and the least things “in the world, and things which are despised, which are even as nothing” (that is, things which really 5418 are not), “to bring to nothing things which are” (that is, which really are). 5419 For nothing in the dispensation of God is found to be mean, and ignoble, and contemptible. Such only occurs in man’s arrangement. The very Old Testament of the Creator 5420 itself, it is possible, no doubt, to charge with foolishness, and weakness, and dishonour and meanness, and contempt. What is more foolish and more weak than God’s requirement of bloody sacrifices and of savoury holocausts? What is weaker than the cleansing of vessels and of beds? 5421 What more dishonourable than the discoloration of the reddening skin? 5422 What so mean as the statute of retaliation? What so contemptible as the exception in meats and drinks? The whole of the Old Testament, the heretic, to the best of my belief, holds in derision. For God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound its wisdom. Marcion’s god has no such discipline, because he does not take after 5423 (the Creator) in the process of confusing opposites by their opposites, so that “no flesh shall glory; but, as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” 5424 In what Lord? Surely in Him who gave this precept. 5425 Unless, forsooth, the Creator enjoined us to glory in the god of Marcion. [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.5]5 5 § 9 (p.677, l.3) BP1
1.25 - Epiphanius Panarion 73 6 § 2 (p.275, l.18 - *) BP4; 76 35 § 4 (p.384, l.17 - <) BP4
1.26 - Still more manifestly is that talk of theirs concerning their seed proved to be false, and that in a way which must be evident to every one, by the fact that they declare those souls which have received seed from the Mother to be superior to all others; wherefore also they have been honouredby the Demiurge, and constituted princes, and kings, and priests. For if this were true, the high priestCaiaphas, and Annas, and the rest of the chief priests, and doctors of the law, and rulers of the people, would have been the first to believe in the Lord, agreeing as they did with respect to that relationship; and even before them should have been Herod the king. But since neither he, nor the chief priests, nor the rulers, nor the eminent of the people, turned to Him [in faith], but, on the contrary, those who sat begging by the highway, the deaf, and the blind, while He was rejected and despised by others, according to what Paul declares, For you see your calling, brethren, that there are not many wise men among you, not many noble, not many mighty; but those things of the world which were despised has God chosen. Such souls, therefore, were not superior to others on account of the seed deposited in them, nor on this account were they honoured by the Demiurge. [Irenaeus AH 2.19.7]
1.26 - Clement Instructor 3 78 § 2 (p.279, l.17) BP1
1.26 - Acts of Thomas 1 § 28 (p.143, l.18 - )) BP2
1.27 - Gospel of Truth MALININE M., PUECH H.-Ch., QUISPEL G., Evangelium veritatis, Zürich 1956. (p.9, l.24) BP1
1.27 - Clement Instructor 3 78 § 2 (p.279, l.17) BP1
1.27 - Tertullian Against Marcion KROYMANN Aem., CCL 1 (1954), 441-726. 5 5 § 9 (p.677, l.8) BP1; 5 5 § 10 (p.678, l.22) BP; 5 6 § 1 (p.678, l.6) BP1; 5 19 § 8 (p.722, l.19) BP1
1.27 - But how remote is our (Catholic) verity from the artifices of this heretic, when it dreads to arouse the anger of God, and firmly believes that He produced all things out of nothing, and promises to us a restoration from the grave of the same flesh (that died) and holds without a blush that Christ was born of the virgin’s womb! At this, philosophers, and heretics, and the very heathen, laugh and jeer. For “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise”6084—that God, no doubt, who in reference to this very dispensation of His threatened long before that He would “destroy the wisdom of the wise.”6085Thanks to this simplicity of truth, so opposed to the subtlety and vain deceit of philosophy, we cannot possibly have any relish for such perverse opinions. [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.19]
1.27 - But, Marcion, consider well this Scripture, if indeed you have not erased it: “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise.”7000 Now what are those foolish things? Are they the conversion of men to the worship of the true God, the rejection of error, the whole training in righteousness, chastity, mercy, patience, and innocence? These things certainly are not “foolish.” Inquire again, then, of what things he spoke, and when you imagine that you have discovered what they are will you find anything to be so “foolish” as believing in a God that has been born, and that of a virgin, and of a fleshly nature too, who wallowed in all the before-mentioned humiliations of nature? But some one may say, “These are not the foolish things; they must be other things which God has chosen to confound the wisdom of the world.” And yet, according to the world’s wisdom, it is more easy to believe that Jupiter became a bull or a swan, if we listen to Marcion, than that Christ really became a man. [Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ 4]
1.27 - Now, when you contend that the flesh will still have to undergo the same sufferings, if the same flesh be said to have to rise again, you rashly set up nature against her Lord, and impiously contrast her law against His grace; as if it were not permitted the Lord God both to change nature, and to preserve her, without subjection to a law. How is it, then, that we read, "With men these things are impossible, but with God all things are possible;" and again, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise?" Let me ask you, if you were to manumit your slave (seeing that the same flesh and soul will remain to him, which once were exposed to the whip, and the fetter, and the stripes), will it therefore be fit for him to undergo the same old sufferings? I trow not. He is instead thereof honoured with the grace of the white robe, and the favour of the gold ring, and the name and tribe as well as table of his patron. Give, then, the same prerogative to God, by virtue of such a change, of reforming our condition, not our nature, by taking away from it all sufferings, and surrounding it with safeguards of protection. Thus our flesh shall remain even after the resurrection--so far indeed susceptible of suffering, as it is the flesh, and the same flesh too; but at the same time impassible, inasmuch as it has been liberated by the Lord for the very end and purpose of being no longer capable of enduring suffering. [Tertullian Resurrection of the Flesh 57]
1.27 - Well, butwith God nothing is impossible. Matthew 19:26 True enough; who can be ignorant of it? Who also can be unaware that the things which are impossible with men are possible with God? Luke 18:27 The foolish things also of the world has God chosen to confound the things which are wise.1 Corinthians 1:27 We have read it all. Therefore, they argue, it was not difficult for God to make Himself both a Father and a Son, contrary to the condition of things among men. [Tertullian Against Praxeas 10]
1.27 - For what does it behove divine works to be in their quality, except that they be above all wonder? We also ourselves wonder, but it is because we believe. Incredulity, on the other hand, wonders, but does not believe: for the simple acts it wonders at, as if they were vain; the grand results, as if they were impossible. And grant that it be just as you think? sufficient to meet each point is the divine declaration which has fore-run: "The foolish things of the world hath God elected to confound its wisdom;" and, "The things very difficult with men are easy with God." For if God is wise and powerful (which even they who pass Him by do not deny), it is with good reason that He lays the material causes of His own operation in the 670 contraries of wisdom and of power, that is, in foolishness and impossibility; since every virtue receives its cause from those things by which it is called forth. Mindful of this declaration as of a conclusive prescript, we nevertheless proceed to treat the question, "How foolish and impossible it is to be formed anew by water. In what respect, pray, has this material substance merited an office of so high dignity?" The authority, I suppose, of the liquid element has to be examined. This however, is found in abundance, and that from the very beginning. For water is one of those things which, before all the furnishing of the world, were quiescent with God in a yet unshapen state. "In the first beginning," saith Scripture, "God made the heaven and the earth. But the earth was invisible, and unorganized, and darkness was over the abyss; and the Spirit of the Lord was hovering over the waters." The first thing, O man, which you have to venerate, is the age of the, waters in that their substance is ancient; the second, their dignity, in that they were the seat of the Divine Spirit, more pleasing to Him, no doubt, than all the other then existing elements. For the darkness was total thus far, shapeless, without the ornament of stars; and the abyss gloomy; and the earth unfurnished; and the heaven unwrought: water alone--always a perfect, gladsome, simple material substance, pure in itself--supplied a worthy vehicle to God. What of the fact that waters were in some way the regulating powers by which the disposition of the world thenceforward was constituted by God? For the suspension of the celestial firmament in the midst He caused by "dividing the waters;" the suspension of "the dry land" He accomplished by "separating the waters." After the world had been hereupon set in order through its elements, when inhabitants were given it, "the waters" were the first to receive the precept "to bring forth living creatures." Water was the first to produce that which had life, that it might be no wonder in baptism if waters know how to give life. For was not the work of fashioning man himself also achieved with the aid of waters? Suitable material is found in the earth, yet not apt for the purpose unless it be moist and juicy; which (earth) "the waters," separated the fourth day before into their own place, temper with their remaining moisture to a clayey consistency. If, from that time onward, I go forward in recounting universally, or at more length, the evidences of the "authority" of this element which I can adduce to show how great is its power or its grace; how many ingenious devices, how many functions, how useful an instrumentality, it affords the world, I fear I may seem to have collected rather the praises of water than the reasons of baptism; although I should thereby teach all the more fully, that it is not to be doubted that God has made the material substance which He has disposed throughout all His products and works, obey Him also in His own peculiar sacraments; that the material substance which governs terrestrial life acts as agent likewise in the celestial. But it will suffice to have this called at the outset those points in which withal is recognised that primary principle of baptism,--which was even then fore-noted by the very attitude assumed for a type of baptism,--that the Spirit of God, who hovered over (the waters) from the beginning, would continue to linger over the waters of the baptized. But a holy thing, of course, hovered over a holy; or else, from that which hovered over that which was hovered over borrowed a holiness, since it is necessary that in every case an underlying material substance should catch the quality of that which overhangs it, most of all a corporeal of a spiritual, adapted (as the spiritual is) through the subtleness of its substance, both for penetrating and insinuating. Thus the nature of the waters, sanctified by the Holy One, itself conceived withal the power of sanctifying. Let no one say, "Why then, are we, pray, baptized with the very waters which then existed in the first beginning?" Not with those waters, of course, except in so far as the genus indeed is one, but the species very many. But what is an attribute to the genus reappears likewise in the species. And accordingly it makes no difference whether a man be washed in a sea or a pool, a stream or a fount, a lake or a trough; nor is there any distinction between those whom John baptized in the Jordan and those whom Peter baptized in the Tiber, unless withal the eunuch whom Philip baptized in the midst of his journeys with chance water, derived (therefrom) more or less of salvation than others. All waters, therefore, in virtue of the pristine privilege of their origin, do, after invocation of God, attain the sacramental power of sanctification; for the Spirit immediately supervenes from the heavens, and rests over the waters, sanctifying them from Himself; and being thus sanctified, they imbibe at the same time the power of sanctifying. Albeit the similitude may be admitted to be suitable to the simple act; that, since we are defiled by sins, as it were by dirt, we should be washed from those stains in waters. But as sins do not 'show themselves in our flesh (inasmuch as no one carries on his skin the spot of idolatry, or fornication, or fraud), so persons of that kind are foul in the spirit, which is the author of the sin; for the spirit is lord, the flesh servant. Yet they each mutually share the guilt: the spirit, on the ground of command; the flesh, of subservience. Therefore, after the waters have been in a manner endued with medicinal virtue through the intervention of the angel, the spirit is corporeally washed in the waters, and the flesh is in the same spiritually cleansed. "Well, but the nations, who are strangers to all understanding of spiritual powers, ascribe to their idols the imbuing of waters with the self-same efficacy." (So they do) but they cheat themselves with waters which are widowed. For washing is the channel through which they are initiated into some sacred rites--of some notorious Isis or Mithras. The gods themselves likewise they honour by washings. [Tertullian On Baptism 2 - 5] BORLEFFS J.G.Ph., CCL 1 (1954), 277-295. 2 § 3 (p.278, l.21) BP1
1.27 - Tertullian Prescription REFOULE R.F., CCL 1 (1954), 187-224.
1.27 - nd although they had no mean glimpses of His "eternal power and Godhead," they nevertheless became "foolish in their imaginations," and their "foolish heart" was involved in darkness and ignorance as to the (true) worship of God. Moreover, we may see those who greatly pride themselves upon their wisdom and theology worshipping the image of a corruptible man, in honour, they say, of Him, and sometimes even descending, with the Egyptians, to the worship of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things! And although some may appear to have risen above such practices, nevertheless they will be found to have changed the truth of God into a lie, and to worship and serve the "creature more than the Creator." As the wise and learned among the Greeks, then, commit errors in the service which they render to God, God "chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and base things of the world, and things that are weak, and things which are despised, and things which are nought, to bring to nought things that are;" and this, truly, "that no flesh should glory in the presence of God." [Origen Contra Celsus 6.4]
1.28 - Tertullian Against Marcion 5 5 § 9 (p.677, l.8) BP1; 5 6 § 1 (p.678, l.6) BP1
1.29 - [This was done] that man, receiving an unhoped-forsalvation from God, might rise from the dead, and glorify God, and repeat that word which was uttered in prophecy by Jonah: I cried by reason of my affliction to the Lord my God, and He heard me out of the belly of hell; Jonah 2:2 and that he might always continue glorifying God, and giving thanks without ceasing, for that salvation which he has derived from Him, that no flesh should glory in theLord's presence; 1 Corinthians 1:29 and that man should never adopt an opposite opinion with regard to God, supposing that the incorruptibility which belongs to him is his own naturally, and by thus not holding the truth, should boast with empty superciliousness, as if he were naturally like to God. For he (Satan) thus rendered him (man) more ungrateful towards his Creator, obscured the love which Godhad towards man, and blinded his mind not to perceive what is worthy of God, comparing himself with, and judging himself equal to, God. [Irenaeus Against Heresies 3.20.1]
1.2
1.29 - (the Creator) in the process of confusing opposites by their opposites, so that "no flesh shall glory; but, as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.5] 5 5 § 10 (p.678, l.24) BP1
1.29 - Adamantius, Dialogues (p.42, l.9 - <) BP2
1.29 - From which it appears to me that the divine mysteries were concealed from the wise and prudent, according to the statement of Scripture, that "no flesh should glory before God," [Origen De Principiis 3]
1.30 - Let us therefore, brethren, be of humble mind, laying aside all haughtiness, and pride, and foolishness, and angry feelings; and let us act according to that which is written (for the Holy Spirit saith, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, neither let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in the Lord, in diligently seeking Him, and doing judgment and righteousness”55), being especially mindful of the words of the Lord Jesus which He spake, teaching us meekness and long-suffering. For thus He spoke: “Be ye merciful, that ye may obtain mercy; forgive, that it may be forgiven to you; as ye do, so shall it be done unto you; as ye judge, so shall ye be judged; as ye are kind, so shall kindness be shown to you; with what measure ye mete, with the same it shall be measured to you.” [1 Clement 13 Jer. ix. 23, 24; 1 Cor. i. 31; 2 Cor. x. 17.]
1.30 - Clement Stromata 6 61 § 1 (p.462, l.18) BP1
1.30 Theognostus Hypotyposeis HARNACK A., TU 24,3 (1903), 75-78. 4 (p.77, l.1 - < /) BP2; 4 (p.78, l.4 - /) BP2
1.30 - Acts of Thomas (p.190, l.2) BP2
1 Cor 1.30 - But I measure myself, that I may not perish through boasting: but it is good to glory in the Lord.[Ignatius to the Tarsians]
1 Cor 1.30 - I do not glory in the world, but in the Lord. I exhort Hero, my son; "but let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord." [Ignatius to Hero]
1.30, 31 - So also may we take the Scripture: And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ; 1 Corinthians 3:1 so that the carnal may be understood as those recently instructed, and still babes in Christ. For he called those who had already believed on the Holy Spirit spiritual, and those newly instructed and not yet purified carnal; whom with justice he calls still carnal, as minding equally with the heathen the things of the flesh:For whereas there is among you envy and strife, are you not carnal, and walk as men?1 Corinthians 3:3 Wherefore also I have given you milk to drink, he says; meaning, I have instilled into you the knowledge which, from instruction, nourishes up to life eternal. But the expression, I have given you to drink (ἐπότισα), is the symbol of perfect appropriation. For those who are full-grown are said to drink, babes to suck. For my blood, says the Lord, is true drink. John 6:55 In saying, therefore, I have given you milk to drink, has he not indicated the knowledge of the truth, theperfect gladness in the Word, who is the milk? And what follows next, not meat, for you were not able, may indicate the clear revelation in the future world, like food, face to face. For now we see as through a glass, the same apostle says, but then face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12 Wherefore also he has added, neither yet are you now able, for you are still carnal, minding the things of the flesh—desiring, loving, feeling jealousy, wrath, envy. For we are no more in the flesh, Romans 8:9 as some suppose. For with it [they say], having the face which is like an angel's, we shall see the promise face to face. How then, if that is truly the promise after our departure hence, say they that they know what eye has not known, nor has entered into the mind of man, who have not perceived by the Spirit, but received from instruction what ear has not heard, or that ear alone which was rapt up into the third heaven? But it even then was commanded to preserve it unspoken But if human wisdom, as it remains to understand, is the glorying in knowledge, hear the law ofScripture: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might; but let him that glories glory in the Lord. But we are God-taught, and glory in the name of Christ. How then are we not to regard the apostle as attaching this sense to the milk of the babes? And if we who preside over the Churches are shepherds after the image of the good Shepherd, and you the sheep, are we not to regard the Lord as preserving consistency in the use of figurative speech, when He speaks also of the milk of the flock? And to this meaning we may secondly accommodate the expression, I have given you milk to drink, and not given you food, for you are not yet able,regarding the meat not as something different from the milk, but the same in substance. For the very same Word is fluid and mild as milk, or solid and compact as meat. And entertaining this view, we may regard the proclamation of the Gospel, which is universally diffused, as milk; and as meat, faith, which from instruction is compacted into a foundation, which, being more substantial than hearing, is likened to meat, and assimilates to the soul itself nourishment of this kind. [Clement Instructor 1.6] 1 37 § 2 (p.112, l.13) BP1
1.30 - Tertullian Against Marcion 4 15 § 10 (p.579, l.8) BP1; 5 5 § 10 (p.678, l.25) BP1
1:30 - Adamantius Dialogues (p.42, l.9 - <) BP2
1.30 - Epiphanius Panarion 42 11 § 8 (p.121, l.7 - *<) BP4; 42 12 § 3 (p.159, l.26 - *<) BP4; 42 12 § 3 (p.159, l.28) BP4
Chapter 2
1 cor 2:2 Was not God really crucified? And, having been really crucified, did He not really die? And, having indeed really died, did He not really rise again? Falsely did Paul 7005 “determine to know nothing amongst us but Jesus and Him crucified;” 7006 falsely has he impressed upon us that He was buried; falsely inculcated that He rose again. [Tertullian on the Flesh of Christ 5] 1 cor 2:2 "For neither did I judge to know anything among you but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." (Tertullian, On Modesty 14) 1 cor 2:2 "Finally, to the Corinthians who were weak, Paul declares that he "knew nothing, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." (Origen De Principiis 4) 1 cor 2:4 Again, in the Epistle to the Corinthians he says: "For my speech and my preaching was not in the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." (Gregory Thaumaturgus A Sectional Confession of Faith) 1 cor 2.5 - This, then, “the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God,” and of those who are “the wise the Lord knoweth their thoughts that they are vain.”[1] Let no man therefore glory on account of pre-eminence in human thought. For it is written well in Jeremiah, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth that I am the Lord, that executeth mercy and judgment and righteousness upon the earth: for in these things is my delight, saith the Lord.”[2] “That we should trust not in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead,” says the apostle, “who delivered us from so great a death, that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” “For the spiritual man judgeth all things, but he himself is judged of no man.”[3] I hear also those words of his, “And these things I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words, or one should enter in to spoil you.”[4] And again, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ;”[5] branding not all philosophy, but the Epicurean, which Paul mentions in the Acts of the Apostles,[6] which abolishes providence and deifies pleasure, and whatever other philosophy honours the elements, but places not over them the efficient cause, nor apprehends the Creator. (Clement Stroamta 1.11) 1 cor 2:5 - Wherefore also the apostle exhorts, "that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men," (Ἵνα ἡ πίστις ἡμῶν μὴ ᾖ ἐν σοφίᾳ ἀνθρώπων) who profess to persuade, "but in the power of God," which alone without proofs, by mere faith, is able to save. "For the most approved of those that are reputable knows how to keep watch. And justice will apprehend the forger and witnesses of lies," says the Ephesian. For he, having derived his knowledge from the barbarian philosophy, is acquainted with the purification by fire (τὴν διὰ πυρὸς κάθαρσιν) of those who have led bad lives, which the Stoics afterwards called the Conflagration (ἐκπύρωσιν), in which also they teach that each will arise exactly as he was, so treating of the resurrection (Stromata 5.1) 1 cor 2.6 - They also assert that by Anna, who is spoken of in the gospel Luke 2:36 as aprophetess, and who, after living seven years with her husband, passed all the rest of her life inwidowhood until she saw the Saviour, and recognised Him, and spoke of Him to all, was most plainly indicated Achamoth, who, having for a little while looked upon the Saviour with His associates, and dwelling all the rest of the time in the intermediate place, waited for Him till He should come again, and restore her to her proper consort. Her name, too, was indicated by the Saviour, when He said, Yet wisdom is justified by her children. Luke 7:35 This, too, was done by Paul in these words, But we speak wisdom among them that are perfect. 1 Corinthians 2:6 They declare also that Paul has referred to the conjunctions within the Pleroma, showing them forth by means of one; for, when writing of the conjugal union in this life, he expressed himself thus: This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Ephesians 5:32 (Irenaeus 1.8.4) 1 cor 2.6 - For [they allege] that the truth was not delivered by means of written documents, but vivâ voce: wherefore also Pauldeclared, But we speak wisdom among those that are perfect, but not the wisdom of this world.1 Corinthians 2:6 And this wisdom each one of them alleges to be the fiction of his own inventing, forsooth; so that, according to their idea, the truth properly resides at one time in Valentinus, at another in Marcion, at another in Cerinthus, then afterwards in Basilides, or has even beenindifferently in any other opponent, who could speak nothing pertaining to salvation. For every one of these men, being altogether of a perverse disposition, depraving the system of truth, is not ashamed to preach himself. (Irenaeus AH 3.2.1) 1 cor 2:6 - Now God shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it so as to be conformable to, and modelled after, His own Son. For by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not [merely] a part of man, was made in the likeness of God. Now the soul and the spirit are certainly apart of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was moulded after the image of God. For this reason does the apostle declare, We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, 1 Corinthians 2:6 terming those persons perfect who have received the Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages, as he used Himself also to speak. In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages, and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and declare the mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms spiritual, they beingspiritual because they partake of the Spirit, and not because their flesh has been stripped off and taken away, and because they have become purely spiritual. For if any one take away the substanceof flesh, that is, of the handiwork [of God], and understand that which is purely spiritual, such then would not be a spiritual man but would be the spirit of a man, or the Spirit of God. But when the spirithere blended with the soul is united to [God's] handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfectbecause of the outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and likeness of God. But if the Spirit be wanting to the soul, he who is such is indeed of an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an imperfect being, possessing indeed the image [of God] in his formation (in plasmate), but not receiving the similitude through the Spirit; and thus is this being imperfect. Thus also, if any one take away the image and set aside the handiwork, he cannot then understand this as being a man, but as either some part of a man, as I have already said, or as something else than aman. For that flesh which has been moulded is not a perfect man in itself, but the body of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the soul itself, considered apart by itself, the man; but it is the soul of aman, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit a man, for it is called the spirit, and not a man; but the commingling and union of all these constitutes the perfect man. (Irenaeus 5.6.1) 1 cor 2.6 - 8 - Expressly then respecting all our Scripture, as if spoken in a parable, it is written in the Psalms, Hear, O My people, My law: incline your ear to the words of My mouth. I will open My mouth in parables, I will utter My problems from the beginning. Similarly speaks the nobleapostle to the following effect: Howbeit we speak wisdom among those that are perfect; yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought. But we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery; which none of the princes of this world knew. For had theyknown it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 - The philosophers did not exert themselves in contemning the appearance of the Lord. It therefore follows that it is the opinion of the wise among the Jews which the apostle inveighs against. Wherefore he adds, But we preach, as it is written, what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for them that love Him. For Godhas revealed it to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.1 Corinthians 2:9-10 For he recognises the spiritual man and the Gnostic as the disciple of the Holy Spiritdispensed by God, which is the mind of Christ. But the natural man receives not the things of theSpirit, for they are foolishness to him. 1 Corinthians 2:14 Now the apostle, in contradistinction tognostic perfection, calls the common faith the foundation, and sometimes milk, writing on this wise:Brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for you were not able. Neither yet are you now able. For you are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envy and strife, are you not carnal, and walk as men?1 Corinthians 3:1-3 Which things are the choice of those men who are sinners. But those who abstainfrom these things give their thoughts to divine things, and partake of gnostic food. According to thegrace, it is said, given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation. And another builds on it gold and silver, precious stones. 1 Corinthians 3:10-13 Such is the gnostic superstructure on the foundation of faith in Christ Jesus. But the stubble, and the wood, and the hay, are the additions of heresies. But the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. In allusion to thegnostic edifice also in the Epistle to the Romans, he says, For I desire to see you, that I may impart unto you a spiritual gift, that you may be established. Romans 1:11 It was impossible that gifts of this sort could be written without disguise. (Clement Stromata 5,4) 1 Cor 2:6 - Rightly then, Plato, in the Epistles, treating of God, says: We must speak in enigmas; that should the tablet come by any mischance on its leaves either by sea or land, he who reads may remain ignorant. For the God of the universe, who is above all speech, all conception, all thought, can never be committed to writing, being inexpressible even by His own power. And this too Plato showed, by saying: Considering, then, these things, take care lest some time or other you repent on account of the present things, departing in a manner unworthy. The greatest safeguard is not to write, but learn; for it is utterly impossible that what is written will not vanish. Akin to this is what the holy Apostle Paul says, preserving the prophetic and truly ancient secret from which the teachings that were good were derived by the Greeks: Howbeit we speak wisdom among them who are perfect; but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this world, that come to nought; but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery.1 Corinthians 2:6-7 Then proceeding, he thus inculcates the caution against the divulging of his words to the multitude in the following terms: And I, brethren, could not speak to you as tospiritual, but as to carnal, even to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for you were not yet able; neither are you now able. For you are yet carnal. 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 If, then, the milk is said by the apostle to belong to the babes, and meat to be the food of the full-grown, milk will be understood to be catechetical instruction— the first food, as it were, of the soul. And meat is the mystic contemplation; for this is the flesh and the blood of the Word, that is, the comprehension of the divine power and essence. Taste and see that the Lord is Christ, it is said. For so He imparts of Himself to those who partake of such food in a more spiritual manner; when now the soul nourishes itself, according to the truth-lovingPlato. For the knowledge of the divine essence is the meat and drink of the divine Word. Wherefore also Plato says, in the second book of the Republic, It is those that sacrifice not a sow, but some great and difficult sacrifice, who ought to inquire respecting God. And the apostle writes, Christ our passover was sacrificed for us; 1 Corinthians 5:7 — a sacrifice hard to procure, in truth, the Son of God consecrated for us. [Clement Stromata 5.10] 1 cor 2:6 - To these statements the apostle will testify: I know a man in Christ, caught up into the third heaven, and thence into Paradise, who heard unutterable words which it is not lawful for a man to speak,— intimating thus the impossibility of expressing God, and indicating that what is divine is unutterable by human power; if, indeed, he begins to speak above the thirdheaven, as it is lawful to initiate the elect souls in the mysteries there. For I know what is in Plato (for the examples from the barbarian philosophy, which are many, are suggested now by the composition which, in accordance with promises previously given, waits the suitable time). For doubting, in Timæus, whether we ought to regard several worlds as to be understood by many heavens, or this one, he makes no distinction in the names, calling the world and heaven by the same name. But the words of the statement are as follows: Whether, then, have we rightly spoken of one heaven, or of many and infinite? It were more correct to say one, if indeed it was created according to the model. Further, in the Epistle of the Romans to theCorinthians it is written, An ocean illimitable by men and the worlds after it. Consequently, therefore, the noble apostle exclaims, Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and theknowledge of God! Romans 11:3 And was it not this which the prophet meant, when he ordered unleavened cakes to be made, intimating that the truly sacred mystic word, respecting the unbegotten and His powers, ought to be concealed? In confirmation of these things, in the Epistle to the Corinthians the apostle plainly says: Howbeit we speak wisdom among those who are perfect, but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this world, that come to nought. But we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery. 1 Corinthians 2:6-7 And again in another place he says:To the acknowledgment of the mystery of God in Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:2-3 These things the Saviour Himself seals when He says: To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And again the Gospel says that the Saviour spoke to the apostles the word in a mystery. For prophecy says of Him: He will open His mouth in parables, and will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world. And now, by the parable of the leaven, the Lord shows concealment; for He says, The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Matthew 13:33 For the tripartite soul is saved byobedience, through the spiritual power hidden in it by faith; or because the power of the word which is given to us, being strong and powerful, draws to itself secretly and invisibly every one who receives it, and keeps it within himself, and brings his whole system into unity. Accordingly Solon has written most wisely respecting God thus:— It is most difficult to apprehend the mind's invisible measure Which alone holds the boundaries of all things. For the divine, says the poet of Agrigenturn, — Is not capable of being approached with our eyes, Or grasped with our hands; but the highway Of persuasion, highest of all, leads to men's minds. And John the apostle says: No man has seen God at any time. The only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him, John 1:18 — calling invisibility andineffableness the bosom of God. Hence some have called it the Depth, as containing and embosoming all things, inaccessible and boundless. [Clement of Alexandria stromata 5.12] 1 cor 2.6 - And when those who have been turned towards virtue have made progress, and have shown that they have been purified by the word, and have led as far as they can a better life, then and not before do we invite them to participation in our mysteries. "For we speak wisdom among them that are perfect." (Origen Contra Celsus 3) 1 Cor 2.6 - 8 - By all these statements, therefore, does he show us what God he means, when he says, “We speak the wisdom of God among them that are perfect.” 5426 It is that God who has confounded the wisdom of the wise, who has brought to nought the understanding of the prudent, who has reduced to folly 5427 the world’s wisdom, by choosing its foolish things, and disposing them to the attainment of salvation. This wisdom, he says, once lay hidden in things that were foolish, weak, and lacking in honour; once also was latent under figures, allegories, and enigmatical types; but it was afterwards to be revealed in Christ, who was set “as a light to the Gentiles,” 5428 by the Creator who promised through the mouth of Isaiah that He would discover “the hidden treasures, which eye had not seen.” 5429 Now, that that god should have ever hidden anything who had never made a cover wherein to practise concealment, is in itself a wholly incredible idea. If he existed, concealment of himself was out of the question—to say nothing 5430 of any of his religious ordinances. 5431 The Creator, on the contrary, was as well known in Himself as His ordinances were. These, we know, were publicly instituted 5432 in Israel; but they lay overshadowed with latent meanings, in which the wisdom of God was concealed, 5433 to be brought to light by and by amongst “the perfect,” when the time should come, but “pre-ordained in the counsels of God before the ages.” 5434 But whose ages, if not the Creator’s? For because ages consist of times, and times are made up of days, and months, and years; since also days, and months, and years are measured by suns, and moons, and stars, which He ordained for this purpose (for “they shall be,” says He, “for signs of the months and the years”), 5435 it clearly follows that the ages belong to the Creator, and that nothing of what was fore-ordained before the ages can be said to be the property of any other being than Him who claims the ages also as His own. Else let Marcion show that the ages belong to his god. He must then also claim the world itself for p. 441 him; for it is in it that the ages are reckoned, the vessel as it were 5436 of the times, as well as the signs thereof, or their order. But he has no such demonstration to show us. I go back therefore to the point, and ask him this question: Why did (his god) fore-ordain our glory before the ages of the Creator? I could understand his having predetermined it before the ages, if he had revealed it at the commencement of time. 5437 But when he does this almost at the very expiration of all the ages 5438 of the Creator, his predestination before the ages, and not rather within the ages, was in vain, because he did not mean to make any revelation of his purpose until the ages had almost run out their course. For it is wholly inconsistent in him to be so forward in planning purposes, who is so backward in revealing them.In the Creator, however, the two courses were perfectly compatible—both the predestination before the ages and the revelation at the end thereof, because that which He both fore-ordained and revealed He also in the intermediate space of time announced by the pre-ministration of figures, and symbols, and allegories. But because (the apostle) subjoins, on the subject of our glory, that “none of the princes of this world knew it, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,” 5439 the heretic argues that the princes of this world crucified the Lord (that is, the Christ of the rival god) in order that this blow might even recoil 5440 on the Creator Himself. Any one, however, who has seen from what we have already said how our glory must be regarded as issuing from the Creator, will already have come to the conclusion that, inasmuch as the Creator settled it in His own secret purpose, it properly enough was unknown to all the princes 5441 and powers of the Creator, on the principle that servants are not permitted to know their masters’ plans, much less the fallen angels and the leader of transgression himself, the devil; for I should contend that these, on account of their fall, were greater strangers still to any knowledge of the Creator’s dispensations. But it is no longer open to me 5442 even to interpret the princes and powers of this world as the Creator’s, since the apostle imputes ignorance to them, whereas even the devil according to our Gospel recognised Jesus in the temptation, 5443 and, according to the record which is common to both (Marcionites and ourselves) the evil spirit knew that Jesus was the Holy One of God, and that Jesus was His name, and that He was come to destroy them. 5444 The parable also of the strong man armed, whom a stronger than he overcame and seized his goods, is admitted by Marcion to have reference to the Creator: 5445 therefore the Creator could not have been ignorant any longer of the God of glory, since He is overcome by him; 5446 nor could He have crucified him whom He was unable to cope with. The inevitable inference, therefore, as it seems to me, is that we must believe that the princes and powers of the Creator did knowingly crucify the God of glory in His Christ, with that desperation and excessive malice with which the most abandoned slaves do not even hesitate to slay their masters. For it is written in my Gospel 5447 that “Satan entered into Judas.” 5448 According to Marcion, however, the apostle in the passage under consideration 5449 does not allow the imputation of ignorance, with respect to the Lord of glory, to the powers of the Creator; because, indeed, he will have it that these are not meant by “the princes of this world.” But (the apostle) evidently 5450 did not speak of spiritual princes; so that he meant secular ones, those of the princely people, (chief in the divine dispensation, although) not, of course, amongst the nations of the world, and their rulers, and king Herod, and even Pilate, and, as represented by him, 5451 that power of Rome which was the greatest in the world, and then presided over by him. Thus the arguments of the other side are pulled down, and our own proofs are thereby built up. But you still maintain that our glory comes from your god, with whom it also lay in secret. Then why does your god employ the self-same Scripture 5452 which the apostle also relies on? What has your god to do at all with the sayings of the prophets? “Who hath discovered the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor?” 5453 So says Isaiah. What has he also to do with illustrations from our God? For when (the apostle) calls himself “a wise master-builder,” 5454 we find that the Creator by Isaiah designates the teacher who sketches 5455 out the divine discipline by the same title, “I will take away from Judah the cunning artifip. 442 cer,” 5456 etc. [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.6] 1 cor 2.8 - For if they had been branches of the Father, they would not have been "enemies of the cross of Christ,"(12) but rather of those who "killed the Lord of glory."(13) But now, by denying the cross, and being ashamed of the passion, they cover the transgression of the Jews, those fighters against God, those murderers of the Lord; for it were too little to style them merely murderers of the prophets. But Christ invites you to [share in] His immortality, by His passion and resurrection, inasmuch as ye are His members. [Ignatius Trallians 11] 1 cor 2.8 - For if the Lord were a mere man, possessed of a soul and body only, why dost thou mutilate and explain away His being born with the common nature of humanity? Why dost thou call the passion a mere appearance, as if it were any strange thing happening to a [mere] man? And why dost thou reckon the death of a mortal to be simply an imaginary death? But if, [on the other hand, ] He is both God and man, then why dost thou call it unlawful to style Him "the Lord of glory," [Ignatius Philadelphians 5] 1 cor 2.8 - Now, this expression, “If thou be the Son,” is an indication of ignorance. For if thou hadst possessed real knowledge, thou wouldst have understood that the Creator can with equal ease both create what does not exist, and change that which already has a being. And thou temptedst by means of hunger1338 1338 Or, “the belly.” Him who nourisheth all that require food. And thou temptedst the very “Lord of glory,”13391339 1 Cor. ii. 8. forgetting in thy malevolence that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” [Ignatius Philadelphians 9] 1 cor 2,9 - For [the Scripture] saith, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which He hath prepared for them that wait for Him." [1 clement 34] 1 cor 2,9 - For they kept before their view escape from that fire which is eternal and never shall be quenched, and looked forward with the eyes of their heart to those good things which are laid up for such as endure; things "which ear hath not heard, nor eye seen, neither have entered into the heart of man," [Martyrdom of Polycarp] 1 cor 2.9 - The apostle, too, hasconfessed that the creation shall be free from the bondage of corruption, [so as to pass] into the liberty of the sons of God. Romans 8:21 And in all these things, and by them all, the sameGod the Father is manifested, who fashioned man, and gave promise of the inheritance of the earth to the fathers, who brought it (the creature) forth [from bondage] at the resurrection of the just, and fulfils the promises for the kingdom of His Son; subsequently bestowing in a paternal manner those things which neither the eye has seen, nor the ear has heard, nor has [thought concerning them] arisen within the heart of man, 1 Corinthians 2:9; Isaiah 64:4 For there is the one Son, who accomplished His Father's will; and one human race also in which themysteries of God are wrought, which the angels desire to look into; 1 Peter 1:12 and they are not able to search out the wisdom of God, by means of which His handiwork, confirmed and incorporated with His Son, is brought to perfection; that His offspring, the First-begotten Word, should descend to the creature (facturam), that is, to what had been moulded (plasma), and that it should be contained by Him; and, on the other hand, the creature should contain the Word, and ascend to Him, passing beyond the angels, and be made after the image and likeness of God. [Irenaeus 5.36.3] 1 cor 2.9 - seek immortality, He will give life everlasting, joy, peace, rest, and abundance of good things, which neither hath eye seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. [Theophilus Autocylus 1] 1 cor 2.9 - Let us not then be enslaved or become swinish; but, as true children of the light, let us raise our eyes and look on the light, lest the Lord discover us to be spurious, as the sun does the eagles. Let us therefore repent, and pass from ignorance to knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom, from licentiousness to self-restraint, from unrighteousness to righteousness, fromgodlessness to God. It is an enterprise of noble daring to take our way to God; and the enjoyment of many other good things is within the reach of the lovers of righteousness, who pursueeternal life, specially those things to which God Himself alludes, speaking by Isaiah: There is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord . Isaiah 54:17 Noble and desirable is this inheritance: not gold, not silver, not raiment, which the moth assails, and things of earth which are assailed by the robber, whose eye is dazzled by worldly wealth; but it is that treasure of salvation to which we must hasten, by becoming lovers of the Word. Thence praise-worthy works descend to us, and fly with us on the wing of truth. This is the inheritance with which theeternal covenant of God invests us, conveying the everlasting gift of grace; and thus our loving Father— the true Father— ceases not to exhort, admonish, train, love us. For He ceases not to save, and advises the best course: Become righteous, says the Lord. You that thirst, come to the water; and you that have no money, come, and buy and drink without money.Isaiah 55:1 He invites to the laver, to salvation, to illumination, all but crying out and saying, The land I give you, and the sea, my child, and heaven too; and all the living creatures in them I freely bestow upon you. Only, O child, thirst for your Father; God shall be revealed to you without price; the truth is not made merchandise of. He gives you all creatures that fly and swim, and those on the land. These the Father has created for your thankful enjoyment. What the bastard, who is a son of perdition, foredoomed to be the slave of mammon, has to buy for money, He assigns to you as your own, even to His own son who loves the Father; for whose sake He still works, and to whom alone He promises, saying, The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for it is not destined to corruption. For the whole land is mine; and it is yours too, if you receive God. Wherefore the Scripture, as might have been expected, proclaims goodnews to those who have believed. The saints of the Lord shall inherit the glory of God and His power. What glory, tell me, O blessed One, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man; 1 Corinthians 2:9 and they shall be glad in the kingdom of their Lord for ever and ever! Amen. You have, O men, the divine promise of grace; you have heard, on the other hand, the threatening of punishment: by these the Lord saves, teaching men by fear and grace. Why do we delay? Why do we not shun the punishment? Why do we not receive the free gift? [Exhortation 10] 1 cor 2.9 - Let us then avoid custom as we would a dangerous headland, or the threatening Charybdis, or the mythic sirens. It chokes man, turns him away from truth, leads him away from life: custom is a snare, a gulf, a pit, a mischievous winnowing fan.“Urge the ship beyond that smoke and billow.” Let us shun, fellow-mariners, let us shun this billow; it vomits forth fire: it is a wicked island, heaped with bones and corpses, and in it sings a fair courtesan, Pleasure, delighting with music for the common ear.“Hie thee hither, far-famed Ulysses, great glory of the Achæans;Moor the ship, that thou mayest hears diviner voice.”[2]She praises thee, O mariner, and calls the eillustrious; and the courtesan tries to win to herself the glory of the Greeks. Leave her to prey on the dead; a heavenly spirit comes to thy help: pass by Pleasure, she beguiles.“Let not a woman with flowing train cheat you of your senses,With her flattering prattle seeking your hurt.” Sail past the song; it works death. Exert your will only, and you have overcome ruin; bound to the wood of the cross, thou shalt be freed from destruction: the word of God will be thy pilot, and the Holy Spirit will bring thee to anchor in the haven of heaven. Then shalt thou see my God, and be initiated into the sacred mysteries, and come to the fruition of those things which are laid up in heaven reserved for me, which “ear hath not heard, nor have they entered into the heart of any.”[3]“And in sooth methinks I see two suns, And a double Thebes,”[4]said one frenzy-stricken in the worship of idols, intoxicated with mere ignorance. I would pity him in his frantic intoxication, and thus frantic I would invite him to the sobriety of salvation; for the Lord welcomes a sinner’s repentance, and not his death. [Exhortation 12] 1 cor 2,9 - And let not their ears be pierced, contrary to nature, in order to attach to them ear-rings and ear-drops. For it is not right to force nature against her wishes. Nor could there be any better ornament for the ears than true instruction, which finds its way naturally into the passages of hearing. And eyes anointed by the Word, and ears pierced for perception, make a man a hearer and contemplator of divine and sacred things, the Word truly exhibiting the true beauty “which eye hath not seen nor ear heard before.”15731573 1 Cor. ii. 9. [Instructor 2,13] 1 cor 2,9 - “If ye shall hear me, ye shall eat the good of the land,” the Instructor again says, calling by the appellation “the good of the land,” beauty, wealth, health, strength, sustenance. For those things which are really good, are what “neither ear hath heard, not hath ever entered into the heart”1743 respecting Him who is really King, and the realities truly good which await us. For He is the giver and the guard of good things. And with respect to their participation, He applies the same names of things in this world, the Word thus training in God the feebleness of men from sensible things to understanding. [Clement Instructor 2,12] 1 cor 2.9 - Wherefore also the Word says, "Call no man master on earth."[4] For knowledge is a state of mind that results from demonstration; but faith is a grace which from what is indemonstrable conducts to what is universal and simple, what is neither with matter, nor matter, nor under matter. But those who believe not, as to be expected, drag all down from heaven, and the region of the invisible, to earth, "absolutely grasping with their hands rocks and oaks," according to Plato. For, clinging to all such things, they asseverate that that alone exists which can be touched and handled, defining body and essence to be identical: disputing against themselves, they very piously defend the existence of certain intellectual and bodiless forms descending somewhere from above from the invisible world, vehemently maintaining that there is a true essence. "Lo, I make new things," saith the Word, "which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man."[5] With a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, whatever can be seen and heard is to be apprehended, by the faith and understanding of the disciples of the Lord, who speak, hear, and act spiritually. For there is genuine coin, and other that is spurious; which no less deceives unprofessionals, that it does not the money-changers; who know through having learned how to separate and distinguish what has a false stamp from what is genuine. So the money-changer only says to the unprofessional man that the coin is counterfeit. But the reason why, only the banker's apprentice, and he that is trained to this department, learns. [Clement Stromata 2.4] 1 cor 2.9,10 - The philosophers did not exert themselves in contemning the appearance of the Lord. It therefore follows that it is the opinion of the wise among the Jews which the apostle inveighs against. Wherefore he adds, But we preach, as it is written, what eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and has not entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for them that love Him. For God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 For he recognises the spiritual man and theGnostic as the disciple of the Holy Spirit dispensed by God, which is the mind of Christ. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him.1 Corinthians 2:14 Now the apostle, in contradistinction to gnostic perfection, calls the common faith the foundation, and sometimes milk, writing on this wise: Brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for you were not able. Neither yet are you now able. For you are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envy and strife, are you not carnal, and walk as men? 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 Which things are the choice of those men who are sinners. But those who abstain from these things give their thoughts to divine things, and partake of gnostic food. According to the grace, it is said, given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation. And another builds on it gold and silver, precious stones. 1 Corinthians 3:10-13 Such is the gnostic superstructure on the foundation of faith in Christ Jesus. But the stubble, and the wood, and the hay, are the additions of heresies. But the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. In allusion to the gnostic edifice also in the Epistle to the Romans, he says, For I desire to see you, that I may impart unto you a spiritual gift, that you may be established. Romans 1:11 It was impossible that gifts of this sort could be written without disguise. 1 cor 2,9 - But on the other side hear the Saviour: I regenerated you, who were ill born by the world to death. I emancipated, healed, ransomed you. I will show you the face of the good FatherGod. Call no man your father on earth. Let the dead bury the dead; but follow Me. For I will bring you to a rest of ineffable and unutterable blessings, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of men; into which angels desire to look, and see what good things God has prepared for the saints and the children who love Him.1 Corinthians 2:9; 1 Peter 1:12 I am He who feeds you, giving Myself as bread, of which he who has tasted experiences death no more, and supplying day by day the drink of immortality. I am teacher of supercelestial lessons. For you I contended with Death, and paid your death, which you owed for your former sins and your unbelief towards God. [QDS 23] 1 cor 2,9 - So again in Isaiah, “Ye shall eat the good of the land,” 7466 the expression means the blessings which await the flesh when in the kingdom of God it shall be renewed, and made like the angels, and waiting to obtain the things “which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man.” 7467 Otherwise, how vain that God should invite men to obedience by the fruits of the field and the elements of this life, when He dispenses these to even irreligious men and blasphemers; on a general condition once for all made to man, “sending rain on the good and on the evil, and making His sun to shine on the just and on the unjust!” 7468 Happy, no doubt, is faith, if it is to obtain gifts which the enemies of God and Christ not only use, but even abuse, “worshipping the creature itself in opposition to the Creator!” 7469 You will reckon, (I suppose) onions and truffles among earth’s bounties, since the Lord declares that “man shall not live on bread alone!” 7470 In this way the Jews lose heavenly blessings, by confining their hopes to earthly ones, being ignorant of the promise of heavenly bread, and of the oil of God’s unction, and the wine of the Spirit, and of that water of life which has its vigour from the vine of Christ. On exactly the same principle, they consider the special soil of Judæa to be that very holy land, which ought rather to be interpreted of the Lord’s flesh, which, in all those who put on Christ, is thenceforward the holy land; holy indeed by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, truly flowing with milk and honey by the sweetness of His assurance, truly Judæan by reason of the friendship of God. [Tertullan on the resurrection fo the flesh 26] 1 cor 2,9 - From which comparison it may be conceived how great are the comeliness, and splendour, and brilliancy of a spiritual body; and how true it is, that "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what God hath prepared for them that love Him." [Origen de principiis 3] 1 cor 2,9 - But swear, says Justinus, if you wish to know “what eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and the things which have not entered into the heart;”560 that is, if you wish to know Him who is good above all, Him who is more exalted, (swear) that you will preserve the secrets (of the Justinian) discipline, as intended to be kept silent. For also our Father, on beholding the Good One, and on being initiated with Him, preserved the mysteries respecting which silence is enjoined, and sware, as it has been written, “The Lord sware, and will not repent.”561 Having, then, in this way set the seal to these tenets, he seeks to inveigle (his followers) with more legends, (which are detailed) through a greater number of books; and so he conducts (his readers) to the Good One, consummating the initiated (by admitting them into) the unspeakable Mysteries.562 In order, however, that we may not wade through more of their volumes, we shall illustrate the ineffable Mysteries (of Justinus) from one book of his, inasmuch as, according to his supposition, it is (a work) of high repute. Now this volume is inscribed Baruch; and one fabulous account out of many which is explained by (Justinus) in this (volume), we shall point out, inasmuch as it is to be found in Herodotus. But after imparting a different shape to this (account), he explains it to his pupils as if it were something novel, being under the impression that the entire arrangement of his doctrine (springs) out of it. [Hippolytus Refut. 5.19] 1 cor 2,9 - When Elohim had prepared and created the world as a result from joint pleasure, He wished to ascend up to the elevated parts of heaven, and to see that not anything of what pertained to the creation laboured under deficiency. And He took His Own angels with Him, for His nature was to mount aloft, leaving Edem below: for inasmuch as she was earth, she was not disposed to follow upward her spouse. Elohim, then, coming to the highest part of heaven above, and beholding a light superior to that which He Himself had created, exclaimed, "Open me the gates, that entering in I may acknowledge the Lord; for I considered Myself to be Lord." A voice was returned to Him from the light, saying, "This is the gate of the Lord: through this the righteous enter in." And immediately the gate was opened, and the Father, without the angels, entered, (advancing) towards the Good One, and beheld "what eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and what hath not entered into the heart of man to (conceive)." Then the Good One says to him, "Sit thou on my right hand." And the Father says to the Good One, "Permit me, Lord, to overturn the world which I have made, for my spirit is bound to men. And I wish to receive it back (from them." [Hippolytus Refut 5.21] 1 cor 2,9 - Hence also, in the first book inscribed "Baruch," has been written the oath which they compel those to swear who are about to hear these mysteries, and be initiated with the Good One. And this oath, (Justinus) says, our Father Elohim sware when He was beside the Good One, and having sworn He did not repent (of the oath), respecting which, he says, it has been written, "The Lord sware, and will not repent." Now the oath is couched in these terms: "I swear by that Good One who is above all, to guard these mysteries, and to divulge them to no one, and not to relapse from the Good One to the creature." And when he has sworn this oath, he goes on to the Good One, and beholds "whatever things eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man;" and he drinks from life-giving water, which is to them, as they suppose, a bath, a fountain of life-giving, bubbling water. For there has been a separation made between water and water; and there is water, that below the firmament of the wicked creation, in which earthly and animal men are washed; and there is life-giving water, (that) above the firmament, of the Good One, in which spiritual (and) living men are washed; and in this Elohim washed Himself. and having washed did not repent. And when, he says, the prophet affirms, "Take unto yourself a wife of whoredom, since the earth has abandoned itself to fornication, (departing) from (following) after the Lord;" that is, Edem (departs) from Elohim. (Now) in these words, he says, the prophet clearly declares the entire mystery, and is not hearkened unto by reason of the wicked machinations of Naas. According to that same manner, they deliver other prophetical passages in a similar spirit of interpretation throughout numerous books. The volume, however, inscribed "Baruch," is pre-eminently to them the one in which the reader will ascertain the entire explanation of their legendary system (to be contained). Beloved, though I have encountered many heresies, yet with no wicked (heresiarch) worse than this (Justinus) has it been my lot to meet. But, in truth, (the followers of Justinus) ought to imitate the example of his Hercules, and to cleanse, as the saying is, the cattle-shed of Augias, or rather I should say, a ditch, into which, as soon as the adherents of this (heresiarch) have fallen, they can never be cleansed; nay, they will not be able even to raise their heads. [Hippolytus 5.22] 1 cor 2,9 - Let us therefore serve God with a pure heart, and we shall be righteous; but if we do not serve Him, because we believe not the promise of God, we shall be miserable. For the prophetic word also declares, “Wretched are those of a double mind, and who doubt in their heart, who say, All these things4386 have we heard even in the times of our fathers; but though we have waited day by day, we have seen none of them [accomplished]. Ye fools! compare yourselves to a tree; take, for instance, the vine. First of all it sheds its leaves, then the bud appears; after that the sour grape, and then the fully-ripened fruit. So, likewise, my people have borne disturbances and afflictions, but afterwards shall they receive their good things.”4387 Wherefore, my brethren, let us not be of a double mind, but let us hope and endure, that we also may obtain the reward. For He is faithful who has promised that He will bestow on every one a reward according to his works. If, therefore, we shall do righteousness in the sight of God, we shall enter into His kingdom, and shall receive the promises, which “ear hath not heard, nor eye seen, neither have entered into the heart of man.” Let us expect, therefore, hour by hour, the kingdom of God in love and righteousness, since we know not the day of the appearing of God. For the Lord Himself, being asked by one when His kingdom would come, replied, "When two shall be one, and that which is without as that which is within, and the male with the female, neither male nor female."78 Now, two are one when we speak the truth one to another, and there is unfeignedly one soul in two bodies. And "that which is without as that which is within" meaneth this: He calls the soul "that which is within," and the body "that which is without." As, then, thy body is visible to sight, so also let thy soul be manifest by good works. And "the male with the female, neither male nor female," this79 ... [The newly recovered portion follows: ]80 - ... meaneth,81 that a brother seeing a sister should think nothing82 about her as of a female, nor she83 think anything about him as of a male. If ye do these things, saith He,84 the kingdom of my Father shall come. Therefore, brethren,86 let us now at length repent; let us be sober unto what is good; for we are full of much folly and wickedness. Let us blot out from us our former sins, and repenting from the soul let us be saved; and let us not become87 men-pleasers, nor let us desire to please only one another,88but also the men that are without, by our righteousness, that the Name89 be not blasphemed on account of us.90 For the Lord also saith "Continually91 My name is blasphemed among all the Gentiles,"92 and again, "Woe93 to him on account of whom My name is blasphemed." Wherein is it blasphemed? In your not doing what I desire.94 For the Gentiles, when they hear from our mouth the oracles of God,95 marvel at them as beautiful and great; afterwards, when they have learned that our works are not worthy of the words we speak, they then turn themselves to blasphemy, saying that it is some fable and delusion. For when they hear from us that God saith,96 "There is no thank unto you, if ye love them that love you; but there is thank unto you, if ye love your enemies and them that hate you; "97 when they hear these things, they marvel at the excellency of the goodness; but when they see that we not only do not love them that hate us, but not even them that love us, they laugh us to scorn, and the Name is blasphemed. Wherefore,98 brethren, if we do the will of God our Father, we shall be of the first Church, that is, spiritual, that hath been created before the sun and moon;99 but if we do not the will of the Lord, we shall be of the scripture that saith, "My house was made a den of robbers."100 So then let us choose to be of the Church of life,101 that we may be saved. I do not, however, suppose ye are ignorant that the living Church is the body of Christ;102 for the Scripture saith, "God made man, male and female."103 The male is Christ, the female is the Church. And the Books104 and the Apostles plainly declare105 that the Church is not of the present, but from the beginning.106 For she was spiritual, as our Jesus also was, but was manifested In the last days that He107 might save us. Now the Church, being spiritual, was manifested in the flesh of Christ, thus signifying to us that, if any of us keep108 her in the flesh and do not corrupt her, he shall receive her again109 in the Holy Spirit: for this flesh is the copy of the spirit. No one then who corrupts the copy, shall partake of the original.110 This then is what He meaneth, "Keep the flesh,111 that ye may partake of the spirit." But if we say that the flesh is the Church and the spirit Christ,112 then he that hath shamefully used the flesh hath shamefully used the Church. Such a one then shall not partake of the spirit, which is Christ. Such life and incorruption this flesh113 can partake of, when the Holy Spirit is joined to it. No one can utter or speak "what the Lord hath prepared" for His elect.11 Now I do not think I have given you any light counsel concerning self-control,115 which if any one do he will not repent of it, but will save both himself and me who counselled him[2 Clement 11] 1 cor 2.9 - But we speak about the upper world, about God and angels, about ambrosial food, about garments that last and become not old, about those things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath there come into the heart of sinful men what God has prepared for those that love Him [Acts of his Holy Apostle Thomas] 1 cor 2.10 - But we shall not be wrong if we affirm the same thing also concerning the substance of matter, that God produced it. For we have learned from the Scriptures that God holds the supremacy over all things. But whence or in what way He produced it, neither has Scripture anywhere declared; nor does it become us to conjecture, so as, in accordance with our own opinions, to form endless conjectures concerning God, but we should leave such knowledge in the hands of God Himself. In like manner, also, we must leave the cause why, while all things were made by God, certain of His creatures sinned and revolted from a state of submission to God, and others, indeed the great majority, persevered, and do still persevere, in [willing] subjection to Him who formed them, and also of what nature those are who sinned, and of what nature those who persevere, -- [we must, I say, leave the cause of these things] to God and His Word, to whom alone He said, "Sit at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool."(3) But as for us, we still dwell upon the earth, and have not yet sat down upon His throne. For although the Spirit of the Saviour that is in Him "searcheth all things, even the deep things of God,"(4) yet as to us "there are diversities of gifts, differences of administrations, and diversities of operations;"(5) and we, while upon the earth, as Paul also declares, "know in part, and prophesy in part."(6) Since, therefore, we know but in part, we ought to leave all sorts of [difficult] questions in the hands of Him who in some measure, [and that only,] bestows grace on us. That eternal fire, [for instance,] is prepared for sinners, both the Lord has plainly declared, and the rest of the Scriptures demonstrate. And that God fore-knew that this would happen, the Scriptures do in like manner demonstrate, since He prepared eternal fire from the beginning for those who were [afterwards] to transgress [His commandments]; but the cause itself of the nature of such transgressors neither has any Scripture informed us, nor has an apostle told us, nor has the Lord taught us. It becomes us, therefore, to leave the knowledge of this matter to God, even as the Lord does of the day and hour [of judgment], and not to rush to such an extreme of danger, that we will leave nothing in the hands of God, even though we have received only a measure of grace [from Him in this world]. [Irenaeus AH 2,28,7] 1 cor 2:10 - “For the wise man,” who has been persuaded to obey the commandments, “having heard these things, will become wiser” by knowledge; and “the intelligent man will acquire rule, and will understand a parable and a dark word, the sayings and enigmas of the wise.”2167 For it is not spurious words which those inspired by God and those who are gained over by them adduce, nor is it snares in which the most of the sophists entangle the young, spending their time on nought true. But those who possess the Holy Spirit “search the deep things of God,”2168—that is, grasp the secret that is in the prophecies. “To impart of holy things to the dogs” is forbidden, so long as they remain beasts. For never ought those who are envious and perturbed, and still infidel in conduct, shameless in barking at investigation, to dip in the divine and clear stream of the living water. “Let not the waters of thy fountain overflow, and let thy waters spread over thine own streets.”2169 For it is not many who understand such things as they fall in with; or know them even after learning them, though they think they do, according to the worthy Heraclitus. Does not even he seem to thee to censure those who believe not? “Now my just one shall live by faith," [stromata 2.2] 1 cor 2.10 - Those even who claim God as their teacher, with difficulty attain to a conception of God, grace aiding them to the attainment of their modicum of knowledge; accustomed as they are to contemplate the will [of God] by the will, and the Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit. "For the Spirit searches the deep things of God. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit."[8] The only wisdom, therefore, is the God-taught wisdom we possess; on which depend all the sources of wisdom, which make conjectures at the truth. [Clement Stromata 6.18] 1 cor 2.10, 14 - But you do not even deny God intelligently, you treat of Him ignorantly; nay, you accuse Him with a semblance of intelligence, whom if you did but know Him, you would never accuse, nay, never treat of. You give Him His name indeed, but you deny the essential truth of that name, that is, the greatness which is called God; not acknowledging it to be such as, were it possible for it to have beenknown to man in every respect, would not be greatness. Isaiah even so early, with the clearness of an apostle, foreseeing the thoughts of heretical hearts, asked, Who has known themind of the Lord? For who has been His counsellor? With whom took He counsel?...or who taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding? With whom the apostleagreeing exclaims, Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! Romans 11:33 His judgments unsearchable, as being those of God the Judge; and His ways past finding out, as comprising an understanding and knowledge which no man has ever shown to Him, except it may be those critics of the Divine Being, who say, God ought not to have been this, and He ought rather to have been that; as if any one knew what is in God, except the Spirit of God.1 Corinthians 2:11 Moreover, having the spirit of the world, and in the wisdom of God by wisdom knowing not God, 1 Corinthians 1:21 they seem to themselves to be wiser than God; because, as the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, so also the wisdom of God is folly in the world's esteem. We, however, know that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1:25 Accordingly, God is then especially great, when He is small to man; then especially good, when not good in man'sjudgment; then especially unique, when He seems to man to be two or more. Now, if from the very first the natural man, not receiving the things of the Spirit of God, 1 Corinthians 2:14has deemed God's law to be foolishness, and has therefore neglected to observe it; and as a further consequence, by his not having faith, even that which he seems to have has been taken from him — such as the grace of paradise and the friendship of God, by means of which he might have known all things of God, if he had continued in his obedience— what wonder is it, if he, reduced to his material nature, and banished to the toil of tilling the ground, has in his very labour, downcast and earth-gravitating as it was, handed on that earth-derived spiritof the world to his entire race, wholly natural and heretical as it is, and not receiving the things which belong to God? Or who will hesitate to declare the great sin of Adam to have beenheresy, when he committed it by the choice of his own will rather than of God's? Except that Adam never said to his fig-tree, Why have you made me thus? He confessed that he was led astray; and he did not conceal the seducer. He was a very rude heretic. He was disobedient; but yet he did not blaspheme his Creator, nor blame that Author of his being, Whom from the beginning of his life he had found to be so good and excellent, and Whom he had perhaps made his own judge from the very first. [Tertullian Against Marcion 2.2] 1 cor 2.11 - If any material was necessary to God in the creation of the world, as Hermogenes supposed, God had a far nobler and more suitable one in His own wisdom6291—one which was not to be gauged by the writings of6292philosophers, but to be learnt from the words or prophets. This alone, indeed, knew the mind of the Lord. For “who knoweth the things of God, and the things in God, but the Spirit, which is in Him?”6293 Now His wisdom is that Spirit. [Tertullian Against Hermogenes 18] 1 cor 2.13 - There is then in philosophy, though stolen as the fire by Prometheus, a slender spark, capable of being fanned into flame, a trace of wisdom and an impulse from God. Well, be it so that "the thieves and robbers" are the philosophers among the Greeks, who from the Hebrew prophets before the coming of the Lord received fragments of the truth, not with full knowledge, and claimed these as their own teachings, disguising some points, treating others sophistically by their ingenuity, and discovering other things, for perchance they had "the spirit of perception."(195) Aristotle, too, assented to Scripture, and declared sophistry to have stolen wisdom, as we intimated before. And the apostle says, "Which things we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth."(196) For of the prophets it is said, "We have all received of His fulness,"(197) that is, of Christ's. So that the prophets are not thieves. "And my doctrine is not Mine," saith the Lord, "but the Father's which sent me." And of those who steal He says: "But he that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory."(198) Such are the Greeks, "lovers of their own selves, and boasters."(199) Scripture, when it speaks of these as wise, does not brand those who are really wise, but those who are wise in appearance. Chapter XVIII.-He Illustrates the Apostle's Saying, "I Will Destroy the Wisdom of the Wise." And of such it is said, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise: I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." The apostle accordingly adds, "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? "setting in contradistinction to the scribes, the disputers(200) of this world, the philosophers of the Gentiles. "Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? " [Strom 1.17] 1 cor 2. 13 - But since they will believe neither in what is good justly nor in knowledge unto salvation, we ourselves reckoning what they claim as belonging to us, because all things are God’s; and especially since what is good proceeded from us to the Greeks, let us handle those things as they are capable of hearing. For intelligence or rectitude this great crowd estimates not by truth, but by what they are delighted with. And they will be pleased not more with other things than with what is like themselves. For he who is still blind and dumb, not having understanding, or the undazzled and keen vision of the contemplative soul, which the Saviour confers, like the uninitiated at the mysteries, or the unmusical at dances, not being yet pure and worthy of the pure truth, but still discordant and disordered and material, must stand outside of the divine choir. “For we compare spiritual things with spiritual.”2995 Wherefore, in accordance with the method of concealment, the truly sacred Word, truly divine and most necessary for us, deposited in the shrine of truth, was by the Egyptians indicated by what were called among them adyta, and by the Hebrews by the veil. Only the consecrated—that is, those devoted to God, circumcised in the desire of the passions for the sake of love to that which is alone divine—were allowed access to them. For Plato also thought it not lawful for “the impure to touch the pure.” [Clement Stromata 5.4] 1 Cor 2.13, 14 - These are, he says, what are by all called the secret mysteries, “which (also we speak), not in words taught of human wisdom, but in those taught of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.”[28] And these are, he says, the ineffable mysteries of the Spirit, which we alone are acquainted with. Concerning these, he says, the Saviour has declared, “No one can come unto me, except my heavenly Father draw some one unto me.”[29] For it is very difficult, he says, to accept and receive this great and ineffable mystery. And again, it is said, the Saviour has declared, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”[30] And it is necessary that they who perform this (will), not hear it merely, should enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again, he says, the Saviour has declared, “The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven before you.”[31] For “the publicans,” he says, are those who receive the revenues[32] of all things;[33] but we, he says, are the publicans, “unto whom the ends of the ages have come.” [Hippolytus Ref. 5.4] 1 cor 2.13, 14 - or, being orally instructed by Christ, who was seated near, he began to acquire wisdom, (inasmuch as he thereby) learns who is the Non-Existent One, what the Sonship (is), what the Holy Spirit (is), what the apparatus of the universe (is), and what is likely to be the consummation of things. This is the wisdom spoken in a mystery, concerning which, says (Basilides), Scripture uses the following expressions: “Not in words taught of human wisdom, but in (those) taught of the Spirit.”839 The Archon, then, being orally instructed, and taught, and being (thereby) filled with fear, proceeded to make confession concerning the sin which He had committed in magnifying Himself. This, he says, is what is declared: “I have recognised my sin, and I know my transgression, (and) about this I shall confess for ever.” [Hippolytus 7.14] 1 Cor 2.14, 15 - For, according to their teaching, the woman represented Sophia; the three measures of meal, the three kinds of men— spiritual, animal, and material; while the leaven denoted the Saviour Himself. Paul, too, very plainly set forth the material, animal, and spiritual, saying in one place, As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; 1 Corinthians 15:48 and in another place, But the animal man receives not the things of the Spirit; 1 Corinthians 2:14 and again: He that is spiritual judges all things. 1 Corinthians 2:15 And this, The animal man receives not the things of the Spirit, they affirm to have been spoken concerning the Demiurge, who, as being animal, knew neither his mother who was spiritual, nor her seed, nor the Æons in the Pleroma. And that the Saviour received first-fruits of those whom He was to save, Pauldeclared when he said, And if the first-fruits be holy, the lump is also holy, Romans 11:16 teaching that the expression first-fruits denoted that which is spiritual, but that the lumpmeant us, that is, the animal Church, the lump of which they say He assumed, and blended it with Himself, inasmuch as He is the leaven. [Irenaeus AH 1.8.3] 1 Cor 2.14 - A spiritual disciple of this sort truly receiving the Spirit of God, who was from the beginning, in all the dispensations of God, present with mankind, and announced things future, revealedthings present, and narrated things past— [such a man] does indeed judge all men, but is himself judged by no man. For he judges the Gentiles, who serve the creature more than theCreator, Romans 1:21 and with a reprobate mind spend all their labour on vanity. And he also judges the Jews, who do not accept of the word of liberty, nor are willing to go forth free, although they have a Deliverer present [with them]; but they pretend, at a time unsuitable [for such conduct], to serve, [with observances] beyond [those required by] the law, God who stands in need of nothing, and do not recognise the advent of Christ, which He accomplished for the salvation of men, nor are willing to understand that all the prophets announced His twoadvents: the one, indeed, in which He became a man subject to stripes, and knowing what it is to bear infirmity, Isaiah 53:3 and sat upon the foal of an ass, Zechariah 9:9 and was a stone rejected by the builders, and was led as a sheep to the slaughter, Isaiah 53:7 and by the stretching forth of His hands destroyed Amalek; Exodus 17:11 while He gathered from the ends of the earth into His Father's fold the children who were scattered abroad, Isaiah 11:12 and remembered His own dead ones who had formerly fallen asleep, and came down to them that He might deliver them: but the second in which He will come on the clouds, Daniel 7:13 bringing on the day which burns as a furnace, Malachi 4:1 and smiting the earth with the word of His mouth, Isaiah 11:4 and slaying the impious with the breath of His lips, and having a fan in His hands, and cleansing His floor, and gathering the wheat indeed into His barn, but burning the chaff with unquenchable fire. Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17 [Irenaeus AH 4.33.1] 1 Cor 2.14 - Now the law has figuratively predicted all these, delineating man by the [various] animals: Leviticus 11:2; Deuteronomy 14:3, etc. whatsoever of these, says [the Scripture], have a double hoof and ruminate, it proclaims as clean; but whatsoever of them do not possess one or other of these [properties], it sets aside by themselves as unclean. Who then are the clean? Those who make their way by faith steadily towards the Father and the Son; for this is denoted by the steadiness of those which divide the hoof; and they meditate day and night upon the words of God, that they may be adorned with good works: for this is the meaning of the ruminants. The unclean, however, are those which do neither divide the hoof nor ruminate; that is, those persons who have neither faith in God, nor do meditate on His words: and such is the abomination of the Gentiles. But as to those animals which do indeed chew the cud, but have not the double hoof, and are themselves unclean, we have in them a figurative description of the Jews, who certainly have the words of God in their mouth, but who do not fix their rooted steadfastness in the Father and in the Son; wherefore they are an unstable generation. For those animals which have the hoof all in one piece easily slip; but those which have it divided are more sure-footed, their cleft hoofs succeeding each other as they advance, and the one hoof supporting the other. In like manner, too, those are unclean which have the double hoof but do not ruminate: this is plainly an indication of all heretics, and of those who do not meditate on the words of God, neither are adorned with works of righteousness; to whom also theLord says, Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say to you? Luke 6:46 For men of this stamp do indeed say that they believe in the Father and the Son, but they never meditate as they should upon the things of God, neither are they adorned with works of righteousness; but, as I have already observed, they have adopted the lives of swine and of dogs, giving themselves over to filthiness, to gluttony, and recklessness of all sorts. Justly, therefore, did the apostle call all such carnal and animal, — [all those, namely], who through their own unbelief and luxury do not receive the Divine Spirit, and in their various phases cast out from themselves the life-giving Word, and walk stupidly after their own lusts: theprophets, too, spoke of them as beasts of burden and wild beasts; custom likewise has viewed them in the light of cattle and irrational creatures; and the law has pronounced themunclean. [Irenaeus 5.8.4] 1 Cor 2.14 - True4858 knowledge, then, consists [Ir in the understanding of Christ, which Paul terms the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery, which “the natural man receiveth not,”4859 the doctrine of the cross; of which if any man “taste,”4860 he will not accede to the disputations and quibbles of proud and puffed-up men,4861 who go into matters of which they have no perception.4862 For the truth is unsophisticated (ἀσχημάτιστος); and “the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart,”4863 as the same apostle declares, being easy of comprehension to those who are obedient. For it renders us like to Christ, if we experience “the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.”4864 For this is the affinity4865 of the apostolical teaching and the most holy “faith delivered unto us,”4866 which the unlearned receive, and those of slender knowledge have taught, not “giving heed to endless genealogies,”4867 but studying rather [to observe] a straightforward course of life; lest, having been deprived of the Divine Spirit, they fail to attain to the kingdom of heaven. For truly the first thing is to deny one’s self and to follow Christ; and those who do this are borne onward to perfection, having fulfilled all their Teacher’s will, becoming sons of God by spiritual regeneration, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven; those who seek which first shall not be forsaken. [Irenaeus Fragment 36] 1 Cor 2.14 - And only by those whom the Spirit of God dwells in and fortifies are the bodies of the demons easily seen, not at all by others,-I mean those who possess only soul; [Tatian Address to the Greeks] 1 Cor 2.14 - But since this tradition is not published alone for him who perceives the magnificence of the word; it is requisite, therefore, to hide in a mystery the wisdom spoken, which the Son of God taught. Now, therefore, Isaiah the prophet has his tongue purified by fire, so that he may be able to tell the vision. And we must purify not the tongue alone, but also the ears, if we attempt to be partakers of the truth. Such were the impediments in the way of my writing. And even now I fear, as it is said, “to cast the pearls before swine, lest they tread them under foot, and turn and rend us.” 1940 For it is difficult to exhibit the really pure and transparent words respecting the true light, to swinish and untrained hearers. For scarcely could anything which they could hear be more ludicrous than these to the multitude; nor any subjects p. 313 on the other hand more admirable or more inspiring to those of noble nature. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him.” 1941 But the wise do not utter with their mouth what they reason in council. “But what ye hear in the ear,” says the Lord, “proclaim upon the houses;” 1942 bidding them receive the secret traditions 1943 of the true knowledge, and expound them aloft and conspicuously; and as we have heard in the ear, so to deliver them to whom it is requisite; but not enjoining us to communicate to all without distinction, what is said to them in parables. But there is only a delineation in the memoranda, which have the truth sowed sparse 1944 and broadcast, that it may escape the notice of those who pick up seeds like jackdaws; but when they find a good husbandman, each one of them will germinate and produce corn. [Clement Strom 1.12] 1 cor 2.14 - The philosophers did not exert themselves in contemning the appearance of the Lord. It therefore follows that it is the opinion of the wise among the Jews which the apostle inveighs against it. Wherefore he adds, "But we preach, as it is written, what eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and hath not entered into the heart of man, what God hath prepared for them that love Him. For God hath revealed it to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God." For he recognises the spiritual man and the Gnostic as the disciple of the Holy Spirit dispensed by God, which is the mind of Christ. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him." Now the apostle, in contradistinction to gnostic perfection, calls the common faith the foundation, and sometimes milk, writing on this wise:"Brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for ye were not able. Neither yet are ye now able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envy and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? " Which things are the choice of those men who are sinners. But those who abstain from these things give their thoughts to divine things, and partake of gnostic food. "According to the grace," it is said, "given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and something else is built thereon with gold and silver, precious stones." Such is the gnostic superstructure on the foundation of faith in Christ Jesus. But "the stubble, and the wood, and the hay," are the additions of heresies. [Strom. 5.4] 1 Cor 2.14 - With whom the apostle agreeing exclaims, “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!”2712 “His judgments unsearchable,” as being those of God the Judge; and “His ways past finding out,” as comprising an understanding and knowledge which no man has ever shown to Him, except it may be those critics of the Divine Being, who say, God ought not to have been this,2713 and He ought rather to have been that; as if any one knew what is in God, except the Spirit of God.27142714 1 Cor. ii. 11. Moreover, having the spirit of the world, and “in the wisdom of God by wisdom knowing not God,”2715 they seem to themselves to be wiser2716 than God; because, as the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, so also the wisdom of God is folly in the world’s esteem. We, however, know that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”27172717 1 Cor. i. 25. Accordingly, God is then especially great, when He is small2718 to man; then especially good, when not good in man’s judgment; then especially unique, when He seems to man to be two or more. Now, if from the very first “the natural man, not receiving the things of the Spirit of God,”2719 has deemed God’s law to be foolishness, and has therefore neglected to observe it; and as a further consequence, by his not having faith, “even that which he seemeth to have hath been taken from him”2720—such as the grace of paradise and the friendship of God, by means of which he might have known all things of God, if he had continued in his obedience—what wonder is it, if he,2721 reduced to his material nature, and banished to the toil of tilling the ground, has in his very labour, downcast and earth-gravitating as it was, handed on that earth-derived spirit of the world to his entire race, wholly natural2722 and heretical as it is, and not receiving the things which belong to God? Or who will hesitate to declare the great sin of Adam to have been heresy, when he committed it by the choice2723 of his own will rather than of God’s? Except that Adam never said to his fig-tree, Why hast thou made me thus? He confessed that he was led astray; and he did not conceal the seducer. He was a very rude heretic. He was disobedient; but yet he did not blaspheme his Creator, nor blame that Author of his being, Whom from the beginning of his life he had found to be so good and excellent, and Whom he had perhaps2724 made his own judge from the very first. [Tertullian Against MArcion 2.2] 1 Cor 2.14 - This, he says, is what has been written in Scripture: On this account I bend my knees to the God and Father andLord of our Lord Jesus Christ, that God would grant you to have Christ dwelling in the inner man, Ephesians 3:14-18 — that is, the natural (man), not the corporeal (one),— that you may be able to understand what is the depth, which is the Father of the universe, and what is the breadth, which is Staurus, the limit of the Pleroma, or what is the length, that is, the Pleroma of the Aeons. Wherefore, he says, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; 1 Corinthians 2:14 but folly, he says, is the power of the Demiurge, for he was foolish and devoid of understanding, and imagined himself to be fabricating the world. He was, however, ignorant that Sophia, the Mother, the Ogdoad, was really the cause of all the operations performed by him who had no consciousness in reference to the creation of the world. [Hippolytus ref 6.29] Chapter 3 1 cor 3,1 - 3 - But the childhood which is in Christ is maturity, as compared with the law. Having reached this point, we must defend our childhood. And we have still to explain what is said by the apostle: I have fed you with milk (as children in Christ), not with meat; for you were not able, neither yet are you now able. 1 Corinthians 3:2 For it does not appear to me that the expression is to be taken in a Jewish sense; for I shall oppose to it also that Scripture, I will bring you into that good land which flows with milk and honey. Exodus 3:8 A very great difficulty arises in reference to the comparison of these Scriptures, when we consider. For if the infancy which is characterized by the milk is the beginning of faith in Christ, then it is disparaged as childish and imperfect. How is the rest that comes after the meat, the rest of the man who is perfect and endowed with knowledge, again distinguished by infant milk? Does not this, as explaining a parable, mean something like this, and is not the expression to be read somewhat to the following effect: I have fed you with milk in Christ; and after a slight stop, let us add, as children, that by separating the words in reading we may make out some such sense as this: I have instructed you in Christ with simple, true, and natural nourishment—namely, that which is spiritual: for such is the nourishingsubstance of milk swelling out from breasts of love. So that the whole matter may be conceived thus: As nurses nourish new-born children on milk, so do I also by the Word, the milk of Christ, instilling into you spiritual nutriment. Thus, then, the milk which is perfect is perfect nourishment, and brings to that consummation which cannot cease. Wherefore also the same milk and honey were promised in the rest. Rightly, therefore, the Lord again promises milk to the righteous, that the Word may be clearly shown to be both, theAlpha and Omega, beginning and end; Revelation 1:8 the Word being figuratively represented as milk. Something like this Homer oracularly declares against his will, when he calls righteous men milk-fed (γαλακτοφάγοι). So also may we take the Scripture: And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ; 1 Corinthians 3:1 so that the carnal may be understood as those recently instructed, and still babes in Christ. For he called those who had already believed on the Holy Spirit spiritual, and those newly instructed and not yet purified carnal; whom with justice he calls still carnal, as minding equally with the heathen the things of the flesh:For whereas there is among you envy and strife, are you not carnal, and walk as men?1 Corinthians 3:3 Wherefore also I have given you milk to drink, he says; meaning, I have instilled into you the knowledge which, from instruction, nourishes up to life eternal. But the expression, I have given you to drink (ἐπότισα), is the symbol of perfect appropriation. For those who are full-grown are said to drink, babes to suck. [Clement of Alexandria, Instructor 1.6] 1 cor 3.1 - The philosophers did not exert themselves in contemning the appearance of the Lord. It therefore follows that it is the opinion of the wise among the Jews which the apostle inveighs against it. Wherefore he adds, “But we preach, as it is written, what eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and hath not entered into the heart of man, what God hath prepared for them that love Him. For God hath revealed it to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God.” For he recognises the spiritual man and the Gnostic as the disciple of the Holy Spirit dispensed by God, which is the mind of Christ. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him.” Now the apostle, in contradistinction to gnostic perfection, calls the common faith the foundation, and sometimes milk, writing on this wise: “Brethren, I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for ye were not able. Neither yet are ye now able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envy and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” Which things are the choice of those men who are sinners. But those who abstain from these things give their thoughts to divine things, and partake of gnostic food. “According to the grace,” it is said, “given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation. And another buildeth on it gold and silver, precious stones.” Such is the gnostic superstructure on the foundation of faith in Christ Jesus. But “the stubble, and the wood, and the hay,” are the additions of heresies. “But the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is.” In allusion to the gnostic edifice also in the Epistle to the Romans, he says, “For I desire to see you, that I may impart unto you a spiritual gift, that ye may be established.” It was impossible that gifts of this sort could be written without disguise. [Clement Stromata 5.4] 1 cor 3.1 - Rightly then, Plato, in the Epistles, treating of God, says: “We must speak in enigmas that should the tablet come by any mischance on its leaves either by sea or land, he who reads may remain ignorant.” For the God of the universe, who is above all speech, all conception, all thought, can never be committed to writing, being inexpressible even by His own power. And this too Plato showed, by saying: “Considering, then, these things, take care lest some time or other you repent on account of the present things, departing in a manner unworthy. The greatest safeguard is not to write, but learn; for it is utterly impossible that what is written will not vanish.” Akin to this is what the holy Apostle Paul says, preserving the prophetic and truly ancient secret from which the teachings that were good were derived by the Greeks: “Howbeit we speak wisdom among them who are perfect; but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this world, that come to nought; but we speak the wisdom of God hidden in a mystery.” Then proceeding, he thus inculcates the caution against the divulging of his words to the multitude in the following terms: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, even to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, not with meat: for ye were not yet able; neither are ye now able. For ye are yet carnal.” If, then, “the milk” is said by the apostle to belong to the babes, and “meat” to be the food of the full-grown, milk will be understood to be catechetical instruction—the first food, as it were, of the soul. And meat is the mystic contemplation; for this is the flesh and the blood of the Word, that is, the comprehension of the divine power and essence. “Taste and see that the Lord is Christ,” it is said. For so He imparts of Himself to those who partake of such food in a more spiritual manner; when now the soul nourishes itself, according to the truth-loving Plato. For the knowledge of the divine essence is the meat and drink of the divine Word. Wherefore also Plato says, in the second book of the Republic, “It is those that sacrifice not a sow, but some great and difficult sacrifice,” who ought to inquire respecting God. And the apostle writes, “Christ our passover was sacrificed for us”;—a sacrifice hard to procure, in truth, the Son of God consecrated for us. [Clement Stromata 5.10] 1 cor 3.2 - Since, therefore, it is incredible that the apostles were either ignorant of the whole scope of the message which they had to declare,21392139 Plenitudinem prædicationis. or failed to make known to all men the entire rule of faith, let us see whether, while the apostles proclaimed it, perhaps, simply and fully, the churches, through their own fault, set it forth otherwise than the apostles had done. All these suggestions of distrust21402140 Scrupulositatis.you may find put forward by the heretics. They bear in mind how the churches were rebuked by the apostle: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?”21412141 Gal. iii. 1. and, “Ye did run so well; who hath hindered you?”21422142 Gal. v. 7. and how the epistle actually begins: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him, who hath called you as His own in grace, to another gospel.”21432143 Gal. i. 6. That they likewise (remember), what was written to the Corinthians, that they “were yet carnal,” who “required to be fed with milk,” being as yet “unable to bear strong meat;”21442144 1 Cor. iii. 1, and following verses. who also “thought that they knew somewhat, whereas they knew not yet anything, as they ought to know.”21452145 1 Cor. viii. 2.When they raise the objection that the churches were rebuked, let them suppose that they were also corrected; let them also remember those (churches), concerning whose faith and knowledge and conversation the apostle “rejoices and gives thanks to God,” which nevertheless even at this day, unite with those which were rebuked in the privileges of one and the same institution. Grant, then, that all have erred; that the apostle was mistaken in giving his testimony; that the Holy Ghost had no such respect to any one (church) as to lead it into truth, although sent with this view by Christ,21462146 John xiv. 26. and for this asked of the Father that He might be the teacher of truth;21472147 John xv. 26. grant, also, that He, the Steward of God, the Vicar of Christ,21482148 [Tertullian knows no other Vicar of Christ than the Holy Spirit. They who attribute infallibility to any mortal man become Montanists; they attribute the Paraclete’s voice to their oracle.] neglected His office, permitting the churches for a time to understand differently, (and) to believe differently, what He Himself was preaching by the apostles,—is it likely that so many churches, and they so great, should have gone astray into one and the same faith? No casualty distributed among many men issues in one and the same result. Error of doctrine in the churches must necessarily have produced various issues. When, however, that which is deposited among many is found to be one and the same, it is not the result of error, but of tradition. Can any one, then, be reckless21492149 Audeat. enough to say that they were in error who handed on the tradition? In whatever manner error came, it reigned of course21502150 Utique, ironical. only as long as there was an absence of heresies? Truth had to wait for certain Marcionites and Valentinians to set it free. During the interval the gospel was wrongly21512151 Perperam. preached; men wrongly believed; so many thousands were wrongly baptized; so many works of faith were wrongly wrought; so many miraculous gifts,21522152 Virtutes, “potestatem edendi miracula” (Oehler). so many spiritual endowments,21532153 Charismata. were wrongly set in operation; so many priestly functions, so many ministries,21542154 Ministeria. Another reading hasmysteria, “mysteries” or “sacraments.” were wrongly executed; and, to sum up the whole, so many martyrs wrongly received their crowns! Else, if not wrongly done, and to no purpose, how comes it to pass that the things of God were on their course before it was known to what God they belonged? that there were Christians before Christ was found? that there were heresies before true doctrine? Not so; for in all cases truth precedes its copy, the likeness succeeds the reality. Absurd enough, however, is it, that heresy should be deemed to have preceded its own prior doctrine, even on this account, because it is that (doctrine) itself which foretold that there 257 should be heresies against which men would have to guard! To a church which possessed this doctrine, it was written—yea, the doctrine itself writes to its own church—“Though an angel from heaven preach any other gospel than that which we have preached, let him be accursed.” [Tertullian Prescription 28 - 30] 1 cor 3.2, 3 - And for this cause our Lord in these last times, when He had summed up all things into Himself, came to us, not as He might have come, but as we were capable of beholding Him. He might easily have come to us in His immortal glory, but in that case we could never have endured the greatness of the glory; and therefore it was that He, who was the perfect bread of the Father, offered Himself to us as milk, [because we were] as infants. He did this when He appeared as a man, that we, being nourished, as it were, from the breast of His flesh, and having, by such a course of milk nourishment, become accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, may be able also to contain in ourselves the Bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the Father. 2. And on this account does Paul declare to the Corinthians, “I have fed you with milk, not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it.” 4417 That is, ye have indeed learned the advent of our Lord as a man; nevertheless, because of your infirmity, the Spirit of the Father has not as yet rested upon you. “For when envying and strife,” he says, “and dissensions are among you, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” 4418 That is, that the Spirit of the Father was not yet with them, on account of their imperfection and shortcomings of their walk in life. As, therefore, the apostle had the power to give them strong meat—for those upon whom the apostles laid hands received the Holy Spirit, who is the food of life [eternal] —but they were not capable of receiving it, because they had the sentient faculties of the soul still feeble and undisciplined in the practice of things pertaining to God; so, in like manner, God had power at the beginning to grant perfection to man; but as the latter was only recently created, he could not possibly have received it, or even if he had received it, could he have contained it, or containing it, could he have retained it. It was for this reason that the Son of God, although He was perfect, passed through the state of infancy in common with the rest of mankind, partaking of it thus not for His own benefit, but for that of the infantile stage of man’s existence, in order that man might be able to receive Him. There was nothing, therefore, impossible to and deficient in God, [implied in the fact] that man was not an uncreated being; but this merely applied to him who was lately created, [namely] man. [Irenaeus AH 3.38.1,2] 1 Cor 3.2 - But again in summer, the body, having its pores more open, affords greater facility for diaphoretic action in the case of the food, and the milk is least abundant, since neither is the blood full, nor is the whole nutriment retained. If, then, the digestion of the food results in the production of blood, and the blood becomes milk, then blood is a preparation for milk, as blood is for a human beings, and the grape for the vine. With milk, then, the Lord's nutriment, we are nursed directly we are born; and as soon as we are regenerated, we are honoured by receiving thegood news of the hope of rest, even the Jerusalem above, in which it is written that milk and honey fall in showers, receiving through what is material the pledge of the sacred food. For meats are done away with, 1 Corinthians 6:13 as the apostle himself says; but this nourishment on milk leads to the heavens, rearing up citizens of heaven, and members of the angelic choirs. And since the Word is the gushing fountain of life, and has been called a river of olive oil, Paul, using appropriate figurative language, and calling Him milk, adds: I have given you to drink; 1 Corinthians 3:2 for we drink in the word, the nutriment of the truth. In truth, also liquid food is called drink; and the same thing may somehow be both meat and drink, according to the different aspects in which it is considered, just as cheese is the solidification of milk or milk solidified; for I am not concerned here to make a nice selection of an expression, only to say that one substance supplies both articles of food. Besides, for children at the breast, milk alone suffices; it serves both for meat and drink. I, says the Lord, have meat to eat that you know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me. John 4:32-34 You see another kind of food which, similarly with milk, represents figuratively the will of God. Besides, also, the completion of His own passion He called catachrestically a cup, when He alone had to drink and drain it. Thus to Christ the fulfilling of His Father's will was food; and to us infants, who drink the milk of the word of the heavens, Christ Himself is food. Hence seeking is called sucking; for to those babes that seek the Word, the Father's breasts of love supply milk. [Clement Instructor 1.6] 1 Cor 3.2 - From all this it is therefore evident, that the essential principle of the human body is blood. The contents of the stomach, too, at first are milky, a coagulation of fluid; then the same coagulatedsubstance is changed into blood; but when it is formed into a compact consistency in the womb, by the natural and warm spirit by which the embryo is fashioned, it becomes a living creature. Further also, the child after birth is nourished by the same blood. For the flow of milk is the product of the blood; and the source of nourishment is the milk; by which a woman is shown to have brought forth a child, and to be truly a mother, by which also she receives a potent charm of affection. Wherefore theHoly Spirit in the apostle, using the voice of the Lord, says mystically, I have given you milk to drink. 1 Corinthians 3:2 For if we have been regenerated unto Christ, He who has regenerated us nourishes us with His own milk, the Word; for it is proper that what has procreated should immediately supply nourishment to that which has been procreated. And as the regeneration was conformablyspiritual, so also was the nutriment of man spiritual. In all respects, therefore, and in all things, we are brought into union with Christ, into relationship through His blood, by which we are redeemed; and into sympathy, in consequence of the nourishment which flows from the Word; and into immortality, through His guidance:— Among men the bringing up of children Often produces stronger impulses to love than the procreating of them. The same blood and milk of the Lord is therefore the symbol of the Lord's passion and teaching. Wherefore each of us babes is permitted to make our boast in the Lord, while we proclaim:— Yet of a noble sire and noble blood I boast me sprung. And that milk is produced from blood by a change, is already clear; yet we may learn it from the flocks and herds. For these animals, in the time of the year which we call spring, when the air has more humidity, and the grass and meadows are juicy and moist, are first filled with blood, as is shown by the distension of the veins of the swollen vessels; and from the blood the milk flows more copiously. But in summer again, the blood being burnt and dried up by the heat, prevents the change, and so they have less milk. [Clement Stromata 1.6] 1 Cor 3.2 - How does he call away from the enjoyment of marriage such as are still in the marriedposition, saying that the time is wound up, if he calls back again into marriage such as through death had escaped from marriage? If these (passages) are diverse from that one about which the present question is, it will be agreed (as we have said) that he did not write in that sense of which the Psychics avail themselves; inasmuch as it is easier (of belief) that that one passage should have some explanation agreeable with the others, than that an apostle should seem to have taught (principles) mutually diverse. That explanation we shall be able to discover in the subject-matter itself. What was the subject-matter which led the apostle to write such (words)? The inexperience of a new and just rising Church, which he was rearing, to wit, with milk, not yet with the solid foodof stronger doctrine; inexperience so great, that that infancy of faith prevented them from yetknowing what they were to do in regard of carnal and sexual necessity. [Tertullian Monogamy 11] 1 cor 3.7,8 - For each soul has its own proper nutriment; some growing by knowledge and science, and others feeding on the Hellenic philosophy, the whole of which, like nuts, is not eatable. "And he that planteth and he that watereth," "being ministers" of Him "that gives the increase, are one" in the ministry. "But every one shall receive his own reward, according to his own work. For we are God's husbandmen, God's husbandry. Ye are God's building," according to the apostle. Wherefore the hearers are not permitted to apply the test of comparison. [Clement Stromata 1.1] 1 cor 3.8 - Else how shall we sing thanks to God to eternity, if there shall remain in us no sense and memory of this debt; if we shall be re-formed in substance, not in consciousness? Consequently, we who shall be with God shall be together; since we shall all be with the one God— albeit the wages be various, albeit there be many mansions, in the house of the same Father having laboured for the one penny of the self-same hire, that is, of eternal life [Tertullian Monogamy 10] 1 cor 3.10 - 13 “According to the grace,” it is said, “given to me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation. And another buildeth on it gold and silver, precious stones.”30063006 1 Cor. iii. 10–13. Such is the gnostic superstructure on the foundation of faith in Christ Jesus. But “the stubble, and the wood, and the hay,” are the additions of heresies. “But the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is.” In allusion to the gnostic edifice also in the Epistle to the Romans, he says, “For I desire to see you, that I may impart unto you a spiritual gift, that ye may be established.”30073007 Rom. i. 11. It was impossible that gifts of this sort could be written without disguise. [Clement Stromata 5.4] 1 cor 3.10 - For “the Lord of Sabaoth hath taken away, among the Jews from Jerusalem,” among the other things named, “the wise architect” too,14331433 See Isa. iii. 1, 3; and comp. 1 Cor. iii. 10; Eph. ii. 20, 21; 1 Pet. ii. 4–8, and many similar passages. who builds the church, God’s temple, and the holy city, and the house of the Lord. For thenceforth God’s grace desisted (from working) among them. And “the clouds were commanded not to rain a shower upon the vineyard of Sorek,”14341434 Comp. Isa. v. 2 in LXX. and Lowth.—the clouds being celestial benefits, which were commanded not to be forthcoming to the house of Israel; for it “had borne thorns”—whereof that house of Israel had wrought a crown for Christ—and not “righteousness, but aclamour,”—the clamour whereby it had extorted His surrender to the cross.14351435 Comp. Isa. v. 6, 7, with Matt. xxvii. 20–25, Mark xv. 8–15, Luke xxiii. 13–25, John xix. 12–16. And thus, the former gifts of grace being withdrawn, “the law and the prophets were until John,”14361436 Matt. xi. 13; Luke xvi. 16. and the fishpool of Bethsaida14371437 See John v. 1–9; and comp. de Bapt. c. v., and the note there. until the advent of Christ [Tertullian Against the Jews 13] 1 Cor 3.10,11 - But you still maintain that our glory comes from your god, with whom it also lay in secret. Then why does your god employ the self-same Scripture261 which the apostle also relies on? What has your god to do at all with the sayings of the prophets? "Who hath discovered the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor? "262 So says Isaiah. What has he also to do with illustrations from our God? [10] For when (the apostle) calls himself "a wise master-builder,"263 we find that the Creator by Isaiah designates the teacher who sketches264 out the divine discipline by the same title, "I will take away from Judah the cunning artificer,"265 etc. And was it not Paul himself who was there foretold, destined "to be taken away from Judah"----that is, from Judaism----for the erection of Christianity, in order "to lay that only foundation, which is Christ? "266 Of this work the Creator also by the same prophet says, "Behold, I lay in Sion for a foundation a precious stone and honourable; and he that resteth thereon shall not be confounded."267 [11] Unless it be, that God professed Himself to be the builder up of an earthly work, that so He might not give any sign of His Christ, as destined to be the foundation of such as believe in Him, upon which every man should build at will the superstructure of either sound or worthless doctrine; forasmuch as it is the Creator's function, when a man's work shall be tried by fire, (or) when a reward shall be recompensed to him by fire; because it is by fire that the test is applied to the building which you erect upon the foundation which is laid by Him, that is, the foundation of His Christ.268 [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.6] Yea, further, that best master-builder of His, Paul himself [to him the best architect and foundation],20972097 Reading “sed et optimus architectus ejus, fundamentum,” etc. The Codex Casinensis has the corrupt lection, “sed et optimos architectos ei fundamentum,” etc. [Had this been said of Peter?] has laid our foundation,20982098 Cf. 1 Cor. iii. 10. [Had this been said of Peter, what then?] that is, the foundation of the Church and has put us in trust of the law, ordaining ministers, and presbyters,20992099 Cf. Acts xiv. 23. and bishops in the same, and describing in the places severally assigned to that purpose, in what manner and with what character the ministers of God ought to conduct themselves, of what repute the presbyters ought to be possessed, and how they should be constituted, and what manner of persons those also ought to be who desire the office of bishop.21002100 Cf. 1 Tim. iii. 1. [Clement cap. xliv., vol. i. p. 17, this series.] And all these institutions, which were once settled well and rightly for us, preserve their proper standing and order with us to this day, and the regular administration of these rules abides amongst us still. [ACts archelaus 51] 1 cor 3.16 - But the Spirit proclaimed these words: Do nothing without the bishop; keep your bodies as the temples of God; love unity; avoid divisions; be the followers of Jesus Christ, even as He is of His Father. [Ignatius Philadelphians 7] 1 cor 3.16 - Whence also he says, that this handiwork is “the temple of God,” thus declaring: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man, therefore, will defile the temple of God, him will God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye are.” 4479 Here he manifestly declares the body to be the temple in which the Spirit dwells. As also the Lord speaks in reference to Himself, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. He spake this, however,” it is said, “of the temple of His body.” 4480 And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge our bodies to be a temple, but even the temple of Christ, saying thus to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot?” 4481 He speaks these things, not in reference to some other spiritual man; for a being of such a nature could have nothing to do with an harlot: but he declares “our body,” that is, the flesh which continues in sanctity and purity, to be “the members of Christ;” but that when it becomes one with an harlot, it becomes the members of an harlot. And for this reason he said, “If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy.” How then is it not the utmost blasphemy to allege, that the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the Father dwells, and the members of Christ, do not partake of salvation, but are reduced to perdition? Also, that our bodies are raised not from their own substance, but by the power of God, he says to the Corinthians, “Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. But God hath both raised up the Lord, and shall raise us up by His own power.” [Irenaeus AH 5.6.2] 1 cor 3.16 - “And 4880 he found the jaw-bone of an ass.” 4881 It is to be observed that, after [Samson had committed] fornication, the holy Scripture no longer speaks of the things happily accomplished by him in connection with the formula, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” 4882 For thus, according to the holy apostle, the sin of fornication is perpetrated against the body, as involving also sin against the temple of God. [Irenaeus Fragment 40] 1 cor 3.16 - They say in the traditions 3640 that Matthew the apostle constantly said, that “if the neighbour of an elect man sin, the elect man has sinned. For had he conducted himself as the Word prescribes, his neighbour also would have been filled with such reverence for the life he led as not to sin.” What, then, shall we say of the Gnostic himself? “Know ye not,” says the apostle, “that ye are the temple of God?” 3641 The Gnostic is consequently divine, and already holy, God-bearing, and God-borne. Now the Scripture, showing that sinning is foreign to him, sells those who have fallen away to strangers, saying, “Look not on a strange woman, to lust,” 3642 plainly pronounces sin foreign and contrary to the nature of the temple of God. Now the temple is great, as the Church, and it is small, as the man who preserves the seed of Abraham. [Clement Stromata 7.13] "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? "269 Now, since man is the property, and the work, and the image and likeness of the Creator, having his flesh, formed by Him of the ground, and his soul of His afflatus, it follows that Marcion's god wholly dwells in a temple which belongs to another, if so be we are not the Creator's temple. [12] But "if any man defile the temple of God, he shall be himself destroyed"270 ----of course, by the God of the temple.271 If you threaten an avenger, you threaten us with the Creator. "Ye must become fools, that ye may be wise."272 Wherefore? "Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."273 With what God? Even if the ancient Scriptures have contributed nothing in support of our view thus far,274 an excellent testimony turns up in what (the apostle) here adjoins: "For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness; and again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain."275 [13] For in general we may conclude for certain that he could not possibly have cited the authority of that God whom he was bound to destroy, since he would not teach for Him.276"Therefore," says he, "let no man glory in man; "277 an injunction which is in accordance with the teaching of the Creator, "wretched is the man that trusteth in man; "278 again, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to confide in man; "279 and the same thing is said about glorying (in princes). [Tertullian Aainst MARcion 5.6] 1 cor 3.16 - In Platonic phrase, indeed, the body is a prison, 1795 but in the apostle’s it is “the temple of God,” 1796 because it is in Christ. Still, (as must be admitted,) by reason of its enclosure it obstructs and obscures the soul, and sullies it by the concretion of the flesh; whence it happens that the light which illumines objects comes in upon the soul in a more confused manner, as if through a window of horn. Undoubtedly, when the soul, by the power of death, is released from its concretion with the flesh, it is by the very release cleansed and purified: it is, moreover, certain that it escapes from the veil of the flesh into open space, to its clear, and pure, and intrinsic light; and then finds itself enjoying its enfranchisement from matter, and by virtue of its liberty it recovers its divinity, as one who awakes out of sleep passes from images to verities. Then it tells out what it sees; then it exults or it fears, according as it finds what lodging is prepared for it, as soon as it sees the very angel’s face, that arraigner of souls, the Mercury of the poets. [Tertullian Treatise on the Soul 53] 1 cor 3.16 - 18 - Necessary it is, therefore, that the (character of the) apostle should be continuously pointed 91 out to them; whom I will maintain to be such in the second of Corinthians withal, as I know (him to be) in all his letters. (He it is) who even in the first (Epistle) was the first of all (the apostles) to dedicate the temple of God: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that in you the Lord dwells?”862862 1 Cor. iii. 16, inexactly.—who likewise, for the consecrating and purifying (of) that temple, wrote the law pertaining to the temple-keepers: “If any shall have marred the temple of God, him shall God mar; for the temple of God is holy, which (temple) are ye.”863863 Ver. 17, not quite correctly. Come, now; who in the world has (ever) redintegrated one who has been “marred” by God (that is, delivered to Satan with a view to destruction of the flesh), after subjoining for that reason, “Let none seduce himself;”864864 Ver. 18. that is, let none presume that one “marred” by God can possibly be redintegrated anew? Just as, again, among all other crimes—nay, even before all others—when affirming that “adulterers, and fornicators, and effeminates, and co-habitors with males, will not attain the kingdom of God,” he premised, “Do not err”865865 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.—to wit, if you think they will attain it. But to them from whom “the kingdom” is taken away, of course the life which exists in the kingdom is not permitted either. Moreover, by superadding, “But such indeed ye have been; but ye have received ablution, but ye have been sanctified, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God;”866866 Ver. 11, inexactly. in as far as he puts on the paid side of the account such sins before baptism, in so far after baptism he determines them irremissible, if it is true, (as it is), that they are not allowed to “receive ablution” anew. Recognise, too, in what follows, Paul (in the character of) an immoveable column of discipline and its rules: “Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: God maketh a full end both of the one and of the others; but the body (is) not for fornication, but for God:”867867 Ver. 13. [Tertullian on Modesty 16] 1 cor 3.16 - And again he says: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy." [Gregory Sectional Faith] 1 cor 3.17 - Wherefore, then, were they blameless? Because when in the temple they were not engaged in secular affairs, but in the service of the Lord, fulfilling the law, but not going beyond it, as that man did, who of his own accord carried dry wood into the camp of God, and was justly stoned to death. Numbers 15:32, etc. For every tree that brings not forth good fruit shall be hewn down, and cast into the fire; Matthew 3:10 and whosoever shall defile the temple of God, him shall God defile. 1 Corinthians 3:17 [Irenaeus AH 4.8.3] 1 cor 3.17 - And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge our bodies to be a temple, but even the temple of Christ, saying thus to the Corinthians, "Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? " [Irenaeus AH 5] 1 cor 3.17 - But if it seems difficult for you to understand this, and if you do not acquiesce in these statements, I may at all events try to make them good by adducing illustrations. Contemplate man as a kind of temple, according to the similitude of Scripture:1610 the spirit that is in man may thus be likened to the image that dwells in the temple. Well, then, a temple cannot be constituted unless first an occupant is acknowledged for the temple; and, on the other hand, an occupant cannot be settled in the temple unless the structure has been erected. Now, since these two objects, the occupant and the structure, are both consecrated together, how can any antagonism or contrariety be found between them, and how should it not rather appear that they have both been the products of subjects that are in amity and of one mind? And that you may know that this is the case, and that these subjects are truly at one both in fellowship and in lineage, He who knows and hears1611all has made this response, “Let us make man,” and so forth. For he who constructs1612 the temple interrogates him who fashions the image, and inquires carefully about the measurements of magnitude, and breadth, and bulk, in order that he may mark off the space for the foundations in accordance with these dimensions; and no one sets about the vain task of building a temple without first making himself acquainted with the measurement needed for the placing of the image. In like manner, therefore, the mode and the measure of the body are made the subject of inquiry, in order that the soul may be appropriately lodged in it by God, the Artificer of all things. But if any one say that he who has moulded the body is an enemy to the God who is the Creator of my soul,1613 then how is it that, while regarding each other with a hostile eye, these two parties have not brought disrepute upon the work, by bringing it about either that he who constructs the temple should make it of such narrow dimensions as to render it incapable of accommodating what is placed within it, or that he who fashions the image should come with something so massive and ponderous, that, on its introduction into the temple, the edifice would at once collapse? If such is not the case, then, with these things, let us contemplate them in the light of what we know to be the objects and intents of antagonists. But if it is right for all to be disposed with the same measures and the same equity, and to be displayed with like glory, what doubt should we still entertain on this subject? We add, if it please you, this one illustration more. Man appears to resemble a ship which has been constructed by the builder and launched into the deep, which, however, it is impossible to navigate without the rudder, by which it can be kept under command, and turned in whatsoever direction its steersman may wish to sail. Also, that the rudder and the whole body of the ship require the same artificer, is a matter admitting no doubt; for without the rudder the whole structure of the ship, that huge body, will be an inert mass. And thus, then, we say that the soul is the rudder of the body; that both these, moreover, are ruled by that liberty of judgment and sentiment which we possess, and which corresponds to the steersman; and that when these two are made one by union,1614 and thus possess a unison of function applicable to all kinds of work, whatever may be the products of their own operation, they bear a testimony to the fact that they have both one and the same author and maker. [Acts of Archelaus 19] 1 cor 3.17 - These are “the doctrines” of men and “of demons”1911 produced for itching ears of the spirit of this world’s wisdom: this the Lord called “foolishness,”1912 and “chose the foolish things of the world” to confound even philosophy itself. For (philosophy) it is which is the material of the world’s wisdom, the rash interpreter of the nature and the dispensation of God. Indeed1913 heresies are themselves instigated1914 by philosophy. From this source came the Æons, and I known not what infinite forms,1915 and the trinity of man1916 in the system of Valentinus, who was of Plato’s school. From the same source came Marcion’s better god, with all his tranquillity; he came of the Stoics. [Tertullian prescript 7] 1 cor 3.18 - But since Celsus has declared it to be a saying of many Christians, that "the wisdom of this life is a bad thing, but that foolishness is good," we have to answer that he slanders the Gospel, not giving the words as they actually occur in the writings of Paul, where they run as follow: "If any one among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." [Origen Celsus 1] 1 cor 3.19 - This, I think, is signified by the utterance of the Saviour, “The foxes have holes, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.” 1840 For on the believer alone, who is separated entirely from the rest, who by the Scripture are called wild beasts, rests the head of the universe, the kind and gentle Word, “who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. For the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain;” 1841 the Scripture calling those the wise (σοφούς) who are skilled in words and arts, sophists (σοφιστάς). Whence the Greeks also applied the denominative appellation of wise and sophists (σοφοί, σοφισταί) to those who were versed in anything Cratinus accordingly, having in the Archilochii enumerated the poets, said:— “Such a hive of sophists have ye examined.” And similarly Iophon, the comic poet, in Flute-playing Satyrs, says:— “For there entered A band of sophists, all equipped.” Of these and the like, who devote their attention to empty words, the divine Scripture most excellently says, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” [Clement Stromata 1.3] 1 cor 3.19 - This, then, “the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God,” and of those who are “the wise the Lord knoweth their thoughts that they are vain.”1915 Let no man therefore glory on account of pre-eminence in human thought. For it is written well in Jeremiah, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth that I am the Lord, that executeth mercy and judgment and righteousness upon the earth: for in these things is my delight, saith the Lord.”1916“That we should trust not in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead,” says the apostle, “who delivered us from so great a death, that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” “For the spiritual man judgeth all things, but he himself is judged of no man.”1917 I hear also those words of his, “And these things I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words, or one should enter in to spoil you.”1918 And again, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ;”1919 branding not all philosophy, but the Epicurean, which Paul mentions in the Acts of the Apostles,1920 which abolishes providence and deifies pleasure, and whatever other philosophy honours the elements, but places not over them the efficient cause, nor apprehends the Creator. [Clement Stromata 1.11] One may no doubt be wise in the things of God, even from one's natural powers, but only in witness to the truth, not in maintenance of error; (only) when one acts in accordance with, not in opposition to, the divine dispensation. For some things are known even by nature: the immortality of the soul, for instance, is held by many; the knowledge of our God is possessed by all. I may use, therefore, the opinion of a Plato, when he declares, "Every soul is immortal." I may use also the conscience of a nation, when it attests the God of gods. I may, in like manner, use all the other intelligences of our common nature, when they pronounce God to be a judge. "God sees," (say they) (say they); and, "I commend you to God." But when they say, What has undergone death is dead," and, "Enjoy life whilst you live," and, "After death all things come to an end, even death itself;" then I must remember both that "the heart of man is ashes," according to the estimate of God, and that the very "Wisdom of the world is foolishness," (as the inspired word) pronounces it to be. Then, if even the heretic seek refuge in the depraved thoughts of the vulgar, or the imaginations of the world, I must say to him: Part company with the heathen, O heretic! for although you are all agreed in imagining a God, yet while you do so in the name of Christ, so long as you deem yourself a Christian, you are a different man from a heathen: give him back his own views of things, since he does not himself learn from yours. Why lean upon a blind guide, if you have eyes of your own? Why be clothed by one who is naked, if you have put on Christ? Why use the shield of another, when the apostle gives you armour of your own? It would be better for him to learn from you to acknowledge the resurrection of the flesh, than for you from him to deny it; because if Christians must needs deny it, it would be sufficient if they did so from their own knowledge, without any instruction from the ignorant multitude. He, therefore, will not be a Christian who shall deny this doctrine which is confessed by Christians; denying it, moreover, on grounds which are adopted by a man who is not a Christian. Take away, indeed, from the heretics the wisdom which they share with the heathen, and let them support their inquiries from the Scriptures alone: they will then be unable to keep their ground. For that which commends men's common sense is its very simplicity, and its participation in the same feelings, and its community of opinions; and it is deemed to be all the more trustworthy, inasmuch as its definitive statements are naked and open, and known to all. Divine reason, on the contrary, lies in the very pith and mar 548 row of things, not on the surface, and very often is at variance with appearances. [Tertullian On the Resurrection of the Flesh 3] 1 Cor 3.21 - He introduces his discussion about meats offered to idols with a statement concerning idols (themselves): “We know that an idol is nothing in the world.”5507 Marcion, however, does not say that the Creator is not God; so that the apostle can hardly be thought to have ranked the Creator amongst those who are called gods, without being so; since, even if they had been gods, “to us there is but one God, the Father.”5508 Now, from whom do all things come to us, but from Him to whom all things belong? And pray, what things are these? You have them in a preceding part of the epistle: “All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come.”5509 He makes the Creator, then the God of all things, from whom proceed both the world and life and death, which cannot possibly belong to the other god. From Him, therefore, amongst the “all things” comes also Christ.5510 When he teaches that every man ought to live of his own industry,5511 he begins with a copious induction of examples—of soldiers, and shepherds, and husbandmen. [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.7] BOTH THESE REFERENCES HAPPEN OUTSIDE OF THE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER DISCOUNT BECAUSE IT BREAKS THE FLOW But, you object, the world to come bears the character of a different dispensation, even an eternal one; and therefore, you maintain, that the non-eternal substance of this life is incapable of possessing a state of such different features. This would be true enough, if man were made for the future dispensation, and not the dispensation for man. The apostle, however, in his epistle says, "Whether it be the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours: "(456) and he here constitutes us heirs even of the future world. Isaiah gives you no help when he says, "All flesh is grass; "(457) and in another passage, "All flesh shall see the salvation of God."(458) It is the issues of men, not their substances, which he distinguishes. But who does not hold that the judgment of God consists in the twofold sentence, of salvation and of punishment? Therefore it is that "all flesh is grass," which is destined to the fire; and "all flesh shall see the salvation of God," which is ordained to eternal life. For myself, I am quite sure that it is in no other flesh than my own that I have committed adultery, nor in any other flesh am I striving after continence. If there be any one who bears about in his person two instruments of lasciviousness, he has it in his power, to be sure, to mow down(459) "the grass" of the unclean flesh, and to reserve for himself only that which shall see the salvation of God. But when the same prophet represents to us even nations sometimes estimated as "the small dust of the balance,"(460) and as "less than nothing, and vanity,"(461) and sometimes as about to hope and "trust in the name"(462) and arm of the Lord, are we at all misled respecting the Gentile nations by the diversity of statement? Are some of them to turn believers, and are others accounted dust, from any difference of nature? Nay, rather Christ has shone as the true light on the nations within the ocean's limits, and from the heaven which is over us all.(463) Why, it is even on this earth that the Valentinians have gone to school for their errors; and there will be no difference of condition, as respects their body and soul, between the nations which believe and those which do not believe. Precisely, then, as He has put a distinction of state, not of nature, amongst the same nations, so also has He discriminated their flesh, which is one and the same substance in those nations, not according to their material structure, but according to the recompense of their merit. [Tertullian Resurrection of the Flesh 59] 1 cor 3.16 - Valentinus in his letter to Agathopus - says, "Jesus showed his self-control in all that he endured. He lived in the practice of godhead. He ate and drank in a way individual to himself without excreting his food. Such was his power of self-control that the food was not corrupted within him, since he was not subject to corruption." 226 (4) So we embrace self-control out of the love we bear the Lord and out of its honorable status, consecrating the temple of the Spirit. 227 It is honorable "to emasculate oneself" of all desire "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" and "to purify the conscience from works of death to the service of the living God."228 60(1) There are some who in their hatred of the flesh ungratefully yearn to be free from marital agreement and participation in decent food. They are ignorant and irreligious. Their self-control is irrational. It is so with most of the other peoples of the world. 1 cor 3.16 - In addition to all this, he makes what he has already said even clearer by asserting at the top of his voice, "The body is a dead thing because of sin," 295 showing that if it is not the soul’s temple it remains the soul’s tomb. 296 When it is consecrated to God, he is going to continue, "the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lodges in you, and he will give life even to your mortal bodies through his indwelling Spirit." 297 Chapter 4 1 cor 4.4 - But I am the more instructed by their injuries [to act as a disciple of Christ]; "yet am I not thereby justified." 1 cor 4.5, 9 - "And the hidden things of darkness He will Himself bring to light,"281 even by Christ; for He has promised Christ to be a Light,282 and Himself He has declared to be a lamp, "searching the hearts and reins."283 From Him also shall "praise be had by every man,"284 from whom proceeds, as from a judge, the opposite also of praise. But here, at least, you say he interprets the world to be the God thereof, when he says: "We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men."285 For if by world he had meant the people thereof, he would not have afterwards specially mentioned "men." To prevent, however, your using such an argument as this, the Holy Ghost has providentially explained the meaning of the passage thus: "We are made a spectacle to the world," i.e. "both to angels," who minister therein, "and to men," who are the objects of their ministration.286 [TErtullian Against Marcion 5.7] 1 cor 4.9, 11,12, 13 “For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as appointed to death: we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. Up to this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are beaten, and are feeble, and labour, working with our hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat; we are become as it were the offscourings of the world.”2758 Such also are the words of Plato in theRepublic:2759 “The just man, though stretched on the rack, though his eyes are dug out, will be happy.” The Gnostic will never then have the chief end placed in life, but in being always happy and blessed, and a kingly friend of God. Although visited with ignominy and exile, and confiscation, and above all, death, he will never be wrenched from his freedom, and signal love to God. “The charity which bears all things, endures all things,”2760 is assured that Divine Providence orders all things well. “I exhort you,” therefore it is said, “Be followers of me.” The first step to salvation2761 is the instruction accompanied with fear, in consequence of which we abstain from what is wrong; and the second is hope, by reason of which we desire the best things; but love, as is fitting, perfects, by training now according to knowledge. Let not then any one deceive you, as indeed ye are not deceived; for ye are wholly devoted to God. For when there is no evil desire within you, which might defile and torment you, then do ye live in accordance with the will of God, and are [the servants] of Christ. Cast ye out that which defiles (offscouring) you, who are of the540 most holy Church of the Ephesians, which is so famous and celebrated throughout the world. They that are carnal cannot do those things which are spiritual, nor they that are spiritual the things which are carnal; even as faith cannot do the works of unbelief, nor unbelief the works of faith. But ye, being full of the Holy Spirit, do nothing according to the flesh, but all things according to the Spirit. Ye are complete in Christ Jesus, “who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe.” [Ignatius Ephesians longer 7] 1 cor 4.13 - Let my spirit be counted as nothing122 for the sake of the cross, which is a stumbling-block123 to those that do not believe, but to us salvation and life eternal. "Where is the wise man? where the disputer? "124 Where is the boasting of those who are styled prudent? For our God, Jesus Christ, was, according to the appointment125of God, conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed of David, but by the Holy Ghost. He was born and baptized, that by His passion He might purify the water. [Ignatius Ephesians 18] 1 cor 4:13 - And again he says, "This is the great and wonderful day which the Lord hath made. I write the more simply unto you, that ye may understand. I am the off-scouring of your love. What, then, again says the prophet? "The assembly of the wicked surrounded me; they encompassed me as bees do a honeycomb," and "upon my garment they cast lots." Since, therefore, He was about to be manifested and to suffer in the flesh, His suffering was foreshown. [Epistle of Barnbas 6] 1 cor 4.13 - And many who had thus cured others of their sicknesses, and restored them to strength, died themselves, having transferred to their own bodies the death that lay upon these. And that common saying, which else seemed always to be only a polite form of address, they expressed in actual fact then, as they departed this life, like the “off-scourings of all.” Yea, the very best of our brethren have departed this life in this manner, including some presbyters and some deacons, and among the people those who were in highest reputation: so that this very form of death, in virtue of the distinguished piety and the steadfast faith which were exhibited in it, appeared to come in nothing beneath martyrdom itself [Dionysus Epistle to the Alexandrians 4] The phrase περίψημα πάντων refers to 1 Cor. iv. 13. Valesius supposes that among the Alexandrians it may have been a humble and complimentary form of salutation, ἐγώ ειμι περίψημά σου; or that the expression περίψημα πάντων had come to be habitually applied to the Christians by the heathen. 1 cor 4.15 - "Little children," says the Teacher, "I am with you only a little longer." 404 That is why Paul says in his letter to Galatians, "My little children, I am going through the pains of childbirth with you a second time until Christ is formed in you" 405 (3)Yet again in writing to the Corinthians he says, "You may have thousands of tutors in Christ but only one father. I am your father in Christ through the gospel." 406 (4) This is why "no eunuch shall enter God’s assembly," 407 being unproductive and unfruitful in behavior and speech. But "those who have made themselves eunuchs" – free from every sin – "for the kingdom of heaven’s sake," 408 in fasting from worldliness, 409 find blessing. [Clement STromata 3.15] 1 cor 4.15 - Respecting faith we have adduced sufficient testimonies of writings among the Greeks. But in order not to exceed bounds, through eagerness to collect a very great many also respecting hope and love, suffice it merely to say that in the Crito Socrates, who prefers a good life and death to life itself, thinks that we have hope of another life after death. Also in the Phœdrus he says, That only when in a separate state can the soul become partaker of the wisdom which is true, and surpasses human power; and when, having reached the end of hopeby philosophic love, desire shall waft it to heaven, then, says he, does it receive the commencement of another, an immortal life. And in the Symposium he says, That there is instilled into all the natural love of generating what is like, and in men of generating men alone, and in thegood man of the generation of the counterpart of himself. But it is impossible for the good man to do this without possessing the perfect virtues, in which he will train the youth who have recourse to him. And as he says in the Theœtetus,He will beget and finish men. For some procreate by the body, others by the soul; since also with the barbarian philosophers to teach and enlighten is called to regenerate; and I have begotten you in Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians 4:15 says the good apostlesomewhere. Empedocles, too, enumerates friendship among the elements, conceiving it as a combining love:— Which do you look at with your mind; and don't sit gaping with your eyes. Parmenides, too, in his poem, alluding to hope, speaks thus:— Yet look with the mind certainly on what is absent as present, For it will not sever that which is from the grasp it has of that which is Not, even if scattered in every direction over the world or combined. [STromata 5.2] 1 cor 4.15 - Now hear how he declared that by Christ Himself, when returned to heaven, these spiritual gifts were to be sent: "He ascended up. on high," that is, into heaven; "He led captivity captive," meaning death or slavery of man; "He gave gifts to the sons of men," that is, the gratuities, which we call charismata. He says specifically "sons of men," and not men promiscuously; thus exhibiting to us those who were the children of men truly so called, choice men, apostles. "For," says he, "I have begotten you through the gospel;" and "Ye are my children, of whom I travail again in birth." Now was absolutely fulfilled that promise of the Spirit which was given by the word of Joel: "In the last days will I pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, and their sons and their daughters shall prophesy; and upon my servants and upon my handmaids will I pour out of my Spirit." Since, then, the Creator promised the gift of His Spirit in the latter days; and since Christ has in these last days appeared as the dispenser of spiritual gifts (as the apostle says, "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son;" and again, "This I say, brethren, that the time is short"), it evidently follows in connection with this prediction of the last days, that this gift of the Spirit belongs to Him who is the Christ of the predicters. [Tertullian Against Marcion 5.8] 1 cor 4.19 - For he that seeketh the Lord shall find knowledge with righteousness; and they who have sought it rightly have found peace.”19371937 The substance of these remarks is found in Prov. ii. “And I will know,” it is said, “not the speech of those which are puffed up, but the power.” In rebuke of those who are wise in appearance, and think themselves wise, but are not in reality wise, he writes: “For the kingdom of God is not in word.”1938It is not in that which is not true, but which is only probable according to opinion; but he said “in power,” for the truth alone is powerful. And again: “If any man thinketh that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” For truth is never mere opinion. But the “supposition of knowledge inflates,” and fills with pride; “but charity edifieth,” which deals not in supposition, but in truth. Whence it is said, “If any man loves, he is known.” [Clement Stromata 1.11] 1 cor 4.19 - For the Lord did not work conceit by the particulars of His teaching; but He produces trust in the truth and expansion of mind, in the knowledge that is communicated by the Scriptures, and contempt for the things which drag into sin, which is the meaning of the expression “inflated.” It teaches the magnificence of the wisdom implanted in her children by instruction. Now the apostle says, “I will know not the speech of those that are puffed up, but the power;” 3684 if ye understand the Scriptures magnanimously (which means truly; for nothing is greater than truth). For in that lies the power of the children of wisdom who are puffed up. He says, as it were, I shall know if ye rightly entertain great thoughts respecting knowledge. “For God,” according to David, “is known in Judea,” that is, those that are Israelites according to knowledge. For Judea is interpreted “Confession.” It is, then, rightly said by the apostle, “This Thou, shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not steal, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is comprehended in this word, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” [Clement stromata 7.16] 1 cor 4.20 - It is better for a man to be silent and be [a Christian], than to talk and not to be one. “The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”591 Men “believe with the heart, and confess with the mouth,” the one “unto righteousness,” the other “unto salvation.”592 It is good to teach, if he who speaks also acts. [Ignatius EPhesians 15 long version] 1 cor 4.21 - And by the same prophet He says: “Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron.”1168 Thus also the apostle, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, being moved, says, “What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, in the spirit of meekness?”1169 Also, “The Lord shall send the rod of strength out of Sion,”1170 He says by another prophet. And this same rod of instruction, “Thy rod and staff have comforted me,”1171 said some one else. Such is the power of the Instructor—sacred, soothing, saving. [Clement instructory 1.6] Chapter 5 1 cor 5.1, - Of course,54785478 Nimirum: introducing a strong ironical sentence against Marcion’s conceit. a man of the noble courage of our apostle (to say nothing of the Holy Ghost) was afraid, when writing to the children whom he had begotten in the gospel, to speak freely of the God of the world; for against Him he could not possibly seem to have a word to say, except only in a straightforward manner!5479 I quite admit, that, according to the Creator’s law,5480 the man was an offender “who had his father’s wife.”5481 He followed, no doubt,5482 the principles of natural and public law. When, however, he condemns the man “to be delivered unto Satan,”5483 he becomes the herald of an avenging God. It does not matter5484 that he also said, “For the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord,”5485 since both in the destruction of the flesh and in the saving of the spirit there is, on His part, judicial process; and when he bade “the wicked person be put away from the midst of them,”5486 he only mentioned what is a very frequently recurring sentence of the Creator. “Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened.”5487 The unleavened bread was therefore, in the Creator’s ordinance, a figure of us (Christians). “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.”54885488 1 Cor. v. 7. But why is Christ our passover, if the passover be not a type of Christ, in the similitude of the blood which saves, and of the Lamb, which is Christ? [Tertullian, Against Marcion 5.7] 1 cor 5.1 - Whence the apostle withal judges, and that in a case of fornication,41 that "such a man must be surrendered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh; "42 chiding them likewise because "brethren" were not "judged at the bar of the saints: "43 for he goes on and says, "To what (purpose is it) for me to judge those who are without? " [10] "But you remit, in order that remission may be granted you by God." The sins which are (thus) cleansed are such as a man may have committed against his brother, not against God. [Tertullian Modesty 2] 41 Or rather incest, as appears by 1 Cor. v. 1. 42 1 Cor. v. 5. 43 See 1 Cor. vi. 1-6, v. 12. 1 cor 5.1 - We know plainly at this point, too, the suspicions which they raise. For, in fact, they suspect the Apostle Paul of having, in the second (Epistle) to the Corinthians, granted pardon to the self-same fornicator whom in the first he has publicly sentenced to be "surrendered to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh,"125 ----impious heir as he was to his father's wedlock; as if he subsequently erased his own words, writing: [2] "But if any hath wholly saddened, he hath not wholly saddened me, but in part, lest I burden you all. Sufficient is such a chiding which is given by many; so that, on the contrary, ye should prefer to forgive and console, lest, perhaps, by more abundant sadness, such an one be devoured. For which reason, I pray you, confirm toward him affection. [3] For to this end withal have I written, that I may learn a proof of you, that in all (things) ye are obedient to me. But if ye shall have forgiven any, so (do) I; for I, too, if I have forgiven ought, have forgiven in the person of Christ, lest we be overreached by Satan, since we are not ignorant of his injections."126 [4] What (reference) is understood here to the fornicator? what to the contaminator of his father's bed?127 what to the Christian who had overstepped the shamelessness of heathens?----since, of course, he would have absolved by a special pardon one whom he had condemned by a special anger. [5] He is more obscure in his pity than in his indignation. He is more open in his austerity than in his lenity. And yet, (generally), anger is more readily indirect than indulgence. Things of a sadder are more wont to hesitate than things of a more joyous cast. [6] Of course the question in hand concerned some moderate indulgence; which (moderation in the indulgence) was now, if ever, to be divined, when it is usual for all thegreatest indulgences not to be granted without public proclamation, so far (are they from being granted) without particularization. [7] Why, do you yourself, when introducing into the church, for the purpose of melting the brotherhood by his prayers, the repentant adulterer, lead into the midst and prostrate him, all in haircloth and ashes, a compound of disgrace and horror, before the widows, before the elders, suing for the tears of all, licking the footprints of all, clasping the knees of all? And do you, good shepherd and blessed father that you are, to bring about the (desired) end of the man, grace your harangue with all the allurements of mercy in your power, and under the parable of the "ewe" go in quest of your goats?128 [8] do you, for fear lest your "ewe" again take a leap out from the flock----as if that were no more lawful for the future which was not even once lawful----fill all the rest likewise full of apprehension at the very moment of granting indulgence? [9] And would the apostle so carelessly have granted indulgence to the atrocious licentiousness of fornication burdened with incest, as not at least to have exacted from the criminal even this legally established garb of repentance which you ought to have learned from him? as to have uttered no commination on the past? no allocution touching the future? [10] Nay, more; he goes further, and beseeches that they "would confirm toward him affection," as if he were making satisfaction to him, not as if he were granting an indulgence! [11] And yet I hear (him speak of) "affection," not "communion; "as (he writes) withal to the Thessalonians "But if any obey not our word through the epistle, him mark; and associate not with him, that he may feel awed; not regarding (him) as an enemy, but rebuking as a brother."129[12] Accordingly, he could have said that to a fornicator, too, "affection" only was conceded, not "communion "as well; to an incestuous man, however, not even "affection; "whom he would, to be sure, have bidden to be banished from their midst130 ----much more, of course, from their mind. [13] "But he was apprehensive lest they should be 'overreached by Satan' with regard to the loss of that person whom himself had cast forth to Satan; or else lest, 'by abundance of mourning, he should be devoured' whom he had sentenced to 'destruction of the flesh.'" [14] Here they go so far as to interpret "destruction of the flesh" the office of repentance; in that by fasts, and squalor, and every species of neglect and studious ill-treatment devoted to the extermination of the flesh, it seems to make satisfaction to God; so that they argue that that fornicator----that incestuous person rather----having been delivered by the apostle to Satan, not with a view to "perdition," but with a view to "emendation," on the hypothesis that subsequently he would, on account of the "destruction" (that is, the general affliction) "of the flesh," attain pardon, therefore did actually attain it. Plainly, the selfsame apostle delivered to Satan Hymenaeus and Alexander, "that they might be emended into not blaspheming,"131 as he writes to his Timotheus. "But withal himself says that 'a stake132 was given him, an angel of Satan, 'by which he was to be buffeted, lest he should exalt himself." [16] If they touch upon this (instance) withal, in order to lead us to understand that such as were "delivered to Sam" by him (were so delivered) with a view to emendation, not to perdition; what similarity is there between blasphemy and incest, and a soul entirely free from these,----nay, rather elated from no other source than the highest sanctity and all innocence; which (elation of soul) was being restrained in the apostle by "buffets," if you will, by means (as they say) of pain in the ear or head? [17] Incest, however, and blasphemy, deserved to have delivered the entire persons of men to Satan himself for a possession, not to "an angel" of his. And (there is yet another point): for about this it makes a difference, nay, rather withal in regard to this it is of the utmost consequence, that we find those men delivered by the apostle to Satan, but to the apostle himself an angel of Satan given. [18] Lastly, when Paul is praying the Lord for its removal, what does he hear? "Hold my grace sufficient; for virtue is perfected in infirmity."133 This they who are surrendered to Satan cannot hear. [19] Moreover, if the crime of Hymenaeus and Alexander----blasphemy, to wit----is irremissible in this and in the future age,134 of course the apostle would not, in opposition to the determinate decision of the Lord, have given to Satan, under a hope of pardon, men already sunken from the faith into blasphemy; [20] whence, too, he pronounced them "shipwrecked with regard to faith,"135 having no longer the solace of the ship, the Church. For to those who, after believing, have struck upon (the rock of) blasphemy, pardon is denied; on the other hand, heathens andheretics are daily emerging out of blasphemy. [21] But even if he did say, "I delivered them to Satan, that they might receive the discipline of not blaspheming," he said it of the rest, who, by their deliverance to Satan----that is, their projection outside the Church----had to be trained in the knowledge that there must be no blaspheming. [22] So, therefore, the incestuous fornicator, too, he delivered, not with a view to emendation, but with a view to perdition, to Satan, to whom he had already, by sinning above an heathen, gone over; that they might learn there must be no fornicating. [23] Finally, he says, "for the destruction of the flesh," not its "torture"----condemning the actual substance through which he had fallen out (of the faith), which substance had already perished immediately on the loss of baptism----" in order that the spirit," he says, "may be saved in the day of the Lord." [24] And (here, again, is a difficulty): for let this point be inquired into, whetherthe man's own spirit will be saved. In that case, a spirit polluted with so great a wickedness will be saved; the object of the perdition of the flesh being, that the spirit may be saved in penalty. In that case, the interpretation which is contrary to ours will recognise a penalty without the flesh, if we lose the resurrection of the flesh.[25] It remains, therefore, that his meaning was, that that spirit which is accounted to exist in the Church must be presented "saved," that is, untainted by the contagion of impurities in the day of the Lord, by the ejection of the incestuous fornicator; if, that is, he subjoins: "Know ye not, that a little leaven spoileth the savour of the whole lump? "136 And yet incestuous fornication was not a little, but a large, leaven. [Tertullian Modesty 13] Chapter 16 no references
