Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 53/82

For behold, we see them saying, in the regeneration of his coming, and crying out, 'In your name we ate, and in your name we cast out demons.'

Depart from me, you accursed, I never knew you.

How then do they confess him, and yet he himself curses them? And what was the curse of the law? But the curse of the law is the cross, on account of sins.

For if anyone is caught in a transgression, the law said, 'you shall hang him also on a tree;'

The sun shall by no means go down upon him, upon his dead body, but you shall by all means take him down and by all means bury him before the setting of the sun, for cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

Since, then, the curse had been ordained on account of the crucifixion, but he himself came and bore our sins upon the tree, having given himself on our behalf, his blood purchased us, his body loosed our curses -- that is, having loosed our sins through the repentance wrought by the cross and through his coming.

Therefore the law is not a curse -- far be it! -- nor did the gospel receive the curse, nor did the Lord; but through the occasion of his own death, the death that stands against sin has been abolished.

Then he says that the law was a ministration of death.

But we have already said much about this, that it was not itself a minister of death.

For it did not tell one to murder, but commanded, saying, 'You shall not murder.'

But since it put to death the one who murdered, so that through that one who was put to death the working of murder might be abolished, and so that many, being afraid on account of the one, might restrain the injustice of murdering any longer, it was a ministration of death -- not that it might minister death, but that it might work death upon the murderer, so that murderers might no longer become many.

But when the Savior came, since the tutor had by then, for the greater part of the time, trained us to self-control, showing more perfect lessons in harmony with the law's 'you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness,' he said, 'To him who strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also,' so that the ministration might become one of life, murder being altogether abolished.

For the one who is struck on the cheek does not provoke to murder, but disarms the hand of the murderer, soothing the evil within him by humility.

And thus the Old and New Testaments agree in all things.

Then again he takes up the argument, in order to bring in the device of two persons in support of the duality he speaks of -- the two natures, the unoriginate first principles and roots, of which we have already spoken above -- wishing to say similar things toward a division of realities; and daring to divide them in this way, he is not ashamed to say that the Old Testament said, 'The gold is mine, and the silver is mine.'

But the New Testament says, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'

'Rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them both.'

And the New Testament agrees on this very point, at one time blessing those who are poor by nature, at another time those who are poor in spirit, so that both may hold true;

so that Peter and those with him, boasting, might show true poverty, saying: 'Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.'

so that he might signify the blessedness of the poor by nature, without its being opposed to the blessedness of those poor in spirit, who indeed possess certain things with righteousness, yet are poor in being humble-minded;

concerning whom he said, 'I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink,' and so forth.

Then he explains, saying that these did it from their own possessions.

And you see one and the same Spirit, showing both poor and rich in the Old Testament, and likewise the same in the New Testament, as also the Savior commends both: for paying attention at the treasury, he saw those casting money into the offering-box, and he did not forbid the gifts of the rich, but also praised the widow who cast in the two small coins, on account of the aforesaid poverty, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: 'Rich and poor meet together; the Lord is the maker of them both.'

For we also find Isaiah clothed in sackcloth, and Elijah likewise.

And do you see how, in both the Old and New Testament, the poor are blessed on account of piety, and the rich are blessed on account of righteousness?

Then again the same Mani says:

'The Old Testament,' he says, 'commands the keeping of the Sabbath, and if anyone did not keep the Sabbath, he was stoned with stones, just as also one who gathered a load of wood was handed over to death.'

'But the New Testament,' that is, the Lord in the gospel, said, 'I am working, and my Father is working,' and on the Sabbath the disciples plucked ears of grain, and on the Sabbath he performed healing.

And not only this, but also, 'Take up your pallet, and go to your house,' he said.

For nothing is worse than inexperience;

for ignorance has blinded many.

For when has the Sabbath not been dissolved for a good reason? And when has not only the Sabbath, but every day, failed to be restrained from wickedness? For Joshua the son of Nun, the successor of Moses, who is numbered among the prophets, the one chosen by God, who by prayer held fast the sun and the moon, as he said, 'Let the sun stand still over Gibeon, and the moon over the valley of Aijalon,' is at once found dissolving the Sabbath for a good work.

For over seven days Joshua encircled the walls of Jericho;

at a time when it was not lawful to walk on the Sabbaths beyond the fixed measure of six stadia.

But the circumference of Jericho is more than twenty stadia.

Now since they circled it for seven days, it was certainly the case that the Sabbath fell on one of the days.

But this was a command of God, that he might show his will for the working of the miracle.

For there were neither siege engines nor contrivances, no battering rams, no siege towers, but by the sound alone of a ram's-horn trumpet and the prayer of a righteous man, the walls of the adversaries were made to bow down and fall.

For they had to be punished, since the sins of the Amorites had been fulfilled.

And since the Amorites were caught in sins, having become transgressors and having repudiated the oath which they had sworn, as has already been said by me elsewhere too, it will do no harm to set forth the same things here as well.

For the God of the law is good, who despoiled the Egyptians, and cast out the Amorites and Girgashites and the other nations, and gave their land to the sons of Israel;

he who says, 'You shall not covet' -- how then did he give them what belonged to others?

And the untrained man does not know that they received back their own land, which had been plundered from them, and that the dealings between them were avenged according to a boundary fixed by truth and by oath.

For Noah, having been saved from the flood, together with his wife, along with his three sons and three daughters-in-law, alone dividing the whole world, divided it among his three sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, casting lots at Rhinocorura, as the account also has it, and there is nothing empty or fabricated in this.

For 'Rhinocorura' is interpreted 'Neel,' and the local inhabitants naturally call it thus;

but from the Hebrew it is interpreted 'lots,' since it was there that Noah cast the lots for his three sons.

And to Ham fell the portion from Rhinocorura as far as Gadeira, containing Egypt, Lake Mareia, and Ammon, Libya and Marmarica, the Pentapolis, Macatia, Macronia, Leptis Magna, the Syrtis, and Mauretania, as far as the so-called Pillars of Heracles and inner Gadeira.

And this same portion marks the boundary between it and the territory of Shem to the east.

And to Shem fell the portion extending in breadth: Palestine and Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, Commagene, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Galatia, Paphlagonia, Thrace, Europe, Rhodope, Lazica, Iberia, Caspia, Cardyaea, as far as Media toward the north.

From this point, this portion marks the boundary of Japheth's territory to the north.

And toward the west, the portion that fell to Japheth was from Europe as far as Spain and Britain -- Thrace, Europe, Rhodope -- and from there the neighboring nations.

When, then, the lots had been thus divided, Noah called his three sons together and bound them by an oath, that none should encroach upon the lot of his brother or take advantage of his brother.

But Canaan, the son of Ham, being covetous, invaded the land of the Palestinians and took possession of it, and the land was called 'the land of Canaan,' because he settled there, having abandoned his own lot because it seemed to be a scorched land.

And settling in the land of Shem, now called Judea, he begot these sons: the Amorite, the Girgashite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Hivite, the Arukite, the Hittite, the Asenite, the Samarite, the Sidonian, and the Philistine.

For this reason also the Lord says in the law, showing that their sins were being fulfilled with respect to the oath, as he says, 'The sins of the Amorites are not yet fulfilled.'

For this reason they remained on the mountain, wasting time in the wilderness, until they should condemn themselves by their own sentence and go forth to war against the sons of Shem who had been wronged. For Shem begot Arphaxad, Arphaxad begot Cainan, Cainan begot Shelah, Shelah begot Eber, Eber begot Peleg, Peleg begot Reu, Reu begot Serug, Serug begot Nahor, Nahor begot Terah, Terah begot Abraham, Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot Judah, Judah begot Perez, Perez begot Hezron, Hezron begot Ram, Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon.

In the days of Nahshon, the chief of the tribe of Judah, and in the days of Joshua the son of Nun, the sons of Shem received their own land, no injustice at all being involved, but a just judgment.

So the walls of Jericho fell of their own accord;

for righteousness avenges injustice.

For seven days they encircled the walls, and the Sabbath was set aside, so that righteousness might be fulfilled.

...of testimony, and each day the seven lamps were lit equally, and not on a single day did even one of them fail to be lit, but each day the same light continued.

For the Sabbath was not made for a cessation, but for a good work.

And while no one at all was working among the twelve tribes, only the altar did not cease from work, as the Lord says in the gospel, 'Your priests profane the Sabbath in the temple, and are guiltless.'

'They profane the Sabbath' means, that is, they set it aside.

But how do they set it aside, except by offering sacrifice to God, so that the altar might not lie idle? And not only this, but the sun also rises and sets, and the moon waxes and wanes, and the winds blow, and the fruits sprout, and mothers give birth, and all things happen on the Sabbath.

For this reason, when the Lord came, he did not do carpentry on the Sabbath, nor did he do metalwork, nor did he do anything else of that sort -- but being God, he performed the work of God.

And he says, 'Take up your pallet and walk,' so that the work being done might be shown by the one carrying it, so that all might recognize the one who came from heaven for the help of the sons of men.

For indeed, in truth he came to dissolve the Sabbath, yet he could not have dissolved it, had it been something foreign to him.

For no one dissolves another's work, unless such a one becomes a usurper of what belongs to others, and a meddler in others' affairs, buying off penalties for himself.

But since the Sabbath belongs to him, for this reason he says that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath, and he says, 'Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man.'

If, then, God made the Sabbath for man's sake, and valued man above the Sabbath, so that man might know rest, and also the repose of the things to come;

For these things are antitypes of the heavenly realities.

For here it is in part, but there it is the whole perfection.

The Sabbath, then, that is in the Law, lasted until his coming;

But he abolished that Sabbath and gave us the great Sabbath, which is the Lord himself, our rest and our sabbath-keeping.

The Old Testament, then, will differ in nothing from the New, nor the New from the Old;

for it is one and the same harmony.

But the unlearned and inexperienced person, if he sees two buckets drawing from one spring, might suppose, because of the difference of the buckets, that the waters too are different; but let him hear the truth from the wise: taste of the two buckets, and see that though the buckets are two, the spring is one.

Thus there is one Lord, one God, one Spirit, who spoke in the Law and in the Prophets and in the Gospel.

For this reason there are not two Old Testaments, nor two New Testaments, since there are not two who made the covenant, but one who renews both the old of the old things and the new — not annulling the old unto its disappearance, but bringing the old to rest, and adding to the second an inheritance of abundance.

But this same Mani again introduces another saying, claiming: 'I know that a spirit is saved without a body.'

'For this,' he says, 'the apostle teaches, saying:'

'It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not even found among the Gentiles, namely that a man has his father's wife.'

'And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, so that he who did this deed might be removed from among you.'

'For I, though absent in body, yet present in spirit, have already judged, as though present, the one who did this deed: when you are assembled, and the Lord together with my spirit, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.' Now the destruction of the flesh is utter disappearance.

How then, if the flesh is destroyed at the hand of the devil while the spirit is saved, will there still be a resurrection of bodies or of the flesh? And this man, utterly inexperienced in every way, does not know that the works of the flesh are fornication, adultery, licentiousness, and things like these, and that the apostle is not speaking of the flesh itself, but of the works of the flesh.

If it commits fornication, it is the flesh that commits it;

but if it acquires self-control, the flesh is no longer flesh, but the flesh has been changed into spirit, just as the apostle also says: he who from the beginning joined the two together said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh;'

as he who is joined to a prostitute is one body with her, and he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.

Therefore, then, he who commits fornication has become flesh;

not only the flesh itself, but everything — soul and all the rest — becomes flesh.

For having been joined to the prostitute, he became flesh, and being carnal he is called altogether flesh.

But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit; that is, body and soul and everything, whatever there is in the man, becomes one spirit in the Lord.

And legislating concerning this, the same apostle says: 'God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, just as he willed.'

And observe how he confesses God to be the maker of the body and the arranger of the members within us, and this according as he willed, by his own wisdom and goodness.

Then again, using our body as an illustration of Christ's, he says that we too are the body of Christ, and members one of another, and that it is the church of God, which is the body of Christ.

If, then, the church is the body of God, and being joined to the Spirit — that is, to the Lord — is one spirit, then whoever sins and falls away from it, having fallen from the Spirit, becomes entirely flesh, in soul and body and whatever is in him.

For how could part be delivered to Satan and part not be delivered? For he did not say that the flesh was to be delivered to Satan, but that such a one was to be delivered.

But he who speaks of 'such a one' has delivered up the whole man, together with the soul and the entire person.

But if he delivered up the whole, he thereby declared the whole to be flesh;

but he indicated that the spirit is saved unto the day of the Lord, so that the church might not fall under blame for the fault of the one who had erred, and the whole church might not be defiled by the transgression of the one;

therefore he says, 'Deliver up the one who has erred,'

so that the spirit, that is, the whole church, might be saved.

'But,' he says, 'it is written that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God,' and he thinks he is saying something profound by this.

For indeed, in truth, fornication cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, nor adultery, nor licentiousness, nor idolatry — that is, flesh and blood.

But if you suppose this to be said concerning flesh and blood, meaning the flesh itself, how then is that which is written still fulfilled: 'and as many as received him, he gave them power to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the flesh, but of God'? Who in the world has been born without flesh? Rather, it is because their minds were changed — not the natures of those born of mothers and fathers of flesh and blood — and they were born with the second birth, that of the birth from the Lord through Spirit and fire, that he gave them power to become children of God.

So then, just as here they were born of flesh and of blood, yet their birth is no longer reckoned to be of flesh and blood because of the change wrought by righteousness — even though they remain in flesh and blood — as he says: 'for though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh;'

there is, then, flesh that does not wage war according to the flesh;

and for this reason he says that flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of heaven, not speaking of this flesh that has labored, that has been sanctified, that has been well-pleasing to God, but of that flesh which has been found in sins;

since otherwise, how could that which is written be fulfilled: 'for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality'? The same apostle signifies this even more clearly elsewhere, saying:

'...being taken up, thus he will come in the same way you saw him being taken up.'

Now from all that has been said, sensible people can fix their minds upon all the words of truth, as well as upon those arising from the falsehood of the aforementioned so-called Manichaeus, so that even if, in some place, I have not mentioned some particular testimony, from the two or three testimonies we have set forth, all his teachings may be exposed as false.

But we, having traveled a long, rough road through dangerous places, have scarcely gotten past this amphisbaena and destructive beast, the spotted viper — variegated with many likenesses so as to deceive those who look upon it, yet hiding beneath, in every direction, its stinging and venom-shooting source; for since he is a Greek among Greeks, worshiping the sun, the moon, the stars, and demons, this man, beloved, happens to be, and his heresy expounds the teachings of the Greeks, is versed in the arts of the magi and wallows among them, praises astronomers, busying himself with their concerns, and only boasts of the name of Christ in word — just as the spotted viper itself hides its venom, yet deceives by its variegated markings, being found amid a great variety of matter and making itself resemble the things around it;

but by the power of God, by the wood of truth, by the blood of Christ, and by the body from Mary, truly born, and by the resurrection of the dead, and by the confession of the one unity, having crushed the head of the dragon upon the waters, and having turned this many-headed heresy back and shattered its head, let us continue to give thanks to God, and let us hasten to proceed to the heresies that follow, calling upon God as the helper of our weakness, so that, having completed in God the things promised, we may give perfect thanks to God.

Against the Hierakites, [Heresy] 47, but 67 in the series.

After this wretched and venomous teaching of Mani — worse than every heresy, and a reptilian, barbaric hurling of beasts — there arose a certain man, Hierakas by name, from whom come the Hierakites.

This man lived in Leontopolis in Egypt, having received no small preliminary education, trained in the pursuits of all Greek learning, and having accurately mastered the sophistry of medicine and the other studies of the Egyptians and the Greeks;

and perhaps this man also dabbled in astronomy and magic.

For he was most experienced in many branches of learning and in exegesis, as his own writings suggest; and he was thoroughly acquainted with the Egyptian language — for the man was an Egyptian — but he was also no little versed in Greek, being sharp in every way.

He was supposedly a Christian, but he did not remain in the way of life of Christ;

for he fell away and, slipping, ran aground.

For this man, having memorized the Old and New Testament so as to recite them accurately, and having composed commentaries upon them, laid down for himself, out of his own empty talk, dogmas — whatever seemed right to him and whatever crept into his mind.

For he too holds that the flesh does not rise at all, but the soul alone.

And he asserts that the resurrection is spiritual.

And whatever he could find in the divine Scriptures, gathering it into his own mind, he thus heaped up for himself, absurdly contriving certain worthless fabrications for himself to support his own heresy.

Now the man was astonishing in his asceticism, and able to persuade souls;

at once many of the Egyptian ascetics were carried away with him.

For I think that, regarding the resurrection of the dead, in that he denied the resurrection of the flesh, he either took his pretexts from Origen, or vomited this up from his own mind.

This man does not accept marriage, asserting that it belongs to the Old Testament,

...for him to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

'For what,' he says, 'did the Word come to do that is new? Or what new thing did the Only-begotten come to proclaim and to accomplish? For if it concerns the fear of God, the Law already had this;'

'and if it concerns marriage, the Scriptures have already proclaimed it;'

'and if it concerns envy and covetousness and injustice, the Old Testament already contained all these things.'

'But one thing alone he came to accomplish: to proclaim self-control in the world, and to gather for himself purity and self-control;'

'and without this, no one can live.'

He gathers his pretexts for these things from everywhere, as when it says: 'and the sanctification, without which no one will see God.'

[But how] did the apostle say, 'marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge,' and then immediately go on again to say — and, passing over a little further, say that 'the unmarried woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how she may please the Lord, and so is the virgin;'

'but she who is married is anxious about how she may please her husband, and she is divided.'

If, then, there is division, how can there be fellowship with God where there is division? And if it is not God she pleases, but her husband, how can she possess the inheritance from God? For 'because of instances of fornication, let each man have his own wife,' says the apostle — not, he says, thereby commending marriage after the Lord's coming, but bearing with it together, so that they might not fall into needless ruin.

'For there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven,' and, 'I wish,' he says, 'that all were as I myself am,' and, 'the kingdom of heaven has been likened to ten virgins, five foolish and five wise;'

wise virgins, foolish virgins — nevertheless virgins — are likened to the kingdom of heaven, and he did not say 'married women.'

He heaps up many such things for himself, in order, forsooth, to reject marriage.

He does not accept that the children who die before attaining knowledge are saved, but casts them out of the hope commonly supposed for them.

For he asserts that these do not inherit the kingdom of heaven, since, he says, they did not compete in the contest.

For if one competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules; but if even the one who competes is not crowned unless lawfully, how much more those who have not yet even been called to the contest? Again, this man does not believe that paradise is a sensible place, just as Origen too did not; nor, as I have said, does he believe in the resurrection of the dead through the flesh, but while speaking of a 'resurrection of the dead,' he affirms a resurrection of souls, propounding a certain spiritual mythology.

No one gathers with them unless he be a virgin, or a monk, or a continent person, or a widow.

Concerning the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, he does not speak according to Origen, but truly believes that the Son was begotten from the Father.

And concerning the Holy Spirit, he accepts that he is from the Father.

But he asserts, as I have already shown above concerning the heresy of the Melchizedekians, regarding the Holy Spirit, that he is Melchizedek, because, he says, the apostle has said that he intercedes for us with unutterable groanings.

And who is this, but he who is made like unto the Son of God, who remains a priest forever? And he is a priest forever because of his interceding.

And he says that this Spirit met Abraham at that time, since indeed he is like the Son.

And for this reason, he says, the apostle calls him 'without father, without mother, without genealogy';

'Without mother,' he says, because he has no mother;

'Without father,' he says, because he had no father on earth; and being made like unto the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.

And babbling much concerning the Holy Spirit, he expounded a great deal of speculation on this matter.

He wishes to establish his whole case from the so-called Ascension of Isaiah, alleging that in the work called 'the Ascension' it was said there: 'The angel who walked before me showed me, and he showed me, and said:'

'Who is he who is at the right hand of God?' And I said:

'And who is the other one, like unto him, who comes from the left?' And I said:

'And it was,' he says, 'like the Beloved.' From this he wishes to establish the saying, 'being made like unto the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.'

How many things, then, will our mind be able to say concerning this, in refutation of his much-distorted thinking? But this man died in old age.

He composed writings both in Greek and in Egyptian, expounding and setting forth a treatise on the Hexaemeron, fabricating certain myths and bombastic allegories.

And how many other things he composed based on Scripture, and he also fabricated many novel psalms.

And many of the living among them do not partake † of the true tenets of their doctrine.

Hierakas himself indeed practiced great asceticism in reality, but his disciples after him did so hypocritically;

he abstained from all foods, and also practiced abstinence from wine;

and some say of him that, having lived beyond ninety years, until the very day he died he continued to write in fine calligraphy, for he was a calligrapher;

for his eyesight remained sound to the end.

But come, let us also examine closely this man's tares;

With what understanding of divine reasoning shall we engage and destroy this venomous creeping thing, which, like a scorpion, strikes both in front and behind, heaping up for itself things harmful from both Testaments — not as the divine words actually are, but as his distorted mind construed luminous things darkly? For honey is not to be blamed, nor is it most bitter, nor are the excellent foods created by God to be blamed, when, given to one who has a fever, they appear bitter in his mouth — it is not that the pleasant things have been made bitter, but that the fevered person's taste has made bitter the things given to him.

So too, everyone who has fallen away from the truth has not been deceived by the truth itself, but has tasted the truth with bitter thoughts, and it has been turned to bitterness for him.

Let us see, then, concerning children, what we should say about those who were killed straightway in Bethlehem of Judea on account of Christ. Are such ones without part in the kingdom of heaven, or do they partake of it? They do indeed partake, being blameless.

For if they are not partakers, then the Lord has become the cause of their loss;

for it was on account of him that they were killed.