Panarion (Against Heresies) 1 part 59/82

Then again, 'in him was life';

For it was necessary that in this too the sequence of holy John's words be fulfilled—he who ever confesses that, in him who is, the things that are not have been made full.

For 'in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.'

Since it 'was,' and 'was,' and 'was'—and 'in him was life' was, and 'the true light' was, and 'he was in the world' was, and however many things 'were' through him—by all these the blessed John, out of the Holy Spirit, makes clear the statement 'all things came to be through him'—that is, the things that came to be;

But above the things that came to be is he himself who made all things.

Scripture says that all things came to be through him, but it did not specify what the things are that came to be.

For there was nowhere any suspicion of malice, lest some should suspect the things that are not, and blaspheme the unchangeable and unalterable Holy Spirit of God.

For it is on their account that the Lord says: 'If anyone speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him;'

'but if anyone speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.'

For their whole argument is foolish.

But following their blasphemous surmise, one might answer them and say:

as to their saying 'all things'—the Holy Spirit is nowhere numbered together among 'all things.'

Then you ought also to consider—or indeed anyone else more wicked than you—that, according to your blasphemous surmise, the Father too came to be through the Son.

For the statement is all-comprehensive together, asserting that 'all things came to be through him.'

But if it is blasphemous and foolish to think such a thing concerning the Father, the same holds also for those who think in this way concerning the Holy Spirit, who is numbered together with the Father and the Son.

For if he were among the things that came to be, he would not be numbered together with the uncreated Father and the uncreated Son; but it is because he is uncreated that he is numbered together with them;

for he said, 'Go and baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.'

But how could the Spirit be a creature, when it is testified that he 'proceeds from the Father' and 'receives of what is mine,' through whom also the complete salvation of mankind and the incarnate dispensation was accomplished unto every righteousness?

For Scripture says concerning the Lord, 'He anointed him with the Holy Spirit.'

The Father would not have anointed with a creature the incarnate dispensation that is united with God the Word into one Godhead; but since the Trinity is one—three perfect [persons], one Godhead—it was necessary that this be done economically in the Son, so that, being glorified in every respect and in all things, the Trinity might be understood as one; just as, throughout our discussion against all the heresies concerning the Spirit, we have brought forward not one nor two testimonies that the Spirit is of God, glorified together with the Father and the Son, being uncreated and unchangeable and perfect.

And so the argument of these contentious men concerning this matter, devised against themselves, has also fallen apart.

But let us again turn ourselves to their other sayings.

For again they say—not rightly holding the saying—that the Savior himself said, 'Why do you call me good? One is good, God,' and thereby set himself apart from the essence and hypostasis of the Father.

For if he who has done us so many good things is not judged good by them, then who is still good? And what could be more wicked than this: that he who gave his soul for the sheep, who came of his own free will to suffer, being the impassible God; that he who granted us the forgiveness of sins; that he who accomplished healings throughout all Israel; he who out of his own goodness gathered so great a race of men to the Father in goodness; he who is the steward of goodness and lord of peace; he, the good Word, begotten above from the good Father; he who gives food to all flesh; he who worked every goodness in men and in all things made by him—should be judged not good by them?

And those who bring forgetfulness upon themselves do not know that he gave this answer to the one who asked, in order to bring down the arrogance and pride within him.

For he was boastful, coming from among the scribes, priding himself on having precisely kept the ordinances of the Law, and vaunting his own righteousness and goodness; and he said, 'Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' And since he held such an opinion of himself concerning such great righteousness, the Lord—wishing to refer all goodness to God, since 'no one is good but he,' so that no one clothed in flesh might draw upon himself any conceit—for this reason said, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, God,' so that this man, so great and so self-assured, having spoken such a word, might have the self-conceit within the speaker cast down—a man who had come to think highly of his own righteousness—and so that he might expose his heart: calling him a good teacher with his lips, but not abiding in his good teaching.

And that he indeed is good, he himself teaches, saying, 'Many good works I have done among you; for which of these do you stone me?' For to whom is this not clear and most evident, especially since many good things are his own creations and are called such, as the divine Scripture says?

For behold, the divine writing tells of many good things:

...of the people, above the shoulder and upward; and 'Samuel was good with God and with men'; and 'the end of a matter is better than its beginning'; and 'open your good treasury, the heavenly one.'

Since these are creatures, and are shown to be good—having come to be through him and by him—how is it not beyond all doubt that one must confess that the author of their genesis is good? But lest I prolong the discussion on this point—for we have spoken of it fully and at length—I shall again pass on to what follows, offering the resolution of each saying.

But once more the all-audacious ones bring forward certain sayings, sowing suspicions of deficiency against the one who bought them—if indeed they were bought.

For when the mother of the sons of Zebedee came forward and asked that one might sit on his right hand and one on his left when he comes into his kingdom, he said to them:

'Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?' And they said, 'Yes, we are able.'

'You will indeed drink my cup; but to sit on my right hand or on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.'

'You see,' he says, 'how he does not have authority apart from the Father, who has the authority to grant it to whomever he wishes?' And who among right-thinking people would understand it so? For if the Son does not have authority, then who does have authority? For, it says, 'the Father gives life to the dead,' and thus he has given also to the Son, that he may give life to whomever he wills; and 'the things of the Father are mine,' and 'all things have been delivered to me by my Father.'

Who then could still doubt? This is what his divine and wise word wishes to establish: that the matter does not come about by favoritism, but according to worth.

For it belongs to the Lord to grant it, and he grants to each according to worth.

And each one who has worked righteousness receives what is just from the Lord according to his own labor, and it is no longer his alone to give, but belongs to the one who has made himself worthy.

For I dare say that it belongs neither to him alone—though able to give, yet not willing to—nor to the Holy Spirit alone, although the Holy Spirit too is able to give, according to what is said: 'to one indeed wisdom is given through the Spirit, to another kinds of tongues in the same Spirit, to another the interpretation of tongues, to another power, to another teaching; but it is one and the same Spirit who apportions to each as he wills.'

And it does not say 'as it is commanded,' but 'as he wills.'

And the Son gives life to whomever he wills, and the Father calls to the Son whomever he wills.

And again, neither the Father, nor the Son, nor the Holy Spirit calls, or gives, or grants, or bestows worth by favoritism, but as each one prepares himself worthy;

that is to say, 'it is not mine to give, but if you labor, it will be prepared for you by my Father.'

But the perfect [truth] is that 'I am the life.'

And I shall move on yet further to other matters.

How do you say that he is of the perfect Godhead of God? For behold, the apostle says concerning him that 'God raised him from the dead.'

But if he needed the help of God to raise him from the dead, then indeed the one who raises by power is one, and the one who is raised through the power of the mighty one—being inferior—is another.

by the will of the Son, together with the good pleasure of the Holy Spirit;

Surely this was not said with regard to any diminishment, or weakness, or estrangement of the Word of God from the essence of the Father.

For observe the original accounts, how the angel relates it, saying to the women concerning Mary, 'Why do you seek the living one among the dead?' You see—the living one arose in his own Godhead and flesh, but he was not among the dead.

And what does he say to them? 'He has risen, he is not here'; and he did not say:

'God raised him, and he is not here'; but rather, in order to show his power, that he also arose as living.

And he himself, again, before his suffering, said to his own disciples: 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified, and on the third day he will rise.'

And he did not say, 'God will raise him.'

But he had clearly demonstrated beforehand, concerning this, the authoritative character of his own power, saying, 'I have authority to lay down my soul, and authority to take it again.'

But he who has such authority—how could he not be able to raise himself? But the apostle, writing so as to show that nothing came about in the dispensation of salvation apart from the will of the Father, said, 'God raised him from the dead.'

For indeed, in another place, the apostle himself says that 'even if he died out of weakness, yet he lives by power.'

But I would wish to learn the mind of those who know the Scriptures accurately: what weakness did the Only-Begotten have—he through whom the heaven was stretched out, or by whom the heaven was created; through whom the sun was made to shine; through whom the stars gave their light; through whom all things came to be out of things that did not exist?

What weakness, then, does he mean? Is it not the one that the Word took upon himself when he came in our flesh, putting it on, in order that he might bear our weakness—just as the prophet also sings concerning him, saying, 'He took our weaknesses, and bore our sicknesses'?

He died, then, on account of our weakness—he who is life, and the impassible God—in the flesh taken from us, which is weaker; but he lives by power.

For the Word is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword.

He died, then, out of weakness, but he lives by the power of his own Godhead; and he lives in our flesh, in which he took upon himself the suffering.

And on account of such an economy, signifying the good pleasure of the Father, the apostle said that God raised him from the dead.

They also adduce another saying from the Gospel according to Luke, which is divinely inspired and excellent and most useful for all things.

What then is the saying? It is this: when the Lord, by his own will, was about to come to the passion, taking the disciples up the mountain at that hour, he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and going apart he prayed and said:

Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, that I may not drink it;

nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.

And first, again, these same men make a pretext, saying: 'Do you see how he speaks in a diminished manner and intimates a will at variance, saying, "not what I will, but what you will"? How then', they say, 'can it be the same essence, when in him there is one will and in the Father another?' And they are ignorant of the whole force [of the saying].

For this reason also the apostle said, 'O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!'

For how did he speak of a will of his own apart from the Father's will, when he himself indicated to the disciples, 'My soul is troubled';

and, 'And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour'?

as though relating the saying in a preparatory manner and using the expression ambiguously: 'What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.'

'Shall I say this?' he says. 'But it was for this that I came to this hour.'

And he came not unwillingly, but willingly.

He was pleading his case on behalf of the people.

And the will of the Father was that the economy should thus be fulfilled through the sons of Israel, who were themselves the cause of the Son's betrayal, and were not compelled by God;

and the will of the Son was not different from that of the Father.

But it was necessary that he also demonstrate this in this respect, so that he might refer the whole of the unity back to the Father, so that nothing of the one union and economy might be divided.

And next he adds, concerning his praying, that having come to be in agony, as it is recorded in the Gospel according to Luke, he sweated, he says, and his sweat became as it were drops of blood falling down upon the ground.

And there appeared an angel of the Lord strengthening him.

So then, the word-hunters, leaping forward at once, as though they had found a pretext against an enemy, add, saying:

'Do you see that he was in need even of the strength of angels? For an angel strengthened him;'

'for he himself was in agony.'

And they do not know that if he did not have all these things — including 'not my will, but yours' — and if he did not agonize, and if sweat did not pour out from his body, then the incarnate presence of Christ was mere semblance, and reasonably it would be sung by the Manichaeans and Marcionites that the hypothesis of the incarnate presence was one of illusion, that it was mere appearance and not most true.

And he did all these things, securing our life, in that he took up all that is ours, having, according to the economy, certain human-passible accounts — not in pretense, but in truth — such as 'not my will,' in order that he might show the true reality of the flesh, and in order that he might refute those who say he did not have a human mind, and refute those who deny that he had flesh.

For every divine word, standing in the midst of the sons of darkness, exposes the darkness, but enlightens the sons of truth.

For see how many useful things are in this saying.

From incorporeal beings no sweat proceeds.

But in this happening he showed true flesh, and not mere semblance.

And from flesh united with the divinity, without a soul and a mind, no agony arises.

But in his experiencing agony, he showed that he had brought together soul and body and mind in himself, from which the agony appears.

And again, in saying 'not my will, but yours,' he showed truly a human mind, yet one without sin.

For his divinity is always in the Father, and the Father in the Son, and the Son in the Holy Spirit, possessing all things in perfection, and the mind of the Son differs in nothing from that of the Father, nor that of the Father from the Son, nor that of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son.

For if the Son wills what the Father does not will, then he too will be, like us, a mere man, subjected to the Father's will by way of diminishment.

But it is not so; may it never be!

But by relating human-passible things, he shows the truth of his incarnate presence and the perfection of his becoming man, so that our salvation might come about in every respect, so that we might not think one thing instead of another and fall away from the truth.

Now concerning his being seen strengthened by angels — and what could be more fitting than this? What more necessary than this? For behold, we have found fulfilled the saying of the great song written by Moses, where it says: 'Let my utterance be awaited as the rain;'

And after saying not much more, he again says:

'Let all the sons of God worship him, and let all the angels of God strengthen him;'

not that the angels might give him strength;

for he had no need of the strengthening of angels;

but rather that they might 'strengthen' him — that is, that by rendering back to him what belongs to his own strength, they might confess it.

For indeed we too, being weak, have often blessed God, have often 'strengthened' God — not because God is in need of our blessing, but because we confess the might of his blessing;

and in precise language we say: 'Yours is the power, yours is the might, yours is the honor, yours is the glory, yours is the blessing, yours is the strength, yours is the power.'

We render this to God, if we say:

'Yours is the strength, yours is the power, yours is the blessing' — not that we have given him power, nor that we have blessed God [as though he needed it];

but rather, in 'strengthening' and 'empowering' him, we have confessed God's power and have rendered back to God his strength.

So too the angel, at that hour, marveling and struck with amazement at the excess of his own Master's love for mankind — that though he was God, and worshiped together with the Father in heaven, and served by his own angels, he nevertheless endured, of his own will, to come so far willingly and to put on flesh;

and not only that, but he even endured, on behalf of his own creation, to suffer for the human nature, and to be delivered up even unto the cross, tasting death — and death of the cross — so that through it humanity might win a trophy against death, and he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and might triumph over every rule and authority.

Therefore the angel, marveling and struck with amazement, said to him, glorifying and praising his own Master who stood firm in such a contest and marvel:

'Yours is the worship, yours is the might, yours is the power, yours is the strength' — that he might fulfill what was written by Moses: 'Let all the angels of God strengthen him.'

And see, you servants of Christ and sons of the holy church of God and of the orthodox faith, that nothing in the divine Scripture is crooked or knotty, but all things are marvelously written and brought to completion for our salvation.

But those aforementioned, being in enmity toward the only-begotten Son of God and toward the Holy Spirit, think and devise everything as enemies do.

But may it never be that we cling to human sophistries; rather, let us keep our own mind sound, so that we may glorify our Master, and think nothing diminished in him.

For if he who came to save all things has some deficiency in himself, how shall creation be saved from its own deficiencies?

Again they lay hold of another point, like adversaries — for indeed they are set upon a Jewish mindset, differing from those in nothing except the name only, these new Jews who again spring up against us, seeking certain sayings against the Savior, so that they might entrap him in speech, just as the holy Gospel said, and they say:

'On the cross he said, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani" — that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"' And do you see, they say, him pitifully entreating and lamenting and saying:

'Why have you forsaken me?' And those who, stupefied in mind by this poison of Arius's madness and destitute of the knowledge of God, do not know that all human-passible things must be confessed in the Lord as belonging to his true incarnate presence.

And first of all, as regards their opinions about him, leaping from one thing to another, they forget [what they said before], having no single, stable position.

For how could those who are not sound in mind do otherwise? For at one time they wish to call him Savior and Lord and Christ, existing before all ages, and Master of angels and archangels, through whom all things came into being — both principalities and powers, angels and archangels, the heavens and all things, the earth and all men and all things upon the earth, and the sea and the things in it.

were filled with his glory.

and he was in Mary and became man, yet by his power he filled all things.

How then could one so great and so mighty according to his divinity pitifully say, 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani,' that is, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' — even though he himself says elsewhere, 'Again, I go away, and I will not leave you orphans, but I am coming to you'; and again in another place he says, 'Truly I say to you, all of you will be scandalized because of me this night, and you will all leave me alone — yet I am not alone, for the Father who begot me is with me'; and again, 'I go away, and I will send you the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, who proceeds from the Father and receives from what is mine'; and again in another place, 'I knock, and if anyone opens to me, we will come in to him — I and my Father — and we will make our dwelling with him' — since he was not forsaken by the Father, but the Father is always with the Son, just as the Holy Spirit is with the Father and the Son.

'What then', they say, 'is this saying which he uttered, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"' But to whom would it not be clear that the word is put forward in a human-passible manner from the person of his becoming man? For his becoming man, not existing as something on its own — for he did not speak as though the divinity were separated and existed apart from the becoming man, as though it were one thing and another — but the becoming man being united with the divinity, being one sanctified reality, and already possessing within it the most perfect things, as indeed united in God and joined into one divinity, already seeing the divinity moving together with the soul toward leaving the holy body — the word was put forward from the person of the Lord's own man, that is, of his becoming man.

For the divinity was about to bring to completion all the things pertaining to the mystery of the passion, and to descend together with the soul to the regions below, in order to work there the salvation of those who had fallen asleep before — I mean, of the holy patriarchs.

As, then, this movement thus took place, the voice, from the person of the becoming man, said to his own very divinity, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' But this had to happen, so that through it the divine Scriptures might be fulfilled, which had been proclaimed beforehand concerning him through his own prophets;

in order that he might also fulfill the things concerning Hades, in the form of a man going toward Hades, so that the ruler — Hades and Death — wishing to lay hold of the man, in his ignorance not knowing the holy divinity hidden within the soul, might seize him, and instead it should come about that Hades himself is seized and Death is destroyed, and that the word spoken might be fulfilled: 'You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption.'

For neither did the holy God the Word abandon the soul, nor was his soul left in Hades.

For the Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — administers without omission all the things of this great mystery-rite: the Son having become incarnate, while the Father remains incorporeal; and by his own good pleasure and will, the Spirit likewise being incorporeal, while the Son became embodied, yet unchangeably.

And the whole was administered by the Trinity as salvation for mankind.

For it was necessary that the body be three days in the tomb, so that the word might be fulfilled, 'And I became free among the dead,' and, 'They cast me away, the beloved, as a dead man, abhorred,' and so that it might be fulfilled, 'You will not give your holy one to see corruption' — that he might show holiness through the body — and 'You will not abandon my soul to Hades' — that he might show that the soul was not abandoned in Hades;

For God the Word was in it, by his detention in Hades, in order to fulfill what was said by the apostles: for it was impossible for him to be held fast by Hades.

He does not say it is impossible, but that death and Hades were eager to seize hold of the soul, yet it was impossible for his soul to be held fast on account of his divinity. But if it was impossible for it to be held fast on account of his divinity, how then could it have been said, from the person of his own divinity, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Rather, the Word was shown to act in a human manner from the person of his own becoming man, that we might learn that his enfleshed presence was true, and not arranged by him in mere semblance or fantasy.

But what rose from the earth, if not that which had fallen asleep? For he says, 'He is risen, he is not here.'

And what rose, if not the body? The body, then, was that which lay in the tomb, and the soul had departed together with God the Word.

And again, in that same [Christ], he fulfilled the perfect resurrection in the same divinity, in the same soul, in the same holy body, thereby uniting the whole economy into one spiritual union, into one union of divinity, into one economy, into one perfection, as the Lord says in the psalm, 'The Lord has become king, he has clothed himself with majesty,' to show the entrance of God the Word from the heavenly realms into the world, clothing himself with majesty, that is, with the flesh born of the Virgin.

For since to the unbelieving onlookers he seemed to be something lowly, yet to him it was accounted majesty, that he might show his strength — through the seeming weakness of the flesh — abolishing him who held the power of sin, that is, dissolving death, having graciously accomplished the whole economy of our salvation, and having made corruption vanish and blotted out the curse, having also cancelled the handwriting that stood against us and dissolved the covenant with Hades, and having arranged everything for the salvation of mankind.

For immediately after saying, 'The Lord has become king, he has clothed himself with majesty,' he adds further and repeats, saying, 'The Lord has clothed himself with power and girded himself,' in order to show that the first garment was from Mary, while the second, repeated garment was from the resurrection of the dead.

For indeed he is the firstborn from the dead, as the divine Scripture says.

For this reason he adds to this second garment a certain greater security, saying, 'The Lord has clothed himself with power and girded himself.'

For just as one who girds his garment about the loins draws it tight upon the loins, thereby further securing its form and uniting it more closely with his own skin, so also the first was majesty, on account of his enfleshed sojourning here among us.

But the second, he says, he clothed himself with power, having risen from the dead.

No longer does his humanity come to suffering, no longer to scourgings, no longer is he crucified, as the apostle said concerning him: 'He is risen, he no longer dies; death no longer has dominion over him.'

For this reason it says 'he girded himself,' having united his flesh into one divinity, into one unity, into one spirit, the divine and the bodily being brought to completion into one spiritual reality, having no dissolution — as he then entered where the doors were shut, showing the dense to be subtle, and the passible to be impassible, having suffered in the flesh, yet remaining in impassibility.

Although after entering he showed bones and flesh, the mark of the lance and the mark of the nails, being touched by Thomas, being seen by the disciples, yet entering while the doors were shut — that he might show that he arranged the whole of his salvation toward us men into one spiritual union.

But why should I wear myself out over so lengthy a discourse? For to say the same things many times is no trouble to us; rather, out of concern for the safety of those who read, we have often related them repeatedly, so that, having thus passed through the beast-like venom of Arius — of his notions, his words, and his thoughts...

...for one who has received the Holy Spirit and a wakeful mind from the Lord, there is nothing crooked to suspect, nor any form of suffering, toward the Father or toward the Son, nor toward the Holy Spirit, but all things are most perfect; and in an economical manner, according to each need and in each place, in accordance with the matter at hand, all has been spoken in truth in the divine Scriptures by the Lord himself, and by his apostles, and by the holy prophets who were sent by him.