基督教地誌 第 1 章 第 13/22 段

And all these things are eternal and unending, both the good things and the worst of these.

And altogether that state differs greatly, exceedingly greatly, from the one here.

As for the things of the impious, there is final punishment and merciless judgment:

for its judgment and punishment corresponds to that state.

Let us come, then, also to the evangelists and apostles, and let us show that they too, in harmony with the ancients, say that these two states alone have come to be from God — this first one, in which we now also live, and the one to come, toward which all Christians look.

Let us then set forth Matthew, the first of the evangelists, speaking about such things.

This one, the first of the evangelists, wrote a Gospel:

and gospel means the announcement of good things.

When persecution arose in Jerusalem, at the time when they stoned Stephen, and he himself was about to leave Jerusalem, some of the faithful having asked him to leave them a written teaching, he chose rather to record the Lord's sojourn in the flesh on earth, purposing to teach them an image of virtuous conduct and of heavenly manner of life and of godly conversation.

Preserving, then, this purpose, he begins his own writing, speaking thus:

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham — saying this:

To you, O most faithful ones, addressing my discourse concerning a wondrous birth and a most excellent way of life and a heavenly manner of conduct and a state befitting newness, I set forth to you a book.

Since God made promises to David and to Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through their seed, and that their seed would reign forever — it is of that very seed from them, through whom God blesses the world and re-creates it and grants an eternal kingdom, that I narrate the birth, showing how he is the founder of the second state, having been conceived and born in a manner befitting newness, and having lived a life in all righteousness and holiness, without sin.

For just as the first-formed man Adam was brought forth by divine power from earth not yet sown nor tilled by man, so also the founder of the second state was brought forth from among men — as one might say, from a virgin earth, without seed, without a man, by the power of the Holy Spirit:

and just as then, again, the female was brought forth from the male, so also here the male was brought forth from the female:

and just as that one, having been defeated by the devil, introduced death into the race, so also this one, having conquered, abolished death from the race, and additionally procured for the race immortality and unending life.

Having the purpose of saying these things and such things, the blessed Matthew set forth his own writing — how he came to be conceived without seed by the Holy Spirit, and that, having advanced in age, he lived without sin, and fulfilled both the conduct according to the law and the evangelical conduct and all righteousness.

And having also been delivered up to the tempter, he was declared victor, remaining unconquered, and, beyond the very pit of contest, surpassed the adversary of human nature:

Then, having also been plotted against by the Jews and unjustly handed over, he willingly accepted death also on behalf of the race, so that, having rightly torn up the old handwriting, he might nail it to the cross, and might pay, as a rational sacrifice, the death owed on behalf of all, offering himself unblemished to God:

Then, thereupon, having risen from the dead on the third day, he showed to all the dissolution of death, and enjoins all to rejoice, having thereupon overthrown the power of death.

And Matthew himself also makes mention of the ascent into heaven, even if not at the end, yet indeed within the writing itself, when he speaks of John the Baptist thus:

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand — as if to say:

The dwelling-place in the heavens is now ready, at the coming of Christ, to be made manifest:

And, disputing with the Sadducees concerning the resurrection, the Lord speaks thus:

For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven. This is the purpose of the writing of the blessed evangelist Matthew.

Marginal note. And this one is a herald not of the Old but of the New Testament, who has written for us how and when, and from whom, the founder of the second state, that is, the Lord Christ, was born, and how he lived, and was put to death, and rose again, and ascended into the heavens, where the way of life of the second state is.

Glory to God, who from the beginning prepared and foretold these things, and who has now fulfilled and continues to fulfill them.

This one is the second — Mark, in Rome, at Peter's instruction, who wrote a Gospel, who, having determined the beginning of the Gospel, that is, of the evangelical way of life, to be the baptism — which was a type of the resurrection from the dead, through which we are regenerated into immortal and unchangeable life — then, having likewise spoken of the temptations and the victory, and similarly of the plot and the death and the resurrection, completed his own writing.

And he too makes mention of John the Baptist preaching that the kingdom of heaven had drawn near — all of which things he himself also uttered in agreement with the blessed Matthew.

For there is one purpose to all divine Scripture.

Marginal note. And this one, too, being a herald of the New Testament, wrote for us the same things as the one before him, beginning from the narrative concerning the baptism, which is also a type of the resurrection from the dead — I mean, of the new and heavenly way of life — how he was baptized, and lived, and was put to death, and rose again, and ascended into the heavens, where the place and the way of life of the second state is.

Glory to God, who from the beginning prepared and foreshowed these things, and who has now fulfilled and continues to fulfill them.

This is Luke, the third of the evangelists, who, having observed that many had attempted to write Gospels and were fabricating many things out of their own heart, himself very promptly wrote an account to his own disciple Theophilus, safeguarding him against being carried away by their fabrications, or turned aside from what he had previously learned:

That you may know, he says, with certainty the security of the words in which you were instructed. He therefore narrates to him what had been handed down to him, beginning from the birth of John, teaching this — that the birth of the Forerunner also was wondrous — then narrating that the birth, according to the flesh, of the Lord Christ himself likewise came about wondrously, having stated, in accordance with the purpose of the preceding Matthew, in reverse order, his ancestors, as from David and Abraham, and yet extending further, that he is also from Adam; and, finding no one further afterward, he ran back at last to God, saying of God, that is, of him who began creation according to the hierophant Moses, and who made the first-formed Adam.

Then, again, he too, having spoken things similar to the others concerning the baptism and the temptations, and also concerning the death and the resurrection, after these things reports, both in the Gospel itself and in the Acts, his ascent into heaven, and that he will come again in this same manner; and he too completes his own writing, looking to one purpose, which all await, teaching this also to his own disciple, the God-beloved Theophilus.

Marginal note. This one too, being a herald of the same New Testament, declared the same things as the others, beginning from the birth of the Forerunner, and coming also to his own birth, and speaking also of the manner of life according to the Law, and likewise the evangelical [manner of life], I mean baptism, death and resurrection—

and afterward he too proclaimed the ascent into heaven, where is the dwelling-place of our second state.

Glory to God, who from the beginning prepared and foretold concerning these things, and now has fulfilled and is fulfilling them.

This one again recorded the doxology of the multitude of the host of angels, rejoicing and exulting at the birth of the Master Christ according to the flesh, and saying:

"[Glory] to God, and on earth peace, among men good will"—having now put away their ancient dejection, that on account of the first-formed man, and rejoicing at the birth of the second Adam.

This is John, the fourth of the evangelists, who was loved by Christ more than all, who reclined upon the breast of the Lord, who from there, as from an ever-flowing spring, drew up the mysteries; to whom, while he was living in Ephesus, the writings of the other three evangelists were delivered by the faithful, and having received them he declared that they were indeed good, but said that certain things had been omitted in them, which it was also necessary to relate—

and being urged by the faithful, he too set forth his own writing, in a certain manner a filling-up of what had been omitted, such as concerning the wedding at Cana, concerning Nicodemus, concerning the Samaritan woman, concerning the royal official, concerning the man blind from birth, concerning Lazarus, concerning Judas's indignation on account of the woman who anointed the Lord with ointment, concerning the Greeks who came to him, concerning the basin, and concerning other teachings spoken in the midst [of his Gospel], concerning the Paraclete, and especially having plainly proclaimed the divinity of Christ and set it forth as the foundation of his own writing—all of which had been omitted by the others.

Having begun, then, from [Christ's] divinity, he immediately passed also to his humanity, telling, he too, as much as had been told before by the others: baptism, temptations, death and resurrection.

Then he adds what he did after the resurrection: how he entered while the doors were shut, how he showed his hands and feet and side, how he ate and drank with them, how he journeyed together with them, how he restrained their eyes from seeing him, how, whenever he wished, he appeared suddenly and again suddenly withdrew, how he spoke to Mary in the manner of a teacher:

"Touch me not," teaching through this that it is not fitting for the immortals to have converse with mortals, but rather their converse is in heaven.

"For I have not yet ascended to my Father," where I am about to go up, in which [place] is also the converse of the immortals.

For this reason he also told her to go and say to the disciples that:

"I am ascending into heaven, where you also are about to go up."

Having written all these things, he too finished his own writing, having one purpose together with the other evangelists: to teach that from this present state one must look toward the future [state], to which all divinely-inspired Scripture, both Old and New Testament, looks.

Marginal note. This one too, having appeared as a herald of the New Testament, having written what had been omitted by the other evangelists and having filled up the rest, likewise declared, as the others did, baptism, [way of] life, death and resurrection, and the ascent into heaven, where is the dwelling-place of the immortal and righteous men and of the angels, that is, the place of the second state.

Glory to him who prepared these things and foretold them and is still fulfilling them.

This is Peter, the chief of the apostles, who was entrusted with the keys of the kingdom of heaven, who has the Church founded upon himself, who denied three times and confessed three times, who nobly asked to endure the cross head-downward — this one too, preserving the same purpose as the evangelists, spoke thus in the Acts:

"Jesus the Nazarene, a man demonstrated to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know — this man, delivered up by the determined plan and foreknowledge of God, you took by the hands of lawless men and fastened [to the cross] and killed; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death"; then, going on further:

"This Jesus God raised up, of which we all are witnesses."

"Having therefore been exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear."

"For David did not ascend into heaven;"

"The Lord said to my Lord:"

your enemies a footstool for your feet

"Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." One must observe here how he described the entire subject-matter of the evangelists in very few verses indeed, speaking concerning him both of the place that reared him, as being from Nazareth, and that he is a man from God, as a second Adam, and that God worked wonders through him, and that by divine permission he was killed by lawless men, and that God raised him up immortal and unchangeable — for this is what he meant by saying "having loosed the pains of death" — and that by divine power, having been highly exalted, he ascended into heaven, and from there sent down the Holy Spirit;

for no other ascended into heaven, not even David, but the Lord himself, concerning whom David also said:

"The Lord said to my Lord:"

"Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"; and:

"Assuredly God has made him Lord and Christ." And again further he speaks thus to Cornelius:

"Jesus who was from Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with him;"

"and we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem;"

"whom also they killed, hanging him on a tree."

"This one God raised up on the third day, and granted that he should become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who had been chosen beforehand by God, to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead;"

"and he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify solemnly that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead."

"To him all the prophets bear witness, that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins." Likewise again, when he healed the lame man, he speaks thus:

"Repent therefore and turn, so that your sins may be blotted out, that seasons of refreshment may come, and that he may send the one appointed beforehand for you, Jesus Christ, whom heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things, which God spoke through the mouth of all his holy prophets from of old." And he calls to mind the saying of Moses, namely:

"The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet," and again he adds:

"And all the prophets from Samuel and those after him, as many as spoke, also announced these days;"

"You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham:"

"And in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

"To you first God, having raised up his servant, sent him to bless you, in turning away each one of you from your wickednesses." To all these things blessed Peter also bears witness, just as the evangelists do, and [testifies] that all the prophets announced beforehand all these things, that God has made and is making a certain second new state, which he also announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets; and he neither said that there was another state before this one, nor did he declare another after the one to come, but together with all the prophets and apostles he spoke of two only, this present one and the one to come.

Marginal note. At the building of the tower, men once, fighting against God, wished to ascend into heaven;

God, having split their tongues, made them unable to accomplish [their purpose].

But he who at the end of times came for the salvation of men and led up our nature into heaven, foretelling on the day of Pentecost also the ascent of the rest, again through the Holy Spirit gathered together the tongues from heaven and gave them to the apostles,

for the sake of immortality and incorruption — for this is what he means by saying "having loosed the pains of death" — and likewise the ascent into heaven;

and he calls the coming state "seasons of refreshment," and says that this is the blessing previously promised to Abraham, and proclaimed through all the prophets to all the nations, and that the Master Christ is its leader, through whom all the nations are blessed.

Glory to God who prepared these things and foretold them, and who has now fulfilled them and is still fulfilling them.

STEPHEN. This is Stephen, the first martyr and first deacon of the New Testament, who possessed the great Paul as his own murderer while he was still a zealot for the Law, who alone contended against the whole assembly, who caused the Judge-of-the-Contest to rise up to behold the spectacle — this is the one who beheld the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God:

for whereas all divine Scripture speaks of him as seated, this one saw him standing;

for the intensity of the contest caused the Judge-of-the-Contest to rise up to behold [it].

Whence, being also urged on by him to go up into that glory, he prayed for those who were stoning him, saying:

"Lord, do not hold this sin against them, but you yourself receive my spirit."

Behold, he too both saw and proclaims the same things as the others, that Christ, the leader of the second state, is in heaven, whom he also entreats to receive him there.

Marginal note. This one too, being a herald of the New Testament and a fervent contender, beheld with his own eyes, in a more spiritual manner, Jesus being within the firmament, whom, even while being stoned, he entreats to receive his spirit.

This one delivered a great public speech to the Jews, in which he convicted them of having become the murderers of Jesus.

Through this, he too confirms to us the very things which the first [witnesses] have said: death and resurrection and ascent into heaven.

Glory to him who prepared these things and announced them beforehand, and has now fulfilled them and is still fulfilling them.

PAUL. This is the great Paul, the apostle, the commander of the heavenly battalion, who has Christ speaking within himself, who bears about the marks of Christ in his body, the great teacher of the Church, who endures countless deaths every day for the sake of the Church, who boasts in the Lord even in his own weaknesses, who has the grace of Christ welling up within himself, who speaks in tongues to all the nations, who was once a persecutor but now is persecuted, who was once a sinner but now has been shown mercy, who was caught up as far as the third heaven and again into paradise, the hearer of unspeakable words, the appointed judge of the spiritual gifts, the great regulator, and one who surpasses the other teachers of the Church — Paul, whose greeting in all his Epistles, as in the manner of a sign, is: the grace of the Lord.

This one, throughout all his own Epistles, continues rejoicing and confident, as one already come to be in the second state;

saying, "raised us up together and seated us together" in the heavenly places, and:

"By hope we were saved," and countless other things, which it is not easy now to enumerate.

But let us mention a few, so that we may not prolong the discourse.

He says, then, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, thus:

"If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable." But what then, O Paul, after this present life, what other [life] ought we to hope for? Yes, he says, there is a certain better life, strong and heavenly, promised with an oath from God.

"Melchizedek, having become high priest forever." And again:

"Knowing that you have a better and abiding possession." And again:

"Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken." And again:

"For here we have no abiding city, but we seek the one that is to come." And again:

"For the form of this world is passing away." And again:

"But godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." And again:

"Brothers, I do not consider that I myself have yet laid hold of it;"

but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus;

So then, as many as are mature, let us think this way. And again:

But our citizenship exists in heaven, from which also we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory. And again:

awaiting the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. And again:

If then you were raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; set your minds on the things above, not on the things on the earth. And again:

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep;

because the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first;

then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord;

Therefore encourage one another with these words. And again:

For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland;

and if indeed they had remembered that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return;

but now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one;

therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God;

for he has prepared a city for them. And again:

For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And again:

a minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man. But also in the Acts, when he was pleading his case before Festus and Agrippa on the tribunal, he says this:

Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, O king;

Why is it judged incredible among you that God raises the dead? And again:

On account of these things the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me with their own hands

Having therefore obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass:

that the Christ must suffer, and that, by being first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles. And if we wished to gather up all the Apostle's usages concerning this, we would find nearly all his fourteen Epistles speaking of this throughout — that from this present condition we are hastening to run toward the one to come; whence also he exhorts, saying:

Let us be diligent to enter that rest — having called it "rest" itself, as though there were no other after it, but also [elsewhere called it] an unshakeable kingdom, so as to say it has no successor

[Marginal note.] What need is there to speak also concerning this vessel of election, the great new trumpet sounding among the Gentiles, gathering the Gentiles and Israel into one Church? For his own first election also came about from heaven, Jesus having called him, and having learned, he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision

This one, again, having been caught up while yet remaining in the present condition, beheld the ranks of the angels as far as the third heaven; he observed the ministry of the invisible Powers, and having entered among and beheld the Principalities and the Authorities and the Dominions and all the named Powers, he cried out concerning their ministry:

'...for service, sent forth on account of those who are about to inherit salvation'? This one also declared the former rank of the Adversary, in that he belonged to the authority of the air, and announced his fall from pride out of the heavens

Do you not know that we will judge angels? And again:

The angels judge the world. This is the one who in all his Epistles exhorts to think on heavenly things and seek heavenly things, and to hasten to run toward heaven and press on to attain the things above

This is the one who declared heaven to be the city and dwelling-place of the righteous, of angels and of men, and of the whole Church together, and who spoke of the Lord Christ as the head of the whole body, as being above it;

for he said, 'far above every Principality and Authority and Power and Dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come;'

and, to speak briefly, this is the great teacher and expositor of the heavenly orders and of the Church, and he alone makes mention of the present and the coming conditions, and of the immortality and incorruptibility furnished to us by God in the age to come, and of the immutability and all the supra-mundane good things, the power of which we are not able to reckon

Glory to God, who prepared all these things beforehand and foretold them, and who now has fulfilled and continues to fulfill them, forever.

Furthermore. To the Romans, right at the outset, Paul praises their faith, which is proclaimed in the whole world, and calls them fellow-believers

But the Corinthians, as having formerly been philosophers of this world, he rebukes; for although they had already come to believe concerning the resurrection of Christ, he declares this to be of no benefit to them, if their own resurrection is not likewise believed by them

Rightly, therefore, did the Athenians call him a 'seed-picker' (babbler), as one who was rooting up the tares of their superstition

He calls the Galatians foolish, and, like senseless things, easily turned aside, in that after their baptism they were deceived and got themselves circumcised

To the Ephesians he proclaims the whole counsel of God, and, having there almost fought with wild beasts, he sets before them, prophesying and saying that after these things certain ones would come to them as wolves and would tear them apart, and that among these, he said, some would also arise from among themselves, likewise tearing apart the Church like wolves

He greatly admires the Philippians, praising them as the only ones who showed much care and love toward him both in his imprisonment and in his defense, and who often sent him what was needed

The Colossians, again, he likewise praises for their faith, if indeed they continue in it, and for having love toward all the saints

He calls the Thessalonians lovers of the brethren, and describes them as being persecuted and suffering for the sake of piety, just as also the faithful Hebrews; and he strengthens them, just as also the Corinthians, concerning the resurrection of the dead, and likewise concerning the second coming of the Lord

To the Hebrews — as a Hebrew himself, and as one of them sharing their affairs in common — he calls them holy brothers, and called ones, and partakers of the heavenly calling, who are being persecuted and suffering for piety; nevertheless, he says, 'if indeed we hold our confidence firm to the end'; and he takes precaution lest they be weakened by fear of persecution and run back to the unbelievers