Since, then, these things were not possible to keep even for those who wished it, among the nations removed far from Judea, fittingly our Savior and Lord, having himself dissolved none of these, but having become the fulfiller of the things in the law, and having furnished to those who saw him the assurance that he indeed is the Christ of God, testified to by the prophets who arose of old among the Jews, afterward set forth, through his own disciples, the fitting precepts for all the nations.
Whence we too have declined to Judaize, since it was not legislated for us, nor is it able to be applied to the nations; but we have gladly accepted the prophecies among the Jews, as containing the predictions concerning us. And our Savior and teacher is also, in another way, the fulfiller of the law of Moses and of the prophets after him.
For since the things foretold lacked their conclusions, and the fulfillments of the words were wanting, it was surely necessary that he become the fulfiller of these very things as well. For instance, as an example: the prophecy in Moses says: "The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own; him you shall hear in all things, whatsoever that prophet shall say to you."
This, then, was the lacking element which he filled up, having appeared as a second lawgiver after Moses for men, of the true piety of the God of all. For the fact that it does not simply say that a prophet will arise, but with the addition "like him" -- for it says, "A prophet will the Lord your God raise up for you, like me; him you shall hear" -- what else did this indicate than that the one foretold was to be equal in rank to Moses himself?
But Moses was a lawgiver of the piety of the God who is over all. It was fitting, then, that the one prophesied, who was to be like Moses, should also appear as a lawgiver similar to him.
Although, then, countless prophets arose after Moses in the time that followed, none has been testified to be like Moses; for all of them referred their hearers back to him. Scripture, then, testifies that "no prophet like Moses has arisen" -- for neither Jeremiah, nor Isaiah, nor any other of the prophets could be like him, since not one of these was shown to be a lawgiver.
Since, then, the prophet and lawgiver like Moses who was to arise was awaited, this Jesus, the Christ of God, was present, legislating for all the nations and accomplishing things beyond the law -- for example, as follows:
For "it was said to the ancients, You shall not commit adultery; but I say to you, do not even desire." And "it was said to the ancients, You shall not murder; but I say to you, do not even be angry." And "no longer in Jerusalem, but in every place, to worship." And "not with frankincense and sacrifices, but in spirit and truth, to worship" -- and all such things as are found in his teaching were plainly the work of an altogether all-wise and most perfect lawgiver.
Wherefore also those who heard him were astounded, says the divine Scripture, because he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes and Pharisees. So, then, this oracle, lacking in the prophecy of Moses, he fulfilled; and likewise also the rest of the prophecies and the oracles concerning himself, and concerning the calling of the nations.
He became, then, the fulfiller of the law and the prophets, having brought to their conclusion, by the things concerning himself, the former law, and having appeared as the founder of the second law -- that of the new covenant proclaimed to all the nations -- so that he became at once the cause both of a law and of a beginning, of the two undertakings -- I mean Judaism and Christianity. This too is worthy of wonder: the divine prediction proclaims in this manner: "Behold, I lay in Zion a chosen stone, a cornerstone, precious; and he who believes in him shall not be put to shame."
And who could be this cornerstone but he, the living and most precious stone, who through his own teaching has established one building out of two? For, having brought to a close the building of Moses that had extended up to him, from the other side he joined together our building, that according to the Gospel.
Whence he has fittingly been called the cornerstone. And it is said also in the Psalms: "The stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner; this came about from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes."
Here the oracle clearly made manifest also the plot from the Jewish nation which the one foretold suffered -- declaring that he would be rejected by those building the old wall, certain scribes and Pharisees, chief priests, and all the rulers among the Jews; yet nevertheless, that after the dishonor and rejection from them, it was foretold that he would become the head of the corner, established as founder of the new covenant, in accordance with the interpretations given.
Therefore we, having departed from Hellenism, have not fallen into Judaism; nor, in accepting the law of Moses and the prophets of the Hebrews, while not living in a Jewish manner, but according to the way of life of the God-loving men before Moses, would we be at fault.
For even in this we show Moses and the prophets after him to be truthful, in accepting the Christ proclaimed beforehand by them, and in obeying his laws, and setting it as our prayer to walk in the footsteps of his teaching -- thereby doing what is pleasing to Moses himself as well.
who, having foretold that the Lord God will raise up a prophet like unto himself, adds: "And every soul that will not hearken to that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from the race" — at once, at once, the Jews, not having received the prophet, nor having heeded his holy words, suffered utter destruction in the end, having experienced things consistent with the prediction.
For they neither accepted the law of Christ, that of the new covenant, nor would they be able to keep the ordinances of Moses without transgression; wherefore they have also been made subject to the curse of Moses, since it is not even possible for them to fulfill what has been legislated by Moses, their mother city having been taken away from them, and the Mosaic worship — which alone was permitted to be performed there — having been shut off.
But we, having accepted him who was proclaimed by Moses and the rest of the prophets, and making it our prayer to obey him, would be fulfillers of the command of Moses, by which he said: "Him you shall hear. And every soul that will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from its race."
But what things the prophet ordained, which it is needful to obey, we have heard a little before — the all-wise and perfect and heavenly precepts; which indeed he did not see fit to set down on stone tablets, after the manner of Moses, nor yet in ink and on papyrus, but upon purified souls possessed of an intellectual nature — those of his own disciples; in whom, having inscribed the laws of the new covenant, he fulfilled in deed the prophecy which spoke through Jeremiah: "I will make a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers; for this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel: giving my laws into their mind, and I will write them upon their heart, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
But the one inscribed his precepts on lifeless tablets, while the other inscribed the perfect precepts of the new covenant on living minds; and his disciples, in turn, making their teaching suited to the hearing of the many according to the nod of their Teacher, delivered to those able to receive them whatever had been enjoined by the perfect Teacher for those who had advanced in habit of soul, while whatever they judged fitting for souls still subject to passion and in need of healing, they, condescending to the weakness of the majority, delivered to be kept — some things in writing, others through unwritten institutions — so that already two ways of life had been established by law even for the church of Christ: the one, supernatural and beyond the common and human polity, admitting neither marriages nor procreation of children, nor possession, nor the holding of property, but wholly and entirely set apart from the common and customary conduct of all men, and set apart for the service of God alone, out of an excess of heavenly love;
Those who pursue this way of life, seeming to have died to the life of mortals, and bearing upon the earth the body alone, while in mind having transported the soul to heaven, oversee the life of men as a kind of heavenly beings, having been consecrated as priests on behalf of the whole race to the God who is over all — not by sacrifices of oxen and blood, nor by libations and burnt fat, nor again by smoke and the consuming of fire and the destruction of bodies, but by right doctrines of true piety, and by a disposition of soul that has been purified, and moreover by works and words in accordance with virtue, by which, propitiating the Divine, they perform the priestly service on behalf of themselves and those of their own kind.
Such, then, is established as the complete manner of life belonging to Christianity; but the lesser, more human way is such as also to condescend to sober marriages and to the procreation of children, to attend to household management, to prescribe what is to be done for those who wage warfare in accordance with justice, to take care of farms and commerce and the rest of the more civic mode of conduct along with the fear of God — for whom also seasons of ascetic exercise, and days of instruction and of hearing the divine words, have been set apart.
And to these a second degree of piety has been assigned, providing benefit appropriate to such a life, so that no one should be without a share in the saving manifestation, but that every race of men, Greeks and barbarians alike, might enjoy the evangelical teaching.
These things being so, one might reasonably inquire: if indeed we hold that the evangelical teaching of our Savior sets forth the same piety as that practiced by the ancient men beloved of God who lived before Moses, and that our piety and theirs is one and the same, and the knowledge of God the same — why then did they devote the utmost zeal to marriages and the procreation of children, while with us this matter is neglected?
And again, they are recorded as having propitiated God by sacrifices of animals, whereas for us to do this is forbidden, as being something unholy. For these two matters alone, being of no small moment, might seem to conflict with what has been said by us, as though we do not preserve, in these respects, the ancient manner of piety.
And in answer to this, one may gather from the very oracles among the Hebrews a solution such as this. Those who were attested for piety before Moses are recorded to have lived at a time when human life was then just beginning and being established, whereas our own affairs are driving toward the end.
Wherefore it was needful for them to be zealous for the increase of their descendants toward populousness, while at that time the human race was growing and multiplying and advancing to its prime; but it does not greatly concern us, inasmuch as things are already waning and coming to an end and driving toward the final limit, since it is expressly said that, before the consummation of the age, the evangelical teaching is driving on, at the very doors, proclaiming beforehand the renewal and regeneration of another age, which is even now on the point of coming to stand.
This, then, is one explanation; a second would be this. For the ancients, pursuing a relaxed and free way of life, there was nothing to prevent them from managing a household and children together with leisure for the divine, being able, together with their very wives and children and households, to worship God without distraction, and being in no way dragged away from their purpose toward the better things by outward affairs; but as for us, countless outward things happen to drag us down and to draw us off into strange concerns, and to withdraw us from zeal for the things pleasing to God.
This, then, the word of the evangelical teaching shows to be the cause of the curtailing of marriages, saying: "But this I say, brethren, the time is short; from now on, both those who have wives should be as though they had none, and those who weep as though they wept not, and those who rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and those who buy as though they possessed not, and those who use this world as though they used it not to the full. For the outward form of this world is passing away. But I want you to be free from care: the unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and he is divided."
"And the unmarried woman and the virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she who has married is anxious about the things of the world, how she may please her husband. But this I say for your own benefit, not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for what is seemly, and to secure your undistracted devotion to the Lord."
In these words, then, he expressly sets forth the cause of the abstention from marriage, having found fault with the vexatious folly of the times and of outward affairs — of which nothing befell the ancients. And there would be, besides these, a third explanation, according to which those of old, beloved of God, made the utmost effort toward the procreation of children.
While the rest of mankind had given themselves over to depravity, and had fallen away into a savage, inhuman, and beast-like life, and had slipped into a manner wholly impious and godless, a very few — reckonable in number — being left over, in accordance with what has been said by us before, withdrew from the life of the many, and from the common intercourse of the rest of mankind.
Living, then, separately from the other nations and by themselves, they constituted a strange polity and a philosophical life, one truly God-fearing, and unmixed with other men.
So that, then, a living ember-seed of their own fear of God might be preserved from them for those who came after, and that the piety belonging to them might not fail and perish together with the death of these men, they reasonably introduced a provision for the procreation and rearing of children, so that they might become teachers and guides to their own children, considering it a matter of earnest concern to leave behind for those who came after successors in piety and heirs of their own virtue.
But if some worthless persons also came forth from among them, just as chaff springs up along with the wheat, still one ought not on that account to blame those who sowed, nor those who raised them up; since we know that even among the disciples of the Savior some fell away through a deviation of their own free will.
The reason, then, for the procreation of children by the men of old who were beloved of God has been recounted; and one ought no longer to say that this reason applies to our own case, now that, with God's help, through the evangelical teaching of our Savior, it is possible for us to see with our own eyes countless nations and peoples in cities, in countries, and in fields, hastening together in the same direction, and running together to the godly instruction of the evangelical teaching — for whom it is desirable that the teachers and heralds of the word of piety be able to suffice, freed from all the bonds of life and its many-cared-for anxieties.
Above all, then, for these it is now necessarily, on account of their leisure for the better things, that the withdrawal from marriage is earnestly pursued, since they are occupied with a divine and incorporeal procreation of children — having taken upon themselves not the rearing of one or two children, but all at once the nurture and godly upbringing of a countless multitude, together with the care of the rest of the conduct of their life.
In light of all this, if one should examine carefully the lives of the ancients concerning whom we are speaking, one would find that they procreated children in the beginning of their age, but ceased and desisted rather soon. For it is written that "Enoch was well-pleasing to God after he begot Methuselah" — Scripture recording with precision that the man in question was well-pleasing to God after the birth of his son, and testifying that no children were born to him from that point onward.
And Noah, a righteous man, after the begetting of his children, having been preserved alone together with his household in the destruction of all things upon the earth, though he lived for very many years after that, is nowhere introduced as having acquired further children. And it is also said of Isaac that, having become the father of twin offspring by one wife, he thereupon ceased his conjugal relations with his wife. And Joseph too, though he spent his life among the Egyptians, became the father of no more than two children, having taken but one woman as their mother.
And Moses himself, and his brother Aaron, are recorded as having begotten children before the manifestation of God to them; but after the divine oracles, it is no longer possible to find any children born to them.
What need is there to speak of Melchizedek? Of whom no child, no lineage, no succession is recorded at all — nor indeed of Joshua, the successor of Moses, nor of very many other prophets.
As for the question of the procreation of children in the case of Abraham and Jacob, we have given a fuller account elsewhere, in which we have treated of the polygamy and abundance of children of the men of old beloved of God, to which discussion we now refer those eager to learn, having only noted this much: that even under the laws of the new covenant the matter of procreation is not entirely forbidden, but even in this respect provisions similar to those for the men of old beloved of God have been laid down. For the word says that the bishop must be the husband of one wife.
However, it is fitting that those who have been consecrated as priests and are occupied with the service of God should henceforth abstain from conjugal intercourse; but as for those who have not been deemed worthy of so great a priestly ministry, the word makes concession to them, all but expressly proclaiming to all that marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let this much, then, be said by us in reply to the first objection.
Now concerning our not sacrificing animals to the God who is over all, though the men of old beloved of God, whom we affirm to have done this out of zeal for piety, did so — this account may be rendered by us: not the same view holds among the sacred writings of the Hebrews as was customary among the Greeks concerning the worship of the Divine practiced by the ancient and first men.
They said that the earliest men sacrificed none of the animals at all, nor burned incense to the gods, but taking up in their hands greenery for the sun and the stars of heaven, and, as it were, a kind of down of the generative nature — grass and leaves and roots — burned them in fire; but that the men who came after, going far into transgression, stained the altars with the blood of slaughtered animals, and that this was an unholy and unjust sacrifice, and in no way pleasing to God; for the rational soul of men, they said, differs in nothing from that of irrational creatures; wherefore they asserted that those who sacrifice animals deservedly incur the penalty for murder, since one and the same kind of soul exists alike in man and in the irrational animal.
But such, then, was the account of the Greeks concerning the ancients; that of the Hebrew Scripture, however, is not of this kind. For it records that the very first men, immediately upon coming into being, at the very first establishment of human life, honored the Divine with sacrifices from animals.
It says, then: "And it came to pass after some days that Cain brought of the fruits of the earth a sacrifice to the Lord; and Abel, he too, brought of the firstborn of his sheep. And God looked upon Abel and upon his gifts; but upon Cain and his sacrifices he did not give heed."
Here you will observe that he who sacrificed an animal is said to have been the more acceptable, rather than he who brought to God an offering from the earth. And Noah too, immediately, from all the clean cattle and from all the clean birds, offered up whole burnt offerings upon the altar, "and the Lord smelled a sweet savor." Moreover, Abraham also is recorded as having sacrificed; so that, according to the testimony of the divine Scripture, the sacrifice by means of animals was devised first of all by the men of old beloved of God.
But the reasoning behind this, I consider, was no ordinary one, nor moved merely by human impulse, but was inspired by divine prompting. For since they saw — being pious in character and made akin to God, and having their souls illumined by the divine Spirit — that they needed great service for the purification of their mortal transgressions, they considered that a ransom for their own salvation was owed to him who is the provider of both life and soul.
Then, having nothing better and more precious than their own soul to consecrate, they offered instead, for the time being, sacrifice by means of irrational animals, bringing them as ransoms in place of their own soul; considering that they thereby committed no transgression and did no wrong, because they had been taught that the soul of irrational creatures was in no way similar to the rational and intellectual power of men, having learned that it was nothing other than their blood, and the vital power in the blood, which they also offered, as though bringing soul in exchange for soul to God.
And this very thing Moses declares most clearly somewhere, saying: "The soul of all flesh is its blood, and I have given you the blood upon the altar, to make atonement for your souls; for its blood shall make atonement in place of the soul. Therefore I have said to the children of Israel: No soul among you shall eat blood."
Attend carefully, then, in these words, to how it is said: "I have given you the blood upon the altar, to make atonement for your souls; for the blood shall make atonement in place of the soul." For he plainly says that the blood of the animals that are sacrificed makes atonement in place of the human soul. And this same thing the law concerning sacrifices also suggests to one who considers it with careful observation.
For it commands every one who sacrifices to lay his hands upon the head of the victim, and to bring the animal to the priest while holding on to its head, as though offering the victim on behalf of his own head. It says, then, in each case: "He shall bring it near before the Lord, and shall lay his hands upon the head of the gift."
And thus it has been observed for every sacrifice, no offering being made otherwise. By these means Scripture makes clear that the sacrificed animals were brought forward as ransoms in place of the offerer's own soul; and he who taught that the blood of irrational animals is their soul in no way represents them as sharing in a rational and intellectual essence in the same manner as men, for their constitution, he shows, consists of matter and bodies, similar to the growths and plants that spring from the earth.
In one word, then, Moses again says that God said: "Let the earth put forth vegetation, herb yielding seed, and fruit tree." And again, likewise: "Let the earth bring forth four-footed creatures and creeping things and wild beasts of the earth according to their kind."
So that the irrational animals are to be considered of the same kind, of the same nature, and of the same substance as the growths and plants that spring from the earth; wherefore also those who sacrifice animals commit no transgression at all. Accordingly, it was also said to Noah that he might eat meat as the herbs of the field.
So then, as long as the better, and the great, and precious, and God-befitting victim was not yet present among men, it was fitting that, by sacrifices of animals, they should render to God ransoms for their own life and counter-souls for their own nature, as indeed the ancients did — having foreknown by the divine Spirit that a certain victim would one day come to men, the purification of the whole world — of which, being prophets, they for the time performed the symbols, prefiguring what was to come; but when the perfect one was present, in accordance with the oracles of the prophets, the former things ceased and were forthwith dissolved through the more excellent and true priestly service.
This was the Christ of God, foretold from above, from ancient times, that he would come to men and be slaughtered, after the manner of a sheep, on behalf of the whole race of men. Concerning him the prophet Isaiah says: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is dumb."
And he adds: "He bears our sins, and is pained for us; and we accounted him to be in trouble, and in stripes, and in affliction. But he was wounded because of our sins, and has been made infirm because of our transgressions; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his bruise we were healed. And the Lord delivered him up for our sins. For he committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth."
Things similar to these Jeremiah too, another of the Hebrew prophets, proclaims in the person of Christ, saying: "I was as an innocent lamb led to be sacrificed." John the Baptist sets his seal upon these predictions at the manifestation of our Savior. For having seen him, and having shown him to those present, that he indeed was the one prophesied, he cried out: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."
Since, then, according to the testimonies of the prophets, the great and precious ransom of Jews and Greeks alike has been found — the purification of the whole world, the counter-soul of all men, the victim pure from every stain and sin, the Lamb of God, the God-beloved and undefiled sheep, the lamb foretold by prophecy — through whose divinely inspired and mystical teaching all we who are of the nations have found the remission of our former sins, wherefore also those of the Jews who have set their hope on him are released, being free from the curse of Moses — accordingly, performing daily the memorial of him and the remembrance of his body and blood, and having been deemed worthy of a sacrifice and priestly service better than that of the ancients, we no longer consider it holy to fall back upon the first and weak elements, symbols and images which do not contain the truth itself.
And reasonably, even those of the Jews themselves who have taken refuge in the Christ of God, if they no longer turn back to the ordinances of Moses, but live according to the new covenant, would be outside the curse defined by Moses, inasmuch as the Lamb of God has taken upon himself not only the sin of the world, but also the curse that lies in the transgression of the commandments of Moses. The Lamb of God has therefore become both sin and curse: sin on behalf of the sinners of the world, and curse on behalf of those who do not abide in all the things written in the law of Moses.
Wherefore the apostle says: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us," and "him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf."
For why should he not have become the purification of the world, the counter-soul of sinners — he who indeed was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb led to be sacrificed — and all these things on our behalf and for our sake? Wherefore the ancient men beloved of God reasonably clung to the symbols, in the absence of the better things, as our Savior himself teaches, saying this very thing: "Many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things you see, and did not see them; and to hear the things you hear, and did not hear them."
But we, having received the true things and the archetypes of the images through the mysterious dispensation of Christ, shall no longer have need of the old things.
He then alone, who has ever from eternity been the Word of God, pre-cosmic and high priest of all intellectual and rational creation, having set apart for us one of like sufferings with ourselves, as it were a sheep and a lamb, from the flock of men, and having inscribed upon him the sins of us all, and having fastened upon him the curse assigned in the law of Moses — since Moses had declared, "Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree" — this he himself suffered, having become, for our sakes, a curse on our behalf; and indeed having made him sin for our sakes.