Chapter 10

§ 1.

And Luke the follower and disciple of the Apostles, telling of Zacharias and Elisabeth, of whom according to God’s promise, John was born, he saith,¹ And they were both righteous before God,² walking blameless in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. And again, speaking of Zacharias, And it came to pass,³ while he was executing the Priest’s office before God in the order of his course; according to the custom of the Priest’s office, his lot was to present incense, and he came to sacrifice, entering into the Temple of the Lord. Thus he simply and absolutely and strongly in his own person acknowledges to be God and Lord, Him Who chose out Jerusalem, and bestowed the gift of the law of priesthood; to whom also belongs the Angel Gabriel, who presides⁴ in the sight of the Lord⁵. For other besides Him he knew none; for had he had understanding of some more perfect God and Lord, besides Him, he would not surely have acknowledged this one, whom he knew to be the fruit of Decay, as being absolutely and entirely Lord and God: as we have before pointed out.

And in speaking of John too, thus he saith:⁶ For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord,⁷ and many of the children of Israel shall he convert unto the Lord their God, and he shall go before in His sight in the spirit and power of Elias, to prepare for the Lord a perfect people. For whom then did he prepare a people, and in the sight of what Lord did he become great? Of course in His sight Who said, both that John had something more than a Prophet,⁸ and that among those born of women, none is greater than John Baptist: who also prepared the people for the Lord’s coming, forewarning his fellow-servants and proclaiming unto them repentance, that they might obtain remission from the Lord in person, by turning themselves unto Him, from Whom they were estranged by reason of their sins and evil way: as David also saith,⁹ The sinners are estranged from the womb, they have erred from the birth. And therefore by converting them to their Lord, he was preparing for the Lord a perfect people, in the spirit and power of Elias.

§ 2.

And again in his narrative he saith of the Angel, But at the some time the Angel Gabriel was sent from God,¹⁰ who also said to the Virgin,¹¹ Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God.¹² And of the Lord he saith, He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto Him the Throne of His Father David; and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end. But what other is there, who in the house of Jacob reigneth continually for ever, save Christ Jesus our Lord, the Son of the Most High God, Which God by the Law and the Prophets promised to make His Saving One visible to all flesh, that He might become Son of Man, to the end that Man also might become Son of God? For which cause Mary also exulting, cried out by Prophecy in the name of the Church,¹³ My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour:¹⁴ … For He hath taken hold of Israel His servant, to remember mercy, as He spake to our Fathers, to Abraham and his seed for ever.

By these then so numerous passages, the Gospel sets forth, that the God Who spake to the Fathers, that is He Who by Moses made the gift of the Law, by which gift of the Law we know that He did speak to the Fathers,—this some God according to His great goodness hath poured out mercy upon us:¹⁵ in which mercy the Orient from on high hath visited us,¹⁶ and hath appeared to them that were sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, and hath guided our feet into the way of peace. Even as Zacharias also, ceasing from the dumbness which he had endured because of unbelief, and replete with a fresh and new¹⁷ spirit, began to bless God after a new manner. For now were at hand all things new, the Word after a new manner ordaining for Himself an Advent in the flesh, that He might enroll as God’s own that man who had departed far out of God. Wherefore they were taught also of a new mode of worshipping God; but not surely of another God,¹⁸ since there is one God, who justifieth the Circumcision by Faith, and the Uncircumcision through Faith.

§ 3.

Moreover, Zacharias was saying by Prophecy, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,¹⁹ for He hath visited and wrought redemption for His people: and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the House of His servant David. As He spake by the mouth of His holy Prophets, which are since the world began. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us. To perform mercy with our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant: the oath that He sware to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we, being delivered from the hand of the enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness, in His sight all our days. Then he saith to John,²⁰ And thou, Child, shall be called the Prophet of the Highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways. To give understanding of salvation unto His people, for the remission of their sins. For this is the knowledge of salvation which was wanting to them, that namely of the Son of God, which John communicated when he said,²¹ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This was He of Whom I said, After me cometh a Man, which was caused to be before me, for He was prior to me.²² And all we have received of His fulness.

This therefore is the knowledge of salvation, and not another God, nor another Father, nor The Deep, nor a Pleroma of 30 Æons, nor the mother of an Ogdoad: but the knowledge of salvation was the knowledge of the Son of God, Who in all truth both is called, and is both Salvation and Saviour, and Saving Might.

²³First, He is Salvation, as thus, For Thy Salvation I awaited Thee O Lord.²⁴ And again He is the Saviour: Behold my God is my Saviour, I will have trust in Him. Again,²⁵ He is Saving Might, as thus: The Lord hath made known His saving Might in the sight of the nations.

For He is, in the first place, the Saviour, in that He is the Son and the Word of God, next He is Saving Might in that He is Spirit:²⁶ For the Spirit of our face, it saith, is Christ the Lord. Lastly, He is Salvation, in that He is Flesh:²⁷ For the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us.

This then was the knowledge of salvation which John wrought in those who practised penitence, and believed in the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world.

§ 4.

Also to the Shepherds there appeared,²⁸ it is said, the Angel of the Lord announcing to them joy,²⁹ seeing that there is born in the house of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.³⁰ Then was a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.

These Angels, the Gnostic forgers say, came from the Ogdoad, and manifested the descent of the higher Christ. But they fall to the ground again, in saying, that the Christ and Saviour who is above was not born, but rather after the Baptism of Him who came of the Economy, Jesus, the same Christ descended on Him as a Dove. Therefore by their account the Angels of the Ogdoad speak false, in saying, To you is born this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. For by their account neither Christ nor the Saviour was born, but that Jesus, who comes of the Economy, who belongs to the Framer of the World, upon whom after His Baptism, i.e., after 30 years, they say the supernal Saviour descended.

And why did they add the clause, In the city of David, except to announce the good news of the fulfilment of the promise,³¹ which God made unto David, That of the fruit of his body is an everlasting King? And this promise was made unto David by the Creator of this universe, as David himself saith,³² My help is of the Lord Who made heaven and earth.³³ And again, In His hand are the ends of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are His. For the sea is His and He made it, and His hands founded the dry land. O come let us worship, and fall down before Him, and weep before the Lord Who made us, for He is the Lord our God.

The Holy Spirit is expressly declaring by David to those who hear Him, that there will be some to scorn Him Who formed us, Who is also the only God. Wherefore also He said what I have above quoted, implying, That you must not err: beside Him or above Him is no other God, Whom we ought more to regard; disposing us to be pious and thankful to Him Who made and established us, and is our nourisher. What then will be their case, who have devised such a mass of blasphemies against their Maker?

Now this same did the Angels also. For in that which they say, Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth Peace, they did by these expressions glorify Him Who is Maker of the Highest, i.e., of things higher than the Heavens, and Framer of all things that are in the earth: Who to His own work, i.e., to men, sent His own graciousness of salvation from Heaven.³⁴ Wherefore also the Shepherds, it is said, returned, glorifying God in all things which they had heard and seen, even as it was told unto them. For it was no other God whom the Israelite shepherds were glorifying, but Him Who was announced by the Law and the Prophets, the Maker of all things, Whom also the Angels glorified. But if the Angels, who were from the Ogdoad, were glorifying one, the Shepherds another, then error and not truth had been brought down to them by these Angels of the Ogdoad.

§ 5.

Once more, Luke saith of the Lord,³⁵ When the days of purification were completed, they conveyed Him to Jerusalem, to set Him before the Lord: as it is written in the Law of the Lord, That everything male which openeth the womb shall be called the Lord’s holy thing: and to give a sacrifice, according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons: in his own person he most expressly calls Him Lord Who made this enactment.³⁶ And Simeon too, saith he, blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy saving power; which Thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; a light for enlightening of the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.³⁷ And Anna too, the Prophetess, saith he, in like manner glorified God upon sight of Christ,³⁸ and spake of Him to all who waited for the redemption of Jerusalem. Now by all these things one God is set forth, opening unto men a new Testament³⁹ of liberty by the new coming of His own Son.

§ 6.

For which cause Mark also, the interpreter and disciple of Peter, began his written gospel as follows:⁴⁰ The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,⁴¹ the Son of God, as it is written in the Prophets: Behold I send Mine Angel before Thy face, who shall make ready Thy way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths before our God: expressly saying, that the words of the holy Prophets are the beginning of the Gospel, and pointing out beforehand the very same, whom they confessed as Lord and God, to be Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who promised Him too, to send His own Angel before His face; which Angel was John,⁴² in the spirit and power of Helias crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make the paths straight before our God. But that the Prophets did not use to announce now one God, now another, but One and the same, though with many meanings and many titles; for manifold and wealthy is the Father,—as we have shewn in the book before this, so, in the process of our discourse we will shew also from the Prophets themselves.

Again, in the end of his Gospel Mark says,⁴³ So the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken unto them, was taken up into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God: confirming what is said by the Prophet,⁴⁴ The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. Thus again it is one and the same God and Father, Who was first announced by the Prophets, then taught by the Gospel; whom we Christians venerate and love with all our heart, as the Maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all that therein is.