Chapter 2

§ 1.

Moses accordingly, summing up in Deuteronomy the whole Law, which he had received from the Creator, thus speaks: Give ear,¹ O Heaven, and I will speak, and let the earth hear words from my mouth. Again, David, saying that his help cometh of the Lord,² My help, saith he, is of the Lord, Who made Heaven and Earth. And Esaias professes that his sayings proceed from the Lord, Who made Heaven and Earth,³ and governs them: Hear, saith he, O Heaven, and give ear, O Earth: for the Lord hath spoken.⁴ And again, Thus saith the Lord God, Who made the Heaven, and fastened it in its place: Who established the earth, and the things that are therein: and Who giveth breath to the people that is upon it, and spirit to them that tread on it.

§ 2.

On the other hand our Lord Jesus Christ professes this same to be His Father,⁵ in that He saith, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth. What Father would these men have us understand,⁶ Pandora’s people I mean, the most wrongheaded of Sophists? Is it “The Deep,” whom they have devised of themselves? or their “Mother,” or their “Only Begotten?” or the God whom the Marcionites, or whom the rest, have invented? (although that there is no such God we have proved at large) or, as the truth is, the Maker of Heaven and Earth? Whom both the Prophets did preach, and Christ professes to be His Father, and the Law announces, saying, Hear O Israel:⁷ the Lord thy God is one God.

§ 3.

Moreover,⁸ that the writings of Moses are the words of Christ, He Himself tells the Jews, as John has recorded in the Gospel:⁹ Had ye believed Moses, ye would have also believed Me, for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, neither will ye believe My words: most clearly implying, that Moses’s writings are His own words. If then Moses’s words are His, so without doubt are the other Prophets’ also: as we have demonstrated.

And again the Lord Himself hath declared that Abraham said to the rich man, concerning all those who were yet alive,¹⁰ If they obey not Moses and the Prophets, neither if one rise from the dead and go to them, will they believe him.

§ 4.

Now He did not tell us a mere story of a poor man and a rich:¹¹ but first, He taught that no man ought to make pleasure his employment—that men should not so live in worldly luxuries and abundant feasting, as to serve their own pleasures and forget God. For, saith He, there was a rich man,¹² who was clothed with purple and fine linen, and delighted himself with splendid feasts. And of such the Spirit also spake by Isaiah:¹³ With harps, and timbrels, and psalteries, and pipes they drink wine, but the works of God they look not upon, and the works of His hands they consider not. For fear then of our coming to the same punishment with them, the Lord hath declared their end: implying at the same time, that if they obeyed Moses and the Prophets, they would believe in Him Whom they had preached; on the Son of God, Who rose from the dead, and gives us life. And He points out, how all are of one substance, I mean Abraham and Moses and the Prophets;—yea, even the Lord Himself Who rose again from the dead; in Whom believe many also who are of the circumcision, hearing as they do both Moses and the Prophets, how they preach the coming of the Son of God. But those who scorn Him, teach that they are of another substance, and know not the First-born of the dead: thinking of Christ as apart by Himself, as of one who abides exempt from suffering, and apart by Himself again, Him who did suffer, even Jesus.

§ 5.

Because they receive not from the Father the knowledge of the Son,¹⁴ nor of the Son do they learn the Father, although He teach evidently and without Parables that God, Who truly is.¹⁵ Swear not, saith He, at all; neither by Heaven, for it is the Throne of God: nor by the Earth, for it is the Footstool of His Feet: neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. For these words are evidently spoken of the Creator, as Esaias also saith:¹⁶ Heaven is My throne, Earth is the footstool of My feet. And besides Him is no other God, else would He not be stiled by our Lord either God or great King; for that saying excludes both comparison and all superiority. Since whosoever hath any superior to himself, and is under the power of another, the same can neither be called God nor the great King.

§ 6.

Neither again will they be able to maintain that all this is said ironically, since the words themselves prove to the contrary, that they are uttered in serious truth. For He Who spake was Himself the Truth.

And in truth did He avenge His own House,¹⁷ when He cast the Money-changers out of it, who were both selling and buying,¹⁸ saying unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the House of Prayer; but ye have made it a Den of Thieves.¹⁹ And what occasion had He to do and say this, and to avenge His own house, if He was announcing another God?²⁰ But it was to set a mark on the transgressors of His Father’s Law. For He laid nothing to the charge of the house, neither did He blame the Law, which He had come to fulfil: but He was blaming those who made no good use of the house, and those who were transgressing the Law.

And accordingly the Scribes and Pharisees who began from the times of the Law to despise God, received not His Word, that is, believed not Christ. Of whom Esaias saith,²¹ Thy Princes are disobedient, companions of thieves, loving gifts, following after payments, judging not for orphans, and minding not the judgment of widows. And Jeremiah too in like manner,²² The chiefs of My people, saith he, knew Me not: they are senseless and unwise sons, they are wise in doing evil, but how to do good they have not known.

§ 7.

But as many as feared God,²³ and were anxious about His Law, of their own accord hastened unto Christ, and were all saved. For, Go ye, He saith to His disciples, to the sheep which were lost of the House of Israel.²⁴ And the Samaritans too, we are told, our Lord having remained with them two days,²⁵ did many more of them believe because of His discourses, and said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard ourselves; and know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.²⁶ And Paul again saith, And so all Israel shall be saved.²⁷ Yea, and he called the Law, Our School-master unto Jesus Christ.

Let them not then charge the Law with the unbelief of certain persons: for the Law forbade not their believing in the Son of God, but rather urged it on them, saying, that no otherwise are men saved from the old wound of the serpent,²⁸ except they believe on Him,²⁹ Who in the likeness of sinful flesh is lifted up from the Earth on the wood of martyrdom, and draws all things to Himself, and quickens the dead.