Chapter 15

§ 1.

Moreover, that He Who created man at first, hath promised him a second birth after his falling away into earth, Isaiah first speaketh thus: The dead shall rise, and they shall rise who are in the graves,¹ and they shall rejoice who are in the earth. For the dew which is from Thee, is health unto them.² And again, I will summon you, and unto Jerusalem shall ye be summoned, and ye shall see, and your heart shall rejoice³, and your bones shall rise up as a herb, and the Hand of the Lord shall be known of them that worship Him.⁴ And Ezekiel also thus, And the Hand of the Lord came upon me, and the Lord led me out in the Spirit, and set me in the midst of a field, and it was full of bones, and He led me round over them in a circuit round about, and behold, many on the face of the field, exceeding dry. And He said unto me, Son of Man, do these bones live? And I said, Lord, Thou knowest, Who madest them. And He said unto me, Prophesy over these bones, and thou shalt say unto them, Ye dry boneu, hear the Word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord unto these bones: Behold, I bring upon you the breath of life, and I will put sinews upon you, and I bring back flesh upon you, and I will spread over you skin, and I will put My spirit into you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as the Lord commanded me. And it came to pass when I prophesied, and behold an earthquake, and the bones were brought each one into his frame, and I saw, and behold over them sinews and flesh were in birth, and the skin of each was coming up over them: and there was no breath in them. And He said unto me, Prophesy unto the breath, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus saith the Lord, Come from the four breaths, and breathe on these dead, that they may live. And I prophesied as the Lord commanded me, and the breath entered into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, a very large assembly. And again the same saith,⁵ Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your graves, and will bring you into the Land of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall open your sepulchres, to bring My people back from the sepulchres, and I shall put My Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will put you in your own land, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken, and I will do it, saith the Lord.

Since therefore the Framer here also quickeneth our dead bodies, as we may see, and promiseth them resurrection, and awakening out of the sepulchres and graves, and giveth them incorruption:⁶ (For their days, saith He, shall be as the Tree of Life;) it is shewn that He is the only God, Who maketh these things: and the same is the Good Father, graciously bestowing life on those who of themselves may not have life.

§ 2.

And for this cause the Lord most openly shewed Himself, and the Father too, to His disciples: i.e., lest they should seek another God, besides Him Who formed man, and bestowed on him the breath of life; and should go on to so great madness, as to devise another Father besides the Creator. And therefore with regard to all the rest, whomsoever sicknesses had befallen because of their transgressions, He used to cure them by His word; to whom also He would say,⁷ Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee; shewing that for the sin of disobedience sicknesses came on upon men: But to him who had been blind from the birth, no longer by word but by work He gave sight:⁸ He did it not vainly, nor at random, but in order to shew forth the Hand of God, the Hand which originally formed man. And therefore when the disciples asked Him for what cause he was born blind, whether by his own fault or his parents’,⁹ He saith, Neither did he sin, nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifested in him. But the works of God is the formation of Man. For this He effected by His working, as saith the Scripture:¹⁰ And the Lord took clay of the Earth, and formed man. Wherefore the Lord also spit on the earth, and made clay, and smeared it over his eyes: exhibiting the old formation how it took place, and displaying to those who may understand the Hand of God, whereby Man was formed out of the clay. For that which the Word, as an Artificer, omitted to form in the womb, that He supplied in men’s sight; that the works of God might be manifest in him, and that we might not go on to look for another hand, whereby man was formed, nor another Father: knowing that that which formed us in the beginning, and now formeth us in the womb, The Hand of God,—the same in the last times sought us out when we were lost, gaining His own lost sheep,¹¹ and taking it on His Shoulders, and with gratulation restoring it to the troop of life.

§ 3.

But as to the Word of God forming us in the womb, He saith to Jeremiah,¹² Before I formed thee in the womb I knew thee, and before thou camest out of the belly, I sanctified thee, and set thee a Prophet among the nations. Yea, and Paul saith in like manner,¹³ But when it pleased Him, who separated me from my mother’s womb,¹⁴ that I should preach Him among the Gentiles. As then by the Word we are formed in the womb, so the same Word formed sight for him who had been blind from the birth:¹⁵ openly shewing Him, Who in secret is our Maker, how that that same Word had become manifest unto men: and explaining the old formation of Adam—both how he was made, and by what Hand he was formed; by a part shewing forth the whole. For the Lord Who formed sight, He it is Who formed the whole man, ministering to the Father’s Will. And to shew that, in that formation which was according to Adam,¹⁶ Man being made,—in transgression,—needed the Laver of Regeneration:—after He smeared the clay upon his eyes,¹⁷ He said to him, Go to Siloam and wash: giving him back together both his first form and the new birth which is by the Font. And therefore he being washed came seeing; that both he might know Him that formed him, and man might learn Him that gave him life.

§ 4.

It follows that the Valentinians fail also in saying,¹⁸ that Man was not formed of this earth, but of some fluid poured out. Since it is plain, that of the same earth, out of which the Lord formed his eyes, man also was formed from the beginning. For it was not suitable that the eyes should be formed of one material and the rest of the body of another: as neither is it suitable that one should have formed the body and another the eyes. But the very same Who formed Adam in the beginning, with Whom also the Father was speaking when He said,¹⁹ Let Us make man after our own image and similitude:—He in the last times manifesting Himself unto men,²⁰ formed sight for him who was blind from Adam.

Therefore also the Scriptures signifying what was to come, saith that when Adam was hidden because of disobedience the Lord came to him in the Evening,²¹ and called him out,²² and said unto him, Where art thou? That is to say, that in the last times the very same Word of God came to call man unto Him, reminding him of his works, wherein while he lived he had been hidden from the Lord. For as then to Adam God spake in the evening time, seeking him out; so in the last times by the same voice He came to see and to search out Adam’s race.