in reality conquered Adam, and by the victory he had won, made it manifest that he had truly been sent by the Father, the Creator of all things; whereas the Devil, on the contrary, proved himself a liar not only from the beginning, and in those three temptations, but he is destined to be proved so again at the end of the world, when he will drag men under the Antichrist into his own adoration. B In that place, he discusses at length the name, origin, kingdom, and duration of the Antichrist. He also mingles there certain things against Marcion, the Valentinians, and others who did not acknowledge the Creator of the world and denied that the prophets had been sent by the true God. These, furthermore, he calls instruments of Satan, who never dared to pray ill against God until after the coming of Christ, when he was made certain of his own eternal damnation. After this, he disputes at length about those things which are to happen after the Antichrist is extinguished, and about the millennial kingdom of Christ reigning on earth after the consummation of the world. Then, finally, he utterly overthrows the error of the Valentinians, by which they dreamed that their followers, as soon as they died, ascended above the heavens to the Father or the Mother.
BOOK FIFTH
291 PREFACE.
Having dealt with all the heretics in the four books which, before this one, have been edited by me for you, beloved, and their doctrines having been made manifest; and having also overthrown those who devised irreligious opinions—partly from the doctrine of each one of them that they left behind in their own writings, and partly C by reasoning proceeding from universal demonstrations; and with the truth shown, and the proclamation of the Church made manifest, which the prophets indeed proclaimed, as we have demonstrated, but which Christ brought to perfection, and which the Apostles truly handed down, from whom the Church, receiving it and alone guarding it well throughout the whole world, handed it down to its children; and with all the questions solved which are proposed to us by the heretics; and with the doctrine of the Apostles explained, and with many things made manifest which were spoken and done by the Lord through parables—in this fifth book of the entire work, which is on the exposure and subversion of knowledge falsely so-called, from the remaining D doctrine of our Lord and from the apostolic epistles, we shall endeavor to make demonstrations, just as you have asked of us, since we are obedient to your command (for we have been placed in the administration of the word) and are laboring in every way, according to our ability, to provide you with much help against the contradictions of the heretics, and to draw back the erring and convert them to the Church of God; and also to confirm the mind of the neophytes, so that they may keep the faith stable, which they received well-guarded by the Church, so that they may in no way be subverted by those who try to teach them wrongly and lead them away from the truth. It will behoove both you and all who are to read this piece of writing to read more attentively those things which have been stated by us, so that you may know the arguments themselves against which we construct our contradictions. For so you will both legitimately contradict them, and, being prepared, you will receive arguments against them, casting away their opinions like dung by means of the heavenly faith, and following only the true and firm teacher, the Word of God, Jesus Christ our Lord: who, on account of his immense love, became what we are, that he might perfect us to be what he is himself.
CHAPTER FIRST.
Christ alone could teach us and redeem us; and that he might repair us, not in opinion but in reality, he assumed flesh from the Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy Spirit; against the vanities of Valentinus and Ebion.
1. We could in no other way learn the things of God, unless our teacher, being the Word, had been made man. For no other could relate to us the things of the Father, unless he were his own...
Word. A For who else has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Nor, again, could we otherwise learn, unless we had seen our teacher, and perceived his voice with our own ears, so that, being imitators of his works and doers of his words, we might have communion with him, receiving increase from him who is perfect, and from him who is before all creation. We who have just now been created, by the only good and kind One, and by him who has the gift of incorruptibility, have been destined that we, who were not yet, should be made in his likeness according to the foreknowledge of the Father, and we have received the beginning of creation in the pre-ordained times by the administration of the Word, who is perfect in all things; B because the Word, being powerful and truly man, by his own blood reasonably redeeming us, gave himself for us who were led into captivity. And because apostasy unjustly held dominion over us; and whereas we were by nature the property of God Almighty, it alienated us contrary to nature, making us its own disciples; the Word of God, powerful in all things and not deficient in his justice, acted justly even against the apostasy itself, redeeming from it those things which were his own — not with force, as it [the apostasy] at the beginning held dominion over us, snatching away what was not its own insatiably; but by persuasion, as it became God to persuade and not to inflict violence, to receive what he willed: so that neither should justice be broken, C nor the ancient creation of God perish.
Having therefore redeemed us by his own blood, and giving his soul for our souls, and his flesh for our own flesh, and pouring out the Spirit of the Father for the union and communion D of God and man, bringing down God to men through the Spirit, and again raising man to God through his incarnation, and firmly and truly bestowing upon us incorruptibility through the communion which is toward him; all the doctrines of the heretics perish.
2. For vain are they who say that he appeared putatively. A For these things would not have happened in mere supposition, but in the substance of truth. But if he had not been man, he would not have appeared as man; nor would that which was truly Spirit have remained, since the Spirit of God is invisible: nor would there have been any truth in him, for that which appeared was not that which it seemed to be. We have already declared that Abraham, and the rest of the prophets, saw him through prophetic vision, seeing what was to be through the vision of the prophets. If, therefore, he appeared such as he then seemed, not being what he appeared, his appearance, as presented to men by the prophets, was a prophetic vision, and one would have to expect another substance of his, B such as he now appears prophetically. We have, moreover, shown that it is the same one of whom it is said that he would appear, and that he took nothing from Mary. Nor could he truly have had flesh and blood, by which he redeemed us, unless he had gathered up the ancient creation of Adam into himself. Vain, therefore, are they who are from Valentinus, who assert this dogma, that they may exclude the salvation of the flesh, C and reject the creation of God.
293 5. But vain are also the Ebionites, who do not receive the union of God and man through faith into their own soul, but persist in the old leaven of generation; nor are they willing to understand that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her; wherefore that which was born is holy, and the Son of the Most High God of all, who has wrought his incarnation and shows forth a new generation; so that as by the former generation death…