Chapter XV.—The Valentinian Figment of Christ’s Flesh Being of a Spiritual Nature, Examined and Refuted Out of Scripture.

Valentinus, indeed, on the strength of his heretical system, might consistently devise a spiritual flesh for Christ. Any one who refused to believe that that flesh was human might pretend it to be anything he liked, forasmuch as (and this remark is applicable to all heretics), if it was not human, and was not born of man, I do not see of what substance Christ Himself spoke when He called Himself man and the Son of man, saying: “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth;”211    John viii. 40. and “The Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath-day.”212    Matt. xii. 8. For it is of Him that Isaiah writes: “A man of suffering, and acquainted with the bearing of weakness;”213    Isa. liii. 3, Sept. and Jeremiah: “He is a man, and who hath known Him?”214    Jer. xvii. 9, Sept. and Daniel: “Upon the clouds (He came) as the Son of man.”215    Dan. vii. 13. The Apostle Paul likewise says: “The man Christ Jesus is the one Mediator between God and man.”216    1 Tim. ii. 5. Also Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles, speaks of Him as verily human (when he says), “Jesus Christ was a man approved of God among you.”217    Acts ii. 22. These passages alone ought to suffice as a prescriptive218    Vice præscriptionis. testimony in proof that Christ had human flesh derived from man, and not spiritual, and that His flesh was not composed of soul,219    Animalis. nor of stellar substance, and that it was not an imaginary flesh; (and no doubt they would be sufficient) if heretics could only divest themselves of all their contentious warmth and artifice. For, as I have read in some writer of Valentinus’ wretched faction,220    Factiuncula. they refuse at the outset to believe that a human and earthly substance was created221    Informatam. for Christ, lest the Lord should be regarded as inferior to the angels, who are not formed of earthly flesh; whence, too, it would be necessary that, if His flesh were like ours, it should be similarly born, not of the Spirit, nor of God, but of the will of man. Why, moreover, should it be born, not of corruptible [seed], but of incorruptible? Why, again, since His flesh has both risen and returned to heaven, is not ours, being like His, also taken up at once? Or else, why does not His flesh, since it is like ours, return in like manner to the ground, and suffer dissolution? Such objections even the heathen used constantly to bandy about.222    Volutabant: see Lactantius, iv. 22. Was the Son of God reduced to such a depth of degradation? Again, if He rose again as a precedent for our hope, how is it that nothing like it has been thought desirable (to happen) to ourselves?223    De nobis probatum est: or, perhaps, “has been proved to have happened in our own case.” Such views are not improper for heathens and they are fit and natural for the heretics too.  For, indeed, what difference is there between them, except it be that the heathen, in not believing, do believe; while the heretics, in believing, do not believe? Then, again, they read: “Thou madest Him a little less than angels;”224    Ps. viii. 6, Sept. and they deny the lower nature of that Christ who declares Himself to be, “not a man, but a worm;”225    Ps. xxii. 6. who also had “no form nor comeliness, but His form was ignoble, despised more than all men, a man in suffering, and acquainted with the bearing of weakness.”226    Isa. liii. 3, Sept. Here they discover a human being mingled with a divine one and so they deny the manhood.  They believe that He died, and maintain that a being which has died was born of an incorruptible substance;227    Ex incorruptela. as if, forsooth, corruptibility228    Corruptela. were something else than death! But our flesh, too, ought immediately to have risen again. Wait a while.  Christ has not yet subdued His enemies, so as to be able to triumph over them in company with His friends.

CAPUT XV.

Licuit et Valentino, ex privilegio haeretico, carnem Christi spiritalem comminisci. Quidvis eam fingere potuit, quisquis humanam credere noluit; quando (quod ad omnes dictum est) si humana non fuit, nec ex homine, non video ex qua substantia ipse se , Christus hominem et filium hominis pronuntiarit (Joan., VIII, 40): Nunc autem vultis occidere hominem veritatem ad vos locutum; et (Luc, VI, 5): Dominus est sabbati filius hominis. De ipso enim Esaias (Is. LIII, 3): Homo in plaga, et sciens ferre imbecillitatem; et Hieremias (Jerem., XVII): Et 0779B homo est, et quis cognoscet illum? et Daniel (Dan., VII): Et super nubes tanquam filius hominis. Etiam Paulus apostolus (I Tim., II): Mediator Dei et hominum, homo Christus Jesus. Item Petrus in Actis Apostolorum (Act., I): Jesum Nazarenum, virum vobis a Deo destinatum, utique hominem. Haec sola sufficere vice praescriptionis debuerunt ad testimonium carnis humanae, et ex homine sumptae, et non spiritalis; sicut nec animalis, nec sidereae, nec imaginariae; si sine studio et artificio contentionis haereses esse potuissent. Nam ut penes quemdam ex Valentini factione legi, primo non putant terrenam, et humanam Christo substantiam informatam, ne deterior angelis Dominus deprehendatur, qui non terrenae carnis extiterunt ; dehinc, quod oporteret 0779C similem nostri carnem similiter nasci, non de spiritu, nec de Deo, sed ex viri voluntate. Et cur non de corruptela, sed de incorruptela? Et quare non, sicut et illa resurrexit, et in coelo resumpta est, ita et nostra, par ejus, statim assumitur? aut cur illa, par nostrae, non aeque in terram dissoluta est? Talia et ethnici volutabunt : Ergo Dei Filius in tantum humilitatis exhaustus? Et, si resurrexit in exemplum spei nostrae, cur nihil tale de nobis probatum est? 0780A Merito ethnici talia, sed merito et haeretici. Numquid enim inter illos distat, nisi quod ethnici non credendo credunt, at haeretici credendo non credunt? Legunt denique (Ps. VIII): Minorasti eum modico citra angelos, et negant inferiorem substantiam Christi; nec hominem se, sed vermem pronuntiantis (Ps. XXI); qui (Is., LIII) nec formam habuit, nec speciem; sed forma ejus ignobilis, despecta citra omnes homines; homo in plaga, et sciens ferre imbecillitatem. Agnoscunt hominem Deo mixtum, et negant hominem. Mortuum credunt, et quod est mortuum, ex incorruptela natum esse contendunt: quasi corruptela aliud sit a morte. «Sed et nostra caro statim resurgere debebat.» Exspecta: nondum inimicos suos Christus oppressit, ut cum amicis de inimicis 0780B triumphet.