Chapter VIII.—Other Proofs from the Same Chapter, that Jesus, Who Preached at Nazareth, and Was Acknowledged by Certain Demons as Christ the Son of God, Was the Creator’s Christ. As Occasion Offers, the Docetic Errors of Marcion are Exposed.

The Christ of the Creator had1356    Habebat. to be called a Nazarene according to prophecy; whence the Jews also designate us, on that very account,1357    Ipso nomine, or by His very name.Nazerenes1358    Nazaræos; or, Nazarites. [Christians were still so called by the Jews in the Third Century. Kaye, 446.] after Him. For we are they of whom it is written, “Her Nazarites were whiter than snow;”1359    Lam. iv. 7. even they who were once defiled with the stains of sin, and darkened with the clouds of ignorance. But to Christ the title Nazarene was destined to become a suitable one, from the hiding-place of His infancy, for which He went down and dwelt at Nazareth,1360    Descendit apud, see Luke iv. 16–30. to escape from Archelaus the son of Herod.  This fact I have not refrained from mentioning on this account, because it behoved Marcion’s Christ to have forborne all connection whatever with the domestic localities of the Creator’s Christ, when he had so many towns in Judæa which had not been by the prophets thus assigned1361    Emancipata. to the Creator’s Christ. But Christ will be (the Christ) of the prophets, wheresoever He is found in accordance with the prophets. And yet even at Nazareth He is not remarked as having preached anything new,1362    Luke iv. 23. whilst in another verse He is said to have been rejected1363    Luke iv. 29. by reason of a simple proverb.1364    Luke iv. 24. Here at once, when I observe that they laid their hands on Him, I cannot help drawing a conclusion respecting His bodily substance, which cannot be believed to have been a phantom,1365    A rebuke of Marcion’s Docetic views of Christ. since it was capable of being touched and even violently handled, when He was seized and taken and led to the very brink of a precipice. For although He escaped through the midst of them, He had already experienced their rough treatment, and afterwards went His way, no doubt1366    Scilicet. because the crowd (as usually happens) gave way, or was even broken through; but not because it was eluded as by an impalpable disguise,1367    Per caliginem. which, if there had been such, would not at all have submitted to any touch.

“Tangere enim et tangi, nisi corpus, nulla potest res,”1368    “For nothing can touch and be touched but a bodily substance.”  This line from Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, i. 305, is again quoted by Tertullian in his De Anima, chap. v. (Oehler).

is even a sentence worthy of a place in the world’s wisdom. In short, He did himself touch others, upon whom He laid His hands, which were capable of being felt, and conferred the blessings of healing,1369    Luke iv. 40. which were not less true, not less unimaginary, than were the hands wherewith He bestowed them. He was therefore the very Christ of Isaiah, the healer of our sicknesses.1370    See Isa. liii. 4. “Surely,” says he, “He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Now the Greeks are accustomed to use for carry a word which also signifies to take away. A general promise is enough for me in passing.1371    Interim. Whatever were the cures which Jesus effected, He is mine. We will come, however, to the kinds of cures. To liberate men, then, from evil spirits, is a cure of sickness.  Accordingly, wicked spirits (just in the manner of our former example) used to go forth with a testimony, exclaiming, “Thou art the Son of God,”1372    Luke iv. 41.—of what God, is clear enough from the case itself.  But they were rebuked, and ordered not to speak; precisely because1373    Proinde enim. Christ willed Himself to be proclaimed by men, not by unclean spirits, as the Son of God—even that Christ alone to whom this was befitting, because He had sent beforehand men through whom He might become known, and who were assuredly worthier preachers. It was natural to Him1374    Illius erat. to refuse the proclamation of an unclean spirit, at whose command there was an abundance of saints. He, however,1375    Porro. who had never been foretold (if, indeed, he wished to be acknowledged; for if he did not wish so much, his coming was in vain), would not have spurned the testimony of an alien or any sort of substance, who did not happen to have a substance of his own,1376    Propriæ non habebat. but had descended in an alien one. And now, too, as the destroyer also of the Creator, he would have desired nothing better than to be acknowledged by His spirits, and to be divulged for the sake of being feared:1377    Præ timore. only that Marcion says1378    See above, book i. chap. vii. xxvi. and xxvii. that his god is not feared; maintaining that a good being is not an object of fear, but only a judicial being, in whom reside the grounds1379    Materiæ. of fear—anger, severity, judgments, vengeance, condemnation. But it was from fear, undoubtedly, that the evil spirits were cowed.1380    Cedebant. Therefore they confessed that (Christ) was the Son of a God who was to be feared, because they would have an occasion of not submitting if there were none for fearing.  Besides, He showed that He was to be feared, because He drave them out, not by persuasion like a good being, but by command and reproof. Or else did he1381    Aut nunquid. reprove them, because they were making him an object of fear, when all the while he did not want to be feared? And in what manner did he wish them to go forth, when they could not do so except with fear? So that he fell into the dilemma1382    Necessitatem. of having to conduct himself contrary to his nature, whereas he might in his simple goodness have at once treated them with leniency. He fell, too, into another false position1383    In aliam notam.—of prevarication, when he permitted himself to be feared by the demons as the Son of the Creator, that he might drive them out, not indeed by his own power, but by the authority of the Creator. “He departed, and went into a desert place.”1384    Luke iv. 42. This was, indeed, the Creator’s customary region. It was proper that the Word1385    Sermonem. [Nota Bene, Acts vii. 38.] should there appear in body, where He had aforetime, wrought in a cloud. To the gospel also was suitable that condition of place1386    Habitus loci. which had once been determined on for the law.1387    The law was given in the wilderness of Sinai; see Ex. xix. 1. “Let the wilderness and the solitary place, therefore, be glad and rejoice;” so had Isaiah promised.1388    Isa. xxxv. 1. When “stayed” by the crowds, He said, “I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also.”1389    Luke iv. 42, 43. Had He displayed His God anywhere yet? I suppose as yet nowhere. But was He speaking of those who knew of another god also? I do not believe so. If, therefore, neither He had preached, nor they had known, any other God but the Creator, He was announcing the kingdom of that God whom He knew to be the only God known to those who were listening to Him.

CAPUT VIII.

Nazaraeus vocari habebat secundum prophetiam Christus Creatoris: unde et ipso nomine nos Judaei Nazaraeos appellant per cum. Nam et sumus, de quibus est (Thren., IV, 7): Nazaraei exalbati sunt super nivem. Qui scilicet retro luridati delinquentiae maculis, 0372C et nigrati ignorantiae tenebris. Christo autem appellatio Nazaraei competitura erat ex infantiae latebris, ad quas apud Nazareth descendit, vitando Archelaum filium Herodis. Hoc propterea non omisi, quia Christum Marcionis oportuerat omne commercium ejerasse etiam locorum familiarium Christi Creatoris, habentem tanta Judaeae oppida, non ita Christi Creatoris per Prophetas emancipata . Caeterum. Prophetarum erit Christus, ubicumque secundum Prophetas invenitur. Et tamen apud Nazareth quoque nihil novi notatur praedicasse, dum alio merito unius proverbii (Luc. IV, 23), ejectus refertur. Hic primum manus ei injectas animadvertens, necesse habeo jam de substantia ejus corporali praefinire, quod non possit phantasma credi, qui contactum, et quidem violentia 0372D plenum, detentus et captus, et ad praecipitium usque protractus, admiserit. Nam etsi per medios evasit, sed ante jam vim expertus, et postea dimissus; scilicet soluto, uti adsolet, tumultu; vel etiam irrupto, 0373A non tamen per caliginem eluso, quae nulli omnino tactui succidisset, si fuisset.

Tangere enim et tangi , nisi corpus, nulla potest res,etiam saecularis sapientiae digna sententia est. Ad summam, et ipse mox tetigit alios, quibus manus imponens, utique sentiendas, beneficia medicinarum conferebat, tam vera, tam non imaginaria, quam erant per quas conferebat. Ipse igitur est Christus et Isaie, remediator valetudinum. Hic, inquit (Is., LIII, 4), imbecillitates nostras aufert, et languores portat. Portare autem Graeci etiam pro eo solent ponere, quod est tollere. Sufficit interim mihi generalis repromissio. Quodcumque curaverit Jesus, meus est. Veniemus tamen et ad species curationum. Caeterum, et a daemoniis 0373B liberare, curatio est valetudinis. Itaque spiritus nequam, quasi ex forma jam prioris exempli cum testimonio excedebant vociferantes: Tu es Filius Dei. Cujus Dei, vel hic pareat. Sed proinde increpabantur, et jubebantur tacere. Proinde enim Christus ab hominibus, non a spiritibus immundis, volebat se Filium Dei agnosci. Ille Christus duntaxat, cui hoc congruebat; quia praemiserat per quos posset agnosci, et utique digniores praedicatores. Illius erat, praeconium immundi spiritus respuere, cui sancti abundabant. Porro, qui nunquam fuerat annuntiatus, si tamen volebat agnosci (frustra autem venerat, si nolebat), non esset aspernatus testimonium alienae et cujuscumque substantiae, qui propriae non habebat, qui in aliena descenderat. Jam nunc et qua destructor 0373C Creatoris, nihil magis gestisset, quam a spiritibus ipsius agnosci, et divulgari prae timore, nisi quod Marcion Deum suum timeri negat, defendens bonum non timeri, sed judicem, apud quem sint materiae timoris, ira, saevitia, judicia, vindicta, damnatio. Sed et daemonia timore utique cedebant. Ergo timendi Dei Filium confitebantur, occasionem habitura non cedendi, si non timendi. Et ille jussu et increpitu ea expellens, non suasu qua bonus, timendum se exhibebat. Aut numquid ideo increpabat, quia timebatur nolens timeri? Et quomodo ea volebat excedere, quod nisi timore non facerent? Cecidit ergo in necessitatem, qua disparem se naturae suae ageret: cum posset ut bonus semel eis parcere. Cecidit et in aliam praevaricationis notam; cum se a daemoniis quasi 0373D Filium Creatoris sustineret timeri, ut jam non propria potestate expelleret daemonia, sed per Creatoris auctoritatem. In solitudinem procedit. Solemnis et hujusmodi regio Creatoris. Oportebat sermonem illic quoque videri in corpore, ubi egerat aliquando et in nube. Competebat et Evangelio habitus loci, qui placuerat et Legi. Capiat itaque jucunditatem solitudo, hoc Isaias (Is., XXXV, 1) promiserat. Detentus 0374A a turbis: Oportet me, inquit (Luc., IV, 42), aliis civitatibus annuntiare regnum Dei. Ostenderat jam alicubi Deum suum? Non puto adhuc usque. Sed de eis loquebatur, qui alium quoque Deum noverant. Nec hoc credo. Ergo si nec ille alium Deum ediderat, nec illi noverant praeter Creatorem, ejusdem Dei regnum portendebat, quem solum sciebat notum eis qui audiebant.