Chapter XXIII.—Impossible that Marcion’s Christ Should Reprove the Faithless Generation. Such Loving Consideration for Infants as the True Christ Was Apt to Shew, Also Impossible for the Other. On the Three Different Characters Confronted and Instructed by Christ in Samaria.

I take on myself the character2054    Personam: “I personate Israel.” of Israel. Let Marcion’s Christ stand forth, and exclaim, “O faithless generation!2055    Genitura. how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?”2056    Luke ix. 41. He will immediately have to submit to this remonstrance from me: “Whoever you are, O stranger,2057    ἐπερχόμενε. The true Christ is ὁ ἐρχόμενος. first tell us who you are, from whom you come, and what right you have over us. Thus far, all you possess2058    Totum apud te. belongs to the Creator. Of course, if you come from Him, and are acting for Him, we will bear your reproof. But if you come from some other god, I should wish you to tell us what you have ever committed to us belonging to yourself,2059    De tuo commisisti. which it was our duty to believe, seeing that you are upbraiding us with ‘faithlessness,’ who have never yet revealed to us your own self. How long ago2060    Quam olim. did you begin to treat with us, that you should be complaining of the delay? On what points have you borne with us, that you should adduce2061    Imputes. your patience? Like Æsop’s ass, you are just come from the well,2062    This fable is not extant (Oehler). and are filling every place with your braying.”  I assume, besides,2063    Adhuc. the person of the disciple, against whom he has inveighed:2064    Insiliit. “O perverse nation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?” This outburst of his I might, of course, retort upon him most justly in such words as these: “Whoever you are, O stranger, first tell us who you are, from whom you come, what right you have over us. Thus far, I suppose, you belong to the Creator, and so we have followed you, recognising in you all things which are His. Now, if you come from Him, we will bear your reproof. If, however, you are acting for another, prythee tell us what you have ever conferred upon us that is simply your own, which it had become our duty to believe, seeing that you reproach us with ‘faithlessness,’ although up to this moment you show us no credentials. How long since did you begin to plead with us, that you are charging us with delay? Wherein have you borne with us, that you should even boast of your patience? The ass has only just arrived from Æsop’s well, and he is already braying.” Now who would not thus have rebutted the unfairness of the rebuke, if he had supposed its author to belong to him who had had no right as yet to complain?  Except that not even He2065    Nisi quod nec ille. This ille, of course, means the Creator’s Christ. would have inveighed against them, if He had not dwelt among them of old in the law and by the prophets, and with mighty deeds and many mercies, and had always experienced them to be “faithless.” But, behold, Christ takes2066    Diligit: or, loves. infants, and teaches how all ought to be like them, if they ever wish to be greater.2067    Luke ix. 47, 48. The Creator, on the contrary,2068    Autem. let loose bears against children, in order to avenge His prophet Elisha, who had been mocked by them.2069    2 Kings ii. 23, 24. This antithesis is impudent enough, since it throws together2070    Committit. things so different as infants2071    Parvulos. and children,2072    Pueros: [young lads].—an age still innocent, and one already capable of discretion—able to mock, if not to blaspheme. As therefore God is a just God, He spared not impious children, exacting as He does honour for every time of life, and especially, of course, from youth.  And as God is good, He so loves infants as to have blessed the midwives in Egypt, when they protected the infants of the Hebrews2073    Partus Hebræos. which were in peril from Pharaoh’s command.2074    Ex. ii. 15–21. Christ therefore shares this kindness with the Creator. As indeed for Marcion’s god, who is an enemy to marriage, how can he possibly seem to be a lover of little children, which are simply the issue of marriage? He who hates the seed must needs also detest the fruit. Yea, he ought to be deemed more ruthless than the king of Egypt.2075    See a like comparison in book i. chap. xxix. p. 294. For whereas Pharaoh forbade infants to be brought up, he will not allow them even to be born, depriving them of their ten months’ existence in the womb. And how much more credible it is, that kindness to little children should be attributed to Him who blessed matrimony for the procreation of mankind, and in such benediction included also the promise of connubial fruit itself, the first of which is that of infancy!2076    Qui de infantia primus est: i.e., cujus qui de infantia, etc. [Elucidation VIII.] The Creator, at the request of Elias, inflicts the blow2077    Repræsentat plagam. of fire from heaven in the case of that false prophet (of Baalzebub).2078    2 Kings i. 9–12. I recognise herein the severity of the Judge. And I, on the contrary, the severe rebuke2079    I translate after Oehler’s text, which is supported by the oldest authorities. Pamelius and Rigaltius, however, read “Christi lenitatem increpantis eandem animadversionem,” etc. (“On the contrary, I recognize the gentleness of Christ, who rebuked His disciples when they,” etc.) This reading is only conjectural, suggested by the “Christi lenitatem” of the context. of Christ on His disciples, when they were for inflicting2080    Destinantes. a like visitation on that obscure village of the Samaritans.2081    Luke ix. 51–56. The heretic, too, may discover that this gentleness of Christ was promised by the selfsame severest Judge. “He shall not contend,” says He, “nor shall His voice be heard in the street; a bruised reed shall He not crush, and smoking flax shall He not quench.”2082    Isa. xlii. 2, 3. Being of such a character, He was of course much the less disposed to burn men. For even at that time the Lord said to Elias,2083    Compare De Patientia, chap. xv. “He was not in the fire, but in the still small voice.”2084    1 Kings xix. 12. Well, but why does this most humane and merciful God reject the man who offers himself to Him as an inseparable companion?2085    Luke ix. 57, 58. If it were from pride or from hypocrisy that he had said, “I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest,’ then, by judicially reproving an act of either pride or hypocrisy as worthy of rejection, He performed the office of a Judge. And, of course, him whom He rejected He condemned to the loss of not following the Saviour.2086    Salutem: i.e., “Christ, who is our salvation” (Fr. Junius). For as He calls to salvation him whom He does not reject, or him whom He voluntarily invites, so does He consign to perdition him whom He rejects. When, however, He answers the man, who alleged as an excuse his father’s burial, “Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God,”2087    Luke ix. 59, 60. He gave a clear confirmation to those two laws of the Creator—that in Leviticus, which concerns the sacerdotal office, and forbids the priests to be present at the funerals even of their parents.  “The priest,” says He, “shall not enter where there is any dead person;2088    Animam defunctam. and for his father he shall not be defiled”2089    Lev. xxi. 1, according to our author’s reading.; as well as that in Numbers, which relates to the (Nazarite) vow of separation; for there he who devotes himself to God, among other things, is bidden “not to come at any dead body,” not even of his father, or his mother, or his brother.2090    Num. vi. 6, 7. Now it was, I suppose, for the Nazarite and the priestly office that He intended this man whom He had been inspiring2091    Imbuerat. to preach the kingdom of God. Or else, if it be not so, he must be pronounced impious enough who, without the intervention of any precept of the law, commanded that burials of parents should be neglected by their sons. When, indeed, in the third case before us, (Christ) forbids the man “to look back” who wanted first “to bid his family farewell,” He only follows out the rule2092    Sectam. of the Creator. For this (retrospection) He had been against their making, whom He had rescued out of Sodom.2093    Gen. xix. 17.

CAPUT XXIII.

Stet christus Marcionis, et exclamet: O genitura incredula, quousque ero apud vos? quousque sustinebo vos ? Statim a me audire debebit, Quisquis es (ἐπερχόμενε) eperchomene, prius ede qui sis, et a quo venias, et quod in nobis tibi jus. Usque adhuc Creatoris est totum apud te. Plane si ab illo venis, et illi agis, admittimus increpationem. Si vero ab alio, dicas velim quid nobis umquam de tuo commisisti, quod credere debuissemus, ut exprobres incredulitatem, qui nec ipsum aliquando nobis revelasti. Quam olim apud nos agere coepisti, ut tempus quaeraris? In quibus nos sustinuisti, ut patientiam imputes? Asinus de Aesopi puteo modo venis, et jam 0416C exclamas. Suscipio adhuc et personam discipulorum in quos insiliit: O natio incredula, quamdiu ero vobiscum? quamdiu vos sustinebo? Hanc eruptionem ejus utique hoc modo justissime repercuterem: Quisquis es (ἐπερχόμενε) eperchomene, prius ede qui sis, a quo venias, quod tibi jus sit in nobis? Usque adhuc, puto, Creatoris es, et ideo secuti sumus recognoscentes omnia illius in te. Quod si ab illo venis, admittimus increpationem. Si vero alii agis, oro te, dicas quid nobis aliquando commisisti dumtaxat de tuo, quod jam credidisse debuissemus, ut exprobres incredulitatem, qui nec auctorem tuum usque adhuc edis? Quam olim autem apud nos agere coepisti, ut tempus quoque opponas? In quibus autem nos sustinuisti, ut et patientiam jactes? Asinus de Aesopi 0416D puteo modo huc apparuit, et jam exclamat. Quis non 0417A ita injustitiam increpationis retudisset, si ejus eum credidisset, qui nondum queri debuisset? nisi quod nec ille eos insilisset, si non olim apud illos in Lege, in prophetis, in virtutibus et beneficiis deversatus, incredulos semper fuisset expertus. Sed ecce Christus diligit parvulos, tales esse docens debere, qui semper majores velint esse. Creator autem ursos pueris immisit, ulciscens Helisaeum propheten, convicia ab eis passum (IV Reg., II). Satis impudens antithesis, cum tam diversa committit, parvulos et pueros: innocentem adhuc aetatem, et judicii jam capacem, quae conviciari poterat, ne dicam blasphemare. Qua ergo justus Deus, nec pueris impiis pepercit, exigens majori aetati honorem, et utique magis a minore. Qua vero bonus, adeo diligit parvulos, 0417B ut apud Aegyptum benefecerit obstetricibus protegentibus partus Hebraeos periclitantes edicto Pharaonis. Ita et haec affectatio Christi cum Creatore est. Jam nunc Deus Marcionis, qui connubium aversatur , quomodo videri potest parvulorum dilector, quorum tota caussa connubium est? Qui semen odit, fructum quoque execretur necesse est. Nae ille saevior habendus Aegyptio rege: nam Pharao educari non sinebat infantes; iste nec nasci, auferens vitam illis etiam decem mensium in utero. At enim quanto credibilius, ut ejus deputetur affectio in parvulos, qui benedicendo connubium in propagationem generis humani, ipsum quoque fructum connubii benedicendo promisit, qui de infantia primus est. Repraesentat Creator ignium plagam Helia postulante 0417C in illo pseudopropheta (IV Reg., I). Agnosco judicis severitatem; e contrario, Christi lenitatem increpantis eamdem animadversionem destinantes discipulos, super illum viculum Samaritarum. Agnoscat et haereticus ab eodem severissimo judice promitti hanc Christi lenitatem. Non contendet, inquit (Is., XLII, 2), nec vox ejus in platea audietur. Arundinem quassatam non comminuet, et linum fumigans non extinguet. Talis utique multo magis homines non erat crematurus. Nam et tunc ad Heliam (III Reg., XIX, 12), Non 0418A in igni (inquit Dominus), sed in spiritu miti. At enim humanissimus Deus, cur recusat eum, qui se tam individuum illi comitem offert? Si quia superbe, vel ex hypocrisi dixerat: Sequar te quocumque ieris; ergo aut superbiam, aut hypocrisin recusandam judicando, judicem gessit. Et utique damnavit, quem recusavit, non consecuturum scilicet salutem. Nam sicut ad salutem vocat, quem non recusat, vel etiam quem ultro vocat; ita in perditionem damnat quem recusat: Illi autem caussato patris sepulturam, cum respondet: Sine, mortui sepeliant mortuos suos, tu autem vade, et annuntia regnum Dei; utramque legem Creatoris manifeste confirmavit, et de sacerdotio in Levitico prohibentem sacerdotes supremis etiam parentum interesse: Super omnem, inquit (Levit., 0418B XXI, 1), animam defunctam sacerdos non introibit, et super parentem suum non contaminabitur. Et de devotione in Arithmis (Num., VI, 6 et 7); nam et illic, qui se Deo voverit, inter caetera jubet, ne super ullam animam introeat defunctam, ne super patris quidem, aut matris, aut fratris. Puto autem et devotioni et sacerdotio destinabat, quem praedicando regno Dei imbuerat. Aut si non ita est, satis impius pronuntiandus, qui nulla ratione legis intercedente, sepulturas parentum despici a filiis imperabat. Cum vero et tertium illum, prius suis valedicere parantem, prohibet retro respectare, sectam Creatoris exequitur. Hoc et ille noluerat fecisse quos ex Sodomis liberarat.