Chapter XLIII.—Conclusions. Jesus as the Christ of the Creator Proved from the Events of the Last Chapter of St. Luke. The Pious Women at the Sepulchre. The Angels at the Resurrection. The Manifold Appearances of Christ After the Resurrection. His Mission of the Apostles Amongst All Nations. All Shown to Be in Accordance with the Wisdom of the Almighty Father, as Indicated in Prophecy. The Body of Christ After Death No Mere Phantom. Marcion’s Manipulation of the Gospel on This Point.

It was very meet that the man who buried the Lord should thus be noticed in prophecy, and thenceforth be “blessed;”2844    The first word of the passage just applied to Joseph. since prophecy does not omit the (pious) office of the women who resorted before day-break to the sepulchre with the spices which they had prepared.2845    Luke xxiv. 1. For of this incident it is said by Hosea: “To seek my face they will watch till day-light, saying unto me, Come, and let us return to the Lord: for He hath taken away, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up; after two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up.”2846    Hos. v. 15 and vi. 1, 2. For who can refuse to believe that these words often revolved2847    Volutata. in the thought of those women between the sorrow of that desertion with which at present they seemed to themselves to have been smitten by the Lord, and the hope of the resurrection itself, by which they rightly supposed that all would be restored to them? But when “they found not the body (of the Lord Jesus),”2848    Luke xxiv. 3. “His sepulture was removed from the midst of them,”2849    Isa. lvii. 2, according to the Septuagint, ἡ ταφὴ αὐτοῦ ἠρται ἐκ τοῦ μέσου. according to the prophecy of Isaiah.  “Two angels however, appeared there.”2850    Luke xxiv. 4. For just so many honorary companions2851    Tot fere laterensibus. were required by the word of God, which usually prescribes “two witnesses.”2852    Deut. xvii. 6, xix. 15, compared with Matt. xviii. 16 and 2 Cor. xiii. 1. Moreover, the women, returning from the sepulchre, and from this vision of the angels, were foreseen by Isaiah, when he says, “Come, ye women, who return from the vision;”2853    Isa. xxvii. 11, according to the Septuagint, γυναῖκες ἐρχόμεναι ἀπὸ θέας, δεῦτε. that is, “come,” to report the resurrection of the Lord. It was well, however, that the unbelief of the disciples was so persistent, in order that to the last we might consistently maintain that Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples as none other than the Christ of the prophets.  For as two of them were taking a walk, and when the Lord had joined their company, without its appearing that it was He, and whilst He dissembled His knowledge of what had just taken place,2854    Luke xxiv. 13–19. they say: “But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel,”2855    Luke xxiv. 21.—meaning their own, that is, the Creator’s Christ.  So far had He been from declaring Himself to them as another Christ! They could not, however, deem Him to be the Christ of the Creator; nor, if He was so deemed by them, could He have tolerated this opinion concerning Himself, unless He were really He whom He was supposed to be. Otherwise He would actually be the author of error, and the prevaricator of truth, contrary to the character of the good God. But at no time even after His resurrection did He reveal Himself to them as any other than what, on their own showing, they had always thought Him to be. He pointedly2856    Plane. reproached them: “O fools, and slow of heart in not believing that which He spake unto you.”2857    Luke xxiv. 25. By saying this, He proves that He does not belong to the rival god, but to the same God.  For the same thing was said by the angels to the women: “Remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered up, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”2858    Luke xxiv. 6, 7. “Must be delivered up;” and why, except that it was so written by God the Creator? He therefore upbraided them, because they were offended solely at His passion, and because they doubted of the truth of the resurrection which had been reported to them by the women, whereby (they showed that) they had not believed Him to have been the very same as they had thought Him to be. Wishing, therefore, to be believed by them in this wise, He declared Himself to be just what they had deemed Him to be—the Creator’s Christ, the Redeemer of Israel. But as touching the reality of His body, what can be plainer? When they were doubting whether He were not a phantom—nay, were supposing that He was one—He says to them, “Why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See2859    Videte. The original is much stronger ψηλαφήσατέ με καὶ ἴδετε, “handle me, and see.” Two sentences thrown into one. my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; for a spirit hath not bones, as ye see me have.”2860    Luke xxiv. 37–39. Now Marcion was unwilling to expunge from his Gospel some statements which even made against him—I suspect, on purpose, to have it in his power from the passages which he did not suppress, when he could have done so, either to deny that he had expunged anything, or else to justify his suppressions, if he made any. But he spares only such passages as he can subvert quite as well by explaining them away as by expunging them from the text.  Thus, in the passage before us, he would have the words, “A spirit hath not bones, as ye see me have,” so transposed, as to mean, “A spirit, such as ye see me to be, hath not bones;” that is to say, it is not the nature of a spirit to have bones. But what need of so tortuous a construction, when He might have simply said, “A spirit hath not bones, even as you observe that I have not?”  Why, moreover, does He offer His hands and His feet for their examination—limbs which consist of bones—if He had no bones? Why, too, does He add, “Know that it is I myself,”2861    Luke xxiv. 39. when they had before known Him to be corporeal?  Else, if He were altogether a phantom, why did He upbraid them for supposing Him to be a phantom? But whilst they still believed not, He asked them for some meat,2862    Luke xxiv. 41. for the express purpose of showing them that He had teeth.2863    An additional proof that He was no phantom.

And now, as I would venture to believe,2864    Ut opinor. we have accomplished our undertaking. We have set forth Jesus Christ as none other than the Christ of the Creator. Our proofs we have drawn from His doctrines, maxims,2865    Sententiis. affections, feelings, miracles, sufferings, and even resurrection—as foretold by the prophets.2866    Prophetarum. Even to the last He taught us (the same truth of His mission), when He sent forth His apostles to preach His gospel “among all nations;”2867    Luke xxiv. 47 and Matt. xxviii. 19. for He thus fulfilled the psalm: “Their sound is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”2868    Ps. xix. 4. Marcion, I pity you; your labour has been in vain. For the Jesus Christ who appears in your Gospel is mine.

CAPUT XLIII.

Sic nec mulierum illarum officium (Luc., XXIV) praeterit prophetia, quae ante lucem convenerunt ad sepulcrum cum odorum paratura. De hoc enim per Osee (Os., VI, 1): Ut quaerant, inquit, faciem meam, ante lucem vigilabunt ad me, dicentes, Eamus, et convertamur ad Dominum, quia ipse eripuit, 0465Det curabit nos; percussit, et miserebitur nostri; sanabit nos post biduum, in die tertia resurgemus. Quis enim 0466A haec non credat in recogitatu mulierum illarum volutata, inter dolorem praesentis destitutionis qua percussae sibi videbantur a Domino, et spem resurrectionis ipsius qua restitui rite arbitrabantur? Corpore autem non invento sublata erat sepultura ejus de medio, secundum Esaiam (Is., LVII, 2). Sed et duo ibidem angeli apparuerunt. Tot fere laterensibus uti solebat, in duobus testibus consistens Dei Sermo. Revertentes quoque a sepulcro mulieres, et ab illa angelorum visione prospiciebat Esaias (Is. XXVII, 11); Mulieres, inquit, venientes a visione, venite ad renuntiandam scilicet Domini resurrectionem. Bene autem, quod incredulitas discipulorum perseverabat, ut in finem usque defensio nostra consisteret, Christum Jesum non alium se discipulis 0466B edidisse, quam prophetatum. Nam cum duo ex illis iter agerent, et Dominus eis adhaesisset, non comparens quod ipse esset, etiam dissimulans de conscientia rei gestae: Nos autem putabamus, inquiunt, ipsum esse redemptorem Israelis; utique suum Christum, id est Creatoris. Adeo nec alium se ediderat illis. Caeterum, non existimarent eum Creatoris; et cum Creatoris existimaretur, non sustinuisset hanc de se existimationem, si non is esset qui existimabatur : aut ipse erit auctor erroris, et praevaricator veritatis adversus Dei optimi titulum. Sed nec post resurrectionem alium se eis ostendit, quam quem existimatum sibi dixerant. Plane invectus est in illos: O insensati et tardi corde, in non credendo omnibus quae locutus est ad vos! Quae locutus non alterius 0466C se Dei esse probat, sed ejusdem Dei . Nam eadem et angeli ad mulieres: Rememoramini quae locutus sit vobis in Galilaea, dicens, quod oportettradi filium hominis, et crucifigi, et tertia die resurgere. Et quare oportebat, nisi quia ita a Deo Creatore scriptum? Igitur increpavit illos, ut de sola passione scandalizatos, et ut dubios de fide resurrectionis annuntiatae sibi a foeminis, per quae non crediderant ipsum fuisse quem existimarant. Itaque quod existimaverant, id volens credi se, eum se confirmabat quem existimaverant, Creatoris scilicet Christum redemptorem Israelis. De corporis autem veritate quid potest clarius? cum haesitantibus eis ne phantasma esset, imo phantasma credentibus: Quid turbati estis, inquit, et quid cogitationes subeunt in 0466Dcorda vestra? Videte manus meas et pedes, quia ego ipse sum; quoniam spiritus ossa non habet, sicut me habentem 0467Avidetis . Et Marcion quaedam contraria sibi, illa credo industria eradere de Evangelio suo noluit, ut ex his quae eradere potuit, nec erasit, illa quae erasit, aut negetur erasisse, aut merito erasisse dicatur. Nec parcit nisi eis quae non aliter interpretando, quam delendo, subvertit. Vult itaque sic dictum, quasi, Spiritus ossa non habet, sicut me videtis habentem, ad spiritum referatur, sicut me videtis habentem; id est non habentem ossa sicut et spiritus. Et quae ratio tortuositatis istius? cum simpliciter pronuntiare potuisset: Quia spiritus ossa non habet, sicut me videtis non habentem. Cur autem inspectui eorum manus et pedes suos offert, quae membra ex ossibus constant, si ossa non habebat? Cur adjicit: 0468AEt scitote quia ego sum, quem scilicet corporeum retro noverant? Aut si phantasma erat usquequaque, cur illos phantasma credentes increpabat? Atquin adhuc eis non credentibus, propterea cibum desideravit, ut se ostenderet etiam dentes habere. Implevimus, ut opinor, sponsionem. Exhibuimus Jesum Christum Prophetarum doctrinis, sententiis, affectibus, sensibus, virtutibus, passionibus, etiam resurrectione, non alium quam Creatoris. Siquidem et apostolos mittens ad praedicandum universis nationibus, in omnem terram exire sonum eorum, et in terminos terrae voces eorum, Psalmum adimplendo; praecepit. Misereor tui, Marcion, frustra laborasti. Christus enim Jesus in Evangelio tuo, meus est .