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first to transfer to what is salvific, so that by first completely changing his father he might demonstrate perfect goodness, having pitied his father, as it is also written “to do good first to those of the household of faith,” how much more to have mercy on their own fathers. And I have added another point to the phrase and to the refutation against Marcion, that if he is the son of one and fled to the other, he will not be received as faithful by the other. For he who did not keep a good conscience toward his own father will not be trusted by the other either, on the basis of what he has brazenly done. But again in another way: Will you again accuse the good God, O Marcion, because of the difficulty of the one who was sent, being unable to save those who were being saved by him and shown mercy by him through Christ? For if Christ had not, according to Marcion's argument, fled to the God above, was the good God not at a loss to send someone, unless the Father of Christ had come into conflict with his own son, as Marcion says? And in another way: if he is the son of the demiurge, but is opposed to the creation and to the work of his father, then having come into the world he ought first to have destroyed mankind, in order to abolish the work created by his own father, having become an adversary of his father's disposition; or again, having received the power of healing and therapy and salvation, he ought to have demonstrated to his own father above all the work of philanthropy and first to persuade his father to become like him, so that having become good for himself and for his father, the one and the same goodness might become the cause of salvation for mankind. But it is not as his mythical argument, which is empty talk, has it *. For there are neither three principles, nor 2.186 another father of Christ, nor is he an offspring of evil; may it not be. For he says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” And if he says spuriously that he has a father, his so-called spurious father cannot be in him, nor he in the father. But he, teaching and speaking the truth that his father by nature is always good and always God and creator of all things, and is in him and exists with him, goes through the threat against Marcion, saying “he who does not honor the son as he honors the father, the wrath of God remains upon him.” And already in many testimonies we have shown that there is one God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, being good and having begotten good, being love and having begotten love, being a fountain of life and having begotten a fountain of life—“for with you is the fountain of life,” says the scripture—being truth and having begotten truth, being light and having begotten light, being life and having begotten life, without beginning and eternally and timelessly. And in all things the error of Marcion has been refuted. Since these things are so, and the overthrow of the deceiver has been accomplished for us in God through much and true demonstration, let us again proceed to the next things, now that this great shield has been trampled upon through the unerring word of the Savior who said “I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy,” and let us undertake to examine and refute the vain follies of the others, calling upon God as our helper in all things.

Against the Lucianists, 23, and in the sequence, 43.

1. A certain Lucian of old, not the one who now lived in the times of Constantine the elder, whom the Arians supposedly count among the martyrs; 2.187 for this Lucian, the recent one I mean, also adhered to the Arian heresy, about whom later

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πρῶτον μεταθεῖναι εἰς τὸ σωτηριῶδες, ἵνα πρῶτον τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ μεταβαλὼν τελείως ἐνδείξηται τὴν τελείαν ἀγαθότητα, τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ οἰκτείρας, ὡς καὶ γέγραπται «ποιεῖν τὸ ἀγαθὸν πρῶτον εἰς τοὺς οἰκείους τῆς πίστεως», πόσῳ γε μᾶλλον ἐλεᾶν τοὺς ἑαυτῶν πατέρας. Τὸ δὲ ἕτερον ἔτι προστέθεικα τῇ φράσει καὶ τῷ ἐλέγχῳ τῷ πρὸς τὸν Μαρκίωνα, ὅτι εἰ μὲν τοῦ ἑνός ἐστιν υἱὸς καὶ πρὸς τὸν ἕτερον προσέφυγεν, οὐ πιστὸς παραδεχθήσεται παρὰ τῷ ἑτέρῳ. ὁ γὰρ συνείδησιν εἰς τὸν ἴδιον αὐτοῦ πατέρα μὴ φυλάξας οὐδὲ παρὰ τῷ ἑτέρῳ πιστευθήσεται ἀπὸ τῶν παρ' αὐτοῦ προαγόντως πεπραγμένων. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄλλως πάλιν· ἆρά γε τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ θεοῦ κατηγορήσεις πάλιν, ὦ Μαρκίων, δι' ἀπορίαν τοῦ πεμπομένου μὴ δυνηθέντος σῶσαι τοὺς παρ' αὐτοῦ σῳζομένους καὶ παρ' αὐτοῦ διὰ Χριστοῦ ἐλεηθέντας; εἰ μὴ γὰρ ἀπέφυγε κατὰ τὸν τοῦ Μαρκίωνος λόγον ὁ Χριστὸς πρὸς τὸν ἄνω θεόν, οὐκ ηὐπόρει ὁ ἀγαθὸς θεός τινα ἀποστεῖλαι, εἰ μὴ ἐν προσκρούσει ὁ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πατήρ, ὡς ὁ Μαρκίων λέγει, πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον αὐτοῦ υἱὸν γεγένηται. καὶ ἄλλως δέ· εἰ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ υἱός ἐστιν, ἀντίκειται δὲ τῇ δημιουργίᾳ καὶ τῷ τοῦ πατρὸς ἔργῳ, πρῶτον μὲν ἐλθὼν εἰς τὸν κόσμον τοὺς ἀνθρώπους πρῶτον εἶχεν ἐξολοθρεῦσαι, ἵνα ἀφανίσῃ τὸ ἔργον τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἰδίου πατρὸς δεδημιουργημένον, ὡς ἀντίδικος γενόμενος τῆς τοῦ πατρὸς διαθέσεως· ἢ πάλιν λαβὼν δύναμιν ἰάσεως καὶ θεραπείας καὶ σωτηρίας ὤφειλεν ἐνδείξασθαι εἰς τὸν ἴδιον αὐτοῦ πατέρα πρὸ πάντων τὴν τῆς φιλανθρωπίας ἐργασίαν καὶ πρῶτον πεῖσαι τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ κατ' αὐτὸν γενέσθαι, ἵνα γενόμενος αὑτῷ τε καὶ τῷ αὐτοῦ πατρὶ ἀγαθὸς τῆς πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους σωτηρίας αἰτία ἡ μία καὶ ἡ αὐτὴ ἀγαθότης γένηται. ἀλλ' οὐχ οὕτως ἔχει ὡς ὁ τούτου κενοφωνούμενος μυθώδης λόγος *. οὔτε γὰρ τρεῖς ἀρχαὶ οὔτε 2.186 ἄλλος πατὴρ Χριστοῦ οὐδὲ κακίας ἐστὶ γέννημα· μὴ γένοιτο. φησὶ γάρ «ἐγὼ ἐν τῷ πατρὶ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἐμοί». καὶ εἰ μὲν νόθως λέγει πατέρα ἔχειν, οὐ δύναται αὐτοῦ ὁ νόθος πατὴρ καλούμενος ἐν αὐτῷ εἶναι οὐδὲ αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ πατρί. ὁ δὲ κατὰ φύσιν αὐτοῦ πατέρα ἀεὶ ἀγαθὸν καὶ θεὸν ἀεὶ καὶ πάντων δημιουργόν, ἐν αὐτῷ δὲ ὄντα καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ ὑπάρχοντα διδάσκων καὶ ἀληθεύων, κατὰ τοῦ Μαρκίωνος τὴν ἀπειλὴν διεξέρχεται λέγων «ὁ μὴ τιμῶν τὸν υἱὸν ὡς τιμᾷ τὸν πατέρα, ἡ ὀργὴ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπ' αὐτὸν μένει». ἤδη δὲ ἐν πολλαῖς μαρτυρίαις ἐδείξαμεν τὸν ἕνα ὄντα θεόν, τὸν πατέρα τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ἀγαθὸν ὄντα καὶ ἀγαθὸν γεννήσαντα, ἀγάπην ὄντα καὶ ἀγάπην γεννήσαντα, πηγὴν ὄντα ζωῆς καὶ ζωῆς πηγὴν γεννήσαντα «παρὰ σοὶ γὰρ πηγὴ ζωῆς» φησὶν ἡ γραφή, ἀλήθειαν ὄντα καὶ ἀλήθειαν γεννήσαντα, φῶς ὄντα καὶ φῶς γεννήσαντα, ζωὴν ὄντα καὶ ζωὴν γεννήσαντα ἀνάρχως καὶ ἀιδίως καὶ ἀχρόνως. καὶ ἐλήλεγκται κατὰ πάντα ἡ τοῦ Μαρκίωνος πλάνη. Τούτων τοίνυν οὕτως ἐχόντων καὶ τῆς κατὰ τοῦ ἀπατεῶνος ἀνατροπῆς διὰ πολλῆς καὶ ἀληθινῆς συστάσεως ἐν θεῷ ἡμῖν κατειργασμένης πάλιν ἐπὶ τὰς ἑξῆς, ταύτης τῆς νυνὶ ὡς μεγάλης ἀσπίδος καταπατηθείσης διὰ τοῦ ἀψευδοῦς λόγου τοῦ σωτῆρος τοῦ εἰπόντος «δέδωκα ὑμῖν πατεῖν ἐπὶ ὄφεις καὶ σκορπίους καὶ ἐπὶ πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ ἀντικειμένου», ἴωμεν καὶ τὰς τῶν ἄλλων ματαιοφροσύνας διασκοπεῖν τε καὶ διελέγχειν ἐπιβαλώμεθα, θεὸν βοηθὸν ἐν ἅπασιν ἐπικαλούμενοι.

Κατὰ Λουκιανιστῶν ˉκˉγ, τῆς δὲ ἀκολουθίας ˉμˉγ.

1. Λουκιανός τις ἀρχαῖος, οὐχ ὁ νῦν ἐν χρόνοις Κωνσταντίνου γεγονὼς τοῦ γέροντος, ὃν δῆθεν οἱ Ἀρειανοὶ ἐν μάρτυσιν ἐπιψηφί2.187 ζονται· ἦν γὰρ καὶ οὗτος ὁ Λουκιανός, ὁ πρόσφατός φημι, προσανέχων τῇ τῶν Ἀρειανῶν αἱρέσει, περὶ οὗ ὕστερον