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as after the forty-day temptation, John and Luke and all of them narrate all these things. 32. Such men are not ashamed to arm themselves again against the things spoken by the holy John, thinking that they cannot in any way overthrow the truth, not knowing that they are arming themselves more against themselves than against the sound teaching. And they speak against the Apocalypse, mocking thus: “What good,” one says, “is the Apocalypse of John to me, speaking to me about seven angels and seven trumpets?” not knowing how necessary and beneficial such things were in the correctness of the proclamation. For as many things as were obscure and enigmatic in the law and in the prophets, these the Lord arranged through the Holy Spirit for our salvation to reveal “to his servant John,” proclaiming the obscure things there as spiritual and manifest things here, * and he arranged the same things for us spiritually. And at that time he constructs the tabernacle from skins, the skins being dyed red and hyacinth-colored and so on, in order to show that the tabernacle there 2.306 was indeed a tabernacle, but one awaiting the most perfect tabernacle of Christ. For skin comes from a body, being dead, as a shadow of a living body, in order to show that bodies are the tabernacle of God; for since God tabernacles in holy bodies, fulfilling the saying that “I will tabernacle in them and walk among them.” Therefore, a certain error was about to arise among believers, if the book had not been spiritually revealed to us, so that we might learn not to have need of trumpets, but to know * that the entire economy of God is spiritual, so that we might not take them as the Jewish bronze or silver trumpets, but understand spiritually that the proclamation of the church is from heaven, as he said somewhere else, “in that day they will sound the great trumpet.” For the prophets were trumpets, and the great trumpet is the holy voice of the Lord in the gospel. For this reason also it was given to angels to reveal to us: “For,” he says, “it will sound the trumpet, and the dead will be raised.” But if the trumpets of the angels are mocked by you, O men, because it is written in the Apocalypse, then the trumpet mentioned by the holy apostle is also mocked; “For,” he says, “the Lord will descend from heaven with the last trumpet and the dead will be raised on the last day with the voice of an archangel.” Since Paul, therefore, is in harmony with the holy apostle John in the Apocalypse, what contradiction remains? And how will not every error be immediately refuted, since God in each thing has given testimony on behalf of the saints? 33. Then some of them again take hold of this saying in the same Apocalypse and say in contradiction that “He said again: ‘Write to the angel of the church in Thyatira,’ and there is not a church of Christians there in Thyatira. How then did he write to one that did not exist?” And such men find themselves † forced by the very things they proclaim to confess on behalf of the truth. For if they should say, “there is not 2.307 now a church in Thyatira,” they show that John had prophesied. For when these men and those from Phrygia dwelt there and, like wolves, snatched away the minds of the simple faithful, they moved the entire city to their own heresy, and those who denied the Apocalypse campaigned for its overthrow according to this argument at that time. But now, for Christ’s sake, in this time, after a period of 112 years, the church is there and is growing, even if some others happen to be there; but at that time the entire church was emptied into the one among the Phrygians. Wherefore the Holy Spirit also was eager to reveal to us how the church was going to be led astray after the time of the apostles, both of John and of those who followed, which was a time after the ascension of the Savior *, upon

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ὡς μετὰ τὸν τῶν τεσσαράκοντα ἡμερῶν πειρασμὸν ταῦτα πάντα διηγεῖται ὁ Ἰωάννης καὶ Λουκᾶς καὶ οἱ πάντες. 32. Οὐκ αἰδοῦνται δὲ πάλιν οἱ τοιοῦτοι κατὰ τῶν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου Ἰωάννου εἰρημένων ἐξοπλιζόμενοι, νομίζοντες μή πη ἄρα δύνανται τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀνατρέπειν, οὐκ εἰδότες ὅτι καθ' ἑαυτῶν μᾶλλον ὁπλίζονται ἤπερ κατὰ τῆς ὑγιοῦς διδασκαλίας. φάσκουσι δὲ κατὰ τῆς Ἀποκαλύψεως τάδε χλευάζοντες οὕτως· «τί με, φησίν, ὠφελεῖ ἡ Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου, λέγουσά μοι περὶ ἑπτὰ ἀγγέλων καὶ ἑπτὰ σαλπίγγων;» οὐκ εἰδότες πῶς ἀναγκαῖα καὶ ὠφέλιμα τὰ τοιαῦτα ὑπῆρξεν ἐν τῇ ὀρθότητι τοῦ κηρύγματος. ὅσα γὰρ ἦν ἐν νόμῳ καὶ ἐν προφήταις σκοτεινὰ καὶ αἰνιγματώδη, ταῦτα ὁ κύριος ᾠκονόμησε διὰ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος εἰς ἡμῶν σωτηρίαν «τῷ δούλῳ αὐτοῦ Ἰωάννῃ» ἀποκαλύψαι, τὰ ἐκεῖσε σκοτεινὰ ὧδε εἰς πνευματικὰ καὶ ἔκδηλα κηρύττων, * πνευματικῶς δὲ ἡμῖν τὰ αὐτὰ ᾠκονόμει. καὶ ἐκ δερμάτων μὲν τότε κατασκευάζει τὴν σκηνήν, τῶν δερμάτων ἠρυθροδανωμένων καὶ ὑακινθίνων καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς, ἵνα δείξῃ τὴν σκηνὴν ἐκεῖσε 2.306 σκηνὴν μὲν οὖσαν, ἀπεκδεχομένην δὲ τὴν τελειοτάτην σκηνὴν τοῦ Χριστοῦ. δέρμα γὰρ ἀπὸ σώματος γίνεται, νεκρὸν ὄν, ὡς σκίασμα σώματος ζῶντος, ἵνα δείξῃ σώματα εἶναι τὴν σκηνὴν τοῦ θεοῦ· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἐν σώμασιν ἁγίοις κατασκηνοῖ θεός, πληρουμένου τοῦ ῥητοῦ ὅτι «κατασκηνώσω ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ ἐμπεριπατήσω». ἔμελλεν οὖν πλάνη τις γίνεσθαι ἐν πιστοῖς, εἰ μὴ ἡ βίβλος πνευματικῶς ἡμῖν ἀπεκαλύφθη, ἵνα μάθωμεν μὴ σαλπίγγων εἶναι χρείαν, ἀλλὰ εἰδέναι * ὅτι πνευματική ἐστιν ἡ πᾶσα τοῦ θεοῦ πραγματεία, ἵνα μὴ κατὰ τὰς Ἰουδαϊκὰς χαλκᾶς σάλπιγγας λάβωμεν ἢ ἀργυρᾶς, ἀλλὰ πνευματικῶς νοήσωμεν ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ εἶναι τῆς ἐκκλησίας τὸ κήρυγμα, ὡς καὶ ἄλλῃ που εἶπεν «ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ σαλπιοῦσιν ἐν τῇ σάλπιγγι τῇ μεγάλῃ». σάλπιγγες γὰρ ἦσαν οἱ προφῆται, σάλπιγξ δὲ μεγάλη ἡ ἁγία φωνὴ τοῦ κυρίου ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ. διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἀγγέλοις ἐδόθη ἀποκαλύψαι ἡμῖν· «σαλπίσει, γάρ φησί, καὶ οἱ νεκροὶ ἀναστήσονται». εἰ δὲ χλευάζονται παρ' ὑμῖν, ὦ οὗτοι, αἱ τῶν ἀγγέλων σάλπιγγες διὰ τὸ ἐν τῇ Ἀποκαλύψει γεγράφθαι, χλευάζεται ἄρα καὶ ἡ παρὰ τῷ ἁγίῳ ἀποστόλῳ σάλπιγξ εἰρημένη· «καταβήσεται, γάρ φησιν, κύριος ἀπ' οὐρανοῦ ἐν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ σάλπιγγι καὶ οἱ νεκροὶ ἀναστήσονται ἐν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ ἐν φωνῇ ἀρχαγγέλου». συνᾴδοντος τοίνυν τοῦ Παύλου τῷ ἁγίῳ ἀποστόλῳ Ἰωάννῃ ἐν τῇ Ἀποκαλύψει, ποία τιςὑπολείπεται ἀντιλογία; πῶς δὲ οὐκ εὐθὺς ἑκάστη πλάνη ἐλεγχθήσεται, τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν ἑκάστῳ ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁγίων δεδωκότος μαρτυρίαν; 33. Εἶτά τινες ἐξ αὐτῶν πάλιν ἐπιλαμβάνονται τούτου τοῦ ῥητοῦ ἐν τῇ αὐτῇ Ἀποκαλύψει καὶ φάσκουσιν ἀντιλέγοντες ὅτι «εἶπεν πάλιν· γράψον τῷ ἀγγέλῳ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τῆς ἐν Θυατείροις, καὶ οὐκ ἔνι ἐκεῖ ἐκκλησία Χριστιανῶν ἐν Θυατείροις. πῶς οὖν ἔγραφε τῇ μὴ οὔσῃ;» καὶ εὑρίσκονται οἱ τοιοῦτοι ἑαυτοὺς † ἀναγκάζοντες ἐξ αὐτῶν ὧν κηρύττουσι ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀληθείας ὁμολογεῖν. ἐὰν γὰρ εἴπωσιν «οὐκ ἔνι 2.307 νῦν ἐκκλησία εἰς Θυάτειρα» δεικνύουσι προπεφητευκέναι τὸν Ἰωάννην. ἐνοικησάντων γὰρ τούτων ἐκεῖσε καὶ τῶν κατὰ Φρύγας καὶ δίκην λύκων ἁρπαξάντων τὰς διανοίας τῶν ἀκεραίων πιστῶν, μετήνεγκαν τὴν πᾶσαν πόλιν εἰς τὴν αὐτῶν αἵρεσιν, οἵ τε ἀρνούμενοι τὴν Ἀποκάλυψιν κατὰ τοῦ λόγου τούτου εἰς ἀνατροπὴν κατ' ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ ἐστρατεύοντο. νῦν δὲ διὰ τὸν Χριστὸν ἐν τῷ χρόνῳ τούτῳ, μετὰ χρόνον ˉρˉιˉβ ἐτῶν, ἔστιν ἐκεῖ ἡ ἐκκλησία καὶ αὔξει, εἰ καὶ ἄλλοι τινὲς ἐκεῖσε τυγχάνουσι· τότε δὲ ἡ πᾶσα ἐκκλησία ἐκενώθη εἰς τὴν κατὰ Φρύγας. διὸ καὶ ἐσπούδασε τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα ἀποκαλύψαι ἡμῖν πῶς ἤμελλε πλανᾶσθαι ἡ ἐκκλησία μετὰ τὸν χρόνον τῶν ἀποστόλων, τοῦ τε Ἰωάννου καὶ τῶν καθεξῆς, ὃς ἦν χρόνος μετὰ τὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἀνάληψιν *, ἐπὶ