271

traction, because it was not an appearance or an illusion. And the angels also bear witness, having appeared to the women, that "He has risen, he is not here; why do you seek the living among the dead?" And they did not say that he did not die, but that he rose, he who suffered in the flesh, but is always living in spirit and impassible in his own divinity, he who is always begotten from above from the Father, he who in the last days was pleased to become man from Mary the virgin, as Saint Paul testifies, saying, "born of a woman, born under the law." Have you then not yet heard the saying that states, "For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality"? Or has the prophet Isaiah not persuaded you, saying, "and the dead shall rise, and those 2.342 in the tombs shall be raised?", and the Lord himself saying that "and these shall be raised to eternal life, and these to eternal punishment"? Or do you not remember Abel's speech to God after death, how it does not say the soul intercedes and cries out to God, but the blood? But blood is not soul, but the soul is in the blood. For blood is a visible body, but the soul, being something invisible, has its place in the blood. And from every side your bad faith, O Bardesian, has been refuted, being overthrown by the truth itself. 3. But concerning many principles, since I have often said many things against those who speak thus; here I shall not make a lengthy discussion about this, but as in a digression I will call to mind the holy apostle's statement that "for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we for him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through him." How then can there be polytheism and many principles, if "one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through him"? Therefore, there is one creator and not many gods nor many aeons. For he said, "even if there are so-called many gods." But the "so-called" he declared as concerning things that do not exist; but concerning the so-called gods of the Greeks, whom they deified, the sun and the moon, and stars and things similar to these, by his declaration he shut off the understanding of all who have been led astray. And with the sound faith being preserved from every side, being the foundation and salvation of the faithful, the invented empty talk of all the heresies was easily overthrown. just as this man also, having been overthrown and having made himself pitiable and having estranged himself from life. For the prophet says to the holy church of God, "I will make your stone carbuncle and your foundations sapphire and your walls choice stones and your battlements jasper." Then later he says, "every voice that shall rise up against you, you will defeat them all, but against 2.343 you it will not succeed." For nothing will prevail against the faith of the truth, since "it has been built upon the rock, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it," as the holy God the Word promised to her, her king and bridegroom and her lord and master, to whom be glory, honor, and power, to the Father in the Son with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, amen. And this heresy itself having also been trampled down, * being a head as from the cutting of a serpent and still twitching, having been struck by the wood of life, let us, giving thanks to God, go on to examine the others again, beloved. Against the Noetians 37, but in the sequence 57. And another again after this one arose, Noetus by name, not many years ago, but from a time of about one hundred and thirty years, more or less, from these times, being an Asian from the city of Ephesus; who, carried by a foreign spirit, wished of his own accord to say and to teach things which neither prophets preached nor apostles, nor the church held from the beginning, nor had been conceived, he himself of his own accord, lifted up by a high-flown 2.344 madness, dared to say that the Father suffered; and furthermore, carried away by some greater arrogance and madness, he said that he himself was Moses and his brother

271

ὁλκή, ὅτι οὐκ ἦν δόκησις οὐδὲ φαντασία. μαρτυροῦσι δὲ καὶ οἱ ἄγγελοι ταῖς γυναιξὶ πεφηνότες ὅτι «ἀνέστη, οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε· τί ζητεῖτε τὸν ζῶντα μετὰ τῶν νεκρῶν;» καὶ οὐκ εἶπαν ὅτι οὐκ ἀπέθανεν, ἀλλὰ ἀνέστη, ὁ πεπονθὼς ἐν σαρκί, ζῶν δὲ ἀεὶ ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀπαθὴς ὢν ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ θεότητι, ὁ ἄνωθεν ἀεὶ ἐκ πατρὸς γεγεννημένος ὑπάρχων, ὁ ἐπ' ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν εὐδοκήσας ἀπὸ Μαρίας τῆς παρθένου γενέσθαι ἄνθρωπος, ὡς μαρτυρεῖ Παῦλος ὁ ἅγιος λέγων «γενόμενος ἐκ γυναικός, γενόμενος ὑπὸ νόμον». ἄρα γε οὔπω ἤκουσας τοῦ ῥητοῦ τοῦ λέγοντος ὅτι «δεῖ τὸ φθαρτὸν τοῦτο ἐνδύσασθαι ἀφθαρσίαν καὶ τὸ θνητὸν τοῦτο ἐνδύσασθαι ἀθανασίαν»; ἢ οὐκ ἔπεισέ σε Ἠσαΐας ὁ προφήτης λέγων «καὶ ἀναστήσονται οἱ νεκροί, καὶ ἐγερθήσονται οἱ 2.342 ἐν τοῖς μνημείοις;», αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ κύριος λέγων ὅτι «καὶ ἐγερθήσονται μὲν οὗτοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον καὶ οὗτοι εἰς κόλασιν αἰώνιον»; ἢ οὐ μέμνησαι τοῦ Ἄβελ μετὰ θάνατον τῆς πρὸς θεὸν ὁμιλίας, ὡς οὐ τὴν ψυχὴν λέγει ἐντυγχάνειν καὶ βοᾶν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, ἀλλὰ τὸ αἷμα; αἷμα δὲ οὐ ψυχὴ ὑπάρχει, ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ αἵματι ἡ ψυχή ἐστιν. σῶμα γάρ ἐστι τὸ αἷμα ὁρατόν, ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ ἀόρατός τις ὑπάρχουσα ἐν τῷ αἵματι ἔχει τὸν χῶρον. καὶ ἐκ πανταχόθεν ἐλήλεγκταί σου, ὦ Βαρδησιάνη, ἡ κακοπιστία, ἀνατρεπομένη ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς ἀληθείας. 3. Περὶ δὲ πολλῶν ἀρχῶν ἐπειδήπερ πολλάκις κατὰ τῶν οὕτως λεγόντων πολλὰ εἶπον; ἐνταῦθα οὐ πολλὴν ποιοῦμαι τὴν περὶ τούτου διαλογήν, ἀλλ' ὡς ἐν παρεκβάσει ὑπομνήσομαι τοῦ ἁγίου ἀποστόλου φάσκοντος ὅτι «ἡμῖν εἷς θεὸς ὁ πατήρ, ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς αὐτόν, καὶ εἷς κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἡμεῖς δι' αὐτοῦ». πῶς οὖν πολυθεΐα ἔσται καὶ πολλαὶ ἀρχαί, εἰ «εἷς κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα καὶ ἡμεῖς δι' αὐτοῦ»; ἄρα οὖν εἷς ἐστιν ὁ ποιητὴς καὶ οὐ πολλοὶ θεοὶ οὔτε πολλοὶ αἰῶνες. ἔφη γὰρ ὅτι «εἴπερ εἰσὶ πολλοὶ θεοὶ λεγόμενοι». τὸ δέ «λεγόμενοι» ὡς περὶ οὐχ ὑπαρχόντων ἀπεφήνατο· διὰ δὲ τοὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων λεγομένους, οὓς ἐθεοποίησαν, ἥλιόν τε καὶ σελήνην, ἄστρα τε καὶ τὰ τούτοις ὅμοια, ἀποφηνάμενος ἀπέκλεισε πάντων τῶν πεπλανημένων τὴν διάνοιαν. Τῆς δὲ ὑγιοῦς πίστεως πανταχόθεν σῳζομένης, ἑδραιώματος οὔσης καὶ σωτηρίας τῶν πιστῶν, ῥᾳδίως ἡ πασῶν τῶν αἱρέσεων ἐπινενοημένη κενολεξία προσανετράπη. ὡς καὶ οὗτος ἀνατραπεὶς καὶ ἐλεεινὸν ἑαυτὸν καταστήσας καὶ ἑαυτὸν ἀποξενώσας τῆς ζωῆς. φησὶ γὰρ ὁ προφήτης πρὸς τὴν ἁγίαν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησίαν ὅτι «θήσομαι ἄνθρακα τὸν λίθον σου καὶ τοὺς θεμελίους σου σάπφειρον καὶ τὰ τείχη σου λίθους ἐκλεκτοὺς καὶ τὰς ἐπάλξεις σου ἴασπιν». εἶτα ὕστερόν φησι «πᾶσα φωνὴ ἣ ἐπαναστήσεται ἐπὶ σέ, πάντας αὐτοὺς ἡττήσεις, ἐπὶ 2.343 δὲ σὲ οὐ κατευοδωθήσεται». οὐδὲν γὰρ κατισχύσει πρὸς τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας πίστιν, ἐπειδήπερ «ἐπὶ τὴν πέτραν ᾠκοδόμηται, καὶ πύλαι Ἅιδου οὐ κατισχύσουσιν αὐτῆς», ὡς ἐπηγγείλατο αὐτῇ ὁ ἅγιος θεὸς Λόγος, ὁ βασιλεὺς αὐτῆς καὶ νυμφίος καὶ κύριος αὐτῆς καὶ δεσπότης, ᾧ δόξα, τιμὴ καὶ κράτος πατρὶ ἐν υἱῷ σὺν ἁγίῳ πνεύματι εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, ἀμήν. Ταύτης δὲ καὶ αὐτῆς καταπατηθείσης τῆς αἱρέσεως, * ὡς ἀπὸ τομῆς ὄφεως οὖσα κεφαλὴ καὶ ἔτι σκαρίζουσα, τῷ ξύλῳ τῆς ζωῆς παισθεῖσα, αὐτοὶ δὲ θεῷ εὐχαριστοῦντες ἐπὶ τὰς ἄλλας πάλιν διασκοποῦντες ἴωμεν, ἀγαπητοί. Κατὰ Νοητιανῶν ˉλˉζ, τῆς δὲ ἀκολουθίας ˉνˉζ. Ἕτερος δὲ πάλιν μετὰ τοῦτον Νόητος ὀνόματι ἀνέστη, οὐ πρὸ ἐτῶν πλειόνων, ἀλλ' ὡς ἀπὸ χρόνου ἐτῶν τούτων ἑκατὸν τριάκοντα πλείω ἐλάσσω, Ἀσιανὸς τῆς Ἐφέσου πόλεως ὑπάρχων· ὃς ἀλλοτρίῳ πνεύματι φερόμενος ἠθέλησεν ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ ἃ μήτε προφῆται ἐκήρυξαν μήτε ἀπόστολοι μήτε ἐξ ὑπαρχῆς κατέσχεν ἡ ἐκκλησία μήτε ἐνενοήθη λέγειν τε καὶ διδάσκειν, αὐτὸς ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ ἐπάρματι 2.344 μανίας ἐπαρθεὶς ἐτόλμησε λέγειν, τὸν πατέρα πεπονθέναι· ἔτι δὲ μείζονί τινι τύφῳ καὶ παραφροσύνῃ ἐνεχθεὶς ἑαυτὸν ἔλεγε Μωυσέα καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν