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"he purchased," but "he redeemed." But he understands the purchase, but is ignorant of the price; but the truth confesses both. For He redeemed us and truly purchased us "from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." And how He purchased us, the teacher of the church immediately adds, saying that "you were bought with a price," "with the precious blood of a lamb without blemish and without spot, Christ." If, therefore, we were purchased with blood, you are not 3.121 among those who were purchased, O Mani, since you deny the blood. From where, then, did He purchase us? Tell me. Did He buy us when we were alien? Was our former master then in need, and requiring our price, did he take it and sell us to Christ? And if we were sold to Christ, we no longer belong to the former one. If, therefore, the former one no longer possesses us, then he has been put outside of his own property and has no authority in his own places. How then "does he work in the sons of disobedience," according to what is written? But neither how He purchased, nor how we were purchased, nor how He became a curse for us, does the one who is in every way mad understand, opening his mouth and not being able to "affirm confidently the things which he says." For behold, we see them saying in the regeneration of His coming and crying out, "in your name we ate and in your name we cast out demons." "And He will say to them: Depart from me, you cursed ones, I never knew you." How then do they confess Him, and He curses them? And what was the curse of the law? But the curse of the law is a cross because of sins. For if someone is caught in a transgression, the law said, "and you shall hang him on a tree; the sun shall not set upon his dead body, but taking him down you shall surely take him down and burying you shall bury him before the setting of the sun, because everyone who is hanged on a tree is accursed." Since, therefore, the curse was ordained on account of the crucifixion, and He, coming, "bore our sins on a tree," "having given Himself for us," His blood purchased us, His body loosed our curses, that is, having loosed sins through the repentance of the cross and His coming. Therefore, neither is the law a curse, may it not be, nor did the gospel receive the curse, nor the Lord, but on the occasion of His death, the death against sin is loosed. 80. Then he says that the law "was a ministry of death." And concerning this we have already said many things, that it was not itself a minister of death. For it did not say to murder, but commanded saying, "You shall not murder." But since it put to death the murderer, so that through the one who was put to death the practice of murder might be destroyed and through one man many, being afraid, might restrain injustice so as to murder no longer, it was a ministry of death, not so that it might minister death, but so that it might work death for the murderer, so that many 3.122 might no longer become murderers. But the Savior, having come, since the tutor had disciplined for most of the time, showing the more perfect lessons with the harmony of the law—of you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness—He said that "to him who strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also," so that the ministry might become of life, murder being entirely done away with. For the one who is struck on the cheek does not produce an incitement to murder, but stays the hand of the murderer, by humility soothing the evil in him. And thus all things in the Old and New Testament are in harmony. 81. Then again he takes up, in order to introduce a treatment of two persons for the establishment of the so-called dyad from his side, of the two natures and of the unoriginated principles and roots about which we have already spoken before, wishing to say similar things for the division of matters, daring so to divide, he is not ashamed to say that the Old said, "Mine is the gold and mine is the silver"; but the New Testament says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." But he does not know that the Old again says
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«ἠγόρασεν», ἀλλ' «ἐξηγόρασεν». ἀλλὰ τὴν μὲν ἀγορασίαν ἐπίσταται, τὸ δὲ τίμημα ἀγνοεῖ· ἡ δὲ ἀλήθεια τὰ ἀμφότερα ὁμολογεῖ. ἐξηγόρασε γὰρ ἡμᾶς καὶ ἠγόρασεν ἀληθῶς «ἀπὸ κατάρας τοῦ νόμου, γενόμενος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν κατάρα». καὶ πῶς ἠγόρασεν ἡμᾶς, εὐθὺς ἐπιφέρει ὁ διδάσκαλος τῆς ἐκκλησίας φάσκων ὅτι «τιμῆς ἠγοράσθητε», «τιμίῳ αἵματι ἀμνοῦ ἀμώμου καὶ ἀσπίλου Χριστοῦ». εἰ τοίνυν τῷ αἵματι ἠγοράσθημεν, οὐχ 3.121 ὑπάρχεις τῶν ἠγορασμένων, ὦ Μάνη, ἐπειδὴ τὸ αἷμα ἀρνῆσαι. πόθεν δὲ ἡμᾶς ἠγόρασε; λέγε. ἀλλοτρίους ὄντας ὠνήσατο; ἄρα ἠπόρησεν ὁ πρότερον ἡμῶν δεσπότης καὶ ἐπιδεόμενος τοῦ ἡμῶν τιμήματος, λαβὼν ἀπέδοτο ἡμᾶς Χριστῷ; καὶ εἰ ἀπεδόθημεν Χριστῷ οὐκέτι ἐσμὲν τοῦ προτέρου. εἰ τοίνυν ὁ πρότερος οὐκέτι ἡμᾶς κέκτηται, ἄρα τῆς αὐτοῦ περιουσίας ἔξω ἐγένετο καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἰδίοις τόποις οὐκ ἔχει ἐξουσίαν. πῶς οὖν «ἐνεργεῖται ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας», κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον; ἀλλ' οὔτε πῶς ἠγόρασεν οὔτε πῶς ἠγοράσθημεν οὔτε πῶς κατάρα ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν γέγονε, νοεῖ ὁ κατὰ πάντα μανείς, ἀνοίξας αὐτοῦ τὸ στόμα καὶ μὴ δυνάμενος «περὶ ὧν λέγει διαβεβαιοῦσθαι». ἰδοὺ γὰρ αὐτοὺς ὁρῶμεν λέγοντας ἐν τῇ παλιγγενεσίᾳ τῆς αὐτοῦ παρουσίας καὶ κράζοντας, «ἐν τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι ἐφάγομεν καὶ ἐν τῷ σῷ ὀνόματι δαιμόνια ἐξεβάλομεν». «καὶ ἐρεῖ πρὸς αὐτούς· ἀπέλθετε ἀπ' ἐμοῦ κεκατηραμένοι, οὔπω ἔγνων ὑμᾶς». πῶς οὖν αὐτὸν ὁμολογοῦσι, καὶ αὐτὸς αὐτοὺς καταρᾶται; τί δὲ ἦν ἡ κατάρα τοῦ νόμου; ἀλλὰ κατάρα τοῦ νόμου σταυρὸς διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας. ἐὰν γάρ τις καταληφθῇ ἐν παραπτώματι, ἔλεγεν ὁ νόμος «καὶ κρεμάσητε αὐτὸν ἐπὶ ξύλου· οὐ μὴ δύνῃ ὁ ἥλιος ἐπ' αὐτῷ ἐπὶ τῷ θνησιμαίῳ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ καθελόντες καθελεῖτέ τε αὐτὸν καὶ θάψαντες θάψατε αὐτὸν πρὸ δύσεως τοῦ ἡλίου, ὅτι ἐπικατάρατος πᾶς ὁ κρεμάμενος ἐπὶ τοῦ ξύλου». ἐπεὶ οὖν διὰ τὴν σταύρωσιν ἡ κατάρα προσετέτακτο, ἐλθὼν δὲ αὐτὸς «τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν ἀνήνεγκεν ἐπὶ ξύλου», «ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἑαυτὸν δεδωκώς», τὸ αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἡμᾶς ἠγόρασε, τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ ἡμῶν τὰς κατάρας ἔλυσε, τουτέστι λύσας τὰς ἁμαρτίας διὰ τῆς τοῦ σταυροῦ μετανοίας καὶ τῆς αὐτοῦ παρουσίας. οὔτε οὖν ὁ νόμος κατάρα μὴ γένοιτο, οὔτε τὸ εὐαγγέλιον ἔλαβε τὴν κατάραν οὔτε ὁ κύριος, ἀλλὰ διὰ τῆς προφάσεως τοῦ αὐτοῦ θανάτου λέλυται ὁ θάνατος ὁ κατὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας. 80. Εἶτά φησιν ὅτι ὁ νόμος «διακονία ἦν τοῦ θανάτου». ἤδη δὲ περὶ τούτου πολλὰ εἴπομεν, ὅτι οὐκ αὐτὸς ἦν διάκονος θανάτου. οὔτε γὰρ ἔλεγε φονεύειν, ἀλλ' ἐκέλευσε λέγων «μὴ φονεύσῃς». ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐφόνευσε τὸν φονεύοντα, ἵνα ἀναιρεθῇ διὰ τοῦ ἑνὸς τοῦ φονευθέντος ἡ τοῦ φόνου ἐνέργεια καὶ δι' ἕνα φοβηθέντες πολλοὶ κατάσχωσι τὴν ἀδικίαν τοῦ μηκέτι φονεύειν, ἡ διακονία ἦν θανάτου, οὐχ ἵνα θάνατον διακονήσῃ, ἀλλ' ἵνα θάνατον τῷ φονευτῇ ἐργάσηται, ἵνα μηκέτι φονευταὶ 3.122 πολλοὶ γίνωνται. ἐλθὼν δὲ ὁ σωτήρ, ἐπειδὴ λοιπὸν ἐσωφρόνισεν ὁ παιδαγωγὸς τὸ πλεῖστον τοῦ χρόνου, τὰ ἐντελέστερα μαθήματα δεικνὺς μετὰ τῆς συμφωνίας τοῦ νόμου, τοῦ μὴ φονεύσῃς, μὴ κλέψῃς, μὴ ψευδομαρτυρήσῃς, ἔφη ὅτι «τῷ ῥαπίζοντί σε εἰς τὴν δεξιὰν σιαγόνα, στρέψον αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν ἄλλην», ἵνα ζωῆς γένηται ἡ διακονία, ἀναιρουμένου παντάπασι τοῦ φόνου. ὁ γὰρ τυπτόμενος τὴν σιαγόνα παροξυσμὸν οὐκ ἐργάζεται φόνου, ἀλλὰ λύει τὴν χεῖρα τοῦ φονευτοῦ, τῇ ταπεινοφροσύνῃ θωπεύων τὴν ἐν αὐτῷ κακίαν. καὶ οὕτως πάντα συμφωνεῖ παλαιὰ καὶ καινὴ διαθήκη. 81. Εἶτα πάλιν ἐπιλαμβάνεται, ἵνα παρεισενέγκῃ δύο προσώπων ἀγωγὴν πρὸς σύστασιν τῆς παρ' αὐτῷ λεγομένης δυάδος, τῶν τε δύο φύσεων ἀρχῶν τε ἀνάρχων καὶ ῥιζῶν περὶ ὧν ἤδη πρότερον εἰρήκαμεν, τὰ ὅμοια βουλόμενος λέγειν ἐπὶ διαιρέσει τῶν πραγμάτων, διαιρεῖν οὕτως τολμῶν οὐκ αἰδεῖται λέγων ὅτι ἡ παλαιὰ εἶπεν «ἐμὸν τὸ χρυσίον καὶ ἐμὸν τὸ ἀργύριον»· ἡ δὲ καινὴ διαθήκη λέγει «μακάριοι οἱ πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι, ὅτι αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν». ἀλλ' οὐκ οἶδεν ὅτι καὶ ἡ παλαιὰ πάλιν λέγει