Chapter XXVI.—The Oath of God: Its Meaning. Moses, When Deprecating God’s Wrath Against Israel, a Type of Christ.

But God also swears. Well, is it, I wonder, by the God of Marcion? No, no, he says; a much vainer oath—by Himself!714    See Jer. xxii. 5. What was He to do, when He knew715    Isa. xliv. 8. of no other God; especially when He was swearing to this very point, that besides himself there was absolutely no God?  Is it then of swearing falsely that you convict716    Deprehendis. Him, or of swearing a vain oath? But it is not possible for him to appear to have sworn falsely, when he was ignorant, as you say he was, that there was another God.  For when he swore by that which he knew, he really committed no perjury. But it was not a vain oath for him to swear that there was no other God.  It would indeed be a vain oath, if there had been no persons who believed that there were other Gods, like the worshippers of idols then, and the heretics of the present day.  Therefore He swears by Himself, in order that you may believe God, even when He swears that there is besides Himself no other God at all. But you have yourself, O Marcion, compelled God to do this. For even so early as then were you foreseen. Hence, if He swears both in His promises and His threatenings, and thus extorts717    Extorquens. faith which at first was difficult, nothing is unworthy of God which causes men to believe in God. But (you say) God was even then mean718    Pusillus. enough in His very fierceness, when, in His wrath against the people for their consecration of the calf, He makes this request of His servant Moses: “Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation.”719    Ex. xxxii. 10. Accordingly, you maintain that Moses is better than his God, as the deprecator, nay the averter, of His anger. “For,” said he, “Thou shalt not do this; or else destroy me along with them.”720    An allusion to, rather than a quotation of, Ex. xxxii. 32. Pitiable are ye also, as well as the people, since you know not Christ, prefigured in the person of Moses as the deprecator of the Father, and the offerer of His own life for the salvation of the people. It is enough, however, that the nation was at the instant really given to Moses. That which he, as a servant, was able to ask of the Lord, the Lord required of Himself. For this purpose did He say to His servant, “Let me alone, that I may consume them,” in order that by his entreaty, and by offering himself, he might hinder721    Non sineret. (the threatened judgment), and that you might by such an instance learn how much privilege is vouchsafed722    Quantum liceat. with God to a faithful man and a prophet.

CAPUT XXVI.

Sed et jurat Deus. Numquid forte per Deum Marcionis? Imo, inquit, quod multo vanius , per semetipsum. Quid velles faceret , si alius Deus 0315C non erat in conscientia ejus, hoc cum maxime jurantis alium absque se omnino non esse? Igitur pejerantem deprehendis, an vane dejerantem? Sed non potest videri pejerasse, qui alium esse non scivit, ut dicitis. Quod enim scit, hoc dejerans vere, non pejeravit. Sed nec vane dejerat, alium Deum non esse. Tunc enim vane dejeraret, si non fuissent qui alios deos crederent, tunc quidem simulacrorum cultores, nunc vero et haeretici. Jurat igitur per semetipsum, ut vel juranti Deo credas alium Deum omnino non esse. Hoc ut Deus faceret, tu quoque Marcion coegisti: 0316A jam tunc enim providebaris. Proinde, si et in promissionibus aut comminationibus jurat, fidem in primordiis arduam extorquens, nihil Deo indignum est, quod efficit Deo credere. Satis et tunc pusillus Deus in ipsa etiam ferocia sua, cum ob vituli consecrationem efferatus in populum, de famulo suo postulat Moyse (Exod., XXXII, 10): Sine me, et indignatus ira disperdam illos, et faciam te in nationem magnam. Unde meliorem soletis affirmare Moysen Deo suo, deprecatorem, imo et prohibitorem irae. Non facies enim, inquit , istud, aut et me una cum eis impende. Miserandi vos quoque cum populo, qui Christum non agnoscitis in persona Mosi figuratum, Patris deprecatorem, et oblatorem animae suae pro populi salute. Sed sufficit, si et Moysi proprie donatus 0316B est populus ad praesens. Quod ut famulus postulare posset a Domino, id Dominus a se postulavit. Ad hoc enim famulo dixit: Sine me, et disperdam illos, ut ille postulando, et semetipsum offerendo non sineret; atque ita disceres, quantum liceat fideli et prophetae apud Deum .