Chapter XIII.—Christ’s Connection with the Creator Shown. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament Prophetically Bear on Certain Events of the Life of Jesus—Such as His Ascent to Praying on the Mountain; His Selection of Twelve Apostles; His Changing Simon’s Name to Peter, and Gentiles from Tyre and Sidon Resorting to Him.

Surely to Sion He brings good tidings, and to Jerusalem peace and all blessings; He goes up into a mountain, and there spends a night in prayer,1583    Luke vi. 12. and He is indeed heard by the Father.  Accordingly turn over the prophets, and learn therefrom His entire course.1584    Ordinem. “Into the high mountain,” says Isaiah, “get Thee up, who bringest good tidings to Sion; lift up Thy voice with strength, who bringest good tidings to Jerusalem.”1585    Isa. xl. 9. “They were mightily1586    In vigore. Or this phrase may qualify the noun thus: “They were astonished at His doctrine, in its might.” astonished at His doctrine; for He was teaching as one who had power.”1587    Luke iv. 32. And again:  “Therefore, my people shall know my name in that day.” What name does the prophet mean, but Christ’s?  “That I am He that doth speak—even I.”1588    Isa. lii. 6. For it was He who used to speak in the prophets—the Word, the Creator’s Son. “I am present, while it is the hour, upon the mountains, as one that bringeth glad tidings of peace, as one that publisheth good tidings of good.”1589    Our author’s reading of Isa. lii. 7. So one of the twelve (minor prophets), Nahum: “For behold upon the mountain the swift feet of Him that bringeth glad tidings of peace.”1590    Nahum i. 15. Moreover, concerning the voice of His prayer to the Father by night, the psalm manifestly says: “O my God, I will cry in the day-time, and Thou shalt hear; and in the night season, and it shall not be in vain to me.”1591    Ps. xxii. 2. In another passage touching the same voice and place, the psalm says: “I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy mountain.”1592    Ps. iii. 4. You have a representation of the name; you have the action of the Evangelizer; you have a mountain for the site; and the night as the time; and the sound of a voice; and the audience of the Father: you have, (in short,) the Christ of the prophets. But why was it that He chose twelve apostles,1593    Luke vi. 13–19. and not some other number? In truth,1594    Næ. I might from this very point conclude1595    Interpretari. of my Christ, that He was foretold not only by the words of prophets, but by the indications of facts. For of this number I find figurative hints up and down the Creator’s dispensation1596    Apud creatorem. in the twelve springs of Elim;1597    Num. xxxiii. 9. in the twelve gems of Aaron’s priestly vestment;1598    Ex. xxviii. 13–21. and in the twelve stones appointed by Joshua to be taken out of the Jordan, and set up for the ark of the covenant. Now, the same number of apostles was thus portended, as if they were to be fountains and rivers which should water the Gentile world, which was formerly dry and destitute of knowledge (as He says by Isaiah:  “I will put streams in the unwatered ground”1599    Isa. xliii. 20.); as if they were to be gems to shed lustre upon the church’s sacred robe, which Christ, the High Priest of the Father, puts on; as if, also, they were to be stones massive in their faith, which the true Joshua took out of the laver of the Jordan, and placed in the sanctuary of His covenant.  What equally good defence of such a number has Marcion’s Christ to show? It is impossible that anything can be shown to have been done by him unconnectedly,1600    Simpliciter: i.e., simply or without relation to any types or prophecies. which cannot be shown to have been done by my Christ in connection (with preceding types).1601    Non simpliciter. To him will appertain the event1602    Res. in whom is discovered the preparation for the same.1603    Rei præparatura. Again, He changes the name of Simon to Peter,1604    Luke vi. 14. [Elucidation III.] inasmuch as the Creator also altered the names of Abram, and Sarai, and Oshea, by calling the latter Joshua, and adding a syllable to each of the former. But why Peter? If it was because of the vigour of his faith, there were many solid materials which might lend a name from their strength. Was it because Christ was both a rock and a stone? For we read of His being placed “for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence.”1605    Isa. viii. 14; Rom. ix. 33; 1 Pet. ii. 8. I omit the rest of the passage.1606    Cætera. Therefore He would fain1607    Affectavit. impart to the dearest of His disciples a name which was suggested by one of His own especial designations in figure; because it was, I suppose, more peculiarly fit than a name which might have been derived from no figurative description of Himself.1608    De non suis; opposed to the de figuris suis peculiariter. [St. Peter was not the dearest of the Apostles though he was the foremost.] There come to Him from Tyre, and from other districts even, a transmarine multitude.  This fact the psalm had in view:  “And behold tribes of foreign people, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians; they were there. Sion is my mother, shall a man say; and in her was born a man” (forasmuch as the God-man was born), and He built her by the Father’s will; that you may know how Gentiles then flocked to Him, because He was born the God-man who was to build the church according to the Father’s will—even of other races also.1609    Ps. lxxxvii. 4, 5, according to the Septuagint. So says Isaiah too: “Behold, these come from far; and these from the north and from the west;1610    Mari. and these from the land of the Persians.”1611    Isa. xlix. 12. Concerning whom He says again: “Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold, all these have gathered themselves together.”1612    Isa. xlix. 18. And yet again: “Thou seest these unknown and strange ones; and thou wilt say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these? But who hath brought me up these? And these, where have they been?”1613    Isa. xlix. 21. Will such a Christ not be (the Christ) of the prophets? And what will be the Christ of the Marcionites? Since perversion of truth is their pleasure, he could not be (the Christ) of the prophets.

CAPUT XIII.

Certe Evangelizat Sion et Hierusalem pacem et bona omnia: certe ascendit in montem, et illic pernoctat 0386C in oratione; et utique auditur a Patre. Evolve igitur prophetas, et ordinem totum recognosce. In montem excelsum , inquit Esaias (Is. XL, 9), ascende, qui evangelizas Sion; extolle cum vigore vocem tuam, qui evangelizas Hierusalem. Adhuc in vigore. Obstupescebant in doctrina ejus; erat enim docens, tanquam virtutem habens (Luc. IV, 32). Et rursus (Is. LII, 6): Propterea cognoscet populus nomen meum in illa die. Quod nomen, nisi Christi? Quod ego sum ipse qui loquebar . Tunc enim ipse erat qui in Prophetis loquebatur, Sermo, Filius Creatoris: «Adsum, dum hora est, in montibus, ut evangelizans auditionem pacis, evangelizans bona.» Item Naum (Nah. I, 15) 0387A ex duodecim: Quoniam ecce veloces pedes in monte evangelizantis pacem. De voce autem nocturnae orationis ad Patrem, manifeste Psalmus (Ps. XXI, 2): Deus meus, clamabo per diem, et exaudies; et nocte, et non in vanitatem mihi; et alibi, de loco et voce eadem, Psalmus (Ps. III, 4): Voce mea ad Dominum exclamavi, et exaudivit me de monte sancto suo. Habes nominis repraesentationem, habes actum evangelizantis, habes locum montis, et tempus noctis, et sonum vocis, et auditum Patris ; habes Christum Prophetarum. Cur autem duodecim Apostolos elegit, et non alium quemlibet numerum? Nae et ex hoc meum Christum interpretari possem, non tantum vocibus Prophetarum, sed et argumentis rerum praedicatum? Hujus enim numeri figuras apud Creatorem 0387B deprehendo: Duodecim fontes Elim (Num., XXXIII); et, Duodecim gemmas in tunica sacerdotali Aaronis (Exod., XXVIII); et, Duodecim lapides ab Jesu de Jordane electos (Jos., IV) et in arcam testamenti conditos. Totidem enim Apostoli portendebantur; proinde ut fontes et amnes, rigaturi aridum retro et desertum a notitia orbem Nationum; sicut et per Esaiam (Is., XLIII, 20): Ponam in terra inaquosa flumina; proinde ut gemmae, illuminaturi sacram Ecclesiae vestem, quam induit Christus pontifex Patris; proinde ut et lapides, solidi fide, quos de lavacro Jordanis Jesus verus elegit, et in sacrarium testamenti sui recepit. Quid tale de numeri defensione competit Christo Marcionis? Non potest simpliciter factum ab illo quid videri, quod potest videri 0387C non simpliciter factum a meo. Ejus erit res, apud quem invenitur rei praeparatura. Mutat et Petro nomen de Simone; quia et Creator Abrahae, et Sarae, et Auseae nomina reformavit, hunc vocando Jesum , illis syllabas adjiciendo. Sed et cur Petrum? Si ob vigorem fidei, multae materiae solidaeque nomen de suo accommodarent. An quia et petra et lapis Christus? Siquidem et legimus (Is., VIII, 14; I Petr., II, 8) positum eum in lapidem offendiculi, et in petram scandali. Omitto caetera. Itaque affectavit carissimo discipulorum de figuris suis peculiariter nomen communicare, puto proprius quam de non suis. Conveniunt a Tyro, et ex aliis regionibus multitudo etiam transmarina. Hoc spectabat Psalmus (Ps. LXXXVI, 4): Et ecce Allophyli et Tyrus, 0387D et populus Aethiopum, isti fuerunt illic. Mater Sion 0388A dicet homo; et homo factus est in illa (quoniam Deus homo natus est), et aedificavit cam voluntate Patris: ut scias ad cum tunc gentiles convenisse, quia Deus homo erat natus, aedificaturus Ecclesiam ex voluntate Patris, ex allophytis quoque. Sic et Esaias (Is. XLIX, 12): Ecce isti veniunt de longinquo; isti autem veniunt ab aquilone et mari; alii autem de terra Persarum. De quibus et rursus (ibid. 18): Attolle per circuitum oculos tuos, et vide, omnes congregati sunt. De quibus et infra (ibid. 21): Vides ignotos et extraneos: et dices cordi tuo: Quis istos genuit mihi? Porro, hos quis mihi educavit? At hi mihi ubi fuerunt? Hic Christus non Prophetarum? Et quis erit Christus Marcionitarum, si perversitas placet, qui non fuerit Prophetarum?