Chapter V.—The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The Pauline Salutation of Grace and Peace Shown to Be Anti-Marcionite. The Cross of Christ Purposed by the Creator. Marcion Only Perpetuates the Offence and Foolishness of Christ’s Cross by His Impious Severance of the Gospel from the Creator. Analogies Between the Law and the Gospel in the Matter of Weak Things, and Foolish Things and Base Things.

My preliminary remarks3063    Funis ducendus est.    Præstructio. on the preceding epistle called me away from treating of its superscription,3064    Ratio.    Titulo. for I was sure that another opportunity would occur for considering the matter, it being of constant recurrence, and in the same form too, in every epistle. The point, then, is, that it is not (the usual) health which the apostle prescribes for those to whom he writes, but “grace and peace.”3065    Præjudicans.    1 Cor. i. 3. I do not ask, indeed, what a destroyer of Judaism has to do with a formula which the Jews still use. For to this day they salute each other3066    Posterius revincetur. See De Præscriptione Hæret., which goes on this principle of time. Compare especially chapters xxix. and xxx. [p. 256, supra.]    Appellant. with the greeting of “peace,” and formerly in their Scriptures they did the same. But I understand him by his practice3067    Falsum.    Officio. plainly enough to have corroborated the declaration of the Creator: “How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good, who preach the gospel of peace!”3068    Passione.    Isa. lii. 7. For the herald of good, that is, of God’s “grace” was well aware that along with it “peace” also was to be proclaimed.3069    Materia.    Pacem quam præferendam. Now, when he announces these blessings as “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus,”3070    De veritate materiam.    1 Cor. i. 3. he uses titles that are common to both, and which are also adapted to the mystery of our faith;3071    Sæculo post.    Competentibus nostro quoque sacramento. and I suppose it to be impossible accurately to determine what God is declared to be the Father and the Lord Jesus, unless (we consider) which of their accruing attributes are more suited to them severally.3072    Interim.    Nisi ex accedentibus cui magis competant. First, then, I assert that none other than the Creator and Sustainer of both man and the universe can be acknowledged as Father and Lord; next, that to the Father also the title of Lord accrues by reason of His power, and that the Son too receives the same through the Father; then that “grace and peace” are not only His who had them published, but His likewise to whom offence had been given. For neither does grace exist, except after offence; nor peace, except after war. Now, both the people (of Israel) by their transgression of His laws,3073    Communio ejus.    Disciplinæ. and the whole race of mankind by their neglect of natural duty,3074    De veritate disceptat.    Per naturæ dissimulationem. This Fr. Junius explains by τὴν φύσεως ἀφοσίωσιν, in the sense of “original sin” (ἀφοσιοῦσθαι seems to point to sin requiring expiation). had both sinned and rebelled against the Creator. Marcion’s god, however, could not have been offended, both because he was unknown to everybody, and because he is incapable of being irritated. What grace, therefore, can be had of a god who has not been offended? What peace from one who has never experienced rebellion? “The cross of Christ,” he says, “is to them that perish foolishness; but unto such as shall obtain salvation, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”3075    Quod est secundum nos. [A note of T.’s position.]    1 Cor. i. 18. And then, that we may know from whence this comes, he adds: “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’”3076    Projectam. [Catholic = Primitive.]    1 Cor. i. 19, from Isa. xxix. 14. Now, since these are the Creator’s words, and since what pertains to the doctrine3077    Præferunt.    Causam. of the cross he accounts as foolishness, therefore both the cross, and also Christ by reason of the cross, will appertain to the Creator, by whom were predicted the incidents of the cross.  But if3078    Penes nos.    Aut si: introducing a Marcionite cavil. the Creator, as an enemy, took away their wisdom in order that the cross of Christ, considered as his adversary, should be accounted foolishness, how by any possibility can the Creator have foretold anything about the cross of a Christ who is not His own, and of whom He knew nothing, when He published the prediction? But, again, how happens it, that in the system of a Lord3079    Post futura.    Apud dominum. who is so very good, and so profuse in mercy, some carry off salvation, when they believe the cross to be the wisdom and power of God, whilst others incur perdition, to whom the cross of Christ is accounted folly;—(how happens it, I repeat,) unless it is in the Creator’s dispensation to have punished both the people of Israel and the human race, for some great offence committed against Him, with the loss of wisdom and prudence? What follows will confirm this suggestion, when he asks, “Hath not God infatuated the wisdom of this world?”3080    Sane.    1 Cor. i. 20. and when he adds the reason why: “For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God3081    Eversi.    Boni duxit Deus, εὐδόκησεν ὁ Θεός. by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”3082    Nisi quod.    1 Cor. i. 21. But first a word about the expression “the world;” because in this passage particularly,3083    Matt. x. 24.    Hic vel maxime. the heretics expend a great deal of their subtlety in showing that by world is meant the lord of the world. We, however, understand the term to apply to any person that is in the world, by a simple idiom of human language, which often substitutes that which contains for that which is contained. “The circus shouted,” “The forum spoke,” and “The basilica murmured,” are well-known expressions, meaning that the people in these places did so. Since then the man, not the god, of the world3084    1 Cor. xv. 11.    That is, “man who lives in the world, not God who made the world.” in his wisdom knew not God, whom indeed he ought to have known (both the Jew by his knowledge of the Scriptures, and all the human race by their knowledge of God’s works), therefore that God, who was not acknowledged in His wisdom, resolved to smite men’s knowledge with His foolishness, by saving all those who believe in the folly of the preached cross.  “Because the Jews require signs,” who ought to have already made up their minds about God, “and the Greeks seek after wisdom,”3085    1 Cor. xiv. 32.    1 Cor. i. 22. who rely upon their own wisdom, and not upon God’s. If, however, it was a new god that was being preached, what sin had the Jews committed, in seeking after signs to believe; or the Greeks, when they hunted after a wisdom which they would prefer to accept? Thus the very retribution which overtook both Jews and Greeks proves that God is both a jealous God and a Judge, inasmuch as He infatuated the world’s wisdom by an angry3086    Gal. i. 8.    Æmula. and a judicial retribution. Since, then, the causes3087    Causæ: the reasons of His retributive providence. are in the hands of Him who gave us the Scriptures which we use, it follows that the apostle, when treating of the Creator, (as Him whom both Jew and Gentile as yet have) not known, means undoubtedly to teach us, that the God who is to become known (in Christ) is the Creator.  The very “stumbling-block” which he declares Christ to be “to the Jews,”3088    1 Cor. i. 23. points unmistakeably3089    Consignat. to the Creator’s prophecy respecting Him, when by Isaiah He says: “Behold I lay in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.”3090    Isa. viii. 14. This rock or stone is Christ.3091    Isa. xxviii. 16. This stumbling-stone Marcion retains still.3092    “Etiam Marcion servat.” These words cannot mean, as they have been translated, that “Marcion even retains these words” of prophecy; for whenever Marcion fell in with any traces of this prophecy of Christ, he seems to have expunged them. In Luke ii. 34 holy Simeon referred to it, but Marcion rejected this chapter of the evangelist; and although he admitted much of chap. xx., it is remarkable that he erased the ten verses thereof from the end of the eighth to the end of the eighteenth.  Now in vers. 17, 18, Marcion found the prophecy again referred to. See Epiphanius, Adv. Hæres. xlii. Schol. 55.Now, what is that “foolishness of God which is wiser than men,” but the cross and death of Christ? What is that “weakness of God which is stronger than men,”3093    1 Cor. i. 25. but the nativity and incarnation3094    Caro. of God? If, however, Christ was not born of the Virgin, was not constituted of human flesh, and thereby really suffered neither death nor the cross, there was nothing in Him either of foolishness or weakness; nor is it any longer true, that “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;” nor, again, hath “God chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty;” nor “the base things” and the least things “in the world, and things which are despised, which are even as nothing” (that is, things which really3095    Vere. are not), “to bring to nothing things which are” (that is, which really are).3096    1 Cor. i. 27. For nothing in the dispensation of God is found to be mean, and ignoble, and contemptible. Such only occurs in man’s arrangement. The very Old Testament of the Creator3097    Apud Creatorem etiam vetera: (vetera, i.e.) “veteris testamenti institutiones” (Oehler). itself, it is possible, no doubt, to charge with foolishness, and weakness, and dishonour and meanness, and contempt.  What is more foolish and more weak than God’s requirement of bloody sacrifices and of savoury holocausts?  What is weaker than the cleansing of vessels and of beds?3098    Lev. xv. passim. What more dishonourable than the discoloration of the reddening skin?3099    Lev. xiii. 2–6. What so mean as the statute of retaliation? What so contemptible as the exception in meats and drinks? The whole of the Old Testament, the heretic, to the best of my belief, holds in derision. For God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound its wisdom.  Marcion’s god has no such discipline, because he does not take after3100    Æmulatur. (the Creator) in the process of confusing opposites by their opposites, so that “no flesh shall glory; but, as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”3101    1 Cor. i. 29, 31. In what Lord?  Surely in Him who gave this precept.3102    By Jeremiah, chap. ix. 23, 24. Unless, forsooth, the Creator enjoined us to glory in the god of Marcion.

CAPUT V.

0480B

Praestructio superioris Epistolae ita duxit, ut de titulo ejus non retractaverim, certus et alibi retractari eum posse; communem scilicet, et eumdem in Epistolis omnibus: quod non utique salutem praescribit eis quibus scribit, sed gratiam et pacem. Non dico quid illi cum judaico adhuc more, destructori judaismi; nam et hodie Judaei in pacis nomine appellant, et retro in Scripturis sic salutabant. Sed intelligo illum defendisse officio suo praedicationem Creatoris (Is. LII): Quam maturi pedes evangelizantium bona, evangelizantium pacem! Evangelizator enim bonorum, id est, gratiae Dei, paci eam praeferendam sciebat. Haec cum a Deo Patre nostro, et Domino Jesu annuntians, communibus nominibus utatur, competentibus 0480C nostro quoque sacramento, non puto dispici posse quis Deus Pater, et Dominus Jesus praedicetur, nisi ex accidentibus, cui magis competant. Primo quidem Patrem Dominum praescribo non alium agnoscendum, quam et hominis et universitatis Creatorem et institutorem. Porro, Patri etiam Domini nomen accedere ob potestatem, quod et Filius per Patrem capiat. Dehinc, gratiam et pacem non solum ejus esse, a quo praedicabantur, sed ejus qui fuerit offensus. Nec gratia enim fit nisi offensae; nec pax, nisi belli: et populus autem per disciplinae transgressionem, et omne hominum genus per naturae dissimulationem et deliquerat, et rebellaverat adversus Creatorem. Deus autem Marcionis et quia ignotus, non potuit offendi, et quia nescit irasci. 0480D Quae ergo gratia a non offenso? quae pax a non rebellato? Ait crucem Christi stultitiam esse perituris, 0481A virtutem autem et sapientiam Dei, salutem consecuturis. Et ut ostenderet unde hoc eveniret, adjicit : Scriptum est enim: Perdam sapientiam sapientium, et prudentiam prudentium irritam faciam. Si haec Creatoris sunt, et quae ad caussam crucis pertinent stultitiae deputatae ; ergo et crux, et per crucem Christus ad Creatorem pertinebit, a quo praedicatum est quod ad crucem pertinet. Aut si Creator, qua aemulus, idcirco sapientiam abstulit, ut crux Christi, scilicet adversarii, stultitia deputetur; et quomodo potest aliquid ad crucem Christi non sui Creator pronuntiasse, quem ignorabat cum praedicabat? Sed et cur apud Dominum optimum, et profusae misericordiae, alii salutem referunt, credentes crucem virtutem et sapientiam Dei esse; alii perditionem, quibus Christi 0481B crux stultitia reputatur, si non Creatoris est aliquam et populi et humani generis offensam detrimento sapientiae atque prudentiae multasse? Hoc sequentia confirmabunt, cum dicit: Nonne infatuavit Deus sapientiam mundi? Cumque et hic adjicit, quare: Quoniam in Dei sapientia non intellexit mundus per sapientiam Deum , boni duxit Deus per stultitiam praedicationis salvos facere credentes. Sed prius de mundo disceptabo, quatenus subtilissimi haeretici hic vel maxime mundum per Dominum mundi interpretantur; nos autem hominem qui sit in mundo intelligimus ex forma simplici loquelae humanae, qua plerumque id quod continet, ponimus pro eo quod continetur. Circus clamavit et Forum locutum est, et Basilica fremuit; id est, qui in his locis rem egerunt. 0481C Igitur, quia homo, non Deus mundi, in sapientia non cognovit Deum, quem cognoscere debuerat, et Judaeus in sapientia Scripturarum, et omnis gens in sapientia operum: ideo Deus idem, qui in sapientia sua non erat agnitus , statuit sapientiam hominum stultitia repercutere, salvos faciendo credentes quosque in stultam crucis praedicationem. Quoniam Judaei signa desiderant, qui jam de Deo certi esse debuerant; et Graeci sapientiam quaerunt; qui suam scilicet, non Dei sapientiam sistunt. Caeterum, si novus Deus praedicaretur, quid deliquerant Judaei signa desiderantes quibus crederent? aut Graeci sapientiam sectantes, cui magis crederent? ita et remuneratio ipsa in Judaeos et Graecos, et zelotem Deum confirmat et judicem, qui ex retributione aemula et judice infatuaverit 0481D sapientiam mundi. Quod si ejus sunt et caussae, cujus adhibentur Scripturae, ergo de Deo tractans Apostolus non intellecto, de Creatore utique docet intelligendum, 0482A etiam quod scandalum Judaeis praedicat Christum, prophetiam super illo consignat Creatoris dicentis per Esaiam (Is., XXVIII, 15): Ecce posui in Sion lapidem offensionis, et petram scandali: petra autem fuit Christus, etiam Marcion servat. Quid est autem stultum Dei sapientius hominibus, nisi crux et mors Christi? Quid infirmum Dei fortius homine, nisi nativitas et caro Dei? Caeterum si nec natus ex virgine Christus, nec carne constructus, ac per hoc neque crucem, neque mortem vere perpessus est, nihil in illo sit stultum et infirmum; nec jam stulta mundi elegit Deus, ut confundat sapientiam ; nec infirma mundi elegit Deus, ut confundat fortia; nec inhonesta et minima et contemptibilia, quae non sunt, id est, quae non vere sunt, ut confundat quae sunt, id est, quae 0482B vere sunt. Nihil enim a Deo dispositum est et vere modicum, et ignobile, et contemptibile, sed quod ab homine: apud Creatorem autem etiam vetera , stultitiae, et infirmitati, et inhonestati, et pusillitati, et contemptui deputari possunt. Quid stultius, quid infirmius, quam sacrificiorum cruentorum, et holocautomatum nidorosorum a Deo exactio? Quid infirmius, quam vasculorum et grabatorum purgatio? Quid inhonestius, quam carnis jam erubescentis alia dedecoratio? Quid tam humile, quam talionis indictio? Quid tam contemptibile, quam ciborum exceptio? Totum, quod sciam, Vetus Testamentum omnis haereticus irridet. Stulta enim mundi elegit Deus, ut confundat sapientiam . Marcionis Deus nihil tale. Quia nec aemulatur contraria contrariis redarguere, 0482C ne glorietur omnis caro; ut, quemadmodum scriptum est, qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur. In quo? utique in eo qui hoc praecepit: nisi Creator praecepit, ut in Deo Marcionis glorietur.