Chapter XIV.—The Divine Power Shown in Christ’s Incarnation. Meaning of St. Paul’s Phrase. Likeness of Sinful Flesh. No Docetism in It. Resurrection of Our Real Bodies. A Wide Chasm Made in the Epistle by Marcion’s Erasure. When the Jews are Upbraided by the Apostle for Their Misconduct to God; Inasmuch as that God Was the Creator, a Proof is in Fact Given that St. Paul’s God Was the Creator. The Precepts at the End of the Epistle, Which Marcion Allowed, Shown to Be in Exact Accordance with the Creator’s Scriptures.

If the Father “sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,”3514    Rom. viii. 3. it must not therefore be said that the flesh which He seemed to have was but a phantom. For he in a previous verse ascribed sin to the flesh, and made it out to be “the law of sin dwelling in his members,” and “warring against the law of the mind.”3515    Sensus νοός in Rom. vii. 23. On this account, therefore, (does he mean to say that) the Son was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might redeem this sinful flesh by a like substance, even a fleshly one, which bare a resemblance to sinful flesh, although it was itself free from sin. Now this will be the very perfection of divine power to effect the salvation (of man) in a nature like his own.3516    Pari. For it would be no great matter if the Spirit of God remedied the flesh; but when a flesh, which is the very copy3517    Consimilis. of the sinning substance—itself flesh also—only without sin, (effects the remedy, then doubtless it is a great thing).  The likeness, therefore, will have reference to the quality3518    Titulum. of the sinfulness, and not to any falsity3519    Mendacium. of the substance. Because he would not have added the attribute “sinful,”3520    This vindication of these terms of the apostle from Docetism is important. The word which our A.V. has translated sinful is a stronger term in the original. It is not the adjective ἁμαρτωλοῦ, but the substantive ἁμαρτίας, amounting to “flesh of sin,” i.e. (as Dean Alford interprets it) “the flesh whose attribute and character is sin.” “The words ἐν ὁμοιώματι σαρκὸς ἁμαρτίας, De Wette observes, appear almost to border on Docetism, but in reality contain a perfectly true and consistent sentiment; σὰρξ ἁμαρτίας; is flesh, or human nature, possessed with sin.…The likeness, predicated in Rom. viii. 3, must be referred not only to σάρξ, but also to the epithet τῆς ἁμαρτίας” (Greek Testament, in loc.). if he meant the “likeness” to be so predicated of the substance as to deny the verity thereof; in that case he would only have used the word “flesh,” and omitted the “sinful.” But inasmuch as he has put the two together, and said “sinful flesh,” (or “flesh of sin,”)3521    Carnis peccati. he has both affirmed the substance, that is, the flesh and referred the likeness to the fault of the substance, that is, to its sin. But even suppose3522    Puta nunc. that the likeness was predicated of the substance, the truth of the said substance will not be thereby denied.  Why then call the true substance like? Because it is indeed true, only not of a seed of like condition3523    Statu. with our own; but true still, as being of a nature3524    Censu: perhaps “birth.” This word, which originally means the censor’s registration, is by our author often used for origo and natura, because in the registers were inserted the birthdays and the parents’ names (Oehler). not really unlike ours.3525    It is better that we should give the original of this sentence.  Its structure is characteristically difficult, although the general sense, as Oehler suggests, is clear enough:  “Quia vera quidem, sed non ex semine de statu simili (similis, Latinius and Junius and Semler), sed vera de censu non vero dissimili (dissimilis, the older reading and Semler’s).” We add the note of Fr. Junius: “The meaning is, that Christ’s flesh is true indeed, in what they call the identity of its substance, although not of its origin (ortus) and qualities—not of its original, because not of a (father’s) seed, as in the case of ourselves; not of qualities, because these have not in Him the like condition which they have in us.” And again, in contrary things there is no likeness. Thus the likeness of flesh would not be called spirit, because flesh is not susceptible of any likeness to spirit; but it would be called phantom, if it seemed to be that which it really was not. It is, however, called likeness, since it is what it seems to be. Now it is (what it seems to be), because it is on a par with the other thing (with which it is compared).3526    Dum alterius par est. But a phantom, which is merely such and nothing else,3527    Qua hoc tantum est. is not a likeness. The apostle, however, himself here comes to our aid; for, while explaining in what sense he would not have us “live in the flesh,” although in the flesh—even by not living in the works of the flesh3528    See Rom. viii. 5–13.—he shows that when he wrote the words, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,”3529    1 Cor. xv. 50. it was not with the view of condemning the substance (of the flesh), but the works thereof; and because it is possible for these not to be committed by us whilst we are still in the flesh, they will therefore be properly chargeable,3530    Non ad reatum substantiæ sed ad conversationis pertinebunt. not on the substance of the flesh, but on its conduct. Likewise, if “the body indeed is dead because of sin” (from which statement we see that not the death of the soul is meant, but that of the body), “but the spirit is life because of righteousness,”3531    Rom. viii. 10.it follows that this life accrues to that which incurred death because of sin, that is, as we have just seen, the body.  Now the body3532    Understand “corpus” (Oehler).is only restored to him who had lost it; so that the resurrection of the dead implies the resurrection of their bodies. He accordingly subjoins: “He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies.”3533    Rom. viii. 11. In these words he both affirmed the resurrection of the flesh (without which nothing can rightly be called3534    Dici capit: capit, like the Greek ἐνδέχεται, means, “is capable or susceptible;” often so in Tertullian. body, nor can anything be properly regarded as mortal), and proved the bodily substance of Christ; inasmuch as our own mortal bodies will be quickened in precisely the same way as He was raised; and that was in no other way than in the body. I have here a very wide gulf of expunged Scripture to leap across;3535    We do not know from either Tertullian or Epiphanius what mutilations Marcion made in this epistle. This particular gap did not extend further than from Rom. viii. 11 to x. 2. “However, we are informed by Origen (or rather Rufinus in his edition of Origen’s commentary on this epistle, on xiv. 23) that Marcion omitted the last two chapters as spurious, ending this epistle of his Apostolicon with the 23d verse of chap. xiv. It is also observable that Tertullian quotes no passage from chaps. xv., xvi. in his confutation of Marcion from this epistle” (Lardner). however, I alight on the place where the apostle bears record of Israel “that they have a zeal of God”—their own God, of course—“but not according to knowledge. For,” says he, “being ignorant of (the righteousness of) God, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God; for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”3536    Rom. x. 2–4. Hereupon we shall be confronted with an argument of the heretic, that the Jews were ignorant of the superior God,3537    The god of the New Testament, according to Marcion. since, in opposition to him, they set up their own righteousness—that is, the righteousness of their law—not receiving Christ, the end (or finisher) of the law. But how then is it that he bears testimony to their zeal for their own God, if it is not in respect of the same God that he upbraids them for their ignorance?  They were affected indeed with zeal for God, but it was not an intelligent zeal: they were, in fact, ignorant of Him, because they were ignorant of His dispensations by Christ, who was to bring about the consummation of the law; and in this way did they maintain their own righteousness in opposition to Him. But so does the Creator Himself testify to their ignorance concerning Him: “Israel hath not known me; my people have not understood me;”3538    Isa. i. 3. and as to their preferring the establishment of their own righteousness, (the Creator again describes them as) “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men;”3539    Isa. xxix. 13 (Sept.) moreover, as “having gathered themselves together against the Lord and against His Christ”3540    Ps. ii. 2.—from ignorance of Him, of course. Now nothing can be expounded of another god which is applicable to the Creator; otherwise the apostle would not have been just in reproaching the Jews with ignorance in respect of a god of whom they knew nothing.  For where had been their sin, if they only maintained the righteousness of their own God against one of whom they were ignorant? But he exclaims: “O the depth of the riches and the wisdom of God; how unsearchable also are His ways!”3541    Rom. xi. 33. Whence this outburst of feeling? Surely from the recollection of the Scriptures, which he had been previously turning over, as well as from his contemplation of the mysteries which he had been setting forth above, in relation to the faith of Christ coming from the law.3542    In fidem Christi ex lege venientem. By “the law” he means the Old Testament in general, and probably refers to Rom. x. 17. If Marcion had an object in his erasures,3543    Rigaltius (after Fulvius Ursinus) read “non erasit,” but with insufficient authority; besides, the context shows that he was referring to the large erasure which he had already mentioned, so that the non is inadmissible.  Marcion must, of course, be understood to have retained Rom. xi. 33; hence the argument in this sentence. why does his apostle utter such an exclamation, because his god has no riches for him to contemplate? So poor and indigent was he, that he created nothing, predicted nothing—in short, possessed nothing; for it was into the world of another God that he descended. The truth is, the Creator’s resources and riches, which once had been hidden, were now disclosed. For so had He promised: “I will give to them treasures which have been hidden, and which men have not seen will I open to them.”3544    Isa. xlv. 3. Hence, then, came the exclamation, “O the depth of the riches and the wisdom of God!” For His treasures were now opening out. This is the purport of what Isaiah said, and of (the apostle’s own) subsequent quotation of the self-same passage, of the prophet: “Who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? Who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again?”3545    Isa. xl. 13, quoted (according to the Sept.) by the apostle in Rom. xi. 34, 35. Now, (Marcion,) since you have expunged so much from the Scriptures, why did you retain these words, as if they too were not the Creator’s words? But come now, let us see without mistake3546    Plane: ironically. the precepts of your new god: “Abhor that which is evil, and cleave to that which is good.”3547    Rom. xii. 9. Well, is the precept different in the Creator’s teaching? “Take away the evil from you, depart from it, and be doing good.”3548    Ps. xxxiv. 14.Then again: “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love.”3549    Rom. xii. 10. Now is not this of the same import as: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self?”3550    Lev. xix. 18. (Again, your apostle says:) “Rejoicing in hope;”3551    Rom. xii. 12. that is, of God. So says the Creator’s Psalmist:  “It is better to hope in the Lord, than to hope even in princes.”3552    Ps. cxviii. 9. “Patient in tribulation.”3553    Rom. xii. 12. You have (this in) the Psalm: “The Lord hear thee in the day of tribulation.”3554    Ps. xx. 1. “Bless, and curse not,”3555    Rom. xii. 12. (says your apostle.) But what better teacher of this will you find than Him who created all things, and blessed them? “Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.”3556    Rom. xii. 16. For against such a disposition Isaiah pronounces a woe.3557    Isa. v. 21. “Recompense to no man evil for evil.”3558    Rom. xii. 17. (Like unto which is the Creator’s precept:) “Thou shalt not remember thy brother’s evil against thee.”3559    Lev. xix. 17, 18. (Again:)  “Avenge not yourselves;”3560    Rom. xii. 19.for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.”3561    Rom. xii. 19, quoted from Deut. xxxii. 25. “Live peaceably with all men.”3562    Rom. xii. 18. The retaliation of the law, therefore, permitted not retribution for an injury; it rather repressed any attempt thereat by the fear of a recompense.  Very properly, then, did he sum up the entire teaching of the Creator in this precept of His: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”3563    Rom. xiii. 9. Now, if this is the recapitulation of the law from the very law itself, I am at a loss to know who is the God of the law. I fear He must be Marcion’s god (after all).3564    Ironically said. He has been quoting all along from Marcion’s text of St. Paul, turning its testimony against Marcion. If also the gospel of Christ is fulfilled in this same precept, but not the Creator’s Christ, what is the use of our contending any longer whether Christ did or did not say, “I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it?”3565    Matt. v. 17. In vain has (our man of) Pontus laboured to deny this statement.3566    For although he rejected St. Matthew’s Gospel, which contains the statement, he retained St. Paul’s epistle, from which the statement is clearly proved. If the gospel has not fulfilled the law, then all I can say is,3567    Ecce. the law has fulfilled the gospel. But it is well that in a later verse he threatens us with “the judgment-seat of Christ,”—the Judge, of course, and the Avenger, and therefore the Creator’s (Christ).  This Creator, too, however much he may preach up another god, he certainly sets forth for us as a Being to be served,3568    Promerendum. if he holds Him thus up as an object to be feared.

CAPUT XIV.

(Rom. VIII, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV) Hunc si Pater misit in similitudinem carnis peccati, non ideo phantasma dicetur caro quae in illo videbatur. Peccatum enim carni supra adscripsit, et illam fecit legem peccati habitantem in membris suis, et adversantem legi sensus. Ob hoc igitur missum Filium in similitudinem carnis peccati, ut peccati carnem simili substantia redimeret, id est carnea, quae peccatrici carni similis 0506A esset, cum peccatrix ipsa non esset, nam et haec erit Dei virtus, in substantia pari perficere salutem. Non enim magnum, si spiritus Dei carnem remediaret; sed si caro consimilis peccatrici, dum caro est, sed non peccati. Ita similitudo ad titulum peccati pertinebit, non ad substantiae mendacium. Nam nec addidisset peccati, si substantiae similitudinem vellet intelligi, ut negaret veritatem. Tantum enim carnis posuisset, non et peccati. Cum vero tunc sic struxerit , carnis peccati, et substantiam confirmavit, id est carnem, et similitudinem ad vitium substantiae retulit, id est ad peccatum. Puta nunc similitudinis nem substantiae dictam, non ideo negabitur substantiae veritas. Cur ergo similis vera? Quia vera quidem, sed non ex semine; de statu similis, sed 0506B vera de censu, non vero dissimilis . Caeterum, similitudo in contrariis nulla est. Spiritus non diceretur carnis similitudo, quia nec caro similitudinem spiritus caperet; sed phantasma diceretur, si id quod non erat, videbatur. Similitudo autem dicitur, cum est quod videtur. Est enim, dum alterius par est. Phantasma autem , qua hoc tantum est, non est similitudo. Et hic autem ipse edisserens, quomodo nolit esse nos in carne, cum simus in carne; ut scilicet non simus in operibus carnis, ostendit hac ratione scripsisse (I Cor., XV, 50); Caro et sanguis regnum Dei consequi non possunt; non substantiam damnans, sed opera ejus: quae, quia possunt non admitti a nobis in carne adhuc positis, non ad reatum substantiae, sed ad conversationis 0506C pertinebunt. Item, si corpus quidem mortuum propter delictum (adeo non animae, sed corporis mors est), spiritus autem vita propter justitiam; ei utique obveniet vita propter justitiam, cui mors obvenit propter delictum, id est corpori. Non enim alicui restituitur quid, nisi quid aliud amisit; et ita erit resurrectio mortuorum, dum est corporum. Nam et subjungit: Qui suscitavit Christum a mortuis, vivificabit et mortalia corpora vestra. Adeo et carnis resurrectionem confirmavit, absque qua nec corpus aliud dici capit, nec mortale aliud intelligi, et Christi substantiam corporalem probavit. Siquidem proinde vivificabuntur et mortalia corpora nostra, quemadmodum et ille resuscitatus est, non alias proinde, nisi quia in corpore. Salio et hic amplissimum abruptum intercisae Scripturae; sed apprehendo testimonium perhibentem Apostolum Israeli quod zelum Dei habeant, sui utique, non tamen per scientiam. Deum enim, inquit, ignorantes, et suam justitiam sistere quaerentes, non subjecerunt se justitiae Dei. Finis enim legis Christus in justitiam omni credenti. Hic erit argumentatio haeretici, quasi Deum superiorem ignoraverint Judaei, qui adversus eum justitiam suam, id est, legis suae constituerint, non recipientes Christum finem legis. Cur ergo et zelo eorum erga Deum proprium testimonium perhibet, si non et inscientiam erga eumdem Deum eis exprobrat? quod zelo quidem Dei agerentur, sed non per scientiam; ignorantes scilicet eum, dum dispositiones ejus in 0507B Christo ignorant consummationem legi statuturo , atque ita suam justitiam tuentur adversus illum. Atque adeo ipse Creator et ignorantiam erga se eorum contestatur (Is. I, 3): Israel me non agnovit, et populus meus me non intellexit); et quod justitiam suam magis sisterent, docentes doctrinas praecepta hominum (Is. XXIX, 13), nec non et (Ps. II, 2) congregati essent adversus Dominum, et adversus Christum ipsius, ex inscientia scilicet. Nihil igitur potest in alium Deum exponi, quod competit in Creatorem, quia et alias immerito Apostolus Judaeos de ignorantia sugillasset erga Deum ignotum. Quid enim deliquerant, si justitiam Dei sui adversus eum sistebant, quem ignorabant? Atquin exclamat: O profundum divitiarum et sapientiae Dei, et investigabiles 0507C viae ejus! Unde illa eruptio? Ex recordatione scilicet Scripturarum, quas retro revolverat, ex contemplatione sacramentorum, quae supra disseruerat in fidem Christi, ex lege venientem. Haec si Marcion de industria non erasit, quid apostolus ejus exclamat, nullas intuens divitias Dei tam pauperis et egeni quam qui nihil condidit, nihil praedicavit, nihil denique habuit, ut qui in aliena descendit? Sed enim et opes et divitiae Creatoris olim absconditae, nunc reseratae repromiserat (Is. XLV, 3): Et dabo illis thesauros occultos, invisibiles aperiam eis. Inde ergo exclamatum est: O profundum divitiarum et sapientiae Dei! cujus jam thesauri patebant. Id Esaiae, et sequentia de ejusdem prophetae instrumento (Is. XL, 13): Quis enim cognovit sensum Domini, aut quis consiliarius 0507D ejus fuit? Quis porrexit ei, et retribuetur illi? Qui tanta de Scripturis ademisti, quid ista servasti, quasi non et haec Creatoris? Plane novi Dei praecepta 0508A videamus. Odio, inquit, habentes malum, et bono adhaerentes. Aliud est enim apud Creatorem. Auferte malum de vobis, et (Ps. XXXIII, 14) declina a malo, et fac bonum. Amore fraternitatis invicem affectuosi. Non enim id ipsum est: Diliges proximum tanquam te? Spe gaudentes; utique Dei: Bonum est enim (Ps. CXVII) sperare Dominum , quam sperare in magistratus. Pressuram sustinentes: Exaudiet enim (Ps. XIX, 1) te Dominus in die pressurae. Habes Psalmum. Benedicite, et nolite maledicere; quis hoc docebit, quam qui omnia benedictionibus condidit? Non altum sapientes, sed humilibus assentantes , ne sitis apud vos sapientes; vae enim audiunt per Esaiam (Is. V, 21). Malum pro malo nemini retribueritis; et (Levit. XIX, 18): Malitiae fratris vestri ne memineritis 0508B . Nec vosmetipsos ulciscentes: Mihi enim (Deut. XXXII, 35) vindictam, et ego vindicabo, dicit Dominus. Pacem cum omnibus hominibus habetote; ergo et legalis talio non retributionem injuriae permittebat, sed inceptionem metu retributionis conprimebat. Merito itaque totam Creatoris disciplinam principali praecepto ejus conclusit: Diliges proximum tanquam te. Hoc Legis supplementum si ex ipsa Lege est, quis sit Deus Legis jam ignoro (metuo ne deus Marcionis); si vero Evangelium Christi hoc praecepto adimpletur, Christi autem non est Creatoris, quo jam contendimus? Dixerit Christus, an non: Ego non veni legem dissolvere, sed implere (Matth. V, 17)? Frustra de ista sententia neganda Ponticus laboravit. Si Evangelium Legem non adimplevit, 0508C ecce Lex Evangelium adimplevit. Bene autem quod et in clausula tribunal Christi comminatur, utique judicis et ultoris, utique Creatoris; illum certe constituens promerendum, quem intentat timendum, etiamsi alium praedicaret.