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In dictum Pauli: Oportet haereses esse

ON THE APOSTOLIC SAYING Which says: "But there must also be heresies among you, so that the approved may become manifest."

51.251

1. This spiritual theater was sufficiently warmed for us formerly, when I brought Jerusalem before you in my discourse, lamenting and announcing her own 51.252 calamities. For I saw your eyes then, in their pain, sending forth fountains of tears; I saw, from what I was suffering, the mind of each one full of lamentations and 51.253 troubled. Therefore, quickly perceiving this, I cut short the tragedy, I snatched the discourse from your midst, so as to check beforehand that lamentation which was about to burst forth from the heart of each. For a soul overcome by grief could neither say, nor hear anything wholesome. For what reason, then, have I reminded you of those things now? Because the things that are to be said today are also akin to what was said then. For just as those things checked our indolence in life, and corrected our carelessness concerning practical matters, so indeed what will be said now could make us more secure concerning the precise observance of dogmas; so that we may be perfected in all things, attaining to a perfect man, to the measure of stature according to the divine Apostle.

Then we healed your body, now we treat the head; then through the words of Jeremiah, now through the sayings of Paul. What then are the sayings of Paul, which it is our task to work out today? But there must also be heresies, he says, among you, that the approved may be made manifest among you. The question is no small one. For if Paul says this as advice, and heresies must exist, then those who introduce heresies are blameless. But this is not so, it is not; for the saying is not of one advising, but of one foretelling the future. For just as a physician, seeing a sick person given to gluttony and drunkenness and other forbidden things, says that this disorder must produce a fever, not legislating, nor advising, but from the present circumstances foretelling the future with reflection; and again a farmer, or a pilot seeing the gathering of clouds and thunder bursting forth with lightning, says that these clouds must produce rain and a violent storm, he too not exhorting, but announcing beforehand what is to be; so also Paul has put the word, 'Must.' Often, indeed, when we too see people clashing with one another and lashing each other with harsh insults, we say, 'These men must come to blows and be imprisoned,' we too not advising, nor exhorting them, (for how could we?) but conjecturing the future from the present. So indeed Paul also does not say these things as advice, that 'There must also be heresies among you,' but announcing beforehand and prophesying what is going to happen. For that he does not advise that there be heresies, he himself is the one who says, 'Even if an angel should preach a gospel to you contrary to what you received, let him be accursed.' He is the one who, since circumcision was being received out of season and was muddying the purity of the preaching, cast it out, saying, 'If you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.'

How then, one asks, did he add a cause, saying, 'So that the approved may become manifest'? The word, 'So that,' in many places in the Scriptures, does not express cause, but the outcome of events. For example, Christ came, and made the blind man see; and that man indeed worshipped him; but the Jews, when this man was healed, did everything to overshadow the miracle, and they drove Christ away. Then, therefore, he says; For

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In dictum Pauli: Oportet haereses esse

ΕΙΣ ΤΟ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΙΚΟΝ ΡΗΤΟΝ Τὸ λέγον· "∆εῖ δὲ καὶ αἱρέσεις εἶναι ἐν ὑμῖν, ἵνα οἱ δόκιμοι φανεροὶ γένωνται."

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αʹ. Ἱκανῶς πρώην ἡμῖν διεθερμάνθη τὸ πνευματικὸν τοῦτο θέατρον, ὅτε τὴν Ἱερουσαλὴμ εἰσήγαγον ὑμῖν τῷ λόγῳ θρηνοῦσαν, καὶ τὰς οἰκείας ἐξαγγέλλουσαν 51.252 συμφοράς. Καὶ γὰρ εἶδον ὑμῶν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τότε ὠδίνοντας πηγὰς ἀφιέναι δακρύων· εἶδον, ἐξ ὧν ἔπασχον, τὴν ἑκάστου διάνοιαν ὀλοφυρμῶν γέμουσαν καὶ 51.253 συγκεχυμένην. ∆ιὸ καὶ ταχέως αἰσθόμενος συνέστειλα τὴν τραγῳδίαν, ἥρπασα ἐκ τοῦ μέσου τὸν λόγον, ὥστε τὸν θρῆνον ἐκεῖνον τῆς ἑκάστου καρδίας ἐκρήγνυσθαι μέλλοντα προκατασχεῖν. Ψυχὴ γὰρ πένθει κατασχεθεῖσα, οὔτε εἰπεῖν, οὔτε ἀκοῦσαί τι δύναιτ' ἂν ὑγιές. Τίνος οὖν ἕνεκεν ἐκείνων ὑμᾶς ἀνέμνησα νῦν; Ὅτι καὶ τὰ σήμερον ῥηθήσεσθαι μέλλοντα συγγενῆ τῶν τότε εἰρημένων ἐστίν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐκεῖνα τὴν ἐν τῷ βίῳ ῥᾳθυμίαν ἡμῶν ἀνέστελλε, καὶ τὴν ὀλιγωρίαν τὴν περὶ τὰ πρακτέα διώρθου, οὕτω δὴ τὰ ῥηθησόμενα νῦν περὶ τὴν τῶν δογμάτων ἀκριβῆ παρατήρησιν ἀσφαλεστέρους ἡμᾶς ἐργάσασθαι δύναιτ' ἄν· ὥστε ἐξ ἁπάντων ἀπηρτισμένους εἶναι, εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον, εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας φθάνοντας κατὰ τὸν θεῖον Ἀπόστολον.

Τότε τὸ σῶμα ὑμῖν ἐθεραπεύσαμεν, νῦν τὴν κεφαλὴν ἰατρεύομεν· τότε διὰ τῶν Ἱερεμίου λόγων, νῦν διὰ τῶν τοῦ Παύλου ῥημάτων. Τίνα οὖν ἐστι τὰ Παύλου ῥήματα, ἃ σήμερον ἡμῖν ἐξεργάσασθαι πρόκειται; ∆εῖ δὲ καὶ αἱρέσεις εἶναι, φησὶν, ἐν ὑμῖν, ἵνα οἱ δόκιμοι φανεροὶ γένωνται ἐν ὑμῖν. Οὐ μικρὸν τὸ ζητούμενον. Εἰ γὰρ συμβουλεύων τοῦτό φησιν ὁ Παῦλος, καὶ δεῖ αἱρέσεις εἶναι, ἀναίτιοι οἱ τὰς αἱρέσεις εἰσάγοντες. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτο, οὐκ ἔστιν· οὐ γὰρ συμβουλεύοντος τὸ ῥῆμά ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ τὸ μέλλον προλέγοντος. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἰατρὸς, ὁρῶν τὸν κάμνοντα ἀδηφαγίᾳ καὶ μέθῃ προσέχοντα καὶ ἑτέροις κεκωλυμένοις, φησὶν ὅτι τὴν ἀταξίαν ταύτην δεῖ πυρετὸν τεκεῖν, οὐχὶ νομοθετῶν, οὐδὲ συμβουλεύων, ἀλλ' ἐκ τῶν παρόντων τὸ μέλλον μετὰ σκέψεως προλέγων· καὶ γεωργὸς πάλιν, ἢ κυβερνήτης ὁρῶν νεφῶν συνδρομὰς καὶ βροντὰς καταῤῥηγνυμένας μετὰ ἀστραπῶν, φησὶν ὅτι δεῖ τὰ νέφη ταῦτα τεκεῖν ὑετὸν καὶ ὄμβρον σφοδρὸν, οὐδὲ οὗτος παραινῶν, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐσόμενον προαναφωνῶν· οὕτω καὶ Παῦλος τὸ, ∆εῖ, τέθεικε. Πολλάκις γοῦν καὶ ἡμεῖς ὁρῶντες ἀνθρώπους ἀλλήλοις συῤῥηγνυμένους καὶ χαλεπαῖς ἑαυτοὺς πλύνοντας λοιδορίαις, λέγομεν, ∆εῖ συμπληγάδας γενέσθαι τούτους καὶ φυλακίζεσθαι, οὐ συμβουλεύοντες οὐδὲ ἡμεῖς, οὐδὲ παραινοῦντες ἐκείνοις, (πῶς γάρ;) ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τοῦ παρόντος τὸ μέλλον στοχαζόμενοι. Οὕτω δὴ καὶ ὁ Παῦλος οὐχὶ συμβουλεύων ταῦτά φησιν, ὅτι ∆εῖ καὶ αἱρέσεις ἐν ὑμῖν εἶναι, ἀλλὰ προαναφωνῶν καὶ προφητεύων τὸ μέλλον ἔσεσθαι Ὅτι γὰρ οὐ συμβουλεύει αἱρέσεις εἶναι, αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ λέγων, ὅτι Κἂν ἄγγελος ὑμᾶς εὐαγγελίζηται παρ' ὃ παρελάβετε, ἀνάθεμα ἔστω. Αὐτός ἐστιν ὁ τὴν περιτομὴν, ἐπειδὴ παρὰ καιρὸν παρελαμβάνετο, καὶ ἐθόλου τὸ καθαρὸν τοῦ κηρύγματος, ἐκβάλλων καὶ λέγων, Ἐὰν περιτέμνησθε, Χριστὸς ὑμᾶς οὐδὲν ὠφελήσει.

Πῶς οὖν, φησὶ, καὶ αἰτίαν προσέθηκεν εἰπὼν, Ἵνα οἱ δόκιμοι φανεροὶ γένωνται; Τὸ, Ἵνα, πολλαχοῦ ἐν ταῖς Γραφαῖς οὐκ ἔστιν αἰτιολογίας, ἀλλὰ τῆς τῶν πραγμάτων ἐκβάσεως. Οἷον, ἦλθεν ὁ Χριστὸς, καὶ τὸν τυφλὸν ἀναβλέψαι ἐποίησε· κἀκεῖνος μὲν αὐτὸν προσεκύνησεν· οἱ δὲ Ἰουδαῖοι, τούτου θεραπευθέντος, πάντα ἐποίουν, ὥστε συσκιάσαι τὸ θαῦμα, καὶ τὸν Χριστὸν ἤλαυνον. Τότε τοίνυν φησίν· Εἰς