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On the Flesh of Christ

Chapter XXIV.--Divine Strictures on Various Heretics Descried in Various Passages of Prophetical Scripture. Those Who Assail the True Doctrine of the One Lord Jesus Christ, Both God and Man, Thus Condemned.

For when Isaiah hurls denunciation against our very heretics, especially in his "Woe to them that call evil good, and put darkness for light," ¹ he of course sets his mark upon those amongst you ² who preserve not in the words they employ the light of their true significance, (by taking care) that the soul should mean only that which is so called, and the flesh simply that which is confest to our view, and God none other than the One who is preached. ³ Having thus Marcion in his prophetic view, he says, "I am God, and there is none else; there is no God beside me." ⁴ And when in another passage he says, in like manner, "Before me there was no God," ⁵ he strikes at those inexplicable genealogies of the Valentinian Aeons. Again, there is an answer to Ebion in the Scripture: "Born, ⁶ not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." In like manner, in the passage, "If even an angel of heaven preach unto you any other gospel than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema," ⁷ he calls attention to the artful influence of Philumene, ⁸ the virgin friend of Apelles. Surely he is antichrist who denies that Christ has come in the flesh. ⁹ By declaring that His flesh is simply and absolutely true, and taken in the plain sense of its own nature, the Scripture aims a blow at all who make distinctions in it. ¹⁰ In the same way, also, when it defines the very Christ to be but one, it shakes the fancies of those who exhibit a multiform Christ, who make Christ to be one being and Jesus another,--representing one as escaping out of the midst of the crowds, and the other as detained by them; one as appearing on a solitary mountain to three companions, clothed with glory in a cloud, the other as an ordinary man holding intercourse with all, ¹¹ one as magnanimous, but the other as timid; lastly, one as suffering death, the other as risen again, by means of which event they maintain a resurrection of their own also, only in another flesh. Happily, however, He who suffered "will come again from heaven," ¹² and by all shall He be seen, who rose again from the dead. They too who crucified Him shall see and acknowledge Him; that is to say, His very flesh, against which they spent their fury, and without which it would be impossible for Himself either to exist or to be seen; so that they must blush with shame who affirm that His flesh sits in heaven void of sensation, like a sheath only, Christ being withdrawn from it; as well as those who (maintain) that His flesh and soul are just the same thing, ¹³ or else that His soul is all that exists, ¹⁴ but that His flesh no longer lives.

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De carne Christi

XXIV

[1] Quod enim et alias [Esaias] iaculatur in suggillatione haereticorum ipsorum, et imprimis Vae qui faciunt dulce amarum et tenebras lucem, istos scilicet notat qui nec vocabula ipsa in luce proprietatum suarum conservant ut anima non alia sit quam quae vocatur et caro non alia quam quae videtur et deus non alius quam qui praedicatur. [2] ideo etiam Marcionem prospiciens, Ego sum, inquit, deus, et alius absque me non est. et cum alio idipsum modo dicit, Ante me deus non fuit, nescioquas illas Valentinianorum aeonum genealogias pulsat. et Non ex sanguine neque ex carnis aut viri voluntate sed ex deo natus est, Hebioni respondit. aeque Etiamsi angelus de caelis aliter evangelizaverit vobis quam nos anathema sit, ad energema Apelleiacae virginis Philumenes [filium] dirigit. [3] certe Qui negat Christum in carne venisse hic antichristus est, nudam et absolutam et simplici nomine naturae suae pronuntians carnem, omnes disceptatores eius ferit, sicut et definiens ipsum quoque Christum unum multiformis Christi argumentatores quatit, qui alium faciunt Christum alium Iesum, alium elapsum de mediis turbis alium detentum, alium in secessu montis in ambitu nubis sub tribus arbitris clarum alium ceteris passivum, ignobilem, alium magnanimum alium vero trepidantem, novissime alium passum alium resuscitatum, per quod suam quoque in aliam carnem resurrectionem adseverant. [4] sed bene quod idem veniet de caelis qui est passus, idem omnibus apparebit qui est resuscitatus, et videbunt et agnoscent qui eum confixerunt, utique ipsam carnem in quam saevierunt, sine qua nec ipse esse poterit nec agnosci: ut et illi erubescant qui adfirmant carnem in caelis vacuam sensu ut vaginam exempto Christo sedere, aut qui carnem et animam tantundem, aut tantummodo animam carnem vero non iam.