The Syriac Apocalypse of Peter
This apocalypse is found in the Gospel of the Twelve Apostles, With the Apocalypse of Each of Them. Although its existence demands an independent note—from the fact that it is an apocalypse and not a gospel, and that it exists in the Syriac language—there appears to be absolutely no evidence that it was not composed by the author of the Gospel of the Twelve (and it may contain traditions not elsewhere recorded). James says that the work of which it forms a part is in its present form late; and NTA describes it similarly as a creation of very late date. On it see also Nestle (Theo-logische Literaturzeitung, 1900, 557-559).
1 And Simon was moved by the Spirit of God: and his appearance and his body were enlarged, and he glorified God; and he wept and said, How great are thy works, O Lord, and all of them thou hast wrought in wisdom.
2 For lo! I see the hosts of God which are a thousand thousands, yea! tens of thousands without number, standing in heaven, and glorifying the lofty throne of the Godhead, exalted above all. And there was sent to me the great angel Michael to be a remembrancer to me, and I received the Spirit in abundance; and I saw the time that is to be after us, full of offences and evils and sins and lying: and the men in that time will be crafty, perverse and depraved, men that know not God, and understand not the truth; but a few of them shall understand their God, because of his works which they behold daily, those which are established in heaven, and those which are brought forth on earth; and they know the Lord, as if they did not discern him; for this name only is called upon them that are believers.
3 And after a time they will seek to perform miracles, in the name of our Lord Jesus, and they will not be able, because of their little faith; and they call and are not heard, because they do not call on him with all their hearts. But those who are separated from them, few in number, ask and are heard because their hearts speak the truth, and know God, and understand his beloved Son, and do not deny the Spirit.
4 And in this way they perform signs and great works of power; and these also in their wealth and in their faith are not suffered to live; for there will rise up against them bribed judges and also bribed deniers of the faith; and for the name of our Lord they shall be judged and beaten; and they will kill them by bitter and various deaths: and also after that they are killed they shall perform by their death great works of power;
5 And after these things shall have happened, the faith shall fail from the earth and orthodoxy shall come to an end: and those who are named as being baptized in our Lord and as confessing his name, shall be more miserable than all men; and they shall trample on the faith and talk perversely and they shall divide our Lord; and in that time there shall be reckoned many teachers, as the Spirit of the Father does not speak in them, and they shall divide our Lord; and the father of lies and the calumniator, that is, Satan, shall enter into them and disturb their minds; and their faith shall fail and it will come to pass that when they rise up and tear it, and when every man in his place will say that I am superior in the fear of God, and I confess him more correctly, that they shall seek our Lord and shall not find him, and they will call to him and he will not answer them.
6 And the Lord will deliver them to evils and to misery and to wrath and to pillage and to tribute, until they shall ask death for themselves and shall not find a savior, and they shall be enraged and blaspheme against God, and they shall say, 'Because we have the superior knowledge of God on this account the more have evils tracked our steps'; but the few who shall be scattered in the countries, who confess the Son in the way that is right for them to do, of these the Lord shall supply their needs; but those who do not believe in him, and who are called baptized people shall felicitate the heathen, and they shall envy them and shall say, 'Why are these things so, and why has it been given to us on this wise?'
7 And even those who preach among them, on whom the name of the Lord was called, in the headship over their brethren and in the offices of the Church will be disturbers and self-exalting persons and haters one of another: lovers of money and destroyers of order, and who do not keep the commandments: but they will not love their flocks, and in their days men will appear as sheep who are ravening wolves, and they will eat up the labor of the orphans, and the sustenance of the widows, and every ruler shall pervert justice, and their eyes shall be blinded by bribery, and they shall love vainglory, and because of all these evils that are performed by them, they shall call upon the Lord, and there will be none to answer them, and there will be no Savior for them; because evils are multiplied on the earth, and they have corrupted their ways before the Father in Heaven;
8 And the destroyer shall deliver them up to devastation, and to misery, and to necessity, and there shall rise up against them wasps in the morning and in the evening, and shall oppress them; and men shall see their sons and their daughters and their wives and their revenues made a prey by their enemies; and there will be none that speaks and none that answers, because the Holy One wills it, and the Lofty One talks with them; and from before him judgment shall go forth, and they shall bring upon them all these evils, and they will light upon them, until they shall return and become one true flock and one holy church, and they shall confess our Lord according as we received from him, and according as we believed in the Son the Life-Giver and Savior of the world; and after this will be a flock and a church and a baptism, true and one: and it will come to pass in that day, that every one that shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, and whosoever worships the Comforter shall be delivered.
The Syriac Apocalypse of James, the Brother of Jesus
This apocalypse is also found in the Gospel of the Twelve Apostles, With the Apocalypses of Each of Them.
1 And the angel departed from Simon and drew near to James; and he was shaken by the Spirit of God, and he wept and wailed and said:
2 Alas! our Lord Jesus, for the desolation that I see in this holy city: for lo! after a certain time the temple will be laid waste, the house of the Lord, the great and renowned; and the city Jerusalem shall be laid waste; and it shall be perturbed and shall become a place of pollution; and it shall be delivered up to a people that knoweth not God and doth not understand the truth; because of the wickedness of them that dwell therein; in that they have blasphemed the name of our Lord Jesus, and have crucified and killed him.'
3 And again the apostle James was astonished and said, 'Lo, I see that there comes against her a man renowned in name and fearsome in appearance, and he will devastate, and extirpate and destroy them that dwell therein; and there shall be in it much dearth and wrath; and the God of heaven shall be wroth with them; and the eyes of their hearts shall be darkened and they shall not see the sun; and they shall not understand the marvels of the Lord; because they have not known his Son; and because of their want of intelligence they shall perish;
4 And he shall banish them that dwell in her, and shall kill and shall destroy, and there shall not be found in her any except them that wail and that weep; and after all these things have happened to the city of the Lord, there shall come forth a man who oppresses them by war against his enemies, and in that war he shall die; and there shall be in authority over her another man, and he shall set up his edicts, and shall settle her, and there shall be built in her sanctuaries to the Lord, consecrated and renowned, and they shall come from the ends of the earth and from its bounds;
5 And of all them that hear the name of the Lord and know his praises, men shall worship there the Lord the Holy One, and they shall offer there vows and odors and sacrifices and libations, and the Lord shall set up therein a sign that overcomes the evil of the wicked, and no man shall grudge thereat nor be evil affected: for there will be therein another house of worship, because peace is decreed to her by the Holy One of Israel; and a great and renowned house shall be built in her at great cost, with gold of Ophir, and beryls of Havilah, and its name shall go forth and be renowned, more than all those houses in the earth: and they shall say that never before it was there such, and never after will it be so. And that king who began to build it, shall die on the completion of his building:
6 And one from his seed shall rise up in his place, and shall burden the chief men with many ills; and he shall have great and vigorous rule, and the earth shall be governed in his days in great peace: because from God it has been so spoken concerning him and concerning his people by the mouth of the prophet Daniel: and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord he will save.'
The Syriac Apocalypse of John the Little the brother of James
This apocalypse is also found in the Gospel of the Twelve Apostles, With the Apocalypses of Each of Them.
1 And there was suddenly a great earthquake, and John the brother of James, and the initiate of our Lord, fell on his face on the earth, and with a great trembling he worshiped God the Lord of all; and our Lord sent to him a man in white raiment, and mounted on a horse of fire, and his appearance was like the flashing of fire; and he touched him, and set him up and said to him, 'John, behold thou hast been set by our Lord to preach the Gospel of Salvation, along with the three that perform the truth; but ye also shall not be deprived of this gift; for there hath been given unto thee the Spirit, that thou shouldest receive it in double measure: because more than thy first companions thou hast known the mysteries of our Savior':
2 And John was moved by the Holy Spirit and was made fervent and said, 'Lo! I see heaven opened and holy ones who are in the lofty heights in appearance like lightning, and glorifying God the maker of all.' And I beheld and an angel approached me, one of those that are near to him; and he brought me scrolls written with the finger of truth, and inscribed in them times and generations, and the iniquities and sins of men; and the miseries that are to come on the earth; and I arose as it were stupefied.
3 And there was a voice exceeding dread, which said, 'Let the mysteries be revealed that are hidden from the beginning, in soul and in spirit.' And the angel of God who was sent to me touched me and said to me, 'Open thy mouth and receive'; and I opened my month and I beheld and he put therein something like beryls and white like snow: and its taste was very sweet and I ate it. And he said to me, 'Behold, it is the day of salvation, and the hour of deliverance. Speak, for the Lord hath pleasure in thee! Speak, man, to whom has been given power over the mysteries of God. Speak without fear, for it is the will of God, that the secret things should be expounded to thee.'
4 And I beheld that there was written on the scrolls what men are to suffer in the last times: and when I saw all these things that are past, I was not willing to speak concerning them, but only that I should expound those things that are to come; and there was a voice which spake in me, Woe, woe to the sons of men who are left to the generations and to the times that are to come!
5 For there shall rise up the kings of the north and they shall become strong and shall shake the whole world, and there shall be amongst them a man who subdues all the peoples by the marvelous sign which appeared to him in heaven, and he shall be prosperous and it shall go well with him; and after him shall rise up kings of the Romans; insolent, evil, idol-worshiping, godless; accusers and plotters and accepters of persons; and all the people of the Romans shall fall into fornication and adultery, and they shall love bribery and lasciviousness through the abundance of wine that they drink; and while their power is over all the world, because of their evil sins and blasphemies against God, the Lord shall send wrath upon them from heaven, and Persia shall become strong against them and shall drive away and expel this kingdom from the world, because it hath done evil exceedingly, and kings shall rise up among them great and renowned, and lovers of money, and they shall take away government from the earth: and there shall be one of them who because of his love of money shall destroy many men, until commerce and trade shall perish from off the whole earth, and by the son of his own body he shall die;
6 And all the silver and gold that he has collected shall not save him; and after this Persia shall rule for a little time, and it also shall be delivered over to Media; because of their evil sins the God of heaven shall abolish their rule, and shall destroy their kingdom; and they shall perish and cease to be. But there will be deniers of the truth, and men that know not God, and that do corruptly in their lasciviousness, those who provoke God, and then suddenly shall be fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel the pure and the desired, which he spake, that God shall send forth a mighty wind, the Southern one; and there shall come forth from it a people of deformed aspect, and their appearance and manners like those of women; and there shall rise up from among them a warrior, and one whom they call a prophet, and they shall be brought into his hands those like to whom there has not been any in the world neither do there exist their like; and every one that hears shall shake his head and shall deride him and say, 'Why doth he speak thus?
7 And God seeth it and regardeth it not.' And the South shall do prosperously, and by the hoofs of the horses of his armies they shall trample down Persia and subdue it and devastate Rome; and there shall not be found any that stands before them, because it has been ordained for them by the Holy One of Heaven; and it shall come to pass that every kingdom or people or place that hears the report of them shall be afraid and shall tremble and shall be terrified at the report of this people, until it shall subdue and bring under its hands the whole earth;
8 And twelve renowned kings shall rise up from that people according as it is written in the law when God talked with Abraham and said to him, 'Lo! Concerning Ishmael thy son I have heard thee, and twelve princes shall he beget along with many other princesses'; and he, even he, is the people of the land of the South. He shall lead captive a great captivity amongst all the peoples of the earth and they shall spoil a great spoil, and all the ends of the earth shall do service and there shall be made subject to him many lordships; and his hand shall be over all, and also those that are under his hand he shall oppress with much tribute:
9 And he shall oppress and kill and destroy the rulers of the ends of the earth. And he shall impose a tribute on the earth, such as was never heard of; until a man shall come out from his house, and shall find there four collectors who collect tribute; and men shall sell their sons and daughters because of their need: and they shall hate their lives and shall wail and weep, and there is no voice nor discourse except Woe, Woe! and they shall be covetous with a hateful cupidity: and they will be converted like bridegrooms and like brides, but will dread some requital from them; because he that has shall be reckoned in their days as though he had not, and he that builds and he that sells as one that gets no gain; and there shall prosper with them all those who take refuge with them, and they shall enslave to them men renowned in race;
10 And there shall be among them hypocrites and men who know not God, and regard not men, except prodigals, fornicators and men wicked and revengeful. But woe! woe! to the children of men in that time; and they shall rule in a cave for one great week and the half of a great week; and every king who shall arise from amongst them shall strengthen and be made strong, and shall be more vigorous than his fellow; and they shall gather together the gold of the earth: and they shall descend and lay them up in the earth treasures which came forth therefrom; because their kingdom and authority is from God.
11 And it shall come to pass after the week and the half of a week the earth shall be moved concerning them, and God shall require the sins of creation at their hands; and the South wind shall subside, and God shall bring to nought their covenant with them; and they shall tremble and be affrighted at every report that is brought to them; and the hands of all flesh shall be upon them; according as it was said by the hand of Moses the servant of the Lord; and in the end of their times they shall do evil to all flesh that is under their power, and they shall oppress and enslave and ravage, and men shall see necessity and great affliction: and three and four of them shall be associated in pollution. And there is none that speaks and none that hears, except only one that says, Woe! woe! what is come to pass in our generation!
12 And they shall felicitate the dead of ancient time, and shall ask for death for themselves, and there is none that redeems and none that replies: but so much the more will they afflict all of those who confess our Lord Christ; because they shall hate to the very end the name of the Lord, and shall bring to nought his covenant; and truth shall not be found amongst them, but only villainy shall they love and sin shall they have an affection for.
13 And whatever is hateful in the eyes of the Lord that will they do: and they shall be called a corrupt people; and after these things the Lord shall be angered against them, as he was against Rome, and against Media and Persia; and straightway there will come upon them the end, and suddenly the time comes; and at last in the completion of the week and a half God shall stir up against them desolation; and an angel of wrath shall descend, and shall kindle evil amongst them; and in their midst;
14 And they shall be lifted up one against the other, and they shall make and become two parties, and each party shall seek to call himself king, and there shall be war between them, and there shall be many murders by them and among them, and much blood shall be shed among them at the fountain of waters which is in the place which was spoken of beforetime in the book of the Sibyl.
15 And when the man of the North shall hear this report, he shall not be affrighted, and he shall say, By my might and by my arm have I overcome. Then shall he associate with him all the peoples of the earth, and he will go forth against him, and they shall destroy and devastate his armies and lead captive their sons and their daughters and their wives, and there shall fall upon them a bitter wedlock and misery;
16 And the Lord shall cause the spirit of the South to return to his place from whence he came forth, and shall bring to nought his name and his fame; and it shall come to pass that when they shall enter again the place from whence they came out, the enemy shall not pursue them thither, and they shall not fear hunger and they shall not tremble, and it shall come to pass in that day that their reliance shall be upon silver which they have gotten by wrong and by plunder which they have hidden in the place named Diglath, and they shall return and settle in the land from whence they came out;
17 And God shall stir up for them there evil times and times of plagues, and without war they shall be laid waste, and unto all generations of the world there shall not be among them any that holds a weapon and stands up in battle which the Father commanded concerning them from Heaven and when John had spoken these words and visions and revelations in truth, the angel that spake to him departed from him, and a voice said, 'Suffer thy companions, that they may talk with thee.'
The Letter of Peter Which He Sent To Philip
The Letter of Peter to Philip, found in the cache of texts at Nag Hammadi and bound into Codex VIII, contains a brief letter purporting to be from Saint Peter to Saint Philip, followed by A Gnostic Narrative and Discourse Upon the Nature of Christ. It was probably written in the late 2nd century or the beginning of the 3rd, originally in Greek, but translated into Coptic in the Nag Hammadi text. The title of the Letter is originally "The Letter of Peter Which He Sent to Philip", but is commonly simplified to "The Letter of Peter to Philip". Another copy of the letter has more recently been found in the Codex Tchacos and is titled plainly as "The Letter of Peter to Philip". We present the brief letter as the main text and the rest as a footnote.
1 Peter, the apostle of Jesus Christ, to Philip, our beloved brother and our fellow apostle, and to the brethren who are with you: greetings!
2 Now I want you to know, our brother, that we received orders from our Lord and the Savior of the whole world that we should come together to give instruction and preach in the salvation which was promised us by our Lord Jesus Christ.
3 But as for you, you were separate from us, and you did not desire us to come together and to know how we should organize ourselves in order that we might tell the good news.
4 Therefore would it be agreeable to you, our brother, to come according to the orders of our God Jesus?
A Gnostic Narrative and Discourse Upon the Nature of Christ
1 When Philip had received these words, and when he had read them, he went to Peter rejoicing with gladness. Then Peter gathered the others also. They went upon the mountain which is called "the mount olives," the place where they used to gather with the blessed Christ when he was in the body.
2 Then, when the apostles had come together, and had thrown themselves upon their knees, they prayed thus saying, "Father, Father, Father of the light, who possesses the incorruptions, hear us just as thou hast taken pleasure in thy holy child Jesus Christ. For he became for us an illuminator in the darkness. Yea hear us!"
3 And they prayed again another time, saying, "Son of life, Son of immortality, who is in the light, Son, Christ of immortality, our Redeemer, give us power, for they seek to kill us!"
4 Then a great light appeared so that the mountains shone from the sight of him who had appeared. And a voice called out to them saying, "Listen to my words that I may speak to you. Why are you asking me? I am Jesus Christ who am with you forever."
5 Then the apostles answered and said, "Lord, we would like to know the deficiency of the aeons and their pleroma." And: "How are we detained in this dwelling place?" Further: "How did we come to this place?" And: "In what manner shall we depart?" Again: "How do we have the authority of boldness?" And: "Why do the powers fight against us?"
6 Then a voice came to them out of the light saying, "It is you yourselves who are witnesses that I spoke all these things to you. But because of your unbelief I shall speak again. First of all concerning the deficiency of the aeons, this is the deficiency, when the disobedience and the foolishness of the mother appeared without the commandment of the majesty of the Father. She wanted to raise up aeons. And when she spoke, the Arrogant One followed. And when she left behind a part, the Arrogant One laid hold of it, and it became a deficiency. This is the deficiency of the aeons. Now when the Arrogant One had taken a part, he sowed it. And he placed powers over it and authorities. And he enclosed it in the aeons which are dead. And all the powers of the world rejoiced that they had been begotten. But they do not know the pre-existent Father, since they are strangers to him. But this is the one to whom they gave power and whom they served by praising him. But he, the Arrogant One, became proud on account of the praise of the powers. He became an envier and he wanted to make an image in the place of an image, and a form in the place of a form. And he commissioned the powers within his authority to mold mortal bodies. And they came to be from a misrepresentation, from the semblance which had merged."
7 "Next concerning the pleroma: I am the one who was sent down in the body because of the seed which had fallen away. And I came down into their mortal mold. But they did not recognize me; they were thinking of me that I was a mortal man. And I spoke with him who belongs to me, and he harkened to me just as you too who harkened today. And I gave him authority in order that he might enter into the inheritance of his fatherhood. And I took [. . .] they were filled [. . .] in his salvation. And since he was a deficiency, for this reason he became a pleroma."
8 "It is because of this that you are being detained, because you belong to me. When you strip off from yourselves what is corrupted, then you will become illuminators in the midst of mortal men."
9 "And this is the reason that you will fight against the powers, because they do not have rest like you, since they do not wish that you be saved."
10 Then the apostles worshiped again saying, "Lord, tell us: In what way shall we fight against the archons, since the archons are above us?"
11 Then a voice called out to them from the appearance saying, "Now you will fight against them in this way, for the archons are fighting against the inner man. And you are to fight against them in this way: Come together and teach in the world the salvation with a promise. And you, gird yourselves with the power of my Father, and let your prayer be known. And he, the Father, will help you as he has helped you by sending me. Be not afraid, I am with you forever, as I previously said to you when I was in the body." Then there came lightning and thunder from heaven, and what appeared to them in that place was taken up to heaven.
12 Then the apostles gave thanks to the Lord with every blessing. And they returned to Jerusalem. And while coming up they spoke with each other on the road concerning the light which had come. And a remark was made concerning the Lord. It was said, "If he, our Lord, suffered, then how much must we suffer?"
13 Peter answered saying, "He suffered on our behalf, and it is necessary for us too to suffer because of our smallness." Then a voice came to them saying, "I have told you many times: it is necessary for you to suffer. It is necessary that they bring you to synagogues and governors, so that you will suffer. But he who does not suffer and does not [. . .] the Father [. . .] in order that he may [. . .]."
14 And the apostles rejoiced greatly and came up to Jerusalem. And they came up to the temple and gave instruction in salvation in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they healed a multitude.
15 And Peter opened his mouth, he said to his fellow disciples, "Did our Lord Jesus, when he was in the body, show us everything? For he came down. My brothers, listen to my voice." And he was filled with a holy spirit. He spoke thus: "Our illuminator, Jesus, came down and was crucified. And he bore a crown of thorns. And he put on a purple garment. And he was crucified on a tree and he was buried in a tomb. And he rose from the dead. My brothers, Jesus is a stranger to this suffering. But we are the ones who have suffered through the transgression of the mother. And because of this, he did everything like us. For the Lord Jesus, the Son of the immeasurable glory of the Father, he is the author of our life. My brothers, let us therefore not obey these lawless ones, and walk in [. . .]."
16 [. . .] Then Peter gathered together the others also, saying, "O, Lord Jesus Christ, author of our rest, give us a spirit of understanding in order that we also may perform wonders."
17 Then Peter and the other apostles saw him, and they were filled with a holy spirit, And each one performed healings. And they parted in order to preach the Lord Jesus. And they came together and greeted each other saying, "Amen."
18 Then Jesus appeared saying to them, "Peace to you all and everyone who believes in my name. And when you depart, joy be to you and grace and power. And be not afraid; behold, I am with you forever."
19 Then the apostles parted from each other into four words in order to preach. And they went by a power of Jesus, in peace.
The Latin Praedicatio Pauli (Homily of Paul)
The Latin Praedicatio Pauli (Homily of Paul) is mentioned by Pseudo-Cyprian (De Rebaptismate XVII, a writing of perhaps the 3rd century). It seems certain that Pseudo-Cyprian had a definite writing before him, and likewise that the writing has nothing to do with the Acts of Paul, as Zahn (Geschichte des Neutestamentlichen Kanons, 1888-1892, II:ii, 881) supposed. The statement that Jesus had received the baptism of John only when constrained, and that at the time of His baptism, fire was seen upon the water, is striking; and it has been concluded that here our text is connected with a fragment of the Gospel of the Nazaraeans.
Christ [. . .] confessed his own sins and almost against his own will was constrained by his mother to receive the baptism of John. Further [. . .] when he was baptized, fire appeared upon the water [. . .]. And after the agreement regarding the gospel to come in Jerusalem and consultation and debate together and after arrangements had been made as to what was to be done, after so long a time Peter and Paul finally came to know one another in Rome [. . .].
THE PROCLAMATIONS OF PETER OR THE KERYGMATA PETROU
The following are excerpts from the Clementine Homilies as translated in the Ante-Nicene Fathers series. The choice, arrangement, and titles of excerpts follows the reconstruction given by Johannes Irmscher and Georg Strecker in New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 2, pp. 531-541. The Kerygmata Petrou is known only from the Pseudo-Clementine literature and must be distinguished from the Preaching of Peter quoted by Clement of Alexandria.
The True Prophet
(H III 17-21)
17.1. "God having made all things, if any one will not allow to a man, fashioned by His hands, to have possessed His great and Holy Spirit of foreknowledge, how does not he greatly err who attributes it to another born of a spurious stock!
2. And I do not think that he will obtain pardon, though he be misled by spurious scripture to think dreadful things against the Father of all.
20.2. But he would act most piously, if he should not allow to another to have it, but should say that he alone has it, who has changed his forms and his names from the beginning of the world, and so reappeared again and again in the world, until coming upon his own times, and being anointed with mercy for the works of God, he shall enjoy rest for ever.
21.1. He himself being the only true prophet, fittingly gave names to each animal, according to the merits of its nature, as having made it. For if he gave a name to any one, that was also the name of that which was made, being given by him who made it.
2. How then had he still need to partake of a tree, that he might know what is good and what is evil, if he was commanded not to eat of it? But this senseless men believe, who think that a reasonless beast was more powerful than the God who made these things."
(H III 26)
1. "But he who amongst the sons Of men had prophecy innate to his soul as belonging to it, expressly, as being a male, indicating the hopes of the world to come, called his own son Abel, which without any ambiguity is translated Grief.
2. For he assigns to his sons to grieve over their deceived brethren. He does not deceive them when he promises them comfort in the world to come.
3. When he says that we must pray to one only God, he neither himself speaks of gods, nor does he believe another who speaks of them. He keeps the good which he has, and increases more and more. He hates sacrifices, bloodshed, and libations; he loves the chaste, the pure, the holy. He quenches the fire of altars,
4. represses wars, teaches pious preachers wisdom, purges sins, sanctions marriage, approves temperance, leads all to chastity,
5. makes men liberal, prescribes justice, seals those of them who are perfect, publishes the word of peace,
6. prophesies mention of the eternal fire of punishment, constantly announces the kingdom of God, indicates heavenly riches, promises unfading glory, shows the remission of sins by works."
(H XI 19)
1. "Whence the Prophet of the truth, knowing that the world was much in error, and seeing it ranged on the side of evil, did not choose that there should be peace to it while it stood in error. So that till the end he sets himself against all those who are in concord with wickedness,
2. setting truth over against error, sending as it were fire upon those who are sober, namely wrath against the seducer, which is likened to a sword, and by holding forth the word he destroys ignorance by knowledge, cutting, as it were, and separating the living from the dead.
3. Therefore, while wickedness is being conquered by lawful knowledge, war has taken hold of all. For the submissive son is, for the sake of salvation, separated from the unbelieving father, or the father from the son, or the mother from the daughter, or the daughter from the mother, and relatives from relatives, and friends from associates."
Female Prophecy
(H III 22)
1. "But a companion was created along with him, a female nature, much differing from him, as quality from substance, as the moon from the sun, as fire from light.
2. She, as a female ruling the present world as her like, was entrusted to be the first prophetess, announcing prophecy with all amongst those born of woman [. . .]."
(H III 23-25)
1. "Let us then understand that there are two kinds of prophecy: the one male; [. . .].
2. This second, therefore, being amongst those born of woman, as the female superintendent of this present world, wishes to be thought masculine.
3. Wherefore, stealing the seeds of the male, and sowing them with her own seeds of the flesh, she brings forth the fruits - that is, words - as wholly her own.
4. And she promises that she will give the present earthly riches as a dowry, wishing to change the slow for the swift, the small for the greater.
24.1. However, she, not only presuming to say and to hear that there are many gods, but also believing herself to be one, and in hope of king that which she had not a nature to be, and throwing away what she had, and as a female being in her courses at the offering of sacrifices, is stained with blood; and then she pollutes those who touch her.
2. But when she conceives and brings forth temporary kings, she stirs up wars, shedding much blood;
3. and those who desire to learn truth from her, by telling them all things contrary, and presenting many and various services, she keeps them always seeking and finding nothing, even until death.
4. For from the beginning a cause of death lies upon blind men; for she, prophesying deceit, and ambiguities, and obliquities, deceives those who believe her.
25.1. Hence the ambiguous name which she gave to her first-born son, calling him Cain, which has a capability of interpretation in two ways; for it is interpreted both Possession and Envy, as signifying that in the future he was to envy either a woman, or possessions, or the love of the parents towards her.
2. But if it be none of these, then it will befall him to be called the Possession. For she possessed him first, which also was advantageous to him. For he was a murderer and a liar, and with his sins was not willing to be at peace with respect to tile government.
3. Moreover, those who came forth by succession from him were the first adulterers. And there were psalteries, and harps, and forgers of instruments of war.
4. Wherefore also the prophecy of his descendants being full of adulterers and of psalteries, secretly by means of pleasures excites to wars."
The Law and False Pericopes
(H III 47)
1. [. . .] "The law of God was given by Moses, without writing, to seventy wise men, to be handed down, that the government might be carried on by succession. But after that Moses was taken up, it was written by some one, but not by Moses.
2. For in the law itself it is written, `And Moses died; and they buried him near the house of Phogor, and no one knows his sepulcher till this day.'
3. But how could Moses write that Moses died? And whereas in the time after Moses, about 500 years or thereabouts, it is found lying in the temple which was built, and after about 500 years more it is carried away, and being burnt in the time of Nebuchadnezzar it is destroyed;
4. and thus being written after Moses, and often lost, even this shows the foreknowledge of Moses, because he, foreseeing its disappearance, did not write it; but those who wrote it, being convicted of ignorance through their not foreseeing its disappearance, were not prophets."
(H II 38)
1. [. . .] "The prophet Moses having by the order of God delivered the law, with the explanations, to certain chosen men, some seventy in number, in order that they also might instruct such of the people as chose, after a little the written law had added to it certain falsehoods contrary to the law of God, who made the heaven and the earth, and all things in them; the wicked one having dared to work this for some righteous purpose.
2. And this took place in reason and judgment, that those might be convicted who should dare to listen to the things written against God, and those who, through love towards Him, should not only disbelieve the things spoken against Him, but should not even endure to hear them at all, even if they should happen to be true, judging it much safer to incur danger with respect to religious faith, than to live with an evil conscience on account of blasphemous words."
(H III 48-52)
48.2. [. . .] "A certain verse has been recorded without controversy in the written law, according to the providence of God, so as to show clearly which of the things written are true and which are false." [. . .].
49.1. "It is written in the first book of the law, towards the end: `A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until He come whose it is; and He is the expectation of the nations.'
2. If, therefore, any one can apprehend Him who came after the failure of ruler and leader from Judah, and who was to be expected by the nations, he will be able by this verse to recognize Him as truly having come; and believing His teaching, he will know what of the Scriptures are true and what are false." [. . .].
50.1. Then Peter: "As to the mixture of truth with falsehood, I remember that on one occasion He, finding fault with the Sadducees, said, `Wherefore ye do err, not knowing the true things of the Scriptures; and on this account ye are ignorant of the power of God.' But if He cast up to their that they knew not the true things of the Scriptures, it is manifest that there are false things in them.
2. And also, inasmuch as He said, `Be ye prudent money-changers, it is because there are genuine and spurious words. And whereas He said, `Wherefore do ye not perceive that which is reasonable in the Scriptures?' He makes the understanding of him stronger who voluntarily judges soundly.
51.1. And His sending to the scribes and teachers of the existing Scriptures, as to those who knew the true things of the law that then was, is well known.
2. And also that He said, `I am not come to destroy the law,' and yet that He appeared to be destroying it, is the part of one intimating that the things which He destroyed did not belong to the law.
3. And His saying, `The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall not pass froth the law,' intimated that the things which pass away before the heaven and the earth do not belong to the law in reality.
52.1. Since, then, while the heaven and the earth still stand, sacrifices have passed away, and kingdoms, and prophecies among those who are born of woman, and such like, as not being ordinances of God." [. . .].
(H II 43-44)
1. "Wherefore, far he it from us to believe that the Lord of all, who made the heaven and the earth, and all things that are in them, shares His government with others, or that He lies. For if He lies, then who speaks truth? Or that He makes experiments as in ignorance; for then who foreknows?
2. And if He deliberates, and changes His purpose, who is perfect in understanding and permanent in design? If He envies, who is above rivalry? If He hardens hearts, who makes wise?
3. If He makes blind and deaf, who has given sight and hearing? If He commits pilfering, who administers justice? If He mocks, who is sincere? If He is weak, who is omnipotent? If He is unjust, who is just? If He makes evil things, who shall make good things? If He does evil, who shall do good?
44.1. But if He desires the fruitful hill, whose then are all things? If He is false, who then is true? If He dwells in a tabernacle, who is without bounds?
2. If He is fond of fat, and sacrifices, and offerings, and drink-offerings, who then is without need, and who is holy, and pure, and perfect? If He is pleased with candles and candlesticks, who then placed the luminaries in heaven?
3. If He dwells in shadow, and darkness, and storm, and smoke, who is the light that lightens the universe? If He comes with trumpets, and shoutings, and darts, and arrows, who is the looked-for tranquility of all?
4. If He loves war, who then wishes peace? If He makes evil things, who makes good things? If He is without affection, who is a lover of men? If He is not faithful to His promises, who shall be trusted?
5. If He loves the wicked, and adulterers, and murderers, who shall be a just judge?"
Polemic Against Paul
(H II 16-17)
16.1. "As in the beginning God, who is one, like a right hand and a left, made the heavens first and then the earth, so also He constituted all the combinations in order; but upon men He no more does this, but varies all the combinations.
2. For whereas from Him the greater things come first, and the inferior second, we find the opposite in men-the first worse, and the second superior.
3. Therefore from Adam, who was made after the image of God, there sprang first the unrighteous Cain, and then the righteous Abel.
4. Again, from him who amongst you is called Deucalion, two forms of spirits were sent forth, the impure namely, and the pure, first the black raven, and then the white dove.
5. From Abraham also, the patriarchs of our nation, two firsts sprang-Ishmael first, then Isaac, who was blessed of God.
6. And from Isaac himself, in like manner, there were again two-Esau the profane, and Jacob the pious.
7. So, first in birth, as the first born in the world, was the high priest Aaron, then the lawgiver Moses.
17.1 In like manner, the combination with respect to Elias, which behoved to have come, has been willingly put off to another time, [. . .].
2. he who was among those born of woman came first; then he who was among the sons of men came second.
3. It were possible, following this order, to perceive to what series Simon belongs, who came before me to the Gentiles, and to which I belong who have come after him, and have come in upon him as light upon darkness, as knowledge upon ignorance, as healing upon disease."
(H XVII 13-19)
1. Simon, on hearing this, interrupted him, and said: "I know against whom you are making these remarks; but in order that I may not spend any time in discussing subjects which I do not wish to discuss, repeating the same statements to refute you, reply to that which is concisely stated by us. You professed that you had well understood the doctrines and deeds of your teacher because you saw them before you with your own eyes, and heard them with your own ears, and that it is not possible for any other to have anything similar by vision or apparition.
2. But I shall show that this is false. He who hears any one with his own ears, is not altogether fully assured of the truth of what is said; for his mind has to consider whether he is wrong or not, inasmuch as he is a man as far as appearance goes. But apparition not merely presents an object to view, but inspires him who sees it with confidence, for it comes from God. Now reply first to this."
16. 1. And Peter said: "[. . .].
2. We know that there are many [. . .] who worship idols, commit adultery, and sin in every way, and yet they see true visions and dreams, and some of them have also apparitions of demons. For I maintain that the eyes of mortals cannot see the incorporeal form of the Father or Son, because it is illumined by exceeding great light.
3. Wherefore it is not because God envies, but because He pities, that He cannot be seen by man who has been turned into flesh. For he who sees God cannot live.
6. [. . .] For no one can see the incorporeal power not only of the Son, but not even of an angel. But if one sees an apparition, he should know that this is the apparition of an evil demon.
17. 5. [. . .] For in the case of the pious man, the truth gushes up natural and pure in his mind, not worked tip through dreams, but granted to the good through intelligence.
18. 1. Thus to me also was the Son revealed by the Father. Wherefore I know what is the meaning of revelation, having learned it in my own case. For at the very time when the Lord said, `Who do they say that I am? ' and when I heard one saying one thing of Him, and another another, it came into my heart to say, and I know not, therefore, how I said it, `Thou art the Son of the living God.' [. . .].
6. You see how the statements of wrath are made through visions and dreams, but the statements to a friend are made face to face, in outward appearance, and not through riddles and visions and dreams, as to an enemy.
19.1. "If, then, our Jesus appeared to you in a vision, made Himself known to you, and spoke to you, it was as one who is enraged with an adversary; and this is the reason why it was through visions and dreams, or through revelations that were from without, that He spoke to you. But can any one be rendered fit for instruction through apparitions?
2. And if you will say, `It is possible,' then I ask, `Why did our teacher abide and discourse a whole year to those who were awake?'
3. And how are we to believe your word, when you tell us that He appeared to you? And how did He appear to you, when you entertain opinions contrary to His teaching?
4. But if you were seen and taught by Him, and became His apostle for a single hour, proclaim His utterances, interpret His sayings, love His apostles, contend not with me who companied with Him. For in direct opposition to me, who am a firm rock, the foundation of the Church, you now stand.
5. If you were not opposed to me, you would not accuse me, and revile the truth proclaimed by me, in order that I may not be believed when I state what I myself have heard with my own ears from the Lord, as if I were evidently a person that was condemned and in bad repute.
6. But if you say that I am condemned, you bring an accusation against God, who revealed the Christ to me, and you inveigh against Him who pronounced me blessed on account of the revelation.
7. But if, indeed, you really wish to work in the cause of truth, learn first of all from us what we have learned from Him, and, becoming a disciple of the truth, become a fellow-worker with us."
The Doctrine of Baptism
(H XI 25-33)
25. "Wherefore come readily, as a son to a father, that God may assign ignorance as the cause of your sins. But if after being called you will not, or delay, you shall he destroyed by the just judgment of God, not being willed, through your not willing. And do not think, though you were more pious than all the pious that ever were, but if you be unbaptized, that you shall ever obtain hope. For all the more, on this account, you shall endure the greater punishment, because you have done excellent works not excellently. For well-doing is excellent when it is done as God has commanded. But if you will not be baptized according to His pleasure, you serve your own will and oppose His counsel.
26. "But perhaps some one will say, What does it contribute to piety to be baptized with water? In the first place, because you do that which is pleasing to God; and in the second place, being born again to God of water, by reason of fear you change your first generation, which is of lust, and thus you are able to obtain salvation. But otherwise it is impossible. For thus the prophet has sworn to us, saying, "Verily I say to you, Unless ye be regenerated by living water into the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Wherefore approach. For there is there something that is merciful from the beginning, home upon the water, and rescues from the future punishment those who are baptized with the thrice blessed invocation, offering as gifts to God the good deeds of the baptized whenever they are done after their baptism. Wherefore flee to the waters, for this alone can quench the violence of fires.He who will not now come to it still bears the spirit of strife, on account of which he will not approach the living water for his own salvation.
27. "Therefore approach, be ye righteous or unrighteous. For if you are righteous, baptism alone is lacking in order to salvation. But if you are unrighteous, come to be baptized for the remission of the sins formerly committed in ignorance. And to the unrighteous man it remains that his well-doing after baptism be according to the proportion of his previous impiety. Wherefore, be ye righteous or unrighteous, hasten to be born to God, because delay brings danger, on account of the fore-appointment of death being unrevealed; and show by well-doing your likeness to the Father, who begetteth you of water. As a lover of truth, honor the true God as your Father. But His honor is that you live as He, being righteous, would have you live. And the will of the righteous One is that you do no wrong. But wrong is murder, hatred, envy, and such like; and of these there are many forms.
28. "However, it is necessary to add something to these things which has not community with man, but is peculiar to the worship of God. I mean purification, not approaching to a man's own wife when she is in separation, for so the law of God commands. But what? If purity be not added to the service of God, you would roll pleasantly like the dung-flies. Wherefore as man, having something more than the irrational animals, namely, rationality, purify your hearts from evil by heavenly reasoning, and wash your bodies in the bath. For purification according to the truth is not that the purity of the body precedes purification after the heart, but that purity follows goodness. For our Teacher also, dealing with certain of the Pharisees and Scribes among us, who are separated, and as Scribes know the matters of the law more than others, still He reproved them as hypocrites, because they cleansed only the things that appear to men, but omitted purity of heart and the things seen by God alone.
29. "Therefore He made use of this memorable expression, speaking the truth with respect to the hypocrites of them, not with respect to all. For to some He said that obedience was to be rendered, because they were entrusted with the chair of Moses. However, to the hypocrites he said, `Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, hut the inside is full of filth. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and the platter, that their outsides may be clean also.' And truly: for when the mind is enlightened by knowledge, the disciple is able to be good, and thereupon purity follows; for from the understanding within a good care of the body without is produced. As from negligence with respect to the body, care of the understanding cannot be produced, so the pure man can purify both that which is without and that which is within. And he who, purifying the things without, does it looking to the praise of men, and by the praise of those who look on, he has nothing from God.
30. "But who is there to whom it is not manifest that it is better not to have intercourse with a woman in her separation, but purified and washed. And also after copulation it is proper to wash. But if you grudge to do this, recall to mind how you followed after the parts of purity when you served senseless idols; and be ashamed that now, when it is necessary to attain, I say not more, but to attain the one and whole of purity, you are more slothful. Consider, therefore, Him who made you, and you will understand who He is that casts upon you this sluggishness with respect to purity.
31. "But some one of you will say, Must we then do whatsoever things we did while we were idolaters? I say to you, Not all things; but whatsoever you did well, you must do now, and more: for whatsoever is welt done in error hangs upon truth, as if anything be ill done in the truth it is from error. Receive, therefore, from all quarters the things that are your own, and not those that are another's, and do not say, If those who are in error do anything well we are not bound to do it. For, on this principle, if any one who worships idols do not commit murder, we ought to commit murder, because he who is in error does not commit it.
32. "No; but rather, if those who are in error do not kill, let us not be angry; if he who is in error do not commit adultery, let us not lust even in the smallest degree; if he who is in error loves him who loves him, let us love even those who hate us; if he who is in error lends to those who have, let us give to those who have not. Unquestionably we ought-we who hope to inherit eternal life-to do better things than the good things that are done by those who know only the present life, knowing that if their works, being judged with ours in the day of judgment, be found equal in goodness, we shall have shame, and they perdition, having acted against themselves through error. And I say that we shall be put to shame on this account, because we have not done more than they, though we have known more than they. And if we shall be put to shame if we show well-doing equal to theirs, and no more, how much more if we show less than their well-doing?
33. "But that indeed in the day of judgment the doings of those who have known the truth are compared with the good deeds of those who have been in error, the unlying One Himself has taught us, saying to those who neglected to come and listen to Him, `The queen of the south shall rise up with this generation, and shall condemn it; because she came from the extremities of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and behold, a greater than Solomon is here, and ye do not believe Him. And to those amongst the people who would not repent at His preaching He said, `The men of Nineveh shall rise up with this generation and shall condemn it, for they heard and repented on the preaching of Jonas: and behold, a greater is here, and no one believes. And thus, setting over against all their impiety those from among the Gentiles who have done well, in order to Condemn those who, possessing the true religion, had not acted so well as those who were in error, he exhorted those having reason not only to do equally with the Gentiles whatsoever things are excellent, but more than they. And this speech has been suggested to me, taking occasion from the necessity of respecting the separation, and of washing after copulation, and of not denying such purity, though those who are in error do the same, since those who in error do well, without being saved, are for the condemnation of those who are in the worship of God, and do ill; because their respect for purity is through error, and not through the worship of the true Father and God of all."
The True Prophet
(H III 17-21)
17.1. "God having made all things, if any one will not allow to a man, fashioned by His hands, to have possessed His great and Holy Spirit of foreknowledge, how does not he greatly err who attributes it to another born of a spurious stock!
2. And I do not think that he will obtain pardon, though he be misled by spurious scripture to think dreadful things against the Father of all.
20.2. But he would act most piously, if he should not allow to another to have it, but should say that he alone has it, who has changed his forms and his names from the beginning of the world, and so reappeared again and again in the world, until coming upon his own times, and being anointed with mercy for the works of God, he shall enjoy rest for ever.
21.1. He himself being the only true prophet, fittingly gave names to each animal, according to the merits of its nature, as having made it. For if he gave a name to any one, that was also the name of that which was made, being given by him who made it.
2. How then had he still need to partake of a tree, that he might know what is good and what is evil, if he was commanded not to eat of it? But this senseless men believe, who think that a reasonless beast was more powerful than the God who made these things."
(H III 26)
1. "But he who amongst the sons Of men had prophecy innate to his soul as belonging to it, expressly, as being a male, indicating the hopes of the world to come, called his own son Abel, which without any ambiguity is translated Grief.
2. For he assigns to his sons to grieve over their deceived brethren. He does not deceive them when he promises them comfort in the world to come.
3. When he says that we must pray to one only God, he neither himself speaks of gods, nor does he believe another who speaks of them. He keeps the good which he has, and increases more and more. He hates sacrifices, bloodshed, and libations; he loves the chaste, the pure, the holy. He quenches the fire of altars,
4. represses wars, teaches pious preachers wisdom, purges sins, sanctions marriage, approves temperance, leads all to chastity,
5. makes men liberal, prescribes justice, seals those of them who are perfect, publishes the word of peace,
6. prophesies mention of the eternal fire of punishment, constantly announces the kingdom of God, indicates heavenly riches, promises unfading glory, shows the remission of sins by works."
(H XI 19)
1. "Whence the Prophet of the truth, knowing that the world was much in error, and seeing it ranged on the side of evil, did not choose that there should be peace to it while it stood in error. So that till the end he sets himself against all those who are in concord with wickedness,
2. setting truth over against error, sending as it were fire upon those who are sober, namely wrath against the seducer, which is likened to a sword, and by holding forth the word he destroys ignorance by knowledge, cutting, as it were, and separating the living from the dead.
3. Therefore, while wickedness is being conquered by lawful knowledge, war has taken hold of all. For the submissive son is, for the sake of salvation, separated from the unbelieving father, or the father from the son, or the mother from the daughter, or the daughter from the mother, and relatives from relatives, and friends from associates."
Female Prophecy
(H III 22)
1. "But a companion was created along with him, a female nature, much differing from him, as quality from substance, as the moon from the sun, as fire from light.
2. She, as a female ruling the present world as her like, was entrusted to be the first prophetess, announcing prophecy with all amongst those born of woman [. . .]."
(H III 23-25)
1. "Let us then understand that there are two kinds of prophecy: the one male; [. . .].
2. This second, therefore, being amongst those born of woman, as the female superintendent of this present world, wishes to be thought masculine.
3. Wherefore, stealing the seeds of the male, and sowing them with her own seeds of the flesh, she brings forth the fruits - that is, words - as wholly her own.
4. And she promises that she will give the present earthly riches as a dowry, wishing to change the slow for the swift, the small for the greater.
24.1. However, she, not only presuming to say and to hear that there are many gods, but also believing herself to be one, and in hope of king that which she had not a nature to be, and throwing away what she had, and as a female being in her courses at the offering of sacrifices, is stained with blood; and then she pollutes those who touch her.
2. But when she conceives and brings forth temporary kings, she stirs up wars, shedding much blood;
3. and those who desire to learn truth from her, by telling them all things contrary, and presenting many and various services, she keeps them always seeking and finding nothing, even until death.
4. For from the beginning a cause of death lies upon blind men; for she, prophesying deceit, and ambiguities, and obliquities, deceives those who believe her.
25.1. Hence the ambiguous name which she gave to her first-born son, calling him Cain, which has a capability of interpretation in two ways; for it is interpreted both Possession and Envy, as signifying that in the future he was to envy either a woman, or possessions, or the love of the parents towards her.
2. But if it be none of these, then it will befall him to be called the Possession. For she possessed him first, which also was advantageous to him. For he was a murderer and a liar, and with his sins was not willing to be at peace with respect to tile government.
3. Moreover, those who came forth by succession from him were the first adulterers. And there were psalteries, and harps, and forgers of instruments of war.
4. Wherefore also the prophecy of his descendants being full of adulterers and of psalteries, secretly by means of pleasures excites to wars."
The Law and False Pericopes
(H III 47)
1. [. . .] "The law of God was given by Moses, without writing, to seventy wise men, to be handed down, that the government might be carried on by succession. But after that Moses was taken up, it was written by some one, but not by Moses.
2. For in the law itself it is written, `And Moses died; and they buried him near the house of Phogor, and no one knows his sepulcher till this day.'
3. But how could Moses write that Moses died? And whereas in the time after Moses, about 500 years or thereabouts, it is found lying in the temple which was built, and after about 500 years more it is carried away, and being burnt in the time of Nebuchadnezzar it is destroyed;
4. and thus being written after Moses, and often lost, even this shows the foreknowledge of Moses, because he, foreseeing its disappearance, did not write it; but those who wrote it, being convicted of ignorance through their not foreseeing its disappearance, were not prophets."
(H II 38)
1. [. . .] "The prophet Moses having by the order of God delivered the law, with the explanations, to certain chosen men, some seventy in number, in order that they also might instruct such of the people as chose, after a little the written law had added to it certain falsehoods contrary to the law of God, who made the heaven and the earth, and all things in them; the wicked one having dared to work this for some righteous purpose.
2. And this took place in reason and judgment, that those might be convicted who should dare to listen to the things written against God, and those who, through love towards Him, should not only disbelieve the things spoken against Him, but should not even endure to hear them at all, even if they should happen to be true, judging it much safer to incur danger with respect to religious faith, than to live with an evil conscience on account of blasphemous words."
(H III 48-52)
48.2. [. . .] "A certain verse has been recorded without controversy in the written law, according to the providence of God, so as to show clearly which of the things written are true and which are false." [. . .].
49.1. "It is written in the first book of the law, towards the end: `A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until He come whose it is; and He is the expectation of the nations.'
2. If, therefore, any one can apprehend Him who came after the failure of ruler and leader from Judah, and who was to be expected by the nations, he will be able by this verse to recognize Him as truly having come; and believing His teaching, he will know what of the Scriptures are true and what are false." [. . .].
50.1. Then Peter: "As to the mixture of truth with falsehood, I remember that on one occasion He, finding fault with the Sadducees, said, `Wherefore ye do err, not knowing the true things of the Scriptures; and on this account ye are ignorant of the power of God.' But if He cast up to their that they knew not the true things of the Scriptures, it is manifest that there are false things in them.
2. And also, inasmuch as He said, `Be ye prudent money-changers, it is because there are genuine and spurious words. And whereas He said, `Wherefore do ye not perceive that which is reasonable in the Scriptures?' He makes the understanding of him stronger who voluntarily judges soundly.
51.1. And His sending to the scribes and teachers of the existing Scriptures, as to those who knew the true things of the law that then was, is well known.
2. And also that He said, `I am not come to destroy the law,' and yet that He appeared to be destroying it, is the part of one intimating that the things which He destroyed did not belong to the law.
3. And His saying, `The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but one jot or one tittle shall not pass froth the law,' intimated that the things which pass away before the heaven and the earth do not belong to the law in reality.
52.1. Since, then, while the heaven and the earth still stand, sacrifices have passed away, and kingdoms, and prophecies among those who are born of woman, and such like, as not being ordinances of God." [. . .].
(H II 43-44)
1. "Wherefore, far he it from us to believe that the Lord of all, who made the heaven and the earth, and all things that are in them, shares His government with others, or that He lies. For if He lies, then who speaks truth? Or that He makes experiments as in ignorance; for then who foreknows?
2. And if He deliberates, and changes His purpose, who is perfect in understanding and permanent in design? If He envies, who is above rivalry? If He hardens hearts, who makes wise?
3. If He makes blind and deaf, who has given sight and hearing? If He commits pilfering, who administers justice? If He mocks, who is sincere? If He is weak, who is omnipotent? If He is unjust, who is just? If He makes evil things, who shall make good things? If He does evil, who shall do good?
44.1. But if He desires the fruitful hill, whose then are all things? If He is false, who then is true? If He dwells in a tabernacle, who is without bounds?
2. If He is fond of fat, and sacrifices, and offerings, and drink-offerings, who then is without need, and who is holy, and pure, and perfect? If He is pleased with candles and candlesticks, who then placed the luminaries in heaven?
3. If He dwells in shadow, and darkness, and storm, and smoke, who is the light that lightens the universe? If He comes with trumpets, and shoutings, and darts, and arrows, who is the looked-for tranquility of all?
4. If He loves war, who then wishes peace? If He makes evil things, who makes good things? If He is without affection, who is a lover of men? If He is not faithful to His promises, who shall be trusted?
5. If He loves the wicked, and adulterers, and murderers, who shall be a just judge?"
Polemic Against Paul
(H II 16-17)
16.1. "As in the beginning God, who is one, like a right hand and a left, made the heavens first and then the earth, so also He constituted all the combinations in order; but upon men He no more does this, but varies all the combinations.
2. For whereas from Him the greater things come first, and the inferior second, we find the opposite in men-the first worse, and the second superior.
3. Therefore from Adam, who was made after the image of God, there sprang first the unrighteous Cain, and then the righteous Abel.
4. Again, from him who amongst you is called Deucalion, two forms of spirits were sent forth, the impure namely, and the pure, first the black raven, and then the white dove.
5. From Abraham also, the patriarchs of our nation, two firsts sprang-Ishmael first, then Isaac, who was blessed of God.
6. And from Isaac himself, in like manner, there were again two-Esau the profane, and Jacob the pious.
7. So, first in birth, as the first born in the world, was the high priest Aaron, then the lawgiver Moses.
17.1 In like manner, the combination with respect to Elias, which behoved to have come, has been willingly put off to another time, [. . .].
2. he who was among those born of woman came first; then he who was among the sons of men came second.
3. It were possible, following this order, to perceive to what series Simon belongs, who came before me to the Gentiles, and to which I belong who have come after him, and have come in upon him as light upon darkness, as knowledge upon ignorance, as healing upon disease."
(H XVII 13-19)
1. Simon, on hearing this, interrupted him, and said: "I know against whom you are making these remarks; but in order that I may not spend any time in discussing subjects which I do not wish to discuss, repeating the same statements to refute you, reply to that which is concisely stated by us. You professed that you had well understood the doctrines and deeds of your teacher because you saw them before you with your own eyes, and heard them with your own ears, and that it is not possible for any other to have anything similar by vision or apparition.
2. But I shall show that this is false. He who hears any one with his own ears, is not altogether fully assured of the truth of what is said; for his mind has to consider whether he is wrong or not, inasmuch as he is a man as far as appearance goes. But apparition not merely presents an object to view, but inspires him who sees it with confidence, for it comes from God. Now reply first to this."
16. 1. And Peter said: "[. . .].
2. We know that there are many [. . .] who worship idols, commit adultery, and sin in every way, and yet they see true visions and dreams, and some of them have also apparitions of demons. For I maintain that the eyes of mortals cannot see the incorporeal form of the Father or Son, because it is illumined by exceeding great light.
3. Wherefore it is not because God envies, but because He pities, that He cannot be seen by man who has been turned into flesh. For he who sees God cannot live.
6. [. . .] For no one can see the incorporeal power not only of the Son, but not even of an angel. But if one sees an apparition, he should know that this is the apparition of an evil demon.
17. 5. [. . .] For in the case of the pious man, the truth gushes up natural and pure in his mind, not worked tip through dreams, but granted to the good through intelligence.
18. 1. Thus to me also was the Son revealed by the Father. Wherefore I know what is the meaning of revelation, having learned it in my own case. For at the very time when the Lord said, `Who do they say that I am? ' and when I heard one saying one thing of Him, and another another, it came into my heart to say, and I know not, therefore, how I said it, `Thou art the Son of the living God.' [. . .].
6. You see how the statements of wrath are made through visions and dreams, but the statements to a friend are made face to face, in outward appearance, and not through riddles and visions and dreams, as to an enemy.
19.1. "If, then, our Jesus appeared to you in a vision, made Himself known to you, and spoke to you, it was as one who is enraged with an adversary; and this is the reason why it was through visions and dreams, or through revelations that were from without, that He spoke to you. But can any one be rendered fit for instruction through apparitions?
2. And if you will say, `It is possible,' then I ask, `Why did our teacher abide and discourse a whole year to those who were awake?'
3. And how are we to believe your word, when you tell us that He appeared to you? And how did He appear to you, when you entertain opinions contrary to His teaching?
4. But if you were seen and taught by Him, and became His apostle for a single hour, proclaim His utterances, interpret His sayings, love His apostles, contend not with me who companied with Him. For in direct opposition to me, who am a firm rock, the foundation of the Church, you now stand.
5. If you were not opposed to me, you would not accuse me, and revile the truth proclaimed by me, in order that I may not be believed when I state what I myself have heard with my own ears from the Lord, as if I were evidently a person that was condemned and in bad repute.
6. But if you say that I am condemned, you bring an accusation against God, who revealed the Christ to me, and you inveigh against Him who pronounced me blessed on account of the revelation.
7. But if, indeed, you really wish to work in the cause of truth, learn first of all from us what we have learned from Him, and, becoming a disciple of the truth, become a fellow-worker with us."
The Doctrine of Baptism
(H XI 25-33)
25. "Wherefore come readily, as a son to a father, that God may assign ignorance as the cause of your sins. But if after being called you will not, or delay, you shall he destroyed by the just judgment of God, not being willed, through your not willing. And do not think, though you were more pious than all the pious that ever were, but if you be unbaptized, that you shall ever obtain hope. For all the more, on this account, you shall endure the greater punishment, because you have done excellent works not excellently. For well-doing is excellent when it is done as God has commanded. But if you will not be baptized according to His pleasure, you serve your own will and oppose His counsel.
26. "But perhaps some one will say, What does it contribute to piety to be baptized with water? In the first place, because you do that which is pleasing to God; and in the second place, being born again to God of water, by reason of fear you change your first generation, which is of lust, and thus you are able to obtain salvation. But otherwise it is impossible. For thus the prophet has sworn to us, saying, "Verily I say to you, Unless ye be regenerated by living water into the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Wherefore approach. For there is there something that is merciful from the beginning, home upon the water, and rescues from the future punishment those who are baptized with the thrice blessed invocation, offering as gifts to God the good deeds of the baptized whenever they are done after their baptism. Wherefore flee to the waters, for this alone can quench the violence of fires.He who will not now come to it still bears the spirit of strife, on account of which he will not approach the living water for his own salvation.
27. "Therefore approach, be ye righteous or unrighteous. For if you are righteous, baptism alone is lacking in order to salvation. But if you are unrighteous, come to be baptized for the remission of the sins formerly committed in ignorance. And to the unrighteous man it remains that his well-doing after baptism be according to the proportion of his previous impiety. Wherefore, be ye righteous or unrighteous, hasten to be born to God, because delay brings danger, on account of the fore-appointment of death being unrevealed; and show by well-doing your likeness to the Father, who begetteth you of water. As a lover of truth, honor the true God as your Father. But His honor is that you live as He, being righteous, would have you live. And the will of the righteous One is that you do no wrong. But wrong is murder, hatred, envy, and such like; and of these there are many forms.
28. "However, it is necessary to add something to these things which has not community with man, but is peculiar to the worship of God. I mean purification, not approaching to a man's own wife when she is in separation, for so the law of God commands. But what? If purity be not added to the service of God, you would roll pleasantly like the dung-flies. Wherefore as man, having something more than the irrational animals, namely, rationality, purify your hearts from evil by heavenly reasoning, and wash your bodies in the bath. For purification according to the truth is not that the purity of the body precedes purification after the heart, but that purity follows goodness. For our Teacher also, dealing with certain of the Pharisees and Scribes among us, who are separated, and as Scribes know the matters of the law more than others, still He reproved them as hypocrites, because they cleansed only the things that appear to men, but omitted purity of heart and the things seen by God alone.
29. "Therefore He made use of this memorable expression, speaking the truth with respect to the hypocrites of them, not with respect to all. For to some He said that obedience was to be rendered, because they were entrusted with the chair of Moses. However, to the hypocrites he said, `Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, hut the inside is full of filth. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and the platter, that their outsides may be clean also.' And truly: for when the mind is enlightened by knowledge, the disciple is able to be good, and thereupon purity follows; for from the understanding within a good care of the body without is produced. As from negligence with respect to the body, care of the understanding cannot be produced, so the pure man can purify both that which is without and that which is within. And he who, purifying the things without, does it looking to the praise of men, and by the praise of those who look on, he has nothing from God.
30. "But who is there to whom it is not manifest that it is better not to have intercourse with a woman in her separation, but purified and washed. And also after copulation it is proper to wash. But if you grudge to do this, recall to mind how you followed after the parts of purity when you served senseless idols; and be ashamed that now, when it is necessary to attain, I say not more, but to attain the one and whole of purity, you are more slothful. Consider, therefore, Him who made you, and you will understand who He is that casts upon you this sluggishness with respect to purity.
31. "But some one of you will say, Must we then do whatsoever things we did while we were idolaters? I say to you, Not all things; but whatsoever you did well, you must do now, and more: for whatsoever is welt done in error hangs upon truth, as if anything be ill done in the truth it is from error. Receive, therefore, from all quarters the things that are your own, and not those that are another's, and do not say, If those who are in error do anything well we are not bound to do it. For, on this principle, if any one who worships idols do not commit murder, we ought to commit murder, because he who is in error does not commit it.
32. "No; but rather, if those who are in error do not kill, let us not be angry; if he who is in error do not commit adultery, let us not lust even in the smallest degree; if he who is in error loves him who loves him, let us love even those who hate us; if he who is in error lends to those who have, let us give to those who have not. Unquestionably we ought-we who hope to inherit eternal life-to do better things than the good things that are done by those who know only the present life, knowing that if their works, being judged with ours in the day of judgment, be found equal in goodness, we shall have shame, and they perdition, having acted against themselves through error. And I say that we shall be put to shame on this account, because we have not done more than they, though we have known more than they. And if we shall be put to shame if we show well-doing equal to theirs, and no more, how much more if we show less than their well-doing?
33. "But that indeed in the day of judgment the doings of those who have known the truth are compared with the good deeds of those who have been in error, the unlying One Himself has taught us, saying to those who neglected to come and listen to Him, `The queen of the south shall rise up with this generation, and shall condemn it; because she came from the extremities of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and behold, a greater than Solomon is here, and ye do not believe Him. And to those amongst the people who would not repent at His preaching He said, `The men of Nineveh shall rise up with this generation and shall condemn it, for they heard and repented on the preaching of Jonas: and behold, a greater is here, and no one believes. And thus, setting over against all their impiety those from among the Gentiles who have done well, in order to Condemn those who, possessing the true religion, had not acted so well as those who were in error, he exhorted those having reason not only to do equally with the Gentiles whatsoever things are excellent, but more than they. And this speech has been suggested to me, taking occasion from the necessity of respecting the separation, and of washing after copulation, and of not denying such purity, though those who are in error do the same, since those who in error do well, without being saved, are for the condemnation of those who are in the worship of God, and do ill; because their respect for purity is through error, and not through the worship of the true Father and God of all."
The Preaching of Peter
The Preaching of Peter survives today only in fragments as quotations from Clement and Origen. The small amount of extant text makes it almost impossible to voice any conjectures about the structure of this work. One can probably demonstrate a connection in terms of content between individual fragments, but a coherent text cannot be reconstructed out of this. It is also scarcely possible to show the original sequence of the fragments. It is the more regrettable that so few fragments of this important document have survived. Here we produce the fragments, without the commentaries.
1 Know then that there is one God who made the beginning of all things and has power over their end. The invisible who sees all things, unconstrained, who contains all, having need of nothing, of whom all things stand in need and for whose sake they exist, incomprehensible, perpetual, incorruptible, uncreated, who made all things by the word of his power, that is, the son.
2 This God you worship, not after the manner of the Greeks, carried away by ignorance and not knowing God as we do, according to the perfect knowledge, but shaping those things over which he gave them power for their use, even wood and stones, brass and iron, gold and silver, forgetting their material and proper use, they set up things subservient to their existence and worship them. And what things God has given them for food, the fowls of the air and the creatures that swim in the sea and creep upon the earth, wild beasts and four-footed cattle of the field, weasels too and mice, cats and dogs and apes, yes, their own edibles do they sacrifice as offerings to edible gods, and in offering dead things to the dead as to gods they show ingratitude to God, by these practices denying that he exists. Neither worship him as do the Jews, for they, who suppose that they alone know God, do not know him, serving angels and archangels, the month and the moon, and if no moon be seen they do not celebrate what is called the first sabbath, nor keep the new moon, nor the days of unleavened bread, nor the feast, nor the great day.
3 So then do, learning in a holy and righteous way that which we deliver unto you; observe it, worshiping God through Christ in a new way. For we have found in the scriptures how the Lord says: Behold, I make with you a new covenant, not as the covenant with your fathers in mount Horeb. He has made a new one with us, for the ways of the Greeks and Jews are old, but we are they that worship him in a new way in a third race, even Christians.
4 The Lord said to the apostles: If anyone of Israel then wishes to repent and by my name to believe in God, his sins shall be forgiven him. After twelve years go forth into the world so that no one may say: We have not heard.
5 The Lord said to his disciples after the resurrection: I elected you twelve disciples, having judged you worthy of me, whom the Lord also wished to be apostles, having considered you to be faithful, sending you unto the world to evangelize the men on the inhabited earth, that they may know that there is one God, showing the things that were about to be through the faith of Christ, that those who have heard and believed should be saved, but those who have not believed, after having heard, should testify, not having a defense to say: We did not hear.
6 As many things as any of you did in ignorance, not knowing God clearly, if he should recognize them and repent, all his sins shall be forgiven.
7 But we, unrolling the books of the prophets which we possess, who name Jesus Christ partly in parables, partly in riddles, partly expressly and in so many words, find his advent and death, and cross, and all the rest of the tortures which the Jews inflicted on him, and his resurrection and taking up into heaven previous to the capture of Jerusalem, thus written: These are all the things that he must suffer, and what should be after him. Recognizing them, therefore, we have believed in God in consequence of what is written respecting him.
8 For we know that God enjoined these things, and we say nothing apart from the scriptures.
9 For the afflicted soul is near to God and to every man who escapes a danger there is a greater relation concerning the one who preserved him.
10 Wretched that I am, I remembered not that God seeth the mind and observeth the voice of the soul. Allying myself with sin, I said unto myself: God is merciful, and will bear with thee: and because I was not immediately smitten, I ceased not, but rather despised pardon, and exhausted the long-suffering of God.
11 Rich is he that hath mercy on many, and he that, imitating God, giveth of that he hath. For God hath given all things unto all, of his own creatures. Understand then, ye rich, that ye ought to minister, for ye have received more than ye yourselves need. Learn that others lack the things ye have in superfluity. Be ashamed to keep things that belong to others. Imitate the fairness of God, and no man will be poor.
12 One building and one destroying, they earn nothing but the labor.
13 Origen on First Principles i, prologue 8. But if any would produce to us from that book which is called The Doctrine of Peter, the passage where the Saviour is represented as saying to the disciples: "I am not a bodiless spirit (demon)": he must be answered in the first place that that book is not reckoned among the books of the church: (and then) it must be shown that the writing is neither by Peter nor by any one else who was inspired by the spirit of God. This statement also appears in the Letter of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans: For my own part, I know and believe that He was in the actual human flesh, even after His resurrection. "When He appeared to Peter and his companions, He said to them, ‘Take hold; touch me, and see that I am no bodiless phantom.’" And they touched Him then and there, and believed, for they had had contact with the flesh-and-blood reality of Him. That was how they came by their contempt for death, and proved themselves superior to it. Moreover, He ate and drank with them after He was risen, like any natural man, though even then He and the Father were spiritually one.