30. (Abraham being commanded) by God, migrates from Mesopotamia and the city of Harran to the part now called Palestine and Judæa but then Canaanitis, concerning which we have in part but not without care handed down the p. 510. account in other discourses.[75] Through this occurred the beginning of [the] increase [of population] in Judæa, which got the name from Judah the fourth son of Jacob, of whom it was also called the kingdom, through the royal race being from him. (Abraham)[76] migrates from Mesopotamia (being 75 years old) and being in his hundredth year (begat Isaac). (And Isaac being) 60 years old begat Jacob. And Jacob [when] 87 years old begat Levi. But Levi when 40 years old begat Kohath.[77] And Kohath [was 4] years old when he went down with Jacob into Egypt. Therefore the whole time which Abraham and all his race by Isaac dwelt in the land then called [the] Canaanitis was 215 years.[78] And his (father) was Terah. This, one’s [father] was Nahor, his Serug (his Zeu, his Peleg, his Eber) whence (the Jews) are p. 511. called Hebrews. There were 72 (sons of Abraham from whom also were 72) nations, whose names also we have set forth in other books.[79] Nor did we omit this in its place as we wished to show to the learned[80] our affection concerning the Divine and the accurate knowledge concerning the Truth which we have painfully acquired. But the father of this Eber was Shelah, and his Canaan, and his Arphaxad, who was born to Shem; and his father was Noah in whose time the flood over the whole world came to pass, which neither Egyptians, nor Chaldæans, nor Greeks record. For to them the floods in the time of Ogyges and Deacalion were [only] in places. Now in their time[81] were 5 generations, or 435 years.[82] This [Noah] being a most pious man and one who loved God, alone with [his] wife and children and their three wives escaped the coming flood, being saved in an ark, the measurements and remains of which, as we have set forth[83] [elsewhere], are shown to this day in the p. 512. mountains called Ararat which are near the land of the Adiabeni. It is then to be observed by those who wish to give a painstaking account how plainly it is shown that the God fearing race are older than all Chaldæans, Egyptians, [or] Greeks. But what need is there to name here those before Noah who both feared and spake with God, when to what has gone before the witness of antiquity is sufficient?
31. But since it seems not unreasonable to show that those nations who occupy themselves with philosophy[84] are later in date than they who feared God, it is right to say both where their race came from, and that when they migrated to these countries, they did not take a name from them, but themselves gained [one] from those who first ruled[85] and dwelt [there]. The three sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japhet. From them the whole race of men multiplied and dwelt in every country. For the word of God[86] was confirmed by them which said, “Increase and multiply and fill the earth.”[87] So mighty was this one saying, that 72 children were begotten by the 3 sons, family p. 513. by family, of whom 25 were Shem’s, 15 Japhet’s, and 32 Ham’s. And the sons of Ham were, as has been said 32:—his were Canaan, from whom the Canaanites, Misraim, from whom the Egyptians, Cush, from whom the Ethiopians, Phut, from whom the Libyans. These in their own speech unto this day are called by the common name of their ancestors and even in the Greek are named by the names by which they have just been called. But if it were shown that there were formerly none to inhabit their countries, nor a beginning of [any] race[88] of men, yet there are still these sons of Noah, a God-fearing man who was himself a disciple of God-fearing men, thanks to which he escaped the great although temporary threat of [the] waters. How then can it be denied that there were God-fearing men earlier than all Chaldæans, Egyptians [and] Greeks,[89] the father of which [last] was born to that Japhet [and had the] name Jovan, whence [the] Greeks and Ionians? And if the nations who occupy themselves with matters of philosophy are shown to be altogether of much later date than the God-fearing race and the Flood, will not the Barbarian p. 514. and whatever races in the world are known and unknown, appear later than these? Wherefore now, do ye Greeks, Egyptians and Chaldæans and every race of men master this argument and learn what is the Divine and what His well-ordered creation from us, the friends of God, who have not been trained in dainty phrase, but in the knowledge of Truth and the practice of moderation find words for His demonstration.[90]
32. One God is the First and Only One and Creator and Ruler of all. He has no coæval, neither boundless chaos, nor immeasureable water, nor solid earth, nor compact air, nor hot fire, nor subtle spirit, nor the blue canopy of great heaven.[91] But He was One, alone with Himself, who when He willed created the things which are, which at first were not, save that He willed to create them as knowing of what they would be. For foreknowledge also is present with Him. He fashioned first the different principles of things to come—fire and spirit,[92] water and earth,—from which different [principles] He made His creation. And some p. 515. things He [made of] one substance and some he bound together out of two, others of three and yet others of four. And those that are of one were immortal, for dissolution does not dog them, for that which is one will never be dissolved. But those [made] from two or three or four [substances] are dissoluble, wherefore they are called mortal. For death is called this, the dissolution of what is bound together. We think we have now answered sufficiently those who have sound perception, who, if for love of learning they will enquire further into these substances and the causes of the fashioning of all things, they will learn them by reading our book, treating of “the Substance of the All.”[93] And I think that it is here enough to set forth the causes from ignorance whereof the Greeks glorified with dainty phrase the parts of the creation, but ignored the Creator. Starting wherefrom the heresiarchs, transfiguring into like expressions what was formerly said by [the Greeks] have composed laughable heresies.
33. This God, then, One and Over All having first conceived p. 516. in His mind begat [the] Word, not a word in the sense of a voice, but the indwelling Reason[94] of the All. He begot Him alone from the things which are. For the Father Himself was what is, from Whom was the Word, the cause of the begetting of things coming into being, bearing within Himself the will of His begetter, not ignorant of the thought of the Father. For from the time[95] of His coming forth from Him who begat Him, becoming His first-born voice, He holds within Himself the ideas conceived in His Father’s mind. Whence, on the Father ordering the world to come into being, the Word completed it in detail,[96] [thus] pleasing God. And the things which multiply by generation, He formed male and female; but all those for service and ministry he made either males who have no need of females or neither male nor female. For when the first substances p. 517. of these came into being [namely] Fire and Spirit, Earth and Water, from the things that were not, neither male nor female things existed. Nor could male and female have come forth from each of these, unless the God who gave the command had willed that the Word should do this service.[97] I confess that angels are [formed] of fire and I say that no females are present with them. But I consider that Sun and Moon and stars were in like manner [formed] of fire and spirit and are neither male nor female. But I say that swimming animals were [formed] of water and that winged ones are male and female.[98] For thus God willed and commanded that the watery substance should be fruitful. In like manner, serpents and wild beasts and all sorts of animals were [formed] from earth and are male and female; for this the nature of begotten things allowed. For whatever things He willed, those God created. These He fashioned by the Word, for they could not have come into being otherwise than they did. But when as He had willed He also created, He called and designated them by name. Thereafter He fashioned the ruler of them all, and equipped him from all substances brought together. Nor did He wish to make a God and fail, nor an angel—be not deceived—but p. 518. a man. For had God willed to make thee a God, He could: thou hast the example of the Word. But He willed a man and created thee a man. But if thou dost wish also to become a God, hearken to the Creator and withstand Him not now, so that being found faithful over a little, thou mayest be entrusted with much.[99]
Only the Word of this [God] is from Him. Wherefore He also is God, being the substance of God. But the world is from nothing. Wherefore it is not God and it will be dissolved[100] when the Creator wills. But God who created makes nothing evil; but he creates it fair and good. For He who creates is good. But man when he came into being was an animal with free-will,[101] not having a ruling mind, nor dominating all things by reflection and authority and power, but a slave[102] and full of all contrary [desires].[103] Who, in that he is free to choose produces evil, which when it is completed by accident is nothing unless thou dost make [it].[104] For it is by the thinking and willing something p. 519. evil, that it is named evil; which was not from the beginning, but came into being later. [And] as man was free to choose, a Law was laid down by God, not vainly. For if man were not free to will or not to will, what need of a Law?[105] For the Law is not decreed for a dumb beast, but a bridle and a whip; but to man was appointed a commandment and a penalty in respect of what he was to do and not to do. And [the] Law as to this was laid down of old through righteous men. Nearer to our own times, a Law full of majesty and justice was laid down through the Moses aforesaid, a steadfast man and one who loved God.
All these things, the Word of God directs, the First-born Son of [the] Father, the light-bringing voice before dawn.[106] Thereafter there came into being righteous men who loved God. These were called prophets from their showing beforehand the things to come.[107] To whom word came not at one season [only], but through all generations the utterances of things foretold was most clearly brought forward.[108] p. 520. Nor did they merely give an answer to those present there at the time, but through several generations also the things to come were foreshadowed. [And this] because speaking of things past they recalled them to mankind; but by showing what was then happening they put away carelessness, and by foretelling the future have made every one of us fearful by the sight of the fulfilment of prophecies and the expectation of the future. Such is our faith, O all ye men who are not persuaded by vain speeches, nor captured by sudden movings of the heart, nor enchanted by plausible and eloquent words, but have not been obdurate to words uttered by Divine power. And these things God commanded [the] Word; and the Word speaking through [the prophets], uttered them for the turning of man from disobedience and emancipating him from the force of Fate, but calling him to liberty by his free choice.[109]
The Father in the last days sent forth this Word, not speaking through a prophet, and not wishing that the Word when proclaimed should be darkly guessed at, but that He should be manifested to the very eyes of all. He, I say, p. 521. (sent Him forth) that the world when it beheld Him should be put to shame. For He did not give commandment through the person of prophets, nor affright [the] soul by an angel, but was Himself present and spake. Him we know to have taken body from a Virgin and to have moulded[110] the old man through a new formation. [We know] that He passed in life through every age,[111] so that He might become a law for every age, and that His presence might show forth His manhood as an example[112] to all men; and that through Him it might be proved that God makes nothing evil, and that man as master of himself can will or not will [evil], being capable of both. We know, too, that this man came into being out of the same material[113] as ourselves; for were He not of the same [matter] it would be vain to order that the Teacher be imitated. For had that Man chanced to be of another substance [than ours] why should he order me who am weak by nature to do things like Himself? And [in that case] how is He good and just? But in order that He might not be thought different from us, He underwent toil, and was willing to hunger, and denied not thirst,[114] and was stilled in sleep, and renounced not suffering, and p. 522. submitted to death, and manifested resurrection, sacrificing in all this His own manhood, so that thou when suffering may not be faint-hearted, but mayst confess thyself a man and expect also what the Father promised Him.
34. Such is the true word about the Divine.[115] O all ye men, Greeks and Barbarians, Chaldæans and Assyrians, Egyptians and Libyans, Indians and Ethiopians, Celts and ye army-leading Latins,[116] and all ye dwellers in Europe, Asia and Libya.[117] To you I am become a counsellor, being a disciple of the Word who loves man and myself a lover of mankind, so that you may hasten to be taught by us who is the real God and what His well-ordered creation. And that you give not heed to the sophistries of artificial discourses,[118] nor to the crazy promises of plagiarizing heretics, but to the august simplicity of unboastful truth. Through the knowledge of which, you shall escape the coming menace of the judgment of fire, and the unlighted vision of gloomy Tartarus unillumined by the voice of the Word, and p. 523. the boiling of the Lake of the eternal Gehenna of flame, and the ever-threatening eye of the angels punished in Tartarus,[119] and the worm which through the filth of the body turns towards the body which threw it forth as for food. And these things thou shalt escape when thou hast been taught the God Who Is. And thou shalt have an immortal body together with an incorruptible soul. And thou shalt receive the kingdom of the heavens, who whilst on earth didst also recognize the heavenly King. But thou shall speak with God and be joint heir with Christ, not enslaved by desires nor sufferings nor diseases.[120] For thou [wilt] have become God. For whatever sufferings thou underwent as man, thou hast shown that thou art a man; but whatever is appurtenant to a God, that God has promised to bestow, because thou hast been made divine, since thou hast been begotten immortal. This is the [true] “Know Thyself,” the knowledge of the Creator God. For to him who knows himself has occurred the being known to Him by whom p. 524. he is called. Wherefore now, O men, be not your own enemies, nor hesitate to turn again. For Christ is the God over all, Who has arranged to wash away iniquity from among men, and to make anew the old man who from the beginning was called His image, thus showing forth His love towards thee. Having hearkened to Whose august precepts, and having become a good imitator of the Good One, thou wilt be like unto and be honoured by Him. For God asks no alms,[121] and has made thee God for His own glory.
FOOTNOTES
[1] The promises before noted at the end of Books VIII and IX to declare the Doctrine of Truth says nothing of these epitomes, nor do they always accord with the earlier Books which may be supposed to be here epitomized. For a suggested explanation of this discrepancy see Introduction, Vol. I, pp. [18], [19] supra. It should also be noted that, while the author omits here any detailed mention of the contents of Books II, III, and IV, he can hardly have had Book I before his eyes at the time of writing, or he would have referred to it directly instead of quoting as he does from Sextus Empiricus. As has been said in the Introduction, the “epitome of the heresies” bears closer relation to Books V-IX, although it omits several heresies included in the epitomized books. That the writer, if not Hippolytus himself, is at any rate writing in his name, is plain from the wording of chap. 5, infra, and we can hardly suppose a forger so reckless as not to have read the earlier Books before attempting to epitomize them. On the other hand, it is perfectly conceivable that Hippolytus had in his possession notes from which his earlier Books were written, and that of these only a part remained when he set to work to write Book X. It would seem, therefore, that only some such hypothesis as that given in the Introduction really fits the case.