1. Ignatius, To The Ephesians, 18.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 18.2. For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived in the womb by Mary according to a dispensation, of the seed of David but also of the Holy Ghost; and He was born and was baptized that by His passion He might cleanse water. |
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2. New Testament, 2 Thessalonians, 3.10 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 3.10. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: "If anyone will not work, neither let him eat. |
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3. New Testament, Luke, 2.4 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 2.4. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David; |
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4. Anon., Acts of Paul, 3.5 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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5. Hermas, Mandates, 2.4-2.6 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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6. Irenaeus, Refutation of All Heresies, 3.9.2, 3.16.3, 3.21.5 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
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7. Irenaeus, Demonstration of The Apostolic Teaching, 36 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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8. Justin, First Apology, 14.3, 16.4, 31.6-31.7, 32.4 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 10. But we have received by tradition that God does not need the material offerings which men can give, seeing, indeed, that He Himself is the provider of all things. And we have been taught, and are convinced, and do believe, that He accepts those only who imitate the excellences which reside in Him, temperance, and justice, and philanthropy, and as many virtues as are peculiar to a God who is called by no proper name. And we have been taught that He in the beginning did of His goodness, for man's sake, create all things out of unformed matter; and if men by their works show themselves worthy of this His design, they are deemed worthy, and so we have received - of reigning in company with Him, being delivered from corruption and suffering. For as in the beginning He created us when we were not, so do we consider that, in like manner, those who choose what is pleasing to Him are, on account of their choice, deemed worthy of incorruption and of fellowship with Him. For the coming into being at first was not in our own power; and in order that we may follow those things which please Him, choosing them by means of the rational faculties He has Himself endowed us with, He both persuades us and leads us to faith. And we think it for the advantage of all men that they are not restrained from learning these things, but are even urged thereto. For the restraint which human laws could not effect, the Word, inasmuch as He is divine, would have effected, had not the wicked demons, taking as their ally the lust of wickedness which is in every man, and which draws variously to all manner of vice, scattered many false and profane accusations, none of which attach to us. |
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9. Justin, Second Apology, 15 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 15. And I despised the wicked and deceitful doctrine of Simon of my own nation. And if you give this book your authority, we will expose him before all, that, if possible, they may be converted. For this end alone did we compose this treatise. And our doctrines are not shameful, according to a sober judgment, but are indeed more lofty than all human philosophy: and if not so, they are at least unlike the doctrines of the Sotadists, and Phil nidians, and Dancers, and Epicureans, and such other teachings of the poets, which all are allowed to acquaint themselves with both as acted and as written. And henceforth we shall be silent, having done as much as we could, and having added the prayer that all men everywhere may be counted worthy of the truth. And would that you also, in a manner becoming piety and philosophy, would for your own sakes judge justly! |
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10. Justin, Dialogue With Trypho, 23.3, 43.1, 45.4, 52.4, 96.2, 117.5, 120.5, 121.3 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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11. Tertullian, Against Marcion, 4.36 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 4.36. When He recommends perseverance and earnestness in prayer, He sets before us the parable of the judge who was compelled to listen to the widow, owing to the earnestness and importunity of her requests. Luke 18:1-8 He show us that it is God the judge whom we must importune with prayer, and not Himself, if He is not Himself the judge. But He added, that God would avenge His own elect. Luke 18:7-8 Since, then, He who judges will also Himself be the avenger, He proved that the Creator is on that account the specially good God, whom He represented as the avenger of His own elect, who cry day and night to Him. And yet, when He introduces to our view the Creator's temple, and describes two men worshipping therein with diverse feelings - the Pharisee in pride, the publican in humility - and shows us how they accordingly went down to their homes, one rejected, the other justified, Luke 18:10-14 He surely, by thus teaching us the proper discipline of prayer, has determined that that God must be prayed to from whom men were to receive this discipline of prayer- whether condemnatory of pride, or justifying in humility. I do not find from Christ any temple, any suppliants, any sentence (of approval or condemnation) belonging to any other god than the Creator. Him does He enjoin us to worship in humility, as the lifter-up of the humble, not in pride, because He brings down the proud. What other god has He manifested to me to receive my supplications? With what formula of worship, with what hope (shall I approach him?) I trow, none. For the prayer which He has taught us suits, as we have proved, none but the Creator. It is, of course, another matter if He does not wish to be prayed to, because He is the supremely and spontaneously good God! But who is this good God? There is, He says, none but one. Luke 18:19 It is not as if He had shown us that one of two gods was the supremely good; but He expressly asserts that there is one only good God, who is the only good, because He is the only God. Now, undoubtedly, He is the good God who sends rain on the just and on the unjust, and makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good; Matthew 5:45 sustaining and nourishing and assisting even Marcionites themselves! When afterwards a certain man asked him, 'Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' (Jesus) inquired whether he knew (that is, in other words, whether he kept) the commandments of the Creator, in order to testify that it was by the Creator's precepts that eternal life is acquired. Luke 18:18-20 Then, when he affirmed that from his youth up he had kept all the principal commandments, (Jesus) said to him: One thing you yet lack: sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. Luke 18:21-22 Well now, Marcion, and all you who are companions in misery, and associates in hatred with that heretic, what will you dare say to this? Did Christ rescind the forementioned commandments: Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour your father and your mother? Or did He both keep them, and then add what was wanting to them? This very precept, however, about giving to the poor, was very largely diffused through the pages of the law and the prophets. This vainglorious observer of the commandments was therefore convicted of holding money in much higher estimation (than charity). This verity of the gospel then stands unimpaired: I am not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but rather to fulfil them. Matthew 5:17 He also dissipated other doubts, when He declared that the name of God and of the Good belonged to one and the same being, at whose disposal were also the everlasting life and the treasure in heaven and Himself too - whose commandments He both maintained and augmented with His own supplementary precepts. He may likewise be discovered in the following passage of Micah, saying: He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to be ready to follow the Lord your God? Now Christ is the man who tells us what is good, even the knowledge of the law. You know, says He, the commandments. To do justly- Sell all that you have; to love mercy - Give to the poor: and to be ready to walk with God - And come, says He, follow me. The Jewish nation was from its beginning so carefully divided into tribes and clans, and families and houses, that no man could very well have been ignorant of his descent - even from the recent assessments of Augustus, which were still probably extant at this time. But the Jesus of Marcion (although there could be no doubt of a person's having been born, who was seen to be a man), as being unborn, could not, of course, have possessed any public testimonial of his descent, but was to be regarded as one of that obscure class of whom nothing was in any way known. Why then did the blind man, on hearing that He was passing by, exclaim, Jesus, You Son of David, have mercy on me? Luke 18:38 unless he was considered, in no uncertain manner, to be the Son of David (in other words, to belong to David's family) through his mother and his brethren, who at some time or other had been made known to him by public notoriety? Those, however, who went before rebuked the blind man, that he should hold his peace. Luke 18:39 And properly enough; because he was very noisy, not because he was wrong about the son of David. Else you must show me, that those who rebuked him were aware that Jesus was not the Son of David, in order that they may be supposed to have had this reason for imposing silence on the blind man. But even if you could show me this, still (the blind man) would more readily have presumed that they were ignorant, than that the Lord could possibly have permitted an untrue exclamation about Himself. But the Lord stood patient. Luke 18:40 Yes; but not as confirming the error, for, on the contrary, He rather displayed the Creator. Surely He could not have first removed this man's blindness, in order that he might afterwards cease to regard Him as the Son of David! However, that you may not slander His patience, nor fasten on Him any charge of dissimulation, nor deny Him to be the Son of David, He very pointedly confirmed the exclamation of the blind man - both by the actual gift of healing, and by bearing testimony to his faith: Your faith, say Christ, has made you whole. Luke 18:42 What would you have the blind man's faith to have been? That Jesus was descended from that (alien) god (of Marcion), to subvert the Creator and overthrow the law and the prophets? That He was not the destined offshoot from the root of Jesse, and the fruit of David's loins, the restorer also of the blind? But I apprehend there were at that time no such stone-blind persons as Marcion, that an opinion like this could have constituted the faith of the blind man, and have induced him to confide in the mere name, of Jesus, the Son of David. He, who knew all this of Himself, and wished others to know it also, endowed the faith of this man - although it was already gifted with a better sight, and although it was in possession of the true light - with the external vision likewise, in order that we too might learn the rule of faith, and at the same time find its recompense. Whosoever wishes to see Jesus the Son of David must believe in Him; through the Virgin's birth. He who will not believe this will not hear from Him the salutation, Your faith has saved you. And so he will remain blind, falling into Antithesis after Antithesis, which mutually destroy each other, just as the blind man leads the blind down into the ditch. For (here is one of Marcion's Antitheses): whereas David in old time, in the capture of Sion, was offended by the blind who opposed his admission (into the stronghold) - in which respect (I should rather say) that they were a type of people equally blind, who in after-times would not admit Christ to be the son of David - so, on the contrary, Christ succoured the blind man, to show by this act that He was not David's son, and how different in disposition He was, kind to the blind, while David ordered them to be slain. If all this were so, why did Marcion allege that the blind man's faith was of so worthless a stamp? The fact is, the Son of David so acted, that the Antithesis must lose its point by its own absurdity. Those persons who offended David were blind, and the man who now presents himself as a suppliant to David's son is afflicted with the same infirmity. Therefore the Son of David was appeased with some sort of satisfaction by the blind man when He restored him to sight, and added His approval of the faith which had led him to believe the very truth, that he must win to his help the Son of David by earnest entreaty. But, after all, I suspect that it was the audacity (of the old Jebusites) which offended David, and not their malady. |
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12. Eusebius of Caesarea, Ecclesiastical History, 1.6.1-1.6.2, 1.6.4, 1.6.8 (3rd cent. CE - 4th cent. CE)
| 1.6.1. When Herod, the first ruler of foreign blood, became King, the prophecy of Moses received its fulfillment, according to which there should not be wanting a prince of Judah, nor a ruler from his loins, until he come for whom it is reserved. The latter, he also shows, was to be the expectation of the nations. 1.6.2. This prediction remained unfulfilled so long as it was permitted them to live under rulers from their own nation, that is, from the time of Moses to the reign of Augustus. Under the latter, Herod, the first foreigner, was given the Kingdom of the Jews by the Romans. As Josephus relates, he was an Idumean on his father's side and an Arabian on his mother's. But Africanus, who was also no common writer, says that they who were more accurately informed about him report that he was a son of Antipater, and that the latter was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the so-called servants of the temple of Apollo. 1.6.4. When the Kingdom of the Jews had devolved upon such a man the expectation of the nations was, according to prophecy, already at the door. For with him their princes and governors, who had ruled in regular succession from the time of Moses came to an end. 1.6.8. Under him Christ appeared in bodily shape, and the expected Salvation of the nations and their calling followed in accordance with prophecy. From this time the princes and rulers of Judah, I mean of the Jewish nation, came to an end, and as a natural consequence the order of the high priesthood, which from ancient times had proceeded regularly in closest succession from generation to generation, was immediately thrown into confusion. |
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