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| The Call of Levi the Publican. Christ in Relation to the Baptist. Christ as the Bridegroom. The Parable of the Old Wine and the New. Arguments Connecting Christ with the Creator.
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Chapter XI.—The Call of Levi the Publican. Christ in
Relation to the Baptist. Christ as the Bridegroom. The Parable of the
Old Wine and the New. Arguments Connecting Christ with the
Creator.
The publican who was chosen by the Lord,3811
he adduces for a proof that he was chosen as
a stranger to the law and uninitiated in3812
Judaism, by one who was an adversary to the law. The case of Peter
escaped his memory, who, although he was a man of the law, was not only
chosen by the Lord, but also obtained the testimony of possessing
knowledge which was given to him by the Father.3813
He
had nowhere read of Christ’s being foretold as the light, and
hope, and expectation of the Gentiles! He, however, rather spoke
of the Jews in a favourable light, when he said, “The whole
needed not a physician, but they that are sick.”3814
For since by “those that are
sick” he meant that the heathens and publicans should be
understood, whom he was choosing, he affirmed of the Jews that they
were “whole” for whom he said that a physician was not
necessary. This being the case, he makes a mistake in coming
down3815
to destroy the law, as if for the remedy of
a diseased condition. because they who were living under it were
“whole,” and “not in want of a physician.” How,
moreover, does it happen that he proposed the similitude of a
physician, if he did not verify it? For, just as nobody uses a
physician for healthy persons, so will no one do so for strangers, in
so far as he is one of Marcion’s god-made men,3816
| 3816 Homo a deo
Marcionis. | having to himself both a creator and
preserver, and a specially good physician, in his Christ. This much the
comparison predetermines, that a physician is more usually furnished by
him to whom the sick people belong. Whence, too, does John come upon
the scene? Christ, suddenly; and just as suddenly, John!3817
| 3817 See chap. vii. of this
book, and chap. ii. of book. iii. | After this fashion occur all things in
Marcion’s system. They have their own special and plenary
course3818
in the
Creator’s dispensation. Of John, however, what else I have to say
will be found in another passage.3819
| 3819 See below, chap.
xviii. | To the several
points which now come before us an answer must be given. This, then, I
will take care to do3820
—demonstrate
that, reciprocally, John is suitable to Christ, and Christ to John, the
latter, of course, as a prophet of the Creator, just as the former is
the Creator’s Christ; and so the heretic may blush at
frustrating, to his own frustration, the mission of John the
Baptist. For if there had been no ministry of John at
all—“the voice,” as Isaiah calls him, “of one
crying in the wilderness,” and the preparer of the ways of the
Lord by denunciation and recommendation of repentance; if, too, he had
not baptized (Christ) Himself3821
along with others,
nobody could have challenged the disciples of Christ, as they ate and
drank, to a comparison with the disciples of John, who were constantly
fasting and praying; because, if there existed any diversity3822
| 3822 Marcion’s
diversitas implied an utter incompatibility between John and
Christ; for it assigned John to the Creator, from whom it took Christ
away. | between Christ and John, and their followers
respectively, no exact comparison would be possible, nor would there be
a single point where it could be challenged. For nobody would feel
surprise, and nobody would be perplexed, although there should arise
rival predictions of a diverse deity, which should also mutually differ
about modes of conduct,3823
| 3823 De disciplinis: or,
“about discipleships.” | having a prior
difference about the authorities3824
| 3824 De auctoritatibus; or,
“about the authors thereof.” | upon which
they were based. Therefore Christ belonged to John, and John to Christ;
while both belonged to the Creator, and both were of the law and the
prophets, preachers and masters. Else Christ would have rejected the
discipline of John, as of the rival god, and would also have defended
the disciples, as very properly pursuing a different walk, because
consecrated to the service of another and contrary deity. But as
it is, while modestly3825
giving a reason why
“the children of the bridegroom are unable to fast during
the time the
bridegroom is with them,” but promising that “they should
afterwards fast, when the bridegroom was taken away from
them,”3826
He neither defended
the disciples, (but rather excused them, as if they had not been blamed
without some reason), nor rejected the discipline of John, but rather
allowed3827
it, referring it to
the time of John, although destining it for His own time. Otherwise His
purpose would have been to reject it,3828
| 3828 Rejecturus
alioquin. |
and to defend its opponents, if He had not Himself already belonged to
it as then in force. I hold also that it is my Christ who is meant by
the bridegroom, of whom the psalm says: “He is as a bridegroom
coming out of his chamber; His going forth is from the end of the
heaven, and His return is back to the end of it again.”3829
By the mouth of Isaiah He also says
exultingly of the Father: “Let my soul rejoice in the Lord; for
He hath clothed me with the garment of salvation and with the tunic of
joy, as a bridegroom. He hath put a mitre round about my head, as
a bride.”3830
To Himself likewise
He appropriates3831
the church,
concerning which the same3832
| 3832 The same, which spake
again by Isaiah. | Spirit says to Him:
“Thou shalt clothe Thee with them all, as with a bridal
ornament.”3833
This spouse Christ
invites home to Himself also by Solomon from the call of the Gentiles,
because you read: “Come with me from Lebanon, my
spouse.”3834
He elegantly makes
mention of Lebanon (the mountain, of course) because it stands for the
name of frankincense with the Greeks;3835
| 3835 There is also in
Hebrew an affinity between הנבל, “frankincense,”
and זובבִל,
“Lebanon.” [Note this strange but reiterated and emphatic
identification of incense with idolatry. In the Gentile church
it was thoroughly identified with Paganism.] |
for it was from idolatry that He betrothed Himself the church. Deny
now, Marcion, your utter madness, (if you can)! Behold, you impugn even
the law of your god. He unites not in the nuptial bond, nor, when
contracted, does he allow it; no one does he baptize but a
cælebs or a eunuch; until death or divorce does he reserve
baptism.3836
| 3836 See also book i. chap.
xxix. [On this reservation of Baptism see Elucidation II.] | Wherefore, then, do
you make his Christ a bridegroom? This is the designation of Him who
united man and woman, not of him who separated them. You have erred
also in that declaration of Christ, wherein He seems to make a
difference between things new and old. You are inflated about the old
bottles, and brain-muddled with the new wine; and therefore to the old
(that is to say, to the prior) gospel you have sewed on the patch of
your new-fangled heresy. I should like to know in what respect the
Creator is inconsistent with Himself.3837
When by Jeremiah He gave this precept, “Break up for yourselves
new pastures,”3838
does He not turn
away from the old state of things? And when by Isaiah He proclaims how
“old things were passed away; and, behold, all things, which I am
making, are new,”3839
does He not advert
to a new state of things? We have generally been of
opinion3840
that the
destination of the former state of things was rather promised by the
Creator, and exhibited in reality by Christ, only under the authority
of one and the same God, to whom appertain both the old things and the
new. For new wine is not put into old bottles, except by one who has
the old bottles; nor does anybody put a new piece to an old garment,
unless the old garment be forthcoming to him. That person only3841
does not do a thing when it is not to be
done, who has the materials wherewithal to do it if it were to be
done. And therefore, since His object in making the comparison
was to show that He was separating the new condition3842
of the gospel from the old state3843
of the law, He proved that that3844
| 3844 That is, “the
oldness of the law.” | from which He was separating His
own3845
ought not to have been branded3846
as a separation3847
| 3847 Separatione. The more
general reading is separationem. | of
things which were alien to each other; for nobody ever unites his own
things with things that are alien to them,3848
| 3848 Alienis: i.e.,
“things not his own.” | in
order that he may afterwards be able to separate them from the alien
things. A separation is possible by help of the conjunction through
which it is made. Accordingly, the things which He separated He
also proved to have been once one; as they would have remained, were it
not for His separation. But still we make this concession, that there
is a separation, by reformation, by amplification,3849
by progress; just as the fruit is separated
from the seed, although the fruit comes from the seed. So likewise the
gospel is separated from the law, whilst it advances3850
| 3850 Provehitur, “is
developed.” | from the law—a different
thing3851
from it, but not an alien one; diverse, but
not contrary. Nor in Christ do we even find any novel form of
discourse. Whether He proposes similitudes or refute questions, it comes from
the seventy-seventh Psalm. “I will open,” says He,
“my mouth in a parable” (that is, in a similitude);
“I will utter dark problems” (that is, I will set
forth questions).3852
If you should wish
to prove that a man belonged to another race, no doubt you would fetch
your proof from the idiom of his language.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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