Against the Manichees 85–95

unknown to wickedness but known, and he planned while it knew, how do they not give great greatness to wickedness, able not to have even God’s counsel hidden from it? And how do they not slander God, as unable even to hide from wickedness? We laugh at men who, doing something against enemies, make their plan easy to detect; but weaving such an account they do not see that they are preparing mockery against God: that God, as general against wickedness, did not keep his own plans hidden, but had them easily detected by wickedness. And if even the divine and angelic powers cannot understand what the Father plans, the Son alone understanding and explaining (“No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known”), how did the wicked powers know the things in God, when not even the divine powers can know them, unless a tradition of teachings is handed down from the Only-begotten’s explanation? And that the Law itself tells beforehand all the things of his coming (“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son”), another prophet is not ignorant of the place (“And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah”), another of the manner of his placing (“The ox knew its owner, and the donkey its lord’s manger”), another of the flight into Egypt and the return from Egypt (“Out of Egypt I called my son”), another of the dwelling he had in youth (“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan: the people sitting in darkness saw a great light”), another is not ignorant of the forerunner (“A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”); and in general, if anyone wished, gathering the prophecies of the Law, to compose the whole Gospel, writing the things done here in prophetic words, he will appear a lover of learning and of letters, not explaining without the Spirit his teachings, his instruction, his baptism, the performing of signs, the judgement that took place, the betrayal of Judas, the economy on the cross, the gall and vinegar given him in his thirst, the burial itself and the tomb, the economy in Hades, the resurrection itself, and last the ascension. For then too he will cry, “Lift up the gates, you rulers, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall come in.” Then he will add

what was written by David too: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.” If, then, the Law so exactly described the coming of the Son and announced it from afar, it is no longer slandered, no longer ascribed to another. He who begot spoke beforehand; he who planned anticipated the events by word; God begot, God says, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” God sent; God spoke through Moses, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your brothers; you shall listen to him in all that he says to you.” God planned, and the one who planned was not silent; he disclosed the plan beforehand, producing faith through what was disclosed. “For his name will be called,” it says, “Angel of great counsel, wonderful counsellor, ruler of peace, father of the age to come.” Such, then, is this refutation. And since they ascribe the Law to the wicked one, what will they say if one of them is asked whether the wicked one, who advises wicked things and cannot not advise wicked things, will ever advise good things and counsel what is good? If they say that he is by nature able to advise good things and counsel what is good, they again undo their own definition; for one who does not advise wicked things is no longer wicked, one who counsels good things is no longer wicked. But if no good choice comes forth from a wicked one, to what rank will they assign those exhortations, “You shall not commit sexual immorality, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness”? To what rank will they assign what is written, “You shall not make for yourself idols, nor a likeness of anything, neither of what is in heaven nor of what is on earth nor of what is in the waters”? To what portion will they assign the commands, “You shall not covet your brother’s ox or beast of burden or wife or any animal”? If they say such things are holy and divine and lovely, they will be put to shame by the exhortations, having been ignorant of the greatness of the one who counselled them. But if they say they are bad and blameworthy, and not committing sexual immorality is bad, and not coveting what belongs to others is bad, and such things are the bad things, consider what they will think good; consider that they are procurers of pleasures, agents of idols and inventors of shameful desire. For those who slander the Law plead for lawlessness. Those who ostracize the Law, which removes pleasures, destroys deceit and abolishes superstition, what else do they do but bring in pleasures and introduce desires? And so that pleasure

may rush unchecked into their minds, they have driven the Law out of their dwellings, so that, not using the Law, they may not be put to shame by the Law, but, having somehow shaken off the Law, may offer their ears wide open to desires. The Law appears as the destroyer of evil, but they have ignorantly and uninstructedly tried to slander the Law. The Law hates evil, but they hate the Law. The Law destroys superstition, but they dare to undo the Law. Let us set the facts against each other, then. If the Law is opposed to evil, and they fight the Law, they are indignant on behalf of evil, because the Law slanders evil; for not bearing the slander of evil, they have slandered the Law, so that the slander against evil may have no force when the Law has been slandered. If the Law destroys idols and abolishes polytheism, and they have taken up arms against the Law, they have naturally proclaimed polytheism. For so that the doctrine of polytheism may prevail, the command of the Law is suppressed among them, which says, “Hear, Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord,” and, “You shall love the Lord your God,” and, “Lest, looking up to heaven and seeing the sun and the moon, you worship them.” Against these words they have taken up arms; provoked by these commands they have sharpened their tongue like a sword. That is why they are possessed and honour everything and know nothing but to worship everything, and always fall to the ground while having an exalted mind, and wander and rove in their thinking. They have deified everything at will and have taken up error. They have surpassed the Greeks, becoming more Greek than the Greeks in multitude and emptiness, and by the greatness of their absurdity dulling the ignorance of those. And so that no one, using a most deceitful art, may say with contrivance, “The Law put on a show, and stealing some good things presented them as its own, wishing to dignify its own absurdities, and sowed in parts of good things, eager to hide the rest by means of parts of good things,” come, let us first examine whether anything absurd appears in the Law, and so let there be a refutation of their absurdity; second, whether it went after some parts of evil and scattered them … having shown believers free of every part of evil, the Law would no longer appear as putting on a show, but as an enemy and foe of evil; and third, whether it sowed some good things around and did not join every form of virtue to its writings, so that, if it appeared to have written some

and left out more, the refutation might have some force. But if all good things, throughout, have been set in the writings of the Law, let us admire the Law and confess it the law of God and call it the Father’s converse, and let us strike these men off, as having a counterfeit and debased mind. That the Law has no part of evil sown in it, and did not take away one part of evil while sparing another, but that the Law is pure and holy and the law of God, Paul cries: “So the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. For we know that the law is spiritual.” For what is holy and spiritual and good is free of every absurdity and endures no absurdity. It is dignified by virtues and converses with God. For converse with God endures no other order, but is regulated by the oversight of the Spirit. For “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” And the Law, being spiritual, prepares converse with God; and the spiritual man can judge other things but is judged by no one; how much more will the spiritual Law itself be able to judge the reasonings of all others, but be judged by no one? And that it removed every form of evil and overlooked not one part, but went after it, removing [and] cutting off every form of evil, is plain from the definitions of evil, since there are four forms of evil: folly, licentiousness, cowardice and injustice. If the Law had been silent about anything bad, the Law would be incomplete; but if it went after it and worked it out thoroughly, removing every form of evil beforehand, evil is naturally checked by the Law, not allowed to keep even a remnant. Where the Law is in force and gives sinews to persuasion, not a drop of evil can be found; but where it is weak, wickedness goes about plundering and grazing, walking at will, having found its power in the soul’s unguardedness. For the Law cries, “If my people had listened to me, if Israel had walked in my ways, I would have humbled their enemies in no time.” For when the Law persuades, evils become without sinews, lying on the ground and unable even to face the soul. For if “your law is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths,” every stumbling block is removed, the heart being found enlightened and clear. For even if one has that young and slippery age, but keeps the guard of the words, he remains without falling and will cry, “By what

shall a young man make his way straight? By keeping your words.” And having gained for himself the power never to stumble by hiding the teachings of the Law in his mind, he says, “In my heart I have hidden your sayings, so that I may not sin against you.” And so, setting the Law as guard and keeper, he will understand how the Law drives out each of the forms of evil: driving out folly through the writing that says, “Do not be like horse and mule, which have no understanding”; banishing cowardice through the oracle that says, “Do not fear when a man grows rich”; “Do not fear the reproach of men, and do not be overcome by their contempt”; and “Fear God and you will be strong; besides him fear no other.” For here, having shaken off cowardice, put in strength and thrown in courage, it cries, “The righteous is confident as a lion, which does not fear nor cower before any beast.” And having removed the two forms of evil, folly and cowardice, it removes licentiousness along with them, saying, “You shall not commit sexual immorality, you shall not commit adultery.” Where the passions are checked, the bridle of self-control is found in the mind. And with the three removed, it removes injustice too: “You shall not make for yourself small and large weights; let your weights be just and equal.” And so, the parts of evil removed, wickedness is undone, no longer able to set foot in the mind. What kind of absurdity, then, has the Law not removed? What parts of pleasure has it not undone? What cowardice? What folly? Did it not go after pleasure so far, in removing it, as to take care of the eyes, not spare the hearing, and not neglect the tongue? “I made a covenant with my eyes, and I will not look upon a virgin.” The holy man goes as far as the eyes, so that pleasure, tickling the soul, may not lead it into the trip of desire. Another of the saints cried, “Do not gaze at another’s beauty,” so that pleasure, not even reaching the soul’s porch, may not take hope of entrance, but, driven from the very doors, may have no hope for its plot. And going on to the ears and the tongues, he set guards and keepers on these members too, giving it no place of its own, but cried, “Set a guard, O Lord, on my mouth,” so that no improper word, going out without benefit, might offer the bait of pleasure to the one who utters shameful things. And taking care of the loins too, so that the mind, shaken this way and that, may not be bound, he provided by commanding, “So shall you eat

the Passover: your loins girded,” so that we may not, having our members ungirt, attempt things with easy movement, but, girded so, may find the best order toward affairs. And so, the forms of pleasure removed beforehand, it went after the forms of [folly] and the forms of injustice. For if to take what is another’s, and take it by force, and take it against his will, is injustice, and to take another’s things and give them to harlots or spend them prodigally is a form of injustice, then he is unjust who takes away the honour of God and gives it to wood and demons, spending the honour and being prodigal in his mind. For the one who spends his substance is not so prodigal as the one is unjust who wipes from his mind the great wealth, the honour of God. For as long as the wealth of knowledge holds together in the soul, the disposition toward God is rendered; but when it is all worn down, spent and beggared, then it carries off his honour to wood and craft. That is why the apostle too, knowing injustice as superstition, said, “and greed, which is idolatry.” Since, then, the most grievous part of injustice is ignorance toward God, and wrongdoing toward men is less, and injustice is divided in two, ignorance toward God and wrongdoing toward men, the Law in being written began with both. And first it cries, “You shall not make for yourself idols, a likeness of anything,” so that you may not, being prodigal with the Maker’s honour, utterly destroy it all. And it was rightly angry with the people too, when, having made the calf, they cried, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” For since they assigned the gifts of the benefactor to what cannot move, and it was the most grievous injustice to give the wealth of the Maker’s benefaction to craft and carving, truth was … and the Law was written and injustice was checked and the learner was instructed; and so, with the anger of injustice removed beforehand, it removed injustice toward man as well. And first it did not wish love of money to arise in the soul, since love of money begets injustices and desire for money begets greed. For the root of evils is love of money, and injustices and greed will be branches and shoots of love of money. And since greed begins from love of money and injustice takes hold beforehand, it removes it beforehand and proclaims beforehand, “If wealth flows in, do not set your heart on it,” so that

the mind, flowing along with the stream of money, may not be carried off by the flowing wealth. For if money flows and has no stability, the judgement rightly resists, not destroying its own stability by the flowing wealth. And since love of money grieves in one way, and love of glory in another, plundering the mind by the youth and bloom of glory, it dealt summarily with this passion too (“I saw the ungodly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and behold, he was not”), so that the mind, led on by no bloom that easily withers, may not sell its own greatness, but, looking beyond these things, may hold to the love of truth. And for this reason it honours moderation, drives out injustice and gives the divine dwellings to those who have kept moderation, and so cries, “Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent, or who shall dwell on your holy mountain? He who walks blameless and works righteousness, speaking truth in his heart,” so that, having banished every form of love of money, it may give no place to injustice. And so the Law went after every form and removed it. That is why one who speaks according to the Law speaks for truth; that is why the workers of truth are not indignant at the Law when it speaks against evil. The Saviour once spoke against love of money, and the Jews grew harsh; for love of money produced harshness against the speaker. Indeed, when a tutor talks to a lazy child about laziness, he is hated by the child; for everyone who cuts out the passion of youth is hated because of the love of pleasures. That is why the Law is hated by the heretics: since it went against the passions, marched against sins, spoke against what they love, they did not bear the matter. And so that our words may become still more magnificent, and the absurdity of the heresies, which have gone unjustly against the Law, may appear, let us not only add to the discourse that the Law removed every form of evil, but also contribute to the treatise that it guides and explains every form of virtue. For if the Law removed all the vices but did not put in all the virtues, the Law fell short, lacking the provision of the virtues, having banished all the vices but no longer betrothing all the virtues to the soul. But if the discourse shows that all the virtues lie in the Law and the Prophets, how must one not admire and accept the law of God? For there are four virtues, prudence, self-control,

courage and justice, and all the virtues appear in the Law. That is why whoever wishes to be self-controlled has the teachings. Whoever is eager to be prudent, taking the starting points of the Law, excels in the matter. Whoever wishes to be brave, let him be anointed with its commands. Whoever is eager to lay hold of justice, let him hold the scale of justice, and he will do nothing unequal, doing everything by the weight of justice. And sharing in prudence, let him say, “God taught me wisdom, and the understanding of men is not in me,” so that, thrusting away this fabricated and erring prudence, he may embrace the best and divine one. And of self-control the reader who seeks will find countless examples, imprinting the examples and taking the old examples as an ointment of self-control: that young man in his prime, given up by his brothers and bought by the Egyptian, who changed the freedom of his body but kept the freedom of his soul unchanged; who put off his garments so as not to put off his self-control; who had his garments taken by force but by necessity was not torn from self-control; who chose to suffer so as not to fall by the passion of pleasure; who instead of the passion of pleasure came into the rank of prisoners; who chose to be a prisoner so as not to be found a captive of pleasure; who preferred the ill repute of the shameful deed; who was willing to be thought what he was not: for he reckoned it better to be thought shameful than to be so and escape notice. For had he done it and escaped notice, he would have feared God as witness; but thought guilty, he was content with the Overseer bearing witness to what happened. And this is an example of self-control. Of courage there are many others, but that of Judith is enough: that she was a woman, weak and timid because she was a woman, but daring and brave because she was faithful; that she made possible by courage what was impossible to human expectations; that she brought the unexpected to faith and hope, having prevailed by courage and faith. For the walls were opened and the young woman went out, and went out with her maid alone, not fearing the suspicion her beauty might bring, not dreading the swords, not afraid lest she be defiled, lest she undergo licentiousness by force, not dreading lest she suffer something sudden from a sword; but conquering by courage the fearfulness of the sword, and entrusting her beauty to God. For she thought God a trustworthy guard of her beauty, and reckoned the swords as brushwood and papyrus, having trampled

cowardice by the resolve of courage. And the woman passed through and was not judged rash, nor incurred the charge of harshness. For what she had decided was not left incomplete, so as to be charged with harshness: she accomplished what she had planned; what she had considered was brought to completion. That is why she is admired, because she mixed prudence with courage, because she brought to completion all that she planned. Having taken this example of courage, we shall take one of justice too, when Abraham defends and fights for those wronged, and having helped them hears from those set free, “Take the horses and everything for yourself,” and, hearing this, does not look to gain but gazes at what is just, and recognizes that he received freely and how he ought not to sell the gift, that a favour does not endure being sold, that those who have sold gifts are unjust, that one does not justly sell what is for sale and benefactions alike. Let a garment and a treasure be sold in the market, but let benefaction remain unsold, given freely to the needy by greatness of mind. And we have such an example of the mind: that gifts and benefactions ought not to be sold for great money, but each one’s honour kept, not destroyed beforehand by the giving of money. Having gone through these things, then, we have established that everything lies in the Law, both the removal of vice and the achievement of virtue. And these being sufficient for shame and confusion, let us also give the likeness. For if the Law had nothing equal to the Gospel, the accusation would be of what is unlike. But if there is likeness, why do we quarrel over the likeness, when likeness does not endure quarrelling? The stamp cries out kinship; the likeness signifies brotherhood. They draw the mind to one, cause of all the others and Father of the Saviour. The Law said, “Hear, Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord.” The Gospel said, “No one is good except one, God.” Paul cried, “One God, from whom are all things.” And the unbegotten and fatherless one is understood from the Law, from the Saviour and from the apostle. And there was an offspring, an offspring from the bosom, and Son of the one who begot him. And again the writings agree: “From the womb before the morning star I begot you,” the Law says; “The only-begotten Son, God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known,” the Gospels narrate. Bosom is spoken by the Gospels and womb by the Law. And a genuine Son, like the one who begot him, from womb and bosom

is proclaimed. And the voice of the Lord bears witness, “This is my Son, the only-begotten and beloved, in whom I am well pleased”; and the psalmist bears witness, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” And it is one voice brought forth then and now, and one who spoke, uttering it then and having spoken it now. And the speaker is not changed. For having uttered such a voice at a late time, he was found to have spoken it beforehand in the Psalms. And there is a command from the Father to the divine powers to serve the Son and give him reverence and worship (for it is written, “And let all the angels of God worship him”), and Paul agreed with the command, or rather works it out, interprets it, and is eager to become the interpreter of what was said and written beforehand. “For when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, ‘And let all the angels of God worship him.’” And you will see the apostle eager to interpret the old things and explain what is in the Law, not neglecting it, but at one time saying, “He has put all things in subjection under his feet,” and at once explaining, “But when it says that all things have been put in subjection, it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection to him; he left nothing not subject to him, so that God may be all in all”; and at another time saying, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother. This mystery is great; but I speak with reference to Christ and the church.” The apostles are interpreters of the old things, and the old things agree with the new. But those who are apostles interpret, and those who are not apostles slander. For not doing what the apostles do, but fighting what they wrote, they falsely claim the apostleship, being false prophets. For see, the teachers of truth, having honoured the Law, explained the Law; but these, having slandered the Law, brawl with the Law and with those who explained the Law. The apostles know the likeness of the Gospel and the Law as equal, and taking the Law see the Gospel, and looking into the Gospel do not abolish the Law; but these, thinking like things always unlike, and confessing as unfriendly and irreconcilable what is friendly and akin to each other, do not escape the conviction of evil; and being eager to separate and divide like things, but unable to divide them, since the Law does not endure being divided from the Gospel, they reaped the penalty of their own malice.

For see, whatever is in the Law about the Father lies also in the Gospels; whatever about the Son is said in both; whatever about the Holy Spirit we can find in both. For neither writing fails to mention the Holy Spirit; but in the Gospel there is the gift, and there the request. At one time David says, “Do not take your Holy Spirit from me,” at another the Gospel, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” so that what the one has may not be taken away, and what this one grants he may have by receiving. And souls are honoured by the company of the Holy Spirit, neither torn from the company nor continuing without it. And one could work out the likeness of the Law and the Gospel concerning angels and archangels and the other powers, and concerning man and earth and the other creatures, and, tracking it so, reach even to the least things. But we decline so great a mass, using only the theme, and calling on lovers of learning who have grasped the theme to go on to all the points of study. But what the heretics blame with some accusation, let us add this alone to the discourse, so that we may both resolve their charge and look into the dispositions of the Law. For if they, reading the reason of the writings, use an insulting mouth, let us both put their folly to shame by the likeness and not decline to set out the reason. For they accuse the old Law of being harsh and cruel; they accuse the old servants too of being more severe, inclined to punishment rather than affection, and free of mercy, not understanding what is written, “Mercy and judgement I will sing to you, O Lord,” nor knowing that the perfection of the economy hangs on mercy and rebuke; and for this reason, dim-sighted, they are silent about the compassions of the Law, but remember the rebukes and cry them up and down. “Do you not see,” he says, “that because children mocked Elisha he cursed them and gave the infants over to two bears, providing the children as food and a feast for the bears? Do you not see,” he says, “that because some soldiers were sent against their will by the one commanding them to summon Elijah, he hesitated to go and refused to come, but brought down fire and consumed and destroyed the men, saying, ‘If I am a man of God, fire will come down from heaven and consume you and your