Book One

(Eusebius "Against Marcellus": "All who believe that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ and that Christ is truth, according to His words: "I am the truth...")

Introduction

1. All those who believe and are convinced that grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ, and know that Christ is the truth, according to His own words: "I am the truth" (John 14:6), will draw the knowledge that calls people to a good and blessed life, not from any other source, but from the very words and teachings of Christ. By the words of Christ we do not mean only those which He proclaimed when He became man and took on flesh: for even before Christ, the Word of God, was in Moses and the prophets, and without the Word of God, how could they prophesy about Christ? In order to confirm this proposition, it would not be difficult to prove on the basis of the Divine Scriptures that both Moses and the prophets did everything they said and did under the inspiration of the Spirit of Christ, if only we were not hampered by the task of writing this work with all possible brevity. Therefore, I think it is enough for us in this case to use one testimony of St. Paul. Paul from the Epistle he wrote to the Hebrews, in which he says thus: "By faith Moses, who was great, denied to be called the son of the daughter of Pharaoh, rather suffer with the people of God, than have the temporal sweetness of sin, having imputed greater riches to the treasures of Egypt the reproach of Christ" (Hebrews 11:24-26). In the same way, after His ascension to heaven, Christ spoke in His apostles; This is shown by Ap. In this way: "Therefore do you seek temptation for Christ who speaketh in me" (2 Corinthians 13:3).

2. Since many of those who profess to believe in Christ disagree not only on the smallest and most insignificant, but also on the great and the greatest, i.e. on questions either about God, or about the Lord Jesus Christ, or about the Holy Spirit. And not only of these (beings), but also of other creatures, that is, either of dominions or of holy powers, it seems for this reason that it seems necessary first to establish a precise boundary and a definite rule about each of these things, and only then to ask about the rest. It is true that among the Greeks and barbarians many promised the truth; but we, after we believed that Christ is the Son of God, and were convinced that from Him we must learn the truth, ceased to seek it from all of them, since they contain the truth together with false opinions. It is also true that there are many people who arrogate to themselves the knowledge of Christian truth, and some of them do not think in accordance with their predecessors; But we must preserve the Church's teaching, handed down from the Apostles through the order of succession, and which remains in the Churches even to this day: only that truth must be believed, which in no way departs from the Church and Apostolic Tradition.

3.

As for other things, the apostles only said that they existed, but how or why? they kept silent, of course, in order that they might have exercise, and thus show the fruits of their minds, the most zealous and wisdom-loving of their successors, that is, those of them who would become worthy and capable of perceiving the truth.

4. The apostolic teaching, clearly delivered, is reduced to the following propositions. First, that there is one God, Who created and created all things, and Who brought all things from non-existence into existence, God from the first creation and the creation of the world, the God of all the righteous: Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets; and that this God, in the last days, in accordance with what He had previously promised through His prophets, sent our Lord Jesus Christ, to call first Israel, and then the Gentiles, after the betrayal of the people of Israel. This God, the righteous and good Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, gave the law, and the prophets, and the gospel; He is also the God of the Apostles, the God of the Old and New Testaments. Then (Church tradition teaches) that Jesus Christ Himself, who came, was born of the Father before all creation. He served the Father in the creation of all things, for "all things were in Them" (John 1:3), but in the last times, having humbled Himself, He became incarnate, becoming man, although He was God, and, having become man, remained what He was before, i.e. God. He took on a body similar to our body, with the only difference that it was born of the Virgin and the Holy Spirit. Spirit. This Jesus Christ was born and suffered truly, and this common death was subjected not illusory, but truly; verily He rose from the dead, after His resurrection He dealt with His disciples, and ascended. Further, the Apostles betrayed that in relation to honor and dignity he is a partaker of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit. Spirit. At the same time, it is impossible to clearly see whether the Holy Spirit is born or not. Spirit? Should He be considered the Son or not? And these questions must be investigated to the best of one's ability, on the basis of the Holy Scriptures. Scriptures, and to decide through careful research. However, it was this Spirit that inspired each of the saints, both apostles and prophets; one and the same, and not different, Spirit was both in the ancients and in those who were inspired at the coming of Christ. This is preached with complete clarity in the churches.

5. After this (the tradition of the Church teaches) that the soul, having its own substance and life, after leaving this world, will receive a reward according to its merits: it will either receive the inheritance of eternal life and blessedness, if its deeds help it, or it will be given over to eternal fire and punishment, if its guilt of crimes plunges it into this. Church tradition also teaches that the time of the resurrection of the dead will come, when this body, now sown in corruption, will rise in incorruption, and sown in humiliation will rise in glory (1 Corinthians 15:42-43). In the Church's teaching it is also determined that every rational soul possesses freedom of decision and will and must endure the struggle against the devil and his angels and opposing forces, because they try to burden it with sins, and we, if we live correctly and prudently, try to free ourselves from such a burden. Hence the understanding that we are not subject to the compulsory necessity of doing good or evil against our will. Of course, even if we have freedom, some powers may have the ability to induce us to sin, and others to help us to salvation; Yet we are not necessarily compelled to do good or bad, as those think, who regard the course and movement of the stars as the cause of human affairs, not only those which are done outside of free will, but also those which are in our power. But in the tradition of the Church it is not clearly stated with regard to the soul whether it proceeds from the seed, so that its essence (ratio) or substance is contained in the bodily seeds themselves, or whether it has some other principle, and this very principle, born or unborn, or, e.g., does the soul dwell in the body from without?

6. About the devil and his angels and about the opposing forces, Church tradition teaches that they exist in any case; but what they are, or how they exist, is not clearly stated by tradition. However, very many are of the opinion that this devil was formerly an angel and, having become an apostate, persuaded many other angels to deviate with him, who are still called his angels.

7. In addition, Church tradition also contains that this world was created and began to exist from a certain time, and, because of its corruption, must be saved. But what was before this world, or what will come after it, remains unknown to many, because the Church's teaching does not speak of it clearly.

8. Further, Church tradition teaches that the Scriptures are written by the Holy Spirit (per Spiritum) and have not only an open meaning, but also some other meaning hidden from the majority, for what is described here serves as a predestination of certain sacraments and a type of divine things. The whole Church equally teaches that the whole law is spiritual; but the spiritual meaning of the law is not known to all, but only to those to whom the grace of the Holy Spirit is given in the word of wisdom and knowledge. The name ασωμάτου, i.e., incorporeal, is not known, and is not used, not only by many others, but also in our Scriptures. If, in this case, someone points us to a book called "The Teaching of Peter," where the Saviour seems to say to His disciples: "I am not a demon without a body," then, first, we must answer him that this book does not belong to the number of church books, and then show that this scripture does not belong to Peter or any other divinely inspired writer. But even if we leave this aside, the word ασωμάτου in the Teaching of Peter does not have the same meaning as the Greeks and pagans connect with it in their philosophical reasoning about the incorporeal nature. In this book, the demon is called incorporeal in the sense that the property and appearance of the demonic body, whatever this property may be, does not resemble this coarsest and visible body — and, of course, this name must be understood in accordance with the thought of the one who composed this work, namely, that He (the Saviour) does not have such a body as the demons have, i.e., not such a body as the demons have, which by nature is subtle and light, like air, and therefore by many is either considered or called incorporeal, but has a body that is dense and tangible. In fact, simple and inexperienced people usually call all this incorporeal; For example, some may call this air which we use incorporeal, because it is not a body that can be grasped and held, and has no elasticity.