The Oath of God: Its Meaning. Moses, When Deprecating God's Wrath Against Israel, a Type of Christ

But God also swears. Well, is it, I wonder, by the God of Marcion? No, no, he says; a much vainer oath—by Himself!³⁰³⁵ What was He to do, when He knew³⁰³⁶ of no other God; especially when He was swearing to this very point, that besides himself there was absolutely no God? Is it then of swearing falsely that you convict³⁰³⁷ Him, or of swearing a vain oath? But it is not possible for him to appear to have sworn falsely, when he was ignorant, as you say he was, that there was another God. For when he swore by that which he knew, he really committed no perjury. But it was not a vain oath for him to swear that there was no other God. It would indeed be a vain oath, if there had been no persons who believed that there were other Gods, like the worshippers of idols then, and the heretics of the present day. Therefore He swears by Himself, in order that you may believe God, even when He swears that there is besides Himself no other God at all. But you have yourself, O Marcion, compelled God to do this. For even so early as then were you foreseen. Hence, if He swears both in His promises and His threatenings, and thus extorts³⁰³⁸ faith which at first was difficult, nothing is unworthy of God which causes men to believe in God. But (you say) God was even then mean³⁰³⁹ enough in His very fierceness, when, in His wrath against the people for their consecration of the calf, He makes this request of His servant Moses: "Let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation."³⁰⁴⁰ Accordingly, you maintain that Moses is better than his God, as the deprecator, nay the averter, of His anger. "For," said he, "Thou shalt not do this; or else destroy me along with them."³⁰⁴¹ Pitiable are ye also, as well as the people, since you know not Christ, prefigured in the person of Moses as the deprecator of the Father, and the offerer of His own life for the salvation of the people. It is enough, however, that the nation was at the instant really given to Moses. That which he, as a servant, was able to ask of the Lord, the Lord required of Himself. For this purpose did He say to His servant, "Let me alone, that I may consume them," in order that by his entreaty, and by offering himself, he might hinder³⁰⁴² (the threatened judgment), and that you might by such an instance learn how much privilege is vouchsafed³⁰⁴³ with God to a faithful man and a prophet.

Chapter XXVII.—Other Objections Considered. God's Condescension in the Incarnation. Nothing Derogatory to the Divine Being in This Economy. The Divine Majesty Worthily Sustained by the Almighty Father, Never Visible to Man. Perverseness of the Marcionite Cavils.

And now, that I may briefly pass in review³⁰⁴⁴ the other points which you have thus far been engaged in collecting, as mean, weak, and unworthy, for demolishing³⁰⁴⁵ the Creator, I will propound them in a simple and definite statement:³⁰⁴⁶ that God would have been unable to hold any intercourse with men, if He had not taken on Himself the emotions and affections of man, by means of which He could temper the strength of His majesty, which would no doubt have been incapable of endurance to the moderate capacity of man, by such a humiliation as was indeed degrading³⁰⁴⁷ to Himself, but necessary for man, and such as on this very account became worthy of God, because nothing is so worthy of God as the salvation of man. If I were arguing with heathens, I should dwell more at length on this point; although with heretics too the discussion does not stand on very different grounds. Inasmuch as ye yourselves have now come to the belief that God moved about³⁰⁴⁸ in the form and all other circumstances of man's nature,³⁰⁴⁹ you will of course no longer require to be convinced that God conformed Himself to humanity, but feel yourselves bound by your own faith. For if the God (in whom ye believe,) even from His higher condition, prostrated the supreme dignity of His majesty to such a lowliness as to undergo death, even the death of the cross, why can you not suppose that some humiliations³⁰⁵⁰ are becoming to our God also, only more tolerable than Jewish contumelies, and crosses,³⁰⁵¹ and sepulchres? Are these the humiliations which henceforth are to raise a prejudice against Christ (the subject as He is of human passions³⁰⁵² ) being a partaker of that Godhead³⁰⁵³ against which you make the participation in human qualities a reproach? Now we believe that Christ did ever act in the name of God the Father; that He actually³⁰⁵⁴ from the beginning held intercourse with (men); actually³⁰⁵⁵ communed with³⁰⁵⁶ patriarchs and prophets; was the Son of the Creator; was His Word; whom God made His Son³⁰⁵⁷ by emitting Him from His own self,³⁰⁵⁸ and thenceforth set Him over every dispensation and (administration of) His will,³⁰⁵⁹ making Him a little lower than the angels, as is written in David.³⁰⁶⁰ In which lowering of His condition He received from the Father a dispensation in those very respects which you blame as human; from the very beginning learning,³⁰⁶¹ even then, (that state of a) man which He was destined in the end to become.³⁰⁶² It is He who descends, He who interrogates, He who demands, He who swears. With regard, however, to the Father, the very gospel which is common to us will testify that He was never visible, according to the word of Christ: "No man knoweth the Father, save the Son."³⁰⁶³ For even in the Old Testament He had declared, "No man shall see me, and live."³⁰⁶⁴ He means that the Father is invisible, in whose authority and in whose name was He God who appeared as the Son of God. But with us³⁰⁶⁵ Christ is received in the person of Christ, because even in this manner is He our God. Whatever attributes therefore you require as worthy of God, must be found in the Father, who is invisible and unapproachable, and placid, and (so to speak) the God of the philosophers; whereas those qualities which you censure as unworthy must be supposed to be in the Son, who has been seen, and heard, and encountered, the Witness and Servant of the Father, uniting in Himself man and God, God in mighty deeds, in weak ones man, in order that He may give to man as much as He takes from God. What in your esteem is the entire disgrace of my God, is in fact the sacrament of man's salvation. God held converse with man, that man might learn to act as God. God dealt on equal terms³⁰⁶⁶ with man, that man might be able to deal on equal terms with God. God was found little, that man might become very great. You who disdain such a God, I hardly know whether you ex fidebelieve that God was crucified. How great, then, is your perversity in respect of the two characters of the Creator! You designate Him as Judge, and reprobate as cruelty that severity of the Judge which only acts in accord with the merits of cases. You require God to be very good, and yet despise as meanness that gentleness of His which accorded with His kindness, (and) held lowly converse in proportion to the mediocrity of man's estate. He pleases you not, whether great or little, neither as your judge nor as your friend! What if the same features should be discovered in your God? That He too is a judge, we have already shown in the proper section:³⁰⁶⁷ that from being a judge He must needs be severe; and from being severe He must also be cruel, if indeed cruel.³⁰⁶⁸