Sermon 1

SERMO 1

TREATISE AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS
OF WHAT IS WRITTEN:
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth."
"In the beginning was the Word"

The calumnies of the Manichaeans.

He who remembers his own debt and the apostolic sentence which says, "Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another," must compel himself to pay. And in truth, no matter how much the terror of debt collectors weighs upon debtors, charity demands much more vehemently, which removes the weight of fear through exaction and imposes greater reverence. I remember promising Your Charity that a response against the foolish and pernicious slanders of the Manicheans, which attack the Old Testament, would not be absent from us as far as the Lord grants to give. Therefore, heed and see the serpentine snares, and withdrawing from there, submit your necks to the yoke of Christ. For they dare to present such deceits to the unwary as to say that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are contrary to each other, so that both cannot be held with one faith. And endeavoring to persuade that the very beginnings of the book of Genesis and the Gospel According to John are opposed, they set them in opposition as if they were meeting from opposite fronts.

Genesis agrees with the Gospel.

For Moses says," they claim, "In the beginning God made heaven and earth, and he does not mention the Son through whom all things were made, whereas John says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made." Is this contradictory, or rather are they themselves contradictory, who chose to criticize in blindness what they do not understand, rather than seek in piety? For what will they say when I reply that the "beginning" itself is the Son of God, in whom Genesis says God made heaven and earth? Or perhaps I will not be able to prove this, when I know that witnesses are readily available to me from the New Testament itself, to which, whether they like it or not, they bow with the neck of their pride broken? For the Lord says to the unbelieving Jews: If you believed Moses, you would believe me too; for he wrote about me. Therefore, why should I not understand that it is the Lord himself in whom God the Father made heaven and earth in the beginning? For: In the beginning God made heaven and earth, Moses of course wrote, whose having written about the Lord is confirmed by the voice of the Lord himself. Or is he perhaps not also the beginning? Nor should there be any doubt about this, when the Gospel speaks, where the Jews, having asked the Lord who he was, he himself replied: The Beginning, because I even speak to you. Behold, it is in this beginning that God made heaven and earth. Therefore God made heaven and earth in the Son, through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made, so that, with the Gospel agreeing with Genesis, according to the agreement of both Testaments, we hold the inheritance, leaving to excluded heretics their contentious calumnies.

John, Paul, and Moses.

By no means, however, should your wisdom be disturbed because, when the evangelist John did not say: "All things were made in him" but: "All things were made through him," we do not read in Genesis: "Through the beginning God made heaven and earth," but: "In the beginning God made heaven and earth." For the Apostle says: That he might show us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him for the dispensation of the fullness of times, to gather together all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, in him. Just as, therefore, you hear here what he says: in him, that you may understand also "through him," thus in what John says: "All things through him," you are also compelled to understand "in him." And just as my understanding is not taken away here, where I understand all things were made in him, even when I read through him, so in Genesis, when I read that heaven and earth were made in him, who prevents me from understanding also "through him"? Unless perhaps the Manicheans transfer the dispute to the two Testaments, and establish it between the most blessed witnesses of the New Testament, that is, between Paul and John, because one says: in him; the other: through him. But we, just as we do not believe Paul and John to be in contradiction, so we also compel them to confess the harmony between Moses and Paul.

And since John agrees with these two as they agree with each other, because he said: through Him, so that he does not prohibit understanding "in Him," all the divine writings remain in peace with each other. But as it usually happens, when we observe clouds passing through the darkness of night, our sight is disturbed by their gloom, so that the stars seem to run in the opposite direction to us: thus these heretics, because they do not find peace in the cloud of their error, it seems to them rather that the divine Scripture is in discord.

The Two Testaments are not contrary to each other.

Perhaps they might say that it was not said about the Word of God: "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth." Let it be so: let it be understood that what is written, "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth," is not in the beginning that is the only Son of God, but in the beginning of time. Not that time already existed before there was any creature (for no one would say that time is co-eternal with God, who is the creator of times), but that time began to be with heaven and earth. Therefore, if someone understands thus, recognizing at least the distinction between the creature and the Creator, not saying that what was made is co-eternal with God who made it; indeed, in that word, the number of persons will shine forth, where it is said: "Let us make man to our image and likeness"; and: "God made man to the image of God." Even if it were not apparent, and under the appellation of unity the Trinity would be hinted to those who understand, the beginning of Genesis should not seem contrary to the beginning of the Gospel to the prudent. For it could not appear otherwise to anyone except the imprudent. We have innumerable examples of such expressions in the Scriptures. The Lord himself, speaking, says: "But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, because it is God's throne, nor by the earth because it is the footstool of His feet." Will they perhaps deny that Christ sits in heaven because He does not name Himself there? Likewise, the Apostle says: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to him? Because from Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things. To Him be glory forever." Even here the mention of the Son is not made explicitly. The Apostle says there is one God and Lord, from whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things. Why then did they choose Moses to oppose to John the Evangelist, but did not want to oppose the Apostle Paul to him? Because evidently, they wanted to persuade unskilled people that the two Testaments are contrary, so that they might use one witness and reject the other. This is what their error professes. For if there were another, whose equally foolish rage would try to show that the New Testament itself is contrary in the presence of the unskilled, what else would he do but propose Paul and John, just as these Moses and John, as if they were enemies quarreling? But as the most sincere and true faith commends the concord of Paul and John, and in what blessed Paul says: "From Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things," teaches to understand not only the Father, but also the Son and the Holy Spirit, so looking to the peace of Moses and John, in what Moses said: "In the beginning, God created heaven and earth," if he accepts “beginning” as time, he recognizes nothing else in what was said, God, but the unity of the Trinity; or “beginning” in which God made heaven and earth, he embraces as the Son without hesitation. There are many other things that we can mention according to these rules of expression of the divine Scriptures. But to not burden the memory of Your Holiness, it will be sufficient to have mentioned these. We encourage you to seek the rest yourselves, or to notice as the Scriptures are read, and to consider and discuss them among yourselves harmoniously.