Against Bardaisan

A Discourse Against Bardaisan Bardaisan indeed relates that even without his folly, Adam’s body would have turned to his dust, so that not toward flesh did the lower spirit run, seeking a boundary, and the upper course, simplicity, and fruit… for him… one his height, and he deepened his depth. The foundation of his error is like the sickness of Bardaisan; his entire discourse is a disease. For if not by Adam death had been introduced, the sign of death would not have come, the tree of life would not have been brought, and equality would not have been established, which casts destruction upon retribution. Judgment is judged before that truth which, with judgment, those who are judged are judged, the judgment of all judges who judge in error, his truth comes to his judges. For truth comes with judgment. By his truth, he is the conqueror of iniquity, which is concealed in judgment, when judgment is in opposition. The errors of that which conquers truth—that is judged covertly, with the knowledge of truth. By falsehood, truth does not return; it comes instead of its opposite. Open impudence—its victory is in truth, a crown held above it. For the word of truth… zeal… that strong hand, and that… full of both, also a strong mouth, a furnace for sweet fruit… the mouth teaches taste to the eye of the erring one in vision. For the simplicity of the eye is heard; it saw all forms; the mouth seeks all tastes, that it might learn the sweetness of fruits.

Thus again the childhood of Adam heard all that is full of the heart, lacking all that is full, so that the power of words might learn from it. And it resembles in the body of the interior that in love the members of the true member are equal, which established its companion, which is flesh, as a mistress to it, even the friends of truth would become one body against the errors, that the deficiency might be filled. * * * * to him * * The envious adversary testifies that Adam transgressed his command, he made the body return to its root, which dissolved the foundation of his life. For if you see that even the Lord dissolved his foundation to the body of death, in a life that does not cease, his truth takes the crown. He entered to contend for the contest of the two sides, behold, it is approaching to be crowned on the two sides. For one errs to the other in the contest of the interior, it resembles. For if the body clothed the Lord of the life of Paradise, it would repay him for losing his life there. But consider, take the signs of the Lord, that you may know if it resembles the corporeal and the mortal, whether the body clothed him or not, but rather he dissolved from the side of the begetter and delivered again to the side of death, and bound the forms in the midst to his natural forms. They are bound together, for his bonds that bound the errors, his death is the reconciler over his begetter. That the body clothed mortality testifies to his death, the resurrection of the body that died, that one was bound. For his begetter is bound in his death, and his death is bound in his resurrection.

For the Lord of the elements fixed the courses of his truth like the members that the eye fixes in one another, when the heretics and the erring ones wished to cut short this discourse, then the whole body and member from here and there cried out against that which was cut off. The living truth that gives life to all, its taste bears witness to it. For by the signs that are learned, the will of the Lord is known, who in the body died and was embalmed, and his birth and his death were a furnace for the new body that he put on, which is not in likeness and a garment of his garment. When he revealed his mysteries to the nature that is in touch, he wished that the body give its hand to the aged one, so that also touch might be a furnace for him, a cause for him, the true word that would meet all heresy. For we have no bone for the spirit; in truth he put on his members. Also in the manner * * wonder that * * when the * * and the signs * * proclaim that the Lord put on a body of heresy, he announces his mysteries, and conversely the other proclaims that the Savior did not put on flesh, and if he turned it in truth, he would conquer; as much as you conquer, you conquer the proof. The opinion of the truth, then, thus conquers the erring ones, not when the speaker does not * * to run, but when he began his run with him, his run overcame their run, like that run of his that established what was before * * and was crowned.

The elements’ course fixed the truth’s paths like the members that the eye fixes in one another. When the heretics and the erring ones wished to cut short this discourse, then the whole body and member from the power of the voice, because of which the hand and the mouth cannot, the body that is eternal is bound forever in itself. If they said that of the house that is of the body, and because that does not bear the yoke, they knew that the pure one does not share the yoke with the body, nor does it share in the mountain with the pure one. And if the mixture of life that gives life to the living from the living is that, then the opening that separates between the living and the dead, without which there is no darkness that does not receive one, the leavened mixture and the one that in the depth of the living gives life to them, they are hidden from their mixture. And if the desire of the flesh is not seen, then conversely the guardian of the truth and without leaven does not guard, nor does the mixture in the vessel of their flesh, for the body of Elohim does not see the living one that guards. These that seem to be their remembrance, if they are not received by one another, one of them and from one and in one, in one creation they exist, and from one light they are ordered, and from one they are dissolved and separated. And to one service they are subject.

See then the seed that like * * * to the * the earth runs * * that by the ambush of his mother * * * and leaven from all ambushes in the creation that pattern alone the ambush of the earth opposite him * * * and when from before him it was raised in a form * * * it was broken. The word sowed quickly the sorrows * * * not * * * that * * * of the life-giver * * * they * * * them behold * * * and not that which is seen * * * the body of the house is that in essence if not * * * now in the animals of being he thought * * from * * * * * * * or will that is the creator begot the wealth of change that are understood like the opposite or being that is there are memorials and are not mixed with one another and * * * * * * * * * victory. Good presses me that error * * * and what * * * * * to him who say that which is found is that death * * * he said * * * like * * * death of life in the beginning that which they say about the end and he said to them about the beginning Know the father that if he divided for them * * * to * * * and like * * * * * * * he failed * * * will that * * * change was * * * * * * * * * power like * * * * * to the body * * * * * * * * * and to him * (XXVII.) * * if then about * * * * * * that which not not all of them * * * * * * * * * * and the body * * * * * * and it was found that this death smallness * * * that or to his smallness

What then is the good of death? If life increases, * * * to it in its turning * * * its life never because of anything in its companion * * * in one * * there is a place * * and the people who desire stand on the mountain * * that fell upon. The turning again quickly upon the request that before this, that it not be cast away, was left to it. The truth runs to its root, while holding the victory of its sister, and it hopes for its errors that were its wood for the members. That also the beginning will mock it. Body and soul were assembled to paradise, and in paradise they were honored, and they turned to smallness, they were diminished, and they turned to honor. Body and soul went up together, body and soul went out together by death, they separated one from another in division, again to be mixed. The death that God decreed upon Adam after he sinned is not the violent murder of killers who kill their companions. The killing of righteous Abel from the freedom that oppressed him, and the death of sinful Adam from the affliction that pursued him. It was not, then, because the killing of righteous Abel preceded the death of sinful Adam. Abel was the first to die in that death from God. Freedom in its arrogance helped against Abel in its lack, and brought murder before death.

In that end of death, Adam was the first to die; in that slaying of murder, Abel was the first to be slain. See how, by the power of servitude and freedom, neither was servitude subdued nor was freedom constrained. And behold, from the beginning, two ways of death: one of end and one of slaying. For as freedom entered at the beginning of slaying before death, so servitude entered death after folly. For he who knows that the slain is slain by the slayer in slaying, their lives are measured while far from the beginning of the slayers who loved and slew, and far also from the corpse of the slain who was slain by the sword. See then that the slain who did not go to his end is a corpse, and if he went to his end, it is a stumbling block. For his slayer is victorious; but over him is God, from corpse and from stumbling block. Neither is the corpse that approached the end, nor is it the stumbling block that is destined for death. When, then, the difficult matter is resolved, I come to the interpretation; for it is a vain thing that it was received in one hour. The end of the slain is hidden, and the will of the slayer who slew the slain at his end went, and the slayer with his weapon is guilty. So now from these things that were not, these are not arguments for you, that the head is cast against the erring ones; I cast and am adorned with it. For it was not a small contest that was in the hand of Bardaisan, of the youths who heard and were from the merchandise of their lives.

And if the covenant of Abel was not the first to die, and his murder was a release, because the place of Adam’s sickness was the knowledge that the killing of a man is the end of his being from God, for Abel, indeed, injustice killed him; Adam, however, died of sickness. Nor will it be so for this: the place where the children of Adam’s sickness were troubled, that man killed him, and Adam died of sickness. Adam, because of sin, God put an end to his sickness by death; the sickness, however, that killed the unjust one among the unjust, that killed him. If the body were hung by the soul, then also the soul, like the body, would be in the power that hung it; the whole hanging one, by that power, gives life to the whole. And just as the soul, if it were to release the body, it would be loosed and fall, so also the power that gives life to the soul, if it were to release it, would be loosed. If the body that is mixed with the soul is its partner, they say that it cannot go to it even a little because of its weight, just as heavy and weighty substances can be joined to that power which, from all eternity, is fixed in it until the world. What then does sin also say? If the body, because of its weight, is separated from the pure soul, then that pure one is also separated from the power that purifies it, and not... on the side of the body, that which is acted upon is from that power which is its form.

For both of them, indeed, it is a reminder for the pure one, and also for the turbid one, for the turbid one because it preserves the pure one on account of its own turbidity. If that body were in the world, it would be in its direction; the Levite is for the pure one from it, and the Levite is for him of the turbid one from it. For it is not the power of the nature of the pure soul that the power of the snowy one is in it, nor does it extend the measure of the pure one, nor does it extend toward the body. Death, which is like the one in his sin, errs the body. In the coming of Bardaisan, he is accused because he taught that there is one who is thick with his companion and one who is light with his companion. He placed the lower ones as evil, he placed the upper ones as good, he placed darkness and spirit as pure, and fire and water as heavy. If the lower ones do not follow the upper one from it, nor do the corporeal waters become Levite for the light fire, nor does the fire become for the pure spirit, nor does the spirit become for the dark Levite, nor do all of them become for God, who is higher than all and prays. If, however, they accept guiltily, all the natures are heavy and light to one another, and they stand and are stood to one another; the upper one that they equal, if they do not change the lower one, and if that one changes the lower one, it cannot be a middle one.

It is one, then, from the two, weakness or evil, that is directed against it. If it is evil like the good, and if it is weak like the active one, and if it is like the good, it is humbled. To the middle ones, they had set up to pasture all of them with all of them, so that his goodness might not be lacking. Look, then, at the son of man, and see that all of them have been mixed: heat from fire, its coldness from wind, its moisture from water, its dryness from earth. Life begins within him, holding him to activity. And if these were here as they are, the causes would be here as they are, as if there were a being, the active ones that would be the cause. Being cannot be destroyed; being cannot be established. By being it is not destroyed; by being it is not established. That active one which cannot destroy the beings that are in it in the type, again cannot establish the being that is in them. For it is not that it brings non-existence into existence, for it cannot destroy it; nor again does it ride upon its receptacle, for it cannot dissolve it. LV, LVI. And if it cannot dissolve the non-existence of the other beings, that which is bound in its vessel, then the active one cannot do anything and establish, take, then, help. That active one, from itself, as it cannot be established, beings cannot be made.

In this again it is shown that, as the body stands by itself, heavy with a light power, so also the soul, in the likeness of the body, is set against a power that is from every quarter cut off. LVII, LVIII. Against their words it is said, for they say that his life, the mixed one, in the essences is both weak and strong. As the life of the mixed one, the essences were made alive and lived, if indeed the life of the mixed one is weak in the essences and they were lives. That which gives life is to it, and the soul to the body, as its life lives for the essence of the mixed one, they were from its life. If, then, by the Lord the servants live, how much more does the body live by the vitality of the soul than it? The mind, as they say, is the mixed one that is hidden in the soul, which is without knowledge. To the body and the mind, the mixed one is, if indeed the body cannot, it adheres to the soul, which is of dust. Nor can it adhere to the mind, which is divine. You have no argument, then, to interpret and reconcile your words, that you cast your words into an argument, and when your exchanges are confounded, your confutation becomes a substitute for your toil, and you have no completion, for when you reconcile the exchange of the soul, your reconciliation becomes a substitute for the body. LXI. Show, then, from more than the creation of the first ones.

For it is a sharp weight that is in the midst of the waters that are thickened, and also in the midst of the weight the spirit is also thick, and from the weight also the soul is in the midst of the body, as they say it is sharp and in the midst of the mind it is thickened. It shows then that all nature is swallowed up in one another: a thick substance and spiritual things are swallowed up, for oil is swallowed up by fire, and fire is swallowed up by the wind, and oil is not felt in the fire, nor fire in the wind, for the whole of the light is easy. Again, place water in the middle between summer and winter, and if the power of cold prevails, it makes them bodily, which it thickens harshly, and if the power of heat prevails, it makes them spiritual, which it raises sharply. Not ... this ... and it makes ... and thick ... that which he does ... and not ... a little ... that Bardaisan said that because of its weight it remains in it: from ... clear that the soul, when it ... to him, also that little one, like a sound written ... and like a breath to the weight it was, and it flew away lightly. Behold ... of the nature that Bardaisan introduced, that it is thickened as he said in the Chalipa and in the Maʿyūʿī, if there is that which is thickened, it is shadowed ... the name good ... he created all according to his will.

... in him the good ... that to his death ... and ... was ... that not to death ... a manifest death, but because of souls that do not die, death ... of the dead, the heavy one of sin. When there is a movement, it has this consequence. And it was not determined all ... and ... and ... of ... they determined what ... he saw that ... brings upon the evil rocks, born in wombs, seeds of evil. ... of Adam ... all ... they were dying, while yet they were not born from the womb ... all the dead ... they also were not yet born from ... and ... subjugated, he died and ... the sea ... they were ... to the dead and they were dying in it from ... and when they approached, their form struck them ... to Adam. Also Adam, that second ... and he determined in the form of death all those who were in him, they were living secretly, and when their movements approached, a voice struck them ... the living one, as if the dead one to the living one, the voice of the movement revives them.

For he is the first ship, the mystery of which is that last ship, just as the death of Adam was said to have killed all of that ship. * * * it was * * and when * * * * * he and * * were redeemed, one that flew and one that was hung. Also Marʿa in the last ship. He warms the dead with his warmth, for all the dead are found in his ship, and he is the ferryman of the mountain of those who sink in him, the wicked, and the righteous are redeemed in him, like your life, the living are snatched away in mystery, the dead are hung. Bardaisan, however, in this * * and he wished also to * * the hinderer in that * * * * * when he died, he died and killed all * * * Also Marʿa did not consider why he does not warm all bodies, so that just as their beginning was in Adam, their composition would be by the hand of Marʿa. Behold, Adam is not the one who caused the fall, for he died and fell and cast down everything. Rather, he died by his sin, and the world died by his decree. Also Marʿa is not the one who caused the warming to warm everything, but he lives by his victories, and the world lives by his mercies. At the hour when Adam died and fell, the earth was full of life, and in it death alone reigned. Also Marʿa now, when Sheol is full of the dead, in it alone warmth reigns. Death is enough from one over all. Warmth is enough from one also. Bardaisan was not content to look into the matter * * he chose one side, that side alone, and he did not even look at it as it is.

Without * * his pure intention, for when he speaks about Adam, who began from one thing, that one began from everything. But he does not know the body that died in Adam, for the oil of the chrism testifies to his death, and the censer testifies to his resurrection. And the censers came out from the furnace, they were for the furnace of truth. They fixed the stars for the sign that he did not consider his own self alone. Bardaisan seeks whether that dead body in Adam ought to be for the Lord who came, for the body stands from the call; but if not the body, he sees the sign of death that Adam brought upon souls by his sin, which brought souls down to Sheol with him; the Lord raised up signs. * * at the end of his word. For behold, the Lord did not say that every place where my word keeps death, it will never taste; and behold, all the creatures of * * death, sin is in the heart, for it filled the basket of enmity * with request. And the word * that at the end, he made his peace full for the peace that he proclaimed in that death. That souls of all kinds in every place, in every depth and in caves, and that keep the word of the Lord of creation from within the body, are delivered to the light. According to the teaching of Bardaisan, the death that Adam brought in was the completion of souls. That all kinds are for the passage of all signs of Adam's sin, and life did not enter the Lord who taught the truth and ascended. And he passed over signs to the kingdom.

He did not learn from our Lord that death never tastes the word of the one who keeps it, for without * * he would not have learned that his own self is not hindered when it passes over the crossing, like the first barrier at which souls are halted until the Saviour comes. He aims at one of the two * * of the one who keeps the word of our Lord, that he died before our Lord. And if the self did not aim at the crossing, death tasted his own self, and if he had made it for the beginning, that rebellion which he spoke about our Lord, that his passing was first. For if to Lazarus, when he died, he had ascended to the height, he would have done evil with him, our Lord made him return to his body in the prison, and that which our Lord said to Martha, that your brother will rise, from where did he say that he would rise, from the height or from the depth? Like a physician he acted spiritually, so that for sin, the cause of pains, he uprooted from the sickness. For the serpent was the first that struck Adam, not with herbs but with counsel; he healed him also for the plague with commands and not with drugs. If that self is the sign that taught like their word, it would be fitting that it teach souls in the likeness without being astonished and without being disturbed, and if in the likeness for souls there is no giving or taking, what does it owe to the body? And the self in its image came, conquered, and completed.

A sign in him is his form, and a likeness in him is his image, and a demonstration in his body fixes his seal, that he was adorned and tasted pain, and was heated and put on glory, and taught that every place that is thus governed is thus glorified, and that which approaches thus is adorned, and that which conquers thus is crowned. Also Adam, in him is his form, a sign of the one who is late in him, that every one who sinned and was confounded and was separated and was cast out and went out and was stripped and passed over and was loosed and was destroyed. And he taught that every iniquity is his fullness, his support is also his advantage. In both worlds he is despised; in both worlds the erring ones taste disgrace on the steps by which Adam descended; in those same steps the Lord raised him up. In the beginning he gave him truth in exchange for the lie that the serpent gave him; at the end he gave him life in exchange for the death that the tree gave him. He joined his life with him, for death divided his equality. By means of the blood of all bodies that die, the body of the Lord alone stood. Bardaisan erred and thought that it is the souls that the Lord heats. And he did not see that also the death of Adam, in Adam, reigned beforehand, and now after six thousand years, his leaven has flown through all generations. XCII. Also the Lord, when he was heated, reigned life beforehand, just as death reigned in Adam, and just as Adam after the transgression, his death reigned over all; also the Lord after a time, he reigns over all his power, until the end when the destructions are joined to each other. The leaven of the one who revives all has flown in the whole lump of the dead one.

Lo, the dough is in the kneading of Sheol. For after the leavening of the senses, the leaven of death ruled in him. Lo, after a little victory, the leaven of life is for mortality. And if he who is sufficient is sufficient, as if he who is sufficient is also sufficient. A discourse concerning the body was spoken, about the body and its constitution. The rest of his speech is superfluous. For the last day, the fullness that is for him who is to be traded in the disputation. The findings of the faith. The time when he fell stood before sin, and the time when he began was established, and the time when he remained was of the dead, that the events of Adam the wicked overtook him; death ruled in him at the beginning, death ruled in him at the end of his body, and his soul sinned together; death divided his equality in half. I confess, my Lord, that I am not satiated, nor am I filled; I am not satiated because I asked, and I am not filled because I inquired; the hunger that inquired does not know; the thirst that sought does not cease; my fullness that my hunger might be appeased, I hungered that my thirst might be stirred. The end of the discourse against Bardaisan.