Sermo contra omnes haereses

Of Our Father among the Saints Athanasius, Against All Heresies. The passage from the Gospel according to John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This one was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be which has come to be." Each of the holy prophets and evangelists, being gifted with insight and inspired by the Holy Spirit, relate all the holy and great salvation that was to come to the human race. But someone will say, "How? Explain to us." Listen, beloved. The prophets, as was said before, being gifted with insight, signify the things that will come to pass so many generations beforehand, pointing to future things as if they were present. Likewise, the great evangelists, at the advent of the Word, confirm what was proclaimed beforehand through the prophets, each one confirming the prophecy in the Gospels. For example: the great prophet Isaiah says, "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before the shearer, speechless, so he does not open his mouth. And in his humiliation his judgment was taken away. Who will recount his generation? By his wound we were all healed." When the one who was foretold came to us, and the great Baptist John saw him passing by, fulfilling what was foretold through the prophet Isaiah, he says, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Behold, the great Baptist confirms the voice that was prophesied.

Likewise, what did the hierophant Moses say about this wound, through which the whole human race was to partake of salvation? "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree;" and again he says, "You will see your life hanging on a tree." He did not first say "life," then "the curse"; but he first said "the curse," then "life." For it was necessary that the bond be first nailed to the cross, and the side of the Word be pierced by the spear, so that the wound from the piercing might become a purification for the world, the blood and water for the human race. Woe to the ungrateful Jews! When such and so great signs and benefactions occurred among them, instead of glorifying and blessing the one who sojourned among them for what was happening, they said the opposite: "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." But the sun drew in its rays, unable to bear seeing the Lord hanging on the gibbet. And two thieves were hanging with him; and when one of them was cursing, the other thief said, "Why do you curse the just man? We have suffered according to our own sins; what have you to do with the just man?" And to Jesus he said, "Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." O what a great thing! When the curse was nailed, he opened paradise in the promise to the thief. O of this blessed thief! He snatched by thieving in the world, and he also snatched the kingdom of heaven by his confession. Concerning this, the great prophet said:

And the beetle will speak from the wood." You know, brothers, that the beetle busies itself with unclean things, being itself unclean; so also the thief once busied himself with his robberies. But when he was on the cross, he confessed, as I said before, and the prophecy is fulfilled in him: "And the beetle will speak from the wood." Having thus spoken, he was deemed worthy to snatch the kingdom of the heavens. And again the great prophet Isaiah says, pointing as if present: "Behold, the Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and they will call his name Emmanuel," which is interpreted, "God with us." When this prophetic sign was about to be fulfilled, the great archangel Gabriel, who stands at the right hand of the Majesty, was sent to signify to the immaculate Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, and says to her: "Hail, full of grace; the Lord is with you." By "Lord" he indicated the common Master, confessing their shared servitude. "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore the one born from you will be called Holy." Truly, beloved, the temple of the one who will sanctify the whole world is called holy. And again the same prophet says: "A child has been born to us, and a son has been given to us, whose beginning is upon his shoulder. And his name is called Angel of Great Counsel." When these things were fulfilled, the great evangelist John, the son of thunder, says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This one was in the beginning with God.

Everything came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being." If everything came into being through him, then he is outside of created things, and it is evident that he was always in the Father. Woe to the new Jews, the Ariomaniacs, who have not read correctly, nor examined accurately, having the eyes of their mind blind, thinking that the creator and maker of all things is a creation. Hear the great evangelist: "In the beginning." O Christ-fighting Arian, if he had said, "In the beginning it came into being," you would have had a pretext to say, "Behold, the evangelist said, 'In the beginning it came into being.'" But since he said, "In the beginning it was," seek accurately, and you will find the truth; then question the great evangelist, saying to him, "O evangelist, tell us the nature of the beginning and of the being of God the Word, because the Christ-fighting Arians think that the creator of all things is a creation." Immediately the great evangelist will say to you, "Read the Genesis of the creation of the world, which says thus: 'In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.' Let it be, then, that non-existent things came into being, things that were to come to be. The Word of God was with the Father, through whom all things came into being. Therefore the evangelist rightly says, 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' Behold, the 'was' three times, nowhere the 'was not.'" And the great archangel Gabriel, when he said to the immaculate and ever-virgin Theotokos,

Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." It did not say, "Spirit will be generated upon you," or "power will be made upon you," but, "Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." This the blessed Apostle also made clear, saying: "Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God." But the Arian will say to these things, "How does the writer of Proverbs say, 'The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works'?" O most impious one, did you not hear the archangel saying to the Virgin, "The one born from you will be called Holy"? You see that he was speaking about the economy of the incarnation. Since the six-day creation had grown old in the transgression of the father of our race, Adam, and our race had fallen into death, God consented to send to us his own Son, God Logos, and to take, as I said before, from the ever-virgin Virgin the temple, the man. And the blessed apostle Paul says: God consented to send down his Son into the world, born from a woman. You see that this is about the incarnation. But if you wish to hear about the undivided and one divinity, listen to Paul saying: "Who, being the radiance of the glory and the character of the

of his hypostasis." And again it says: "He, being in the form of God, did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." You see that such utterances are about the incarnation. And the Lord himself said with an authoritative voice: "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me." And again he says to Philip: "I and the Father are one." And he says through the great prophet: "Behold me, that I am, and I have not changed." And again he says: "I came forth from the Father, and I am here." And through Jeremiah the Father says: "They have abandoned me, a fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to gather water for themselves." The fountain is not of yesterday, and the water of today—far from it! Always fountain, always water. Woe to the ungrateful Ariomaniacs! Nebuchadnezzar was found better than these, who, thinking himself to be a god, set up an image of himself in Babylon, and cast Ananias, Azarias, and Misael into the fiery furnace; and when the dew-making word came among them, drove out the fire, and they were singing hymns; and when Nebuchadnezzar came and saw them singing, he said to his servants: "Did we not cast three men into the furnace?" They said: "Truly, O king." And he said to them: "Behold, I see four men, and the fourth is like the Son of God." O Nebuchadnezzar, you made yourself a god; how do you know that he is like the Son of God? He immediately said: He himself prompted me to speak. Nebuchadnezzar was found better than these impious ones, who say that the Son is neither similar nor consubstantial.

Tell the impious not to blaspheme, but to reverently worship the God Logos who exists in spirit, if indeed their impiety of blasphemy is to be forgiven. Therefore, with these cast out and expelled from the divine chorus, let us also speak to their brothers, the Pneumatomachoi, the Tropikoi, who say the Spirit is created. O Tropikos, did you not hear David saying: "By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of his mouth all their power?" Behold the undivided Trinity. And again, in the account of creation, the great servant Moses narrates: "In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth; and the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was upon the abyss, and the Spirit of God was borne upon the water." Likewise, the great Paul says: "God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying: Abba, Father." And the Father himself says through the great prophet: "I will pour out from my Spirit upon every flesh, and they will prophesy." And the Lord himself, coming to save our race of men, said with an authoritative voice: "I am in the Father, and the Father is in me;" and, "I am the truth;" and, "If I go to my Father, I will not leave you orphans, but I will send you the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth." Behold the Spirit in the truth, the truth in the Father. Behold the undivided Trinity, the threefold rope, with which we bind the sheaves and offer them to the Father. And so these, together with the Ariomaniacs, have perished.

Let us also speak to the most unfortunate Paul of Samosata, who says that from the time he came forth from the ever-virgin Maiden, from then he was named Son. Fool, did you not hear the Lord himself saying to the Jews: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw and rejoiced.” And when the ungrateful Jews said to the Lord himself, “You are not yet forty years old, and you say you have seen Abraham?” He answered them and said: “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” If, before Abraham was, he is, how do you say that after his incarnate presence he was named Son? Did you not hear in the Proverbs, how Wisdom herself said: “I was the one in whom he delighted; daily I rejoiced in his presence,” when he made the world, I was with him? And again the great Proverb-writer says: “God founded the earth with wisdom.” Behold, he is always in the Father; and the great Apostle: “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” What does the senseless Samosatene say to these things, and this man, having diluted this divine wine and drunk it, and become bloated, perished with the Ariomaniacs? Let us also speak to the most impious Manichaeans, the dregs of evils. O most impious Manichaeans, do you say there are two hypostases, one good and one evil? And you say the evil one wishes to fight the good one, in order to take some part; and the good one, they say, being good and not wishing to fight, gave way, yielding some part to the evil one, and there came to be for the evil one one half part, and for the good one half part.

And having repented, he says, the good came to prepare for war, and he formed himself in the form of the evil one. But, O most impious Manichaean, when the good was whole, you say, it did not wish to fight, and when it became half, as you say, it came to war. Because of this the most impious Manichaean says, "I came to seek what was lost." O what great folly! Where then is the mark of the good still? Especially since it also assumed the form of the evil one, according to you. Just as if a painter paints the wife of a householder in an image indecently, and the householder passing by sees his own wife in an improper form, would he not, becoming angry and full of rage, kill the one who dared to do this? How much more so for the one who says that he assumed the form of the evil one? Therefore, that of which he made use of the form is stronger. These are the audacities of the foolish and impious. O most impious dreg of evils, Manichaean, did you not hear Matthew speaking about the incarnation: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham?" But he will say, "I do not accept the Old Testament." And I will say to him: Why do you not accept the Old Testament? Did you not hear the Lord himself saying to the most impious and ungrateful Jews: "If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because Moses spoke about me." What did he speak, O Lord? "The Lord will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me." This prophet the blessed Samaritan woman acknowledged, saying, "Lord, I see that you are a prophet." Even the blessed Samaritan woman acknowledged him as both man and Lord and prophet.

Behold, both the Law and the Prophets, the great and the holy, bear witness. How can a grape exist without a vine? How can every undertaking, and the salvation destined to come into the world, be confirmed? The great sign-bearers, the Prophets and the Law, will confess; especially when the Lord himself says, "The Law and the Prophets were until John;" and again, "I did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them." O dregs of all heresies! Their name is sufficient for their faith. Concerning these, the great psalmist David said, "A fool said in his heart, 'There is no God.' They were corrupted and abhorred in their practices," and they themselves, not confessing the incarnation, but a phantasm, while the Lord says to the Jews, "Why do you seek to kill a man who has spoken the truth to you?" And again, when he says to the servant who struck him, "If I spoke evilly, bear witness concerning the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?" Can a phantasm be struck or nailed to the cross? Was it not then a body? And how does he say that it is a phantasm? And let these also be swept away, who think the divine wine is unmixed, and having fallen into ecstasy, perished. Let us also speak to Marcion, Valentinus, and Basilides, who says that the Lord passed through like water through a pipe.

of the immaculate and unwedded Mary. O most impious ones! Did you not hear the great archangel Gabriel saying to the immaculate Virgin Mary: "Hail, graced one, the Lord is with you. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. For the Holy One from you shall be called." If then he had said, "through you," they would have a plausible shamelessness; but in saying "from you," he shows that God the Word took from her the temple, the man. And let these be cast out together with the present Jewish Christ-fighters, the Ariomanites. Likewise let us speak to the foolish and most unfortunate Hieracas, who thinks to exalt virginity and to reject marriage. O Hieracas, let us say something from the Law: God the Word of the Father led Eve to Adam in the garden. But what do you say, that "I do not accept the Old Testament"? So be it; did you not hear in the Gospel: On the third day the Lord reclined at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, and when the wine ran out, he turned the water into wine? And again, when the Jews said to him, "Moses gave us a bill of divorce," what did the Lord say to them: "Moses gave you a bill of divorce on account of your hard-heartedness"; for it is written: "What God has joined together, let man not separate." Then how can a branch exist if the root is not placed beneath? How can a virgin exist if there is no father and mother? And may these perish together with their companions. Let us also speak to Novatus, who calls himself pure and thinks to abolish repentance.

Being full of filth and stench, did you not hear the good and philanthropic God of all speaking through the great prophet: "I do not desire the death of the sinner, but his repentance"? And again the great Job: "No one is clean from defilement, not even if his life on earth is but one day." And again the disciples saying to the Lord: "How many times shall we forgive the one who sins? Up to seven times?" And the Lord said to them: "No, but up to seventy times seven." The promise rolls on, repentance is perpetuated; not so that hearing this we persist in sinning—far from it!—but so that we may show the goodness of the good and philanthropic God of all. And again through the great Isaiah proclaiming Jerusalem and saying: "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth: I have begotten sons and raised them high, but they have rejected me," and so forth. You know, brothers. And after such a great threat from him, he says: "Wash yourselves, become clean, remove the wickedness from your souls." O what great goodness! And again when the great Peter said to him, when he questioned the disciples saying: "What do men say I am?"—"Some said that you are Elijah; others said a prophet." And he said to them: "And what do you say I am?" And Peter answered and said: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God," who comes into the world. And immediately the Lord said to him: "Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in the heavens.

You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and everything that you bind on earth will be bound in the heavens. And having received such promises, he said to the Lord: "I will follow you wherever you go, and I will lay down my life for you." Immediately the Lord said to him: "Truly I tell you, today before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And when the Lord was taken to the house of Caiaphas, and the whole council with Caiaphas, and Peter was standing at the gate, the servant saw him and said to him: "Are you not with him?" But Peter said to him: "I am not." And again, when the doorkeeper said to him: "Are you not also one of the Galileans?" He answered and said: "I am not." And when the attendant questioned him, he denied it, and immediately a rooster crowed. And the Lord of all turned and looked at Peter; and Peter wept, and through his tears he washed away the denial in that very repentance. And again the holy prophet said: "The stars are not pure before him." If the stars are not pure, how can you call the pure, compassionate, and philanthropic God harsh and unphilanthropic? And let this one be cast out with the other heresiarchs. Let us also speak to the wretched Phrygian who says that after the coming of the Savior, Montanus and Priscilla came. These are perhaps the spittle of the dumb. How can a prophet have come again after the coming of the Savior? Did you not hear that the law and the prophets were until John? Listen, you people of the Lord.

Just as a king is about to arrive in some city, and he sends heralds saying, "Behold, in what manner I am about to come." But if he arrives, and they recognize the arrival that was signified, they worship him, and there is no longer need of the one who signified; for they have seen with their own eyes the one who was signified. But if someone in that same city should say that the king is about to be present, would not those in the city spit upon him, saying, "He whom we have seen and have with us, how can you say that another is signified to exist?" And so these, along with the other heresies, perished. Let us also speak against the new heresy, which came from Syria into Egypt, the Apollinarists: Apollinarius brought a new doctrine, that God took only a body from the pure and ever-virgin Mary, and that the God Logos himself is in place of a soul. O most incomplete and soulless one! If, when the complete man acted contrary to the commandment and was cast out of paradise and fell into death, he partially saved the man, how was the soul to be saved? Did you not hear the great prophet Isaiah proclaiming against your godlessness, that "A child was born to us, and a son was given to us, whose beginning is upon his shoulder, and they call his name Angel of Great Counsel"? He did not say, "Flesh, not a child and son, was born." Know, senseless one, that by saying "child," he shows a complete man. Since the complete man has been shown, the great evangelist John, the son of thunder, says with a simple voice, "In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. This one was in the beginning with God.

Everything came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be." And the Lord himself says, "Now my soul is troubled." To whom does this utterance refer? To the God Logos? Far from it! The undisturbed God Logos, having come to put an end to disturbance, would he himself utter that utterance? But you wish to say that it was the body that spoke? You err: the body by itself is motionless, unless the soul is in it. Have you not heard Moses saying, "Show me yourself"? And immediately he hears, "No one will see my face and live." After the body was placed in the tomb with the bodies, how did the divinity descend into Hades naked to save the souls? It descended rather to destroy them than to save them. For no one could see the divinity naked and be saved. Therefore, there is need of the soul, so that through the soul the souls might be saved. And again the Lord himself says, "The good shepherd lays down his soul for the sheep. I am the good shepherd." And again he says, "I have authority to lay down my soul and to take it up again." And again the angel gives an oracle to Joseph in Egypt and says to him, "Arise, take the child and his mother, for behold, those who seek the soul of the child have died." Behold, it is everywhere testified in the divine Scriptures concerning the sojourn of the good and philanthropic God Logos, that he wore a perfect temple, a man, having become man, so that our entire race of men might be saved. But what will you say, that through Isaiah he spoke to the Jews:

Your new moons and your Sabbaths does my soul hate?" Most foolish one. Just as through this great prophet: "Behold, the Virgin will conceive in her womb and bear a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel." And again: "A child was born;" and again, that "He is a man," and, "Who will know him?" And concerning this the Lord signified through himself, that at his advent, when he was about to perform such and so great signs and wonders on the Sabbaths, and instead of blessing him, being instigated by the devil, they reviled him. Therefore, as I said before, this too was prefigured. So what do you say to these things, O senseless one? You too perish along with the other heresies. But this Catholic Church, having read correctly and accurately investigated the divine Scriptures, built herself upon the rock, the perfect dove, holding the helm of right and pious faith in the apostolic ship. The waves dash against the immovable rock and, foaming, dissolve and vanish into themselves. Consider all the heresies as a triple wave. But let us, I beseech you, bind the sheaves with this threefold and undivided rope, I mean by fulfilling the commandments, so that we may arrive there at the saving harbor in the kingdom of heaven, and the God Logos, the Son, the wisdom of the Father, may say: "Behold, I and the children whom you gave me," and may deign to say also to us: "Well done, faithful and good servants; you were faithful over a few, I will set you over many; enter into the kingdom prepared for you." So be it! Amen.