Letter 96. From Theophilus.

A translation by Jerome of Theophilus's paschal letter for the year 401 a.d. In it Theophilus refutes at length the heresies of Apollinaris and Origen.

The below translation made by ChatGPT 3.5 from this Latin text.

Letter 96. Or Paschal of Alexandria Bishop Theophilus' Easter Year 401 to All the Bishops of Egypt, Rendered into Latin by Saint Jerome.

The divinity of Christ is especially affirmed against Apollinarius, then most of Origen's errors are discussed in detail and refuted; finally, the love for one's neighbors is praised as the main virtue for celebrating the Lord's Pascha.

1. Let us praise the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, beloved brethren, with one voice again, and worship Him eagerly, and fulfill the words of the prophets, who says, "Sing a new hymn to the Lord" (Psalm 149); as many as of us who are partners of the Kingdom of Heaven by leading a faithful life, let us receive the coming of the holy solemnity and celebrate the upcoming festivals with the celebration of the whole world; one of the wise men has proclaimed: "Come, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart: because thy works please God" (Ecclesiastes 9:7). For those who are of good works, and after being left the milk of infancy, receive the nourishment of more solid food, they contemplate divine senses more deeply, and when satisfied with spiritual food, they have God as both their praiser and witness of their life; and to guests such as these the preacher speaks: "At all times let your garments be white, and let no oil be lacking on your head" (Ecclesiastes 9). Let us, clothed in the garment of virtues, imitate the brightness of the sun, and let everyone infuse oil to his own understanding by daily reading of the Holy Scriptures, and prepare a lamp for his mind, which, according to the precept of the Gospel, may shine before all who are in the house (Matthew 5).

2. Therefore, let us join together with such guests who celebrate so the Lord's Passion, eager to say with the Saints: "I will praise the Lord in my life; I will sing psalms to my God while I live." (Ps 103) And let us hasten to the metropolis of the Angels, which is free and is not stained with any impurity of evil; where there is neither division nor downfall and the passage from one place to another; where every temptation of pleasure is trodden underfoot and the surging billows of lust are stilled, so that we may be mingled with the celestial choirs and, already translated in mind to that place and seeing what is there, may become what is to be our future. The Jews have made themselves unworthy of blessedness, who, forsaking the riches of Holy Scripture and acquiescing to the understanding of the poor teachers, today hear: They always err with their hearts (Psalm 94); and when Christ is present, they do not want to say: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord (Psalm 117). Especially since with every voice they testify that the works are clearer than God himself, and not to say: Thus says the Lord, but I say to you: by which he shows himself to be the bearer of laws and the true Lord God, and not one of the prophets.

3. For the assumption of the form of a slave was not capable of obscuring his divine nature, which is not constrained by the limits of any place, nor of limiting the ineffable power of his majesty within the confines of a human body, which the greatness of God's works demonstrated in the son of God. For when he had calmed the raging waves and the swelling height of the sea that looked like mountains, and given it a sudden calm, when the apostles' boat was delivered from shipwreck, and they had felt the power of the Lord's presence in the depths of the waters, and when the winds had ceased and the waves were subdued on every side by the Lord's command, they said together, as if moved by divine inspiration: "Truly, you are the Son of God" (Matthew 14), not doubting about his divinity which his works proclaimed. For truly there is prophetic vision: You rule the strength of the sea, and you calm the movement of its waves (Psalm 88). And the prophet himself indicates the significance of the song, so that not only in word but also in the power of the true God, who was seen, it might be believed, with the excellence of his works revealing what lay hidden. God, perfect by his own will, assuming everything of human nature and condition, is born sinless and without malice, adored as Emmanuel, visited by the Magi from the East, confessed as the Son of God with bended knee; who, and at the time of his passion, while hanging on the cross, obscured the rays of the sun, expressing the magnitude of his divinity with a new and unheard of miracle. And undivided and inseparable, not separated into two saviors by some error. Hence he spoke to the disciples: Do not call anyone on earth your father; for one is your Father, who is in heaven (Matt. 23:9). For when he said this to the apostles, he did not separate the excellence of the divinity from the body that was visible. And when he bore witness to the one Christ, the Son of God, he did not divide soul and flesh: not one separately and the other separately, but both subsisting as one and the same, both God and man, while he seems a servant and is worshipped as Lord. For he concealed the ineffable Godhead in the frailty of his human body, and again in his divine works exceeded the weakness of the flesh. And lest any one of the holy ones be believed (as it is by many) to be only one, he whom Paul seeks to show, writes: One God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And again, There is one mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus; because there is one Son of the Father, and our mediator, who did not lose his equality with the Father, nor was separated from our company: invisible God, and visible man: hidden in the form of a servant, and confirmed in the confession of believers as Lord of glory.

4. For the Father did not deprive him of his own nature, after he became a man and poor for us, nor did he call him by another name when he was baptized in the Jordan River, but his only begotten son: You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased (Luke 2). And our similitude has not been changed into the nature of divinity, nor has divinity been turned into the similitude of our nature; but the Word of God, remaining what it was from the beginning, and glorifying us in Himself, He did not come, according to Jeremiah, to say, 'Woe is me, that you have begotten me a man, a judge of strife and a cause of division to the whole earth. I have not profited, nor has he that sent me.' Neither did He cry out according to Isaiah, 'Woe is me, because I am a man, and have unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people having unclean lips, and I have seen the Lord, the King of hosts, with my eyes.' For he was the king of glory, as it is written in the 23rd Psalm: Being a conqueror on the cross and restraining hostile wars, so that he might make a man fashioned from the soil into a dweller of heaven and present him with the sharing of his triumph.

5. So, though those who believe he was changed into someone else may not want this, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8), and will never have an end to his reign. According to the wicked error of Origen, he may be deprived of his eternal kingdom when his reign ends, but he speaks before all and states, 'I am in the Father and the Father is in me' (John 11:34). And wanting to teach us that the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, he commands all creatures, and proving this, he adds, 'I and the Father are one' (John 14:11), so that no one divides his unity in himself and the Father's kingdom on account of human flesh. "But if Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, were ever, according to Origen's insanity, to lose his kingdom, would he not, when speaking to the Apostles, have said, 'I and the Father are two,' instead of 'I and the Father are one,' meaning that he would not afterward possess sole rule, but that he would share it with another? For he has his glory here, which he will lay aside there; and where will that be which is ever both in the Father and the Son, if the kingdom of the Son is not assured? But those who contend that this is so, if they do not repent, should perish, and to those moved by zeal for faith and piety Moses should say, 'Cursed be you in the city, and cursed be you in the field' (Deut 28); and the Psalmist likewise rebuking: 'Let sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more.'" (Psalm 104)

6. Indeed, I cannot understand with what rashness Origen so boldly invented so many things, not following the authority of Scripture, but his own errors; he dared to bring everything harmful into the open, and he never thought that anyone would contradict his assertions if he mixed the arguments of philosophers with his own interpretations, and if he went from an evil beginning to some fables and delusions, turning Christian doctrine into a game and a jest, not relying on the truth of divine teaching but on the discretion of the human mind, swelling up with such great pride as to not imitate the humility of Paul, who, full of the Holy Spirit, compared the gospel with the first apostles, so that perhaps he would not run in vain or run too hard (Gal. 2:2): he did not know that he was instigated by a demonic spirit to follow the sophisms of human minds and to consider something divine beyond the authority of Scripture. Let those, who dream of the end of Christ's kingdom and desire to be parasites of Origen's verbosity, rest quietly and not pretend to walk with the faithful in faith they do not possess. Rather, let them learn that all deceit and fraudulence is one thing and shows another: so that it may strive to conceal vices under the guise of virtue. For even though Christ did not lose the glory of being the Lord in the ignominy of the cross which He suffered for us, according to the blessed Apostle, when those who were shouting against the Jews said: "You who tear down the temple and build it up in three days, save yourself: if you are the son of God, descend from the cross" (Matthew 27 ), and suffering in the flesh, and hanging on the gibbet, he showed the strength of his own majesty, causing the sun to cease from his course, and extorting from the thief by the magnitude of his signs a voice full of faith: Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom (Luke 23). Never will he lose the kingdom after the glory of the resurrection, although Origen may throw countless stones of blasphemy against him. Or, whose is the consequence, to promise the disciples the perpetuity of the kingdom, and to say: Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25): and to lack the very thing that he attributes to others? Or how can it be understood that the kingdom of Christ, which Paul writes to the Corinthians, 'You reign without us, and I wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you' (1 Cor. 4), might be terminated after many ages, especially when John cries out: 'He that cometh from above is above all' (John 3:31): And the Apostle writes, 'Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.' (Romans 9:5).

7. Therefore, there is no doubt that whoever remains as God forever, both has a kingdom and is called a perpetual king, having the appropriate dominion of divinity, with nothing rough or new in himself except the assumption of human frailty. For if, according to Origen's madness, Christ's kingdom is to end after many circles of centuries, it is consequent to his impiety to say that God will also stop being God someday; and he who sets limits to the kingdom is forced to feel the same thing about divinity that naturally possesses the perpetuity of the empire. If the Word of God (Λόγος Θεοῦ Verbum Dei) reigns, then God truly exists, and is discerned in this way: whoever tries to impose an end on his reign falls into that, compelled to believe in Christ and to cease being God. But a foolish teacher talks this way with impious followers. Let us believe in Christ's eternal reign, and on the solemn day let us sing with the Angel, and say: His reign shall be without end (Luke 1.33). For if He is one with the Father, then He will never cease to be one with Him, and the unity of the Father and the Son will never be divided into parts, lest the truth that they are one may eventually cease to be.

8. Therefore, let the most foolish of mortals make haste and descend living into hell (Psalm. 54.16), as the psalmist testifies, and seeing their teacher of impiety there, let them cry, "And you have been taken as we have; you have been reckoned among us; your glory has descended into hell," and so on. Such a shepherd of the soft flock bruises Christ everywhere with his slights, and exalts the devil with honor, while he claims that he, having been cleansed of faults and sins, will finally receive his former glory and withdraw from ruling, to be brought down with the devil under the authority of the Father; so much that he exclaims in wonder not so much like the prophesies of the Jews, but rather like the blasphemies of Origen: “The heavens were astounded at this and shuddered greatly,” says the Lord, “because he has done two evils.” (Jeremiah 2:12) Origen, asserting that Christ will cease to rule and that the devil will ascend to the heights from which he fell, digs such a deep pit of his sin, that cannot contain its own waters: He as far as he can makes the Son of God equal to the devil, while he detracts the eternal glory of the kingdom and subjects him with the demons under the Father's authority. But the voice of such a wicked one is being prevailed upon, so that we may know that the kingdom of Christ is perpetual, he himself speaking to his disciples: 'You have persevered with me in my trials, and I establish for you an eternal covenant, that you may always drink and eat at my table in my kingdom.' (Luke 22:28-29). For how can this, which is said to be always, be fulfilled unless it be an everlasting kingdom, and with no end? The Magi, understanding this, turned to penitence, and questioned more diligently: 'Where is he who is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.' (Matthew 2:22). The Magi confess Christ as king, and Origen denies this, saying he will not reign forever, and does not realize that he is similar to the blasphemies of the Jews.

9. We read in the Gospel that when the Lord and Savior, showing an outstanding example of his strength and patience, mounted the cross, Pilate inscribed a title and placed it over his head. It was written: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews (John 19:19). This title many of the Jews read, for it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but rather, 'He said, I am King of the Jews.' Pilate responded: "What I have written, I have written." (John 19:22). Therefore, since Pilate was unable to be swayed to remove the title of the Christ as king by either sedition or pleas, let Origen know that he ought not to consider the kingdom of Christ as terminable without any need to do so, such as the Jews did. And while the Jews denied a king who was present on the earth, Pilate here tries to detract from one who reigns in heaven as much as he can, so that he may have an accuser for his crime. Let the prophetic word enter into the midst and let it proclaim the kingdom of Christ in total liberty: Rejoice daughter of Zion, proclaim daughter of Jerusalem, be glad and exult with your whole heart, daughter of Jerusalem ((or Israel)); The Lord has taken away your iniquities, he has redeemed you from the hand of your enemies, the king of Israel is in your midst, you will no longer see evil ((Soph. 3, 14. from the Greek.)). For those who once saved will not again be thrown from heaven, and will not be persuaded by the deliriums and fables of Origen, so as to fall again from the heights. And this which is said, "You will not see (alternatively, you will see) further evil," is a sign of eternal security, that those who have once been liberated and enjoyed the possession of the kingdom of heaven may by no means be dragged down by vices to the earth, nor deprived of the help of God, who according to the prophetic word will set a wall and a circumvallation around them by his own power. Hence the Psalmist sings: "He who dwells in Jerusalem will not be moved forever" (Psalm 124). And the Lord testifies: "I will not leave you or forsake you." And it is in vain to dream of ascending souls to heaven, and descending, and now making progress, now sliding down to lower things, so that they often die by countless ruins, and the passion of Christ is made void. For he who died for us once, gave us the eternal joy of his victory, which is not diminished by any weight of vices. And no one dies more frequently among men than what Origen dared to write, seeking to establish the most impious doctrine of the Stoics by the authority of the divine Scriptures.

10. Christ will suffer for the demons. - But why do we remember this? When such madness has broken out, nay, madness, that they implicate another crime to the Savior, saying that he should be affixed to the cross for demons and spiritual wickednesses before the gods. Nor does he understand into what a deep abyss of impiety he falls. For if Christ suffered for men and became man, as the testimonies of the Scriptures bear witness, it will follow that Origen says, "And if he was to suffer for demons, he would become a demon; for he will be forced to infer this out of necessity, lest he appear to disagree with what he has begun." This is to imitate the blasphemies of the Jews, whom he always imitates; for they also spoke to Christ in a similar manner: "You have a demon," and "By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, you cast out demons" (Luke 11:15). But it is far from the truth that Christ should suffer for demons, lest he himself become a demon. And those who believe this crucify him again and hold him up to ridicule as the Son of God (Hebrews 6:6), who, as he did not take hold of the seed of Abraham, will not also assume the nature of demons, so that he may be crucified for them as well. Neither do the demons seeing God in suffering, will cry out with the Prophet: He carried our sins and suffers for us. Neither will they say as Isaiah does: By his bruises we are healed (Isaiah 53:4). Neither for the demons, as for the human race, will Christ be led like a sheep to the victim; nor will it be said for their salvation: He did not spare his own Son (Jeremiah 11); because neither will the demons cry out: He was handed over for our sins, and rose again for our justification (1 Corinthians 11). Paul writes: "For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15): he cites them in testimony and wishes to confirm the doubtful by their authority;" but Origen, without any testimony of the divine voice, tries to force the truth and find it with an extinguished lamp.

11. Supporter of demons and not humans, he attacks with frequent calumnies the Son of God, and crucifies him anew, not understanding into what a deep and horrible abyss of impiety he is dragged. For it follows that whoever undertakes the former, accepts the latter as well: and whoever says that Christ was crucified for the demons, must also accept the following:"Take and eat: this is my body." And: "Take and drink: this is my blood" (Matthew. 26.26). For if he is crucified also for the demons, as an assertor of new doctrines affirms, what privilege will there be or what reason that only human beings should share in his body and blood, and not also demons, for whom he shed his blood in his passion? But the demons will not hear, "Take and eat," and, "Take and drink." Nor will the Lord dissolve his own precepts who says to his disciples, "Do not give the holy thing to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces (Matthew 7)." For the apostle also writes, "I do not want you to become partners with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons: you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons (1 Corinthians 10)." Through these things he shows that it is impossible for demons to drink from the cup of the Lord and to partake of his table. The food of the devil are the deniers of God, with Habakkuk speaking: Their chosen food (Habakkuk 1); however, the food of all the impious is execrable, the devil himself, as prophesied by the Prophet: You have given him as food for the people of Ethiopia (Psalm 73.14). From all of these it is proven that Christ cannot be crucified for the demons, lest they become partakers of his Body and Blood.

12. So when the Apostle also indicates regarding the Savior: For He did this once, offering Himself (Heb. 7:27); and Origen contradicts that sentiment with such confidence, it is time to infer this: Earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord, write this man rejected (Jer. 22). For who can receive these evils in hell? Who can think of such things in Tartarus? What madness of the giants stood so rebellious and built the tower of impiety? What the lewd desire, and the insatiable desire of the demons, thus divided the legs of her mind, passing through the whole doctrine? Who drinks so much from the vineyards of Sodom that, drunken with the wine of their fury, he falls with all his heart? Who, irrigated by the streams of the Babylonians, left alive the sources of Israel? Who, departing from Jerusalem and imitating Jeroboam son of Nebat, has made so many errors of altars and lit profane incense? Why do Dathan and Abiron, who sinned less, not come before the judgment of Christ and condemn themselves by comparison to him, who outside the Church of the Savior has filled various censers with diabolical fire of doctrines? For the Lord who speaks through the Prophet says: I have multiplied visions and I have been made like a Prophet's hands (Hosea 12:10 according to LXX), He taught him to bring forth adulterous doctrines, neither those who saw him from the beginning and were ministers of the Word of God, nor the chorus of Prophets, who were once called the Seers, taught him this themselves: but he himself, by the choice of his own mind, serving the frenzy of demons and deceived by the flattery of his own thoughts, has sent throughout the whole world, to the minds of the unlearned, a flock and, so to speak, a swarm of perverse dogmas. This is the one who opened his mouth to the Assyrians and Babylonians rivers, who tried to cover with waves a ship full of the Church's good merchandise of salutary doctrine; while he is lifted up by the praise of the unskilled, and boasting about the sense of Holy Scripture, he teaches in his confusion otherwise than reality. For, who has written so many and so voluble, and so full of both verbosity and ignorance books, and has connected them day and night with tireless zeal, that forsaking the monuments of error, he might be worthy of hearing: 'Have you been deceived by your many trips?' For he has used as a guide the worst of people, the popular breeze, and very many books of false knowledge, and fighting with a mind in rebellion against God, he blended a certain pus and the stench of his own fetor with the ointment of heavenly teachings, so that it would again be said to his soul: 'Filthy, infamous, and excessive in iniquities.' For he did not wish to listen to the prophet admonishing: "Why do you love vanity and seek after lies?" (Psalm 4:3). He who crucifies Christ on behalf of demons, in order that he might be a mediator not only between God and men but also for demons. But far be it from us to believe such a monstrous blasphemy about our Savior, that he would lose the temple of his body, which he deigned to raise up for us, and affix to himself another temple of a demoniacal condition, so that by receiving their likeness, he might also suffer the cross for them.

13. I ask, dear brothers, that you forgive my grief, resisting impious teachings; for while we strive to push back the audacity of his followers, we have exposed the framework of his armor, and the deceitful tricks of his venomous heart, so that what was also said of him might be fulfilled: I shall reveal your shame, and show it to your lovers (Ezek. 16:36). For among other things, he so corrupts and violateseven the resurrection from the dead, which is the hope of our salvation, by daring to say that our bodies will indeed be raised up, but only so that they may fall again into corruption and death once more. Answer me, O head of impiety, how, according to the Apostle Paul, did Christ conquer him who had power over death, that is, the devil, if corruptible and mortal bodies will rise again? What profit is Christ's passion to us if death and corruption will again possess our bodies? Or what does the Apostle mean when writing, 'For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive' (1 Cor. 15) , if, when we rise again, cruel death will still rule over us? Or how can those who believe this sincerely say, 'Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God' (1 Cor. 1.24) , desiring to be stronger than death, which will destroy the bodies raised by him and cannot be completely overcome? But our Lord Christ triumphed over even Origen, who resisted impiously, and over death as well as the devil, who had dominion over death, he destroyed by his own power, having prepared for us in heaven the triumph of his victories. Nor will he raise those bodies only to destroy them again; rather, he has wholly abolished death and corruption for their sakes.

14. Therefore freed from all evils, let us celebrate the feast of the Lord's Passion and, according to the parable of the Gospel (Matth. 22), while we behold wisdom sacrificing bulls and birds, let us feed upon stronger and more nourishing foods, and richer in the doctrine of truth, that we may leave the milk of infancy and obtain solid nourishment, and so flee from all the causes of evil, especially from ignorance, which, binding the feet with many diverse heresies, has made Origen its chief patron, he who dared to say among other things that we should not pray either to the Son or to the Father with the Son; and after many ages he revived the blasphemy of Pharaoh, saying: "Who is the Lord, that I should hear His voice? I know not the Lord, nor will I let Israel go" (Exod. 5. 2). There is nothing else to say, I don't know the Lord, other than what Origen says, that the Son should not be prayed to, whom he certainly confesses as Lord. And although he has burst into such open blasphemy, he must still be prayed to, of whom the Prophet testifies, saying: And they shall adore thee, and shall pray to thee, because God is in thee, and there is no other God besides thee (Isai. 4. 5. 14) . And again, Whoever shall invoke the name of the Lord shall be saved (Rom. 10. 13) . And Paul reasoning: How, he says, shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed (Ibid. v. 14) ? It is necessary first to believe that the Son of God exists, so that his invocation is correct and consequent. And just as he who is not God is not to be prayed to, so on the contrary, whoever is found to be God is to be adored and prayed to. Therefore Stephen, kneeling down, prayed for them that were killing him, saying: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord. And Saul was consenting to his death. (Acts 7) But that which is said, 'The knee shall be bent,' is a sign of anxious and humble supplication. Therefore, Origen does not believe in the Son of God who he thinks should not be prayed to, and he tears him apart with insults. And even though he flatters himself with the memory of the Scriptures and thinks he understands them, he does not hear Moses speaking against himself: 'The man who blasphemes against God shall have sinned, and who speaks the name of the Lord shall die by death.' All the multitude shall stone him to death (Leviticus 24:16). But who would so insult Christ with such insults, as this one who has dared to say that He should not be prayed to, indulging only in the empty and useless name of divinity?

15. But what is the use of lingering among such impious statements? Let us pass on to another error of his. He asserts that the bodies which rise again will at last, after many ages, be dispersed into nothingness and never again have any existence, except when souls, after sinking down from the heavenly realms, need new ones to be made for them, which will again in their turn be destroyed, the former ones being entirely blotted out. Who that hears this would not quiver in mind and body? For if after the resurrection bodies are reduced to nothingness, the second death will be more powerful than the first; for it will entirely destroy the substantial character of the body. Why does Paul thus write: "Death shall no longer have dominion over him; for the dead, it is true, are dead unto sin once for all" (Rm 6:10)? If the bodies are to be utterly destroyed, how can it be true that "once for all" that which is dead is dead unto sin? In what sense then has he added: "It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption: it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power: it is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory: it is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body" (1 Cor 15)? For if corruption reduces into nothingness, it would be consequent to say that they are reserved in perpetuity for corruption, and that corruption is stronger than the incorruptible. But may it be far from Paul to write the opposite to himself, that incorruption and corruption have the same nature. And so, if, as Origen falsely believes, not only the corruptible but also the mortal body is to be raised up, then corruption and incorruption, death and life, will be said to be one and the same, and they will have the same power in resurrected bodies, and not in things, but only in names corruption and incorruption, death and life will be separated. But if the corruptible and mortal body is to rise again, it would follow that the apostle was speaking of the following: It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption: it is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power. It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body. If then it takes away corruption, and weakness, and disgrace from the bodies which are to be raised up, and says that, on the contrary, they are to be clothed with incorruption, and strength, and glory, and that the animal body is to be transformed into a spiritual body, then death will be destroyed, and in the bodies thus raised there will be nothing of death and corruption remaining. For the body itself, too, will become immortal and incorruptible, in order that it may be joined together with the soul for all eternity. Therefore, since the Savior, in the resurrection of his body, bestowed a pledge of salvation upon our bodies, he cannot be believed to be subject to death any longer, in agreement with the Apostle in this statement: Christ rising from the dead, dies now no more, death shall have no more dominion over him. (Romans 6:9). Unless it had ruled him, it will not rule over us.

16. A not evil magical art. Origen is confused among other types of wickedness, giving support to magic arts: for in his treatises, he speaks these words: "The magical art does not seem to me to be the name of any subsisting thing, and even if it were, it is not the work of evil," lest anyone should hold it in contempt. Thus speaking, he shows himself to be a supporter of the magician of Elyma, who resisted the Apostles, and of Jamne and Mambre, who withstood Moses' magical arts. "But the power of Origen will have no support, because Christ destroyed the tricks of the Magi by his coming. Let the advocate of the new impiety respond, better yet, let him clearly hear: If magical art is not evil, then idolatry, which relies on the powers of magical art, will not be evil. But if idolatry is evil, then magical art, from which idolatry arises, will also be evil. And since idolatry has been destroyed by the majesty of Christ, it is clear that magical art, its parent, has been dissolved with it, the Prophet proclaiming about this: Stand now with thy enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, which thou hast learned from thy youth, if so be thou shalt be able to profit." (Isaiah 47:12) Therefore when these prophecies in writing testify, and no one has ever dared to disclose the names, among the best of the magicians' arts, even public laws punish magicians and sorcerers, I cannot understand in what way Origen, who boasts himself a Christian, being an imitator of the pseudo-prophet Sedechiah, made iron horns for himself, with which he walks around armed against the doctrines of truth, nor does he know anything about the heavenly Jerusalem, nor does he imitate Moses, and Daniel, and Peter, and other saints, who fought against magicians and enchanters, as if standing in battle in unceasing contest. Let us lead the choirs of festive days with those, having avoided the poisons of Origen through dangers by traveling through the middle of Babylon, and having obeyed the words of the Prophet commanding, 'Go forth from Babylon, ye that flee from the land of the Chaldeans' (Jer. 50. 8), so that we may enter into Jerusalem, where the preaching of truth is.

17. Although resisting with lies, we suffered something of the three boys, who conquered the nature of the flames of a burning fire in the furnace, nevertheless the Babylonian fire did not prevail against us, nor were our hair burned (Dan. 3:94), namely the extreme dogmas of ecclesiastical truth; neither were the saraballs changed, which the Holy Scriptures wove for us in testimony for the protection of souls, nor is the scent of fire within us, the flame of a perverse science racing about. For we have not acquiesced to his teaching, who suspects that bodies were made because of the downfall of rational creatures; and he says, according to the etymology of the Greek language, that souls are named thus, because they have lost the warmth of their mind, and their most fervent love for God, and have received their name from coldness, lest we feel that the soul of our Savior is subject to the same ignorance. We do not assert that the course of the sun, moon, and stars, and the most beautiful harmony in the diversity of the whole world, happened because of the preceding causes, various sins, and vices of souls, nor did God wait a long time to exhibit His goodness, so that He would not make visible creatures unless the invisible ones had sinned. Nor do we call substantial materiality vanity, as that person thinks, agreeing with the teachings of Manichaeus in different words, lest Christ's body fall under vanity, of which, having been satiated with its food, we daily chew the words spoken, saying: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you" (John 13). For if bodily nature is empty and futile, according to Origen's error, why did Christ rise from the dead? why will he raise our bodies? what does Paul mean when he writes: if the dead do not rise again, neither has Christ risen; but if Christ has not risen, our faith is in vain (1 Cor. 13).

18. From which it is clear that the nature of bodies is not empty, but those who do not believe that it will rise again and exist perpetually are foolish. Let him also despise honorable marriages, denying that bodies can exist unless souls have first sinned in heaven, so that they may be precipitated from there and bound in the prisons of the body. And let him feel as he wishes, speak as he does not fear; let him hear us shouting in his ears with Paul: Honorable marriage and an undefiled bed (Hebrews 13: 4). "And how can [the soul be] immaculate, if it is surrounded by flesh stained with faults? And Anna, the wife of Helcana, subject to faults, asking for semen of a male, for the desire of a woman, [puts] the souls in danger in the heavens, and one of them, heavy with sin, falls onto the earth and deserts its previous blessedness. Neither does Moses cursing and saying: "May the Lord your God multiply you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the heaven in multitude. The Lord God of your fathers add to you as you are, a thousand times, and bless as he had spoken" (Deuteronomy 1:10 and following): he asked for it so that clouds of souls, of the sinning Israeli people, could form a nation in heaven. What is different, is very clear, as he who prayed for the offense of the people said: If you forgive this people's sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book which you have written (Exod. 32. 32 according to the Greek), if he asks for the multiplication of the sons of Israel, whom, if he knew to grow in the ruins of souls, he would not pray for the opposite, lest he be considered inferior in nature for the vices of a better substance. Why does David pray in Psalm: "May the Lord bless you from Zion, that you may see the good things of Jerusalem all the days of your life and see your children's children" (Psalm 127:5) if the number of righteous people increases with the rejection and destruction of souls? And he dares to say: "Behold, in this way man will be blessed, who fears the Lord" (Ibid. 4): when he knows that the souls of delinquents are bound in the chains of their bodies, and in such a prison, the judgment of God must pay the penalty for sins? How does God speak through the Prophet: "If you had heard my commandments, then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea, and your seed like the sand, and the offspring of your womb like the dust of the earth" (Isaiah 48:18-19, from the Greek)? For those who keep God's commandments, they should not receive as a reward the ruins of souls from heaven, which, bound to their bodies, multiply the offspring of them. But if they wish to learn what are the beginnings of the human race, let them hear Moses saying: God took earth and formed man, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2.7), that is, immortal. God also, blessing Adam and Eve, said: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth (Gen. 9.1.7).

19. If souls are sent to earth after sin, to be born in bodies, Adam and Eve were not blessed with reason, since the cause of sin deserved rather to be cursed. In fact, after He created them, God blessed them with words of blessing: but later, when they sinned of their own will, He struck them with a curse. From which it can be gathered that nature did not change its course on account of the sin of souls replacing bodies. Let them hear again the saying: I have made the earth, and man on it (Jer. 27. 5). And David: The heaven of heavens is the Lord's: but the earth he gave to the children of men (Psal. 113). And let them cease to follow the errors of their thoughts, and rather be led by the authority of the Scriptures. For just as those who have been weakened by pleasures, and in whose hearts desire rules, upon contemplating the beauty of bodies, do not seek the beauty of morals, but of limbs; and their senses, burdened with filth, do not look upon anything higher: thus those who are led by the arranged composition of words, and captivated by the sound of eloquence, do not perceive the truth of doctrines, they blush to confess their former error, and, blinded by the arrogance of pride, do not wish to be disciples, lest they seem to have made mistakes before they were corrected.

20. Therefore, with Origen's evils being rejected, and the Scriptures, which are called apocrypha (also apocrypha and hidden), that is, hidden, and the disciples being omitted: "For I did not speak in secret" (John 18:20), says the Lord. Again and again, I implore you, beloved brothers, let us celebrate the feast of the Lord's Passion by enhancing our faith with our conduct, let us imitate God in his mercy towards the poor, to whom no form of bodily nature is similar. Let us have the image of His goodness in all things, let us correct our mistakes with repentance, let us pray for our enemies, let us plead with our detractors, emulating Moses, who prayed away his sister's accusations against him. Let us wash away the filth of sinners with the oil of alms-giving: let us seem to bind the chains of prisoners, and let us pray to God that He may be propitious to them. Let us support in our daily kindness those who are shut up in prison, and those whose bodily members are consumed by continuous decay on account of the heavenly reward that is laid up for them; and let us minister to them with earnest diligence. And if at any time power of judgment be given to us, and the cause of contending brethren be brought before us, let there be no respect of persons, but let the case be decided on its merits; and if any are falling, or in distress, let us also be carried away with a feeling of their pain. Let the laws hold the standard of truth. Let charity be ready for mercy, not insulting sinners, but condoling, for it is easy to fall into vices, and the frailty of human nature must dread whatever it sees in another. And if someone else has been corrected for error, his correction shall be our caution, and above all, like the pinnacle and crown of virtues, piety towards God shall be observed with fear of the whole heart, and let us confess the indiscreet substance, wherein we were baptized and received eternal life, cursing the number of gods and acknowledging the One and undivided substance of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And if the mercy of God shall grant it, we shall merit to celebrate the Lord's Passover with the angels, beginning the season of Lent on the eighth day of the month called Phamenoth by the Egyptians; and thus shall we fast, receiving strength from Him who giveth strength, on the fourth day of the week [Wednesday], and on the Preparation-day we shall arrange the foundation of the holy week of the Paschal festival, that haply we may receive the joy of the resurrection in Christ Jesus our Lord, through Whom to Him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. And on the second day, which is the symbol of the Lord's Resurrection, that is, on the nineteenth of the same month, let us celebrate the true Pasch, adding to this [day] the remaining seven weeks in which the festival of Pentecost is woven, and making ourselves worthy by communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. For thus shall we deserve to receive the kingdoms of heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, by whom, and with whom, to God the Father be glory and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

21. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Those who are with me send their greetings, brothers.