Against Heresies: Book II

I have demonstrated that the number thirty does not work for them in every way; sometimes there are too few Æons in the Pleroma as they say, and at other times there are too many to match that number. Therefore, there aren't thirty Æons, nor did the Savior come to be baptized at thirty years old to represent the thirty silent Æons of their system; otherwise, they would have to separate and eject the Savior Himself from the Pleroma entirely. Furthermore, they claim that He suffered in the twelfth month, suggesting that He preached for one year after His baptism. They try to prove this from the prophet, as it is written, “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of retribution,” but they are truly blind because they claim to have discovered the mysteries of Bythus without understanding what Isaiah calls the acceptable year of the Lord or the day of retribution. The prophet is not speaking of a day consisting of twelve hours, nor a year that lasts twelve months. Even they admit that the prophets often used parables and allegories, and should not be interpreted only based on the literal words.

THAT WAS REFERRED TO AS THE DAY OF RETRIBUTION: when the Lord will reward each person according to their deeds—that is, the judgment. The acceptable year of the Lord is this current time, in which those who believe in Him are called by Him and become acceptable to God—that is, the entire period from His coming until the end of all things, during which He gathers those who are saved as the fruits of His plan of mercy.

According to the language of the prophet, the day of retribution follows the acceptable year; and the prophet would be considered false if the Lord preached for only a year if he refers to it. For where is the day of retribution? For the year has passed, and the day of retribution has not yet come; but He still "makes His sun rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the just and unjust." The righteous suffer persecution, are afflicted, and are killed, while sinners live in abundance, and "drink with the sound of the harp and psaltery, but do not regard the works of the Lord." However, according to the prophet's words, they should be linked, with the day of retribution following the acceptable year.

The words say, "to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of retribution." This current time, therefore, in which people are called and saved by the Lord, is correctly understood as "the acceptable year of the Lord;" and "the day of retribution," that is, the judgment, follows it. The period referred to is not just called “a year” but is also named “a day” by both the prophet and Paul, who, recalling Scripture, says in the Epistle to the Romans, "As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long, we are considered as sheep for the slaughter." Here, "all day long" represents the entire period during which we endure persecution and are killed for His sake.

Just as this day does not represent one with twelve hours, but the whole time during which believers in Christ suffer and are put to death for His sake, the year mentioned does not mean one composed of twelve months, but the entire time of faith during which people hear and believe the Gospel, and those who unite with Him become acceptable to God.

IT IS TRULY PUZZLING HOW: despite claiming to have discovered the mysteries of God, some have not examined the Gospels to determine how many times after His baptism the Lord went to Jerusalem for the Passover, as was the custom for Jews from every land to gather there each year to celebrate it. First, after turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee, He went to the Passover, and it is written, "Many believed in Him when they saw the signs He did," as recorded by John, the disciple of the Lord.

Then, withdrawing from Judea, He went to Samaria, and there He conversed with the Samaritan woman and cured the son of the centurion from a distance by saying, "Go, your son lives." Later, He went a second time to Jerusalem for the Passover, where He healed the paralytic man who had been lying by the pool for thirty-eight years, telling him to rise, take up his bed, and walk. Again, withdrawing to the other side of the Sea of Tiberias, seeing a large crowd had followed Him, He fed them all with five loaves of bread, and twelve baskets of leftovers were collected.

When He raised Lazarus from the dead and the Pharisees plotted against Him, He withdrew to a city called Ephraim; and from there, it is written, "He came to Bethany six days before the Passover," and from Bethany went to Jerusalem, where He ate the Passover and suffered the following day. Everyone must acknowledge these three occasions of the Passover could not have happened within one year. And the specific month in which the Passover was held and when the Lord suffered was not the twelfth but the first.

Those who claim to know all things, if they do not know this, may learn it from Moses.

Therefore, their explanation of the year and the twelfth month has been proven false, and they should either reject their explanation or the Gospel; otherwise, they face the unanswerable question: How is it possible that the Lord preached for only one year?

WHEN HE TURNED THIRTY: He was baptized and then, being of the full age of a Master, He went to Jerusalem so everyone would recognize Him as a Master. He didn't appear to be something He was not, as some claim who describe Him as merely a man in appearance; He was truly what He appeared to be. As a Master, He had the age of a Master, not disregarding or avoiding any human condition, nor dismissing the law He had set for humanity, but sanctifying every age by living through it Himself. He came to help all through Himself—all, I say, who through Him are reborn to God—including infants, children, boys, youths, and old men. He went through every age, becoming an infant for infants, thereby sanctifying them; a child for children, sanctifying those who are of this age and becoming an example of piety, righteousness, and submission; a youth for youths, exemplifying and sanctifying them for the Lord. Likewise, He was an old man for old men, so He could be a perfect Master for everyone, not just through truth but also through age, sanctifying the elderly and becoming an example for them too. Finally, He faced death itself, that He might be "the first-born from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence," the Prince of life, existing before all and leading all.

THEY: however, to support their false opinion about what is written, “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,” claim that He preached for only one year and then suffered in the twelfth month. In saying this, they forget to their own detriment, undermining His entire work and denying Him that age which is both more necessary and more honorable than any other; that more mature age, I mean, during which He also excelled as a teacher. For how could He have had disciples if He did not teach? And how could He have taught unless He had reached the age of a Master? When He came to be baptized, He had not yet completed His thirtieth year but was beginning to be about thirty years old (for Luke, who mentioned His age, expressed it this way: “Now Jesus was, as it were, beginning to be thirty years old,” when He came to be baptized); and, according to these people, He preached for only one year from His baptism.

He suffered upon completing His thirtieth year, still being a young man, and by no means had He attained a mature age.

Now, everyone will agree that the first stage of early life covers thirty years and extends onward to the fortieth year, but from the fortieth to the fiftieth year, a man begins to decline toward old age, a stage our Lord reached while He still fulfilled the role of a Teacher, as both the Gospel and all the elders testify; those in Asia who interacted with John, the disciple of the Lord, affirming that John relayed this information to them.

And John remained among them until the times of Trajan. Some of them also saw not only John but the other apostles as well, heard the same account from them, and bear witness to the validity of the statement. Whom, then, should we believe? Such men as these, or Ptolemaeus, who never saw the apostles and never even in his dreams achieved the slightest trace of an apostle?

BUT: in addition to this, the very Jews who argued with the Lord Jesus Christ clearly indicated the same thing. When the Lord said to them, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it and was glad,” they replied to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” This kind of language is appropriately used for someone who is over forty but has not yet reached fifty, yet is close to that age.

But to someone who is only thirty years old, they would undoubtedly say, “You are not yet forty years old.” Those who wanted to accuse Him of lying would certainly not exaggerate His age far beyond what they saw; rather, they mentioned an age close to His actual age, whether they found this out from the public record or guessed from observing that He was over forty, not just thirty. It is completely unreasonable to think they were mistaken by twenty years when trying to prove Him younger than Abraham's time.

They spoke from what they saw; and He was not a spirit but a real person of flesh and blood. He was not far from being fifty years old, and based on this they said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” Therefore, He did not preach for just one year, nor did He suffer in the twelfth month of that year. The period between the ages of thirty and fifty cannot be considered as one year unless, in their Æons, there are years that long assigned to those who sit with Bythus in the Pleroma; of which Homer the poet also spoke, likely influenced by the Mother of their erroneous belief system:—

WHICH WE CAN TRANSLATE INTO ENGLISH AS: —“The gods sat around, while Jove presided over them, and held conversation on the golden floor.”