Against Heresies: Book IV

Marcion and his followers' effort to exclude Abraham from the inheritance is also futile. The Spirit, through many people and now through Paul, testifies that "he believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." The Lord also testifies to him, first by raising up children for him from stones and making his descendants like the stars of heaven, saying, "They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and will sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven," and again by telling the Jews, "When you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of heaven, but you yourselves are cast out." Clearly, those who deny his salvation and imagine another God besides the one who made the promise to Abraham are outside the kingdom of God and are disinherited from the gift of incorruption. They disregard and blaspheme God, who, through Jesus Christ, introduces Abraham to the kingdom of heaven, along with his descendants, that is, the Church, which also receives the adoption and the inheritance promised to Abraham.

The Lord vindicated Abraham’s descendants by freeing them from bondage and calling them to salvation, similar to when He healed the woman and said to those without faith like Abraham, “You hypocrites, doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey and lead it to water? Shouldn't this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years, be freed from this bond on the Sabbath?” Clearly, He freed and revived those who believe in Him as Abraham did, without doing anything against the law when He healed on the Sabbath.

The law did not forbid healing on the Sabbath; in fact, it allowed circumcision on that day and required priests to perform duties for the people. It didn’t even prohibit healing animals. Both in Siloam and on many other occasions, He healed on the Sabbath, and for this reason, many came to Him on the Sabbath. The law commanded them to refrain from all servile work, meaning from all pursuit of wealth through trading or other worldly activities, but encouraged them to engage in spiritual exercises, involving reflection and helpful communication for their neighbors' benefit.

THEREFORE: the Lord reproved those who unjustly criticized Him for healing on the Sabbath. He did not nullify the law but fulfilled it by performing the duties of the high priest, seeking favor from God for people, cleansing lepers, healing the sick, and suffering death Himself, so that exiled man might be freed from condemnation and might return without fear to his rightful heritage.

AND AGAIN: the law did not forbid those who were hungry on the Sabbath to take food that was readily available; it did, however, forbid them to reap and gather into the barn.

Therefore, the Lord responded to those accusing His disciples of plucking and eating heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry; how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread, and gave it to those with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?" He justified His disciples by the words of the law and pointed out that it was lawful for the priests to act freely.

David had been appointed a priest by God, despite Saul's persecution. For all the righteous hold the priestly rank. All the apostles of the Lord are priests, who inherit neither lands nor houses here, but serve God and the altar continually. Moses also said of them in Deuteronomy, when blessing Levi, "Who said to his father and mother, 'I have not known you'; he did not acknowledge his brethren, and he disinherited his own sons: he kept Your commandments and observed Your covenant." But who left father and mother, and bade farewell to all their neighbors for the sake of the word of God and His covenant, if not the disciples of the Lord? Of whom Moses also said, "They shall have no inheritance, for the Lord Himself is their inheritance." And again, "The priests, the Levites, shall have no share in the whole tribe of Levi, nor property with Israel; their portion is the offerings of the Lord: these they shall eat." Therefore, Paul says, "I do not seek after a gift, but I seek after fruit." He told His disciples, who had a priesthood of the Lord and to whom it was lawful to eat the ears of grain when hungry, "For the worker is worthy of his food." The priests in the temple profaned the Sabbath and were blameless.

Why, then, were they blameless? Because while in the temple they were not engaged in secular matters, but in the service of the Lord, fulfilling the law without exceeding it, unlike the man who carried dry wood into God's camp and was justly stoned to death. "For every tree that does not bear good fruit shall be cut down and thrown into the fire;" and "whoever defiles the temple of God, God will defile."