Against Heresies: Book IV

THE TRADITION OF THE ELDERS: which they claimed to follow from the law, was actually against the law given by Moses. This is why Isaiah declares: “Your dealers mix the wine with water,” indicating that the elders corrupted a pure command of God by mixing it with their flawed tradition. They established a false law opposing the true law, as the Lord pointed out when He asked them, “Why do you violate the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” They disregarded God’s law not only by directly transgressing it, but also by opposing it with their own law, which is still known today as pharisaical. In this law, they omit certain things, add others, and interpret some as they see fit, used by their teachers individually. Wanting to uphold these traditions, they refused to submit to the law of God, which prepares them for the coming of Christ. They even criticized the Lord for healing on the Sabbath, which, as I have already mentioned, was not forbidden by the law. They themselves, in a way, performed acts of healing on the Sabbath when they circumcised a man on that day, but they did not criticize themselves for breaking God’s command through tradition and the aforementioned pharisaical law, failing to follow the commandment of the law, which is the love of God.

THE FIRST AND GREATEST COMMANDMENT: and the one that pertains to love for our neighbor, is something the Lord has taught us. He stated that the entire law and the prophets depend on these two commandments. Furthermore, He did not bring down any other commandment greater than this one from heaven but instead reinforced it to His disciples, instructing them to love God with all their heart and others as themselves. If He had come from a different Father, He would not have employed the first and greatest commandment of the law. Instead, He would have surely sought to bring down a greater commandment from the perfect Father, rather than using the one given by the God of the law. Similarly, Paul declares, "Love is the fulfillment of the law," and he states that when all other things are gone, "faith, hope, and love" will remain, and the greatest of these is love. He emphasizes that without the love of God, neither knowledge, the understanding of mysteries, faith, nor prophecy is beneficial, and without love, all are empty and meaningless. Moreover, love makes a person perfect, and he who loves God is perfect both in this world and in the one to come. We never cease to love God; rather, as we continue to reflect on Him, the more we love Him.

IN BOTH THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL: the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord God with your whole heart, followed by a commandment like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. This shows that the author of the law and the Gospel is one and the same. The precepts for a perfect life, being the same in both Testaments, reveal the same God, who has certainly given specific laws suited for each; yet the most important and greatest commandments, without which salvation cannot be achieved, He has urged us to follow in both.

THE LORD ALSO DOES NOT DISMISS GOD WHEN HE SHOWS THAT THE LAW WAS NOT FROM ANOTHER GOD: speaking to the multitude and His disciples like this: “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.

Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do; but do not follow their works, for they say and do not do. They bind heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not lift them with a finger.” He did not blame the law given by Moses when He encouraged it to be followed, as Jerusalem was still safe.

Instead, He blamed those people because they repeated the words of the law but were without love. For this reason, they were considered unrighteous before God and their neighbors. As Isaiah also says: “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching the doctrines and commandments of men.” He does not refer to the law given by Moses as commandments of men but rather the traditions of the elders that they invented, which made the law of God ineffective, and for this reason, they were not subject to His Word.

This is what Paul says about these men: “For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” And how is Christ the end of the law if He is not also its final purpose? For He who has brought in the end has also initiated the beginning. It is He who says to Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have come down to deliver them,” as it has been customary from the beginning for the Word of God to ascend and descend to save those in affliction.

NOW: that the law previously taught humanity the necessity of following Christ, He makes clear when He replied to the one who asked Him what he should do to inherit eternal life: “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” When asked, “Which ones?” the Lord again replied: “Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself,”—presenting as a series of steps for those who wished to follow Him, the precepts of the law, as the entrance into life; and what He said to one, He said to all.

But when the questioner claimed, “I have kept all these” (though likely he had not, as otherwise the Lord would not have said, “Keep the commandments”), the Lord, exposing his greed, said, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell all you have, and give to the poor; and come, follow me;” promising to those who would act this way, the portion belonging to the apostles. He did not preach to His followers a different God the Father, apart from the one proclaimed by the law from the beginning; nor a different Son; nor the Mother, the thought of the Æon, who existed in suffering and apostasy; nor the Pleroma of the thirty Æons, considered vain and unbelievable; nor that tale invented by other heretics.

But He taught that they should obey the commandments God enjoined from the beginning, eliminate their greed by good works, and follow Christ. That possessions given to the poor cancel former greed was made clear by Zaccheus when he said, “Behold, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone, I restore it fourfold.”