Against Heresies: Book IV

People who criticize the Israelites for taking vessels and clothing from the Egyptians by God's command before their departure, and using those spoils to construct the tabernacle in the wilderness, show their lack of understanding of God's righteous actions and decisions. As the elder noted, if God hadn't allowed this in the symbolic exodus, no one could be saved in our true exodus, which is the faith that has brought us out from among the Gentiles. Sometimes, we carry a small amount of wealth with us, and other times it is a large amount, acquired from dishonest wealth. Where do we get the houses we live in, the clothes we wear, the vessels we use, and other necessities, if not from things we gathered before we had faith, or from our non-believing parents, relatives, or friends who wrongfully gained them? Even now, we acquire such things while in the faith. Who sells something without wanting to gain a profit? Who buys something without wanting a fair deal? Who works a trade without seeking a living from it? Believers in the royal palace gain utensils from Caesar's property, and those who have nothing receive according to each Christian’s ability to give. The Egyptians owed the Israelites not just property, but their lives, due to the kindness of Joseph in the past. In what way do non-believers owe us, from whom we receive gain and profit? What they work to earn, we use without labor, even while having faith.

UP TO THAT TIME: the people served the Egyptians in the most abject slavery, as the Scripture states: “And the Egyptians exercised their power rigorously over the children of Israel; and they made life bitter for them with severe labors, in mortar and brick, and all kinds of service in the field, by all the works in which they oppressed them with hardship.” Through immense labor, they built fortified cities for them, increasing the wealth of these men over many years, through every form of slavery; yet those masters were not only ungrateful towards them but were contemplating their complete destruction.

In what way, then, did the Israelites act unjustly if, from many things, they took a few, when they might have owned much if they had not served them, and could have left wealthy, but in reality, by receiving only a very small reward for their heavy servitude, they left poor? It is just like a free man, forcibly taken away by another, serving him for many years and increasing his wealth, who, when he finally gains some support, is thought to possess a small portion of his master's property, but in reality, departs having obtained only a little for his great labor, out of the vast possessions acquired, and it becomes a subject of accusation against him, as if he had not acted properly.

The accuser would seem to be an unjust judge against the one who had been forcibly taken into slavery. Such are these men who charge the people with blame for taking a few things out of many, but who bring no charge against those who did not give them the reward due for their fathers’ services; instead, they reduced them to the most burdensome slavery and gained the greatest profit from them. These objectors claim that the Israelites acted dishonestly because they took, as a reward for their labors, unstamped gold and silver in a few vessels; while they themselves claim to act honestly when they carry away from others’ labor coined gold and silver, with Caesar's inscription and image upon it.

IF: however, a comparison is made between us and them, I would ask, which group seems to have received their worldly goods in a fairer manner? Will it be the Jewish people, who took from the Egyptians, who were completely in their debt; or us, who receive property from the Romans and other nations, who owe us no such obligation? Yes, moreover, through them the world is at peace, and we walk on the highways without fear and sail wherever we want.

Therefore, against people like this (namely, the heretics) the word of the Lord applies, which says: “You hypocrite, first take the beam out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” For if the person who accuses you and boasts of his own wisdom has truly separated from the company of the Gentiles and possesses nothing from other people’s goods, but is literally naked, barefoot, and living homeless among the mountains, like any animal that feeds on grass, he will be excused for using such language, as being ignorant of the necessities of our way of life.

But if he partakes in what people consider the property of others, and if at the same time he criticizes them, he proves himself most unjust, turning this kind of accusation against himself. For he will be found carrying around property not his own and coveting goods that are not his. And therefore the Lord said: “Judge not, that you be not judged: for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged.” The meaning is not that we should not find fault with sinners, nor that we should consent to those who act wickedly; but that we should not pronounce an unfair judgment on the plans of God, because He has arranged that all things will turn out for good, in a way consistent with justice.

For because He knew that we would make a good use of our substance, which we should possess by receiving it from another, He says, “He who has two coats, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” And, “For I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was naked and you clothed Me.” And, “When you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” And we are proved to be righteous by everything else we do well, redeeming, as it were, our property from foreign hands.

But I say, “from foreign hands,” not as if the world were not God’s possession, but that we have gifts of this sort and receive them from others, just as these people had them from the Egyptians who did not know God; and by means of these same things we build in ourselves the tabernacle of God: for God dwells in those who act rightly, as the Lord says: “Make friends for yourselves with the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when you are put to flight, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings.” For whatever we acquired from unrighteousness when we were heathen, we are proven righteous, when we have become believers, by using it to the Lord’s advantage.

AS A MATTER OF COURSE: therefore, these things were done beforehand as a type, and from them the tabernacle of God was constructed; those people justly receiving them, as I have shown, while we were pointed out beforehand in them—[we] who would later serve God by the things of others. For the whole exodus of the people out of Egypt, which happened under divine guidance, was a type and image of the exodus of the Church that would occur from among the Gentiles; and for this reason, He leads it out at last from this world into His own inheritance, which Moses, the servant of God, did not bestow, but which Jesus, the Son of God, will give as an inheritance. And if anyone will pay close attention to those things stated by the prophets regarding the [time of the] end, and those which John, the disciple of the Lord, saw in the Apocalypse, they will find that the nations [are to] receive the same plagues universally, as Egypt did particularly.