Against Heresies: Book V

1. Now, the One who created man in the beginning promised him a second birth after his return to dust, as Isaiah declares: “The dead shall rise again, and those in the tombs shall arise, and those in the earth shall rejoice. For the dew from You brings them health.” And again: “I will comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem; you shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the grass; and the hand of the Lord shall be known to those who worship Him.” Ezekiel also speaks as follows: “And the hand of the Lord came upon me, and the Lord led me in the Spirit, and set me down in the midst of the plain, which was full of bones. And He made me pass by them around, and behold, there were many upon the surface of the plain, very dry. And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I said, Lord, You who have made them know. And He said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, You dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord to these bones, Behold, I will cause the spirit of life to come upon you, and I will lay sinews on you, and bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put my Spirit in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord. I prophesied as the Lord commanded me. And as I was prophesying, behold, an earthquake, and the bones came together, each to its own joint. I looked, and saw that sinews and flesh had grown upon them, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, Prophesy to the breath, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord, Come from the four winds and breathe on these dead, that they may live. So I prophesied as the Lord commanded me, and the breath entered them, and they lived, standing on their feet, a great multitude.” Again, he says, “Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come out from them, and bring you into the land of Israel. You shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring my people out of them; and I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live. I will place you in your land, and you shall know that I am the Lord. I have spoken, and I will do it, says the Lord.” We see that the Creator is shown to give life to our dead bodies, promising resurrection and rising from graves and tombs, and granting them immortality as well (He says, “For like the tree of life, so shall their days be”), showing Himself to be the only God who accomplishes these things, and as the good Father, graciously giving life to those who do not have life from themselves.

AND FOR THIS REASON: the Lord most clearly revealed Himself and the Father to His disciples, so they wouldn’t seek another God besides Him who made man and gave him the breath of life. This was to prevent people from becoming so mad as to invent another Father above the Creator.

Thus, He healed by a word all those who were weak because of sin; to them, He said, “Behold, you are made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you,” pointing out that because of disobedience, infirmities have come upon men.

To the man who had been blind from birth, however, He gave sight not by a word, but by an outward action. He did this intentionally, to show God's hand, the same hand that originally shaped man.

Therefore, when His disciples asked why the man was born blind, whether it was his own fault or his parents’, He answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” The work of God is the shaping of man.

As Scripture says, He made man through a process: “And the Lord took clay from the earth and formed man.” For this reason, the Lord spat on the ground, made clay, and smeared it on the man’s eyes, showing the original shaping of man and revealing the hand of God to those who can understand by what hand man was formed from dust. What the artisan, the Word, did not form in the womb (the blind man’s eyes), He then provided publicly, so the works of God might be revealed in him.

This was done so we would not seek another hand by which man was formed, nor another Father, knowing that this hand of God, which formed us in the beginning and forms us in the womb, has in the last times sought us who were lost, reclaiming His own, joyfully carrying the lost sheep on His shoulders and restoring it to the fold of life.

NOW THAT THE WORD OF GOD FORMS US IN THE WOMB: He says to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the belly, I sanctified you and appointed you a prophet among the nations." Paul also says similarly, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, that I might declare Him among the nations." Therefore, as we are formed in the womb by the Word, this same Word formed the visual power in the man who had been blind from birth, showing clearly who it is that fashions us in secret, since the Word Himself had been revealed to people.

This also declares the original formation of Adam, the manner in which he was created, and by what hand he was fashioned, indicating the whole from a part. For the Lord who formed the visual powers is He who made the whole man, fulfilling the will of the Father. And since man, regarding the formation after Adam, having fallen into transgression, needed the laver of regeneration, the Lord said to the man upon whom He had given sight, after smearing his eyes with clay, "Go to Siloam and wash;" thus restoring to him both his perfect confirmation and that regeneration which occurs through the laver.

For this reason, when he was washed, he came back seeing, that he might both know Him who had fashioned him, and that people might learn to know Him who has given them life.

ALL THE FOLLOWERS OF VALENTINUS: therefore, lose their argument when they claim that man was not made from this earth, but from a fluid and scattered substance. For it is evident from the earth, from which the Lord formed eyes for that man, that man was also made at the beginning. It would be inconsistent for the eyes to be formed from one source and the rest of the body from another, just as it would be inconsistent for one being to fashion the body and another the eyes. However, the very same one who formed Adam at the beginning, with whom the Father also spoke, saying, "Let Us make man in Our image and likeness," revealed Himself to men in these last times, creating eyes for the man who had been blind in the body he inherited from Adam. Therefore, the Scripture, indicating what would happen, says that when Adam hid himself because of his disobedience, the Lord came to him in the evening, called him, and said, "Where are you?" This means that in the last times, the very same Word of God came to call man, reminding him of his actions, in which he had been hidden from the Lord. Just as God spoke to Adam in the evening, searching for him, so in the last times, through the same voice, He has sought out his descendants and visited them.