The Serpent, the Author of Polytheism.
881.
But even if there be others, as we have said, who are called gods, they are under the power of the God of the Jews; for thus says the Scripture to the Jews,
882.
'The Lord our God, He is God of gods, and Lord of lords.' Deuteronomy 10:17
883.
Him alone the Scripture also commands to be worshipped, saying,
'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve;' and,
884.
'Hear, O Israel: the Lord your God is one God.' Deuteronomy 6:4
885.
Yea, also the saints, filled with the Spirit of God, and bedewed with the drops of His mercy,
cried out, saying, 'Who is like You among the gods? O Lord, who is like You?'
886.
And again, 'Who is God, but the Lord; and who is God, but our Lord.'
887.
Therefore Moses, when he saw that the people were advancing, by degrees initiated them in the understanding of the monarchy and the faith of one God, as he says in the following words:
888.
'You shall not make mention of the names of other gods;'
doubtless remembering with what penalty the serpent was visited, which had first named gods.
889.
For it is condemned to feed upon dust, and is judged worthy of such food,
for this cause, that it first of all introduced the name of gods into the world.
890.
But if you also wish to introduce many gods, see that you partake not the serpent's doom.
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Divisions 891-915
RECOGNITIONS 2
Polytheism Inexcusable.
891.
For be sure of this, that you shall not have us participators in this attempt;
nor will we suffer ourselves to be deceived by you.
892.
For it will not serve us for an excuse in the judgment, if we say that you deceived us;
because neither could it excuse the first woman, that she had unhappily believed the serpent;
but she was condemned to death, because she believed badly.
893.
For this cause therefore, Moses, also commending the faith of one God to the people, says,
'Take heed to yourself, that you be not seduced from the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 8:11
894.
Observe that he makes use of the same word which the first woman also made use of in excusing herself, saying that she was seduced; but it profited her nothing.
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895.
But over and above all this, even if some true prophet should arise,
who should perform signs and miracles, but should wish to persuade us to worship other gods besides the God of the Jews, we should never be able to believe him.
896.
For so the divine law has taught us, handing down a secret injunction more purely by means of tradition, for thus it says:
897.
'If there arise among you a prophet, or one dreaming a dream, and give you signs or wonders, and these signs or wonders come to pass, and he say to you,
Let us go and worship strange gods, whom you know not;
898.
you shall not hear the words of that prophet, nor the dream of that dreamer,
because proving he has proved you, that he may see if you love the Lord your God.' Deut 13:1-3
Christ Acknowledged the God of the Jews.
899.
Wherefore also our Lord, who wrought signs and wonders, preached the God of the Jews; and therefore we are right in believing what He preached.
900.
But as for you, even if you were really a prophet, and performed signs and wonders, as you promise to do, if you were to announce other gods besides Him who is the true God, it would be manifest that you were raised up as a trial to the people of God; and therefore you can by no means be believed.
901.
For He alone is the true God, who is the God of the Jews;
and for this reason our Lord Jesus Christ did not teach them that they must inquire after God,
for Him they knew well already, but that they must seek His kingdom and righteousness, Matt 6:33
which the scribes and Pharisees, having received the key of knowledge, had not shut in, but shut out.
Luke 11:52
902.
For if they had been ignorant of the true God,
surely He would never have left the knowledge of this thing, which was the chief of all,
and blamed them for small and little things, as for enlarging their fringes,
and claiming the uppermost rooms in feasts,
and praying standing in the highways, and such like things;
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903.
which assuredly, in comparison of this great charge, ignorance of God,
seem to be small and insignificant matters.
Simon's Cavil.
904.
To this Simon replied:
From the words of your master I shall refute you,
because even he introduces to all men a certain God who was known.
905.
For although both Adam knew the God who was his creator, and the maker of the world;
and Enoch knew him, inasmuch as he was translated by him;
and Noah, since he was ordered by him to construct the ark;
906.
and although Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses,
and all, even every people and all nations, know the maker of the world, and confess him to be a God,
907.
yet your Jesus, who appeared long after the patriarchs, says:
'No one knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any one the Father, but the Son,
and he to whom the Son has been pleased to reveal Him.'
908.
Thus, therefore, even your Jesus confesses that there is another God,
incomprehensible and unknown to all.
Peter's Answer.
909.
Then Peter says:
You do not perceive that you are making statements in opposition to yourself.
910.
For if our Jesus also knows Him whom you call the unknown God, then He is not known by you alone.
911.
Yea, if our Jesus knows Him, then Moses also, who prophesied that Jesus should come,
assuredly could not himself be ignorant of Him.
912.
For he was a prophet; and he who prophesied of the Son doubtless knew the Father.
913.
For if it is in the option of the Son to reveal the Father to whom He will,
then the Son, who has been with the Father from the beginning, and through all generations,
as He revealed the Father to Moses, so also to the other prophets;
but if this be so, it is evident that the Father has not been unknown to any of them.
914.
But how could the Father be revealed to you, who do not believe in the Son,
since the Father is known to none except him to whom the Son is pleased to reveal Him?
915.
But the Son reveals the Father to those who honour the Son as they honour the Father. John 5:23
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The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
Divisions 916-945
RECOGNITIONS 2
The Supreme Light.
916.
Then Simon said:
Remember that you said that God has a son, which is doing Him wrong;
for how can He have a son, unless He is subject to passions, like men or animals?
917.
But on these points there is not time now to show your profound folly,
for I hasten to make a statement concerning the immensity of the supreme light; and so now listen.
918.
My opinion is, that there is a certain power of immense and ineffable light,
whose greatness may be held to be incomprehensible,
of which power even the maker of the world is ignorant,
and Moses the lawgiver, and Jesus your master.
Simon's Presumption.
919.
Then Peter:
Does it not seem to you to be madness,
that any one should take upon himself to assert that there is another God than the God of all;
920.
and should say that he supposes there is a certain power,
and should presume to affirm this to others, before he himself is sure of what he says?
921.
Is any one so rash as to believe your words, of which he sees that you are yourself doubtful,
and to admit that there is a certain power unknown to God the Creator,
and to Moses, and the prophets, and the law, and even to Jesus our Master,
which power is so good, that it will not make itself known to any but to one only,
and that one such an one as you!
922.
Then, further, if that is a new power, why does it not confer upon us some new sense, in addition to those five which we possess, that by that new sense, bestowed upon us by it, we may be able to receive and understand itself which is new?
923.
Or if it cannot bestow such a sense upon us, how has it bestowed it upon you?
924.
Or if it has revealed itself to you, why not also to us?
925.
But if you of yourself understand things which not even the prophets were able to perceive or understand, come, tell us what each one of us is thinking now;
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926.
for if there is such a spirit in you that you know those things which are above the heavens, which are unknown to all, and incomprehensible by all, much more easily do you know the thoughts of men upon the earth.
927.
But if you cannot know the thoughts of us who are standing here,
how can you say that you know those things which, you assert, are known to none?
The Sixth Sense.
928.
Yet believe me, that you could never know what light is unless you had received both vision and understanding from light itself; so also in other things.
929.
Hence, having received understanding, you are framing in imagination something greater and more sublime, as if dreaming, but deriving all your hints from those five senses, to whose Giver you are unthankful.
930.
But be sure of this, that until you find some new sense which is beyond those five which we all enjoy, you cannot assert the existence of a new God.
931.
Then Simon answered:
Since all things that exist are in accordance with those five senses,
that power which is more excellent than all cannot add anything new.
932.
Then Peter said:
It is false; for there is also a sixth sense, namely that of foreknowledge:
for those five senses are capable of knowledge, but the sixth is that of foreknowledge:
and this the prophets possessed.
933.
How, then, can you know a God who is unknown to all, who do not know the prophetic sense,
which is that of prescience?
934.
Then Simon began to say:
This power of which I speak, incomprehensible and more excellent than all, nay,
even than that God who made the world, neither any of the angels has known, nor of the demons, nor of the Jews, nay, nor any creature which subsists by means of God the creator.
935.
How, then, could that creator's law teach me that which the creator himself did not know,
since neither did the law itself know it, that it might teach it?
Reductio Ad Absurdum
936.
Then Peter said:
I wonder how you have been able to learn more from the law than the law was able to know or to teach;
937.
and how you say that you adduce proofs from the law of those things which you are pleased to assert, when you declare that neither the law, nor He who gave the law
— that is, the Creator of the world— knows those things of which you speak!
938.
But this also I wonder at, how you, who alone know these things, should be standing here now with us all, circumscribed by the limits of this small court.
939.
Then Simon, seeing Peter and all the people laughing, said:
Do you laugh, Peter, while so great and lofty matters are under discussion?
940.
Then said Peter:
Be not enraged, Simon, for we are doing no more than keeping our promise:
941.
for we are neither shutting our ears, as you said, nor did we take to flight as soon as we heard you propound your unutterable things; but we have not even stirred from the place.
942.
For indeed you do not even propound things that have any resemblance to truth,
which might to a certain extent frighten us.
943.
Yet, at all events, disclose to us the meaning of this saying, how from the law you have learned of a God whom the law itself does not know, and of whom He who gave the law is ignorant.
944.
Then Simon said:
If you have done laughing, I shall prove it by clear assertions.
945.
Then Peter said:
Assuredly I shall give over, that I may learn from you how you have learned from the law what neither the law nor the God of the law Himself knows.
The Book of Recognitions CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
Divisions 946-975
RECOGNITIONS 2
Simon's Blasphemy.
946.
Then says Simon: Listen:
It is manifest to all, and ascertained in a manner of which no account can be given,
that there is one God, who is better than all, from whom all that is took its beginning;
whence also of necessity, all things that are after him are subject to him,
as that he is the chief and most excellent of all.
947.
When, therefore, I had ascertained that the God who created the world,
according to what the law teaches, is in many respects weak,
whereas weakness is utterly incompatible with a perfect God,
and I saw that he is not perfect, I necessarily concluded that there is another God who is perfect.
948.
For this God, as I have said, according to what the writing of the law teaches,
is shown to be weak in many things.
949.
In the first place, because the man whom he formed was not able to remain such as he had intended him to be; and because he cannot be good who gave a law to the first man,
that he should eat of all the trees of paradise, but that he should not touch the tree of knowledge;
and if he should eat of it, he should die.
950.
For why should he forbid him to eat, and to know what is good and what evil,
that, knowing, he might shun the evil and choose the good?
951.
But this he did not permit;
and because he ate in violation of the commandment, and discovered what is good,
and learned for the sake of honour to cover his nakedness (for he perceived it to be unseemly to stand naked before his Creator),
he condemns to death him who had learned to do honour to God,
and curses the serpent who had shown him these things.
952.
But truly, if man was to be injured by this means,
why did he place the cause of injury in paradise at all?
953.
But if that which he placed in paradise was good,
it is not the part of one that is good to restrain another from good.
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