Chapter XLIII.—Conclusions. Jesus as the Christ of the Creator Proved from the Events of the Last Chapter of St. Luke. The Pious Women at the Sepulchre. The Angels at the Resurrection. The Manifold Appearances of Christ After the Resurrection. His Mission of the Apostles Amongst All Nations. All Shown to Be in Accordance with the Wisdom of the Almighty Father, as Indicated in Prophecy. The Body of Christ After Death No Mere Phantom. Marcion’s Manipulation of the Gospel on This Point.

It was very meet that the man who buried the Lord should thus be noticed in prophecy, and thenceforth be “blessed;”^51655165    The first word of the passage just applied to Joseph. since prophecy does not omit the (pious) office of the women who resorted before day-break to the sepulchre with the spices which they had pre422pared.^51665166    Luke xxiv. 1. For of this incident it is said by Hosea: “To seek my face they will watch till day-light, saying unto me, Come, and let us return to the Lord: for He hath taken away, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up; after two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up.”^51675167    Hos. v. 15 and vi. 1, 2. For who can refuse to believe that these words often revolved^51685168    Volutata. in the thought of those women between the sorrow of that desertion with which at present they seemed to themselves to have been smitten by the Lord, and the hope of the resurrection itself, by which they rightly supposed that all would be restored to them? But when “they found not the body (of the Lord Jesus),”^51695169    Luke xxiv. 3. “His sepulture was removed from the midst of them,”^51705170    Isa. lvii. 2, according to the Septuagint, ἡ ταφὴ αὐτοῦ ἠρται ἐκ τοῦ μέσου. according to the prophecy of Isaiah.  “Two angels however, appeared there.”^51715171    Luke xxiv. 4. For just so many honorary companions^51725172    Tot fere laterensibus. were required by the word of God, which usually prescribes “two witnesses.”^51735173    Deut. xvii. 6, xix. 15, compared with Matt. xviii. 16 and 2 Cor. xiii. 1. Moreover, the women, returning from the sepulchre, and from this vision of the angels, were foreseen by Isaiah, when he says, “Come, ye women, who return from the vision;”^51745174    Isa. xxvii. 11, according to the Septuagint, γυναῖκες ἐρχόμεναι ἀπὸ θέας, δεῦτε. that is, “come,” to report the resurrection of the Lord. It was well, however, that the unbelief of the disciples was so persistent, in order that to the last we might consistently maintain that Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples as none other than the Christ of the prophets.  For as two of them were taking a walk, and when the Lord had joined their company, without its appearing that it was He, and whilst He dissembled His knowledge of what had just taken place,^51755175    Luke xxiv. 13–19. they say: “But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel,”^51765176    Luke xxiv. 21.—meaning their own, that is, the Creator’s Christ.  So far had He been from declaring Himself to them as another Christ! They could not, however, deem Him to be the Christ of the Creator; nor, if He was so deemed by them, could He have tolerated this opinion concerning Himself, unless He were really He whom He was supposed to be. Otherwise He would actually be the author of error, and the prevaricator of truth, contrary to the character of the good God. But at no time even after His resurrection did He reveal Himself to them as any other than what, on their own showing, they had always thought Him to be. He pointedly^51775177    Plane. reproached them: “O fools, and slow of heart in not believing that which He spake unto you.”^51785178    Luke xxiv. 25. By saying this, He proves that He does not belong to the rival god, but to the same God.  For the same thing was said by the angels to the women: “Remember how He spake unto you when He was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered up, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”^51795179    Luke xxiv. 6, 7. “Must be delivered up;” and why, except that it was so written by God the Creator? He therefore upbraided them, because they were offended solely at His passion, and because they doubted of the truth of the resurrection which had been reported to them by the women, whereby (they showed that) they had not believed Him to have been the very same as they had thought Him to be. Wishing, therefore, to be believed by them in this wise, He declared Himself to be just what they had deemed Him to be—the Creator’s Christ, the Redeemer of Israel. But as touching the reality of His body, what can be plainer? When they were doubting whether He were not a phantom—nay, were supposing that He was one—He says to them, “Why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See^51805180    Videte. The original is much stronger ψηλαφήσατέ με καὶ ἴδετε, “handle me, and see.” Two sentences thrown into one. my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; for a spirit hath not bones, as ye see me have.”^51815181    Luke xxiv. 37–39. Now Marcion was unwilling to expunge from his Gospel some statements which even made against him—I suspect, on purpose, to have it in his power from the passages which he did not suppress, when he could have done so, either to deny that he had expunged anything, or else to justify his suppressions, if he made any. But he spares only such passages as he can subvert quite as well by explaining them away as by expunging them from the text.  Thus, in the passage before us, he would have the words, “A spirit hath not bones, as ye see me have,” so transposed, as to mean, “A spirit, such as ye see me to be, hath not bones;” that is to say, it is not the nature of a spirit to have bones. But what need of so tortuous a construction, when He might have simply said, “A spirit hath not bones, even as you observe that I have not?”  Why, moreover, does He offer His hands and His feet for their examination—limbs which consist of bones—if He had no bones? Why, too, does He add, “Know that 423it is I myself,”^51825182    Luke xxiv. 39. when they had before known Him to be corporeal?  Else, if He were altogether a phantom, why did He upbraid them for supposing Him to be a phantom? But whilst they still believed not, He asked them for some meat,^51835183    Luke xxiv. 41. for the express purpose of showing them that He had teeth.^51845184    An additional proof that He was no phantom.

And now, as I would venture to believe,^51855185    Ut opinor. we have accomplished our undertaking. We have set forth Jesus Christ as none other than the Christ of the Creator. Our proofs we have drawn from His doctrines, maxims,^51865186    Sententiis. affections, feelings, miracles, sufferings, and even resurrection—as foretold by the prophets.^51875187    Prophetarum. Even to the last He taught us (the same truth of His mission), when He sent forth His apostles to preach His gospel “among all nations;”^51885188    Luke xxiv. 47 and Matt. xxviii. 19. for He thus fulfilled the psalm: “Their sound is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”^51895189    Ps. xix. 4. Marcion, I pity you; your labour has been in vain. For the Jesus Christ who appears in your Gospel is mine.