By Water & Blood

Chapter 17: How the divine Scriptures present the unending kingdom of our Saviour, and how Marcellus declared with bare head that his kingdom will cease

And if these things must be sealed with a prophetic seal, I shall use as a witness, for a firm assurance of what has been said, the prophetic Spirit, which through Ezekiel the prophet foretold these very things in words such as these: “Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will seek out my sheep, and visit them. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day when there is gloom and cloud in the midst of sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep.” And after other things: “And I will save my sheep, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between ram and ram.

And I will raise up over them a shepherd, and he shall feed them, even my servant David, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and David a ruler in the midst of them; I the Lord have spoken it. And I will make a covenant with David.” And after other things he repeats the same prophecy, saying, “And I will deliver them from all their iniquities wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; and my servant David shall be ruler in the midst of them; and he shall be shepherd of them all.”

And again he adds, “And David my servant shall be their ruler for ever.” Observe in all these that God is said to be, for those who will be counted worthy of the blessed end, not shepherd nor ruler, but God; while David is prophesied to become the ruler and shepherd of these same people—David here hinting in a veiled way at the Christ, because he came “of the seed” of David.

This is plain from the fact that David had died before the time when these things were spoken. And Daniel the prophet foretells these things more clearly, plainly naming the Christ of God “Son of man,” just as the Scripture of the holy Gospels is accustomed to call him. He speaks in this manner: “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and honour, and a kingdom, that all peoples, tribes, and tongues, should serve him:

his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” You perceive how in these words too the prophet establishes that the kingdom which is to be incorruptible and ageless and unending will belong not to the Word in God but to the Son of man; and he clearly teaches that the Son of man, who received the incorruptible kingdom from the Ancient of days—that is, from his own Father—is other than the Ancient of days.

But Marcellus defines them to be one and the same, and one hypostasis underlying two names; and moreover he dares to circumscribe his kingdom, and so shamelessly declares that there will be an end of Christ’s kingdom after the time of judgment, writing in this manner (Nr. 101):

“Here the apostle uncovers to us a very great mystery, saying that there will be an end of Christ’s kingdom; and the end will be then, when all things are subjected under his feet.”

And he works out the argument somewhat thus (Nr. 102): “We said in our preceding sayings that our Master Christ had a beginning of his kingdom, using demonstrations from the divine Scriptures.” And he adds (Nr. 102):

“And in short, one may show, with an abundance of countless sayings for testimony, that the man received a beginning of kingdom through the Word. If, then, he received a beginning of kingdom not more than four hundred whole years ago, it is nothing strange if the apostle says that he who obtained this kingdom so short a time ago will deliver the kingdom to God.”

And after other things he adds, saying (Nr. 103):

“What, then, do we learn about the human flesh which the Word assumed for our sake not four hundred whole years ago? Will the Word have it in the ages to come also, or only up to the time of judgment?”

Such things, then, Marcellus dared to say. But the prophets of God, defining the kingdom of Christ as unending, say that after the time of judgment he will hold the rule of the new age. For see how the prophet Ezekiel, having set forth a judgment of the sheep of God, after their judgment sets David over them as shepherd, and foretells that the same will be their ruler.

And Daniel, having said before, “I beheld till the thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was a flame of fire, and his wheels burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened”—having foreseen these things, he next beholds the Son of man upon the clouds of heaven approaching the Ancient of days and receiving the incorruptible kingdom. Therefore then too, in a distinct and better way than now, he will hold the rule of reigning over those worthy of blessedness.

To these things the Gospel bears witness, in which the Saviour himself seals the prophetic words, handing down to his disciples the discourses about the consummation, in which he taught these things, saying, “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Observe how these things agree with what was said in the prophecy about the judgment of sheep and rams, and how the Son of man is introduced as King after the judgment of the sheep, while God is his Father.

For this he himself taught too, saying, “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,” corresponding to the one named David in the prophecy, whom the oracle teaches will be shepherd and ruler of the sheep, being about to shepherd and rule the flock of God under God as overseer. And one must also attend to this: that what is said by the apostle in “when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power,” the prophecy hinted at when it said, “And I will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land.”

For what would the beasts be that long ago troubled the sheep, if not the opposing powers? When these have been removed, the new and fresh age, cleansed of all wickedness, will have as King the Son of man (or, according to the prophecy, which hints in a hidden way, David as shepherd and ruler, because he came “of the seed” of David), while it is said to possess God not as shepherd nor as ruler, but as very God (αὐτόθεος), by a conception higher than that of shepherd and ruler and king—governing, by the magnificence of his divine power, not only the sheep but also the shepherd himself. For “my servant David,” he says, “shall be their shepherd; and I the Lord will be their God.” And he calls David “servant” on account of the “form of a servant” which our Saviour and Lord assumed “of the seed of David.”