Dialogues (Eranistes) · Part 15

Eran.--Yes.

Orth.--Do you say that he was a man, or assumed some other nature?

Eran.--A man.

Orth.--Begotten or unbegotten?

Eran.--You are asking very absurd questions.

Orth.--The fault lies with you for openly opposing the truth. Answer then.

Eran.--There is one only unbegotten, who is God and Father.

Orth.--Then we assert that Melchisedec was begotten?

Eran.--Yes.

Orth.--But the passage about him teaches the opposite. Remember the words which you quoted a moment ago, "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life." How then do the words "Without father and without mother" fit him; and how the statement that he neither received beginning of existence nor end, since all this transcends humanity?

Eran.--These things do in fact overstep the limits of human nature.

Orth.--Then shall we say that the Apostle told lies?

Eran.--God forbid.

Orth.--How then is it possible both to testify to the truth of the Apostle, and apply the supernatural to Melchisedec?

Eran.--The passage is a very difficult one, and requires much explanation.

Orth.--For any one willing to consider it with attention it will not be hard to attain perception of the meaning of the words. After saying "without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life," the divine Apostle adds "made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually." Here he plainly teaches us that the Lord Christ is archetype of Melchisedec in things concerning the human nature. And he speaks of Melchisedec as "made like unto the Son of God." Now let us examine the point in this manner;--do you say that the Lord had a father according to the flesh?

Eran.--Certainly not.

Orth.--Why?

Eran.--He was born of the holy Virgin alone.

Orth.--He is therefore properly styled "without father"?

Eran.--True.

Orth.--Do you say that according to the divine Nature He had a mother?

Eran.--Certainly not.

Orth.--For He was begotten of the Father alone before the ages?

Eran.--Agreed.

Orth.--And yet, as the generation He has of the Father is ineffable, He is spoken of as "without descent." "Who" says the prophet "shall declare His generation?"

Eran.--You are right.

Orth.--Thus it becomes Him to have neither beginning of days nor end of life; for He is without beginning, indestructible, and, in a word, eternal, and coeternal with the Father.

Eran.--This is my view too. But we must now consider how this fits the admirable Melchisedec.

Orth.--As an image and type. The image, as we have just observed, has not all the properties of the archetype. Thus to the Saviour these qualities are proper both by nature and in reality; but the story of the origin of the race has attributed them to Melchisedec. For after telling us of the father of the patriarch Abraham, and of the father and mother of Isaac, and in like manner of Jacob and of his sons, and exhibiting the pedigree of our first forefathers, of Melchisedec it records neither the father nor the mother, nor does it teach that he traced his descent from any one of Noah's sons, to the end that he may be a type of Him who is in reality without father, and without mother. And this is what the divine Apostle would have us understand, for in this very passage he says further, "But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises."

Eran.--Then, since Holy Scripture has not mentioned his parents, can he be called without father and without mother?

Orth.--If he had really been without father and without mother, he would not have been an image, but a reality. But since these are his qualities not by nature, but according to the dispensation of the Divine Scripture, he exhibits the type of the reality.

Eran.--The type must have the character of the archetype.

Orth.--Is man called an image of God?

Eran.--Man is not an image of God, but was made in the image of God.

Orth.--Listen then to the Apostle. He says: "For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God."

Eran.--Granted, then, that he is an image of God.

Orth.--According to your argument then he must needs have plainly preserved the characters of the archetype, and have been uncreate, uncompounded, and infinite. He ought in like manner to have been able to create out of the non existent, he ought to have fashioned all things by his word and without labour, in addition to this to have been free from sickness, sorrow, anger, and sin, to have been immortal and incorruptible and to possess all the qualities of the archetype.

Eran.--Man is not an image of God in every respect.

Orth.--Though truly an image in the qualities in which you would grant him to be so, you will find that he is separated by a wide interval from the reality.