Against Marcion 3.21

So too you cannot sustain that objection of yours to distinguish two Christs, as though the Jewish Christ were appointed by the Creator only to gather back the people from the dispersion, while yours was bestowed by the supremely good god to set free the whole human race; since, after all, the Christians of the Creator are found to be earlier than Marcion's, all peoples having been called into his kingdom from the time when God reigned from the tree, when there was as yet no Cerdo, let alone Marcion. But refuted about the calling of the nations, you now seek to turn it into proselytes who pass over from the nations to the Creator; whereas the proselytes, being of a different and distinct status, are named separately by the prophet (“Behold,” says Isaiah, “proselytes will come to you through me,” showing that the proselytes too would come to God through Christ), and the nations, which is what we are, likewise have their own designation, as hoping in Christ: “And in his name,” he says, “the nations will hope.” But the proselytes, whom you substitute in the prophecy of the nations, do not usually hope in the name of Christ but in the ordinance of Moses, from whom their instruction comes. The choosing of the nations, on the other hand, arose from the last days. Isaiah says in these very words: “And it will be in the last days that the mountain of the Lord will be manifest,” namely the majesty of God, “and the house of God on the tops of the mountains,” namely Christ, the universal temple of God in which God is worshiped, established over all the heights of virtues and powers; “and all nations will come to it, and many will go and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will announce to us his way and we will walk in it; for from Zion will go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” This will be the way of the new law, the gospel, and of the new word, in Christ, no longer in Moses. “And he will judge among the nations,” namely concerning their error, “and will refute a great people,” first of all the Jews themselves and the proselytes, “and they will beat their swords into ploughs and their spears into sickles,” that is, they will turn the dispositions of harmful minds and hostile tongues, and of all malice and blasphemy, into pursuits of moderation and peace; “and nation will not take up sword against nation,” the sword of discord, that is, “and they will no longer learn to make war,” that is, to carry out enmities; so that here too you may learn that Christ was promised not as mighty in war but as bringing peace. Either deny that these things were prophesied, when they are seen before your eyes, or that they are fulfilled, when they are read; or if you deny neither, they will have been fulfilled in him of whom they were prophesied. For look further at the very entry and course of the calling into the nations, from the last days, as they approach God the Creator; not into proselytes, whose choosing belongs rather to the first days. For it was the apostles who brought in this faith.