The rejection of material goods as heresy

If the Greeks, when they were able to persuade the master of the house to believe in God, immediately made the house a church, this is what happened also when the holy apostle Paul was in the house of Onesiphorus in our city; the apostle did not ask which vessels were clean and which were unclean, but he made the house itself, as we have said, a church.

But so that we may convince them that they abstain because of the vainglory and arrogance of the vessels, and that their foolish heart has been so darkened—and while claiming to be wise they have become foolish—they see even the bees that work the wax, how they carry themselves upon everything, and not only upon grasses and flowers, but also upon the fresh meats and upon the blood. And especially it is possible to see even in the time of the vintage how they settle upon the grapes and draw out the must that is upon the grapes, and after all these things, hastening to the domestic work and wisely performing this according to the wisdom given to them by the Creator. But they do not see the beekeepers pouring out good wine for both the wax and the bees; rather, because this is sweet, the gluttons eat this pleasantly, being gourmands, and they prepare wine from it to console their own drunkenness.

If they abstain because of the purity of the vessels, it would have been more fitting to abstain from the honey rather than from the plate or the cup which is unable to provide you with any pleasure. For indeed, having heard the Scripture, that honey becomes unclean; and into an altar, the law says, it shall not be brought (Leviticus 7:18). And by what logic do you eat oil? Do you not see or hear that those trading in this business pour this into the cells of new-builders, and thus, having emptied the cells for many days and pressing these, they sell the oil? And do you not hear those pressing the oil leaving the so-called pig's lard and thus extracting the oil, as if the lard itself were being pressed by the instruments of those crushing the oil, to be poured upon the oil? But nonetheless you, the clean one, loathing the shards and the rest of the vessels, eat this pleasantly without distinction, and where pleasure is not present, that is, in the plate or the cup, these...

You loathe the places where there is sweetness and softness, yet you eat these things with pleasure. Let all Samaria, having become zealous, guard the vessels; for by what word do you abstain from and loathe the meats and the other things which God created for the participation of the faithful and those who know the truth, and do you blaspheme the Creator? For this is not merely a Samaritan doctrine, but also the loathsome and unclean heresy of the Manichaeans; for their teaching is to abstain from that which is animated. And from what scripture did you learn this? Who taught you this? Did you not hear the scripture saying: The first man Adam begat two sons, Cain and Abel; and Abel shepherded the sheep; and it came upon their hearts to bring offerings to God, and Cain, having brought seeds, was not received because of the wickedness of his manner, but Abel, having taken from the firstborn sheep and the fats, brought them to God; and behold, He says, He looked upon Abel and upon his gifts, but upon Cain and his sacrifices He did not pay attention (Gen 4:4-5). See how God named the firstborn and the fats as gifts because He accepted them sincerely, but He named the seeds of Cain because they were not from the original sacrifice, so that He might persuade you, the unbelieving heretic, that even seeds have some life-giving power, which we have shown more clearly to you elsewhere, that God, having accepted the meats, surpassed the seeds.

Moreover, you will reject or set aside Noah from your self-control and your rejection, because after saving the seed of every kind through his own righteousness from the flood, having come out of the ark, he did no other work than first to build an altar to God; and the Lord smelled a pleasing aroma and promised to the righteous not to make a flood upon the earth again (Gen 9:13). You saw an acceptable sacrifice, you saw how he pleased God so that He would not bring such wrath upon the world until this age stands; and God to him: I have given you all like herbs of the field, except meat, in the blood of the soul you shall not eat; for I will seek your blood from all the animals and from the hand of man, and from a brother I will seek the soul of man (Gen 9:4). Meat He permitted, but blood is life.