I find, in taking up the Holy Scripture, that in the Old and New Testament stubbornness toward God is clearly condemned not in consideration of the number or heinousness of transgressions but in terms of a single violation of any precept whatsoever, and, further, that the judgment of God covers all forms of disobedience. In the Old Testament, I read of the frightful end of Achar^[1] and the account of the man who gathered wood on the sabbath day. Neither of these men was guilty of any other offense against God, nor had they wronged others in any way, small or great. But the one, merely for his first gathering of wood, paid the inescapable penalty and did not have an opportunity to make amends. By the command of God, he was forthwith stoned by all his people.

Why was he punished just for gathering sticks? Because if the laws were obstinately despised even at the beginning, of course they would scarcely be observed afterwards. For indeed the sabbath did at the first confer many and great benefits. It made them gentle toward those of their household and humane. It taught them God’s providence and the creation, as Ezekiel says;^[1] it trained them by degrees to abstain from wickedness and disposed them to regard the things of the Spirit.

The law, if it arrests a murderer, puts him to death. The gospel, if it arrests a murderer, enlightens and gives him life. And why do I cite a murderer? The law laid hold on one that gathered sticks on a sabbath day and stoned him. This is the stark import of the letter kills.

We have in fact noticed that even for less serious faults some people have suffered the very sentence of death by which those who we said were the authors of sacrilegious prevarication were also punished. This happened in the case of the man who had been collecting wood on the sabbath, as well as in that of Ananias and Sapphira, who by their misguided faithlessness kept back a little bit of their property.^[1] It is not that these sins were equally grave but that when these persons had been found committing a new offense, they had to furnish a kind of example to others of the penalty and terror of sinfulness. Thus, from then on, whoever was tempted to do the same thing would know that at the future judgment he would receive the same condemnation as the others, even if in this life his punishment was deferred.

When a man of the Israelite community gathered wood on the sabbath, he was killed, and this by the judgment and order of God, a judge most loving and merciful and who doubtless preferred to spare rather than kill him if the reason for severity had not overcome the reason for mercy. One man who was more unmindful perished, lest many be undone afterwards through lack of caution.

Their bellies’ fullness was followed by rebellion, which often rouses occasions of destructive danger. We say that a person is provoked when roused to anger by wicked deeds or very harsh words of others. The verse^[1] points to the incident when Dathan and Abiram roused strife and sought distinction for themselves.^[2] So their punishment ensued; for they provoked the holy men, which led to their own destruction, for they spoke through jealousy, and this is acknowledged to have displeased the Lord. This is aptly mentioned among the Lord’s praises because he is seen to have avenged his servants. As Numbers attests, it is clear that this befell the men who with the poisonous teeth of envy sought the heavenly favor bestowed on Aaron and Moses. Thus Dathan and Abiram wantonly seized for themselves the distinction which had been bestowed by the Lord’s kindness on Aaron and Moses. A similar end came on both of them because their motive in causing division was the same. They were swallowed up by the earth because they were steeped in earthly things, so that the nature of their punishment itself witnesses to their criminal deeds.

Thus Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who tried to assume for themselves in opposition to Moses and Aaron the freedom to sacrifice, immediately paid the penalty for their efforts. The earth, breaking its bonds, opened up into a deep chasm, and the opening of the receding ground swallowed up the standing and the living.^[1] And not only did the anger of the indignant God strike those who had been the authors [of the revolt], but also fire that went out from the Lord in speedy revenge consumed 250 others, participants and sharers in the same madness, who had been joined together with them in the daring plan. Clearly [this] warned and showed that whatever the wicked attempt by human will to destroy God’s plan is done against God.

Let the dissidents learn to fear the agitation of the Lord and to obey the priests. What does this mean? Did the cleft in the earth not swallow Dathan and Abiram and Korah because of their dissention? For when Korah and Dathan and Abiram incited 250 men to rebel against Moses and Aaron and separate themselves from them, they rose up and said, Let it be sufficient for you that the whole assembly is holy, every one of them, and that the Lord is in them. Whence the Lord was angered and spoke to the entire assembly. He examined them. Since the Lord knows who are his, he led the holy ones to himself. Those whom he did not choose he did not lead to himself. And the Lord commanded that Korah and all those who had risen up with him against Moses and Aaron, the priests of the Lord, select for themselves altars and put incense upon them, in order that the one elected by the Lord might himself be confirmed as holy among the Levites of the Lord.

And Moses said to Korah, Listen to me, sons of Levi: is this insignificant to you that God has separated you from the assembly of Israel? And further down: Do you thus seek to exer-cise the priesthood, you and your entire assembly who have congregated against the Lord? What is Aaron that you murmur against him?

You are considering then what the causes of their offense were. They were willing to exercise the priesthood unworthily, and for that reason they dissented. Moreover, they murmured and disapproved of the judgment of God in their election of their priests. Therefore a great dread seized all the people. The terror of punishment enveloped them all. Nevertheless, because all the people prayed that not all of them perish because of the insolence of a few, those guilty of the crime were singled out, and 250 men with their leaders were set apart from the body of the people. The earth bellows and is rent apart in the midst of the people. A gulf is opened into the depths. The guilty are snatched up and removed from every element of this world, so that they will not contaminate the air by their breath, or the sky by their sight, or the sea by their touch or the earth by their tombs.

The argument that they acknowledge the same God the Father, the same son Christ and the same Holy Spirit is no use to them either. Korah, Dathan and Abiram acknowledged the same God as Aaron the priest and Moses. They lived by the same law and the same religious practices, invoking the one true God who should properly be worshiped and invoked. All the same, when they went beyond the limits of their own ministry and claimed for themselves authority to perform sacrifices in opposition to Aaron the priest, who had received the lawful priesthood by the favor of God and the ordination of the Lord, they were struck from on high and at once paid the penalty for their unlawful attempt. The sacrifices which they offered impiously and unlawfully against God’s will and ordinance could be neither valid nor efficacious.

We say therefore with confidence that according to the Scriptures God does not know [in the sense of acknowledge] all people. God does not know sin, and God does not know sinners. He is ignorant, so to speak, of those alienated from himself. Hear the Scripture saying The Lord knows those who are his^[1] and Let everyone depart from iniquity who calls on the name of the Lord. The Lord knows his own, but he does not know the wicked and the impious. . . .

We say these things, however, not thinking anything blasphemous about God or ascribing ignorance to him, but thus we understand that these whose activity is considered unworthy of God are also considered to be unworthy of God’s knowing them. For God does not deign to know one who has turned away from him and does not know that one.