Foolishness, heresy, and polemical exclusion

Meaning

Foolishness and heresy are hostile judgements reported by the main treatise, not its own descriptions of the truth it defends. The wise of the world call it foolish; others condemn and banish it as heresy. The author interprets such rejection through scriptural accounts of the unrecognised Word and the testing of believers. English “condemned and banished as heresy” preserves the attributed accusation and its consequences. The passage does not identify a particular court, denomination or historical prosecution. Its immediate role is to connect rejection of divine knowledge with the earthly Stone’s low esteem before introducing their many parallel titles.