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apostles and Cephas? upon whom those enslaved by the passion of misery lean, interpreting what was well written for benefit through their own foolishness for the destruction of 30.816 souls.

And let us examine the things being done, in parallel to the apostles, and to those who now believe. First, let us learn who was writing, and whether the blessed Apostle permitted it through a letter, and did not rather forbid them, offering himself as a model for all of us; for we know that he spent all his time with most devout men, and not living with most unseemly women; nor are they even ashamed saying this. Let them be covered in shame, who compare themselves to Peter, the chief of the apostles, and the key-holder of the kingdom of the heavens, and say: If he had a beloved woman, we also follow in his footsteps.

And perhaps you are right. Then raise for me Tabitha from the dead, as he did, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, so that I may believe you, that you too are a Spirit-bearer, filled with divine power. Cast out for me the demons that he cast out, the diseases, and perform the other healings, as many as he accomplished in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; for I omit the rest. When you show me, then I will believe you, that you are not burning towards the beast. Or do you not hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says, that "He who has looked at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart"? Or do the words of the Gospel seem to you a myth? Do you see how he not only forbade the act, but also turned away from seeing the form of her appearance, knowing that the ambush is a stumbling block to the soul of the man?

But to you who are suffering, the matter seems a trifle; for you have calloused your mind with shamelessness, placing it around your face like a mask; for you do not know how great a shipwreck you have fallen into. Let us return to the characters of the holy prophets, how they spent all the time of their life in mountains and caves, not only being delivered from seeing a woman, but indeed even from thinking of one. Or will this too seem to you utter nonsense? For I see you consoling yourself with the oppositions of many empty words. Remember the expulsion from paradise, and the destruction of the flood, and the catastrophe of the Sodomites, that because of woman all evils happen from the beginning to the end, the betrayal of Samson the just, and the plot against that virtuous Joseph. Recall the destruction of the chosen race of the Jews. If these things do not persuade you, let Solomon the wise persuade you, saying something like this: Wine and a woman will turn away the hearts of the wise. Of the wise, he said, so that you might not insert anything into this, and think lightly about the saying. For wine, entering into a person, and working a stupor of drunkenness in him, like a flooding river, carries away all his sense with its own rushing, and leads the person into madness. The same things a woman also accomplishes against a person as wine does.

For this reason indeed the proverb-writer compared 30.817 wine to a woman; and all the prophets compared the race of women to various evils and venomous beasts, that which destroys the souls of men. But not even these things persuade you; for everything, it seems, appears to you a trifle. For you have stopped your ears like a deaf asp, not heeding the divine Scriptures. And finally, you yourself have changed your nature into a bestial manner, becoming of like manner to her through cohabitation with the beast; whose words are well-spoken, and voice is sweet, but whose soul is savage, and mind that of serpents, and purpose that of creeping things, and gaze is fire-breathing, and

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ἀπόστολοι καὶ Κηφᾶς; ᾧ ἐπερείδονται οἱ τῷ τῆς ταλαιπωρίας πάθει δεδουλωμένοι, τὸ καλῶς πρὸς ὠφέλειαν γρα φὲν, τῇ ἑαυτῶν ματαιοφρονίᾳ πρὸς ἀπώλειαν ψυ 30.816 χῶν ἐκλαμβάνοντες.

Καὶ ἐξετάσωμεν παράλληλα τοῖς ἀποστόλοις, καὶ τοῖς νῦν πιστεύουσι τὰ πραττόμενα. Τίς ἦν ὁ γράφων πρῶτον μάθωμεν, καὶ εἰ δι' ἐπιστολῆς ὁ μακάριος Ἀπόστολος ἐπέτρεψε, καὶ οὐχὶ μᾶλλον ἐκώλυσεν αὐτοὺς, ἑαυτὸν τύπον παρεχόμενος πᾶσιν ἡμῖν· οἴδαμεν γὰρ αὐτὸν μετὰ ἀν δρῶν εὐλαβεστάτων πάντα τὸν χρόνον ἀναστραφέντα, καὶ οὐχὶ μετὰ γυναικῶν ἀπρεπεστάτων διάγοντα· οὔτε κἂν αἰδοῦνται τοῦτο λέγοντες. Αἰσχύνην κατα χεέσθωσαν οἱ ἑαυτοὺς Πέτρῳ τῷ πρωτοστάτῃ τῶν ἀποστόλων, καὶ κλειδούχῳ τῆς βασιλείας τῶν οὐ ρανῶν συγκρίνοντες, καὶ φάσκοντες· Εἰ ἐκεῖνος εἶχεν ἀγαπητὴν, καὶ ἡμεῖς τοῖς ἐκείνου ἴχνεσιν ἐπακολουθοῦμεν.

Καὶ τάχα καλῶς ἔχεις. Ἔγειρόν μοι γοῦν ὡς αὐτὸς τὴν Ταβιθὰν ἐκ νεκρῶν διὰ τῆς πίστεως τῆς εἰς τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, ἵνα πιστεύσω σοι, ὅτι καὶ σὺ πνευματοφόρος εἶ, ἐκ πεπλησμένος θείας δυνάμεως. Ἐξέλασόν μοι τοὺς δαίμονας, οὓς ἐκεῖνος ἐξήλασε, τὰς νόσους, καὶ τὰς ἑτέρας ἔργασαι θεραπείας, ὅσας ἐπετέλεσεν ἐκεῖνος ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ· ἐῶ γὰρ τἄλλα. Ὅταν μοι δείξῃς, τότε σοι πιστεύσω, ὅτι οὐ πυροῦσαι πρὸς τὸ θηρίον. Ἢ οὐκ ἀκούεις τί λέγει ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, ὅτι Ὁ ἐμβλέψας γυναικὶ πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι, ἤδη ἐμοί χευσεν αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὑτοῦ; Ἢ μῦθός σοι καταφαίνεται τὰ τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου ῥήματα; Ὁρᾷς, ὅπως οὐ μόνον τὸ πράττειν ἐκώλυσεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν χαρακτῆρα τῆς ὄψεως ὁρᾷν ἀπέτρεψεν, εἰδὼς ὅτι σκάνδαλον τῇ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ψυχῇ τὸ ἔνεδρον;

Ἀλλά σοι τῷ πάσχοντι παίγνιον καταφαίνεται τὸ πρᾶγμα· ἐπήρωσας γάρ σου τὸ φρόνημα τῇ ἀναισχυντίᾳ, προσωπείου δίκην τῷ προσώπῳ σου ἐμπεριθέμενος· ἀγνοεῖς γὰρ ἡλίκῳ ναυαγίῳ περιπέπτωκας. Ἐπαν έλθωμεν ἐπὶ τοὺς τῶν ἁγίων προφητῶν χαρακτῆρας, ὅπως τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον τῆς ζωῆς ἐν ὄρεσι καὶ σπηλαίοις διέτριβον, οὐ μόνον τοῦ ὁρᾷν γυναῖκα ἀπαλλαττόμενοι, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ τοῦ ἐνθυμεῖσθαι. Ἢ καὶ τοῦτό σοι πάντως λῆρος καταφανήσεται; Βλέπω γάρ σε καὶ ἀντιθέσεσι πολλῶν λόγων κενῶν σαυτὸν παραμυθούμενον. Μνήσθητι τῆς ἐκ τοῦ παραδείσου ἐκβολῆς, καὶ τοῦ ὀλέθρου τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ, καὶ τῆς τῶν Σοδομιτῶν καταστροφῆς, ὅτι διὰ γυναῖκα πάντα τὰ κακὰ ἐξ ἀρχῆς μέχρι τέλους γίνεται, τῆς τοῦ Σαμψὼν τοῦ δικαίου προδοσίας, καὶ τῆς τοῦ Ἰωσὴφ ἐκείνου τοῦ ἐναρέτου ἐπιβουλῆς. Μνημόνευσον τῆς τοῦ ἐκλεκτοῦ γένους τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἀπωλείας. Εἰ δὲ ταῦτά σε οὐ πείθει, Σολομὼν ὁ σοφός σε πεισάτω ὧδέ πη λέγων· Οἶνος καὶ γυνὴ ἀποστήσουσι καρδίας σοφῶν. Σοφῶν, εἶπεν, ἵνα μὴ καὶ τούτῳ παρενθῇς τι, καὶ εὐτελῶς φρονήσῃς περὶ τοῦ ῥητοῦ. Ὁ γὰρ οἶνος εἰς τὸν ἄνθρωπον εἰσδύνων, καὶ κά ρωσιν μέθης ἐν αὐτῷ ἐργαζόμενος, ὥσπερ ποταμὸς πλημμυρῶν, ὅλον τὸ φρόνημα τῷ ἑαυτοῦ ῥοιζήματι παρασύρει, καὶ εἰς μανίαν ἄγει τὸν ἄνθρωπον. Τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ἡ γυνὴ τῷ οἴνῳ διαπράττεται κατὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου.

∆ιὸ δὴ καὶ ὁ παροιμιαστὴς παρεπλησίασε 30.817 τὸν οἶνον τῇ γυναικί· καὶ πάντες δὲ οἱ προφῆται διαφόροις κακοῖς καὶ θηρίοις ἰοβόλοις παρεπλησίασαν τὸ γένος τῶν γυναικῶν, τὸ ἀπόλλον τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ταῦτά σε πείθει· παίγνιον γὰρ ὡς ἔοικε πάντα σοι καταφαίνεται. Ἔβυσας γὰρ ὡσεὶ ἀσπίδος κωφῆς τὰ ὦτά σου, μὴ εἰσακούων τῶν θείων Γραφῶν. Καὶ λοιπὸν δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς εἰς θηριώδη τρόπον μετήλλαξάς σου τὴν φύσιν, τῇ τοῦ θηρίου συνοικίᾳ ὁμότροπος αὐτῇ γενόμενος· ἧς τὰ μὲν ῥήματα εὔλαλα, καὶ ἡ φωνὴ ἡδεῖα, ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ ἀγρία, καὶ τὸ φρόνημα δρακόντων, καὶ ἡ προαίρεσις ἑρπη στικῶν, καὶ τὸ βλέμμα πυρίπνουν, καὶ