3

brought forth; but as soon as they began to cultivate, and to sow the seeds of piety, this one sowed tares in their midst. 1. -Concerning Simon the Magus. And Simon, the Samaritan, the magus, was the first to appear as a minister of this one's evil art. Who, coming from 83.344 Gitta (this is a village of Samaria), and having practiced sorcery to the utmost, first persuaded many through the prodigies he performed, to follow him, and to call him some divine power. Then, seeing the apostles performing truly real and divine miracles, and bestowing the grace of the Spirit on those who came to them, demanding to receive equal authority from them, when the great Peter detected his utterly wicked mind, and commanded him to heal the incurable wounds of his mind with the medicines of repentance, that man immediately returned to his former evil art, and leaving Samaria, as having received the seeds of salvation, he ran out to those not yet cultivated by the apostles, so that by deceiving the easily-led with his sorceries, and binding them with his own mythologies, he might render the doctrines of the holy apostles difficult to accept. But divine grace armed the great Peter against this one's madness. For he, following, scattered his abominable teaching, like some mist and darkness, and showed the rays of the light of truth. But nevertheless, although being openly refuted, the thrice-wretched one did not cease from arraying himself against the truth, until he arrived in Rome, when Claudius Caesar was reigning. And he so astounded the Romans with his sorceries, as even to be honored with a bronze statue. But again the divine Peter, arriving, stripped him of the wings of deceit, and finally, having challenged him to a contest of miracle-working, and having shown the difference between divine grace and sorcery, with all the Romans watching, having prayed, he dashed him down from a great height, and caught the eyewitnesses of the miracle for salvation. This man produced such a myth: He supposed a certain infinite power; and this he called the root of all things. And he said that it was fire, having a twofold energy, the one manifest, the other hidden; and that the world is created, and that it came to be from the manifest energy of the fire; and that first from it were put forth three pairs, which he also called roots; and the first he called Mind and Thought, the second, Voice and Conception, and the third, Reason and Reflection. And he named himself the infinite power, and that to the Jews he appeared as Son, but to the Samaritans he had come down as Father, and among the other nations he had visited as the Holy Spirit. And making a certain other woman, who stood on a roof, called Helen, his companion, he said that she was his first conception, and called her the mother of all things, and that through her he had made both the angels and the archangels; and that the world was created by the angels; then that the angels, being jealous of her, held her captive among themselves. 83.345 For they did not wish, he says, to be called her creations. For which reason they also brought her into many female bodies, and into that Helen, on whose account the Trojan war happened. On her account, he also said that he himself had come down, so that he might free her from the bonds imposed on her, and provide salvation to men through the knowledge of him; and that he had come down transformed, so as not to be known by the angels who administer the creation; and that he appeared in Judea as a man, though not being a man, and suffered, though having not suffered at all; and that the prophets had become ministers of the angels. And those into him

3

προσήνεγκεν· ἀλλ' εὐθὲς ἐκείνων γεωργεῖν ἀρξαμένων, καὶ τῆς εὐσεβείας καταβάλλειν τὰ σπέρματα, οὗτος μεταξὺ κατέσπειρε τὰ ζιζάνια. Αʹ. -Περὶ Σίμωνος τοῦ Μάγου. Σίμων δὲ πρῶτος, ὁ Σαμαρείτης ὁ μάγος, τῆς τούτου κακοτεχνίας ὑπουργὸς ἀνεφάνη. Ὃς ἀπὸ 83.344 Γιτθῶν ὁρμώμενος (κώμη δὲ αὕτη Σαμαρείας), καὶ γοητείας εἰς ἄκρον ἐλάσας, πρῶτον μὲν πολλοὺς ἔπεισε δι' ἧς ἔδρα τερατουργίας, προσεδρεύειν αὐτῷ, καὶ θείαν τινὰ δύναμιν ὀνομάζειν. Ἔπειτα δὲ, τοὺς ἀποστόλους ἰδὼν ἀληθεῖς ὄντως καὶ θείας θαυμα τουργίας ἐπιτελοῦντας, καὶ τοῖς προσιοῦσι δωρουμέ νους τὴν χάριν τοῦ Πνεύματος, ἀξιῶν τὴν ἴσην παρ' αὐτῶν ἐξουσίαν λαβεῖν, ἐπειδὴ ὁ μέγας Πέτρος ἐφώ ρασεν αὐτοῦ τὴν παμπόνηρον γνώμην, καὶ τοῖς τῆς μετανοίας θεραπεῦσαι φαρμάκοις τὰ δυσίατα τῆς διανοίας προσέταξε τραύματα, εὐθὺς ἐκεῖνος πρὸς τὴν προτέραν ἐπανῆλθε κακοτεχνίαν, καὶ τὴν Σα μάρειαν καταλιπὼν, ὡς δεξαμένην τὰ σωτήρια σπέρματα, πρὸς τοὺς μηδέπω γεωργηθέντας ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων ἐξέδραμεν, ἵνα ταῖς μαγγανείαις ἐξαπατήσας τοὺς εὐχειρώτους, καὶ ταῖς οἰκείαις μυθολογίαις προσδήσας, δυσπαράδεκτα τῶν ἱερῶν ἀποστόλων ἀποφήνῃ τὰ δόγματα. Ἀλλ' ἡ θεία χάρις τὸν μέγαν Πέτρον κατὰ τῆς τούτου μανίας καθώπλι σεν. Οὗτος γὰρ ἑπόμενος, τὴν μυσαρὰν αὐτοῦ διδα σκαλίαν, οἷον ὁμίχλην τινὰ καὶ ζόφον ἀπεσκεδάννυτο, τῆς δὲ ἀληθείας τοῦ φωτὸς τὰς ἀκτῖνας ἐδείκνυ. Ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ προφανῶς διελεγχόμενος ὁ τρισ άθλιος, οὐκ ἐπαύσατο κατὰ τῆς ἀληθείας παραταττό μενος, ἕως εἰς τὴν Ῥώμην ἀφίκετο, Κλαυδίου Καί σαρος βασιλεύοντος. Τοσοῦτον δὲ Ῥωμαίους ταῖς γοητείαις κατέπληξεν, ὡς καὶ στήλῃ τιμηθῆναι χαλκῇ. Ἀλλὰ πάλιν ὁ θεῖος ἀφικόμενος Πέτρος, ἐγύμνωσεν αὐτὸν τῶν τῆς ἀπάτης πτερῶν, καὶ τέλος εἰς ἀγῶνα θαυματουργίας προσκαλεσάμενος, καὶ θείας χάριτος καὶ γοητείας τὸ διάφορον δείξας, πάντων ὁρώντων Ῥωμαίων, ἀφ' ὕψους αὐτὸν πολλοῦ κατέῤῥαξε προσευξάμενος, καὶ τοὺς αὐτόπτας τοῦ θαύματος εἰς σωτηρίαν ἐζώγρησεν. Οὗτος τοιοῦ τον μῦθον ἐγέννησεν· Ἄπειρόν τινα ὑπέθετο δύνα μιν· ταύτην δὲ ῥίζωμα τῶν ὅλων ἐκάλεσεν. Εἶναι δὲ αὐτὴν πῦρ ἔφησε, διπλῆν ἐνέργειαν ἔχον, τὴν μὲν φαινομένην, τὴν δὲ κεκρυμμένην· τὸν δὲ κόσμον γεννητὸν εἶναι, γεγενῆσθαι δὲ ἐκ τῆς φαινομένης τοῦ πυρὸς ἐνεργείας· πρῶτον δὲ ἐξ αὐτῆς προβλη θῆναι τρεῖς συζυγίας, ἃς καὶ ῥίζας ἐκάλεσε· καὶ τὴν μὲν πρώτην προσηγόρευσε νοῦν καὶ ἐπίνοιαν, τὴν δὲ δευτέραν, φωνὴν καὶ ἔννοιαν, τὴν δὲ τρίτην λογισμὸν καὶ ἐνθύμησιν. Ἑαυτὸν δὲ τὴν ἄπειρον ὠνόμασε δύναμιν, καὶ Ἰουδαίοις μὲν ὡς Υἱὸν φανῆ ναι, πρὸς δὲ Σαμαρείτας ὡς Πατέρα κατεληλυθέναι, ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἔθνεσιν ὡς Πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπιφοι τῆσαι. Καὶ ἑτέραν δέ τινα ἐπὶ τέγους ἑστῶσαν, προσ αγορευομένην Ἑλένην, σύνοικον ποιησάμενος, τὴν πρώτην αὐτοῦ ἔννοιαν ἔφασκεν εἶναι, καὶ μητέρα τῶν ὅλων ὠνόμαζε, καὶ δι' αὐτῆς καὶ τοὺς ἀγγέλους, καὶ τοὺς ἀρχαγγέλους πεποιηκέναι· ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν ἀγγέλων δημιουργηθῆναι τὸν κόσμον· εἶτα τοὺς ἀγ γέλους φθονήσαντας αὐτῇ παρ' ἑαυτοῖς κατασχεῖν. 83.345 Οὐ γὰρ ἐβούλοντο, φησὶν, αὐτῆς καλεῖσθαι ποιήματα. Οὗ δὴ χάριν καὶ εἰς πολλὰ αὐτὴν εἰσήγαγον σώματα γυναικεῖα, καὶ εἰς ἐκείνην δὲ τὴν Ἑλένην, δι' ἣν ὁ Τρωϊκὸς ἐγένετο πόλεμος. Ταύτης ἕνεκα καὶ αὑτὸν ἔλεγε κατεληλυθέναι, ὥστε καὶ αὐτὴν τῶν ἐπικειμέ νων ἐλευθερῶσαι δεσμῶν, καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις διὰ τῆς εἰς αὐτὸν ἐπιγνώσεως παρασχεῖν σωτηρίαν· κατ εληλυθέναι δὲ ἀλλοιούμενον, ὥστε μὴ γνωσθῆναι τοῖς τὴν κτίσιν οἰκονομοῦσιν ἀγγέλοις· καὶ φανῆναι ἐν Ἰουδαίᾳ ὡς ἄνθρωπον μὴ ὄντα ἄνθρωπον, καὶ πα θεῖν ἥκιστα πεπονθότα· τοὺς δὲ προφήτας τῶν ἀγ γέλων ὑπουργοὺς γεγενῆσθαι. Τοὺς δὲ εἰς αὐτὸν