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what is the end for them of this command, you will find the charybdis of heresy; for, teaching metempsychosis, they think that then someone is able to know himself and sufficiently attain the command, when he might know to what body he was formerly attached and where he was once dwelling and what he was doing and what he was hearing; and he learns these things, having offered himself as obedient to the evil spirit who deceitfully whispered such things. Therefore, leading toward this through "know thyself" those who are not sufficiently able to perceive the deceit are thought to speak in harmony with our fathers. For this reason Paul and Barnabas, not being ignorant of the thoughts of the evil one and of those initiated by him, by no means accepted the one saying about them, "these men are servants of the Most High God," and yet what could one say is more pious than this saying? But they knew the one who transforms himself into an angel of light and his ministers who disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness; as, therefore, not befitting a lying mouth, they refuse the true voice.

Therefore we too, hearing pious words from the Greeks, neither consider them to be pious, nor do we rank them in the lot of teachers; for we know that they have stolen them from our (p. 86) own (which is why one of them said of Plato, "for what is Plato but Moses speaking Attic Greek"?); we know, then, that if there is anything good in them, it has been taken from there by deceptions, but we also have understood upon examination that it has not been taken for the same meaning. And if one of the fathers utters the same things as the outsiders, it is only in the words; but in the meanings, there is a great distance between them; for these, according to Paul, have the mind of Christ, but those, if not something even worse, speak from human understanding. "For as the heaven is distant from the earth, so is my thought distant from your thoughts," says the Lord. But truly, even if they do not share in the understanding of Moses and Solomon and those with them, what is the benefit to them from this, or who, having a sound mind and being ranked with us, would say that they have been taught these things from God, unless one were to say also that the heretics after Christ are taught by God, since having heard from the church, they have not shaken all the truth? "Every perfect gift is from above, from the Father of lights," declared the disciple of the light; but if He does not accept maimed animals as gifts, how could He Himself provide them? And yet a maimed animal is no less an animal. But a God who does not create from non-being, nor did our souls pre-exist, nor the formless matter according to them, or rather even that which is intrinsically fluctuating though given form, yet is disordered, how could he be God? And so that, adding a little according to the prophetic word, I might say, "the gods who did not make the heaven (p. 88) and the earth" from non-being, "let them perish," and along with them, those who theologized about them. But concerning those who call these men theologians and of one voice with our theologians, or even teachers, thinking to have received theological expressions from them, what must one say, but to pray to the light that enlightens every man coming into the world to deliver them also from this dreadful darkness of ignorance and to enlighten them to understand, that there is also something useful to us from snakes, but only after killing and cutting them up and preparing them and using them with reason against their doctrines? For this, then, their things are useful to us, so as to use them against them, taking them down, as it were, another Goliath with his own sword, one who rises up and resists and "reproaches the battle array of the living God" which has been instructed in divine things by fishermen and the unlettered.

Therefore, we would not prevent those who wish to pursue outside education, among those who have not undertaken the solitary life, but to have attended to it to the end

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τι τό τέλος ἐκείνοις τούτου τοῦ παραγγέλματος, κακοδοξίας εὑρήσεις χάρυβδιν˙ μετεμψυχώσεις γάρ δογματίζοντες, τότ᾿ οἴονταί τινα σχεῖν ἑαυτόν γνῶναι καί τοῦ παραγγέλματος ἱκανῶς ἐφικέσθαι, ἡνίκ᾿ ἄν τινι προσυνῆπτο σώματι γνοίη καί ποῦ ποτε ἦν οἰκῶν καί τί πράττων καί τίς ἤκουε˙ μανθάνει δέ ταῦτα, πειθήνιον ἑαυτόν παρασχών τῷ τά τοιαῦθ᾿ ὑποψιθυρίσαντι δολίως πονηρῷ πνεύματι. Πρός τοῦτο τοίνυν ἐνάγοντες διά τοῦ γνῶθι σαυτόν τοῖς οὐχ ἱκανῶς ἔχουσιν ἐπαΐειν τοῦ δόλου συνῳδά τοῖς ἡμετέροις πατράσι λέγειν νομίζονται. ∆ιό Παῦλος καί Βαρνάβας, τά τοῦ πονηροῦ νοήματα μή ἀγνοοῦντες καί τῶν ἐπ᾿ ἐκείνου μεμυημένων, τήν λέγουσαν περί αὐτῶν ὡς «οὗτοι οἱ ἄνθρωποι δοῦλοι τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ὑψίστου εἰσίν» ἥκιστα παρεδέξαντο, καίτοι τί τούτου τοῦ ρήματος εὐσεβέστερον εἴποι τις ἄν; Ἀλλ᾿ ἤδεισαν ἐκεῖνοι τόν εἰς ἄγγελον φωτός μετασχηματιζόμενον καί τούς διακόνους αὐτοῦ δικαιοσύνης διακόνους ὑποκρινομένους˙ ὡς οὖν οὐκ ἐμπρέπουσαν τῷ ψευδηγόρῳ στόματι παραιτοῦνται τήν ἀληθινήν φωνήν.

Ταῦτ᾿ ἄρα καί ἡμεῖς θεοσεβοῦς ρήματα παρ᾿ Ἑλλήλων ἀκούοντες, οὔτ᾿ οἰόμεθα θεοσεβεῖς ἐκείνους, οὔτε ἐν διδασκάλων τάττομεν αὐτούς μοίρᾳ˙ καί γάρ ἴσμεν ἐκ τῶν (σελ. 86) ἡμετέρων μέν ὑφελπομένους αὐτά (διό καί τις ἐκείνων περί Πλάτωνος ἔφη, «τί γάρ ἐστι Πλάτων ἤ Μωσῆς ἀττικίζων»;)˙ ἴσμεν μέν οὖν, εἴ τι χρηστόν αὐτοῖς, ἐκεῖθεν ἐκ παρακρουσμάτων μετειλημμένον, ἀλλά καί συνήκαμεν ἐπισκεψάμενοι μή πρός τήν ὁμοίαν διάνοιαν ἐξειλημμένον. Κἄν τις τῶν πατέρων τά αὐτά τοῖς ἔξω φθέγγηται, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπί τῶν ρημάτων μόνον˙ ἐπί δέ τῶν νοημάτων, πολύ τό μεταξύ˙ νοῦν γάρ οὗτοι, κατά Παῦλον, ἔχουσι Χριστοῦ, ἐκεῖνοι δέ, εἰ μή τι καί χεῖρον, ἐξ ἀνθρωπίνης διανοίας φθέγγονται. «Καθόσον δέ ἀπέχει ὁ οὐρανός ἀπό τῆς γῆς, κατά τοσοῦτον ἀπέχει ἡ διάνοιά μου ἀπό τῶν διανοιῶν ὑμῶν», λέγει Κύριος. Οὐ μήν ἀλλ᾿ εἰ καί τῆς διανοίας ἔστιν οὐ κοινωνεῖεν ἐκεῖνοι Μωϋσεῖ τε καί Σολομῶντι καί τοῖς κατ᾿ αὐτούς, τί τούτοις ἐκ τούτου τό ὄφελος ἤ τίς αὐτούς παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ δεδιδάχθαι ταῦτ᾿ εἴποι νοῦν ἔχων ὑγιᾶ καί μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν τεταγμένος, εἰ μή καί τούς μετά Χριστόν κακοδόξους θεοδιδάκτους φαίη τις, ἐπεί παρά τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἀκηκοότες μή πᾶσαν παρεσάλευσαν τήν ἀλήθειαν; «Πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον ἄνωθεν εἶναι παρά τοῦ πατρός τῶν φώτων», ὁ τοῦ φωτός ἀπεφήνατο μαθητής˙ κολοβά δ᾿ εἰ μή ἐκεῖνος ζῶα δῶρα προσίεται, πῶς ἄν αὐτός παράσχοι; Καίτοι ζῶον κολοβόν οὐδέν ἧττον ζῶόν ἐστι. Θεός δέ, ὅς οὐκ ἐκ μή ὄντων δημιουργεῖ, μηδέ τῶν ἡμετέρων προϋπῆρχε ψυχῶν, μηδέ τῆς κατ᾿ ἐκείνους ἀνειδέου ὕλης, μᾶλλον δέ καί τῆς οἴκοθεν ταλαντευομένης εἰδοπεποιημένης, ἀκόσμου δ᾿ ὅμως, πῶς ἄν εἴη Θεός; Καί ἵνα κατά τό προφητικόν μικρόν προσθείς εἴπω, «θεοί οἵ τόν οὐρανόν (σελ. 88) καί τήν γῆν» ἐκ μή ὄντων «οὐκ ἐποίησαν ἀπολέσθωσαν» καί πρός τούτοις οἱ τούτους θεολογήσαντες. Περί δέ τῶν τούτους θεολόγους καί τοῖς παρ᾿ ἡμῖν θεολόγοις ὁμοφώνους ἤ καί διδασκάλους λεγόντων, οἰομένων παρ᾿ ἐκείνων τάς θεολογικάς παρειληφέναι φωνάς, τί χρή λεγειν, ἤ δεῖσθαι τοῦ φωτός τοῦ φωτίζοντος πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμενον εἰς τόν κόσμον ἀπαλλάξαι καί αὐτούς τοῦ δεινοῦ τούτου τῆς ἀγνοίας σκότους καί φωτίσαι συνιδεῖν, ὡς καί παρά τῶν ὄφεών ἐστί τι χρήσιμον ἡμῖν, ἀλλ᾿ ἀνελοῦσι καί διελοῦσι καί συσκευασαμένοις καί χρησαμένοις σύν λόγῳ κατά τῶν ἐκείνων δογμάτων; Εἰς τοῦτο τοίνυν χρήσιμα τἀκείνων ἡμῖν, ὡς κατ᾿ ἐκείνων χρῆσθαι καθαιροῦντας, οἱονεί τῇ ἑαυτοῦ ρομφαίᾳ Γολιάθ ἄλλον, ἐπανιστάμενον καί ἀνθιστάμενον καί «ὀνειδίζοντα παράταξιν Θεοῦ ζῶντος» ἐξ ἁλιέων καί ἀγραμμάτων τά θεῖα πεπαιδευμένην.

Ταῦτ᾿ ἄρα καί τήν ἔξω παιδείαν μετιέναι τούς βουλομένους τῶν μή τόν μονήρην βίον ἐπανελομένων οὐκ ἄν ἀπείρξαμεν, διά τέλους δέ ταύτῃ προσεσχηκέναι