may remain unconquered, by the reason of the soul strangling or cutting off the natural | appetites of the body that may or may not arise; so that for the sake of training God has made the movements of the flesh, so that <the> man may not be uncrowned, as having too easily achieved virtue without any opponent. And this shows evil to be neither uncreated nor indeed from a power opposed to God, but rather a natural motion of things that may or may not arise, which in itself displays no trace of sin. But if the soul should be dragged down and, abandoning its own station, should give itself irrationally to the movements of the body, then what has occurred is sin, with the soul serving the principles of the inferior part, and as one living creature, man, when he sins, is punished in both soul and body.

ἀήττητος μείνῃ, τῷ τῆς ψυχῆς λόγῳ ἄγχων τὰς ἐνδεχομένας γενέσθαι τε καὶ μὴ γενέσθαι φυσικὰς | τοῦ σώματος ὀρέξεις ἢ περικόπτων· ὥστε γυμνασίας χάριν πεποίηκεν ὁ θεὸς τὰς τῆς σαρκὸς κινήσεις, ἵνα μὴ ἀστεφάνωτος <ὁ> ἄνθρωπος γένηται, ὡς ῥᾷστα κατορθώσας τὴν ἀρετὴν ἄνευ τινὸς ἀντιπαλαίοντος. Τοῦτο δὲ οὐκ ἀγένητον, οὔτε μὴν ἐξ ἀντικειμένης τῷ θεῷ δυνάμεως δείκνυσι τὴν κακίαν, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον τῶν ἐνδεχομένων γενέσθαι καὶ μὴ γενέσθαι φυσικὴν κίνησιν, ἥτις καθ' ἑαυτὴν ἁμαρτίας ἴχνος οὐκ ἐπιδείκνυται. Εἰ δὲ ἡ ψυχὴ κατασπασθείη καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν τάξιν ἀφεῖσα τοῖς τοῦ σώματος κινήμασιν ἀλόγως ἑαυτὴν ἐπιδῴη, τότε τὸ γενόμενον ἁμαρτία τυγχάνει ψυχῆς ἐξυπηρετουμένης τοῖς τοῦ χείρονος δόγμασιν καὶ ὡς ἕν τι ζῷον ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἁμαρτάνων κολάζεται ψυχῇ τε καὶ σώματι.