they are weak. For that a man should become food for fish presents a difficulty, but not a proof. For it is impossible for the same thing to be submitted to divinity as having happened; but when the thing has been demonstrated by the power of its substance, no reasoning can accomplish its overthrow. 15. The sun, when it is above the earth, is not under the earth, and when it is under the earth, it is not above the earth. How then, according to you, is this eternal, since it does not eternally possess the state of being above the earth or under the earth? If the Greeks assume as eternal that which is not eternal, how will they be credible lawgivers concerning the non-existence of the resurrection of the dead? 16. That which is at one time above, and at another time below, belongs to things that at one time were neither above nor below. How then is the sun eternal, which, before being above or below, did not exist? Therefore, for those who do not understand that the sun is created according to its own nature, how is it not absurd to believe them concerning the dead not being raised, of whom the author of the resurrection has already become the firstborn from the resurrection? 17. When the power of the maker is strong, then the matter is also suitable for the making of that which comes to be. But if any dead person is suitable for God for resurrection, necessarily all are; and if not all, no one. But it is not right to measure the works of God by our own thoughts; for the works of God are beyond mind and perception and reason, among which is also that the dead man eaten by fish must of necessity come into being again, even if he happened to be destroyed by something. 18. How is it true that the Lord is Lord of the living and the dead, when according to you he does not have the power to transform one into the other? 19. If God is the maker of the worse things, but not of the better, how is this not a sign of God's weakness? Which is impious to say. But if the power of God is equal for the making of both, why do you disbelieve the resurrection of the dead, who are raised to incorruption? 20. If for God it is not impossible to do, and for us it is profitable to be brought from a life full of groans and perishable to a blessed and incorruptible state through the resurrection, rather than, from the industriousness of philosophers, to bring the philosophizing Greeks to the industriousness of ants through metempsychosis, what is more ridiculous than to disbelieve that which has been testified, and to believe and dogmatize this which is unsubstantiated, so that Plato, the philosopher who formerly spoke Attic Greek, later squeaks like an ant? 21. If according to the Greeks God makes men by being and not by willing, how is Plato at one time a rational animal and a man, and at another an irrational animal and an ant through metempsychosis? If the becoming of Plato as a man follows God, it is necessary, when the

ἀσθενοῦσι. Τὸ γὰρ ἰχθυόβρωτον γενέσθαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἀπο ρίαν μὲν ἔχει, ἀπόδειξιν δὲ οὔ. Ἀδύνατον γὰρ τὸ αὐτὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ θεότητι ὑποπεσεῖν ὡς γεγονός· τοῦ δὲ πράγματος τῇ οὐσίᾳ δυνάμει ἀποδεδειγμένου, οὐδεὶς συλλογισμὸς δύναται ποιήσασθαι τὴν ἀνατροπήν. ιε. Ὁ ἥλιος, ὅτε ἐστὶν ὑπὲρ τὴν γῆν, ὑπὸ τὴν γῆν οὐκ ἔστι, καὶ ὅτε ἐστὶν ὑπὸ τὴν γῆν, ὑπὲρ τὴν γῆν οὐκ ἔστι. Πῶς οὖν ἀΐδιος καθ' ὑμᾶς οὗτος, τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν ὑπὲρ τὴν γῆν ἢ ὑπὸ τὴν γῆν ἀϊδίως οὐκ ἔχων; Eἰ δὲ τὸν οὐκ ἀΐδιον ὡς ἀΐδιον ὑπολαμβάνουσιν Ἕλληνες, πῶς ἔσονται ἀξιόπιστοι νομοθέται τοῦ μὴ ἔσεσθαι τῶν νεκρῶν τὴν ἀνάστασιν; ι. Τὸ ποτὲ μὲν ἄνω, ποτὲ δὲ κάτω, τῶν ποτε οὐκ ὄν των ἐστὶν οὔτε ἄνω οὔτε κάτω. Πῶς οὖν ἀΐδιος ὁ ἥλιος, ὁ πρὸ τοῦ εἶναι ἄνω ἢ κάτω οὐκ ὤν; Τοῖς οὖν τὸν ἥλιον κατὰ τὴν οἰκείαν φύσιν γενητὸν ὄντα μὴ ἐπισταμένοις, πῶς οὐκ ἄτοπον τούτοις πιστεύειν περὶ τοῦ μὴ ἀνίστασθαι τοὺς νε κρούς, ὧν ὁ ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ἀναστάσεως πρωτότοκος αὐτῶν ἤδη γέγονεν ἐκ τῆς ἀναστάσεως; ιζ. Ὅτε ἡ δύναμις ἰσχύει τοῦ ποιοῦντος, τότε καὶ ἡ ὕλη ἐπιτήδειος πρὸς τὴν ποίησιν τοῦ γινομένου. Ἀλλ' εἴ τις νε κρὸς ἐπιτήδειός ἐστι τῷ θεῷ πρὸς ἔγερσιν, ἐξ ἀνάγκης καὶ πᾶς· καὶ εἰ μὴ πᾶς, οὐδείς. Oὐ χρὴ δὲ τοῖς ἡμετέροις ἐν θυμήμασι μετρεῖν τοῦ θεοῦ τὰ ἔργα· ὑπὲρ νοῦν γὰρ καὶ αἴ σθησιν καὶ λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ τὰ ἔργα, ἐν οἷς ἐστι καὶ τὸν ἰχθυό βρωτον νεκρὸν ἀνάγκῃ πάλιν εἰς τὸ εἶναι ἐλθεῖν, εἰ καὶ συνέβη αὐτὸν φθαρῆναι ὑπό τινος. ιη. Πῶς ἐστιν ἀληθὲς τὸ ζώντων καὶ νεκρῶν κυριεύειν τὸν κύριον, καθ' ὑμᾶς οὐκ ἔχοντα δύναμιν θατέρου εἰς ἕτερον μεταποιητικήν; ιθ. Eἰ ποιητὴς τῶν μὲν χειρόνων ἐστὶν ὁ θεός, τῶν δὲ βελτιόνων οὐκ ἔστι, πῶς οὐκ ἔστι τοῦτο δεῖγμα τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἀσθενείας; Ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἀσεβὲς λέγειν. Eἰ δὲ ἴση ἐστὶν ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ δύναμις πρὸς ποίησιν ἑκατέρου, διὰ τί ἀπιστεῖτε τὴν ἀνάστασιν τῶν νεκρῶν, τῶν εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν ἀνισταμένων; κ. Eἰ θεῷ μὲν πρὸς τὸ ποιεῖν ἐστιν οὐκ ἀδύνατον, ἡμῖν δὲ πρὸς τὸ γενέσθαι ἐστὶ λυσιτελὲς τὸ ἐκ τῆς πολυστενάκτου τε καὶ ἐμφθάρτου ζωῆς ἀγαγεῖν ἡμᾶς εἰς μακαρίαν τε καὶ ἄφθαρτον κατάστασιν διὰ τῆς ἀναστάσεως μᾶλλον, ἢ ἐκ τῆς τῶν φιλοσόφων φιλοπονίας εἰς τὴν τῶν μυρμήκων φιλοπονίαν ἀναγαγεῖν τοὺς φιλοσοφοῦντας Ἕλληνας διὰ τῆς μετεμψυχώ σεως, τί γελοιωδέστερον τοῦ ἐκείνῳ μὲν μεμαρτυρημένῳ ἀπι στεῖν, τοῦτο δὲ ἀσυστάτως πιστεύειν καὶ δογματίζειν, ὥστε τὸν πάλαι ἀθηναΐζοντα φιλόσοφον Πλάτωνα ὕστερον μυρ μηκίζειν; κα. Eἰ κατὰ τοὺς Ἕλληνας τῷ εἶναι καὶ οὐ τῷ βούλε σθαι ποιεῖ ὁ θεὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, πῶς ὁ Πλάτων ποτὲ μέν ἐστι ζῶον λογικὸν καὶ ἄνθρωπος, ποτὲ δὲ ζῶον ἄλογον καὶ μύρμηξ διὰ τῆς μετεμψυχώσεως; Eἰ μὲν ἕπεται τῷ θεῷ τὸ γενέσθαι τὸν Πλάτωνα ἄνθρωπον, ἀνάγκη, μεταγομένου τοῦ