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at vintage time, how they sit upon the grapes and draw out the must from the grapes, and after all these things, hastening to their own work and wisely completing it according to the wisdom given to them by the creator. But do they not see the beekeepers pouring good wine over both the honeycomb and the bees; but since this is sweet, they gladly eat it, being gluttons, and making wine from it they console their own drunkenness. If you abstain on account of the purity of the vessels, you ought rather to abstain from the honey and not from the plate or the cup which can offer you no pleasure. For you have certainly heard from Scripture, that honey becomes unclean; and to the altar, says the law, it shall not be brought up. And for what reason do you eat oil? Do you not see or have you not heard that those who traffic in this commodity pour this into fresh wineskins and thus after many days, emptying the skins and pressing them, they sell the oil? And do you not hear that those who press the olive grease the so-called axle with pig fat and thus extract the oil, so that the fat itself, being squeezed by the instruments pressing the olive, drips down upon the oil? But nevertheless you, the pure one, who abominate earthenware and other vessels, gladly eat this without making distinctions, and where there is no pleasure attached, that is, to the plate or to the cup, these you abominate, but where there is sweetness and richness, these you gladly eat. And let it be that everyone who emulates Samaria guards the vessels, but as for meats and the other things which God created to be received by the faithful and those who have come to know the truth, for what reason do you abstain and abominate these things and blaspheme the Creator? For this is not only a Samaritan dogma, but also of the abominable and unclean heresy of the Manichaeans; for their teaching is to abstain from animate things. But from what scripture have you learned this? Who taught you this? Have you not heard the scripture saying: The first man Adam begot two sons, Cain and Abel; and Abel tended the sheep; and it came into their heart to offer gifts to God, and Cain, having offered produce of the ground, was not accepted because of the evil of his way, but Abel took from the firstborn of the sheep and from their fat and offered it to God; and he looked, it says, upon Abel and upon his gifts, but upon Cain and his sacrifices he had no regard. See how God called the firstborn and the fat "gifts" because he accepted them genuinely, but the produce of Cain, because it was not from the first fruits, he called "sacrifices," in order to persuade you, the unbelieving heretic, that produce also has a certain life-giving power, which we have shown you more clearly elsewhere, that God, having accepted the meats, disregarded the produce. And you will certainly reject Noah or even exclude him from your continence and your renunciation, because after he had saved seed of every kind from the flood through his own righteousness, when he came out of the ark he did no other work than first building an altar to God; and the Lord smelled a sweet aroma and promised the righteous man to never again bring a flood upon the earth. You have seen an acceptable sacrifice, you have seen how it caused God to resolve, as long as this age stands, to no longer bring such wrath upon the world; and God said to him: I have given you everything as the green plants, but flesh with its life, that is, its blood, you shall not eat; for I will surely require your lifeblood from every beast and from the hand of man and brother I will require the life of man. He permitted meat, he forbade blood and what is strangled. And the new covenant seals this, so that you may not think that the lawgiver of the old covenant is one, and of the new another. For one can see the apostles gathered in Jerusalem, with the holy Paul and Barnabas having come down

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τρύγης πῶς ἐπὶ τὰς σταφυλὰς ἐπικαθέζονται καὶ ἕλκουσι τὸ ἐπὶ τῶν σταφυλῶν γλεῦκος, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα πάντα ἐπὶ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἔργον ἐπειγομένας καὶ σοφῶς τοῦτο ἐπιτελούσας κατὰ τὴν δοθεῖσαν αὐταῖς σοφίαν παρὰ τοῦ κτίσαντος. Αὐτοὺς δὲ τοὺς μελισσουργοὺς οὐ βλέπουσιν οἶνον χρηστὸν τῷ τε κηρίῳ καὶ ταῖς μελίσσαις περιχέοντας· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τοῦτο γλυκύ ἐστιν, ἡδέως τοῦτο ἐσθίουσι γαστρίμαργοι ὄντες καὶ ἐξ αὐτοῦ οἶνον σκευάζοντες τὴν μέθην ἑαυτῶν παραμυθοῦνται. Εἰ διὰ τὴν καθαρότητα τῶν σκευῶν ἀπείχου, ἔδει μᾶλλον τοῦ μέλιτος ἀπέχεσθαι καὶ μὴ τοῦ πινακίου ἢ τοῦ ποτηρίου τοῦ μηδεμίαν ἡδονὴν δυναμένου σοι παρέχειν. Πάντως γὰρ καὶ τῆς γραφῆς ἐπήκουσας, ὅτι τὸ μέλι ἀκάθαρτον γίνεται· καὶ εἰς θυσιαστήριον, φησὶν ὁ νόμος, οὐκ ἀνενεχθήσεται. Τὸ δὲ ἔλαιον ποίῳ λόγῳ ἐσθίεις; Οὐχ ὁρᾷς ἢ οὐκ ἤκουσας ὅτι εἰς νεοδόρους ἀσκοὺς τοῦτο ἐμβάλλουσιν οἱ ταύτην τὴν πραγματείαν ἐμπορευόμενοι καὶ οὕτως διὰ πολλῶν ἡμερῶν κενώσαντες τοὺς ἀσκοὺς καὶ ἐκθλίψαντες τούτους τὸ ἔλαιον πιπράσκουσιν; Αὐτοὺς δὲ τοὺς τρίβοντας τὴν ἐλαίαν οὐκ ἀκούεις ὑπαλείφοντας τὸν λεγόμενον ἄξονα στέατι χοίρου καὶ οὕτως τὸ ἔλαιον ἐκβάλλοντας, ὡς καὶ αὐτὸ τὸ στέαρ ἐκθλιβόμενον ὑπὸ τῶν ὀργάνων τῶν τὴν ἐλαίαν θλιβόντων καταστάζειν ἐπὶ τὸ ἔλαιον; Ἀλλ' ὅμως σὺ ὁ καθαρός, ὁ τὰ ὄστρακα καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ σκεύη βδελυσσόμενος, ταύτην ἡδέως ἐσθίεις μὴ διακρινόμενος, καὶ ὅπου μὲν ἡδονὴ οὐ πρόσεστι, τουτέστι τῷ πινακίῳ ἢ τῷ ποτηρίῳ, ταῦτα βδελύσσῃ, ὅπου δὲ γλυκύτης καὶ πιότης, ταῦτα ἡδέως ἐσθίεις. Καὶ ἔστω τὰ σκεύη παραφυλάσσῃ ἅπας τὴν Σαμάρειαν ζηλώσας, τῶν μέντοι κρεῶν καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν πραγμάτων ἃ ὁ θεὸς ἔκτισεν εἰς μετάληψιν τοῖς πιστοῖς καὶ ἐπεγνωκόσι τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ποίῳ λόγῳ ἀπέχῃ καὶ ταῦτα βδελύσσῃ καὶ βλασφημεῖς τὸν δημιουργόν; Τοῦτο γὰρ οὐκ ἔστι Σαμαρειτικὸν δόγμα μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς βδελυρᾶς καὶ ἀκαθάρτου αἱρέσεως τῶν Μανιχαίων· ἐκείνων γὰρ ἡ διδασκαλία ἐμψύχων ἀπέχεσθαι. Σὺ δὲ παρὰ ποίας γραφῆς ἔμαθες; Τίς σε τοῦτο ἐδίδαξεν; Οὐκ ἤκουσας τῆς γρα φῆς λεγούσης· Ὁ μὲν πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος Ἀδὰμ ἐγέννησε δύο υἱούς, τόν τε Κάϊν καὶ τὸν Ἄβελ· ὁ δὲ Ἄβελ ἐποίμαινε τὰ πρόβατα· ἐγένετο δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν καρδίαν αὐτῶν ἀνελθεῖν προσενέγκαι δῶρα τῷ θεῷ, καὶ ὁ μὲν Κάϊν σπέρματα προσενέγκας οὐ προσεδέχθη διὰ τὴν κακίαν τοῦ τρόπου, ὁ δὲ Ἄβελ λαβὼν ἐκ τῶν πρωτοτόκων προβάτων καὶ τῶν στεάτων προσεκόμισε τῷ θεῷ· καὶ ἐπεῖδε, φησίν, ἐπὶ Ἄβελ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς δώροις αὐτοῦ, ἐπὶ δὲ Κάϊν καὶ ταῖς θυσίαις αὐτοῦ οὐ προσέσχεν. Ὅρα πῶς τὰ πρωτότοκα καὶ τὰ στέατα δῶρα ὁ θεὸς ὠνόμασεν διὰ τὸ γνησίως αὐτὰ προσδέξα σθαι, τὰ δὲ σπέρματα τοῦ Κάϊν διὰ τὸ μὴ εἶναι αὐτὰ ἐκ τῶν ἀπαρ χῶν θυσίας ὠνόμασεν, ἵνα σε πείσῃ, τὸν ἄπιστον αἱρετικόν, ὅτι καὶ τὰ σπέρματα ἔχει τινὰ ζωτικὴν δύναμιν, ὅπερ ἐν ἑτέρῳ σαφέστερον ἐδείξαμεν σοι, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς τὰ κρέα προσδεξάμενος τῶν σπερμάτων ὑπερεῖδε. Πάντως δὲ καὶ τὸν Νῶε ἀποδοκιμάσεις ἢ καὶ ἀφορίσεις τῆς σῆς ἐγκρατείας καὶ τῆς σῆς ἀποτάξεως, ὅτι μετὰ τὸ διασῶσαι ἑκάστου γένους σπέρμα διὰ τῆς οἰκείας δικαιοσύνης ἀπὸ τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ, ἐξελθὼν ἀπὸ τῆς κιβωτοῦ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἔργον ἐποίησεν ἢ πρῶτον ᾠκοδόμησε θυσιαστήριον τῷ θεῷ· καὶ ὠσφράν θη κύριος ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας καὶ ἐπηγγείλατο τῷ δικαίῳ μηκέτι κατα κλυσμὸν ποιῆσαι ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Εἶδες θυσίαν δεκτήν, εἶδες πῶς ἐνέτρεψε τῷ θεῷ ὡς μηκέτι αὐτόν, ἕως οὗ ἔστηκεν ὁ αἰὼν οὗτος, ὀργὴν τοιαύτην ἐπενεγκεῖν τῷ κόσμῳ· καὶ ὁ θεὸς πρὸς αὐτόν· ∆έδωκα ὑμῖν πάντα ὡς λάχανα χόρτου, πλὴν κρέα ἐν αἵματι ψυχῆς οὐ φάγεσθε· καὶ γὰρ τὸ ὑμέτερον αἷμα ἐκζητήσω ἐκ πάντων τῶν θηρίων καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς ἀνθρώπου καὶ ἀδελφοῦ ἐκζητήσω τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου. Κρέας ἐπέτρεψεν, αἷμα πνικτὸν ἐκώλυσεν. Καὶ τοῦτο ἐπισφραγίζει ἡ καινὴ διαθήκη, ἵνα μὴ νομίσῃς ἄλλον μὲν εἶναι νομοθέτην τῆς παλαιᾶς διαθήκης, ἄλλον δὲ τῆς καινῆς. Τῶν γὰρ ἀποστόλων ἔστιν ἰδεῖν συνηγμένων ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις, τοῦ τε ἁγίου Παύλου καὶ Βαρναβᾶ κατελθόντων