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he says, "We speak God's [wisdom] among the mature, but a wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away" and "which none of the rulers of this age has known." But this wisdom is in us in Christ Jesus, "who became for us wisdom from God." But that [wisdom] was not in them, but in the creations investigated by them, whose principles they sought throughout their life, and came somehow to a conception of God, with nature and creation supplying no small starting points, and with the demons demonically not holding them back; for how could they have been considered gods if a conception of God had in no way entered the human mind?

Therefore those men came to a conception of God having examined the nature of perceptible things, but not the worthy one and the one befitting the (p. 104) blessed nature; "for their foolish heart was darkened" by the evil demons who initiated them with evil intent; for how could these have been considered gods, how could they have been believed while teaching polytheism, if a worthy conception of God had appeared to the mind? For this reason, those who had taken up that foolish and moronic wisdom and uninstructed instruction lied against both God and nature, raising the one [nature] to lordship, but bringing down the one [God] of lordship, as far as it depended on them, and ascribing the divine name to demons, they fell so far short of finding the knowledge of things that are, which was their task and pursuit, as to say that inanimate things are animate, and indeed that they possess a soul greater than ours, and that irrational things are rational, for they are receptive of the human soul, and that demons are creators and greater than us—oh, the impiety!—and co-eternal with God and uncreated and without beginning are not only matter and the soul of the whole cosmos, as they themselves say, and the intellectual beings not bound by the thickness of a body, but also our very souls. What then? Shall we say that those who philosophized these things in this way have the wisdom of God? Or even human wisdom at all? May none of us ever be so mad. "For a good tree does not produce evil fruit," according to the word of the Lord. For I, reasoning to myself, do not think it right that that wisdom be called even human, being so inconsistent with itself as to call the same things both animate and inanimate, both rational and irrational, and to say that things not at all constituted for perception, nor having any organ at all for such a capacity, are receptive of our souls. But if Paul sometimes calls this human wisdom ("for my preaching," he says, "was not in persuasive words of human wisdom," and again, "we speak not in words taught by (p. 106) human wisdom"), he also sees fit to call those who possess it wise according to the flesh, made foolish, disputers of this age, and their wisdom with similar appellations, for it is a wisdom made foolish, a wisdom being brought to nothing and an empty deceit, the wisdom of this age and of the rulers of this age who are passing away.

But I also hear a father saying, "Woe to the body when it does not receive nourishment from without, and woe to the soul when it does not receive grace from above." Rightly so. For the one, having passed away into inanimate things, will be gone, but the other, having turned aside from its duty, will be carried away with demonic lives and mindsets. But if anyone says that this philosophy, being natural, was given by God, he speaks truly and does not contradict us, and he does not exempt from blame those who used it badly and brought it to a purpose contrary to nature; but let him know that he is increasing the condemnation of these people all the more, because they did not use the things from God in a God-loving way. Besides, the demonic mind, having been made by God, naturally possesses the ability to think, but we will not say that its activity is from God, even if it has the capacity to be active from God; wherefore also

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φησίν, «Θεοῦ λαλοῦμεν ἐν τοῖς τελείος, σοφίαν δέ οὐ τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, οὐδέ τῶν ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου τῶν καταργουμένων» καί «ἥν οὐδείς τῶν ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου ἔγνωκεν». Αὕτη δ᾿ ἡ σοφία ἐν ἡμῖν ἐστινἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, «ὅς ἐγενήθη ἡμῖν σοφία ἀπό Θεοῦ». Ἐκείνη δ᾿ ἐν ἐκείνοις οὐκ ἦν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν τοῖς ὑπ᾿ ἐκείνων ἐρευνωμένοις κτίσμασιν, ὧν τούς λόγους ἐζητηκότες διά βίου, ἦλθον μέν πως εἰς ἔννοιαν Θεοῦ, τῆς μέν φύσεως καί τῆς κτίσεως ἀφορμάς χορηγούσης οὐ μικράς, τῶν δέ δαιμόνων δαιμονίως οὐκ ἀπειργόντων˙ πῶς γάρ ἄν θεοί ἐνομίσθησαν μηδαμῶς Θεοῦ ἐννοίας τήν ἀνθρωπίνην εἰσελθούσης διάνοιαν;

Οὐκοῦν ἦλθον μέν εἰς ἔννοιαν ἐκεῖνοι Θεοῦ τήν τῶν αἰσθητῶν φύσιν ἐξητακότες, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί τήν ἀξίαν καί τῇ (σελ. 104) μακαρίᾳ φύσει προσήκουσαν˙ «ἐσκοτίσθη γάρ ἡ ἀσύνετος αὐτῶν καρδία» ὑπό τῶν κακομηχάνως μυούντων πονηρῶν δαιμόνων˙ πῶς γάρ ἄν οὗτοι θεοί ἐνομίσθησαν, πῶς δ᾿ ἄν ἐπιστεύθησαν πολυθεΐαν διδάσκοντες, ἀξίας Θεοῦ ἐννοίας ἐπιφαινομένης τῇ διανοίᾳ; ∆ιά τοῦτο οἱ τῆς ἀνοήτου καί μωρᾶς σοφίας ἐκείνης καί ἀπαιδεύτου παιδείας ἐπειλημμένοι καί Θεοῦ καί φύσεως κατεψεύσαντο, τήν μέν εἰς δεσποτείαν ἀναγαγόντες, τόν δέ τῆς δεσποτείας, τό γε εἰς αὐτούς ἧκον, κατενεγκόντες, δαίμοσί τε τό θεῖον ἐπιφημίσαντες ὄνομα καί τήν τῶν ὄντων γνῶσιν εὑρεῖν, ὅ προὔργου καί διά σπουδῆς ἦν αὐτοῖς, τοσούτου δεήσαντες, ὡς ἔμψυχα μέν εἰπεῖν τά ἄψυχα, πρός δέ καί κρείττονος ἤ τῆς καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς μετειληχέναι ψυχῆς, λογικά δέ τά ἄλογα, τῆς γάρ ἀνθρωπίνης δεκτικά ψυχῆς, κρείττους δ᾿ ἤ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς τούς δαίμονας καί κτίστας, ὤ τῆς ἀσεβείας ἡμῶν, συναΐδια δέ τῷ Θεῷ καί ἄκτιστά τε καί ἄναρχα, οὐ τήν ὕλην μόνον καί τήν τοῦ κόσμου παντός, ὡς αὐτοί λέγουσι, ψυχήν, καί τά τῶν νοερῶν μή ἐνημμένα πάχος σώματος, ἀλλά καί αὐτάς τάς ἡμετέρας ψυχάς. Τί οὖν; Θεοῦ σοφίαν ἔχειν τούς ταῦτα τύτῃ φιλοσοφήσαντας ἐροῦμεν; Ἤ σοφίαν ὅλως ἀνθρωπίνην γοῦν; Μή ποθ᾿ οὕτω μανείη τις τῶν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς. «∆ένδρον γάρ ἀγαθόν καρπούς πονηρούς οὐ ποιεῖ», κατά τόν τοῦ Κυρίου λόγον. Ἐγώ γάρ ἐπ᾿ ἐμαυτοῦ λογιζόμενος, οὐδ᾿ ἀνθρωπίνην δικαίαν εἶναι προσειρῆσθαι νομίζω τήν σοφίαν ἐκείνην, ἐπί τοσοῦτον οὖσαν ἑαυτῇ ἀνακόλουθον ὡς τά αὐτά λέγειν ἔμψυχά τε καί ἄψυχα, λογικά τε καί ἄλογα καί τά μηδέ πρός αἴσθησιν ὁπωσοῦν πεφυκότα, μηδ᾿ ὄργανον ὅλως ἐσχηκότα τοιαύτης δυνάμεως, χωρητικά λέγειν τῶν ἡμετέρων ψυχῶν. Εἰ δέ ὁ Παῦλος ἀνθρωπίνην σοφίαν ἔστιν οὗ λέγει ταύτην («τό γάρ κήρυγμά μου», φησίν, «οὐκ ἐν πειθοῖς ἀνθρωπίνης˙ σοφίας λόγοις», καί πάλιν «λαλοῦμεν οὐκ ἐν διδακτοῖς (σελ. 106) ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας λόγοις») ἀλλά καί σοφούς κατά σάρκα, μωρανθέντας, συζητητάς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου τούς κεκτημένους ταύτην ἀξιοῖ καλεῖν καί τήν σοφίαν αὐτῶν παραπλησίως τῶν προσρημάτων, σοφίαν γάρ καί ταύτην μεμωραμένην, σοφίαν καταργουμένην καί κενήν ἀπάτην, σοφίαν τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου καί τῶν ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου τῶν καταργουμένων.

Ἐγώ δέ καί τοῦ λέγοντος ἀκούω πατρός «οὐαί σώματι, ὅταν μή τήν ἔξωθεν προσενέγκηται τροφήν, καί οὐαί ψυχῇ, ὅταν μή τῆς ἄνωθεν ἐπιδέξηται χάριν». Εἰκότως. Τό μέν γάρ εἰς τά ἄψυχα μεταχωρῆσαν οἰχήσεται, ἡ δέ τοῦ καθήκοντος παρατραπεῖσα ταῖς δαιμονικαῖς καί ζωαῖς καί φρονήμασι συναπαχθήσεται. Εἰ δέ τις τῷ φυσικήν εἶναι τήν φιλοσοφίαν ἐκ Θεοῦ δεδόσθαι λέγει ταύτην, ἀληθῆ μέν λέγει καί ἡμῖν οὐκ ἀντιλέγει καί τούς κακῶς ταύτῃ χρησαμένους καί πρός τό παρά φύσιν τέλος καταστήσαντας οὐκ ἐξαιρεῖται τῆς αἰτίας ἴστω δέ καί τήν καταδίκην τούτων ἐπί μᾶλλον αὔξων, ὅτι τοῖς ἐκ Θεοῦ θεοφιλῶς οὐκ ἐχρήσαντο. Ἄλλως τε καί ὁ δαιμόνιος νοῦς ἐκ Θεοῦ πεποιημένος φυσικῶς ἔχει τό φρονεῖν, ἀλλά τήν αὐτοῦ ἐνέργειαν οὐκ ἐροῦμεν ἐκ Θεοῦ, εἰ καί τό δύνασθαι ἐνεργεῖν ἔχει ἐκ Θεοῦ˙ διό καί