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3.t CONCERNING ANGELS AND THE SO-CALLED GODS AND CONCERNING EVIL DEMONS.

3.1 We are accustomed to admire those bodies that are sound of limb and without blemish, and which have whole and complete the number it received from nature from the beginning; but those that lack any of these or have a surplus, 3.2 we are accustomed to call monsters. And condemning anarchy and polyarchy as harmful, we admire monarchy and praise the Homeric opinion, which introduces this law: for it says, a multitude of lords is not a good thing; let there be one lord, one king. 3.3 I do not prattle on about these things idly, but in attempting to show divine things from human ones, and I ask you, O men, to preserve this same standard in those matters as well, and to call sound and complete those who embrace the true theology, which nature has handed down from the beginning, and which the divine oracles later confirmed, and on the other hand to call maimed not only those who believe there is no god at all, but also those who have divided the divine worship among many and have ranked creation alongside 3.4 the Creator of all. Not only, therefore, are Diagoras the Milesian and Theodoros the Cyrenean and Euhemerus of Tegea and their followers atheists, for saying there are no gods at all, as Plutarch said, but also Homer and Hesiod and the schools of the philosophers, for having recounted myths of great multitudes of gods, and for having shown some to be servile and slaves 3.5 to human passions. And there are some who even openly named the most shameful passions, those that are condemned by them, and over which they advise the young to exercise careful control, gods and bestowed on them the honor as gods. 3.6 As Diodorus Siculus says, the Egyptians were the first to name the sun and the moon gods, and they called the sun Osiris, and the moon Isis; and that the Phoenicians, having likewise learned this from them, emulated the deification 3.7 of the Egyptians. Plato agrees in the Cratylus, and that the Greeks first accepted this error concerning the so-called gods, and he speaks thus: "It seems to me that the first men in Greece considered only these to be gods, just as many of the barbarians do now: sun and moon and earth and stars and heaven. Since they saw them all going in a race and running, from this nature, that of 'running' (thein), they named them 'gods' (theous)." 3.8 Therefore, the all-wise Creator of all things, being without need and requiring nothing at all, either of things visible or invisible, created heaven and earth and sun and moon and the other things, as many as are sensible and visible, for the sake of human needs; or rather, by the ambition of his magnificent workmanship he surpassed their need and through these things he offers 3.9 them the enjoyment of all kinds of good things. For the sun, rising and making the day, rouses the human race to work; and the moon, when the greater luminary has withdrawn, tempers the gloom of the night and neither troubles those wishing to rest with an excess of light, and for those wishing to travel or to do something else it supplies a sufficient torchlight; and when it wanes, the stars fulfill this 3.10 need. The Creator, therefore, as I said, has made such great provision for mankind; but they, having received these greatest gifts, although they should have been led by them to praise their Creator and provider as a great giver, left him unhonored, and "they worshipped and served," to speak in the apostolic way, "the creature rather than the Creator," and the magnitude and beauty of the gifts became for them an occasion for ingratitude. For they were ignorant of the giver of these things and to these things they bestowed the worship due 3.11 to God. And yet the Creator, being all-wise, foreseeing this [tendency] of men

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3.t ΠΕΡΙ ΑΓΓΕΛΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ ΚΑΛΟΥΜΕΝΩΝ ΘΕΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΠΟΝΗΡΩΝ ∆ΑΙΜΟΝΩΝ.

3.1 Τῶν σωμάτων ἐκεῖνα θαυμάζειν εἰώθαμεν, ὅσα ἀρτιμελῆ τε καὶ ἄπηρα,

καὶ ὃν ἐξ ἀρχῆς παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ἔλαχεν ἀριθμόν, σῶον ἔχει καὶ ἄρτιον· ὅσοις δὲ τούτων ἐνδεῖ τι ἢ πλεονάζει, 3.2 ταῦτα τέρατα προσαγορεύειν εἰώθαμεν. Καὶ τῆς ἀναρχίας δὲ καὶ τῆς πολυαρχίας ὡς βλαβερῶν κατηγοροῦντες, τὴν μοναρχίαν θαυμάζομεν καὶ τὴν Ὁμηρικὴν ἐπαινοῦμεν γνώμην, ἣ τοῦτον εἰσηγεῖται τὸν νόμον· οὐκ ἀγαθὸν γάρ φησι πολυκοιρανίη, εἷς κοίρανος ἔστω, εἷς βασιλεύς. 3.3 Ταῦτα δὲ οὐ τηνάλλως ἀδολεσχῶ, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων δεικνύναι τὰ θεῖα πειρώμενος καὶ ἀξιῶν ὑμᾶς, ὦ ἄνδρες, καὶ ἐπ' ἐκείνων τόνδε διατηρῆσαι τὸν ὅρον καὶ ὑγιεῖς μὲν καὶ ἀρτίους ἀποκαλεῖν τοὺς τὴν ἀληθῆ θεολογίαν ἀσπαζομένους, ἣν καὶ ἡ φύσις ἐξ ἀρχῆς παραδέδωκε, καὶ τὰ θεῖα ὕστερον ἐκράτυνε λόγια, ἀναπήρους δ' αὖ προσαγορεύειν μὴ μόνον ἐκείνους, οἳ οὐδένα θεὸν εἶναι νομίζουσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τούτους, οἳ εἰς πολλὰ τὸ θεῖον κατεμέρισαν σέβας καὶ τῷ δημιουργῷ τῶν ὅλων τὴν κτίσιν ξυν 3.4 έταξαν. Οὔκουν μόνοι γε ἄθεοι ∆ιαγόρας ὁ Μιλήσιος καὶ ὁ Κυρηναῖος Θεόδωρος καὶ Εὐήμερος ὁ Τεγεάτης καὶ οἱ τούτοις ἠκολουθηκότες, παντάπασι φάντες μὴ εἶναι θεούς, ὡς ὁ Πλού ταρχος ἔφη, ἀλλὰ καὶ Ὅμηρος καὶ Ἡσίοδος καὶ αἱ τῶν φιλοσόφων ξυμμορίαι, παμπόλλους μὲν θεῶν μυθολογήσαντες ὁρμα θούς, ἀνδραποδώδεις δέ τινας καὶ παθῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἀποφήναντες 3.5 δούλους. Εἰσὶ δὲ οἳ καὶ ἀνέδην τὰ αἴσχιστα πάθη, τὰ παρὰ σφῶν κατηγορούμενα, καὶ ὧν ἐπιμελῶς κρατεῖν τοῖς νέοις παρακε λεύονται, θεούς τε ὠνόμασαν καὶ ὡς θεοῖς τὸ γέρας ἀπένειμαν. 3.6 Ὡς δέ φησιν ὁ Σικελιώτης ∆ιόδωρος, Αἰγύπτιοι τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην θεοὺς ὠνόμασαν πρῶτοι καὶ ἐκάλεσαν τὸν μὲν ἥλιον Ὄσιριν, τὴν δὲ σελήνην Ἶσιν· καὶ Φοίνικας δὲ ὡσαύτως παρ' ἐκείνων τοῦτο μεμαθηκότας τὴν Αἰγυπτίων ζηλῶσαι θεο 3.7 ποιΐαν. Ξυνομολογεῖ δὲ καὶ ὁ Πλάτων ἐν τῷ Κρατύλῳ, καὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας τόνδε πρῶτον περὶ τῶν καλουμένων θεῶν τὸν πλάνον εἰσδέξασθαι, λέγει δὲ ὧδε· "Φαίνονταί μοι οἱ πρῶτοι τῶν ἀνθρώ πων οἱ περὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα τούτους μόνους ἡγεῖσθαι θεούς, οὕσπερ νῦν οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν βαρβάρων, ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ γῆν καὶ ἄστρα καὶ οὐρανόν· ἅτε οὖν αὐτὰ ὁρῶντες ἰόντα δρόμῳ καὶ θέοντα, ἀπὸ ταύτης τῆς φύσεως, τῆς τοῦ θεῖν, θεοὺς αὐτοὺς ἐπονομάσαι." 3.8 Ὁ μὲν οὖν πάνσοφος τῶν ὅλων δημιουργός, ἀνενδεὴς ὢν καὶ οὐδενὸς τὸ παράπαν ἢ ὁρατῶν ἢ ἀοράτων δεόμενος, καὶ οὐρανὸν καὶ γῆν καὶ ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ τἄλλα, ὅσα ἐστὶν αἰσθητά τε καὶ ὁρατά, τῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων χάριν ἐδημιούργησε χρείας· μᾶλλον δὲ ὑπερέβη τῇ τῆς μεγαλουργίας φιλοτιμίᾳ τὴν χρεῖαν καὶ προσ 3.9 φέρει διὰ τούτων αὐτοῖς παντοδαπῶν ἀπόλαυσιν ἀγαθῶν. Ἥλιος μὲν γὰρ ἀνίσχων καὶ τὴν ἡμέραν ποιῶν πρὸς ἐργασίαν διεγείρει τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὸ γένος· ἡ δὲ σελήνη, τοῦ μείζονος ὑποχωροῦν τος φωστῆρος, τῆς νυκτὸς τὸ ζοφῶδες κεράννυσι καὶ οὔτε τοὺς διαναπαύεσθαι βουλομένους ἀλγύνει τῇ τοῦ φωτὸς περιουσίᾳ καὶ τοῖς ὁδοιπορεῖν ἢ δρᾶν ἄλλο τι βουλομένοις χορηγεῖ δᾳδουχίαν ἀρκοῦσαν· καὶ φθινούσης δὲ ταύτης, οἱ ἀστέρες τήνδε πληροῦσι 3.10 τὴν χρείαν. Ὁ μὲν οὖν δημιουργός, ὡς ἔφην, τοσαύτην τῶν ἀνθρώπων πεποίηται προμήθειαν· οἱ δέ, τῶν μεγίστων τούτων δωρεῶν τετυχηκότες, ποδηγεῖσθαι δέον ἐκ τούτων καὶ τὸν τούτων δημιουργόν τε καὶ χορηγὸν ὡς μεγαλόδωρον ἀνυμνεῖν, τὸν μὲν ἀγέραστον εἴασαν, "ἐσεβάσθησαν δὲ καὶ ἐλάτρευσαν", ἀποστο λικῶς εἰπεῖν, "τῇ κτίσει παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα", καὶ τῶν δωρεῶν τό τε μέγεθος καὶ τὸ κάλλος ἀφορμὴν αὐτοῖς ἀχαριστίας προὐ ξένησεν. Τὸν γὰρ δοτῆρα τούτων ἠγνόησαν καὶ τούτοις τὸ τῷ 3.11 Θεῷ προσῆκον ἀπένειμαν σέβας. Καίτοι γε προορῶν, ἅτε δὴ πάνσοφος ὤν, ὁ δημιουργὸς τόνδε τῶν ἀνθρώπων