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with God may we remain unwavering and impassible in soul, not as flesh though we have it, but as a heavenly spirit, or, falling together with the rest, worse things and through fire (for God did not create us like sheep or beasts of burden, as a by-work and in order that we should perish and be annihilated), in view of these things, it is not fitting for us to willingly do evil, nor to deliver ourselves up to the great judge to be punished. It is therefore no wonder that they make up stories about us, the very things they say about their own gods (for <indeed> their mysteries show their passions; but they ought, if they were going to judge it a terrible thing to have intercourse with license and indiscriminately, either to have hated Zeus, who had children by his mother Rhea and his daughter Kore, and used his own sister as his wife, or Orpheus, the poet of these things, because he made Zeus more unholy and polluted than Thyestes; for this one too, according to an oracle, had intercourse with his daughter, wishing to be king and [Thyestes] to be avenged); but we are so far from <being> indiscriminate, that it is not lawful for us even to look with desire. For "he who looks," it says, "at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." To whom, therefore, it is not lawful to see anything more than that for which God created the eyes, for them to be a light to us, and to whom a pleasurable look is adultery, the eyes having been made for other things, who shall be judged even for a thought, how could these be disbelieved to be chaste? For our argument is not with human laws, which a wicked man might even escape (at the beginning I assured you, my lords, that our doctrine is taught by God), but we have a law * * * * which has made the measure of righteousness to be oneself and one's neighbors. For this reason, according to age, we consider some as sons and daughters, others we have as brothers and sisters, and to the elderly we render the honor of fathers and mothers. Those whom, therefore, we consider brothers and sisters and the other names of kinship, it is of great importance to us that their bodies remain uninsulted and uncorrupted, the Word again saying to us: "If anyone should kiss a second time for this reason, that it pleased him" and adding so it is necessary to be precise with the kiss, or rather the salutation, as, if it should be even a little defiled in thought, it puts us outside of eternal life. Having therefore the hope of eternal life, we despise the things in this life, even to the pleasures of the soul, each of us considering the woman whom he married according to the laws established by us as his wife, and this only for the purpose of having children. For as the farmer, having cast the seeds into the earth, awaits the harvest, not

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σὺν θεῷ ἀκλινεῖς καὶ ἀπαθεῖς τὴν ψυχὴν οὐχ ὡς σάρκες κἂν ἔχωμεν, ἀλλ' ὡς οὐράνιον πνεῦμα μένωμεν, ἢ συγκαταπίπτοντες τοῖς λοιποῖς χείρονα καὶ διὰ πυρὸς (οὐ γὰρ καὶ ἡμᾶς ὡς πρόβατα ἢ ὑποζύγια, πάρεργον καὶ ἵνα ἀπολοίμεθα καὶ ἀφανισθείημεν, ἔπλασεν ὁ θεός), ἐπὶ τούτοις οὐκ εἰκὸς ἡμᾶς ἐθελοκακεῖν οὐδ' αὑτοὺς τῷ μεγάλῳ παραδιδόναι κολασθησομένους δικαστῇ. Τοὺς μὲν οὖν θαυμαστὸν οὐδὲν λογοποιεῖν περὶ ἡμῶν ἃ περὶ τῶν σφετέρων λέγουσι θεῶν (καὶ <γὰρ> τὰ πάθη αὐτῶν δεικνύουσι μυστήρια· χρῆν δ' αὐτούς, εἰ δεινὸν τὸ ἐπ' ἀδείας καὶ ἀδιαφόρως μίγνυσθαι κρίνειν ἔμελλον, ἢ τὸν ∆ία μεμισηκέναι, ἐκ μητρὸς μὲν Ῥέας θυγατρὸς δὲ Κόρης πεπαιδοποιημένον, γυναικὶ δὲ τῇ ἰδίᾳ ἀδελφῇ χρώμενον, ἢ τὸν τούτων ποιητὴν Ὀρφέα, ὅτι καὶ ἀνόσιον ὑπὲρ τὸν Θυέστην καὶ μιαρὸν ἐποίησεν τὸν ∆ία· καὶ γὰρ οὗτος τῇ θυγατρὶ κατὰ χρησμὸν ἐμίγη, βασιλεῦσαι θέλων καὶ [Θυέστης] ἐκδικηθῆναι)· ἡμεῖς δὲ τοσοῦτον <τοῦ> ἀδιάφοροι εἶναι ἀπέχομεν, ὡς μηδὲ ἰδεῖν ἡμῖν πρὸς ἐπιθυμίαν ἐξεῖναι. "ὁ" γὰρ "βλέπων", φησί, "γυναῖκα πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι αὐτῆς ἤδη μεμοί χευκεν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ". οἷς οὖν μηδὲν πλέον ἔξεστιν ὁρᾶν ἢ ἐφ' ἃ ἔπλασεν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὁ θεός, ἡμῖν φῶς αὐτοὺς εἶναι, καὶ οἷς τὸ ἰδεῖν ἡδέως μοιχεία, ἐφ' ἕτερα τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν γεγονότων, μέχρις ἐννοίας κριθησομένοις, πῶς ἂν οὗτοι ἀπιστη θεῖεν σωφρονεῖν; οὐ γὰρ πρὸς ἀνθρωπικοὺς νόμους ὁ λόγος ἡμῖν, οὓς ἄν τις γενόμενος πονηρὸς καὶ λάθοι (ἐν ἀρχῇ δὲ ὑμῖν, δεσπόται, θεοδίδακτον εἶναι τὸν καθ' ἡμᾶς λόγον ἐπιστούμην), ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἡμῖν νόμος * * * * ἣ δικαιοσύνης μέτρον ἐποίησεν αὑτοὺς καὶ τοὺς πέλας ἔχειν. διὰ τοῦτο καὶ καθ' ἡλικίαν τοὺς μὲν υἱοὺς καὶ θυγατέρας νοοῦμεν, τοὺς δὲ ἀδελφοὺς ἔχομεν καὶ ἀδελφὰς καὶ τοῖς προβεβηκόσι τὴν τῶν πατέρων καὶ μητέρων τιμὴν ἀπονέμομεν. οὓς οὖν ἀδελφοὺς καὶ ἀδελφὰς καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τοῦ γένους νοοῦμεν ὀνόματα, περὶ πολλοῦ ἡμῖν ἀνύβριστα καὶ ἀδιάφθορα αὐτῶν τὰ σώματα μένειν, πάλιν ἡμῖν λέγοντος τοῦ λόγου· "ἐάν τις διὰ τοῦτο ἐκ δευτέρου καταφιλήσῃ, ὅτι ἤρεσεν αὐτῷ" καὶ ἐπιφέροντος οὕτως οὖν ἀκριβώσασθαι τὸ φίλημα μᾶλλον δὲ τὸ προσκύνημα δεῖ, ὡς, εἴ που μικρὸν τῇ διανοίᾳ παραθολωθείη, ἔξω ἡμᾶς τῆς αἰωνίου τιθέντος ζωῆς. Ἐλπίδα οὖν ζωῆς αἰωνίου ἔχοντες, τῶν ἐν τούτῳ τῷ βίῳ καταφρονοῦμεν μέχρι καὶ τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ἡδέων, γυναῖκα μὲν ἕκαστος ἡμῶν ἣν ἠγάγετο κατὰ τοὺς ὑφ' ἡμῶν τεθειμένους νόμους νομίζων καὶ ταύτην μέχρι τοῦ παιδοποιήσασθαι. ὡς γὰρ ὁ γεωργὸς καταβαλὼν εἰς γῆν τὰ σπέρματα ἄμητον περιμένει οὐκ