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sowing besides, and for us the measure of desire is the procreation of children. And you would find many among us, both men and women, growing old unmarried in the hope of being more united with God. But if to remain in virginity and in celibacy brings one closer to God, while to come even to a thought and desire leads one away, we flee the thoughts of those things whose deeds we much more reject. For our way is not <in> the study of words but in the demonstration and teaching of deeds: either to remain as one was born, or to be for one marriage; for a second is a specious adultery. For "whoever," he says, "divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery," permitting neither to divorce her whose virginity one has ended, nor to marry again. For he who deprives himself of his former wife, even if she is dead, is a disguised adulterer, transgressing the hand of God, because in the beginning God formed one man and one woman, and dissolving the communion of flesh with flesh which is for union for the sake of the propagation of the race. But we who are such (oh, what can I say of the unmentionable things?) hear the words of the proverb, "the harlot reproaches the chaste woman." For those who have set up a market of fornication and have made unlawful resorts for the young for every shameful pleasure, and not even sparing males, males committing dreadful acts with males, in every way abusing bodies, however stately and beautiful, and dishonoring the fair creation of God (for beauty on earth is not self-made, but sent by the hand and mind of God), these men, for the very things they are conscious of in themselves and say of their own gods, boasting of them as if they were solemn and worthy of the gods, with these things they revile us, the adulterers and pederasts reproaching the celibate and the monogamous, who live after the manner of fish (for these too swallow whoever falls in their way, the stronger driving out the weaker, and this is to feed on human flesh, to do violence against the established laws, which you and your ancestors enacted after examining them for all righteousness, so that not even the governors of the provinces sent out by you are sufficient for the legal proceedings) to whom it is not permitted, even when struck, not to offer themselves, nor when spoken ill of, not to bless; for it is not enough to be just (and justice is to repay like for like), but it is required to be good and patient of evil. Who, then, in his right mind, would say that we, being such, are murderers? For it is not possible to have tasted human flesh without first having killed someone. Therefore lying about the first thing ... about the second, and if someone should ask them, if they have seen what they say,

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ἐπισπείρων, καὶ ἡμῖν μέτρον ἐπιθυμίας ἡ παιδοποιία. εὕροις δ' ἂν πολλοὺς τῶν παρ' ἡμῖν καὶ ἄνδρας καὶ γυναῖκας καταγηράσκοντας ἀγάμους ἐλπίδι τοῦ μᾶλλον συνέσεσθαι τῷ θεῷ. εἰ δὲ τὸ ἐν παρθενίᾳ καὶ ἐν εὐνουχίᾳ μεῖναι μᾶλλον παρίστησι τῷ θεῷ, τὸ δὲ μέχρις ἐννοίας καὶ ἐπιθυμίας ἐλθεῖν ἀπάγει, ὧν τὰς ἐννοίας φεύγομεν, πολὺ πρότερον τὰ ἔργα παραιτούμεθα. οὐ γὰρ <ἐν> μελέτῃ λόγων ἀλλ' ἐπιδείξει καὶ διδασκαλίᾳ ἔργων τὰ ἡμέτερα ἢ οἷός τις ἐτέχθη μένειν ἢ ἐφ' ἑνὶ γάμῳ· ὁ γὰρ δεύτερος εὐπρεπής ἐστι μοιχεία. "ὃς" γὰρ "ἂν ἀπολύσῃ", φησί, "τὴν γυναῖκα αὐτοῦ καὶ γαμήσῃ ἄλλην, μοιχᾶται", οὔτε ἀπολύειν ἐπιτρέπων ἧς ἔπαυσέ τις τὴν παρθενίαν οὔτε ἐπιγαμεῖν. ὁ γὰρ ἀποστερῶν ἑαυτὸν τῆς προτέρας γυναικός, καὶ εἰ τέθνηκεν, μοιχός ἐστιν παρακεκαλυμ μένος, παραβαίνων μὲν τὴν χεῖρα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅτι ἐν ἀρχῇ ὁ θεὸς ἕνα ἄνδρα ἔπλασεν καὶ μίαν γυναῖκα, λύων δὲ τὴν σάρκα πρὸς σάρκα κατὰ τὴν ἕνωσιν πρὸς μῖξιν τοῦ γένους κοινωνίαν. Ἀλλ' οἱ τοιοῦτοι (ὤ, τί ἂν εἴποιμι τὰ ἀπόρρητα;) ἀκούομεν τὰ τῆς παροιμίας "ἡ πόρνη τὴν σώφρονα". οἱ γὰρ ἀγορὰν στήσαντες πορνείας καὶ καταγωγὰς ἀθέσμους πεποιημένοι τοῖς νέοις πάσης αἰσχρᾶς ἡδονῆς καὶ μηδὲ τῶν ἀρσένων φειδόμενοι, ἄρσενες ἐν ἄρσεσι τὰ δεινὰ κατεργαζόμενοι, ὅσων σεμνότερα καὶ εὐειδέστερα σώματα, παντοίως αὐτὰ ὑβρίζοντες, ἀτιμοῦντες καὶ τὸ ποιητὸν τοῦ θεοῦ καλόν (οὐ γὰρ αὐτοποίητον ἐπὶ γῆς τὸ κάλλος, ἀλλὰ ὑπὸ χειρὸς καὶ γνώμης πεμπόμενον τοῦ θεοῦ), οὗτοι δὲ ἃ συνίσασιν αὑτοῖς καὶ τοὺς σφετέρους λέγουσι θεούς, ἐπ' αὐτῶν ὡς σεμνὰ καὶ τῶν θεῶν ἄξια αὐχοῦντες, ταῦτα ἡμᾶς λοιδοροῦνται, κακίζοντες οἱ μοιχοὶ καὶ παιδερασταὶ τοὺς εὐνούχους καὶ μονο γάμους, οἱ δίκην ἰχθύων ζῶντες (καὶ γὰρ οὗτοι καταπίνουσι τὸν ἐμπεσόντα, ἐλαύνοντες ὁ ἰσχυρότερος τὸν ἀσθενέστερον, καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι σαρκῶν ἅπτεσθαι ἀνθρωπικῶν, τὸ κειμένων νόμων, οὓς ὑμεῖς καὶ οἱ ὑμέτεροι πρόγονοι πρὸς πᾶσαν δικαιοσύνην ἐξετάσαντες ἐθήκατε, παρὰ τούτους αὐτοὺς βιάζεσθαι, ὡς μηδὲ τοὺς ὑφ' ὑμῶν καταπεμπομένους ἡγεμόνας τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐξαρκεῖν ταῖς δίκαις) οἷς οὐδὲ παιομένοις μὴ παρέχειν ἑαυτοὺς οὐδὲ κακῶς ἀκούουσιν μὴ εὐλογεῖν ἔξεστιν· οὐ γὰρ ἀπαρκεῖ δίκαιον εἶναι (ἔστι δὲ δικαιοσύνη ἴσα ἴσοις ἀμείβειν), ἀλλ' ἀγαθοῖς καὶ ἀνεξικάκοις εἶναι πρόκειται. Τίς ἂν οὖν εὖ φρονῶν εἴποι τοιούτους ὄντας ἡμᾶς ἀνδρο φόνους εἶναι; οὐ γὰρ ἔστι πάσασθαι κρεῶν ἀνθρωπικῶν μὴ πρό τερον ἀποκτείνασί τινα. τὸ πρότερον οὖν ψευδόμενοι ... τὸ δεύτερον, κἂν μέν τις αὐτοὺς ἔρηται, εἰ ἑωράκασιν ἃ λέγουσιν,