Chapter XXXIV.—Other Varying Opinions Among the Valentinians Respecting the Deity, Characteristic Raillery.

Others of purer mind, mindful of the honour of the Deity, have, for the purpose of freeing him from the discredit of even single wedlock, preferred assigning no sex whatever to Bythus; and therefore very likely they talk of “this deity” in the neuter gender rather than “this god.” Others again, on the other hand, speak of him as both masculine and feminine, so that the worthy chronicler Fenestella must not suppose that an hermaphrodite was only to be found among the good people of Luna.

CAPUT XXXIV.

Pudiciores alii honorem divinitatis recordati, ut etiam unius conjugii dedecus ab eo avellerent, maluerunt nullum Bytho sexum deputare: et fortasse 0590A Hoc Deum , non Hic Deus, neutro genere pronuntiant. Alii contra magis, et masculum et foeminam dicunt, ne apud solos Lunenses Hermaproditum existimet Annalium commentator Fenestella.