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of a long-standing blindness and having delivered the souls of the Egyptians through his evangelical teaching, so that now the majority of those in Egypt have been freed from this disease. 3.6.1 6. THAT HAVING WITH GOOD REASON TURNED AWAY FROM THEIR MORE PHYSICAL THEORY OF THE GODS

WE HAVE PREFERRED THE SOLE AND TRUE THEOLOGY

But such also are the things among the Egyptians, which are recorded as even older than all the Greek things. You have, therefore, in addition to the mythical, also the more physical theology of the Greeks and Egyptians alike, who long ago established the polytheistic superstition, among whom you have learned that nothing of the truly divine 3.6.2 and incorporeal and intellectual essences was known. Yet nevertheless, let it be granted and conceded to these stargazers to speak truly and to be successful in the physical interpretation of their allegories; and let the sun be for them at one time Apollo and again Horus and again the same Osiris and a myriad other things as they might wish; just as also the moon is either Isis or Artemis 3.6.3 and as many things as one might wish to enumerate; for let these not be of mortal men, but significant appellations of the heavenly luminaries themselves; therefore the sun and the moon and the stars and the other parts of the world are to be worshipped as 3.6.4 gods. And in this way, therefore, the noble philosophy of the Greeks has appeared as if by a device, on the one hand raising the promise of its doctrine to a height, but on the other hand turning downwards the mind of the wise around the sensible and visible creation of God, and deifying nothing more than fire and the hot substance and the parts of the world through the heavenly luminaries, and let it be also the wet and the dry and the combination of bodies 3.6.5. How then is the gospel of our saviour Jesus Christ, the Son of God, not great and wonderful, teaching every race of men to worship with fitting thoughts the Lord God of sun and moon and the creator of the entire world, him who is highest and beyond all things, 3.6.6 and to hymn not the elements of bodies, but the very nourisher of life and steward of all good things, and not to be at all amazed by the visible parts of the world and all that is perceptible by the flesh's sense, as being of a perishable nature, but to marvel at and theologize only about the invisible and creative mind in all these things, both of the whole and of the parts, that one sole divine power which pervades and orders all things, being incorporeal and intelligent in its nature, or rather, unspeakable and incomprehensible, appearing through all things in which it also works, pervading and traversing all things incorporeally and without confusion, and displaying through all things, not only heavenly but also earthly things, both the universal elements and their parts, the abiding great work of the Godhead, supervising all things invisibly and us imperceptibly, and governing the entire world with words of inexpressible wisdom? 3.6.7 With so many things demonstrated by us for the refutation of the incoherent theology, both the so-called more mythical and the loftier and more physical one, which the ancient Greeks and Egyptians have been shown to revere, it is time also to examine the adornments of the new men of our own time who profess to philosophize. For these men, having tried to weave together with the theology of the ancients the things concerning a creative mind of the universe and concerning incorporeal ideas and intellectual and rational powers—things discovered long afterwards by Plato and his school and conceived by right reasoning—with greater arrogance the promise concerning the myths

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πολυχρονίου πηρώσεως καὶ τὰς Αἰγυπτίων ψυχὰς διὰ τῆς εὐαγγελικῆς αὐτοῦ διδασκαλίας λελυτρωμένος, ὡς τοὺς πλείους ἤδη τῶν κατ' Αἴγυπτον καὶ ταύτης ἀπηλλάχθαι τῆς νόσου. 3.6.1 ʹ. ΟΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΣ ΦΥΣΙΚΩΤΕΡΑΣ ΑΥΤΩΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΘΕΩΝ ΘΕΩΡΙΑΣ ΕΥΛΟΓΩΣ

ΑΝΑΧΩΡΗΣΑΝΤΕΣ ΤΗΝ ΜΟΝΗΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΛΗΘΗ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΑΝ ΠΡΟΕΤΙΜΗΣΑΜΕΝ

Ἀλλὰ γὰρ τοιαῦτα καὶ τὰ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις, ἃ καὶ παλαιότερα τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν ἁπάντων μνημονεύεται. ἔχεις τοιγαροῦν πρὸς τῇ μυθικῇ καὶ τὴν φυσικωτέραν θεολογίαν Ἑλλήνων ὁμοῦ καὶ Αἰγυπτίων τῶν τὴν πολύθεον πάλαι δεισιδαιμονίαν συστησαμένων, παρ' οἷς ὅτι μηδέν τι τῶν ἀληθῶς θείων 3.6.2 ἀσωμάτων τε καὶ νοερῶν οὐσιῶν ἐγνωρίζετο μεμάθηκας. πλὴν ἀλλὰ δεδόσθω καὶ συγκεχωρήσθω τουτοισὶ τοῖς μετεωρολέσχαις λέγειν ἀληθῆ καὶ ἐπιτυγχάνειν ἐν τῇ τῶν ἀλληγορουμένων φυσιολογίᾳ· γινέσθω τε αὐτοῖς ὁ ἥλιος ποτὲ μὲν Ἀπόλλων καὶ πάλιν Ὧρος καὶ Ὄσιρις πάλιν ὁ αὐτὸς καὶμυρία ἄλλα ὅσα καὶ θέλοιεν· ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ ἡ σελήνη ἢ Ἶσις ἢ Ἄρτεμις 3.6.3 καὶ ὅσα ἄν τις ἐξαριθμεῖν βούλοιτο· μὴ γὰρ ἔστω ταῦτα θνητῶν ἀνδρῶν, ἀλλ' αὐτῶν τῶν ἐπουρανίων φωστήρων σημαντικαὶ προσηγορίαι· τὸν ἥλιον ἄρα καὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τοῦ κόσμου μέρη ὡς 3.6.4 θεοὺς προσκυνητέον. καὶ ταύτη τοιγαροῦν ἡ γενναία τῶν Ἑλλήνων φιλοσοφία ὥσπερ διὰ μηχανῆς πέφηνεν εἰς ὕψος μὲν ἀνάγουσα τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν τοῦ λόγου, κάτω δὲ περιστρέφουσα ἀμφὶ τὴν αἰσθητὴν καὶ φαινομένην τοῦ θεοῦ δημιουργίαν τὴν τῶν σοφῶν διάνοιαν καὶ πλέον οὐδὲν ἀλλ' ἢ πῦρ καὶ τὴν θερμὴν οὐσίαν τά τε μέρη τοῦ κόσμου διὰ τῶν οὐρανίων φωστήρων, ἔστω δὲ καὶ τὴν ὑγρὰν καὶ τὴν ξηρὰν καὶ τὴν σύγκρασιν τῶν σωμάτων 3.6.5 θειάζουσα. πῶς οὖν οὐ μέγα καὶ θαυμάσιον τὸ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ εὐαγγέλιον, πᾶν γένος ἀνθρώπων παιδεῦον τὸν ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης δεσπότην θεὸν καὶ τὸν δημιουργὸν τοῦ σύμπαντος κόσμου, αὐτὸν τὸν ἀνωτάτω καὶ ἐπέκεινα τῶν ὅλων, ταῖς προσηκούσαις ἐννοί3.6.6 αις εὐσεβεῖν καὶ οὐ τὰ τῶν σωμάτων στοιχεῖα, ἀλλὰ τὸν ζωῆς αὐτῆς καὶ τροφὸν καὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν πάντων ταμίαν ὑμνεῖν μέρη τε τοῦ κόσμου τὰ ὁρώμενα καὶ πᾶν τὸ καταληπτὸν σαρκὸς αἰσθήσει, ὡς ἂν τῆς φθαρτῆς ὄντα φύσεως, οὐδαμῶς καταπλήττεσθαι, τὸν δ' ἐν τούτοις ἅπασιν ἀόρατον καὶ τῶν καθόλου τε καὶ κατὰ μέρος δημιουργικὸν νοῦν μόνον ἀποθαυμάζειν καὶ θεολογεῖν μίαν μόνην ἐκείνην τὴν διήκουσαν καὶ διακοσμοῦσαν τὰ πάντα θείαν δύναμιν, ἀσώματον οὖσαν καὶ νοερὰν τὴν φύσιν, μᾶλλον δὲ ἄρρητον εἰπεῖν καὶ ἀκατάληπτον, διὰ πάντων, δι' ὧν καὶ ἐνεργεῖ, παραφαινομένην διήκουσάν τε ἀσωμάτως καὶ ἀσυμπλόκως τὰ πάντα ἐπιπορευομένην καὶ διὰ πάντων οὐκ οὐρανίων μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς, τῶν τε καθόλου στοιχείων καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ μέρους, τὴν τῆς θεότητος διαρκῆ μεγαλουργίαν ἐπιδεικνυμένην πᾶσί τε ἀφανῶς καὶ ἡμῖν ἀνεπαισθήτως ἐπιστατοῦσαν καὶ λόγοις ἀνεκφράστου σοφίας τὸν σύμπαντα κόσμον διακυβερνῶσαν; 3.6.7 Τοσούτων ἡμῖν ἀποδεδειγμένων εἰς ἔλεγχον τῆς ἀσυστάτου θεολογίας τῆς τε λεγομένης μυθικωτέρας καὶ τῆς ὑψηλοτέρας δὴ καὶ φυσικωτέρας, ἣν οἱ παλαιοὶ Ἕλληνές τε καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι σεμνύνοντες ἀπεδείχθησαν, ὥρα καὶ τῶν νέων τῶν δὴ καθ' ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς φιλοσοφεῖν ἐπαγγελλομένων ἐπαθρῆσαι τὰ καλλωπίσματα. οἵδε γὰρ τὰ περὶ νοῦ δημιουργοῦ τῶν ὅλων καὶ τὰ περὶ ἀσωμάτων ἰδεῶν νοερῶν τε καὶ λογικῶν δυνάμεων τοῖς ἀμφὶ τὸν Πλάτωνα μακροῖς ποθ' ὕστερον χρόνοις ἐφευρημένα καὶ λογισμοῖς ὀρθοῖς ἐπινενοημένα συμπλέξαι τῇ τῶν παλαιῶν θεολογίᾳ πεπειραμένοι μείζονι τύφῳ τὴν περὶ τῶν μύθων ἐπαγγελίαν