Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion

in order to show the clear purity and the sanctification through being set apart, he says to Mary, “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father,” in order to show purity apart from bodies and unmixed. But also in another place the Holy Spirit says, prophesying both for those before and for those after, “blessed is the barren woman who is undefiled, who has not known a bed in transgression, and the eunuch who has not worked iniquity with his hands,” in order to check the shameful deeds done with the hands through their myth. 16. And how many other things are there to say, as the apostle says in one place, “the unmarried man and the virgin are anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord”—and this he says to show purity in truth, being permitted by the 1.296 Holy Spirit not incidentally—, and then concerning those who have honorable marriage, saying, “Marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” But also against them he cries out, writing to the Romans, revealing the shameful things of those who work evil deeds, saying, “For their women exchanged the natural use for that which is against nature” and concerning the men, that “men with men committing what is shameful”; but also in the epistle to Timothy he says concerning these things that “in the last days perilous times will come; for men will be lovers of pleasure,” and again, “forbidding to marry, having their conscience seared,” because they forbid marrying with self-control and bearing children, but they are burned in their conscience, being lewd and being corrupted, while forbidding to bear children. For also this so-called sacrifice among them, being a kind of filth, is already from of old shown through the prophet to be the flesh of a serpent and not of the Lord—may it never be—who says thus that “You broke the head of the dragon and gave him as food to the Ethiopian peoples.” For their abominable religion is truly the food of a serpent, and Ethiopians, blackened by sin, are those performing this rite of the now demon Zeus but formerly of a sorcerer, who is vainly considered a god by some. For all the heresies, having gathered their error to themselves from Greek myths, have changed it, having refashioned it into another, worse meaning. For the poets introduce Zeus as having swallowed Metis, his own daughter. But one could not swallow an infant, as also Saint Clement, mocking the shameful 1.297 deed of the Greek gods, said that by swallowing Metis he was not able to swallow the infant, but signifying his own seed *. 17. What else might I say? Or how shall I shake off this muddy labor, wishing to speak and not wishing, but being compelled, lest I seem to conceal any of the facts, and fearing lest by revealing their terrible things I might either defile or strike or encourage those who are carried away by pleasures and desires to be overly curious about this. Nevertheless, may I be innocent, and all the † hope of the holy catholic church and all who read this writing, from such a sowing and evil device of the devil; for if I undertake to speak of the other things said and done among them, which are so many and of such a kind, and even greater and † lesser than these, and should I also wish, as a protective medicine of healing in the manner of antidotes, to set something against each word, I will drive the treatise of the composition to a great bulk. For this heresy, O longed-for ones, I myself also encountered, and from the mouth of those practicing it I was instructed in these things in person; And women thus deceived not only extended this talk to us and revealed such things to us, but also like that destructive and wicked Egyptian woman of the chief cook, these women also with loose-tongued boldness desired to drag us down in our youth

ἵνα δείξῃ τὴν σαφῆ ἁγνείαν καὶ τὴν διὰ τοῦ ἰδιάζειν ἁγιαστείαν, φάσκει τῇ Μαριάμ «μή μου ἅπτου· οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβέβηκα πρὸς τὸν πατέρα», ἵνα δείξῃ τὴν ἁγνείαν ἀμέτοχον σωμάτων καὶ ἀμιγῆ. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν ἄλλῳ τόπῳ λέγει προθεσπίζον τὸ ἅγιον πνεῦμα καὶ διὰ τοὺς πρώην καὶ τοὺς μετέπειτα «μακαρία στεῖρα ἡ ἀμίαντος ἥτις οὐκ ἔγνω κοίτην ἐν παραπτώματι καὶ εὐνοῦχος ὃς οὐκ εἰργάσατο ἐν χερσὶν ἀνόμημα», ἵνα παρακόψῃ τὰ διὰ τοῦ μύθου αὐτῶν ἐν χερσὶν αἰσχρουργήματα. 16. Πόσα δὲ ἄλλα ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, ὡς τοῦ ἀποστόλου λέγοντος πῆ μέν «ὁ ἄγαμος καὶ ἡ παρθένος μεριμνᾷ τὰ τοῦ κυρίου, πῶς ἀρέσει τῷ κυρίῳ»-τοῦτο δέ φησι δεῖξαι τὴν ἁγνείαν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, ἐκ τοῦ 1.296 ἁγίου πνεύματος ἐπιτρεπόμενος οὐ παρέργως-, ἔπειτα δὲ περὶ τῶν τὸν γάμον ἐχόντων τὸν σεμνὸν λέγοντος «τίμιος ὁ γάμος καὶ ἡ κοίτη ἀμίαντος, πόρνους δὲ καὶ μοιχοὺς κρινεῖ ὁ θεός». ἀλλὰ καὶ κατ' αὐτῶν ἐκβοᾷ γράφων Ῥωμαίοις, τὰ αἰσχρὰ ἀποκαλύπτων τῶν τὰς κακοπραγίας ἐργαζομένων, λέγων «αἵ τε γὰρ θήλειαι αὐτῶν μετήλλαξαν τὴν φυσικὴν χρῆσιν εἰς τὴν παρὰ φύσιν» καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀρρένων, ὅτι «ἄρρενες ἐν ἄρρεσι τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην κατεργαζόμενοι»· ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῇ πρὸς Τιμόθεον ἐπιστολῇ περὶ τούτων λέγει ὅτι «ἐν ἐσχάταις ἡμέραις ἐνστήσονται καιροὶ χαλεποί· ἔσονται γὰρ οἱ ἄνθρωποι φιλήδονοι», καὶ πάλιν «κωλυόντων γαμεῖν, κεκαυτηριασμένων τὴν συνείδησιν», ὅτι τὸ μὲν γαμεῖν μετὰ σωφροσύνης καὶ τεκνογονεῖν κωλύουσι, καιόμενοι δέ εἰσι τῇ συνειδήσει, λαγνεύοντες μὲν καὶ φθειρόμενοι, κωλύοντες δὲ τεκνογονεῖν. καὶ γὰρ καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ παρ' αὐτοῖς λεγομένη θυσία, βορβορώδης τις οὖσα, ἤδη καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀνέκαθεν διὰ τοῦ προφήτου ὑποδείκνυται ὄφεως οὖσα σὰρξ καὶ οὐχὶ τοῦ κυρίου μὴ γένοιτο, λέγοντος οὕτως ὅτι «σὺ συνέτριψας τὴν κεφαλὴν τοῦ δράκοντος καὶ ἔδωκας αὐτὸν βρῶμα λαοῖς τοῖς Αἰθίοψι». βρῶμα γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ὄφεως ἡ τούτων μυσαρὰ θρῃσκεία καὶ Αἰθίοπες μεμελανωμένοι τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ οἱ ταύτην τὴν τελετὴν τοῦ νῦν μὲν δαίμονος ∆ιὸς πάλαι δὲ γόητος, τοῦ παρά τισι θεοῦ μάτην νενομισμένου ἐπιτελοῦντες. ἐκ γὰρ Ἑλληνικῶν μύθων πᾶσαι αἱ αἱρέσεις συνάξασαι ἑαυταῖς τὴν πλάνην μετέβαλον, μεταποιήσασαι εἰς ἄλλην διάνοιαν χείρονα. παρεισφέρουσι γὰρ οἱ ποιηταὶ τὸν ∆ία τὴν Μῆτιν θυγατέρα ἑαυτοῦ καταπιόντα. βρέφος δὲ οὐκ ἄν τις καταπίοι, ὡς καὶ ὁ ἅγιος Κλήμης καταγελῶν τῆς τῶν θεῶν τῶν Ἑλλήνων αἰσ1.297 χρουργίας εἶπεν ὅτι τὴν Μῆτιν καταπιὼν οὐχὶ τὸ βρέφος ἠδύνατο καταπιεῖν, ἀλλὰ τὴν γονὴν τὴν ἰδίαν * σημαίνων. 17. Τί δὲ ἕτερον εἴποιμι; ἢ πῶς ἀποσείσομαι τὸν πηλώδη τοῦτον πόνον, βουλόμενος μὲν εἰπεῖν καὶ μὴ βουλόμενος, ἀναγκαζόμενος δέ, ἵνα μὴ δόξω τι τῶν ὄντων παρακρύπτειν, καὶ φοβούμενος ἵνα μὴ ἀποκαλύπτων τὰ δεινὰ αὐτῶν ἢ χράνω ἢ πλήξω ἢ εἰς τὸ περιεργάσασθαι περὶ τούτου τοὺς ἀπαγομένους ἡδοναῖς καὶ ἐπιθυμίαις ἐποτρύνω. ὅμως ἐγὼ μὲν ἀθῷος εἴην καὶ πᾶσα ἡ τῆς ἁγίας καθολικῆς ἐκκλησίας † ἐλπὶς καὶ πάντες οἱ τούτῳ τῷ γράμματι ἐντυγχάνοντες ἀπὸ τῆς τοιαύτης τοῦ διαβόλου ὑποσπορᾶς καὶ κακομηχανίας· ἐὰν γὰρ ἀναλάβω λέγειν τὰ ἄλλα τὰ παρ' αὐτοῖς λεγόμενα καὶ γινόμενα ὅσα ἐστὶ τοιαῦτα καὶ τοσαῦτα, καὶ τούτων ἔτι μείζονα καὶ † ἐλάττω, θελήσω δὲ καὶ ὡς φάρμακον ἰάσεως ἀλεξητήριον ἀντιδότων δίκην πρὸς ἑκάστην λέξιν ἀντιθεῖναι, εἰς πολὺν ὄγκον ἐλάσω τῆς συντάξεως τὴν πραγματείαν. ταύτῃ γὰρ τῇ αἱρέσει, ἐπιπόθητοι, καὶ αὐτὸς περιέτυχον, ἐκ στόματος δὲ τῶν ταύτην ἐπιχειρούντων φύσει αὐτὰ αὐτοπροσώπως ἐνηχήθην· γυναῖκες δὲ οὕτως ἠπατημέναι οὐ μόνον τὴν λαλιὰν ταύτην ἡμῖν προέτειναν καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ἡμῖν ἀπεκάλυψαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ τὴν Αἰγυπτίαν ἐκείνην τὴν τοῦ ἀρχιμαγείρου τὴν ὀλετήριον καὶ μοχθηρὰν καὶ αὗται ἀθυρογλώττῳ τόλμῃ κατασπάσαι ἡμᾶς ἐν τῇ νέᾳ ἡμῶν ἡλικίᾳ ὀρεχθεῖσαι