[Concerning Books with False Inscriptions.]
XVI. We have sent all these things to you, that ye may know our opinion, what it is; and that ye may not receive those books which obtain in our name, but are written by the ungodly. For you are not to attend to the names of the apostles, but to the nature of the things, and their settled opinions. For we know that Simon and Cleobius, and their followers, have compiled poisonous books under the name of Christ and of His disciples, and do carry them about in order to deceive you who love Christ, and us His servants. And among the ancients also some have written apocryphal books of Moses, and Enoch, and Adam, and Isaiah, and David, and Elijah, and of the three patriarchs, pernicious and repugnant to the truth. The same things even now have the wicked heretics done, reproaching the creation, marriage, providence, the begetting of children, the law, and the prophets; inscribing certain barbarous names, and, as they think, of angels, but, to speak the truth, of demons, which suggest things to them: whose doctrine eschew, that ye may not be partakers of the punishment due to those that write such things for the seduction and perdition of the faithful and unblameable disciples of the Lord Jesus.
[16] Ταῦτα πάντα ἐπεστείλαμεν ὑμῖν, ἵνα εἰδέναι ἔχοιτε τὴν ἡμετέραν γνώμην, οἵα τίς ἐστιν. Καὶ τὰ ἐπ' ὀνόματι ἡμῶν παρὰ τῶν ἀσεβῶν καττυθέντα βιβλία μὴ παραδέχεσθε: οὐ γὰρ τοῖς ὀνόμασιν χρὴ ὑμᾶς προσέχειν τῶν ἀποστόλων, ἀλλὰ τῇ φύσει τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ τῇ γνώμῃ τῇ ἀδιαστρόφῳ. Οἴδαμεν γάρ, ὅτι οἱ περὶ Σίμωνα καὶ Κλεόβιον ἰώδη συντάξαντες βιβλία ἐπ' ὀνόματι Χριστοῦ καὶ τῶν μαθητῶν αὐτοῦ περιφέρουσιν εἰς ἀπάτην ὑμῶν τῶν πεφιληκότων Χριστὸν καὶ ἡμᾶς τοὺς αὐτοῦ δούλους. Καὶ ἐν τοῖς παλαιοῖς δέ τινες συνέγραψαν βιβλία ἀπόκρυφα Μωϋσέως καὶ Ἐνὼχ καὶ Ἀδάμ, Ἡσαΐου τε καὶ Δαυὶδ καὶ Ἠλίου καὶ τῶν τριῶν πατριαρχῶν, φθοροποιὰ καὶ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχθρά: τοιαῦτα καὶ νῦν ἐκύησαν οἱ δυσώνυμοι, διαβάλλοντες δημιουργίαν, γάμον, πρόνοιαν, τεκνογονίαν, νόμον, προφήτας: βάρβαρά τινα ὀνόματα ἐγγράφοντες καὶ ὡς αὐτοί φασιν ἀγγέλων, τὸ δ' ἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν δαιμόνων τῶν αὐτοῖς ὑπηχούντων. Ὧν ἀποφεύγετε τὴν διδασκαλίαν, ἵνα μὴ μετάσχητε τῆς τιμωρίας τῶν αὐτὰ συγγραψαμένων ἐπ' ἀπάτῃ καὶ ἀπωλείᾳ τῶν πιστῶν καὶ ἀμέμπτων τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ μαθητῶν.