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your elders shall dream dreams,” for God, having taken away all power of speech and action and such oversight from that people, has placed it among you from the Gentiles. For this reason, the devil, being jealous of the holy Church of God, turned to you, raising up against you tribulations, persecutions, disorders, blasphemies, schisms, heresies; for he brought that people under his own power through the murder of Christ, but you, who have turned away from his vanity, he tempts in different ways at different times, just as he did the blessed Job. For he also opposed the great high priest Jesus, the son of Josedech, and often demanded that we be weakened, so that our faith might fail. But our Lord and teacher, having brought him to judgment, said to him: “The Lord rebuke you, devil, and the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you; is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” And He who then said to those standing by the high priest: “Take the filthy garments from him,” and added: “Behold, I have taken away your iniquities from you,” this one will also say now, as he once said about us when we were gathered together, that “I have prayed that your faith may not fail.” So then, the Jewish multitude also had heresies of wickedness. For there were also Sadducees among them who did not confess the resurrection of the dead. And Pharisees who attributed the actions of sinners to chance and fate. And Masbothaeans who denied providence, saying that existing things came together by spontaneous motion, and who cut off the immortality of the soul. And Hemerobaptists, who do not eat on any day unless they have baptized themselves, but also their couches and tables, or rather bowls and cups and seats, unless they cleanse them with water, they use nothing. And the Ebionites who have now appeared in our time, wishing the Son of God to be a mere man, engendering him from the pleasure of a man and the intercourse of Joseph and Mary. But those who separated themselves from all these and kept the traditions of their fathers are the Essenes. These things, then, were among the former people, and now the evil one, being wise in doing evil and ignorant of whatever is good, has cast out some from among us and worked in them heresies and schisms. And the beginning of the new heresies came about thus. The devil entered into a certain Simon from Gitta, a village of Samaria so-called, a magus by trade, and made him a servant of his own wicked will. But when Philip, our fellow apostle, by the gift of the Lord and of the Spirit

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πρεσβύτεροι ὑμῶν ἐνύπνια ἐνυπνιασθήσονται», πᾶσαν γὰρ δύναμιν λόγου καὶ ἐνέργειαν καὶ τὴν τοιάνδε ἐπισκοπὴν ἀπάρας ὁ Θεὸς ἐκ τοῦ λαοῦ, εἰς ὑμᾶς τοὺς ἐξ ἐθνῶν ἔθετο. ∆ιὰ γὰρ τοῦτο ζηλώσας καὶ ὁ διάβολος τὴν ἁγίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ Ἐκκλησίαν μετέστη εἰς ὑμᾶς, ἐπεγείρας ὑμῖν θλίψεις, διωγμούς, ἀκαταστασίας, βλασφημίας, σχίσματα, αἱρέσεις· ἐκεῖνον γὰρ τὸν λαὸν διὰ τῆς χριστοκτονίας εἰς ἑαυτὸν ὑπηγάγετο, ὑμᾶς δὲ ἀποστάντας αὐτοῦ τῆς ματαιότητος ἄλλοτε ἄλλως πειράζει, ὡς καὶ τὸν μακάριον Ἰώβ. Καὶ γὰρ τῷ μεγάλῳ ἀρχιερεῖ Ἰησοῦ τῷ τοῦ Ἰωσεδὲκ ἀντέκειτο, καὶ ἡμᾶς πολλάκις ἐξῃτήσατο ἐξυδαρωθῆναι, ὅπως ἐκλείπῃ ἡ πίστις ἡμῶν. Ἀλλ' ὁ ἡμέτερος Κύριος καὶ διδάσκαλος, ἐν δίκῃ καταστήσας αὐτόν, ἔλεγεν αὐτῷ· «Ἐπιτιμήσαι ἐν σοὶ Κύριος, διάβολε, καὶ ἐπιτιμήσαι Κύριος ἐν σοὶ ὁ ἐκλε ξάμενος τὴν Ἱερουσαλήμ· οὐκ ἰδοὺ τοῦτο ἐξεσπασμένον ὡς δαλός;» Καὶ ὁ εἰπὼν τότε τοῖς παρεστῶσιν τῷ ἀρχιερεῖ· «Περιέλετε τὰ ἱμάτια τὰ ·υπαρὰ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ», καὶ ἐπειπών· «Ἰδοὺ ἀφῄρηκα τὰς ἀνομίας σου ἀπὸ σοῦ», οὗτος ἐρεῖ καὶ νῦν, ὡς καὶ πάλαι συνηθροισμένων ἡμῶν ἔλεγεν περὶ ἡμῶν, ὅτι «Ἐδεήθην, ἵνα μὴ ἐκλίπῃ ἡ πίστις ὑμῶν.» Eἶχεν μὲν οὖν καὶ ὁ ἰουδαϊκὸς ὄχλος αἱρέσεις κακίας. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ Σαδδουκαῖοι ἐξ αὐτῶν οἱ μὴ ὁμολογοῦντες νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν. Καὶ Φαρισαῖοι οἱ τύχῃ καὶ εἱμαρμένῃ ἐπιγράφοντες τὴν τῶν ἁμαρτανόντων πρᾶξιν. Καὶ Μασβω θαῖοι οἱ πρόνοιαν ἀρνούμενοι, ἐξ αὐτομάτου δὲ φορᾶς λέγοντες τὰ ὄντα συνεστάναι καὶ ψυχῆς τὴν ἀθανασίαν περικόπτοντες. Καὶ Ἡμεροβαπτισταί, οἵτινες καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἐὰν μὴ βαπτίσωνται οὐκ ἐσθίουσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς κλίνας καὶ τοὺς πίνακας ἤτοι κρατῆρας καὶ ποτήρια καὶ καθίσματα, ἐὰν μὴ καθάρωσιν ὕδατι, οὐδενὶ χρῶνται. Καὶ οἱ ἐφ' ἡμῶν νῦν φανέντες Ἐβιωναῖοι, τὸν Υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ ψιλὸν ἄνθρωπον εἶναι βουλόμενοι, ἐξ ἡδονῆς ἀνδρὸς καὶ συμπλοκῆς Ἰωσὴφ καὶ Μαρίας αὐτὸν γεννῶντες. Oἱ δὲ τούτων πάντων ἑαυτοὺς χωρίσαντες καὶ τὰ πάτρια φυλάσσοντές εἰσιν Ἐσσαῖοι. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐν τῷ προτέρῳ λαῷ, καὶ νῦν ὁ πονηρός, σοφὸς ὢν τοῦ κακοποιῆσαι καὶ τὸ καλὸν ὅ τι ποτέ ἐστιν ἀγνοῶν, ἐξ ἡμῶν τινας ἐκβαλὼν ἐνήργησεν ἐν αὐτοῖς αἱρέσεις καὶ σχίσματα. Ἡ δὲ καταρχὴ τῶν νέων αἱρέσεων γέγονεν οὕτως. Σίμωνά τινα ἀπὸ Γιτθῶν οὕτω καλουμένης κώμης Σαμαρέα, τῇ τέχνῃ μάγον, ἐνδυσάμενος ὁ διάβολος ὑπηρέτην τῆς αὐτοῦ μοχθηρᾶς γνώμης ἐποιήσατο. Ἡνίκα δὲ Φίλιππος ὁ συναπόστολος ἡμῶν τῇ τοῦ Κυρίου δόσει καὶ τῇ τοῦ Πνεύμα