Chapter V.—Simon Appeals to Scripture in Support of His System.

And this, he says, is what has been written in Scripture: “For the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah is His beloved plant.” If, however, the man of Judah (is) the beloved plant, it has been proved, he says, that there is not any other tree but that man. But concerning the secretion and dissolution of this (tree), Scripture, he says, has spoken sufficiently. And as regards instruction for those who have been fashioned after the image (of him), that statement is enough which is made (in Scripture), that “all flesh is grass, and all the glory of flesh, as it were, a flower of grass. The grass withereth, and its flower falleth; but the word of the Lord abideth for ever.”601    1 Pet. i. 24. The word of the Lord, he says, is that word which is produced in the mouth, and (is) a Logos, but nowhere else exists there a place of generation.

[10] Καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι, φησί, τὸ γεγραμμένον ἐν τῇ γραφῇ: «ὁ γὰρ ἀμπελὼν κυρίου Σαβαὼθ οἷ(κ)ος τοῦ Ἰσραήλ ἐστι, καὶ ἄνθρωπος τοῦ Ἰούδα νεόφυτον ἠγαπημένον». εἰ δὲ ἄνθρωπος τοῦ Ἰούδα νεόφυτον ἠγαπημένον, δέδεικται, φησίν, ὅτι [τὸ] ξύλον οὐκ ἄλλο τι ἀλλ' ἢ ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν. ἀλλὰ περὶ τῆς ἐκκρίσεως αὐτοῦ καὶ διακρίσεως ἱκανῶς, φησίν, εἴρηκεν ἡ γραφή, καὶ πρὸς διδασκαλίαν ἀρκεῖ τοῖς ἐξεικονισμένοις τὸ λεχθὲν ὅτι «πᾶσα σὰρξ χόρτος, καὶ πᾶσα δόξα σαρκὸς ὡς ἄνθος χόρτου: ἐξηράνθη ὁ χόρτος, καὶ τὸ ἄνθος αὐτοῦ ἐξέπεσε: τὸ δὲ ῥῆμα κυρίου μένει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα». ῥῆμα δέ, φησίν, ἐστὶ κυρίου τὸ ἐν στόματι γεννώμενον ῥῆμα καὶ λόγος, ἄλλ[ο δ]ὲ χωρίον γενέσεως οὐκ ἔστι.