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Indeed, then, the leader of the apostles, the all-holy Peter, was in great need of the divine revelation concerning the gentiles; for he did not know that there is no distinction between the circumcision and the uncircumcision according to faith; nor did he know clearly, that apart from the worship appearing according to the law, the Lord had said the nations were to be made disciples, until He revealed the mystery of His ineffable will through a revelation, persuading him both by the example of the linen sheet, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit given equally to him and to the gentiles through faith alone, that there is no distinction in Christ between Jew and Greek; which the apostles in Jerusalem, being ignorant of, disputed with him, until they too learned the hidden wealth of the divine goodness towards all men. For the grace of the preaching was an introduction to a divine life and a new worship beyond the legal one, and a teaching of the soul voluntarily releasing itself from the body according to its will, and a prefiguration of another, more divine, beginning of generation. And for this reason, (353) those entrusted with this ministry needed, for each word of teaching, [the guidance] of the one who commanded. But if I might not seem more curious than is necessary, every word certainly requires a divine command, a mode defined for its operation, teaching and revelation. For there is absolutely no one who discerns the mode of any word without the revelation of the one who spoke the word. Knowing this, the all-praised Peter, having already received from the Lord the word of the preaching concerning the gentiles, did not undertake it, waiting to be taught the mode of the word by the one who gave the word.

And perhaps there were other things besides these, which the great Peter was taught through the sheet let down from heaven, and the various living creatures in it. Or rather, the entire race of men; or Peter himself, having attained the divine summit according to faith, learning explicitly to extinguish completely all his own sensation; according to which, as long as he sees phenomena, he knows God's creation to be corruptible in itself, not being able to be pure from corruption and confusion. Therefore, through the sheet, and the living creatures in it, He who was speaking with him was prefiguring the visible world, understood in its principles through the invisible world, or the invisible world, appearing in the types of sensible things, and as suitable for spiritual food. Wherefore he says: Arise, Peter, kill, and eat. From where is he commanded to arise? From where else, than from the state and relation according to sense, and from the more earthly preconception about beings, or from the righteousness considered to be according to the law? so that with the mind alone, released from the imagination of sense, being able to behold the principles of sensible things stripped of their forms, he might recognize the types of intelligible things, and learn that nothing made by God is unclean. For he who has contemplated the visible creation prefigured in its principles from the intelligible world, or the types of the intelligible things from the arrangement of the phenomena, like a translucent sheet from heaven, would believe nothing of the visible things to be unclean; seeing no opposition appearing in the principles of beings. For corruption subsists in sense-perception, and the war of created things against one another; but in the principles there is nothing at all contrary.

The sheet, then, is the sensible world, composed of four principles, as it were elements, and held together by them; and the creeping things and the beasts and the birds are the different principles of created things, which are unclean to the senses, but to the mind, are pure and nourishing, and are constitutive of the intelligible life. And the voice that came a third time teaches practical and natural and theological philosophy. For he who genuinely follows God completely (356) must not once, but twice, and three times arise and sacrifice the creation of phenomena, and eat it gnostically. For he who has risen from the impassioned disposition concerning phenomena, the

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Πάνυ μέν οὖν ἐδεῖτο τῆς περί ἐθνῶν θείας ἀποκαλύψεως ὁ τῶν ἀποστόλων ἔξαρχος Πέτρος ὁ πανάγιος· οὐ γάρ ἐγίνωσκεν ὅτι περιτομῆς καί ἀκροβυστίας οὐκ ἔστι διαστολή κατά τήν πίστιν· οὔτε μήν ᾔδει σαφῶς, ὅτι δίχα τῆς κατά νόμον φαινομένης λατρείας, μαθητευθῆναι τά ἔθνη ὁ Κύριος εἶπεν, ἕως οὗ τῆς ἀποῤῥήτου βουλῆς αὐτοῦ δι᾿ ἀποκαλύψεως ἐφανέρωσε τό μυστήριον, διά τε τοῦ κατά τήν σινδόνα παραδείγματος πείσας, διά τε τῆς ἴσως αὐτῷ κατά μόνην τήν πίστιν δοθείσης καί τοῖς ἔθνεσι χάριτος τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος, ὡς οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν Χριστῷ διαστολή Ἰουδαίου καί Ἕλληνος· ὅπερ καί οἱ ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἀγνοοῦντες ἀπόστολοι, διεκρίνοντο πρός αὐτόν, ἕως ἔμαθον καί αὐτοί τόν ἐν ἀποκρύφοις πλοῦτον τῆς ἐπί πάντας ἀνθρώπους θείας χρηστότητος. Θείας γάρ ζωῆς καί καινῆς λατρείας παρά τήν νομικήν ἐπεισαγωγή, καί ψυχῆς ἑκουσίως σώματος αὐτήν ἀπολυούσης κατά τήν γνώμην ὑπῆρχε διδαχή, καί ἄλλης ἀρχῆς θειοτέρας γενέσεως ὑποτύπωσις, ἡ τοῦ κηρύγματος χάρις. Καί διά τοῦτο, (353) τῆς τοῦ προστάξαντος ἔχρῃζον, ἐφ᾿ ἑκάστῳ λόγῳ διδαχῆς, οἱ ταύτην πιστευθέντες τήν διακονίαν. Εἰ δέ τῷ μή δοκῷ τοῦ δέοντος εἶναι περιεργότερος, πᾶς λόγος χρῄζει θείας ἐντολῆς πάντως, τοῦ ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ πρός ἐνέργειαν ὁρισθέντος τρόπου, διδαχῆς καί ἀποκαλύψεως. Οὐ γάρ ἔστι τό παράπαν ὁ διαγινώσκων τόν τινος λόγου τρόπον, χωρίς τῆς τοῦ φαμένου τόν λόγον ἀποκαλύψεως. Ὅπερ εἰδώς καί ὁ πανεύφημος Πέτρος, λαβών ἤδη παρά τοῦ Κυρίου τόν περί τῶν ἐθνῶν τοῦ κηρύγματος λόγον, οὐκ ἐνεχείρησεν, ἀναμένων διδαχθῆναι παρά τοῦ δόντος τόν λόγον, τοῦ λόγου τόν τρόπον.

Τάχα δέ καί ἕτερα πρός τούτοις ἦν, ἅπερ διά τῆς καθιεμένης οὐρανόθεν ὀθόνης, καί τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ διαφόρων ζώων, ὁ μέγας ἐδιδάσκετο Πέτρος. Μᾶλλον δέ, τό πᾶν γένος τῶν ἀνθρώπων· ἤ ὁ κατ᾿ αὐτόν τόν Πέτρον, ἐπειλημμένος τῆς κατά τήν πίστιν θείας ἀκρότητος, μανθάνων διαῤῥήδην πᾶσαν ἑαυτοῦ παντελῶς ἀποσβέσαι τήν αἴσθησιν· καθ᾿ ἥν ἕως ὁρᾷ τά φαινόμενα, φθαρτικήν ἑαυτῆς τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ κτίσιν ἐπίσταται, μή δυναμένην φθορᾶς εἶναι καθαράν καί συγχύσεως. ∆ιά μέν οὖν τῆς ὀθόνης, καί τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ ζώων, τόν φαινόμενον προεδείκνυε διά τοῦ ἀοράτου κόσμον τοῖς λόγοις νοούμενον, ἤ τόν ἀόρατον, τοῖς τῶν αἰσθητῶν τύποις φαινόμενον, ὁ πρός αὐτόν χρηματίζων, καί ὡς πρός ἐδωδήν πνευματικήν ἐπιτήδειον. ∆ιό φησιν· Ἀναστάς, Πέτρε, θῦσον, καί φάγε. Πόθεν ἀναστῆναι κελεύεται; Πόθεν ἄλλοθεν, ἤ τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἕξεώς τε καί σχέσεως, καί τῆς περί τῶν ὄντων χθαμαλωτέρας προλήψεως, ἤ τῆς νομιζομένης κατά νόμον δικαιοσύνης; ἵνα κατά μόνον τόν νοῦν ἀπολελυμένον τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν φαντασίας, δυνηθείς σχημάτων γυμνούς θεάσασθαι τούς λόγους τῶν αἰσθητῶν, ἐπιγνῷ τούς τύπους τῶν νοητῶν, καί μάθῃ μηδέν τῶν ὑπό Θεοῦ γεγονότων ἀκάθαρτον εἶναι. Ὁ γάρ θεωρήσας ἐκ τοῦ νοητοῦ κόσμου προφαινομένην τοῖς λόγοις τήν ὁρωμένην κτίσιν, ἤ τούς τύπους τῶν νοητῶν ἐκ τῆς τῶν φαινομένων διακοσμήσεως, καθάπερ οὐρανόθεν ὀθόνην διαφαινομένην, οὐδέν ἀκάθαρτον εἶναι πιστεύσειε τῶν ὁρατῶν· μηδεμίαν τοῖς τῶν ὄντων λόγοις ἐμφαινομένην θεωρῶν ἀντιπάθειαν. Ἡ φθορά γάρ ἐν τῇ αἰσθήσει καθέστηκε, καί ὁ τῶν γεγονότων πρός ἄλληλα πόλεμος· ἐν δέ τοῖς λόγοις οὐδέν ὑπάρχει καθάπαξ ἐναντίον.

Ἔστι μέν οὖν ἡ ὀθόνη, ὁ αἰσθητός κόσμος ἐκ τεσσάρων ἀρχῶν, καθάπερ στοιχείων, καί αὐτόν κρατούμενος· τά δέ ἑρπετά καί τά θηρία καί τά πετεινά, οἱ διάφοροι λόγοι τῶν γεγονότων εἰσί, πρός μέν αἴσθησιν ὄντες ἀκάθαρτοι, πρός δέ νοῦν, καθαροί τε καί τρόφιμοι, καί τῆς νοουμένης συστατικοί τυγχάνοτες ζωῆς. Ἡ δέ ἐκ τρίτου γενομένη φωνή, πρακτικήν καί φυσικήν καί θεολογικήν διδάσκει φιλοσοφίαν. ∆εῖ γάρ οὐχ ἅπαξ, ἀλλά καί δίς, καί τρίς ἀναστάντα θῦσαι τήν κτίσιν τῶν φαινομένων, καί φαγεῖν αὐτήν γνωστικῶς, τόν τῷ Θεῷ διόλου (356) ἑψόμενον γνησίως. Ὁ γάρ ἀναστάς τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς περί τά φαινόμενα διαθέσεως, τήν τῶν