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When He Himself was made flesh for us, their Feast of Tabernacles of the Ogdoad is dissolved. 1.430 And when this is dissolved, their whole hypothesis has fallen apart, which, falsely dreaming, they use to run down the scriptures, having fabricated their own hypothesis. Then, collecting words and names that lie scattered about, they transfer them, as we have said before, from the natural to the unnatural, doing things similar to those who propose for themselves whatever hypotheses they happen upon, and then attempt to practice them from the poems of Homer, so that the more inexperienced think Homer composed his verses on that hypothesis which has been practiced off-hand, and many are carried away by the composite sequence of the verses, [wondering] whether Homer might have composed these things thus; just as one who writes of Heracles being sent by Eurystheus for the dog in Hades using Homeric verses—for nothing prevents mentioning these things for the sake of an example, since the attempt is similar and the same for both parties—so writes: So saying, he sent from the house, groaning heavily, the man Heracles, witness of great deeds, Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus, Perseus' descendant, to bring from Erebus the dog of hateful Hades. He went his way, like a mountain-bred lion trusting in his strength, swiftly through the city, and all his friends followed with him, maidens and youths and much-enduring old men, wailing piteously, as if he were going to his death. And Hermes sent him on, and bright-eyed Athene; for she knew in her heart how her brother was toiling. Who of the unsophisticated would not be carried away by these verses and think that Homer composed them thus upon this hypothesis? But one experienced in the Homeric subject matter will recognize the verses, but will not recognize the 1.431 hypothesis, knowing that one part of them is said about Odysseus, another about Heracles himself, another about Priam, and another about Menelaus and Agamemnon; and having taken them up and returned each one to its own book, he will get rid of the present hypothesis. So too he who holds fast in himself the unswerving canon of the truth, which he has received through baptism, will recognize the names and expressions and parables from the scriptures, but he will not recognize this blasphemous hypothesis. For even if he recognizes the mosaic tiles, he will not accept the fox in place of the royal image; and restoring each one of the sayings to its own order and fitting it to the body of the truth, he will lay bare and show their fabrication to be without substance. 30. But since redemption is lacking in this stage-play, so that one, having brought their farce to a conclusion, may add the refuting argument, we thought it good to show first in what ways the fathers of this myth themselves differ from one another, as being of different spirits of error. For from this it will be possible to perceive most accurately, even before the proof, the sure truth proclaimed by the church and the falsehood counterfeited by these men. For the church, although scattered throughout the whole world to the ends of the earth, yet having received from the apostles and their disciples the faith in one God, the Father Almighty, who made the heaven and the earth and the seas and all things that are in them, and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who was made flesh for our salvation, and in the Holy Spirit, who through the prophets preached the dispensations and the advent, and the birth from the Virgin, and the passion and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension in the flesh into the heavens of the beloved * Christ Jesus our Lord, and his coming from 1.432 heaven in the glory of the Father to sum up all things and to raise up all flesh of all humanity, so that to Christ Jesus our Lord and God and Savior and King, according to the good pleasure of the invisible Father

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τούτου αὐτοῦ σαρκωθέντος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, λέλυται ἡ τῆς Ὀγδοάδος αὐτῶν σκηνοπηγία. 1.430 ταύτης δὲ λελυμένης διαπέπτωκεν αὐτῶν πᾶσα ἡ ὑπόθεσις, ἣν ψευδῶς ὀνειρώττοντες κατατρέχουσι τῶν γραφῶν, ἰδίαν ὑπόθεσιν ἀναπλασάμενοι. Ἔπειτα λέξεις καὶ ὀνόματα σποράδην κείμενα συλλέγοντες μεταφέρουσι καθὼς προειρήκαμεν ἐκ τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν εἰς τὸ παρὰ φύσιν, ὅμοια ποιοῦντες τοῖς ὑποθέσεις τὰς τυχούσας αὑτοῖς προβαλλομένοις, ἔπειτα πειρωμένοις ἐκ τῶν Ὁμήρου ποιημάτων μελετᾶν αὐτάς, ὥστε τοὺς ἀπειροτέρους δοκεῖν ἐπ' ἐκείνης τῆς ἐξ ὑπογύου μεμελετημένης ὑποθέσεως Ὅμηρον τὰ ἔπη πεποιηκέναι καὶ πολλοὺς συναρπάζεσθαι διὰ τῆς τῶν ἐπῶν συνθέτου ἀκολουθίας, μὴ ἄρα ταῦθ' οὕτως Ὅμηρος εἴη πεποιηκώς· ὡς ὁ τὸν Ἡρακλέα ὑπὸ Εὐρυσθέως ἐπὶ τὸν ἐν τῷ Ἅιδῃ κύνα πεμπόμενον διὰ τῶν Ὁμηρικῶν στίχων γράφων οὕτως οὐδὲν γὰρ κωλύει παραδείγματος χάριν ἐπιμνησθῆναι καὶ τούτων, ὁμοίας καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς οὔσης τῆς ἐπιχειρήσεως τοῖς ἀμφοτέροις· ὣς εἰπὼν ἀπέπεμπε δόμων βαρέα στενάχοντα φῶθ' Ἡρακλῆα, μεγάλων ἐπιίστορα ἔργων, Εὐρυσθεύς, Σθενέλοιο πάις Περσηιάδαο ἐξ Ἐρέβευς ἄξοντα κύνα στυγεροῦ Ἀίδαο. βῆ ῥ' ἴμεν, ὥς τε λέων ὀρεσίτροφος ἀλκὶ πεποιθώς, καρπαλίμως ἀνὰ ἄστυ, φίλοι δ' ἅμα πάντες ἕποντο, νύμφαι τ' ἠίθεοί τε πολύτλητοί τε γέροντες, οἴκτρ' ὀλοφυρόμενοι, ὡς εἰ θανατόνδε κιόντα. Ἑρμείας δ' ἀπέπεμπεν ἰδὲ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη· ᾔδεε γὰρ κατὰ θυμὸν ἀδελφεὸν ὡς ἐπονεῖτο. τίς οὐκ ἂν τῶν ἀπανούργων συναρπαγείη ὑπὸ τῶν ἐπῶν τούτων καὶ νομίσειεν οὕτως αὐτὰ Ὅμηρον ἐπὶ ταύτης τῆς ὑποθέσεως πεποιηκέναι; ὁ δ' ἔμπειρος τῆς Ὁμηρικῆς ὑποθέσεως ἐπιγνώσεται μὲν τὰ ἔπη, τὴν δὲ 1.431 ὑπόθεσιν οὐκ ἐπιγνώσεται, εἰδὼς ὅτι τὸ μέν τι αὐτῶν ἐστι περὶ Ὀδυσσέως εἰρημένον, τὸ δὲ περὶ αὐτοῦ τοῦ Ἡρακλέος, τὸ δὲ περὶ τοῦ Πριάμου, τὸ δὲ περὶ Μενελάου καὶ Ἀγαμέμνονος· ἄρας δὲ αὐτὰ καὶ ἓν ἕκαστον ἀποδοὺς τῇ ἰδίᾳ βίβλῳ ἐκποδὼν ποιήσει τὴν παροῦσαν ὑπόθεσιν. οὕτω δὲ καὶ ὁ τὸν κανόνα τῆς ἀληθείας ἀκλινῆ ἐν ἑαυτῷ κατέχων, ὃν διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος εἴληφεν, τὰ μὲν ἐκ τῶν γραφῶν ὀνόματα καὶ τὰς λέξεις καὶ τὰς παραβολὰς ἐπιγνώσεται, τὴν δὲ βλάσφημον ὑπόθεσιν ταύτην οὐκ ἐπιγνώσεται. καὶ γὰρ εἰ τὰς ψηφῖδας γνωρίσει, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀλώπεκα ἀντὶ τῆς βασιλικῆς εἰκόνος οὐ παραδέξεται· ἓν ἕκαστον δὲ τῶν εἰρημένων ἀποδοὺς τῇ ἰδίᾳ τάξει καὶ προσαρμόσας τῷ τῆς ἀληθείας σωματίῳ γυμνώσει καὶ ἀνυπόστατον ἐπιδείξει τὸ πλάσμα αὐτῶν. 30. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τῇ σκηνῇ ταύτῃ λείπει ἡ ἀπολύτρωσις, ἵνα τις τὸν μῖμον αὐτῶν περαιώσας τὸν ἀνασκευάζοντα λόγον ἐπενέγκῃ, καλῶς ἔχειν ὑπελάβομεν ἐπιδεῖξαι πρότερον ἐν οἷς οἱ πατέρες αὐτοὶ τοῦδε τοῦ μύθου διαφέρονται πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ὡς ἐκ διαφόρων πνευμάτων τῆς πλάνης ὄντες. καὶ ἐκ τούτου γὰρ ἀκριβέστατα συνιδεῖν ἔσται καὶ πρὸ τῆς ἀποδείξεως βεβαίαν τὴν ὑπὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας κηρυσσομένην ἀλήθειαν καὶ τὴν ὑπὸ τούτων παραπεποιημένην ψευδηγορίαν. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἐκκλησία, καίπερ καθ' ὅλης τῆς οἰκουμένης ἕως περάτων τῆς γῆς διεσπαρμένη, παρὰ δὲ τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ τῶν ἐκείνων μαθητῶν παραλαβοῦσα τὴν εἰς ἕνα θεὸν πατέρα παντοκράτορα τὸν πεποιηκότα τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὰς θαλάσσας καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πίστιν καὶ εἰς ἕνα Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν σαρκωθέντα ὑπὲρ τῆς ἡμετέρας σωτηρίας καὶ εἰς πνεῦμα ἅγιον τὸ διὰ τῶν προφητῶν κεκηρυχὸς τὰς οἰκονομίας καὶ τὴν ἔλευσιν καὶ τὴν ἐκ τῆς παρθένου γέννησιν καὶ τὸ πάθος καὶ τὴν ἔγερσιν ἐκ νεκρῶν καὶ τὴν ἔνσαρκον εἰς τοὺς οὐρανοὺς ἀνάληψιν τοῦ ἠγαπημένου * Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν καὶ τὴν ἐκ 1.432 τῶν οὐρανῶν ἐν τῇ δόξῃ τοῦ πατρὸς παρουσίαν αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάντα καὶ ἀναστῆσαι πᾶσαν σάρκα πάσης ἀνθρωπότητος, ἵνα Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν καὶ θεῷ καὶ σωτῆρι καὶ βασιλεῖ κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ πατρὸς τοῦ ἀοράτου