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and the apostle Paul showed, on the one hand, that of the images, as we have already said, having shown it for our sake through the Passover and the unleavened bread; and on the other hand, that of the law interwoven with injustice, saying, “the law of commandments in ordinances has been abolished,” and that of the law not interwoven with the worse, saying, “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” 7. So then, to speak briefly, I think it has been sufficiently shown to you both the legislation that crept in from men and the law of God itself divided into three parts. It remains for us, then, who this god is who established the law. But I think this too has been shown to you in what has been said before, if you have listened carefully. For if this was established neither by the perfect God himself, as we have taught, nor indeed by the devil, which it is not even lawful to say, this one who established the law is someone other than these. And this one is the demiurge and maker of this whole world and of the things in it; being different from their substances and established as a mean between them, he would justly bear the name of the mean. And if the perfect God is good according to his own nature, as indeed he is—for our Savior declared that there is only one good God, his own Father, whom he himself revealed—and he who is of the nature of the adversary is evil and wicked, characterized by injustice, and so, being established as a mean between these, and being neither good nor indeed evil nor unjust, he would be properly called just, being the arbiter of his own justice. And this god will be inferior to the perfect God and less than his justice, since he is generated and not ungenerated—for there is one 1.457 ungenerated, the Father, from whom are all things, all things in a special sense depending on him—and he will be greater and more powerful than the adversary, and being of another substance and nature than the substance of each of these. For the substance of the adversary is corruption and darkness—for he is material and composite—but the substance of the ungenerated Father of all is incorruption and self-existent light, simple and uniform. And his substance produced a certain twofold power, but he himself is an image of the better one. And let this not trouble you for now, you who wish to learn how from one principle of all things—which is simple and confessed by us and believed, the ungenerated and incorruptible and good—these natures also came into being, that of corruption and that of the mean, these being of a different substance, since the good has the nature to beget and bring forth things similar to and of the same substance as itself. For you will learn, God granting, in order, both the beginning and generation of these things, when you are deemed worthy of the apostolic tradition, which we too have received by succession, along with that of regulating all our teachings by the teaching of our Savior. These things for you, O my sister Flora, spoken in few words, I have not hesitated to write with brevity, and at the same time I have sufficiently explained the matter at hand, which will also contribute the greatest things to you in what follows, if indeed, like good and fertile soil that has received fruitful seeds, you show forth the fruit from them.” Of Ptolemy to Flora is completed. 8. But who will endure the madness of these words and of this charlatan and those with him—I mean of Ptolemy and 1.458 his followers—who to such an extent stir up and stitch together fictions? For neither any of the ancient tragedians, nor the mimes who followed them in style—I mean those around Philistion and Diogenes who wrote incredible things, or all the others who have written and recited myths—were able to fashion such a great falsehood, as these men, acting rashly against their own life, have devised terrible things for themselves and have wrapped the minds of the people who believe them in foolish questions and endless genealogies, they themselves the things in

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καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολος Παῦλος ἔδειξε, τὸ μὲν τῶν εἰκόνων, ὡς ἤδη εἴπομεν, διὰ τοῦ πάσχα καὶ τῶν ἀζύμων δείξας δι' ἡμᾶς, τὸ δὲ τοῦ συμπεπλεγμένου νόμου τῇ ἀδικίᾳ, εἰπών «τὸν νόμον τῶν ἐντολῶν ἐν δόγμασι κατηργῆσθαι», τὸ δὲ τοῦ ἀσυμπλόκου τῷ χείρονι, «ὁ μὲν νόμος» εἰπών «ἅγιος, καὶ ἡ ἐντολὴ ἁγία καὶ δικαία καὶ ἀγαθή». 7. Ὡς μὲν οὖν συντόμως ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, αὐτάρκως οἶμαί σοι δεδεῖχθαι καὶ τὴν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων παρεισδύσασαν νομοθεσίαν καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ νόμον τριχῆ διαιρούμενον. περιλείπεται δὲ ἡμῖν τίς ποτέ ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ θεὸς ὁ τὸν νόμον θέμενος. ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο ἡγοῦμαί σοι δεδεῖχθαι ἐπὶ τῶν προειρημένων, εἰ ἐπιμελῶς ἀκήκοας. εἰ γὰρ μήτε ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ τελείου θεοῦ τέθειται οὗτος, ὡς ἐδιδάξαμεν, μήτε μὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου, ὃ μηδὲ θεμιτόν ἐστιν εἰπεῖν, ἕτερός τίς ἐστι παρὰ τούτους οὗτος ὁ θέμενος τὸν νόμον. οὗτος δὲ δημιουργὸς καὶ ποιητὴς τοῦδε τοῦ παντός ἐστι κόσμου καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ· ἕτερος ὢν παρὰ τὰς τούτων οὐσίας μέσος τε τούτων καθεστώς, ἐνδίκως καὶ τὸ τῆς μεσότητος ὄνομα ἀποφέροιτο ἄν. καὶ εἰ ὁ τέλειος θεὸς ἀγαθός ἐστι κατὰ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ φύσιν, ὥσπερ καὶ ἔστιν ἕνα γὰρ μόνον εἶναι ἀγαθὸν θεὸν τὸν ἑαυτοῦ πατέρα ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν ἀπεφήνατο, ὃν αὐτὸς ἐφανέρωσεν, ἔστι δὲ καὶ ὁ τῆς τοῦ ἀντικειμένου φύσεως κακός τε καὶ πονηρὸς ἐν ἀδικίᾳ χαρακτηριζόμενος, τούτων δὲ οὖν μέσος καθεστὼς καὶ μήτε ἀγαθὸς ὢν μήτε μὴν κακὸς μήτε ἄδικος, ἰδίως γε λεχθείη ἂν δίκαιος, τῆς κατ' αὐτὸν δικαιοσύνης ὢν βραβευτής. καὶ ἔσται μὲν καταδεέστερος τοῦ τελείου θεοῦ καὶ τῆς ἐκείνου δικαιοσύνης ἐλάττων οὗτος ὁ θεός, ἅτε δὴ καὶ γεννητὸς ὢν καὶ οὐκ ἀγέννητος εἷς 1.457 γάρ ἐστιν ἀγέννητος ὁ πατήρ, ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα, ἰδίως τῶν πάντων ἠρτημένων ἀπ' αὐτοῦ, μείζων δὲ καὶ κυριώτερος τοῦ ἀντικειμένου γενήσεται καὶ ἑτέρας οὐσίας τε καὶ φύσεως πεφυκὼς παρὰ τὴν ἑκατέρων τούτων οὐσίαν. τοῦ μὲν γὰρ ἀντικειμένου ἐστὶν ἡ οὐσία φθορά τε καὶ σκότος ὑλικὸς γὰρ οὗτος καὶ πολυσχιδής, τοῦ δὲ πατρὸς τῶν ὅλων τοῦ ἀγεννήτου ἡ οὐσία ἐστὶν ἀφθαρσία τε καὶ φῶς αὐτοόν, ἁπλοῦν τε καὶ μονοειδές· ἡ δὲ τούτου οὐσία διττὴν μέν τινα δύναμιν προήγαγεν, αὐτὸς δὲ τοῦ κρείττονός ἐστιν εἰκών. μηδέ σε τανῦν τοῦτο θορυβείτω, θέλουσαν μαθεῖν πῶς ἀπὸ μιᾶς ἀρχῆς τῶν ὅλων, ἁπλῆς οὔσης τε καὶ ὁμολογουμένης ἡμῖν καὶ πεπιστευμένης, τῆς ἀγεννήτου καὶ ἀφθάρτου καὶ ἀγαθῆς, συνέστησαν καὶ αὗται αἱ φύσεις, ἥ τε τῆς φθορᾶς καὶ ἡ τῆς μεσότητος, ἀνομοούσιοι αὗται καθεστῶσαι, τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ φύσιν ἔχοντος τὰ ὅμοια ἑαυτῷ καὶ ὁμοούσια γεννᾶν τε καὶ προφέρειν. μαθήσῃ γάρ, θεοῦ διδόντος, ἑξῆς καὶ τὴν τούτων ἀρχήν τε καὶ γέννησιν, ἀξιουμένη τῆς ἀποστολικῆς παραδόσεως, ἣν ἐκ διαδοχῆς καὶ ἡμεῖς παρειλήφαμεν μετὰ καὶ τοῦ κανονίσαι πάντας τοὺς λόγους τῇ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν διδασκαλίᾳ. ταῦτά σοι, ὦ ἀδελφή μου Φλώρα, δι' ὀλίγων εἰρημένα οὐκ ἠτόνησα καὶ τὸ τῆς συντομίας προέγραψα ἅμα τε τὸ προκείμενον ἀποχρώντως ἐξέφηνα, ἃ καὶ εἰς τὰ ἑξῆς τὰ μέγιστά σοι συμβαλεῖται, ἐάν γε ὡς καλὴ γῆ καὶ ἀγαθὴ γονίμων σπερμάτων τυχοῦσα τὸν δι' αὐτῶν καρπὸν ἀναδείξῃς.» Πτολεμαίου πρὸς Φλώραν ἐπληρώθη. 8. Τίς δὲ τούτων τῶν ῥημάτων καὶ τῆς τοῦ γόητος τούτου καὶ τῆς τῶν σὺν αὐτῷ ἀνέξεται φρενοβλαβείας, Πτολεμαίου δέ φημι καὶ 1.458 τῶν ἀμφ' αὐτόν, εἰς τοσοῦτον κυκώντων καὶ καττυόντων πλάσματα; οὔτε γὰρ τῶν παλαιῶν τραγῳδοποιῶν τις οὔτε οἱ καθεξῆς μιμηλοὶ τὸν τρόπον, οἱ περὶ Φιλιστίωνα λέγω καὶ ∆ιογένη τὸν τὰ ἄπιστα γράψαντα ἢ οἱ ἄλλοι πάντες οἱ τοὺς μύθους ἀναγεγραφότες καὶ ῥαψῳδήσαντες, τοσοῦτον ψεῦδος ἠδυνήθησαν ἐκτυπῶσαι, ὡς οὗτοι τολμηρῶς φερόμενοι κατὰ τῆς ἑαυτῶν ζωῆς δεινὰ ἑαυτοῖς κατεσκεύασαν καὶ τὸν νοῦν τῶν πειθομένων αὐτοῖς ἀνθρώπων εἰς μωρὰς ζητήσεις περιέβαλον καὶ γενεαλογίας ἀπεράντους, αὐτοὶ τὰ ἐν