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an angel wrestled with him, being a man, having turned into flesh, so that he might be able to come into close contact with him. And yet after wrestling, he was turned back to his own nature when he willed it. Having already changed into fire, he did not burn Jacob's broad sinew, but he seared it, and made him lame. But he who is not able to become something else when he wishes, being subject to his own nature, is mortal; but one who is able to become what he wishes when he wishes, as ruling over nature itself, returning to youth, is immortal. Hence much more the power of God, when it wishes, transforms the substance of the body into what it wishes, and puts it forth as consubstantial with the present change, but not of equal power. Because the one who puts forth is able also to turn himself into another substance again, but the one who has been put forth, being both the change from that one and a child, is not able to become something else without the will of the one who put him forth, unless that one wishes it. When Peter had said these things, Michaias, being himself also one of the accompanying companions: I myself also wished, he said, to learn from you, if the good one has come into being in the same way as the evil one has. And if they have come into being in the same way, they seem to me to be brothers. And Peter said: They have not come into being in the same way, if you remember what I said in the beginning, that the fourfold substance of the evil one's body, having been separated out by God, was put forth, and outside of it, according to the will of the one who put it forth, having been mixed for the mixture <...>, the choice that rejoices in evil things, so that one understands that the fourfold substance put forth from him is indeed a child of God, which also itself exists forever, but from the substance mixed externally by him, the consequential choice that rejoices in evil things came into being in addition. And thus it has been begotten neither by God nor by any other, nor has it been put forth by him, nor has it come forth automatically, nor did it always exist (as did the substance before the mixture), but it has come about externally by mixture, according to the will of God. And that it is necessary for this to be so, we have often said. But the good one, having been begotten from the most beautiful change of God and not having come about by external mixture, is in reality a son. However, since these things happen to be unwritten and are credited by conjecture, let it not be affirmed that the <truth> is altogether so. For if not, the mind, having by all means preconceived <the tru>th, ceases from seeking. And remember this for me, that such things must not be said <to al>l, but to the most tested after experience. Nor must you assert such things lightly to one another, nor ought you dare to speak as though making precise the discovery of secret things, but you should reflect on them only in silence; for in speaking, the one who spoke will perhaps sin, not speaking as it is, and he will suffer punishment for having dared (even if to himself) to utter things honored by silence. When Peter had said these things, a certain Lazarus, one of his followers, also said: Tell us the consistency, how it is possible to be reasonable that the evil one appointed by a just God to be the punisher of the impious, that this very one should later, with his angels, along with the sinners, be sent into the lower darkness? For I remember the master himself saying this also. And Peter said: I too confess, he said, that the evil one does nothing evil in this respect, inasmuch as he carries out the law given to him. And though having an evil choice, yet out of fear toward God he does nothing unjustly

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ἀνθρώπῳ ὄντι ἄγγελος ἐπάλαισεν, εἰς σάρκα τραπείς, ἵνα αὐτῷ συγχρω- τισθῆναι δυνηθῇ. καὶ ὁμῶς παλαίσας ἐπὶ τὴν ἰδίαν αὐτοῦ φύσιν βουλη- θεὶς ἐτράπη. ἤδη εἰς πῦρ μεταβαλόμενος τοῦ Ἰακὼβ τὸ πλατὺ νεῦρον οὐκ ἔκαυσε μέν, ἔφλεξε δέ, καὶ χωλὸν ἐποίησεν. ὁ δὲ ἕτερόν τι γενέσθαι ὅτε θέλει μὴ δυνάμενος, ὡς ὑποκείμενος τῇ αὐτοῦ φύσει θνητός ἐστι· δυνά- μενος δέ τις γενέσθαι ὅτε θέλει ὃ θέλει ὡς αὐτῆς τῆς φύσεως δεσποτεύων εἰς τὸ νεάζειν ὑποστρέφων ἀθάνατός ἐστιν. ὅθεν πολὺ μᾶλλον ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ δύναμις ὅτε θέλει τοῦ σώματος τὴν οὐσίαν εἰς ὃ θέλει μετατρέπει, καὶ ὁμοούσιον τῇ παρούσῃ τροπῇ προβάλλει, ἰσοδύναμον δὲ οὔ. ὅτι ὁ μὲν προ- βάλλων καὶ εἰς ἑτέραν πάλιν οὐσίαν ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ τραπέντος δύναται, ὁ δὲ προβληθεὶς τῆς ἐξ ἐκείνου τροπῆς τε καὶ τέκνον ὑπάρχων ἄνευ τοῦ προβα- λόντος βουλῆς ἄλλο τι γενέσθαι οὐ δύναται, εἰ μὴ ἐκεῖνος θέλει. Ταῦτα τοῦ Πέτρου εἰπόντος Μιχαίας, καὶ αὐτὸς εἷς ὢν τῶν ἑπομένων ἑταίρων· Ἐβουλόμην, ἔφη, καὶ αὐτὸς μαθεῖν παρὰ σοῦ, εἰ ὥσπερ ὁ πονηρὸς γέγονεν, οὕτω γεγένηται καὶ ὁ ἀγαθός. εἰ δὲ ὁμοίως γεγόνασιν, ἀδελφοὶ εἶναί μοι δοκεῖ. καὶ ὁ Πέτρος· Oὐχ ὁμοίως γεγόνασιν, εἴπερ μέμνησαι ὧν ἐν ἀρχῇ εἶπον, ὅτι τοῦ πονηροῦ ἡ τετραγενὴς τοῦ σώματος οὐσία πεφι- λοκρινημένη ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ προεβλήθη, ἔξω δὲ αὐτῆς κατὰ τὴν τοῦ προ- βαλόντος βουλὴν κραθείσης πρὸς τὴν κρᾶσιν <...>, ἡ κακοῖς χαίρουσα προαίρεσις ὡς νοεῖν ὅτι θεοῦ μὲν τέκνον ἡ τετραγενὴς ἐξ αὐτοῦ προβλη- θεῖσα οὐσία, ἡ καὶ αὐτὴ οὖσα ἀεί, τῆς δὲ ἔξω ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κραθείσης οὐσίας ἡ συμβεβηκυῖα κακοῖς χαίρουσα προαίρεσις ἐπεγένετο. καὶ οὕτως οὔτε ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται οὔτε ὑφ' ἑτέρου τινός, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ προ- βέβληται οὔτε αὐτομάτως προελήλυθεν οὔτε ἀεὶ ἦν (ὡς ἡ πρὸ τῆς συγκρά- σεως οὐσία), ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ βούλησιν ἔξω τῇ κράσει συμβέβηκε. καὶ ὅτι ἀνάγκη τοῦθ' οὕτως ἔχειν, πολλάκις εἰρήκαμεν. ὁ δὲ ἀγαθὸς ἐκ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ καλλίστης τροπῆς γεννηθεὶς καὶ οὐκ ἔξω κράσει συμβεβηκὼς τῷ ὄντι υἱός ἐστι. πλὴν ἐπεὶ ταῦτα ἄγραφα τυγχάνει καὶ στοχασμοῖς πε- πιστωμένα, μὴ πάντως ἡ <ἀλήθεια> οὕτως ἔχειν βεβαιούσθω. εἰ δὲ μήγε, ὁ νοῦς ὡς πάντως προειληφὼς <τὸ ἀληθ>ὲς τοῦ ζητεῖν παύεται. κἀκεῖνά μοι μνημονεύετε ὅτι τὰ τοιαῦτα <πᾶσι μὲ>ν οὐ δεῖ λέγειν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς μετὰ πεῖραν δοκιμωτάτοις. οὐδὲ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ·ᾳδίως ἰσχυρίζεσθαι δεῖ τὰ τοιαῦτα οὐδὲ τολμᾶν ὀφείλετε λέγειν ὡς ἀκριβοῦντες τὴν τῶν ἀπορρή- των εὕρεσιν, ἀλλὰ σιωπῶντας χρὴ ἐνθυμεῖσθαι μόνον· ἐν γὰρ τῷ λέγειν ἴσως οὐχ ὡς ἔχον ὁ φθεγξάμενος ἁμαρτήσεται καὶ δίκην ὑφέξει ὡς τολμή- σας (κἂν πρὸς ἑαυτόν) φθέγξασθαι τὰ σιγῇ τετιμημένα. Ταῦτα τοῦ Πέτρου εἰπόντος Λάζαρός τις τῶν ἀκολούθων καὶ αὐτὸς ἔφη· Τὴν συμφωνίαν ἡμῖν εἰπέ, πῶς δυνατὸν εὔλογον εἶναι τὸν ὑπὸ θεοῦ δικαίου καταστάντα πονηρὸν ὥστε τῶν ἀσεβησάντων εἶναι τιμωρόν, τοῦ- τον αὐτὸν ὕστερον μετὰ τῶν αὐτοῦ ἀγγέλων σὺν τοῖς ἁμαρτωλοῖς εἰς τὸ σκότος τὸ κατώτερον πέμπεσθαι; καὶ γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο μέμνημαι εἰρηκότος αὐτοῦ τοῦ διδασκάλου. καὶ ὁ Πέτρος· Κἀγώ, ἔφη, ὁμολογῶ ὅτι ὁ πονηρὸς πονηρὸν οὐδὲν ποιεῖ κατὰ τοῦτο, καθὸ τὸν δοθέντα αὐτῷ νόμον ἐκτελεῖ. καίτοι προαίρεσιν ἔχων κακήν, ὅμως φόβῳ τῷ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν οὐδὲν ἀδίκως