Chapter IX.—Elchasai Derived His System from Pythagoras; Practised Incantations.

This Elchasai puts forward as a decoy a polity (authorized in the) Law, alleging that believers ought to be circumcised and live according to the Law, (while at the same time) he forcibly rends certain fragments from the aforesaid heresies. And he asserts that Christ was born a man in the same way as common to all, and that Christ was not for the first time on earth when born of a virgin, but that both previously and that frequently again He had been born and would be born.  Christ would thus appear and exist among us from time to time, undergoing alterations of birth, and having his soul transferred from body to body. Now Elchasai adopted that tenet of Pythagoras to which I have already alluded. But the Elchasaites have reached such an altitude of pride, that even they affirm themselves to be endued with a power of foretelling futurity, using as a starting-point, obviously, the measures and numbers of the aforesaid Pythagorean art. These also devote themselves to the tenets of mathematicians, and astrologers, and magicians, as if they were true. And they resort to these, so as to confuse silly people, thus led to suppose that the heretics participate in a doctrine of power. And they teach certain incantations and formularies for those who have been bitten by dogs, and possessed of demons, and seized with other diseases; and we shall not be silent respecting even such practices of these heretics. Having then sufficiently explained their principles, and the causes of their presumptuous attempts, I shall pass on to give an account of their writings, through which my readers will become acquainted with both the trifling and godless efforts of these Elchasaites.

[14] Οὗτος [τὴν τοῦ] νόμου πολιτείαν προβάλλεται δελεάσματος δίκην, φάσκων δεῖν περιτέμνεσθαι καὶ κατὰ [τὸν] νόμον ζῆν τοὺς πεπιστευκότας. ἀποσπᾷ [δέ] τινα [καὶ ἐκ] τῶν προειρημένων αἱρέσεων: τὸν Χριστὸν γὰρ λέγει ἄνθρωπον [εἶναι καὶ] κοινῶς πᾶσι γεγονέναι: τοῦτον δὲ οὐ νῦν πρῶτον ἐκ παρθένου γεγεν[ν]ῆσθαι [θέλει], ἀλλὰ καὶ πρότερον, καὶ αὖθις πολλάκις γεννηθέντα καὶ γεννώμενον πεφηνέναι καὶ φαίνεσθαι, ἀλλάσσοντα [σώματα κατὰ] γενέσεις καὶ μετενσωματούμενον, ἐκείνῳ τῷ Πυθαγορείῳ δόγματι χρώμενος. Τοσοῦτον δὲ πεφυσίωνται, ὡς καὶ προγνωστικοὺς ἑαυτοὺς λέγειν, δηλον[ότι] μέτροις καὶ ἀριθμοῖς τῆς προειρημένης Πυθαγορείου τέχνης [ὡς] ἀφορμα[ῖ]ς χρωμένους. οὗτοι καὶ μαθηματικοῖς καὶ ἀστρολογικοῖς καὶ μαγικοῖς προσέχουσιν ὡς ἀληθέσι, κα(ὶ) τούτοις χρώμενοι ταράσσουσι τοὺς ἄφρονας, [ὡς] νομίζειν αὐτοὺς λόγου δυνατοῦ μετέχειν. ἐπαοιδὰς δὲ καὶ ἐπιλόγ(ου)ς τινὰς διδάσκουσι πρός τε κυνοδήκτους καὶ δαιμον(ι)ῶντας καὶ ἑτέραις νόσοις κατεχομένους: ὧν οὐδὲ ταῦτα σιωπήσομεν. ἱκανῶς οὖν τὰς ἀρχὰς αὐτῶν διηγησάμενος, τάς τε αἰτίας τῶν τολμημάτων, παρελεύσομαι ἐ(π)ιδιηγησόμενος τὰ ἔγγραφα [αὐτῶν], δι' ὧν εἴσονται οἱ ἐντυγχάνοντες τόν τε λῆρον κ(α)ὶ τὰ ἄθεα αὐτῶν ἐπιχειρήματα.