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and have fallen into evils. He says therefore to them: It was not impossible for me, God, to reclaim you even when you were perishing, nor was my hand weak so as to be unable to save you even though you were unworthy; and my ear, which hears all things, was not so dull of hearing as to be unable to hearken to you when you cried out. But even if such things were from me, your sins happen to make a pile of evils and to raise a “middle wall” between God and you; and to save you, being such, is neither just nor expedient for you. And the Apostle says somewhere concerning the Savior: “who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh.” But the Savior is said to have “broken down the middle wall of the partition” through the remission of sins, while the present prophet teaches that the sins of each person, being interposed between God and men, cast the sinning soul far away from God, since it is among the impossible things for sin to be joined to God. Therefore he adds: and on account of your sins I have turned my face from you. Your lawless life does not permit you to enjoy divine providence, because it abhors sin as something foul-smelling and shameful and dishonorable. Therefore, he taught that the cause of the people’s falling away and of their being cast very far from God was nothing other than their sins; and he next enumerates the kind of these sins, saying: your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with sins, and your lips have spoken iniquity. And observe how in these things he does not censure them for idolatry or any other lawless act, but for the murder by their hands and the lawlessness by their mouth, through which he alluded to their uprising against the Savior and their plot against the just men. Concerning whom he also made clear through the preceding passages, saying: “See how the righteous one is taken away, and no one understands, and just men are taken away, and no one takes it to heart. For from the face of iniquity the righteous one has been taken away; his burial will be in peace, he has been taken away from the midst.” And if they did not become the Savior’s murderers with their own hands, yet by asking “his blood be upon them and upon their children” and using godless shouts, they showed by their deed that their hands were defiled with blood, and that their lips had spoken iniquity and their tongue had practiced injustice. Therefore the prophet says: no one speaks just things, nor is there true judgment. Then, since they deceive themselves and expect another Christ, inventing some human myths about him. For this reason he adds: they trust in vanities and speak empty things. Therefore the divine Apostle advises “not to give heed” to “Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.” But these same men, inventing quibbles for themselves and from their own reasonings composing certain blasphemous words against the Christ of God, conceive trouble and bring forth iniquity; for they do not know how to say: “because of your fear, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb and have been in travail and have brought forth a spirit of salvation.” But they conceive such things as have also been said by another: “behold, he was in travail with injustice, he conceived trouble and brought forth iniquity; he dug a pit and hollowed it out, and he will fall into the ditch which he has made.” And such would be also the impious and godless dogmas, as many as each one, quibbling, fashions from his own mind. And such men have also broken asps’ eggs, having conceived in themselves the seeds of the opposing powers; therefore it was said to the sons of their evil and wickedness: “serpents, brood of vipers.” And analogous to the divine seed, he called the seed of the opposing powers “eggs” because of the example of the reptilian kind; asps and serpents and such are of the egg-laying creatures. And since after such great evil they profess the things from the divine scriptures

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καὶ τοῖς κακοῖς περιπεπτώκασι. φησὶν οὖν πρὸς αὐτούς· Οὐκ ἦν ἀδύνατον ἐμοὶ τῷ θεῷ καὶ ἀπολλυμένους ὑμᾶς ἀνακτήσασθαι οὐδ' ἠσθένει ἡ ἐμὴ χεὶρ καὶ ἀναξίους ὄντας ὑμᾶς διασῶσαι· καὶ τὸ οὖς δὲ τὸ ἐμὸν τὸ πάντων ἀκουστικὸν οὐχ οὕτως ἦν βαρυήκοον ὡς μὴ δύνασθαι ὑμῶν εἰσακοῦσαι βοώντων. πλὴν εἰ καὶ τὰ παρ' ἐμοῦ τοιαῦτα ἀλλὰ τὰ ἁμαρτήματα ὑμῶν τυγχάνει ὡς κακῶν σωρὸν ποιεῖσθαι καὶ «μεσότοιχον» ἐγείρειν μεταξὺ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὑμῶν· τοιούτους δὲ ὄντας σῴζειν οὔτε δίκαιον οὐθ' ὑμῖν συμφέρον ἐστίν. ὁ δὲ Ἀπόστολος λέγει που περὶ τοῦ σωτῆρος· «ὁ ποιήσας τὰ ἀμφότερα ἓν καὶ τὸ μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ λύσας, τὴν ἔχθραν, ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ αὐτοῦ». ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν σωτὴρ διὰ τῆς ἀφέσεως τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν «τὸ μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ λύσας» λέγεται, ὁ δὲ παρὼν προφήτης διδάσκει, ὡς ἄρα αἱ ἑκάστου ἁμαρτίαι μέσαι παρεμβαλλόμεναι θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων μακρὰν ἀποσκορακίζουσι τὴν ἁμαρτάνουσαν ψυχὴν τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐπειδὴ τῶν ἀδυνάτων ἐστὶ θεῷ συνάπτεσθαι ἁμαρτίαν. διὸ ἐπιλέγει· καὶ διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας ὑμῶν ἀπέστρεψα τὸ πρόσωπόν μου ἀφ' ὑμῶν. ὁ παράνομος ὑμῶν βίος οὐκ ἐᾷ τῆς θείας ὑμᾶς ἀπολαῦσαι προνοίας διὰ τὸ βδελύττεσθαι ὥσπερ δυσώδη καὶ αἰσχρὸν καὶ ἄτιμον τὴν ἁμαρτίαν. Τὸ μὲν οὖν αἴτιον τῆς ἀποπτώσεως τοῦ λαοῦ καὶ τῆς πορρωτάτω τοῦ θεοῦ ἀποβολῆς αὐτοῦ οὐδὲν ἕτερον εἶναι ἐδίδαξεν ἢ τὰς ἁμαρτίας· τὸ δὲ τούτων εἶδος ἑξῆς καταριθμεῖται λέγων· αἱ χεῖρες ὑμῶν μεμολυμμέναι αἵματι καὶ οἱ δάκτυλοι ὑμῶν ἐν ἁμαρτίαις, τὰ δὲ χείλη ὑμῶν ἐλάλησεν ἀνομίαν. καὶ θέα ὡς οὐκ ἐπιμέμφεται αὐτοῖς ἐν τούτοις εἰδωλολατρίαν οὐδ' ἑτέραν τινὰ παράνομον πρᾶξιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν διὰ χειρῶν μιαιφονίαν καὶ τὴν διὰ στόματος παρανομίαν, δι' ὧν ᾐνίξατο τὴν κατὰ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἐπανάστασιν αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν κατὰ τῶν δικαίων ἀνδρῶν ἐπιβουλήν. περὶ ὧν καὶ διὰ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν ἐδήλου φάσκων· «Ἴδετε ὡς ὁ δίκαιος αἴρεται, καὶ οὐδεὶς κατανοεῖ, καὶ ἄνδρες δίκαιοι αἴρονται, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐκδέχεται τῇ καρδίᾳ. ἀπὸ γὰρ προσώπου ἀνομίας ἦρται ὁ δίκαιος· ἔσται ἐν εἰρήνῃ ἡ ταφὴ αὐτοῦ, ἦρται ἐκ τοῦ μέσου». εἰ δὲ καὶ μὴ αὐτόχειρες γεγόνασι τοῦ σωτῆρος, ἀλλὰ «τὸ αἷμα αὐτοῦ ἐπ' αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ τέκνα αὐτῶν» αἰτησάμενοι καὶ βοαῖς ἀθέοις χρησάμενοι ἔργῳ παρέστησαν τὰς χεῖρας ἔχειν μεμολυμμένας αἵματι, τά τε χείλη αὐτῶν λελαληκέναι ἀνομίαν καὶ τὴν γλῶσσαν αὐτῶν μεμελετηκέναι ἀδικίαν. ∆ιό φησιν ὁ προφήτης· οὐθεὶς λαλεῖ δίκαια, οὐδὲ ἔστι κρίσις ἀληθινή. εἶτ' ἐπειδήπερ ἐξαπατῶντες ἑαυτοὺς ἕτερον προσδοκῶσι Χριστὸν ἀνθρώπινά τινα περὶ αὐτοῦ μυθολογοῦντες. τούτου χάριν ἐπιλέγει· πεποίθασιν ἐπὶ ματαίοις καὶ λαλοῦσι κενά. διὸ παραινεῖ ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος «μὴ προσέχειν» «Ἰουδαϊκοῖς μύθοις καὶ ἐντολαῖς ἀνθρώπων ἀποστρεφομένων τὴν ἀλήθειαν». οἱ δ' αὐτοὶ οὗτοι ἐπινοοῦντες εὑρησιλογίας ἑαυτοῖς καὶ ἐξ οἰκείων λογισμῶν βλασφήμους τινὰς συντιθέντες λόγους κατὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ κύουσι πόνον καὶ τίκτουσιν ἀνομίαν· οὐ γὰρ ἐπίστανται λέγειν· «ἐκ τοῦ φόβου σου, κύριε, ἐν γαστρὶ ἐλάβομεν καὶ ὠδινήσαμεν καὶ ἐτέκομεν πνεῦμα σωτηρίας». τοιαῦτα δὲ κύουσιν, ὁποῖα καὶ δι' ἑτέρου λέλεκται· «ἰδοὺ ὠδίνησεν ἀδικίαν, συνέλαβε πόνον καὶ ἔτεκεν ἀνομίαν· λάκκον ὤρυξε καὶ ἀνέσκαψεν αὐτὸν καὶ ἐμπεσεῖται εἰς βόθρον, ὃν εἰργάσατο». εἴη δ' ἂν τοιαῦτα καὶ τὰ ἀσεβῆ καὶ ἄθεα δόγματα, ὅσα ἕκαστος ἐκ τῆς αὐτοῦ διανοίας εὑρησιλογῶν ἀναπλάττει. οἱ δὲ τοιοῦτοι καὶ ᾠὰ ἀσπίδων ἔρρηξαν τῶν ἀντικειμένων δυνάμεων τὰ σπέρματα ἐν ἑαυτοῖς κυήσαντες· διὸ τοῖς τῆς κακίας καὶ πονηρίας αὐτῶν υἱοῖς ἐλέγετο· «ὄφεις, γεννήματα ἐχιδνῶν». ἀναλόγως δὲ τῷ σπόρῳ τῷ θείῳ τὸν τῶν ἀντικειμένων δυνάμεων σπόρον ᾠὰ ὠνόμασε διὰ τὸ παράδειγμα τοῦ ἑρπυστικοῦ γένους· ἀσπίδες καὶ ὄφεις καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τῶν ᾠοτόκων ἐστίν. ἐπειδὴ δὲ μετὰ τὴν τοσαύτην κακίαν ἐπαγγέλλονται μὲν τὰς ἀπὸ τῶν θείων γραφῶν