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to overlook those blinded by the deceit of the serpent, whom I created with my hands. But I became like men in all things, perceptible indeed to those with senses, and I was willingly united to them. You see how great a desire I have to be seen by men, so as to have even willed to become man and to be seen. How then did you say that I hide myself from you and am not seen? Truly I shine, but you do not see. Pay attention to the mystery: Adam saw the glory of my divinity and lived, but having transgressed he was blinded and immediately was made dead, not willing to repent, nor saying: I have sinned against you. Therefore for this reason he was justly condemned to return to the earth from which he was taken; and later this was certainly given as a sentence (390) and was reckoned by all as an inescapable punishment. But it is not a punishment, but rather a benefit. For I did not permit the corruptible to be together with the incorruptible. For to be bound eternally, and for evil to be immortal in both, was worse than to be loosed. for the soul, having fallen out of the life here, and again, if indeed it existed carrying the perishing body united to it, how was it not worse than death,

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παρορᾶν δέ τυφλωθέντας τῇ τοῦ ὄφεως ἀπάτῃ, οὕσπερ ἔκτισα χερσί μου. Ἀλλά ὅμοιος ἀνθρώποις ἐγενόμην κατά πάντα, αἰσθητός τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς γε, καί ἡνώθην τούτοις θέλων. Βλέπεις, πόσον πόθον ἔχω τοῦ ὁρᾶσθαι παρ᾿ ἀνθρώπων, ὡς καί ἄνθρωπος γενέσθαι θελῆσαι καί ὁραθῆναι. Πῶς οὖν εἶπας κρύπτεσθαί με ἀπό σοῦ καί μή ὁρᾶσθαι; Ὄντως λάμπω, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ βλέπεις. Πρόσεχε τῷ μυστηρίῳ˙ ἔβλεπε θεότητός μου δόξαν ὁ Ἀδάμ καί ἔζη, παραβάς δ᾿ ἀπετυφλώθη καί εὐθύς ἀπενεκρώθη μή θελήσας μεταγνῶναι, μηδ᾿ εἰπών˙ Ἡμάρτηκά σοι. ∆ιά τοῦτο οὖν ἐνδίκως ἀποστρέφειν κατεκρίθη εἰς τήν γῆν, ἐξ ἧς ἐλήφθη˙ ὕστερον δέ τοῦτο πάντως ὡς ἀπόφασις ἐδόθη (390) καί τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐλογίσθη ἄφυκτος ὡς τιμωρία. Ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἔστι τιμωρία, μᾶλλον δέ εὐεργεσία. Οὐ γάρ εἴασα συνεῖναι τό φθαρτόν σύν τῷ ἀφθάρτῳ. Χεῖρον ἦν γάρ τοῦ λυθῆναι τό δεδέσθαι αἰωνίως καί ἀθάνατον ὑπάρχειν τό κακόν ἐν ἀμφοτέροις. ἡ ψυχή γάρ ἐκπεσοῦσα τῆς ζωῆς γε τῆς ἐνταῦθα, πάλιν τε, εἴπερ τό σῶμα τό φθειρόμενον ὑπῆρχε φέρουσα συνηνωμένον, πῶς οὐκ ἦν θανάτου χεῖρον,