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supplied by God? From where is the gathering of the clouds, which as a covering shelters the sky? From where the supply of the gnat and the mosquito by the command of God to his servant Moses? How did he change the wooden rod into an ensouled and creeping serpent? From where did the hand of Moses have the ability to be changed into snow? So also then God willed, O unbeliever, and tunics of skin by nature, without animals, without any human art and manifold labor, at the same time he willed and he made them for those around Adam, just as from the beginning he willed and heaven and all things came to be. And concerning these things we have often spoken both in other places and above. And for those who wish * to live, salvation is quick and disbelief easily refuted, but for those 2.509 not willing to accept the teaching of salvation, not even all eternity would suffice for discussion, "their hearing always being deaf like a deaf asp that stops its ears, so as not to accept the voice of the charmer and of the drug prepared by a wise man" according to the divine word; but to the sons of truth, I think, it is not a little profitable, even if the argument spoken here by me is not laid out at length. 67. But I will come to your argument about the resurrection from the first psalm. For when you deceive the ignorant, insinuating your opinion, O you of vain labor, and say that some of the simpler people believe that the ungodly will not obtain a resurrection, and later you show the same simpler people being asked again by you what sort of body the resurrection will be of, and how you will raise counter-objections through yourself in the person of the simpler people, as they are called by you * for it is necessary to say this clearly, to call "good" those called "simpler" by you; for the argument is not through you, nor is the grace in your argument, but in the truth that compels you to speak proofs of the excellence and goodness of the servants of God. For indeed the pagan saying also says "simple is the tale of truth." And we are accustomed to call the guileless "simple," for whom praise from the Savior is brought forward in many places, as in "be harmless as doves" and in "let the children come to me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven," that is, of the most simple. But the simpler people answered you, as you say, that the resurrection is of this body with which we are clothed. And being questioned in return by you and asked, "Of the whole or of a part?" they themselves answer saying that it is of the whole body. But when you, according to the method of your great nonsense, assert that this cannot be on account of the blood and flesh and hair that have flowed out from bodies and the other things flowing from us through spittle and nostrils and excrement, this is great trickery 2.510 of your medico-sophistical faithless opinion, as our better elder and blessed man Methodius has already refuted your myth-making through many arguments. But also from us the small, you shall hear a few things. For everything sought is always sought in its purest state, and the superfluous things cast off from the pure are not sought after. For the garment is whole from when it received its weaving from the loom, and it is itself that which is cut from the loom, with nothing added to it or taken away. And when it is given to a fuller, it will be demanded back from the fuller no less, but it is brought back from the fuller himself most perfect; as it has been made clear to all that it is itself in a state of perfection, and has become no smaller a body, except for the casting off of the filth and the impurity; and surely not, because it has cast off the filth, will the craftsman be required by us to return it with the filth, but the garment itself, whole and sound and most pure. And again another example; for by you the question was brought up concerning the things secreted through blood-lettings and illnesses and excrement and the secretion of spittle and of nostrils, but from these very things you have mentioned

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θεῷ πορισθεῖσα; πόθεν τῶν νεφελῶν ἡ σύστασις, ἣ ὑπὸ θῆξιν σκέπει τὸν οὐρανόν; πόθεν τοῦ κώνωπος καὶ τῆς σκνιφὸς διὰ προστάγματος θεοῦ τῷ θεράποντι αὐτοῦ Μωυσῇ ὁ πορισμός; πῶς τὴν ξυλίνην ῥάβδον εἰς ὄφιν μετέβαλεν ἐψυχωμένον καὶ ἕρποντα; πόθεν τῇ χειρὶ τοῦ Μωυσέως τὸ εἰς χιόνα μεταβάλλεσθαι; οὕτω καὶ τότε ἠθέλησεν ὁ θεός, ὦ ἄπιστε, καὶ δερματίνους φύσει χιτῶνας ἄνευ ζῴων ἄνευ τέχνης τινὸς ἀνθρωπίνης καὶ πολυμόρφου ἐργασίας, ἅμα τε θέλων ἐποίησε τοῖς περὶ τὸν Ἀδάμ, ὡς ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἅμα ἠθέλησε καὶ οὐρανὸς καὶ τὰ πάντα γεγένηται. καὶ περὶ τούτων πολλάκις ἔφημεν καὶ ἐν ἄλλοις τόποις καὶ ἀνωτέρω. καὶ τοῖς μὲν βουλομένοις * τὸ ζῆν σύντομος ἡ σωτηρία καὶ εὐθυέλεγκτος ἡ κακοπιστία, τοῖς 2.509 δὲ μὴ θέλουσι τὸ τῆς σωτηρίας καταδέξασθα. διδασκαλεῖον οὐδὲ ὁ πᾶς αἰὼν πρὸς διαλογὴν ἐξαρκέσειε, «κωφευούσης ἀεὶ τῆς ἀκοῆς δίκην ἀσπίδος κωφῆς καὶ τὰ ὦτα βυούσης, τοῦ μὴ καταδέξασθαι φωνὴν ἐπᾴδοντος φαρμάκου τε φαρμακευομένου παρὰ σοφοῦ» κατὰ τὸν θεῖον λόγον· τοῖς δὲ υἱοῖς τῆς ἀληθείας, οἶμαι, ὠφέλιμος οὐκ ὀλίγως, κἄν τε οὐ διὰ πλάτους ὁ λόγος εἰρημένος ἐνταῦθά μοι κεῖται. 67. Ἐλεύσομαι δὲ εἰς τὸν περὶ ἀναστάσεώς σου ἐκ τοῦ πρώτου ψαλμοῦ λόγον. ὅταν γὰρ ἐξαπατήσῃς τοὺς ἀγνοοῦντας, τὸ σὸν φρόνημα ὑποβαλλόμενος, ὦ ματαιοπόνε, καὶ εἴπῃς, ὅτι τινὲς τῶν ἁπλουστέρων νομίζουσι τοὺς ἀσεβεῖς μὴ τεύξεσθαι ἀναστάσεως, καὶ ὕστερον δείξῃς τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἁπλουστέρους πάλιν ἐρωτωμένους ὑπὸ σοῦ ὅτι ποίου σώματος ἔσται ἡ ἀνάστασις καὶ ὡς ἀντεπαπορήσεις διὰ σεαυτοῦ ἐκ προσώπου τῶν ἁπλουστέρων κατὰ σὲ λεγομένων * καὶ γὰρ τοῦτο ἀνάγκη σαφῶς λέγειν, ἀγαθοὺς ἀποκαλεῖν τοὺς ἁπλουστέρους παρὰ σοὶ λεγομένους· οὐ γὰρ διὰ σεαυτοῦ ὁ λόγος οὐδὲ τῷ λόγῳ σου ἡ χάρις, ἀλλὰ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τῇ ἀναγκαζούσῃ σε λέγειν τῶν δούλων τοῦ θεοῦ βελτιότητός τε καὶ ἀγαθότητος τεκμήρια. καὶ γὰρ καὶ ὁ ἐκτὸς λόγος λέγει «ἁπλοῦς ὁ μῦθος τῆς ἀληθείας». ἁπλοῦς δὲ εἰώθαμεν τοὺς ἀκάκους λέγειν, οἷς ἔπαινος παρὰ τῷ σωτῆρι ἐμφέρεται ἐν πολλοῖς τόποις, ὡς τῷ «γίνεσθε ἀκέραιοι ὡς περιστεραί» καὶ τῷ «ἄφετε τὰ παιδία ἐλθεῖν πρός με· τῶν γὰρ τοιούτων ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν», τουτέστι τῶν ἁπλουστάτων. ἀπεκρίθησαν δέ σοι οἱ ἁπλούστεροι, ὡς λέγεις, τούτου τοῦ σώματος οὗ περικείμεθα εἶναι τὴν ἀνάστασιν. ἀνταπορούμενοι δὲ ὑπὸ σοῦ καὶ ἐρωτώμενοι· ὅλου ἢ μέρους; αὐτοὶ ἀνταποκρίνονται λέγοντες ὅτι ὅλου τοῦ σώματος. σοῦ δὲ κατὰ τὴν μέθοδον τῆς σου πολλῆς φλυαρίας φάσκοντος, μηδὲν τοῦτο δύνασθαι διὰ τὰ ἐκ τῶν σωμάτων ἐκρεύσαντα αἵματά τε καὶ σάρκας καὶ τρίχας καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τὰ διὰ πτυέλων ἐξ ἡμῶν ῥέοντα καὶ μυκτήρων καὶ σκυβάλων, πολλή σου 2.510 τῆς ἰατροσοφιστικῆς κακοπίστου γνώμης μαγγανεία, ὡς καὶ ἤδη διὰ πολλῶν ἐξήλεγξέν σου τὴν μυθοποιίαν ὁ καλλίων ἡμῶν πρεσβύτης καὶ μακαριστὸς ἀνὴρ Μεθόδιος. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀφ' ἡμῶν τῶν σμικρῶν ὀλίγα ἀκούσῃ. πᾶν γὰρ ἀεὶ τὸ ζητούμενον καθαρώτατον ζητεῖται, τὰ δὲ περιττὰ ἐκ τοῦ καθαροῦ ἀποβαλλόμενα ἀκαταζήτητά ἐστιν. τὸ γὰρ ἱμάτιόν ἐστιν ὅλον, ἐξότε τῆς ὑφῆς ἔσχεν τὴν ἱστουργίαν, καὶ αὐτὸ μέν ἐστι τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἱστοῦ τεμνόμενον, οὔτε τινὸς αὐτῷ προστιθεμένου οὔτε ἀφαιρουμένου. κναφεῖ δὲ διδόμενον οὐχ ἡσσόνως παρὰ τοῦ κναφέως ἀπαιτηθήσεται, ἀλλὰ παρ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ κναφέως τελειότατόν ἐστι κομιζόμενον· ὡς δῆλον πᾶσι καθέστηκεν ὡς αὐτὸ μέν ἐστιν ἐν τελειότητι, οὐδὲν δὲ μεῖον σῶμα γεγένηται πλὴν τῆς τῶν ῥύπων ἀποβολῆς καὶ τῆς ἀκαθαρσίας· καὶ οὐ πάντως που ἐπειδὴ τὸν ῥύπον ἀπέβαλεν, τούτου ἕνεκα μετὰ τοῦ ῥύπου ἀπαιτηθήσεται παρ' ἡμῶν ὁ τεχνίτης, ἀλλὰ αὐτὸ τὸ ἱμάτιον σῷον καὶ ὑγιὲς καὶ καθαρώτατον. ἕτερον δὲ πάλιν ὑπόδειγμα· παρὰ σοὶ μὲν γὰρ περὶ τῶν ἐκκρινομένων διὰ φλεβοτομιῶν καὶ νοσημάτων καὶ σκυβάλων καὶ ἐκκρίσεως πτυέλων τε καὶ μυκτήρων τὸ ζήτημα παρηνέχθη, ἀπ' αὐτῶν δὲ ὧν ἔφης