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to those who receive them. 49. Then again the same one claims that after the rulers in the sphere had been crucified, he created the luminaries, which are the remnants of the soul. and he does not say the soul, but the remnants of the soul. O of an incoherent dogma and of false and disjointed words. For every remnant is part of the fullness, and the fullness is greater than the remnant. If, therefore, the remnants are the luminaries, let him show us something greater than the luminaries, so that we may see the soul. But if the fullness has been eaten and consumed, and the luminaries are a remnant, then they too, being beneath the crucified rulers, will be eaten, since the rulers possess the superiority. But if because they have been crucified they are no longer able to have possession of the soul and the luminaries, your nonsensical argument has fallen apart, O Manichaeus. Then again the same one, teaching that after he rebuked the Omophoros, Matter, he says, also created for herself all the plants, and when these were being plundered by the rulers, the great ruler called all the rulers and chiefs, and he took from them one power each and fashioned man according to the idea of that first man and bound the soul in him. This is the hypothesis of the mixture. But when the living Father saw, he says, the soul afflicted in the body, being compassionate and merciful, he sent his beloved son for the salvation of the soul. For he claims that he was sent for this reason and that of the Omophoros. And the son, having come, transformed 3.87 himself into the form of a man and appeared to men as a man, and men supposed that he had been born. Having come, therefore, and having worked the creation for the salvation of men, he constructed a machine having twelve buckets, which, being turned by the sphere, draws up the souls of the dying. and the great luminary, having taken these in its rays, purifies them and gives them over to the moon; and thus the disk of the moon, which is so called among us, is filled. 50. And do you see how great is the nonsensical babbling of this charlatan and the forgetfulness of drunkenness? For the things said by him he consigns to forgetfulness, and whatever he seems to say, he alters and refutes, overthrowing his own dogmas, at one time narrating in one way and at another time in another, and the later things overthrow the first, and what he overthrew at first he builds up again, so as to show that he does not stand on his own, but driven by an unclean spirit he narrates one thing after another, like those who are frenzied. For either he says the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ * many years after the luminaries came to be, the coming happened, and after the machine he calls that of the twelve buckets. For the stars are always in heaven from when they came to be; whether they want to call them elements or intervals of heaven and measures, nevertheless from the fourth day of the world's creation all things have been well ordered, not for the harm of those ruled by God. But the coming of Christ in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar * began the preaching, after the thirtieth year of his birth, which fell in the five thousand five hundred and ninth year of the world's creation and the thirtieth of his age, and the thirty-third until the cross. How then did these exist in heaven from the first, 3.88 both luminaries and stars? But if he says, before this he came and made these things, his babbling is incoherent; for before man was on the earth, the so-called elements according to him came to be, and the twelve vainly so-called buckets and the machine, † by which he wants to beguile with pleasing names those who have been deceived by him. 51. For to everyone who possesses understanding it is clear from the scripture itself and its sequence that before Adam the first-formed man was fashioned, all the stars and the luminaries came to be on the fourth day. But this man says that “he came,” he says,

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δεχομένοις. 49. Εἶτα πάλιν φάσκει ὁ αὐτὸς ὅτι μετὰ τὸ ἐσταυρωκέναι τοὺς ἄρχοντας ἐν τῇ σφαίρᾳ ἔκτισε τοὺς φωστῆρας, ἅ ἐστι τῆς ψυχῆς λείψανα. καὶ οὐ λέγει τὴν ψυχήν, ἀλλὰ τῆς ψυχῆς λείψανα. ὦ ἀσυστάτου δόγματος καὶ λόγων ψευδῶν καὶ ἀσυναρτήτων. πᾶν γὰρ τὸ λείψανον μέρος τυγχάνει τοῦ πληρώματος, τὸ δὲ πλήρωμα μεῖζον τυγχάνει τοῦ λειψάνου. εἰ τοίνυν τὰ λείψανά εἰσιν οἱ φωστῆρες, δειξάτω ἡμῖν τι μειζότερον τῶν φωστήρων, ἵνα ἴδωμεν τὴν ψυχήν. εἰ δὲ τὸ μὲν πλήρωμα βέβρωται καὶ ἀνάλωται, λείψανον δὲ οἱ φωστῆρες, ἄρα καὶ αὐτοὶ ὑποκάτω τῶν ἐσταυρωμένων ἀρχόντων ὄντες βρωθήσονται, τῶν ἀρχόντων τὴν ἐπανότητα κεκτημένων. εἰ δὲ διὰ τὸ ἐσταυρῶσθαι μηκέτι δύνανται ἐν καθέξει τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τῶν φωστήρων εἶναι, διέπεσεν ὁ σοῦ ληρώδης λόγος, ὦ Μανιχαῖε. Εἶτα πάλιν ὁ αὐτὸς διδάσκων ὅτι μετὰ τὸ ἐπιτιμῆσαι τῷ Ὠμοφόρῳ ἔκτισε, φησίν, ἑαυτῇ καὶ ἡ ὕλη πάντα τὰ φυτά, καὶ συλωμένων τῶν αὐτῶν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀρχόντων ἐκάλεσεν ὁ μέγας ἄρχων πάντας τοὺς ἄρχοντας καὶ πρωτίστους, καὶ ἔλαβεν ἀπ' αὐτῶν ἀνὰ μίαν δύναμιν καὶ κατεσκεύασεν ἄνθρωπον κατὰ τὴν ἰδέαν τοῦ πρώτου ἀνθρώπου ἐκείνου καὶ ἐδέσμευσε τὴν ψυχὴν ἐν αὐτῷ. αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ τῆς συγκράσεως ὑπόθεσις. ὅτε δὲ εἶδε, φησίν, ὁ πατὴρ ὁ ζῶν θλιβομένην τὴν ψυχὴν ἐν τῷ σώματι, εὔσπλαγχνος ὢν καὶ ἐλεήμων, ἔπεμψε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν ἠγαπημένον εἰς σωτηρίαν τῆς ψυχῆς. διὰ γὰρ ταύτην τὴν πρόφασιν καὶ τὴν τοῦ Ὠμοφόρου ἀπεστάλθαι αὐτὸν φάσκει. καὶ ἐλθὼν ὁ υἱὸς μετεσχημάτισεν 3.87 ἑαυτὸν εἰς ἀνθρώπου εἶδος καὶ ἐφαίνετο τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ὡς ἄνθρωπος, καὶ οἱ ἄνθρωποι ὑπέλαβον αὐτὸν γεγεννῆσθαι. ἐλθὼν οὖν καὶ ποιήσας τὴν δημιουργίαν πρὸς σωτηρίαν τῶν ἀνθρώπων μηχανὴν συνεστήσατο ἔχουσαν δώδεκα κάδους, ἥτις ὑπὸ τῆς σφαίρας στρεφομένη ἀνιμᾶται τῶν θνησκόντων τὰς ψυχάς. καὶ ταύτας ὁ μέγας φωστὴρ ταῖς ἀκτῖσι λαβὼν καθαρίζει καὶ μεταδίδωσι τῇ σελήνῃ· καὶ οὕτω πληροῦται τῆς σελήνης ὁ δίσκος ὁ παρ' ἡμῖν προσαγορευόμενος. 50. Καὶ ὁρᾷς πόση τούτου τοῦ γόητος ἡ ληρῴδης φλυαρία καὶ μέθης λήθη; τὰ γὰρ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ λεγόμενα εἰς λήθην μεταδίδωσι καὶ ὅσα δοκεῖ λέγειν μετασκευάζει καὶ ἀνασκευάζει, τὰ ἴδια καταλύων δόγματα, ἄλλοτε μὲν ἄλλως καὶ ἄλλως διηγούμενος, καὶ τὰ ὕστερα τὰ πρῶτα καταλύει καὶ ἃ ἐν πρώτοις κατέλυσεν αὖθις πάλιν οἰκοδομεῖ, ὡς ἵνα δείξῃ ὅτι ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ οὐ καθέστηκεν, ἀλλὰ ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἀκαθάρτου ἐλαυνόμενος ἄλλα ἀντ' ἄλλων διηγεῖται, καθάπερ οἱ φρενιτιῶντες. ἤτοι γὰρ τὴν παρουσίαν λέγει τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ * μετὰ πολλὰ ἔτη τοῦ γενέσθαι τοὺς φωστῆρας ἦλθεν ἡ παρουσία καὶ μετὰ τὴν παρ' αὐτῷ μηχανὴν καλουμένην τῶν δώδεκα κάδων. ἀεὶ γὰρ ἐν οὐρανῷ ἐξότου γέγονε τυγχάνει τὰ ἄστρα· ἤτοι στοιχεῖα αὐτὰ καλεῖν βούλονται ἤτοι διαστήματα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ μέτρα, ὅμως ἀπὸ τετάρτης ἡμέρας τῆς κοσμοποιίας τὰ πάντα καλῶς τέτακται, οὐκ εἰς βλάβην τῶν ὑπὸ θεοῦ κυριευομένων. ἡ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ παρουσία ἐν τῷ πεντεκαιδεκάτῳ ἔτει Τιβερίου Καίσαρος * ἤρξατο τοῦ κηρύγματος, μετὰ τριακοστὸν ἔτος τῆς αὐτοῦ γεννήσεως, ὅπερ κατήντα εἰς πεντακισχιλιοστὸν πεντακοσιοστὸν ἔνατον ἔτος τῆς κοσμοποιίας καὶ τριακοστὸν τῆς αὐτοῦ ἡλικίας, τριακοστὸν δὲ τρίτον ἕως τοῦ σταυροῦ. πῶς οὖν ἀπὸ πρώτης ταῦτα ἐν οὐρανῷ ὑπῆρχε, 3.88 φωστῆρές τε καὶ ἄστρα; εἰ δὲ λέγει, πρὸ τούτου ἐλθὼν ἐποίησε ταῦτα, ἀσύστατος αὐτοῦ ἡ φλυαρία· πρὶν γὰρ τοῦ εἶναι ἄνθρωπον ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ἐγένοντο τὰ κατ' αὐτὸν καλούμενα στοιχεῖα καὶ οἱ δώδεκα μάτην καλούμενοι κάδοι καὶ ἡ μηχανή, † ἣν βούλεται χαριστικοῖς ὀνόμασι φαντάζειν τοὺς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ πεπλανημένους. 51. Παντὶ γὰρ τῷ σύνεσιν κεκτημένῳ φανερόν ἐστιν ἀπ' αὐτῆς τῆς γραφῆς καὶ ἀκολουθίας ὅτι πρὶν τοῦ πλασθῆναι τὸν Ἀδὰμ τὸν πρωτόπλαστον ἄνθρωπον γεγόνασιν ἐν τῇ τετάρτῃ ἡμέρᾳ πάντες οἱ ἀστέρες καὶ οἱ φωστῆρες. οὗτος δὲ λέγει ὅτι «ἦλθε, φησί,