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a man later becomes a dog, why is a dog not born from a man or from an ox? Why is a bird not born? But if it should happen at some time in the boundless age that something monstrous is born, it happens for the sake of a sign. And nature knows its own boundaries and does not change the nature of man, being formed differently contrary to nature, nor that of each beast, but in each quality the same quality comes to be. And if one body does not at all come from another body in its place, how much more will the soul of a man not pass into another body? And for what purpose, he says, does it change? But so that if ever in a man it did not comprehend the knowledge of the truth, having become a dog or a horse and having been tamed and having understood, it might return again into a human body, and thus knowing the knowledge it will be taken up into the disk of the moon. And it is amazing to see that when it was in a man, with whom are schools, grammarians and sophists and countless multitudes of arts and speech and hearing and eloquence, the soul existed in ignorance, but having become a pig it knew more; to show that his promise of knowledge is rather for pigs, because of his error and impiety. 56. But concerning the creation of Adam, the same person relating it weaves together different things in his error, that, he says, the one who said "Let us make man in our image and likeness," * and he adds, saying "Come, let us make," which is not written, but "Let us make man in our image and likeness." But the holy apostle refutes this one, saying, * and the Lord himself in the gospel, when the Pharisees said to him that it is not good for a man to be all alone and Moses said to give a certificate of divorce and to cast out the wife, and the Lord, bringing the refutation against the Pharisees, said "Moses wrote this because of the hardness of your hearts; but from the beginning it was not so, but the one who made them made them male and female" and said: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." And immediately he adds, saying "If therefore God has joined together, let man not separate," confessing God, that is, his own Father, to have made Adam and Eve, and that the sacred marriage was created by him. And in the same sequence the holy apostle, being a herald of the truth, says "This mystery is great. But I speak in reference to Christ and the church," so that from the likeness * of Adam and Eve, created by God; * that God created and Adam said: "This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, and for this reason a man shall leave" and the rest and that he built his rib into a woman for him. and no longer says † anything else to him, but "a great mystery." And if the creation is in man and woman, * but according to the higher sense is conveyed through allegory, how then does this man consider abominable and foreign to the truth of God and from a ruler * the things created by God, blaspheming and turning his thought away from the truth? Then he says, since from the beginning the soul, having been torn away from above, causes affliction to the power above, for this reason once for all he sends forth and plunders from the rulers his own remnant, which is the soul, through these luminaries. Great are our hopes and great is our expectation, that the good and living and powerful God is not able to save—I do not mean his own power which has been torn from him, but the things that have been begotten and formed by him—unless by some other means than by robbery, secretly plundering the power torn from him from the heavenly beings, as this charlatan says, he is not able to save us. 57. And why do I still wear myself out word by word on his absurdity

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ποτὲ ἄνθρωπος ὕστερον κύων γίνεται, διὰ τί μὴ ἀπὸ ἀνθρώπου κύων γεννᾶται ἢ ἀπὸ βοός; διὰ τί ὄρνις οὐ τίκτεται; ἀλλ' εἰ ἄρα συμβαίη χρόνῳ τινὶ ἐν τῷ ἀπλέτῳ αἰῶνι τεράστιόν τι γενέσθαι, σημείου ἕνεκα γίνεται. καὶ ἡ φύσις μὲν ἑαυτῆς τοὺς ὅρους ἐπίσταται καὶ οὐ μεταλλάσσει φύσιν ἀνθρώπου, ἑτέρως πλασ3.92 σομένη παρὰ τὴν φύσιν, οὐδὲ ἑκάστου κτήνους, ἀλλ' ἐν ἑκάστῃ ποιότητι ἡ αὐτὴ ποιότης γίνεται. καὶ εἰ ὅλως σῶμα ἕτερον ἀνθ' ἑτέρου ἀπὸ σώματος οὐ γίνεται, πόσῳ γε μᾶλλον ψυχὴ ἀνθρώπου εἰς ἕτερον σῶμα οὐ μεταβήσεται; καὶ ἵνα τί, φησί, μεταβάλλεται; ἀλλ' ἵνα εἴ ποτε ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ μὴ συνεῖσα τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας γνῶσιν, ἐν κυνὶ ἢ ἐν ἵππῳ γενομένη καὶ δαμασθεῖσα καὶ συνεῖσα ἀνακάμψῃ πάλιν εἰς ἀνθρώπου σῶμα, καὶ οὕτως γνοῦσα τὴν γνῶσιν ἀναληφθήσεται εἰς τὸν δίσκον τῆς σελήνης. καὶ ἔστι θαυμαστὸν ἰδεῖν ὅτι ἐν μὲν ἀνθρώπῳ γενομένη, παρ' ᾧ παιδευτήρια γραμματικοὶ σοφισταί τε καὶ τεχνῶν ἀμύθητα πλήθη καὶ λαλιὰ καὶ ἀκοὴ καὶ λογιότης, ἐν ἀγνωσίᾳ ὑπῆρχεν ἡ ψυχή, ἐν δὲ χοίρῳ γενομένη μᾶλλον ἐπέγνω· ἵνα δείξῃ μᾶλλον τὴν αὐτοῦ ἐπαγγελίαν τῆς γνώσεως χοίρων οὖσαν, διὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ πλάνην καὶ ἀσέβειαν. 56. Περὶ δὲ τῆς τοῦ Ἀδὰμ πλάσεως ὁ αὐτὸς διηγούμενος ἕτερα ἀνθ' ἑτέρων τῇ πλάνῃ συνυφαίνει, ὅτι, φησίν, ὁ εἰπών «ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν,» * καὶ προστίθησι λέγων τὸ «δεῦτε ποιήσωμεν», ὅπερ οὐ γέγραπται, ἀλλὰ «ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν». ἐλέγχει δὲ τοῦτον ὁ ἅγιος ἀπόστολος λέγων, * καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ κύριος ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ, ὅτε οἱ Φαρισαῖοι πρὸς αὐτὸν ἔφησαν ὅτι οὐ καλὸν εἶναι τὸν ἄνθρωπον μονώτατον καὶ Μωυσῆς εἶπε διδόναι βιβλίον ἀποστασίου καὶ ἐκβάλλειν τὴν γυναῖκα, καὶ ὁ κύριος πρὸς τοὺς Φαρισαίους τὸν ἔλεγχον ἐπιφέρων ἔλεγε «Μωυσῆς κατὰ τὴν σκληροκαρδίαν ὑμῶν ἔγραψεν· ἀπ' ἀρχῆς δὲ οὐ γέγονεν οὕτως, ἀλλ' ὁ ποιήσας ἄρσεν καὶ θῆλυ ἐποίησε» καὶ εἶπεν· «ἀντὶ τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν μητέρα αὐτοῦ, καὶ κολληθήσεται τῇ γυναικὶ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔσονται οἱ δύο εἰς σάρκα μίαν». καὶ εὐθὺς ἐπιφέρει λέγων «εἰ οὖν ὁ θεὸς συνέζευξεν, ἄνθρωπος μὴ χωριζέτω», ὁμολογῶν θεόν, τουτέστι τὸν ἴδιον αὐτοῦ πατέρα, τὸν Ἀδὰμ πεποιηκέναι καὶ τὴν Εὔαν, καὶ τὸν γάμον τὸν σεμνὸν ἐξ αὐτοῦ κεκτίσθαι. τῇ δὲ αὐτῇ ἀκολουθίᾳ καὶ ὁ ἅγιος ἀπόστολος, κῆρυξ ὢν τῆς ἀληθείας, λέγει «τὸ μυστήριον τοῦτο μέγα ἐστίν. ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω εἰς Χριστὸν καὶ τὴν ἐκκλη3.93 σίαν», ἵνα ἀπὸ τοῦ ὁμοιώματος * τοῦ ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ κεκτισμένου Ἀδάμ τε καὶ τῆς Εὔας· * ὅτι ὁ θεὸς ἔκτισε καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Ἀδὰμ· «τοῦτο ὀστοῦν ἐκ τῶν ὀστῶν μου, καὶ σὰρξ ἐκ τῶν σαρκῶν μου, καὶ ἀντὶ τούτου καταλείψει ἄνθρωπος» καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς καὶ ὅτι ᾠκοδόμησεν αὐτῷ τὴν πλευρὰν εἰς γυναῖκα. καὶ οὐκέτι ἕτερον † αὐτῷ φάσκει, ἀλλὰ «μυστήριον μέγα.» καὶ εἰ μὲν ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ καὶ γυναικὶ τὴν πλάσιν * κατὰ δὲ τὴν ἀναγωγὴν δι' ἀλληγορίας φέρεται, πῶς οὖν οὗτος βδελυκτὰ ἡγεῖται καὶ ἀλλότρια τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ ἀληθείας καὶ ὑπὸ ἄρχοντος * τὰ ὑπὸ θεοῦ κεκτισμένα, βλασφημῶν καὶ παραφέρων τὴν διάνοιαν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀληθείας; εἶτα φησίν, ἐπειδὴ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἡ ψυχὴ ἀποσπασθεῖσα ἄνωθεν θλίψιν ἐμποιεῖ τῇ ἄνω δυνάμει, διὰ τοῦτο καθάπαξ ἀποστέλλει καὶ συλᾷ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀρχόντων τὸ λείψανον τὸ ἑαυτοῦ, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἡ ψυχή, διὰ τουτωνὶ τῶν φωστήρων. μεγάλαι ἡμῶν αἱ ἐλπίδες καὶ μεγάλη ἡμῶν ἡ καραδοκία, ὅτι οὐκ ἰσχύει ὁ θεὸς ὁ ἀγαθὸς καὶ ζῶν καὶ δυνατὸς σῶσαι, οὐ λέγω τὴν ἑαυτοῦ δύναμιν τὴν ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐσπασμένην, ἀλλὰ τὰ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γεγενημένα καὶ πεπλασμένα ἐὰν μὴ δι' ἄλλου τινὸς τρόπου ἢ διὰ λῃστείας, κρυφῇ συλήσας τὴν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ ἀπεσπασμένην δύναμιν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐπουρανίων, ὡς ὁ ἀγύρτης οὗτος λέγει, οὐ δύναται ἡμᾶς σῶσαι. 57. Καὶ τί ἔτι κατατρίβομαι κατὰ λέξιν τῆς αὐτοῦ ἀτοπίας