Miscellanies 5.14.90

Moreover, that prophetic saying, “And the earth was invisible and unformed,” gave them their starting points for a material substance. Yes, and Epicurus' introduction of chance arose from this, because he did not follow the saying: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” And it occurred to Aristotle to bring providence down only as far as the moon from this psalm: “Lord, your mercy is in heaven, and your truth reaches to the clouds.” For the disclosure of the prophetic mysteries had not yet been revealed before the coming of the Lord. Again, the punishments after death and the retribution by fire were stolen from the barbarian philosophy by all the poetic Muse, and by Greek philosophy as well. Plato, at any rate, in the last book of the Republic, says in these very words: “Then wild men, fiery to look at, standing by and understanding the sound, took some away separately; but Aridaeus and the others they bound hand and foot and head, threw them down and flayed them, and dragged them along the road outside, carding them on thorns.” For by the fiery men he means to indicate angels, who seize and punish the unjust: “who makes,” it says, “his angels spirits and his ministers flaming fire.”