Homilies

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–2.4 · 2.5–2.38 · 2.39–3.25 · 3.26–3.62 · 3.63–4.25 · 5.1–5.30 · 6.1–6.26 · 7.1–7.12 · 8.1–8.24 · 9.1–9.23 · 10.1–11.8 · 11.9–12.3 · 12.4–12.31 · 12.32–13.21 · 14.1–15.11 · 16.1–16.21 · 17.1–17.20 · 18.1–18.23 · 19.1–19.14

1. 1.1Clement introduces himself as a Roman who from boyhood was haunted by thoughts of death and of the world's beginning and end.
2. 1.2Clement's anxious thoughts, though painful, later proved to be the cause of his finding the truth.
3. 1.3Clement studies with the philosophers but finds only debate, not certainty about the soul's immortality.
4. 1.4Clement weighs whether to fear punishment after death and resolves that it is safer to live piously, though he lacks certainty.
5. 1.5Clement plans to seek proof of immortality through necromancy in Egypt but is dissuaded by a philosopher.
6. 1.6A report reaches Rome under Tiberius of a Jew in Judea preaching God's kingdom and working miracles.
7. 1.7A preacher in Rome announces the Son of God in Judea and calls for repentance before judgment.
8. 1.8Clement leaves his affairs and sails for Judea, but winds carry him to Alexandria, where he hears of Jesus.
9. 1.9In Alexandria Clement hears Barnabas, a Hebrew disciple, tell plainly what the Son of God did and said.
10. 1.10Philosophers mock Barnabas with a question about the gnat and the elephant, but he keeps to his message and offers eyewitnesses instead of syllogisms.
11. 1.11Clement rebukes the laughing philosophers, arguing that God foresaw their unworthiness and now sends simple heralds of his will.
12. 1.12Clement continues God's imagined reply and rebukes the philosophers for barking down a messenger who meant them good.
13. 1.13After the uproar Clement takes Barnabas to his house, is briefly instructed, and learns that Barnabas must return to Judea for a festival.
14. 1.14Barnabas refuses to delay; Clement escorts him to the harbour and promises to follow soon.
15. 1.15Clement lands at Caesarea, learns that Peter is to debate Simon of Gitta, and is introduced to Peter by Barnabas.
16. 1.16Peter welcomes Clement, praises his hospitality to Barnabas, and invites him to travel with him as far as Rome.
17. 1.17Clement asks Peter his questions about the soul, judgment, righteousness, and the world, and Peter agrees to answer.
18. 1.18Peter compares the world to a smoke-filled house whose inhabitants cannot see God until someone opens the door from outside.
19. 1.19Peter teaches that only the true Prophet can give certainty, and that once tested he must be believed in everything.
20. 1.20Peter's teaching on the Prophet assures Clement, and Peter invites him to watch his coming debates with opponents.
21. 1.21Clement assures Peter that he will never waver from the doctrine of the true Prophet.
22. 1.22Peter invites Clement to the next day's debate with Simon and eats apart from him, praying that Clement will be baptized and share his table.
23. 2.1Clement lists the sixteen companions of Peter whom he found with him before dawn.
24. 2.2Peter explains that he let Clement sleep, since a soul taken up with the body's troubles cannot receive teaching well.
25. 2.3Peter teaches that the soul should be strengthened by instruction before trouble comes.
26. 2.4Peter proposes new teaching, but Clement asks him to keep expounding the doctrine of the Prophet.
27. 2.5Peter teaches that the highest goods can be gained only through knowledge that comes from the Prophet of the truth.
28. 2.6Peter defines the true Prophet as all-knowing and sinless, and says that apart from him people can know only the basic rule of not wronging others.
29. 2.7Peter argues that philosophers who sought truth by their own conjectures were deceived.
30. 2.8Peter says that people left to themselves take what pleases them for truth, as the Greek philosophers did with their consistent but false systems.
31. 2.9Peter says God has made the true Prophet easy for anyone, learned or not, to recognize.
32. 2.10Peter argues that fulfilled predictions prove the Prophet's foreknowledge, so he must be believed above all.
33. 2.11Peter teaches that once the Prophet is recognized, his teaching must be followed without doubt, and apparent difficulties are our failure to understand.
34. 2.12Peter states that the Prophet alone knows the truth, which is that the one Creator God will judge each person by his deeds.
35. 2.13Peter argues that God's justice requires the immortality of the soul and a judgment after death.
36. 2.14Against Simon, Peter argues that God must be righteous, since righteousness exists and is the standard for calling anything unrighteous.
37. 2.15Peter introduces the doctrine of pairs (syzygies): God made the world in opposites, but for mankind the worse comes first and the better second.
38. 2.16Peter illustrates the rule that the worse comes first with Cain and Abel, the raven and the dove, Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, and Aaron and Moses.
39. 2.17Peter applies the rule of pairs: John before Jesus, Simon before Peter among the Gentiles, a false gospel before the true, and Antichrist before Christ.
40. 2.18Peter says that Simon is believed only because the rule of pairs is not understood, and offers to have Clement learn about him from informants.
41. 2.19Peter tells of Justa, the Syrophoenician woman, whose daughter Jesus healed only after she adopted the way of life of Israel.
42. 2.20Justa, expelled by her husband for her faith, stays a widow, marries off her daughter, and adopts two boys who grew up with Simon.
43. 2.21Aquila and Nicetes, converted by Zacchaeus, join Peter and are asked to tell Clement all about Simon.
44. 2.22Aquila describes Simon's origins in Samaria, his magic, his claim to be the Standing One above the Creator, and his denial of the resurrection and of Jerusalem.
45. 2.23Aquila explains that Simon was the chief of John the Baptist's thirty disciples, a group that included a woman called Helen.
46. 2.24Aquila tells how Simon displaced Dositheus as head of John's sect by slander and a magical show.
47. 2.25Aquila says that Simon presents his companion Helen as the heavenly Wisdom for whom the Trojan War was fought, and deceives many by magic.
48. 2.26Aquila reports that Simon claimed to have used the soul of a murdered boy for his magic and to have made a man out of air.
49. 2.27Nicetes adds that he and Aquila took no part in Simon's impiety and refused his promises of divine honours and wealth.
50. 2.28Nicetes recalls how he and Aquila urged Simon to stop claiming divinity and to fear God's judgment.
51. 2.29Simon mocks belief in the soul's immortality, and Nicetes retorts that Simon's own necromancy proves it.
52. 2.30Simon claims a demon, not the soul, serves him; Nicetes points out that this contradicts Simon's own earlier explanations.
53. 2.31Aquila argues from Simon's own practice that souls are immortal and that a judgment is coming; Simon threatens them with death.
54. 2.32Aquila and Nicetes list Simon's magical wonders.
55. 2.33Peter applies the rule of pairs to wonders: Simon's useless marvels come first, from evil, as the plagues of Egypt came before Moses' healings.
56. 2.34Peter contrasts Simon's useless marvels with the healings done by the Lord and by himself.
57. 2.35Zacchaeus reports that Simon has postponed the debate because of his eleven-day sabbath.
58. 2.36Peter comforts Clement over the delay, saying that God's providence turns events to good.
59. 2.37Peter reveals that he has informants in Simon's circle and will prepare Clement for Simon's arguments.
60. 2.38Peter teaches that the written Scriptures acquired false passages against God after Moses had handed the Law orally to the seventy elders, as a test of believers' love for God.
61. 2.39Peter explains that he will not publicly call such passages false, but will answer Simon by questions and give the key privately to the well disposed.
62. 2.40Peter gives the rule that everything said or written against God is false, and says the delay allows Clement to learn it.
63. 2.41Clement asks which passages of Scripture are false and how, and Peter agrees to show him.
64. 2.42Peter argues that no one can become holy who believes in many gods or in a God guilty of improprieties.
65. 2.43Peter lists statements about God in Scripture, such as that he lies, repents, hardens hearts, or creates evil, and rejects them as unworthy of God.
66. 2.44Peter continues his list of unworthy statements about God, such as that he desires a mountain, dwells in a tent, craves sacrifices, and loves war.
67. 2.45Peter gives Clement the true doctrine of God as the one good, just, and merciful Creator of all.
68. 2.46Peter says that the good God is also the righteous judge who will judge every offender at the end.
69. 2.47Clement asks how to answer someone who insists that everything in the Scriptures is true.
70. 2.48Peter offers to refute one scriptural statement against God, and Clement chooses the claim that God is ignorant.
71. 2.49Peter begins his argument by getting Clement to agree that the author of the books was a man.
72. 2.50Peter argues that if the prophet had foreknowledge from God, God cannot be ignorant, so passages saying he is ignorant are false.
73. 2.51Peter cites Jesus' sayings “Be approved money-changers” and “You err, not knowing the Scriptures” to show that Scripture contains both true and false passages.
74. 2.52Peter denies the scriptural accounts of the sins of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Moses.
75. 2.53Peter ends the day's teaching, promising further explanations, and the company eats and goes to sleep.
76. 3.1On the third morning Clement and his companions find Peter at prayer before the debate with Simon.
77. 3.2Peter reports that Simon plans to prove from Scripture that the Creator is not the supreme God but one of two lesser gods.
78. 3.3Peter grieves that the evil one uses Simon, armed with false passages of Scripture, to lead Gentile converts away from belief in one God.
79. 3.4Simon cannot harm Jews who know the secret of the falsified books, but he will mislead Gentiles, and only the few who refuse to hear evil of God will be saved.
80. 3.5Peter explains that the false passages were permitted at the evil one’s demand, since the evil one, loving God, seeks the destruction of the impious while the good one seeks their healing.
81. 3.6The one God saves the repentant after due punishment, while the unrepentant are punished in fire for a set time and then cease to exist.
82. 3.7Impiety is to die confessing another God; man bears the form of the true God, and creation serves him so that he may love God and be saved.
83. 3.8Because love of the one God saves, the evil one sows belief in many gods so that people die guilty of spiritual adultery.
84. 3.9Anyone can find testimonies in the Scriptures for whatever doctrine he has already formed, so they give no ground for speaking against God.
85. 3.10Both Simon and Peter can cite Scripture, which says all things so that only the right-minded, who love their Creator, find the truth.
86. 3.11Truth comes only from the true Prophet, whose foreknowledge, unlike that of physicians and diviners, needs no external means.
87. 3.12The true Prophet’s innate foreknowledge reaches to the coming age and speaks plainly, unlike divination.
88. 3.13The true Prophet always knows all things; intermittent inspiration belongs to frenzied pagan seers.
89. 3.14If a prophet could excuse his errors by claiming the Spirit was absent, a false prophet could never be exposed.
90. 3.15Jesus prophesied plainly, as in his prediction of the destruction of the Temple, now fulfilled before the hearers’ eyes.
91. 3.16Error has one leader and truth another; people go astray for not understanding the doctrine of the pairs (syzygies).
92. 3.17Adam, formed by God’s hands, had the Spirit of foreknowledge; it is blasphemy to deny it to him and give it to one born of human seed.
93. 3.18Adam was not ignorant; the true Prophet points to the seat of Moses, whose holders keep the key of knowledge but do not let others enter.
94. 3.19The true Prophet revealed secret teaching, extended mercy to the Gentiles, loved his enemies, and will reign as father-king of the coming age.
95. 3.20Adam had the Spirit of Christ; the true Prophet has passed through the ages in changing forms and names until his anointing.
96. 3.21Adam, who named the animals as a true prophet, needed no tree to know good and evil; only the undiscerning believe the serpent outwitted God.
97. 3.22Eve, created as Adam’s lesser partner, is the first prophetess and rules the present, female world; the male prophet rules the coming age.
98. 3.23Of the two kinds of prophecy, the female comes first and passes off the male prophet’s words as her own, promising earthly wealth.
99. 3.24Female prophecy teaches many gods, pollutes with sacrifices, breeds wars, and keeps its followers always seeking and never finding.
100. 3.25Eve named Cain ambiguously, ‘possession’ and ‘jealousy’; he and his line were murderers, liars, adulterers, and makers of music and weapons.
101. 3.26Adam named his son Abel, ‘mourning’; the male prophecy teaches one God, rejects sacrifice, and proclaims purity, peace, judgment, and the kingdom.
102. 3.27The male principle is truth and the female error; the female leads people into spiritual adultery, away from the true Prophet, their bridegroom.
103. 3.28Hearing any teacher but the true Prophet is spiritual adultery, for which the Spirit departs and the soul is judged after death.
104. 3.29Zacchaeus announces that the crowd and Simon are waiting; Peter dismisses the unbaptized Clement, prays with the baptized, and goes out.
105. 3.30Peter opens with the greeting of peace commanded by Jesus, warning that apostles shake off the dust against those who refuse it.
106. 3.31Those who reject the apostles fare worse than Sodom; to receive peace one must refuse to do wrong and bear wrong, trusting God’s justice.
107. 3.32Peter urges the hearers to live as pleases God, the creator who alone can give lasting good.
108. 3.33God alone made the four elements, the angels, the stars, earth, sea, Hades, and air.
109. 3.34Peter marvels at the variety of birds, plants, animals, and landscapes made by God.
110. 3.35No human knows even the limits of the created things within our reach, from the stars to the rivers and the weather.
111. 3.36All creation exists for man, who has been given wisdom to rule it, from farming and seafaring to knowing God and driving out demons.
112. 3.37Man may become incorruptible by knowing, loving, and praying to the one God, who alone bears the name God.
113. 3.38Simon challenges Peter, claiming the Jewish Scriptures speak of many gods and show the creator to be ignorant, needy, and not good.
114. 3.39Simon cites Genesis to show that the creator is ignorant, envious, repentant, needy, and evil.
115. 3.40Peter argues that if God wrote the charges against himself he is not wicked, and if another power wrote them, that power must be examined.
116. 3.41Simon and Peter dispute the order of inquiry; Peter says that even the charges, if true, do not prove God depraved.
117. 3.42Peter’s rule: scriptural sayings agreeing with creation are true, others false; Adam was not blind but named the animals and his sons prophetically.
118. 3.43Sayings that make God ignorant are false, for God foretold to Abraham the bondage in Egypt and the return.
119. 3.44Since God gave Moses foreknowledge of Israel’s dispersion, God himself foreknows, and the sayings about his regret are false.
120. 3.45God never desired sacrifices, as the graves of craving show, nor does he dwell in darkness, as the pure heavens prove.
121. 3.46Sayings slandering God are cancelled by contrary sayings and by creation, since no prophet wrote them.
122. 3.47Peter argues that Moses handed the Law down orally to seventy elders, and that it was written later by others, as the account of his death shows.
123. 3.48Asked how to sort true from false in the Law, Peter says God preserved one passage as the key.
124. 3.49The key passage is Jacob’s prophecy of the ruler from Judah; Jesus, who fulfilled it, teaches which Scriptures are true.
125. 3.50Jesus’ sayings to the Sadducees and about approved money-changers show that Scripture contains true and false words.
126. 3.51Jesus’ sayings on not destroying the Law show that what he set aside was never part of the true Law.
127. 3.52What has passed away, such as sacrifices, was not God’s command; Jesus alone is the gate to saving truth.
128. 3.53The heavenly voice, Jesus’ word about the prophets, and Moses’ promise of a prophet like himself all point to Jesus as the one to be heard.
129. 3.54Truth is found only in Jesus’ teaching; he answered the Sadducees that Moses’ permission came from hardness of heart, not from the beginning.
130. 3.55Jesus’ sayings correct the scriptural claims that God swears, tempts, lacks foreknowledge, or does not see all.
131. 3.56Jesus’ sayings show that God is good, is not confined to the Temple, and desires mercy rather than sacrifice.
132. 3.57Jesus’ sayings answer the claims that God is evil or that there are many gods.
133. 3.58After three days of debate Simon flees by night to Tyre, where he works wonders and slanders Peter.
134. 3.59Peter explains that by the law of pairs Simon has been sent ahead of him with slanders, and resolves to follow him quickly.
135. 3.60Peter calls for prayer to choose a successor who will sit on the seat of Christ, citing the parable of the faithful and unfaithful servant.
136. 3.61Whoever can teach but refuses will be judged like the slothful servant; the faithful must obey one leader to keep peace.
137. 3.62Many kings bring war and one king brings peace; so the church must follow one guide who knows the way to the holy city.
138. 3.63Peter chooses Zacchaeus as bishop of Caesarea; Zacchaeus begs to be spared the title of ruler.
139. 3.64Peter urges Zacchaeus to accept the office, which is service like a father, physician, and shepherd, not rule like the Gentiles’ rulers.
140. 3.65The greater the labour of leading the church, the greater the reward; Zacchaeus, a companion of the Lord, cannot name anyone better.
141. 3.66The bishop holds the place of Christ; to disobey him is to disobey Christ and God.
142. 3.67The church’s order: the bishop leads, presbyters carry out his orders and settle disputes, deacons care for the brothers and report to the bishop.
143. 3.68The presbyters and all believers should promote marriage, even for older people, because adultery, the sin most hated by God, spreads like rabies through the church.
144. 3.69Love shows itself in works of mercy; believers must meet often, for whoever forsakes the assembly scatters the church and becomes prey for the evil one.
145. 3.70Believers must honour the bishop, whose seat is Christ’s throne, as they were told to honour the seat of Moses.
146. 3.71The church must support Zacchaeus without his asking, since the worker deserves his wages, and must honour and provide for its clergy, widows, and orphans.
147. 3.72Peter ordains Zacchaeus with a prayer asking God to give him authority to bind and loose and to guard the church as Christ’s bride.
148. 3.73Peter prepares candidates for baptism by fasting and daily laying on of hands, and sends Clement, Aquila, and Nicetes ahead to Tyre.
149. 4.1Clement, Nicetes, and Aquila lodge with Bernice in Tyre, but Clement puts their mission before rest.
150. 4.2Clement reports that Simon, beaten at Caesarea, is slandering Peter in Tyre as a magician and deceiver.
151. 4.3Clement asks Bernice whether the reports about Simon are true, so that Peter can refute him in person.
152. 4.4Bernice describes Simon’s magic: phantoms in the marketplace, moving statues, and diseases and demons inflicted on his critics after a sacrificial feast.
153. 4.5Bernice advises them to wait for Peter, the only one able to oppose Simon’s power.
154. 4.6Simon sails for Sidon, leaving behind Appion the grammarian, Annubion the astrologer, and Athenodorus the Epicurean; Clement writes to Peter.
155. 4.7Appion meets Clement with a crowd and challenges him for abandoning Greek ancestral customs for Jewish ones.
156. 4.8Clement argues that ancestral customs must be kept only if they are godly, and that his father erred in believing the Greek myths about the gods.
157. 4.9Clement asks to speak in a quiet place, since many philosophers seek glory or gain rather than truth.
158. 4.10The company withdraws to a rich man’s shady garden, where Clement begins his speech.
159. 4.11Truth is found by sincere seeking, while custom is held without judgment and is hard to cast off.
160. 4.12Greek teaching of immoral gods and of astrological fate removes shame and repentance.
161. 4.13Denial of providence leads to fearless wrongdoing, whereas the Jewish teaching of one good and just Creator is most pious.
162. 4.14Belief in the all-seeing God as judge encourages self-control even if it were a myth, and if true it brings eternal reward.
163. 4.15Clement returns to the Greek belief in many passionate gods, whose loves Greek education teaches as examples.
164. 4.16Clement lists the crimes of Cronus and Zeus in the myths: castration, devouring children, pederasty, adultery, and incest.
165. 4.17Educated grammarians and sophists use the myths as an excuse for their own incontinence.
166. 4.18Myths learned in childhood take root like evil seed and, as custom becomes second nature, are hard to remove.
167. 4.19Greek myths, theatres, and books should be avoided, for they spread their corruption like rabies.
168. 4.20Clement rejects the philosophers’ view that adultery and similar acts are sins only by convention, since they cause strife and murder.
169. 4.21Even undetected adultery breeds evils: desertion, plots, theft, abortion, and children who inherit from a man who is not their father.
170. 4.22Because adultery ruins households and cities, Clement turned to the God and Law of the Jews, trusting in God’s just judgment.
171. 4.23Clement argues that the gods of the myths would deserve punishment, and that only fear of the all-seeing God restrains secret sin.
172. 4.24Appion promises to show the next day that the myths are allegories of nature, and Clement prepares a reply.
173. 4.25Clement answers in advance that veiling good deeds in evil myths, or evil deeds at all, would itself be wicked; the hearers ask him to return.
174. 5.1Clement arrives at the meeting place, learns that Appion is ill, and is asked to speak before visiting him.
175. 5.2Clement recalls how, when he lay ill in Rome, Appion, a known enemy of the Jews and friend of Simon, came to visit him.
176. 5.3Clement pretends to be lovesick, and Appion tells how an Egyptian magician's spell once won him the woman he loved.
177. 5.4Appion promises success within seven days; Clement professes doubt whether demons always obey magicians.
178. 5.5Appion explains magic as a chain of command: demons obey angels, and angels adjured by magicians obey for fear of the higher power.
179. 5.6Clement argues that if the punishments of Hades are real, forcing a woman by magic into adultery must be feared, though persuasion he would accept.
180. 5.7Clement insists that seduction by persuasion is less culpable than compulsion by magic, which he refuses.
181. 5.8Appion argues that only the deed of adultery is judged, not the means; Clement prefers persuasion but says the woman is a philosopher.
182. 5.9Appion writes a praise of adultery to be sent to the woman; Clement, who kept it, reads it to his hearers as a sample of Greek education.
183. 5.10Appion's letter argues that adultery is good because it obeys Eros, the oldest of the gods, and resisting desire is impiety.
184. 5.11The letter claims that laws against adultery are mocked by Zeus himself, who lay with countless women, and urges imitation of the gods.
185. 5.12The letter begins its catalogue of Zeus's unions with his marriage to his sister Hera.
186. 5.13The letter lists the women Zeus seduced and the disguises he took.
187. 5.14The letter continues with Zeus's unions, some without disguise, which husbands welcomed for the fine children they produced.
188. 5.15The letter lists the male lovers attributed to the gods.
189. 5.16The letter urges the woman to imitate the gods rather than jealous mortals.
190. 5.17The letter claims the gods rewarded their lovers by making them or their families into constellations.
191. 5.18The letter appeals to philosophers, from Socrates to Chrysippus, as practitioners or defenders of free sexual unions.
192. 5.19The letter ends by holding up Zeus and Socrates as models and urging the woman to give herself to every lover.
193. 5.20Clement composes a reply to Appion's letter in the name of the supposed beloved.
194. 5.21The reply argues that Eros cannot be a god: either he suffers passion willingly or is driven by another, leading to an endless regress; love is simply a human appetite.
195. 5.22The reply exposes the stories of the gods as excuses for vice and points out their contradictions.
196. 5.23The reply argues that the gods were once wicked human rulers and magicians, whose tombs are still shown.
197. 5.24The reply mocks imitation of the gods' cannibal feasts and explains desire as God's provision for lawful marriage and children who honour their parents.
198. 5.25The reply urges parents to train children in self-control and to marry them early, teaching them not to look at another woman.
199. 5.26The reply explains how desire feeds on memory and is quenched by fear, and the woman declares that a Jew has taught her to live as befits God.
200. 5.27Appion blames a Jew for converting the woman to chastity, since Jews believe God sees everything.
201. 5.28Clement confesses the ruse to Appion and says he has inclined only to the Jewish belief in one God, learned from a linen merchant in Rome.
202. 5.29Clement tells how Appion left Rome in anger and proposes to question him about the gods whose immoral lives are publicly sung.
203. 5.30Clement and his companions visit Appion, who promises to speak about the gods the next day.
204. 6.1At the next meeting Appion says that in his letter he had concealed the true meaning of the myths and offers to explain it.
205. 6.2Appion denies the literal truth of the myths of Kronos, Zeus, and the judgment of Paris, and promises an allegorical explanation.
206. 6.3Appion begins his allegory: in the beginning was chaos, which Homer implies, Hesiod names, and Orpheus calls an egg.
207. 6.4Appion describes how the living, disordered matter whirled together and produced a spherical egg-like creation.
208. 6.5Appion interprets Kronos as time and Rhea as flowing matter, and describes the birth of the male-female Phanes from the cosmic egg.
209. 6.6Appion explains how the egg broke, Phanes appeared, and the heaviest part of the remaining matter, called Pluto, sank to the bottom.
210. 6.7Appion interprets the swallowing of Pluto and Poseidon as the sinking of earth and water, and Zeus as the fiery upper substance that draws up Metis, the fine spirit.
211. 6.8Appion explains Athena (Pallas) as wisdom born of the aether, and Hera as the air, sister and wife of Zeus.
212. 6.9Appion continues the physical allegory: Hera the mild air, Athena and Artemis virgin as barren extremes, Dionysus intoxicating vapour, Osiris underground water.
213. 6.10Appion explains Apollo as the sun and Zeus's many transformations and wives as the changes of the seasons and years.
214. 6.11Clement assures Appion that he knows these allegories and offers to summarize and complete them.
215. 6.12Clement summarizes Appion's allegory of the cosmic egg and the births of Pluto, Poseidon, and Zeus.
216. 6.13Clement continues: Kronos's bonds and castration mean the ordering and separation of the elements, and Aphrodite is the fertile moisture.
217. 6.14Clement gives the allegory of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis: the banquet is the world, Peleus clay, and Achilles the first man formed from earth and water.
218. 6.15Clement explains the judgment of Paris as a moral allegory in which irrational impulse chooses pleasure and wealth stirs up strife.
219. 6.16Clement explains Heracles and his labours as the philosophical mind that tames human vices.
220. 6.17Clement objects that whether the myths are true or allegories, those who told them encouraged sin and insulted their own gods.
221. 6.18Clement argues that the myth-makers acted like demons by clothing supposed truths in shameful stories, and suggests that wicked men invented the outrages.
222. 6.19Clement argues that the poets are inconsistent, and that the order of the world proves it was made by wisdom, not chance.
223. 6.20Clement argues that allegory abolishes the gods, and that they were more probably wicked human magicians whose tombs are known.
224. 6.21Clement lists the places where the tombs of Kronos, Zeus, and other gods are shown as proof that they were men.
225. 6.22Clement explains that time turned dead men into gods, as with the heroes still worshipped in various places.
226. 6.23Clement mocks Egyptian animal worship and the public pictures of Zeus with Leda, and says that, though he does not know who God is, he knows what God is not.
227. 6.24Clement argues that neither the elements nor any part of the world can be God, since their ordered combination requires a craftsman mind.
228. 6.25Clement concludes that there must be an unbegotten craftsman, not love or any changeable force.
229. 6.26Peter arrives in Tyre, Appion withdraws, and Clement reports Simon's deeds and the debate with Appion.
230. 7.1Crowds in Tyre meet Peter asking for healing, and he stands on a stone to address them.
231. 7.2Peter explains that God permitted Simon, the left-hand power, to inflict diseases so that the people would seek healing and salvation.
232. 7.3Peter teaches that by eating sacrifices to demons the people fell under the evil ruler's power, and that by turning to God through the good ruler they can be healed.
233. 7.4Peter calls the people to repentance: to pray, abstain from sacrificial food, carrion, and blood, to purify themselves, and to treat their neighbour as they wish to be treated.
234. 7.5The people of Tyre are baptized and repent; Peter founds a church there with a bishop and leaves for Sidon, while Simon flees to Berytus.
235. 7.6In Sidon Peter disclaims any power of his own to heal and offers to show the way of salvation taught by the Prophet of truth.
236. 7.7Peter sets out the two ways, broad and narrow, and teaches that God judges intentions and will extinguish those who neglect his appointed religion.
237. 7.8Peter lists the religion God requires: worship of God alone, faith in the Prophet, baptism, food and purity laws, and good works; he founds a church in Sidon.
238. 7.9In Berytus Simon blames an earthquake on Peter, who boldly replies that, God willing, he could overturn the city if they do not obey.
239. 7.10At Peter's word the people of Berytus drive Simon and his companions out of the city and bring their sick to Peter.
240. 7.11Peter denies wishing to harm Simon, calls him the servant of wickedness who brings disease, and presents himself as the apostle of God's right-hand Prophet who comes second with healing.
241. 7.12Peter heals the people of Berytus, founds a church there, visits Byblus, and follows Simon to Tripolis.
242. 8.1Peter enters Tripolis with a large following and is taken to the house of Maroones.
243. 8.2Peter promises to preach in two days, and after his companions are lodged he bathes, eats, and sleeps.
244. 8.3Early in the morning Peter and his fifteen companions learn that Simon has fled to Syria and that crowds are waiting at the door to hear Peter.
245. 8.4Peter sees the crowds as fulfilling Jesus' words about many coming from east and west, but teaches that reward depends on good deeds after the call.
246. 8.5Peter teaches that faith in Moses or Jesus is God's gift, but salvation and reward depend on doing what they taught, not on calling them lords.
247. 8.6Peter teaches that Moses and Jesus give one teaching, so that God accepts believers in either, provided they do what God says.
248. 8.7Peter teaches that neither Jews ignorant of Jesus nor Gentiles ignorant of Moses are condemned if they do what their teacher commanded, and that works, not words, profit.
249. 8.8The crowds gather; Peter moves to a garden, quiets the sick, and begins to speak.
250. 8.9Peter announces that he will first show why God should not be blamed for the demons and diseases that afflict people.
251. 8.10Peter explains that the first man, a true prophet made in God's image, taught his children an eternal law, and their obedience brought abundance and health.
252. 8.11Peter explains that people who had never known evil grew ungrateful and denied providence, and a fitting punishment followed.
253. 8.12Peter tells how angels of the lowest heaven, angered at human ingratitude, came down to test people by changing into precious things and animals, which the poets ascribe to Zeus.
254. 8.13Peter explains that the angels, once human, fell into intercourse with women, lost their fiery nature, and could not return to heaven.
255. 8.14Peter tells how the fallen angels taught women mining, metalwork, jewels, magic, astronomy, herbs, and dyes.
256. 8.15Peter describes the giants born of the angels and women, who, though fed with manna, craved blood and were the first to eat meat.
257. 8.16Peter says humans imitated the giants in eating meat, showing that people become good or bad by habit, and the giants turned to cannibalism.
258. 8.17Peter explains that bloodshed polluted air and earth, and God sent the flood to cleanse the world, saving Noah and his family in the ark.
259. 8.18Peter explains that the giants' souls became a new race, the demons, and God sent them a law through an angel.
260. 8.19The angel's law to the demons forbids them to harm anyone except those who serve them or break God's law, and orders them to flee from the righteous.
261. 8.20Peter tells the crowd that by worshipping demons and eating their sacrifices they fell under demonic power, which otherwise has no hold on anyone.
262. 8.21Peter recounts the temptation of Jesus by the devil, who could gain power over him only if he worshipped him or accepted his gifts.
263. 8.22Peter applies the parable of the wedding feast: those invited from Israel refused, and the Gentiles are called and clothed with the wedding garment of baptism.
264. 8.23Peter urges the crowd to be baptized, to abandon idols and sin, and warns of eternal fire, then invites the sick to stay for healing.
265. 8.24Peter heals the sick by laying on hands and prayer, and the crowd leaves to return the next day.
266. 9.1Peter resumes preaching: the flood shows that God saves the one godly man and disregards the ungodly crowd, and the worst impiety is worshipping many gods.
267. 9.2The idolaters' sin is worse than that of the generation of the flood, and the rule of many gods, unlike the rule of one, breeds conflict.
268. 9.3After Noah's death his descendants competed for kingship, among them one of the race of Ham.
269. 9.4Nebrod (Nimrod), whom the Greeks call Zoroaster, forced the evil ruler's star by magic to give him kingship, and was answered with fire.
270. 9.5Nebrod was killed by lightning and worshipped as a god, which began the honoring of the dead with temples and images until later generations took them for gods.
271. 9.6Kingdoms multiplied as Persians, Babylonians and Egyptians took the heavenly fire, worshipped it, and ruled.
272. 9.7The magicians kept people bound to idol worship through festivals and rites, and they preferred pleasure and error to truth.
273. 9.8Peter offers the ancestral religion like a good merchant's wares, promising freedom from demons and eternal goods to those who choose it.
274. 9.9Demons enter people through food offered to idols, mingle with their souls, and drag them into eternal punishment in the fire at the end.
275. 9.10Demons enter bodies to enjoy food and sex, so fasting and hardship drive them out, and stubborn demons require prayer to God.
276. 9.11Demons stay in proportion to a person's unbelief, but flee at once from those who fully believe and do good.
277. 9.12Demons disguise their work as bodily illness, and overeating itself binds a material soul to the human soul, so moderation is best.
278. 9.13Some demons hide until they can suddenly drive people to violent deaths, and others persuade people that their gods are angry and that they should shun the Christians.
279. 9.14People misled by demons cannot be forced to salvation, while the demons appear in dreams, give cures and oracles, and demand sacrifices to consume souls.
280. 9.15Demons draw those who eat at their tables and appear in dreams as idols, but the images themselves are lifeless, as a simple weighing would show.
281. 9.16Oracles and cures do not prove the gods divine, since demons prophesy and know medicine and time their prescriptions to take credit for natural recoveries.
282. 9.17The gods' cures are only natural recoveries claimed by demons, and the unrecorded failures would outnumber the successes.
283. 9.18Many oracles and cures are frauds, perjuries, or magic, and prophecy or healing does not prove divinity.
284. 9.19God is patient so that people may repent, and those washed in running water with the thrice-blessed invocation can drive out demons from themselves and others.
285. 9.20The apostles share human nature with the hearers and differ only in religion, and they urge the hearers to become like them.
286. 9.21As soldiers obey a commander because of the emperor's authority, demons yield to the believer who carries faith as God's image in his heart.
287. 9.22Believers should rejoice not in expelling demons but in having their names written in heaven, since demons sometimes flee even from wicked men in order to deceive.
288. 9.23Peter calls his hearers to worship one God, avoid the demons' table, and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, then heals the sick and dismisses the crowd.
289. 10.1On the third day in Tripolis Peter bathes and prays in the garden and begins to speak to his companions.
290. 10.2Peter distinguishes idolaters, who are ignorant of eternal life, from believers who know it but stray from God's will.
291. 10.3Peter begins his public address: man, made in God's image, was appointed to rule over all creatures.
292. 10.4Man lost his immunity from suffering through sin, and God sent his Prophet to restore both present and eternal goods to those who worship him.
293. 10.5The fear of the one God, spoken like a charm against the serpent in the heart, frees people from every other harmful fear.
294. 10.6Idolaters have become like beasts, but by accepting God's law and doing good they can become truly human again and be restored as God's sons.
295. 10.7Idols are useless even as servants, since they cannot see, hear, feel or move.
296. 10.8Gods of gold and silver should be melted back into useful vessels, since they are protected only by human laws, dogs and guards.
297. 10.9Idols are less than dead, often indistinguishable from tombs, and rational people worship not even the elements but only their Maker.
298. 10.10Only the unbegotten is God, and the serpent within deceives people with promises of better reasoning.
299. 10.11The serpent, condemned to eat earth, devours those who sin against the one God and become earth.
300. 10.12The serpent persuades people that ignorance exempts them from judgment, but sin kills like poison even when taken unknowingly.
301. 10.13Willful ignorance is judged as knowledge, and even the truly ignorant are guilty of not recognizing their benefactor.
302. 10.14Peter takes up the claim that the gods are subordinate powers under the one God, as officials are under Caesar.
303. 10.15By their own comparison, giving the name of God to others is a capital insult, like giving Caesar's name to an official.
304. 10.16The Egyptians dishonored the divine name by worshipping animals, onions, and worse.
305. 10.17When the crowd laughs at the Egyptians, Peter points out that the Egyptians mock them in turn for worshipping lifeless things.
306. 10.18The Egyptians' rival cults and allegories refute their defense, and Peter turns to cure his hearers' own error.
307. 10.19What is proper to God alone is to be the maker of all and greater than all, so nothing made can compare with him.
308. 10.20Since the made world cannot be God, still less can idols made of its materials by mortal hands.
309. 10.21Those who claim to worship a spirit dwelling in the idol admit that the image itself is lifeless and cannot prove the spirit exists.
310. 10.22If idols were animated they would move, speak and defend themselves, but instead they are guarded, plundered, and robbed even by their priests.
311. 10.23The occasional capture of temple thieves proves no divine power, and the tending of idols shows they are treated like the dead.
312. 10.24Idols administer nothing, give no light, rain or harvest, and depend on their worshippers for everything.
313. 10.25Even the useful elements are servants, not gods, and by knowing God and doing good the hearers can rule the demons again as God's sons and heirs.
314. 10.26Peter heals the sick, bathes, eats with his companions after giving thanks, answers their questions, and they sleep.
315. 11.1On the fourth day in Tripolis Peter bathes and prays, speaks privately on purity, and then addresses the crowds.
316. 11.2The hearers' minds are like neglected land full of thorns and need constant, urgent cleansing so that the word may bear fruit.
317. 11.3The hearers must turn righteous anger against their evil desires, burning them away like fire on a neglected field.
318. 11.4Man, not the idol, is God's image, so godliness toward God means feeding, clothing, sheltering and visiting people in need.
319. 11.5Idolaters claim piety toward images while murdering, committing adultery and stealing against man, God's true image.
320. 11.6God does not destroy the objects of idol worship, since nearly everything has been worshipped and the worshipped thing itself is not guilty.
321. 11.7God does not destroy idolaters because he patiently waits for them to repent, and many have.
322. 11.8God gave free will because only chosen goodness is true goodness, and making God the cause of all thoughts makes him the author of sin.
323. 11.9God does not share his healing with idols, lest they take credit, and praise or blasphemy affects not God but the one who speaks.
324. 11.10Impiety against God is punished more severely, as all creation, indignant, withholds its goods from blasphemers even now.
325. 11.11The soul is immortal and the ungodly face endless punishment in unquenchable fire, and Peter must warn of this even at the risk of seeming to frighten.
326. 11.12God's sun and rain show his care, and honoring idols alongside him insults him as a son insults a father by honoring a stranger.
327. 11.13Peter answers the appeal to ancestral custom and points out that people pray to heaven for rain but give the harvest's firstfruits to idols.
328. 11.14Peter contrasts innocent outdoor feasting with the frenzied rites of pagan worship, including self-mutilation and castration.
329. 11.15Pagan feasts, with their smoke, blood and wine, feed unclean spirits who enter the worshippers and drive them to vice and violent death.
330. 11.16True worshippers who keep the law are safe from demons, while believers who sin are punished in this life so as to be spared eternal punishment.
331. 11.17Peter asks his hearers to listen with a love of truth, since he offers them a share in the good things he believes in.
332. 11.18The hearers must resist the serpent's distractions by listening constantly and learning to oppose his counsels with reason.
333. 11.19The Prophet of truth brought not peace with error but a sword of knowledge, which divides families for the sake of salvation.
334. 11.20Believers separated from their families do not hate them but, following Jesus' prayer from the cross, pray for and love even their persecutors.
335. 11.21Those who love their parents as founders of their race should love God, the founder of all, and could at least know that he is not wood or stone.
336. 11.22Idols depend on iron, fire and water, while water is moved by the Spirit, whom God used as his hand in creation.
337. 11.23All creation was ordered to serve man, so his ingratitude toward the Creator earns a greater punishment by fire.
338. 11.24Reasoning from water to Spirit to God, the hearer should recognize his origin and be born again through the first-born water of baptism.
339. 11.25Peter urges his hearers to come to baptism without delay, since even the most godly person has no hope if unbaptized.
340. 11.26Baptism in living water in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit replaces birth from desire with new birth to God and alone quenches the coming fire.
341. 11.27Both righteous and unrighteous must hasten to baptism, for forgiveness and a new life of good deeds that honors God as Father.
342. 11.28The worship of God adds bodily purity, such as abstaining from intercourse during menstruation, but purity of heart must come first.
343. 11.29Jesus condemned only the hypocritical Pharisees, who cleaned the outside of the cup, and inner purity leads to outward cleanliness.
344. 11.30Intercourse should wait until a woman has purified herself after her period, and washing is required after intercourse, as even idolaters practiced purity rites.
345. 11.31Whatever pagans did well belongs to the truth and should be kept, and more should be done.
346. 11.32Those who know the truth must surpass pagans in goodness, avoiding anger and lust and loving even enemies, or they will be shamed at the judgment.
347. 11.33Jesus' sayings about the queen of the south and the Ninevites show that pagans' good deeds will condemn believers who do less, including in matters of purity.
348. 11.34Peter continues daily in Tripolis, refuting the gods and fate and teaching that providence governs the world.
349. 11.35Clement is baptized, and Peter warns the presbyters to receive no apostle or teacher whose preaching has not been checked with James of Jerusalem.
350. 11.36Before leaving Tripolis for Antioch, Peter baptizes many, celebrates the eucharist, and appoints Maroones bishop with twelve presbyters, deacons, and widows.
351. 12.1Leaving Tripolis for Antioch, Peter sends Nicetes and Aquila ahead with the crowd in two scattered groups to avoid envy.
352. 12.2Peter reassures Nicetes and Aquila of his love, tells them to go to Laodicea and wait for him alone at the gates.
353. 12.3Nicetes and Aquila agree, though grieved, and go ahead with instructions to disperse the crowd.
354. 12.4Clement rejoices to stay with Peter, who teaches him that friends remain together in memory though apart in body.
355. 12.5Clement explains that Peter is everything to him, that he fears youthful desire without him, and asks to serve him as a slave.
356. 12.6Peter jokes that he has no luxuries needing a slave, describes his simple diet and clothing, and offers instead to serve Clement.
357. 12.7Clement weeps at Peter's offer; Peter cites the Lord who took the form of a slave, and Clement gives thanks to have Peter as a parent.
358. 12.8Clement tells Peter of his family: his father Faustus, his mother Mattidia, and his twin brothers, and his mother's dream bidding her leave Rome.
359. 12.9Clement's father sends his wife and twins to Athens; messengers later report that they never arrived and no trace of them can be found.
360. 12.10Clement's father searches the harbour for news, then sails off in search of his family and is never heard of again.
361. 12.11Peter weeps and observes that the Gentiles too suffer calamities, but without hope, while the godly suffer to pay for their transgressions.
362. 12.12Peter allows his companions to sail to the island of Aradus to see its famous vine-wood columns and works of Phidias.
363. 12.13On Aradus Peter meets a crippled beggar woman who has gnawed her own hands and wishes she had the courage to kill herself.
364. 12.14Peter warns that suicides are punished in Hades and promises the woman a remedy if she tells him her grief.
365. 12.15The woman tells how, pursued by her husband's brother, she left the city with her twin sons to avoid adultery and family strife.
366. 12.16She describes the invented dream, the voyage toward Athens, and the shipwreck in which she alone seemed to survive.
367. 12.17The islanders search in vain for her children; a poor widow, faithful to her dead husband, takes her in.
368. 12.18She tells how both she and her benefactress became disabled, how she begs for them both, and asks Peter for the promised remedy.
369. 12.19Peter, suspecting who she is, asks her name and family; she gives false details, and he tells her he had hoped she was someone else.
370. 12.20Peter tells the woman the story of Clement, whose mother left Rome with his twin brothers after a dream.
371. 12.21The woman faints, confesses that she is Clement's mother, and begs to be taken to him; Peter asks her to stay quiet until they leave the island.
372. 12.22Clement's mother embraces him at the boat, and he, not knowing her, pushes her away.
373. 12.23Clement recognizes his mother; at her request Peter heals the paralysed woman who had sheltered her, and then heals his mother's hands.
374. 12.24Peter preaches and invites the islanders to Antioch; Clement provides for the healed woman and they sail back to Antaradus.
375. 12.25Peter explains that repaying a benefactor is friendship, not love for humanity, which does good to every person simply as a human being.
376. 12.26Peter defines love for humanity as doing good even to enemies, in imitation of God who sends sun and rain on the just and the unjust.
377. 12.27Peter explains that God's judging is itself an act of love for humanity, and that only one with foreknowledge can judge rightly.
378. 12.28Peter adds that only a prophet with foreknowledge can tell which of a person's deeds are truly his own.
379. 12.29Peter quotes the true Prophet's saying that good and evil must come, with blessing and woe on those through whom they come, and explains that the righteous are tested by the wicked.
380. 12.30Peter teaches that the wicked who afflict the righteous should be pitied and prayed for, not resisted, since suffering comes by God's providence.
381. 12.31Peter explains that God uses unrepentant sinners to punish the repentant for their former sins, while the persecutors fill up their own punishment.
382. 12.32Peter describes the righteous man who loves his enemies and his neighbour as himself, and the works of mercy that make up the female part of love for humanity.
383. 12.33Peter teaches that love for enemies is reached through the fear of God, which, by doing the deeds of love, comes to love itself and makes a person immortal.
384. 13.1The party travels to Laodicea, where Nicetes and Aquila meet them and ask who Clement's mother is.
385. 13.2Peter summarizes for Nicetes and Aquila the story of Clement's family and the recognition of his mother.
386. 13.3Nicetes and Aquila realize that they are Clement's twin brothers Faustinus and Faustinianus; Peter restrains them from waking their mother.
387. 13.4Peter explains to Mattidia the Christian way of life, including the rule not to eat with the unbaptized, even with close family.
388. 13.5Mattidia asks for baptism, saying she has already left the gods and has kept her chastity in wealth and poverty, and mourns her lost sons and husband.
389. 13.6The twins embrace their mother; Peter tells her who they are, and she asks them to tell their story.
390. 13.7Faustinus tells how pirates took the twins from the wreck and sold them in Caesarea to Justa, a Jewish proselyte, who raised them in her religion and in Greek learning.
391. 13.8Faustinus tells how they nearly fell under Simon Magus's influence until Zacchaeus brought them to Peter, and urges their mother to share their faith.
392. 13.9Mattidia asks to be baptized at once with her hostess; Peter requires at least one day's fast, shortened because of a word that showed her faith.
393. 13.10Peter explains that Mattidia's wish to have her benefactress baptized shows faith, and rebukes the baptized who do not urge their families to baptism.
394. 13.11Mattidia has already fasted two days for joy; Peter says that is not a baptismal fast, and Faustinus argues that God arranged it in advance.
395. 13.12Peter refuses to count the accidental fast, fasts with the brothers that day, and sets the baptism for the next day.
396. 13.13Peter teaches that chastity brings good outcomes and adultery destruction, and that God rewards chastity even among the unbaptized in this life, though salvation is for the baptized.
397. 13.14Peter teaches that a chaste woman must flee at once from any illicit love, and that the one sin of adultery brings punishment even on one who does all other good.
398. 13.15Peter praises the chaste woman as a reminder of God's creation of one woman for one man and an example and honour to the church.
399. 13.16Peter describes the adornment of the chaste wife in spiritual terms and her love and obedience to her husband, except against God.
400. 13.17Peter warns husbands not to keep their wives from the fear of God and urges them to bring them to the teaching that makes for chastity.
401. 13.18Peter describes the mutual duties of a chaste husband and wife, including the husband's faithfulness and the wife's submission, and the wife's modest conduct.
402. 13.19Peter declares that one adultery is many murders of the soul, defiling the breath of God within a person and leading to eternal fire.
403. 13.20Peter consoles Mattidia that she suffered for chastity, not for adultery, and that everything she lost has turned to her salvation.
404. 13.21Peter teaches that chastity greatly pleases God, but that by God's decree no one, even a chaste Gentile, enters the kingdom unbaptized.
405. 14.1Peter baptizes Mattidia in the sea at a secluded place and afterwards breaks bread with thanksgiving and salt, sharing it first with her.
406. 14.2Peter explains that an old workman who had secretly watched the baptism approached him wishing to speak.
407. 14.3The old man argues that there is neither God nor providence, but that everything is governed by genesis, since his own piety did not save him from misfortune.
408. 14.4Peter answers that advice is pointless if genesis rules all, and that even if genesis exists the Lord of the stars, not the gods, is to be worshipped.
409. 14.5Peter offers to prove providence by healing incurable infirmities through prayer, and argues that fatalism blasphemes God by making him the author of all sin.
410. 14.6The old man, an astrologer, cites the horoscope of a Roman nobleman's wife that predicted adultery with a slave and death at sea, and claims it came true.
411. 14.7The old man tells the story he heard from the husband's brother, of the dream, the voyage, the husband's search, and the husband's death in Seleucia.
412. 14.8Peter reveals that he recognized the old man as the brothers' father, having confirmed the family names, and waited to tell them until after the baptismal meal.
413. 14.9As Mattidia laments her husband, the old man enters, and husband and wife recognize each other; the three sons embrace their father.
414. 14.10The old man admits he is Faustus and explains that he told his story as another's to avoid being recognized and restored to wealth he had renounced.
415. 14.11Faustus admits that he truly believes in astrology, taught him by the Egyptian Annubion; Peter replies that astrologers' successes may be mere chance.
416. 14.12Clement proposes a debate with the astrologer Annubion in his father's presence; Peter says Annubion is with Simon Magus in Antioch.
417. 15.1Peter urges the father to share the faith of his wife and sons so as not to be separated from them after death.
418. 15.2The father denies punishment after death; Peter asks him at least to examine the arguments fairly for his family's sake.
419. 15.3Peter asks what keeps the father from the faith and lists the usual hindrances of believers and unbelievers.
420. 15.4Peter points to the family's separation and reunion as proof that God's providence governs all things.
421. 15.5The father reports Clement's account of Jesus' teaching on non-retaliation, which seemed to him unjust.
422. 15.6Peter compares Christians to subjects of one king caught in a hostile king's land, for whom mild treatment is kindness.
423. 15.7Peter explains that God gave the present world to an evil king and the age to come to a good one, and each person chooses between them.
424. 15.8Peter argues that no one is wronged, since each freely chooses the present or the future goods; the father quotes Plato.
425. 15.9Peter teaches that possessions are sins and that afflictions, by God's kindness, take them away and spare believers eternal punishment.
426. 15.10Peter explains that poverty alone does not save; Jesus blessed the faithful poor who do not sin.
427. 15.11Peter promises to teach about the one God, heals the sick, and retires for the night.
428. 16.1Simon arrives with Athenodorus the Epicurean to dispute Peter's teaching that there is one God.
429. 16.2Simon challenges Peter to prove before those who know the Scriptures that there is only one God, and calls the father as witness.
430. 16.3The father proposes that each disputant first set out his own doctrine.
431. 16.4The father admits that, holding there are many gods, he leans toward Simon, but promises to follow the stronger argument.
432. 16.5Peter states that there is one God, the Creator; Simon replies that the Jewish Scriptures speak of many gods.
433. 16.6Simon cites Genesis, the Law, and the Psalms to show that Scripture speaks of many gods.
434. 16.7Peter answers with texts from the Law and the Prophets that declare God to be one.
435. 16.8Peter answers Simon's charge that he reviles the gods, citing Scripture that the one Creator alone endures.
436. 16.9Simon argues that the Scriptures contradict themselves and so lead their readers astray.
437. 16.10Peter says the Scriptures test each reader's intent, and argues that the God in whose image and shape man was made is the only God.
438. 16.11Simon argues from “Let us make man” that more than one God created humankind.
439. 16.12Peter explains “Let us make” as God speaking to his own Wisdom, who is one with him yet extended from him in creation.
440. 16.13Peter says passages speaking of other gods were written to test readers, citing Deuteronomy on the false prophet.
441. 16.14Peter grants that Scripture calls angels, Christ, Moses, and idols “gods,” but holds that for believers there is one God, the Father of Christ.
442. 16.15Peter denies that Jesus proclaimed himself God; he blessed Peter for calling him Son of God.
443. 16.16Peter argues that the begotten Son cannot bear every title of the unbegotten Father, as souls from God are not gods.
444. 16.17Peter argues that the name God belongs only to the one who is unbegotten, infinite, and incomparable.
445. 16.18Peter explains that giving the common name “God” to another dishonors the ineffable one it points to.
446. 16.19Peter teaches that the human body bears God's form, which is why the greater creation willingly serves humanity.
447. 16.20Peter points to God's patience with Simon's blasphemy and warns of the judgment God has stored up.
448. 16.21Simon promises to prove from Jesus' words that the Creator is not the highest God; Peter foresees heresies springing from Simon.
449. 17.1Zacchaeus reports that Simon is outside speaking against Peter.
450. 17.2Simon accuses Peter of magic and of teaching something worse than idolatry.
451. 17.3Simon argues that Peter's God with a form is more frightening than idols and cannot be infinite.
452. 17.4Simon argues that Jesus distinguished the good, unknown Father from the just Creator whom Scripture proclaims.
453. 17.5Simon charges Jesus with contradicting himself by also calling God just and fearful, and attacks Peter's preference of sight over apparitions.
454. 17.6Peter goes out and explains that Jesus taught by brief pronouncements, which the disciples had explained to them privately.
455. 17.7Peter teaches that God has a most beautiful form, after which man was molded, so that whatever is done to a human being is done to God.
456. 17.8Peter argues that place is nothing and that, like the sun in the air, God can have a form and yet extend his power infinitely.
457. 17.9Peter describes God as the center and heart of the universe, from whom six infinite directions extend, corresponding to the six days of creation.
458. 17.10Peter calls God the rest of all things, near and far, into whose bosom loving souls are drawn after death.
459. 17.11Peter rejects a formless God and defends the fear of God as the source of good deeds and freedom from other fears.
460. 17.12Peter teaches that both fear and love of God serve to keep people from sin, and that one who teaches fearlessness denies the judgment.
461. 17.13Simon argues that a divine apparition gives more certainty than seeing and hearing a man in person.
462. 17.14Peter answers that a known prophet can be questioned, while apparitions and dreams may come from deceiving demons.
463. 17.15Simon claims only the righteous receive true dreams; Peter undertakes to prove that the ungodly also do.
464. 17.16Peter argues that no one can see God, the Son, or an angel in their fleshless form, so that apparitions come from demons.
465. 17.17Peter cites Abimelech, Pharaoh, and Nebuchadnezzar as ungodly men who received true dreams and visions from God.
466. 17.18Peter explains that true revelation, like his confession of Christ, arises within without visions, while visions and dreams signify God's anger.
467. 17.19Peter rejects authority based on visions and rebukes Simon for opposing him, the rock on which the church is founded.
468. 17.20Simon refuses to become Peter's disciple and promises to show the next day that the Creator is not the highest good.
469. 18.1Simon opens the debate by claiming that the Creator and lawgiver is just but not good, and so not the highest God whom Jesus called good.
470. 18.2Peter argues that God's goodness shows in giving to all and forgiving the repentant, and his justice in judging each at the end, so the Creator is both good and just.
471. 18.3Peter cites Jesus' answer to the rich questioner, who was sent back to the commandments of the law, to show that the good God and the just lawgiver are the same.
472. 18.4Simon argues from Jesus' saying that no one knew the Father that a hidden Most High exists above the Creator, who is only the Son to whom the Hebrews were allotted.
473. 18.5Peter demands that Simon admit he really holds the view he argues, and Simon, after trading insults, finally says he does.
474. 18.6Peter answers that only the Son can reveal the Father, by an inward revelation rather than by teaching, so Simon, who is not the Son, has no right to reveal him.
475. 18.7Peter presses Simon, who wavers between claiming to know the worthy and admitting he did not understand the saying, until Simon asks for a clearer explanation.
476. 18.8By question and answer Peter shows that only the Son, who knows every mind, can reveal the Father to the worthy.
477. 18.9Simon, embarrassed by the crowd's applause for Peter, claims that losing an argument does not defeat the truth and that he judges all present worthy of the hidden Father.
478. 18.10Peter replies that the crowd sided with him, not Simon, and that God would not reveal himself through an evil intermediary but only through the Son, by an inward, unteachable revelation.
479. 18.11Simon now states his real view, that a hidden power exists unknown even to the Creator, and that Jesus stumbled on this truth unawares; Peter says he knows Simon's real teaching.
480. 18.12Peter exposes Simon's secret doctrine of a great power that sent two angels, one to create and one to give the law, and Simon angrily objects to his revealing it to the crowd.
481. 18.13Peter offers another reading of 'No one knew the Father': it was aimed at the Jews who took Christ to be only David's son, while the righteous from Adam to Jacob did know God.
482. 18.14Peter argues that it would be unjust for the righteous patriarchs to have been ignorant of God while impious Gentiles now know him, so Simon's reading makes God neither good nor just.
483. 18.15Peter answers Simon's appeal to Jesus' thanksgiving that hidden things were revealed to babes: the hidden things belong to the Creator himself, and the wise had once held the key of knowledge.
484. 18.16Peter explains that the secret things were justly hidden from the wise because they had hidden the knowledge of the kingdom from others, and are given to the worthy even if they are babes.
485. 18.17Peter distinguishes the secrets of the kingdom, which were hidden, from the way of life leading to it, which was never hidden, citing Moses and Jesus.
486. 18.18Peter explains Isaiah's 'Israel did not know me' as the people's ignorance of God's justice, which led them to sin as though he would never punish.
487. 18.19Peter says others sinned by believing false passages of Scripture that make God ignorant, bloodthirsty, bribable, and deceitful, and then imitated such a God.
488. 18.20Peter applies 'No one knew the Father' to those misled by passages written against God as a test, and urges everyone to be like skilled money-changers who sift true Scripture from false.
489. 18.21Simon feigns horror at Peter's view of the Scriptures and prepares to leave, recalling Peter's vow to believe no one who speaks against the Creator, not even Scripture or visions.
490. 18.22Peter declares that even if the Creator were as evil as some passages say, he would still worship him alone, since one who deserts his own Maker would desert any higher god too.
491. 18.23Peter tells Simon he is a servant of wickedness; Simon asks where evil comes from, the question is put off till the next day, and Simon's followers repent and are received by Peter.
492. 19.1On the next day Simon undertakes to prove that the Creator, as maker of all things, cannot be blameless.
493. 19.2Simon asks whether there is a leader of evil, and Peter affirms from many sayings of Jesus that the evil one exists.
494. 19.3Peter refuses to speculate beyond Scripture about the devil's origin, but Simon insists that reasoning can settle whether the evil one was originated or unoriginated.
495. 19.4Simon lists every possible way in which the evil one could have come into existence, so as to trace him to a blameworthy cause.
496. 19.5Peter answers that whether the evil one was made by God or always existed, God is not to be blamed for making, tolerating, or being unable to change him.
497. 19.6Simon and Peter exchange accusations, Peter calling Simon worse than the devil because he openly speaks against God.
498. 19.7Peter tells Simon that his speech reveals an evil heart ignorant of God's patience, and Simon insists that fear will not stop his inquiry.
499. 19.8Peter reluctantly agrees to examine the devil's origin, on the rule that the view most reverent toward God must be chosen, and promises to show God blameless.
500. 19.9Peter restates the possible origins of the evil one, and answers Simon's first argument with the example of good parents who have bad children, like Adam with Cain and Abel.
501. 19.10Peter turns Simon's objection back on him: if no human analogy may be used of God, nothing can be said of him at all except what he has revealed of his will.
502. 19.11Simon holds that God's nature can be known by ascribing to him the best human qualities, and Peter concludes that God, then, begets and does only good and is the cause of all good things.
503. 19.12Peter explains that God put forth the four elements, which, mixed outside him by his will, became a living being meant to destroy the wicked, so that evil comes neither from another source nor from God's own nature.
504. 19.13Peter argues that the evil one's disposition arose by God's will in mixing the elements, since nothing living and ruling can arise by chance.
505. 19.14Peter begins to answer Simon's suggestion that eternal matter produces evil powers, arguing that eternal matter could not be hostile; the text breaks off here.