Chapter 22

Chapter XXII.—Doctrines of Simon.

First Aquila began to speak in this wise:  “Listen, O dearest brother, that you may know accurately everything about this man, whose he is, and what, and whence; and what the things are which he does, and how and why he does them.  This Simon is the son of Antonius and Rachel, a Samaritan by race, of the village of Gitthæ, which is six schoeni distant from the city.  He having disciplined himself greatly in Alexandria, and being very powerful in magic, and being ambitious, wishes to be accounted a certain supreme power, greater even than the God who created the world.  And sometimes intimating that he is Christ, he styles himself the Standing One.  And this epithet he employs, as intimating that he shall always stand, and as not having any cause of corruption so that his body should fall.  And he neither says that the God who created the world is the Supreme, nor does he believe that the dead will be raised.  He rejects Jerusalem, and substitutes Mount Gerizzim for it.  Instead of our Christ, he proclaims himself.  The things of the law he explains by his own presumption; and he says, indeed, that there is to be a judgment, but he does not expect it.  For if he were persuaded that he shall be judged by God, he would not dare be impious towards God Himself.  Whence some not knowing that, using religion as a cloak, he spoils the things of the truth, and faithfully believing the hope and the judgment which in some way he says are to be, are ruined.

Chapter XXII.—Male and Female.

“But a companion was created along with him, a female nature, much differing from him, as quality from substance, as the moon from the sun, as fire from light.  She, as a female ruling the present world as her like, was entrusted to be the first prophetess, announcing prophecy with all amongst those born of woman.  But the other, as the son of man, being a male, prophesies better things to the world to come as a male.

Chapter XXII.—A More Excellent Way.

“But let us pass over this now.  But this we all know, that universally men are beyond measure enraged on account of it, that wars have been waged, that there have been overthrows of houses, and captures of cities, and myriads of other evils.  On this account I betook myself to the holy God and law of the Jews, putting my faith in the well-assured conclusion that the law has been assigned by the righteous judgment of God, and that the soul must at some time receive according to the desert of its deeds.”

Chapter XXII.—Lying Fables.

“‘But those who will not subdue base lusts belie the gods, that, by representing the gods as first doing the things which they do, they may be set free from blame.  For if those who are called gods committed adulteries for the sake of begetting children, and not through lasciviousness, why did they also debauch males?  But it is said they complimented their mistresses by making them stars.  Therefore before this were there no stars, until such time as, by reason of wantonness, the heaven was adorned with stars by adulterers?  And how is it that the children of those who have been made stars are punished in Hades,—Atlas loaded, Tantalus tortured with thirst, Sisyphus pushing a stone, Tityus thrust through the bowels, Ixion continually rolled round a wheel?  How is it that these divine lovers made stars of the women whom they defiled, but gave no such grace to these?

Chapter XXII.—Their Contemporaries, Therefore, Did Not Look on Them as Gods.

“Thus, to right-thinking men, it is clear that they were admitted to be mortals.  And their contemporaries, knowing that they were mortal, when they died paid them no more heed; and it was length of time which clothed them with the glory of gods.  Nor need you wonder that they who lived in the times of Æsculapius and Hercules were deceived, or the contemporaries of Dionysus or any other of the men of that time, when even Hector in Ilium, and Achilles in the island of Leuce, are worshipped by the inhabitants of those places; and the Opuntines worship Patroclus, and the Rhodians Alexander of Macedon.

Chapter XXII.—The Marriage Supper.

“However, the king of the impious, striving to bring over to his own counsel the King of the pious, and not being able, ceased his efforts, undertaking to persecute Him for the remainder of His life.  But you, being ignorant of the fore-ordained law, are under his power through evil deeds.  Wherefore you are polluted in body and soul, and in the present life you are tyrannized over by sufferings and demons, but in that which is to come you shall have your souls to be punished.  And this not you alone suffer through ignorance, but also some of our nation, who by evil deeds having been brought under the power of the prince of wickedness, like persons invited to a supper by a father celebrating the marriage of his son, have not obeyed.  But instead of those who through preoccupation disobeyed, the Father celebrating the marriage of his Son, has ordered us, through the Prophet of the truth, to come into the partings of the ways, that is, to you, and to invest you with the clean wedding-garment, which is baptism, which is for the remission of the sins done by you, and to bring the good to the supper of God by repentance, although at the first they were left out of the banquet.

Chapter XXII.—“Rather Rejoice.”

“But still, though all demons, with all diseases, flee before you, you are not to rejoice in this only, but in that, through grace, your names, as of the ever-living, are written in heaven.  Thus also the Divine Holy Spirit rejoices because man hath overcome death; for the putting of the demons to flight makes for the safety of another.  But this we say, not as denying that we ought to help others, but that we ought not to be inflated by this and neglect ourselves.  It happens, also, that the demons flee before some wicked men by reason of the honoured name, and both he who expels the demon and he who witnesses it are deceived:  he who expels him, as if he were honoured on account of righteousness, not knowing the wickedness of the demon.  For he has at once honoured the name, and by his flight has brought the wicked man into a thought of his righteousness, and so deceived him away from repentance.  But the looker-on, associating with the expeller as a pious man, hastens to a like manner of life, and is ruined.  Sometimes also they pretend to flee before adjurations not made in the name of God, that they may deceive men, and destroy them whom they will.

Chapter XXII.—Confutation of Idol-Worship.

“In the first place, indeed, if you worship them as being animated, why do you also worship the sepulchres of memorable men of old, who confessedly had no divine spirit?  Thus you do not at all speak truth respecting this.  But if your objects of worship were really animated, they would move of themselves; they would have a voice; they would shake off the spiders that are on them; they would thrust forth those that wish to surprise and to steal them; they would easily capture those who pilfer the offerings.  But now they do none of these things, but are guarded, like culprits, and especially the more costly of them, as we have already said.  But what?  Is it not so, that the rulers demand of you imposts and taxes on their account, as if you were greatly benefited by them?  But what?  Have they not often been taken as plunder by enemies, and been broken and scattered?  And do not the priests, more than the outside worshippers, carry off many of the offerings, thus acknowledging the uselessness of their worship?

Chapter XXII.—“The Gods that Have Not Made the Heavens.”

“For are not they graven with iron?  And has not the graying iron been softened by fire?  And is not the fire itself extinguished with water?  And has not the water its motion from the spirit?  And has not the spirit the beginning of its course from the God who hath made all things?  For thus said the prophet Moses:  ‘In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was unsightly, and unadorned; and darkness was over the deep:  and the Spirit of God was borne above the waters.’  Which Spirit, at the bidding of God, as it were His hand, makes all things, dividing light from darkness, and after the invisible heaven spreading out the visible, that the places above might be inhabited by the angels of light, and those below by man, and all the creatures that were made for his use.

Chapter XXII.—The Lost Found.

Peter, therefore, took her by the hand, and led her to the boat.  But I, when I saw him leading the woman by the hand, laughed, and approaching, offered to lead her instead of him, to his honour.  But as soon as I touched her hand, she gave a motherly shout, and embraced me violently, and eagerly kissed me as her son.  But I, being ignorant of the whole affair, shook her off as a madwoman.  But, through my respect for Peter, I checked myself.

Chapter XXII.—Peter Worships One God.

When Simon said this, and was going to depart, Peter said:  “Listen to this one other remark, and then go where you like.”  Whereupon Simon turned back and remained, and Peter said:  “I know how you were then astonished when you heard me say, ‘Whosoever says anything whatever against God who created the world, I do not believe him.’  But listen now to something additional, and greater than this.  If God who created the world has in reality such a character as the Scriptures assign Him, and if somehow or other He is incomparably wicked, more wicked than either the Scriptures were able to represent Him, or any other can even conceive Him to be, nevertheless I shall not give up worshipping Him alone, and doing His will.  For I wish you to know and to be convinced, that he who has not affection for his own Creator, can never have it towards another.  And if he has it towards another, he has it contrary to nature, and he is ignorant that he has this passion for the unjust from the evil one.  Nor will he be able to retain even it stedfastly.  And, indeed, if there is another above the Creator (Demiurge), he will welcome me, since he is good, all the more that I love my own Father; and he will not welcome you, as he knows that you have abandoned your own natural Creator:  for I do not call Him Father, influenced by a greater hope, and not caring for what is reasonable.  Thus, even if you find one who is superior to Him, he knows that you will one day abandon him; and the more so that he has not been your father, since you have abandoned Him who was really your Father.

Chapter XXII.—Sins of Ignorance.

And Simon:  “Why is it, then, that some die prematurely, and periodical diseases arise; and that there are, moreover, attacks of demons, and of madness, and all other kinds of afflictions which can greatly punish?”  And Peter said:  “Because men, following their own pleasure in all things, cohabit without observing the proper times; and thus the deposition of seed, taking place unseasonably, naturally produces a multitude of evils.  For they ought to reflect, that as a season has been fixed suitable for planting and sowing, so days have been appointed as appropriate for cohabitation, which are carefully to be observed.  Accordingly some one well instructed in the doctrines taught by Moses, finding fault with the people for their sins, called them sons of the new moons and the sabbaths.  Yet in the beginning of the world men lived long, and had no diseases.  But when through carelessness they neglected the observation of the proper times, then the sons in succession cohabiting through ignorance at times when they ought not, place their children under innumerable afflictions.  Whence our Teacher, when we inquired of Him in regard to the man who was blind from his birth, and recovered his sight, if this man sinned, or his parents, that he should be born blind, answered, ‘Neither did he sin at all, nor his parents, but that the power of God might be made manifest through him in healing the sins of ignorance.’  And, in truth, such afflictions arise because of ignorance; as, for instance, by not knowing when one ought to cohabit with his wife, as if she be pure from her discharge.  Now the afflictions which you mentioned before are the result of ignorance, and not, assuredly, of any wickedness that has been perpetrated.  Moreover, give me the man who sins not, and I will show you the man who suffers not; and you will find that he not only does not suffer himself, but that he is able to heal others.  For instance, Moses, on account of his piety, continued free from suffering all his life, and by his prayers he healed the Egyptians when they suffered on account of their sins.”

Chapter XXII.—Appion and Athenodorus Return to Simon.

When Appion and those who were with him heard this, they howled and lamented, saying:  “Why did you not receive him?”  And when at the same time Athenodorus wished to say to me, “It was Faustus, your father;” Appion anticipated him, and said, “We learned from some one that Simon, finding him, urged him to go along with him, Faustus himself entreating him, since he did not wish to see his sons after they had become Jews.  And hearing this, we came, for his own sake, in search of him.  But since he is not here, it is plain that he spake the truth who gave us the information which we, hearing it from him, have given to you.”  And I Clement, perceiving the design of Peter, that he wished to beget a suspicion in them that he intended to look out among them for the old man, that they might be afraid and take to flight, assisted in his design, and said to Appion:  “Listen to me, my dearest Appion.  We were eager to give to him, as being our father, what we ourselves deemed to be good.  But if he himself did not wish to receive it, but, on the contrary, fled from us in horror, I shall make a somewhat harsh remark, ‘Nor do we care for him.’”  And when I said this, they went away, as if irritated by my savageness; and, as we learn next day, they went to Judæa in the track of Simon.

Lit., “new moons that are according to the moon.”  Gal. iv. 10.