Catechetical Lectures 4

And a reading from the Epistle to the Colossians:

'See to it that no one carries you off as spoil through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elements of the world,' and what follows.

Vice imitates virtue, and the tare forces itself to be reckoned as wheat;

in form indeed being made like to the wheat, but by its taste being exposed by those who can discern.

And the Devil transforms himself into an angel of light, not in order to return to where he once was;

[for, like an anvil, having gained a heart that cannot be beaten soft, he henceforth has an unrepentant purpose;] but that he may enwrap those who live the angelic life in the darkness of blindness and in the plague-like state of unbelief.

Many wolves go about in sheep's clothing, having indeed the clothing of sheep, but not also the claws and the teeth;

but, wrapped about with the tame hide and by their guise deceiving the innocent, they pour out from their teeth the corrupting venom of impiety.

There is need, therefore, of divine grace for us, and of a sober mind and of seeing eyes;

that we may neither, eating the tare as wheat, be harmed out of ignorance;

nor, supposing the wolf to be a sheep, be hunted down;

nor, suspecting the destroying Devil to be a good angel, be swallowed up.

For he goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, according to the Scripture.

For this reason the Church admonishes, for this reason these present schools of instruction exist, for this reason the readings are given.

For the manner of true religion consists of these two things: pious doctrines, and good actions.

And neither are the doctrines, apart from good works, acceptable to God;

nor does God accept works performed without pious doctrines.

For what profit is there in knowing well the doctrines concerning God,

and yet committing fornication shamefully? And again, what profit is there in being chaste in a good way, and blaspheming impiously? Most great therefore is the possession—the learning of the doctrines;

and there is need of a sober soul, since many are those who carry off as spoil, through philosophy and empty deceit.

And the Greeks, on the one hand, draw men down through their eloquence;

for 'honey drops from the lips of a harlot woman;'

and those of the circumcision, on the other, deceive those who come to them through the divine Scriptures, which they wickedly misinterpret;

studying from childhood until old age, and growing old in ignorance.

And the children of the heretics deceive the hearts of the innocent through their fair speech and eloquence;

as with honey, covering over with the name of Christ the venomous matter of their impious doctrines.

Concerning all of whom together the Lord says:

'See to it that no one leads you astray.'

For this reason the teaching of the Faith, and the expositions upon it, are given.

But before the delivering of the Faith, it seems good to me now to make use of a brief summary of the necessary doctrines;

lest the multitude of the things to be said, and the intervening interval of all the days of the holy season of forty days, should produce forgetfulness in those among you who are simpler in mind.

But that, having now sown the seeds summarily, we may not forget the same things when they are afterward cultivated more fully.

But let those of those present who are more perfect in habit, and who already have their faculties exercised for the discernment of good and evil, bear with hearing more elementary things and the milk-like introduction;

that at the same time both those who have need of catechetical instruction may be benefited;

and those who have the knowledge may have the memory of the things they already know beforehand rekindled.

First, then, let the doctrine concerning God be laid as a foundation in your soul;

namely, that God is one only, unbegotten, without beginning, unchangeable, unalterable;

neither begotten by another, nor having another as the successor of His life;

and neither beginning to live in time, nor ever coming to an end;

and that He is both good and just;

so that if ever you should hear a heretic saying that the just one is another and the good one is another, you may at once, being reminded, recognize the venom of the heresy.

For some have dared impiously to divide in their teaching the one God;

and some have said that the maker and master of the soul is one, and the maker of bodies is another, teaching at once foolishly and impiously.

For how can one man become the slave of two masters, when the Lord says in the Gospels:

'No one can serve two masters'? There is therefore one God only, the Maker both of souls and of bodies.

There is one Creator of heaven and earth, the Maker both of angels and of archangels.

He who is the Creator of many, but the Father of one only before the ages, of the one only-begotten Son of His, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also He made all things, both the visible and the invisible.

This Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not circumscribed in any place, nor is He less than heaven;

But the heavens are the works of His fingers, and the whole earth is held in His hand.

He is in all things, and beyond all things.

Do not suppose Him to be smaller than the sun, or merely [more brilliant] than it, or equal to it;

for He who fashioned the sun must Himself first be far more incomparable, greater and more brilliant.

He foreknows the things that are to come, and is mightier than all;

knowing all things and doing as He wills;

not subject to sequences of events, nor to becoming, nor to chance, nor to fate;

perfect in all things, and possessing every form of virtue in equal measure;

neither diminishing nor increasing, but ever remaining the same and in the same manner;

having prepared punishment for sinners, and crowns for the righteous.

Since therefore many have wandered away from the one God in various ways;

and some have deified the sun, so that when the sun sets, during the night they remain without a god;

and others the moon, so that by day they have no god;

and others the remaining parts of the world;

and some, mad for women, set up the image of a naked woman on high, calling it Aphrodite,

and worshipped their own passion through the visible image;

and others, dazzled by the brilliance of gold, deified it and the rest of material things;

But if anyone first lays in his heart the doctrine of the monarchy of God and is persuaded of it, he cuts off at once the whole corruption of the evils of idolatry and of the error of the heretics.

This therefore lay first in your soul as the doctrine of godliness, through faith.

And believe also in the Son of God, the one and only, our Lord Jesus Christ;

begotten God of God, begotten Life of Life, begotten Light of Light, in all things like to Him who begat Him;

who did not acquire His being in time, but before all the ages was begotten of the Father eternally and incomprehensibly.

The Wisdom of God and the Power, and the subsistent Righteousness;

who sits at the right hand of the Father before all the ages.

For not, as some have thought, was He crowned after His passion and so received the throne at the right hand from God as a reward for His endurance;

but from the very moment that He is—[and He is begotten of the Father always]—He possesses the royal dignity;

sitting together with the Father, being God and Wisdom and Power, as has been said.

Reigning together with the Father, and the Maker of all things through the Father;

[but] lacking nothing in the dignity of Godhead, and knowing Him who begat Him, even as He is known by Him who begat Him.

And, to speak briefly, remember what is written in the Gospels;

that no one fully knows the Son, except the Father;

neither does anyone fully know the Father, except the Son.

And neither alienate the Son from the Father, nor by making a confusion believe in a Son-Fatherhood. But believe that of the one God there is one only-begotten Son, who before all the ages is God the Word;

the Word, not uttered and dissolved into the air, nor likened to insubstantial words;

but the Word, the Son, Maker of rational beings, the Word who hears the Father and Himself speaks.

And concerning these matters, in due time, if God grants it, we shall speak more fully;

for we do not forget our proposal, that we are now making summary introductions to the faith.

And believe that this only-begotten Son of God, for our sins came down from heaven upon the earth, taking upon Himself this humanity of like passions with us, and being born of a holy virgin and the Holy Spirit;

the incarnation having come about not in semblance and appearance, but in truth;

nor passing through the virgin as through a channel, but being truly made flesh of her and truly nourished with milk;

[truly eating as we eat, and truly drinking as we drink.]

For if the incarnation were a phantom, then salvation too would be a phantom.

Christ was twofold: man in what was visible, but God in what was not visible;

eating as a man truly like us, for He had the like-passioned nature of flesh as we do;

but feeding the five thousand from five loaves as God;

dying as a man truly, but raising as God the dead man four days entombed;

sleeping in the boat truly as a man, and walking upon the waters as God.

This One was truly crucified for our sins.

For even if you should wish to deny it, the place itself, here in view, refutes you—this blessed Golgotha, where now, on account of Him who was crucified upon it, we are gathered together.

And the whole world, moreover, has now been filled, piece by piece, with the wood of the cross.

And He was crucified not for His own sins, but in order that we might be set free from our own sins.

And He was indeed despised by men at that time and was struck as a man;

but He was recognized by creation to be God.

For the sun, seeing its Master dishonoured, grew faint and trembled, not bearing the sight.

He was laid in a tomb of rock truly as a man;

but the rocks were torn asunder in fear because of Him.

He descended into the regions beneath the earth, that from there too He might redeem the righteous.

For tell me—would you have wished the living to enjoy the grace, and that too when most of them are not [worthy],

but that those shut up from Adam's time through long ages should not at last attain to freedom? Isaiah the prophet proclaimed so many things concerning Him with a great voice;

would you not have wished that the King should descend and redeem the herald? David was there, and Samuel, and all the prophets, and John himself, who said through those he sent:

Are you the One who is to come, or do we look for another? Would you not have wished that He should descend and redeem such ones? ON THE RESURRECTION.

But He who descended into the regions beneath the earth ascended again; and Jesus who was buried truly rose again on the third day.

And if ever the Jews should mock you, answer them quickly, asking thus:

Jonah came forth from the whale after three days; and has not Christ then, after three days, been raised from the earth? A dead man, touching the bones of Elisha, was raised;

and shall not the Maker of men, by the power of the Father, all the more easily be raised? He rose, therefore, truly;

and having risen, He again appeared to the disciples.

And the witnesses of His resurrection were the twelve disciples, who bore witness not with flattering words, but contended even unto tortures and deaths concerning the true resurrection.

Then, at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established, according to the Scripture;

but twelve bear witness to the resurrection of Christ; and do you still disbelieve the resurrection? ON THE ASCENSION.

And Jesus, having completed the course of endurance and redeemed men from their sins, ascended again into the heavens, a cloud receiving Him.

And angels stood by as He ascended, and apostles beheld it.

But if anyone disbelieves what is said, let him believe the very power of the things now seen.

All kings, when they die, extinguish their power together with their life;

but Christ, though crucified, is worshipped by the whole inhabited world.

We proclaim the Crucified, and demons now tremble.

Many have been crucified through the ages;

but at the invocation of which other crucified one were demons ever driven away? Let us not, then, be ashamed of the cross of Christ;

but even if another conceals it, do you openly seal yourself upon your forehead;

that the demons, seeing the royal sign, may flee far off trembling.

Make this sign when eating and drinking;

sitting, lying down, rising, speaking, walking;

in a word, in every undertaking.

For He who was crucified here is on high in the heavens.

For if, having been crucified and buried, He had remained in the tomb, we would have cause to be ashamed;

but now, He who was crucified on this Golgotha has ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives lying to the east.

For from here, having descended into Hades and ascended again to us, He ascended from us again into heaven, the Father addressing Him and saying:

Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.

This Jesus, the Christ who ascended, is coming again from the heavens, not from the earth.

since many antichrists are now about to come from the earth.

For already, as you have observed, many have begun to say, 'I am the Christ';

and at last the abomination of desolation is about to come, ascribing to itself the false title of Christ.

But do you look for the true Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, no longer coming from the earth, but from the heavens;

appearing to all brighter than any lightning and flash of light, escorted by angels, that He may judge the living and the dead, and reign a heavenly kingdom, eternal and without end.

For make yourself secure for me in this also, since there are many who say that there is an end to the kingdom of Christ.

Believe also in the Holy Spirit, and hold the right knowledge concerning Him;

since there are many who are estranged from the Holy Spirit, who teach blasphemous things concerning Him.

But do you learn that this Holy Spirit is one, indivisible, of manifold power;

working many things, yet Himself not being divided;

who knows the mysteries, who searches all things, even the deep things of God;

who descended upon Christ in the form of a dove;

who wrought in the law and the prophets;

who even now, at the time of baptism, seals your soul.

Of whom every intelligible nature also has need for sanctification;

against whom if anyone should dare to blaspheme, he has no forgiveness, neither in this age nor in the age to come;

who is honoured with the honour of the same dignity together with the Father and the Son, of whom thrones and dominions, principalities and powers also have need.

For there is one God, the Father of Christ;

and one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the one God, and one Holy Spirit, who sanctifies and deifies all things, who spoke in the law and the prophets, in both the old and the new covenant.

Keep this seal in your mind always, which has now been told you in summary, by way of a brief touch.

But if the Lord grants it, it shall be told with proof from the Scriptures, according to our ability.

For concerning the divine and holy mysteries of the Faith, not even the slightest thing ought to be handed down apart from the divine Scriptures;

and we must not be carried away simply by plausibilities and the contrivances of arguments.

Neither believe even me, who tell you these things, simply on my word;

unless you receive proof of the things proclaimed from the divine Scriptures.

For this salvation of our faith is not from clever speech, but from the proof of the divine Scriptures.

And after the knowledge of this venerable and glorious and all-holy faith, come now to know yourself also, who you are.

That you are constituted a twofold man, composed of both soul and body;

and that, as was said a little before, the same God is the Maker both of the soul and of the body.

And know that you have a soul self-determining, the most beautiful work of God, after the image of Him who made it;

immortal, on account of God who makes it immortal;

a rational, incorruptible living being, on account of Him who bestowed these things;

having authority to do what it wills.

For you do not sin by birth, nor do you fornicate by chance, nor, as some prattle, do the conjunctions of the stars compel you to give yourself over to licentious deeds.

Why, fleeing to confess your own evils, do you ascribe the cause to the blameless stars? Heed astrologers no longer.

For concerning these the divine Scripture says:

Let the astrologers of heaven stand up and save you;

Behold, all of them shall be burned up like stubble upon the fire, and they shall not deliver their own soul from the flame.

And learn this also, that before the soul came into this world, it had committed no sin;

but having come sinless, we now sin by deliberate choice.

Do not let anyone wrongly interpret to you the passage, 'But what I do not will, this I do';

but remember Him who says:

If you are willing and hearken to Me, you shall eat the good things of the land;

but if you are not willing, nor hearken to Me, the sword shall devour you, and so forth.

Just as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness and to lawlessness unto lawlessness;

so now present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification;

and remember the Scripture that says:

Just as they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge;

and that, what may be known of God is manifest in them; and that, they have closed their eyes;

and God again charging them and saying:

But I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly true;

how then have you turned into bitterness, the strange vine? The soul is immortal;

and all souls, both of men and of women, are alike;

for only the members of the body are distinguished.

There is not one order of souls by nature sinning, and an order of souls by nature acting righteously;

but both are by deliberate choice, the substance of souls being of one kind and alike in all.

I know indeed that I am saying many things, and that the time is now already long;

but what is more to be preferred than salvation? Do you not wish, by toiling, to receive provisions against the heretics? Do you not wish to know the by-ways of the road, that you may not be cast down some precipice through ignorance? If the teachers reckon it no small gain that you should learn these things;

you who are learning, ought you not gladly to receive the abundance of what is said?

The soul is self-determining;

and the devil is able indeed to suggest, but to compel against one's choice he has not the authority.

He inscribes in you a thought of fornication;

For if you fornicated of necessity, why then did God prepare Gehenna? If you acted righteously by nature, not by choice, why then did God prepare crowns unspeakable? The sheep is gentle, but it was never crowned for its gentleness;

since gentleness belongs to it not from choice, but from nature.

You have come to know, beloved, so far as is possible for now, the things concerning the soul;

receive now, according to your ability, also the discourse concerning your body.

Do not tolerate any of those who say that this body is alien to God.

For those who believe the body to be [something] alien [to God], [and] who use it as [the soul dwelling] in an alien vessel, do thereby also readily abuse it for fornications.

And what fault have they found with this marvellous body? In what does it fall short of comeliness? What part of its construction is not skilfully wrought? Ought they not to have considered the most brilliant arrangement of the eyes? And how the ears, set obliquely, receive the hearing unimpeded? And how the sense of smell is discerning of vapours and able to perceive exhalations?

And how the tongue is the servant of two functions, of the faculty of taste and of the activity of speech? How the lung, lying in hidden places, has the ceaseless breathing of the air? Who set the beat of the heart unbroken? Who divided it into so many veins and arteries? Who wisely fastened the bones to the sinews? Who, giving part of the food to the sustaining of the body and dividing part for decent elimination, hid away the unseemly members in the more decent places? Who, when the nature of men was about to fail, by a humble union established it unceasingly? Do not tell me that the body is the cause of sin.

For if the body is the cause of sin, why does a dead man not sin? Place a sword in the right hand of one who has just died, and no murder takes place.

Let beauties of every kind pass before a young man just deceased, and no desire of fornication arises.

Why? Because the body does not sin of itself, but the soul through the body.

The body is an instrument, and as it were the garment and robe of the soul.

And if it be given over by the soul to fornication, it becomes unclean;

but if it dwells together with a holy soul, it becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit.

It is not I who say these things, but Paul the Apostle has said, 'Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?' Spare your body, therefore, as being a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Do not defile your flesh in fornications;

do not pollute this your most beautiful robe.

And if you have indeed polluted it, wash it clean now through repentance;

And as for the discourse on chastity, let the order of monks and of virgins first hear it—those who in the world achieve the angelic life;

[and after them also the rest of the people of the Church.]

A great crown lies in store for you, brethren;

do not exchange a great worth for a small pleasure.

Hear the Apostle saying:

Let there be no fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his own birthright.

Having now been enrolled in the angelic books because of your resolve of chastity, see that you are not again blotted out because of the work of fornication.

Nor again, while achieving chastity, be puffed up against those who are of lower estate in marriage.

For marriage is honourable and the bed undefiled, as the Apostle says.

And you who have purity—were you not born of those who married? Do not, because you possess a treasure of gold, reject silver.

But let those also be of good hope who lawfully use marriage in marriage;

those who make marriage lawful, and do not make it licentious through immoderate liberty;

those who know the seasons of abstinence, that they may give themselves to prayer;

those who, with clean garments, bring pure offerings in the assemblies into the church;

those who have come to marriage for the sake of begetting children, and not for the sake of pleasure-seeking.

And let those who have married once not reject those who have entered into a second marriage.

For self-control is indeed a good thing and admirable;

but it is also pardonable to enter into a second marriage, lest the weak should fornicate.

For it is good for them if they remain even as I, says the Apostle;

but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry;

for it is better to marry than to burn.

But let all the rest be banished far off—fornication, adultery, and every kind of licentiousness.

And let the body be kept pure for the Lord, that the Lord also may look upon the body.

And let the body be nourished with food, that it may live and serve unhindered;

yet not so that it be given over to luxuries.

And concerning foods also, let these be your doctrines;

since many stumble also concerning meats.

For some approach things sacrificed to idols indifferently;

while others practise abstinence, but condemn those who eat.

And in various ways the soul of some is defiled in the matter of meats, since they are ignorant of the beneficial reasons for eating and for not eating.

For we fast, abstaining from wine and meats, not as hating them as abominations, but looking for the reward;

that, disregarding the things of sense, we may enjoy the spiritual and intelligible table;

and that, sowing now in tears, we may reap in rejoicing in the age to come.

Do not, then, despise those who eat and who partake on account of the weakness of their bodies.

Neither blame those who use a little wine on account of the stomach and their frequent infirmities;

and do not condemn them as sinners.

Neither hate meats as though they were alien things;

for the Apostle knows certain such persons, saying:

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful.

Abstaining therefore from these, do not abstain as from abominable things, since you have no reward;

but disdain them as being good, on account of the intelligible things set before you that are far better.

Make your soul secure, that you never eat anything of the things offered to idols.

For concerning these foods, not to me only now, but already to the apostles too and to James the bishop of this church, there was earnest concern.

And the apostles and the elders write a catholic epistle to all the nations, first to abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and then also from blood and from what is strangled.

For many of men, being beast-like and living after the manner of dogs, lap up the blood, imitating the way of the most savage beasts;

and they devour without restraint the things strangled.

But you, the servant of Christ, in eating, have a care to eat with reverence.

And concerning foods, enough.

Let your clothing be plain, set on not for adornment, but for necessary covering;

not that you may be made soft, but that in winter you may be warmed, and may cover the unseemliness of the body;

lest, under pretext of covering the unseemliness, you fall into another unseemliness with extravagant garments.

Spare, I beseech you, this body, and know that you shall be raised from the dead, to be judged together with this body.

But if any word of unbelief steals in upon you, as though the matter were impossible;

consider the things unseen from the things concerning yourself.

For you yourself, tell me, a hundred or more years ago—reckon where you were? And out of what most tiny

and most lowly substance you came to so great a magnitude of stature and so great a dignity of beauty? Then, He who brought what was not into being—can He not raise up again what already is and has fallen into decay? He who raises the wheat sown for our sake, which dies year by year;

shall He then raise us ourselves, for whose sake that too was raised, with difficulty? Do you see how the trees now stand for so many months fruitless and leafless;

but, when the winter is past, they all come to life again as it were from the dead.

Shall we not much more, and more easily, come to life again? The rod of Moses was changed by God's will into the unfamiliar nature of a serpent;

and shall not man, who has fallen into death, be restored again to himself? Do not heed those

who say that this body is not raised.

And Isaiah is witness, saying, 'The dead shall arise, and those in the tombs shall be raised';

and, 'Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise', according to Daniel;

these to eternal life, and these to eternal shame.

But the rising again belongs to all men;

yet the resurrection is not alike for all.

For we all receive eternal bodies, but not all alike.

For the righteous, that abiding for ever they may dance together with the angels;

but the sinners, that they may endure the torment of their sins unto the ages.

For this reason the Lord in His loving-kindness gave beforehand the repentance of the laver, that having cast off the great mass of sins—or rather the whole burden—and having received the seal by the Holy Spirit, we might become heirs of eternal life.

But having spoken sufficiently before concerning the laver, let us now come to the remaining of the introductory lessons.

And these things the God-inspired Scriptures of both the old and the new covenant teach us.

For there is one God of the two covenants, who in the old foretold the Christ who appeared in the new;

who through the law and the prophets led us as by a tutor unto Christ.

For before faith came, we were kept under the law;

and the law became our tutor unto Christ.

And if ever you hear any of the heretics blaspheming the law or the prophets, answer back with the saving voice, saying:

Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it.

And learn diligently and from the Church, which are the books of the old covenant, and which of the new.

And read me none of the apocryphal books.

For why, not knowing the things agreed upon by all, do you trouble yourself in vain over things doubtful? Read the divine Scriptures, these twenty-two books of the old covenant, which were translated by the seventy-two Interpreters.

For when Alexander the king of the Macedonians had died, and the kingdom was divided into four realms—into Babylonia and Macedonia, Asia and Egypt;

one of those reigning over Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus, who was a most learning-loving king and gathered books from everywhere, having heard from Demetrius of Phalerum, the curator of the library, concerning the divine Scriptures of the law and the prophets;

and judging it far better not to take the books by force from unwilling owners, but rather to propitiate those who possessed them with gifts and friendship;

and knowing that what is compelled is often falsified, being given unwillingly;

but that what is provided of free choice is given in all truth;

having sent very many gifts to Eleazar, then the high priest, to the temple of Jerusalem here, he caused to be sent to him, six from each tribe of the twelve tribes of Israel, for the translation.

Then, taking a test of whether or not the books were divine, and suspecting lest those who were sent should collude with one another;

in the island called Pharos, lying off Alexandria, assigning to each of the interpreters who had come a house of his own, he committed to each to translate all the Scriptures.

And when these had completed the task in seventy-two days, gathering together at one place the translations of all, which they had made in different houses without consulting one another, he found them to be in agreement not only in the meanings, but also in the very words.

For what came about was no clever speech or contrivance of human sophistries;

but the interpretation of the divine Scriptures, which had been spoken by the Holy Spirit, was accomplished out of the Holy Spirit.

Of these read the twenty-two books;

but with the apocryphal books have nothing in common.

Study earnestly these only, which we also read in the Church with confidence.

Far more prudent and reverent than you were the apostles and the ancient bishops, the leaders of the Church, who handed these down.

You then, being a child of the Church, do not

And of the old covenant, as has been said, study the twenty-two books;

which, if you are a lover of learning, take care to remember by name as I name them.

For of the law there are the first five books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy;

and next, the book of Joshua son of Nun;

and the book of Judges with Ruth, counted as the seventh.

And of the remaining historical books, the first and the second of the Kingdoms are one book among the Hebrews;

and the third and the fourth likewise one.

And likewise among them the first and the second of the Chronicles are one book;

and the first and the second of Esdras are reckoned as one;

and the twelfth book is Esther.

And these are the historical books.

And the poetical books are five:

Job, and the book of Psalms, and Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, the seventeenth book.

And after these, the prophetic books are five:

of the twelve prophets one book, and of Isaiah one, and of Jeremiah with Baruch, and Lamentations, and the Epistle;

then Ezekiel, and that of Daniel, the twenty-second book of the old covenant.

And of the new covenant, the four Gospels only;

but the rest are falsely titled and harmful.

The Manichaeans also wrote a Gospel according to Thomas, which, being tinged with the fragrance of the evangelic name, corrupts the souls of the simpler sort.

Receive also the Acts of the twelve apostles.

And in addition to these, the seven catholic epistles of James, and Peter, and John, and Jude;

and as the seal of them all, and the last of the disciples, the fourteen epistles of Paul.

But let all the rest be set in a secondary place.

And whatever is not read in the churches, do not read these even by yourself, as you have heard.

And concerning these matters, so much.

But flee every diabolical activity, and do not obey the dragon, the apostate, who from a good nature received a self-chosen change;

who is able indeed to persuade those who are willing, but to compel no one.

And give heed neither to astrologies, nor to bird-augury, nor to omens, nor to the fabulous divinations of the Greeks.

Sorcery, and enchantment, and the most lawless practices of necromancy—do not accept even so far as to hear of them.

Depart from every kind of licentiousness, being neither gluttonous nor pleasure-loving, and rising above all avarice and usury.

And do not join the heathen gatherings for spectacles;

nor ever use amulets in sicknesses.

And turn away also from all the vulgarity of frequenting taverns.

And do not fall away into Samaritanism or Judaism;

for Jesus the Christ has now redeemed you.

Withdraw from every observance of sabbaths,

and from calling any of the indifferent foods common or unclean.

Above all, hate all the assemblies of the lawless heretics.

And in every way fortify your own soul with fastings, prayers, almsgiving, and the readings of the divine oracles, so that, having lived the rest of your time in the flesh with self-control and godly doctrines, you may enjoy the one salvation of the laver;

and so, enlisted in the heavenly hosts for the Father and God, you may be counted worthy of the heavenly crowns;

in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory unto the ages of ages.