3-6:1
Οὐδὲν ἐμοί, ἔφη, μέλει Πλάτωνος οὐδὲ Πυθαγόρου οὐδὲ ἁπλῶς οὐδενὸς ὅλως τοιαῦτα δοξάζοντος. Τὸ γὰρ ἀληθὲς οὕτως ἔχει· μάθοιςδ ἂν ἐντεῦθεν.Ἡ ψυχὴ ἤτοι ζωή ἐστιν ἢ ζωὴν ἔχει. Εἰ μὲν οὖν ζωή ἐστιν, ἄλλο τι ἆν ποιήσειε ζῆν, οὐχ ἑαυτήν, ὡς καὶ κίνησις ἄλλο τι κινήσειε μᾶλλον ἢ ἑαυτήν. Ὃτι δὲ ζῇ ψυχή, οὐδεὶς ἀντείποι. Εἰ δὲ ζῇ, οὐ ζωὴ οὖσα ζῇ, ἀλλὰ μεταλαμβάνουσα τῆς ζωῆς· ἕτερον δέ τι τὸ μετέχον τινὸς ἐκείνου οὗ μετέχει. Ζωῆς δὲ ψυχὴ μετέχει, ἐπεὶ ζῆν αὐτὴν ὁ θεὸς βούλεται
'It is no concern of mine,' he said, 'about Plato or Pythagoras or, in short, anyone at all who holds such opinions. For the truth is thus, and you would learn it from this. The soul is either life itself, or it possesses life. If, then, it is life, it would make something else live, not itself—just as motion would move something other than itself rather than itself. And that the soul lives, no one would deny. But if it lives, it does not live as being life itself, but by partaking of life; and that which partakes of something is other than that which it partakes of. Now the soul partakes of life, since God wills it to live.'
他說：「柏拉圖也好、畢達哥拉斯也好，總之凡持這類見解的人，都與我無干。因為真理乃是如此，你可從這裡學會。靈魂要麼本身就是生命，要麼是擁有生命。那麼，它若是生命本身，它就會使別的東西活，而非使自己活——正如運動會推動別的東西，而非推動自身。靈魂是活的，這沒有人會否認。但它若是活的，便不是作為生命本身而活，乃是藉著分有生命而活；而分有某物者，與它所分有之物乃是不同的。如今靈魂分有生命，正因神願意它活著。」
3-6:2
Οὕτως ἄρα καὶ οὐ μεθέξει ποτέ, ὅταν αὐτὴν μὴ θέλοι ζῆν. Οὐ γὰρ ἴδιον αὐτῆς ἐστι τὸ ζῆν ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ· ἀλλὰ ὥσπερ ἄνθρωπος οὐ διὰ παντός ἐστιν οὐδὲ σύνεστιν ἀεὶ τῇ ψυχῇ τὸ σῶμα, ἀλλ᾿, ὅταν δέῃ λυθῆναι τὴν ἁρμονίαν ταύτην, καταλείπει ἡ ψυχὴ τὸ σῶμα καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὐκ ἔστιν, οὕτως καί, ὅταν δέῃ τὴν ψυχὴν μηκέτι εἶναι, ἀπέστη ἀπ αὐτῆς τὸ ζωτικὸν πνεῦμα καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ ψυχὴ ἔτι, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴ ὅθεν ἐλήφθη ἐκεῖσε χωρεῖ πάλιν
'So then it will also one day not partake of life, when He no longer wills it to live. For life is not its own possession, as it is God's; but just as a man does not exist forever, nor is the body always united with the soul, but, when this harmony must be dissolved, the soul leaves the body and the man ceases to be—so also, when the soul must be no more, the life-giving spirit departs from it and the soul is no longer, but it too goes back again to the place whence it was taken.'
「如此，當神不再願意它活著時，它便也終有一日不再分有生命。因為生命不是它自己所固有的，不像它是神所固有的那樣；正如人並非永遠存在，身體也並非總與靈魂相聯結，乃是當這和諧必須被解開時，靈魂便離開身體，人也就不復存在——照樣，當靈魂必須不再存在時，那賜生命的靈便從它離去，靈魂也就不復存在，而是它自己也回到當初被取出的那地方去。」