“But the ways in which this garment may be spotted are these:  If any one withdraw from God the Father and Creator of all, receiving another teacher besides Christ, who alone is the faithful and true Prophet, and who has sent us twelve apostles to preach the word; if any one think otherwise than worthily of the substance of the Godhead, which excels all things;—these are the things which even fatally pollute the garment of baptism.  But the things which pollute it in actions are these:  murders, adulteries, hatreds, avarice, evil ambition.  And the things which pollute at once the soul and the body are these:  to partake of the table of demons, that is, to taste things sacrificed, or blood, or a carcase which is strangled,⁷⁴⁸

748 [In Homily VII. 8 a similar injunction is given, at Sidon.  The language in both places recalls Acts xv. 20 and 1 Cor. x. 21.  But most of the chapter is peculiar to the Recognitions.—R.]

749 Matt. xiii. 23.  [Comp. Mark iv. 8; 20, where the order of the numbers corresponds with that of the Recognitions.  The interpretation is a fanciful one, indicating not only Judaistic legalism, but the notion of esoteric teaching.  The passage shows Ebionitic tendencies.—R.]

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