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| Discussion on Genesis.
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Chapter
XI.—Discussion on Genesis.
And Peter said: “You did this
according to your resolution. But in regard to Genesis, were you
merely playing a part when you affirmed it, or were you in earnest in
asserting that it existed?” Our father said: “I
will not speak falsely to you. I was in earnest when I maintained
that Genesis existed. For I am not uninitiated in the science; on
the contrary, I associated with one who is the best of the astrologers,
an Egyptian of the name of Annubion, who became my friend in the
commencement of my travels, and disclosed to me the death of my wife
and children.”1213
| 1213 [Comp. Homily
IV. 6. Annubion and Appion are not introduced in the
Recognitions until book x. 52.—R.] | And Peter
said: “Are you not now convinced by facts, that the
doctrine of Genesis has no firm foundation?” And my father
answered: “I must lay before you all the ideas that occur
to my mind, that listening to them I may understand your refutation of
them.1214
| 1214 Here
mss. and Epitomes differ in their
readings. The text adopted seems a combination of two
ideas: “that you may listen and refute them, and that I may
thus learn the truth.” | I know, indeed, that astrologers
both make many mistakes, and frequently speak the truth. I
suspect, therefore, that they speak the truth so far as they are
accurately acquainted with the science, and that their mistakes are the
result of ignorance; so that I conjecture that the science has a firm
foundation, but that the astrologers themselves speak what is false
solely on account of ignorance, because they cannot know all things
with absolute1215
| 1215 We have adopted the
reading of Codex O, πάντως. The
other ms. reads, “that all cannot know
all things accurately.” |
accuracy.” And Peter answered:
“Consider1216
| 1216 The
mss. read ἄπεχε, “hold
back.” The reading of the text is in an
Epitome. | whether their
speaking of the truth is not accidental, and whether they do not make
their declarations without knowing the matters accurately. For it
must by all means happen that, when many prophecies are uttered, some
of them should come true.” And the old man said:
“How, then, is it possible to be fully convinced of this, whether
the science of Genesis has a sure foundation or
not?”
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