Chapter VII.—Concerning the Fall of Man.
For the heavenly Logos, a spirit emanating from the Father and a Logos from the Logos-
power, in imitation of the Father who begat Him made man an image of immortality, so
that, as incorruption is with God, in like manner, man, sharing in a part of God, might have
the immortal principle also. The Logos,21 too, before the creation of men, was the Framer
of angels. And each of these two orders of creatures was made free to act as it pleased, not
having the nature of good, which again is with God alone, but is brought to perfection in
men through their freedom of choice, in order that the bad man may be justly punished,
having become depraved through his own fault, but the just man be deservedly praised for
his virtuous deeds, since in the exercise of his free choice he refrained from transgressing
the will of God. Such is the constitution of things in reference to angels and men. And the
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power of the Logos, having in itself a faculty to foresee future events, not as fated, but as
taking place by the choice of free agents, foretold from time to time the issues of things to
come; it also became a forbidder of wickedness by means of prohibitions, and the encomiast
of those who remained good. And, when men attached themselves to one who was more
subtle than the rest, having regard to his being the first-born,22 and declared him to be God,
though he was resisting the law of God, then the power of the Logos excluded the beginner
of the folly and his adherents from all fellowship with Himself. And so he who was made
in the likeness of God, since the more powerful spirit is separated from him, becomes
mortal; but that first-begotten one through his transgression and ignorance becomes a demon;
and they who imitated him, that is his illusions, are become a host of demons, and through
their freedom of choice have been given up to their own infatuation.
21 [Kaye’s rendering of this passage should be compared. See his Justin, p. 182.]
22 Gen. iii. 1 [First-born. ἄγγελος πρωτόγονος.]
Chapter VII. Concerning the Fall of Man.
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Chapter VII. Concerning the Fall of Man.