Letter 239

To the same person. Suppose someone skilled in mosaic work were to take an image of the emperor, beautifully and very carefully constructed from tesserae [the small stones of a mosaic] by a wise craftsman, and were to dissolve the underlying form of the man, transfer those same tesserae, rearrange them, and make out of them the shape of a dog or a fox; and then suppose he were to assert and declare that this is that beautiful image of the emperor which the wise craftsman constructed, pointing to the tesserae that were well composed by the first craftsman into the emperor's image but badly transferred by the later man into the shape of a dog; and suppose that, through the illusion of the tesserae, he were to lead astray the more inexperienced, those who possess no grasp of the imperial likeness from the form, and were to persuade them that this rotten figure of the fox is the beautiful image of the emperor. In the very same way the heresiarchs [founders of heresies], stitching words together after the manner of old women, and tearing away certain phrases and parables of divine Scripture, force themselves to fit the oracles of God to their own fables. But do not be ignorant of such men.

Ὃν τρόπον εἴ τις βασιλέως εἰκόνος καλῶς κατασκευασμένης ἐπιμελέστερον ἐκ ψηφίδων ἐπιστήμων ὑπὸ σοφοῦ τεχνίτου, λύσας τὴν ὑποκειμένην τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰδέαν, μετενέγκοι τὰς ψηφίδας ἐκείνας, καὶ μεταρμόσοι, καὶ ποιήσειεν ἐξ αὐτῶν μορφὴν κυνὸς ἢ ἀλώπεκος, ἔπειτα διορίζοιτο, καὶ λέγει ταύτην εἶναι τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως ἐκείνην τὴν καλήν, ἣν ὁ σοφὸς τεχνίτης κατεσκεύασεν, δεικνὺς τὰς ψηφίδας τὰς καλῶς ὑπὸ τοῦ πρώτου τεχνίτου εἰς τὴν τοῦ βασιλέως εἰκόνα συντεθείσας, κακῶς δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ ὑστέρου εἰς κυνὸς μορφὴν μετενεχθείσας, καὶ διὰ τῆς τῶν ψηφίδων φαντασίας μεθοδεύοι τοὺς ἀπειροτέρους, τοὺς κατάληψιν βασιλικὴν ἐκ μορφῆς οὐκ ἔχοντας, καὶ πείθοι, ὅτι αὕτη ἡ σαπρὰ τῆς ἀλώπεκος ἰδέα ἐστὶν ἡ καλὴ τοῦ βασιλέως εἰκών· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ οἱ αἱρεσιάρχαι, γραιῶν τρόπον συγκαττύσαντες ῥήματα, καὶ λέξεις τινάς, καὶ παραβολὰς θείας Γραφῆς ἀπεσπάσαντες, ἐφαρμόζειν βιάζονται τοῖς ἑαυτῶν μύθοις τὰ λόγια τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἀλλὰ μὴ ἀγνοεῖτε τοὺς τοιούτους.