{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/008/0081060.htm","path":"chr/ecf/008/0081060.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/008/0081060.htm","text":"Chapter VIII.\u2014Simon and Peter Continue the Discussion.\nAnd Simon said: \u201cMy original stipulation with you was that I should prove from the Scriptures that you were wrong in maintaining that we ought not to speak of many gods.\u201d Accordingly I adduced many written passages to show that the divine Scriptures themselves speak of many gods.\u201d And Peter said: \u201cThose very Scriptures which speak of many gods, also exhorted us, saying, \u2018The names of other gods shall not ascend upon thy lips.\u2019 1276 Thus, Simon, I did not speak contrary to what was written.\u201d And Simon said: \u201cDo you, Peter, listen to what I have to say. You seem to me to sin in speaking against them, 1277 when the Scripture says, 1278 \u2018Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the rulers of thy people.\u2019\u201d And Peter said: \u201cI am not sinning, Simon, in pointing out their destruction according to the Scriptures; for thus it is written: 1279 \u2018Let the gods who did not make the heavens and the earth perish.\u2019 And He said thus, not as though some had made the heavens and were not to perish, as you interpreted the passage. For it is plainly declared that He who made them is one in the very first part of Scripture: 1280 \u2018In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And it did not say, \u2018the gods.\u2019 And somewhere else it says, 1281 \u2018And the firmament showeth His handiwork.\u2019 And in another place it is written, 1282 \u2018The heavens themselves shall perish, but Thou shalt remain for ever.\u2019\u201d\nJosh. xxiii. 7, LXX.\n314:1277 314:1278\nEx. xxii. 28. The mss. omit \u03b8\u03b5\u03bf\u03cd\u03c2, though they insert it in the passage as quoted a little before this. One ms. reads \u201cthe ruler\u201d with our version.\n314:1279 314:1280 314:1281 314:1282","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VIII: Pseudo-Clementine Literature.: Chapter VIII","type":"page"}