{"collection":"Christian Texts","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_chr_ecf_008_0081153_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_chr_ecf_008_0081153_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_chr_ecf_008_0081153_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/008/0081153.htm","summary":"This is a chapter from the *Clementine Homilies*, an early Christian pseudepigraphical text (likely 2nd\u20133rd century) presented as a dialogue between the apostle Peter and his companions, belonging to the Pseudo-Clementine literary tradition. The passage addresses a theological question about whether the good and evil cosmic principles share a common origin. Peter argues they do not: the evil one arose as an *accidental* byproduct of God combining a fourfold substance externally \u2014 the evil disposition was never directly created or intended, but supervened as a consequence. The good one, by contrast, was genuinely *begotten* from God's own nature through a beautiful inner change, making the relationship direct and essential rather than incidental. A notably distinctive element is Peter's strong epistemic caution at the close: he warns that these doctrines are unwritten, unverifiable beyond conjecture, and should be held silently rather than asserted, lest the mind stop seeking truth \u2014 or the speaker incur punishment for voicing what deserves silence. The text will interest readers studying early Christian cosmological dualism, proto-orthodox responses to Gnostic theodicy, and the esoteric/exoteric distinction in early Christian teaching.","tags":["Ante-Nicene Fathers","Christian Apocrypha","Clementine Literature"],"text":null,"title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VIII: Pseudo-Clementine Literature.: Chapter VIII","tradition":"Christian Texts","translated_text":null,"word_count":515}