Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XVI/Chapter 12

by Anonymous

Chapter XII.—Peter’s Explanation of the Passage.

And Peter answered:  “One is He who said to His Wisdom, ‘Let us make a man.’  But His Wisdom^[1] was that with which He Himself always rejoiced^[2] as with His own spirit.  It is united as soul to God, but it is extended by Him, as hand, fashioning the universe.  On this account, also, one man was made, and from him went forth also the female.  And being a unity generically, it is yet a duality, for by expansion and contraction the unity is thought to be a duality.  So that I act rightly in offering up all the honour to one God as to parents.”  And Simon said:  “What then?  Even if the Scriptures say that there are other gods, will you not accept the opinion?”

Footnotes

1. This is the only passage in the Homilies relating to the σοφία.  The text is in some parts corrupt.  It is critically discussed by Uhlhorn, some of whose emendations are adopted by Dressel and translated here.
2. Prov. viii. 30.