Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XVIII/Chapter 9

by Anonymous

Chapter IX.—How Simon Bears His Exposure.

When Peter said this, the multitudes applauded.^[1]  But Simon, being thus exposed,^[2] blushed through shame, and rubbing his forehead, said:  “Well, then, do they declare that I, a magician, yea, even I who syllogize, am conquered by Peter?  It is not so.  But if one should syllogize, though carried away and conquered, he still retains the truth that is in him.  For the weakness in the defender is not identical with the truth in the conquered man.^[3]  But I assure you that I have judged all those who are bystanders worthy to know the unrevealed Father.  Wherefore, because I publicly reveal him to them, you yourself, through envy, are angry with me who wish to confer a benefit on them.”

Footnotes

1. [The remainder of the Homily is without a close parallel in the Recognitions.—R.]
2. Lit., “caught in the act.”
3. This passage is deemed corrupt by commentators.  We have made no change in the reading of the mss., except that of νενικημένην into νενικημένος, and perhaps even this is unnecessary.  The last sentence means:  “A man may overcome the weakness of his adversary:  but he does not therefore strip him of the truth, which he possesses even when he is conquered.”  The Latin translation of Cotelerius, with some emendations from later editors, yields this:  “But they say that I, a magician, am not merely conquered by Peter, but reduced to straits by his reasonings.  But not even though one be reduced to straits by reasonings, has he the truth which is in him conquered.  For the weakness of the defender is not the truth of the conqueror.”