Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XX/Chapter 16

by Anonymous

Chapter XVI.—Why Simon Gave to Faustus His Own Shape.

And my father said:  “I have sinned; I confess it.”  And Annubion said:  “I also along with him beg you to forgive the noble and good old man who has been deceived:  for the unfortunate man has been the sport of that notorious fellow.  But I shall tell you how it took place.^[1]  The good old man came to salute us.  But at that very hour we who were there happened to be listening to Simon, who wished to run away that night, for he had heard that some people had come to Laodicea in search of him by the command of the emperor.  But as Faustus was entering, he turned^[2] his own rage on him, and thus addressed us:  ‘Make him, when he comes, share your meals; and I will prepare an ointment, so that, when he has supped, he may take some of it, and anoint his face with it, and then he will appear to all to have my shape.  But I will anoint you with the juice^[3] of some plant, and then you will not be deceived by his new^[4] shape; but to all others Faustus will seem to be Simon.’

Footnotes

1. An emendation of Dressel’s.
2. Supplied by Dressel from the Recognitions.
3. An emendation of Wieseler’s.
4. ms. reads “empty.”  Wieseler proposed “new” or “assumed.”