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| The Objection Answered, that One Cannot Change Himself.
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Chapter VII.—The
Objection Answered, that One Cannot Change Himself.
“But perhaps some one of you thinks that one
may become something under the influence of one, and another under the
influence of another, but no one can change himself into whatever he
wishes, and that it is the characteristic of one who grows old, and who
must die according to his nature,1502
| 1502 One word of this is
supplied conjecturally by Dressel. | to change, but
we ought not to entertain such thoughts of immortal beings. For
were not angels, who are free from old age, and of a fiery
substance,1503
| 1503 Gen.
vi. 2. [Comp. Ps. civ. 4.] | changed into
flesh,—those, for instance, who received the hospitality of
Abraham,1504
| 1504 Part of this is
conjectural. | whose feet men
washed, as if they were the feet of men of like substance?1505
Yea, moreover, with Jacob,1506
who was a man, there wrestled an angel,
converted into flesh that he might be able to come to close quarters
with him. And, in like manner, after he had wrestled by his own
will, he was converted into his own natural form; and now, when he was
changed into fire, he did not burn up the broad sinew of Jacob, but he
inflamed it, and made him lame. Now, that which cannot become
anything else, whatever it may wish, is mortal, inasmuch as it is
subject to its own nature; but he who can become whatever he wishes,
whenever he wishes, is immortal, returning to a new condition, inasmuch
as he has control over his own nature. Wherefore much more does
the power of God change the substance of the body into whatever He
wishes and whenever He wishes; and by the change that takes
place1507
| 1507 We have adopted
Wieseler’s emendation of μή into μέν. | He sends forth what, on the one hand, is of
similar substance, but, on the other, is not of equal power.
Whatever, then, he who sends forth turns into a different substance,
that he can again turn back into his own;1508
| 1508 This passage is
corrupt. We have changed ὅτι
into ὅ, τι, and supplied τρέπει. |
but he who is sent forth, arising in consequence of the change which
proceeds from him, and being his child, cannot become anything else
without the will of him who sent him forth, unless he wills
it.”
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