Introduction: Like Produces Like; Hebrews, Christians; Life and Death

A Hebrew creates a Hebrew, and [those] of this kind are called “a proselyte.” A p[rose]lyte, however, does not create a proselyte [...] [...] they resemble [...] and they create yet more [...] [...] only [...] will be sufficient for them, in order that they could come to exist. The slave seeks only to be free. He, however, does not seek the possessions of his master. The son, however, not only is he a son, but he claims for himself the inheritance of the father.⁠a Those who inherit the dead, they are dead also, and they inherit the dead. Those who inherit the living, they are living, and they inherit the living as well as the dead. The dead inherit nothing, because how could the dead inherit? If the dead were to inherit the living, he would not die, but the dead would instead live. A gentile does not die, because he has never lived to be able to die. He who has been faithful to the truth, he has lived, and this one has the potential to die, because he has been alive from the day Christ arrived. Created is adornment, adorned are the cities, the dead one is carried out. When we were Hebrews, we were without a father; we possessed our mother. When, however, we became Christians, we obtained a father and a mother. Those who sow in winter will reap in summer. The winter is the world, the summer is the other age.⁠b Let us sow in the world in order for us to be able to reap in summer. Consequently, it is fitting that we do not pray in winter.⁠c What follows winter is summer. If someone, however, would reap in winter, he will not reap. He will instead uproot, exactly like someone who will not bring forth fruit [...]. He not only will come forth [...], but also on the Sabbath [...] it will be without fruit. Christ came to purchase some; however, to save others; also, to redeem others. The strangers were the ones he purchased, and he made them to belong to him, and he placed those who belong to him apart. These are the ones he specified as a deposit in his will. Not only when he appeared did he lay down his life whenever he willed, but from the day the world existed he laid down his life whenever he willed.⁠d He then came, first to take possession of it, because it had been specified as a deposit. It came into the possession of the thieves, and they captured it. He, however, saved it, and the good in the world, he redeemed them, as well as the bad. Light and darkness, life and death, right and left, they are each brothers to one another. They cannot be separated from each other. Consequently, neither are the good good, nor are the bad bad. Nor is life life, nor is death death. Consequently, each of these will dissolve, returning to its primary origin. Those, however, that are above the world cannot be dissolved. They dwell among what is eternal.