(1.231) And a proof of this may be found in the oracular answer given by God to the person who asked his name, "I am that I Am," so that the questioner might recognize God's existence, since nothing in God can be comprehended by man. (1.232) So to the incorporeal souls engaged in his service it is natural for him to appear as he is, conversing with them as a friend with his friends; but to those souls which are still in the body he must appear in the resemblance of the angels, though without changing his nature⁠a (for he is unchangeable), but merely implanting in those who see him the idea that he has another form, so that they imagine it is his image, not an imitation of him, but the very archetypal appearance itself. (1.233) There is, then, a much celebrated old story that the Divinity, assuming the resemblance of men of different countries, goes around the different cities of men, searching out the deeds of iniquity and lawlessness; and perhaps, though the fable is not true, it is a suitable and profitable one. (1.234) But the scripture, which always presents its conceptions of the Deity in a more reverent and holy tone, and which also desires to instruct the life of the foolish, has spoken of God under the likeness of a man, though not of any particular man; (1.235) attributing to him, for this purpose, a face, and hands, and feet, and of a mouth and voice, and also anger and passion, and moreover, defensive weapons, and goings in and goings out, and motions upwards and downwards, and in every direction, not using all these expressions with strict truth, but with a view to the benefit of those who are to learn from it; (1.236) for the writers knew that some men are by nature so dull that they are utterly unable to form any conception of God apart from a body, and that such men could not be admonished if the writers spoke in any style other than the existing one, which represents God as coming and departing like a man; and as descending and ascending, and as using his voice, and as being angry with sinners, and being implacable in his anger; and speaking too of his darts and swords, and whatever other instruments are fit for use against the wicked, as all ready in advance. (1.237) For we must be content if such men can be brought to a proper state by the fear that such descriptions hold over them; and one may almost say that these are the only two paths taken, in the whole history of the law; one leading to plain truth, which gives us such assertions as, "God is not as a man;" the other, the path that has regard to the opinions of foolish men, about whom it is said, "The Lord God shall instruct you, as if a man instructs his son."