[47] Cruice’s emendation.
[48] A hiatus to be filled evidently with some reference to the mouth. The whole of this passage seems corrupt. From what is said about the bitterness of the water Exodus should be taste, Leviticus smell and Numbers hearing.
[49] The simile as well as the phrase is to be found in Aristotle. Cf. his Organon, c. viii.
[50] Cf. Isa. ii. 4; Micah iv. 3.
[51] Matt. iii, 10; Luke iii, 9.
[52] So the Bruce Papyrus (ed. Amélineau, p. 231) says that God when he withdrew all things into Himself, did not so draw “a little Thought,” and from this one Thought all the worlds were made.
[53] οὐ κοσμεῖται, non ordinaretur, Cr., “is not adorned,” Macmahon.
[54] Reading μητροπάτωρ for μήτηρ πατήρ. Cf. Clem. Alex., Strom., v. 14 for this word. The other epithets seem to cover allusions to the Dionysiac, the Osirian and the Attis myths.
[55] ἡ μεταβλητὴ γένεσις, “changeable,” because those thus born would have to go through many changes of bodies. The phrase is used by the Naassene author.
[56] A play τροπή, “turning,” and τροφὴ, “nutriment.”