Chapter XIX.--Peter's Instructions to Faustus.
"When you are with these in Antioch, while you look like Simon, proclaim publicly your repentance, saying, I Simon proclaim this to you: I confess [1535] that all my statements in regard to Peter are utterly false; [1536] for he is not a deceiver, nor a murderer, nor a juggler; nor are any of the evil things true which I, urged on by wrath, said previously in regard to him. I myself therefore beg of you, I who have been the cause of your hatred to him, cease from hating him; for he is the true apostle of the true Prophet that was sent by God for the salvation of the world. Wherefore also I counsel you to believe what he preaches; [1537] for if you do not, your whole city will be utterly destroyed. Now I wish you to know for what reason I have made this confession to you. This night angels of God scourged me, the impious one, terribly, as being an enemy to the herald of the truth. I beseech you, therefore, do not listen to me, even if I myself should come at another time and attempt to say anything against Peter. For I confess to you I am a magician, I am a deceiver, I am a juggler. Yet perhaps it is possible for me by repentance to wipe out the sins which were formerly committed by me.'"
[1535] Amended according to Epitome.
[1536] Partly filled up from Epitome and Recognitions.
[1537] ms. reads, "I preach."
Chapter XX.--Faustus, His Wife, and Sons, Prepare to Go to Antioch.
When Peter suggested this, my father said: "I know what you want; wherefore take no trouble. For assuredly I shall take good care, when I reach that place, to make such statements in regard to you as I ought to make." And Peter again suggested: "When, then, you perceive the city changing from its hatred of me, and longing to see me, send information to me of this, and I shall come to you immediately. And when I arrive there, that same day I shall remove the strange shape which now invests you, and I shall make your own unmistakeably visible to your own people and to all others." Saying this, he made his sons, my brothers, and our mother Mattidia to go along with him; and he also commanded some of his more intimate acquaintances to accompany him. But my mother was [1538] unwilling to go with him, and said: "I seem to be an adulteress if I associate with the shape of Simon; but if I shall be compelled to go along with him, [1539] it is impossible for me to recline on the same couch with him! But I do not know if I shall be persuaded to go along with him." And while she was very unwilling to go, Annubion urged her, saying: "Believe me and Peter, and the very voice itself, that this is Faustus your husband, whom I love not less than you. And I myself will go [1540] along with him." When Annubion said this, our mother promised to go with him.
[1538] We have changed eide into eike, and added kai eipe, according to the Recognitions.
[1539] One word, tuches, is superfluous.
[1540] Supplied from the Recognitions.
Chapter XXI.--Appion and Athenodorus Return in Quest of Faustus.
But Peter said: "God arranges our affairs in a most satisfactory manner; [1541] for we have with us Annubion the astrologer. [1542] For when we arrive at Antioch, he will in future discourse regarding genesis, giving us his genuine opinions as a friend." Now when, after midnight, our father hurried with those whom Peter had ordered to go along with him and with Annubion to Antioch, which was near, early next day, before Peter went forth to discourse, Appion and Athenodorus, who had convoyed Simon, returned to Laodicea in search of our father. But Peter, ascertaining the fact, urged them to enter. And when they came in and sat down, and said, "Where is Faustus?" Peter answered: "We know not; for since the evening, when he went to you, he has not been seen by his kinsmen. But yesterday morning Simon came in search of him; and when we made no reply to him, something seemed to come over him, [1543] for he called himself Faustus; but not being believed, he wept and lamented, and threatened to kill himself, and then rushed out in the direction of the sea."
[1541] We read epitedeiotata, in harmony with the Recognitions.
[1542] Part in italics supplied from Recognitions.
[1543] The Greek is probably corrupt here; but there can scarcely be a doubt about the meaning.