The Miscellanies, Books I-VI

“Son,” he says, “do not forget my ordinances.” 2 If knowledge is not for everyone, then as the proverb says, the writings are to the many as a donkey is to a lyre. Pigs certainly “delight in mud” more than in pure water. 3 “For this reason,” says the Lord, “I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand,” not because the Lord provides ignorance for them (for it is not holy to think so), but because he prophetically refutes the ignorance that already exists and indicates that they will be without understanding of what is said.

3, 1 Already, the Savior himself clearly appears, according to the power of the recipient—which must be increased through shared exercise—having distributed his possessions to his slaves, and having returned again to settle accounts with them, at the time when he accepted those who had increased his silver, the “faithful in a few things,” and promised to “set them over many things,” and commanded them to enter “into the joy of the Lord.” 2 To the one who had hidden the entrusted silver to lend it out and was returning only what he had received, idle, he said, “You wicked and lazy slave, you ought to have cast my silver to the bankers, and when I came I would have recovered my own.” Because of these things, the useless slave will be cast “into the outer darkness.” 3 “You, therefore, be strengthened,” Paul also says, “in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things which you heard from me through many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be capable of teaching others also.” And again: “Be diligent | 318 P to present yourself approved to God, a worker unashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

4, 1 If, therefore, both proclaim the word, the one by writing and the other by voice, how are both not to be accepted, having made their faith active through love? And God is blameless for the cause of the one who did not choose the best. For it is the work of some to lend the word, and of others to test it and either choose it or not; the judgment, however, is within them.

Critical notes:
6: "the ignorance for them [as] not providing" - reading suggested by emendation of the source text.
10: "which must be increased through shared exercise" - reading based on conjecture.