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Rh certain Scribe, who followed with us, said, "This saying of Jesus is also in accordance with the sayings of the Wise; for it is said all things are done according to exact retribution, whether in way of punishment or reward. Even as Samson (who followed after the desire of his eyes) was blinded by the Philistines; and Absalom (who boasted of his hair) was hanged upon the tree by his hair, so that he died. Moreover also Ham the father of Canaan (who sinned by seeing and by telling, that is with the eyes and with the teeth) was therefore made a slave; as Moses also enacted that whatsoever slave was sinned against by his master in the matter of teeth or eyes, so as to suffer loss thereof, he should be made no longer a slave but free. For this is according to the law of retributions; for with what measure a man measureth, measure to him."

"Nevertheless," said Matthew the Publican, "I would fain know how, when we attain to the Kingdom, the mothers of the faithful should be multiplied an hundredfold." But some one said, in answer to Matthew, that perchance the meaning of that hard saying was, that as many as were in the Kingdom should be as one family; so that all men, esteeming one another as brethren, should look upon the mothers of their brethren as being their own mothers. Howbeit most of us agreed to the words of Judas, who said that we should take our stand upon the clear sayings of Jesus and leave the dark sayings: now Jesus had said that our houses and lands should be multiplied an hundredfold, and that saying ought to suffice for us.

Thus for that season we gave not much heed to the deep saying of Jesus: but afterwards when I wrote concerning it to Quartus the Alexandrine, of whom I spake before, he explained it after a different fashion. For he