Likewise, the Christians remained upon the path of rectitude after the Messiah until the advocates of figurative interpretation arose among them, whereupon (1) the very bonds of their religion began to unravel. Those interpreters convened one council after another, and at each gathering they produced new readings that clashed with the true faith; the delegates of the following council would then (2) curse them and refuse to endorse their views. Matters continued thus until King Constantine gathered them from every corner of the earth, and they numbered three hundred and eighteen patriarchs (3) and bishops (4). The interpreters then (5) fashioned for them the very creed they hold today: they annulled from Christ’s religion whatever they pleased, added to it and subtracted from it, and laid down new laws at will—all under the banner of interpretation. They themselves have listed the plain texts they thus re-read.

By that same interpretive method they declared God to be the third of three, made the Messiah His son, and then identified him with God Himself, saying, “This one, this one, and this one.” (6) Exalted is God far above what they allege. And through such interpretation they abandoned circumcision,