Eznik of Kolb

“But because [God] knows that some humans act according to his will and some do not, for that very reason he proclaims the virtue of the one part in order to incite the others to a zeal for the good from the womb. In the same way too, concerning those others, he proclaims their worthlessness. It is not as if he creates one worthless from the womb, and another useful. And if such were the case, why would it be necessary to praise the worthy and to blame the worthless if he himself is the creator of worthiness and worthlessness? Thus one ought not to be held blameable for that worthlessness if he had created him so from the womb.And now it is clear that God's saying before-hand, "Jacob I have loved and Esau have I hated" means that this one will become beloved by his conduct, and that one hateful.… As it also says elsewhere: "God made man upright, and they thought a thought of evil."”

“God knows everything beforehand. But there is that which he wills, and there is that which he does not. He willed to bring the flood, but it was not his will that by means of the flood humans and animals alike would be exterminated. He was brought to do what he did not will by the unworthy, arrogant couplings of the race.”

“True is the word of Scripture that says, "I will turn the sun into darkness and the moon into blood." It demonstrates that he is the Lord of the luminaries and of their lightening and darkening. This stands as a reproach to the sun worshipers and the moon worshipers. And there is no way for the moon to descend into the earth, as it has been claimed by magicians. It is God who commands the moon's light to appear bloody and its features demonic. The magicians prattle that they will cause the moon to descend—an impossibility! They imagine that something greater than many worlds can be contained in one little threshing floor and that one without breasts can be milked. And how many numberless thousands upon thousands of magicians are there on earth! If each one of them independently were capable of making the moon descend, it would never be allowed to ascend to the heavens. But that it never descends is clear because no one sees it descending or ascending. And if you are patient, you will become aware that right there, having become darkened, the moon becomes luminous little by little until entirely it is restored.”

“And in the days of Joshua, son of Jehozadak, why did an angel say to the adversary who was opposing him, "The Lord rebuke you, O Satan"? And why are the Jews called "sons of Satan" for transgressing the laws, if he [the adversary] perseveres in the command he received and they transgressed the commandment? And why would he be called utterly a liar, he who remains faithful to the rule? Because that evil comes not from him but from the very one who made him so. And why should he be sent into the "outer darkness"?”