Christ overturns the unlawful doctrine of souls sent into bodies
The author introduces a fragment on John 3, explaining that Christ himself overturned an unlawful doctrine held by some about souls being sent into bodies for punishment.
In this, the Savior himself was overturning an unlawful doctrine. For some people supposed that sinning souls are sent from heaven into a body for the sake of punishment, and that sometimes the soul remains pre-existing by itself apart from the body, while at other times it is intertwined with bodies on account of its own sins—so that a woman can conceive only when some soul sins. Destroying this error, Christ, when he was asked, said: "Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but this happened so that the works of God might be revealed" (John 9:3).
Greek
Jo , 3 Ἐν τούτῳ δὲ ἀνέτρεπεν αὐτὸς ὁ σωτὴρ δόγμα παράνομον. ὑπονοούντων γάρ τινων ψυχὰς ἁμαρτανούσας ἐξ οὐρανοῦ τιμωρίας ἕνεκεν εἰς σῶμα πέμπεσθαι καί ποτε μὲν καθ' ἑαυτὴν προϋπάρχουσαν τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ σώματος <μένειν>, ποτὲ δὲ οἰκείων ἁμαρτημάτων χάριν σώμασι συμπλέκεσθαι καὶ τότε κατὰ γαστρὸς ἔχειν τὴν γυναῖκα δύνασθαι ὅτε τις ψυχὴ ἁμαρτάνῃ, ἀναιρῶν τὴν τοιαύτην πλάνην ἐρωτηθεὶς ὁ Χριστὸς ἔλεγεν· οὔτε οὗτος ἥμαρτεν οὔτε οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ' ἵνα φανερωθῇ τὰ ἔργα θεοῦ. 1