Since a twofold manner of considering our Saviour Jesus Christ has been set forth in the treatise preceding this one, the Proof of the Gospel—the one supernatural and transcendent, according to which we define him to be the only-begotten Son of God, or the essential Word of God, the second cause of all things, or an intellectual essence, and the God-begotten, virtuous, first-born nature, the divine and all-virtuous power before all begotten things, or the intellectual image of the unbegotten nature; while the other is kindred to us and more familiar, according to which we again define him as the Word of God, declarative among men of the piety of the Father, according to which manner he appeared long ago, in earlier times, in human form, to those around Abraham—he being that very one proclaimed as ethnarch to those who are beloved of God,
and who was, moreover, foretold to appear again among men through a human birth and flesh like our own, and to suffer things most shameful—our discourse would proceed in due order and sequence for us, who are about to set forth the prophetic testimonies concerning him, if indeed we should first examine, in accordance with what has been promised, the first manner, and should confirm the theology concerning him found in the Gospels by the ancient and prophetic testimony. But it is necessary first to consider beforehand what, then, was the manner of the divine possession of the prophets among the Hebrews, by whom we too have been instructed in advance in the things foretold.
Both Greeks and barbarians everywhere on earth record the existence of divination and oracles. And they say that these were instituted by the providence of the Creator for the use and benefit of mankind—so that there is no difference between the prophets among the Hebrews and the oracles of the rest of the nations; for just as, they say, the God over all speaks oracles and suggests what is expedient to the Hebrews through such prophets, so too he does to the other nations through the local divinations.
For, they say, God is not the God of the Jews alone, but of all the rest of mankind as well; and he cares no more for the former than for the latter, but provides equally for all—just as he has, indeed, bestowed the sun ungrudgingly on all, and not on the Hebrews alone, and the yearly supplies of necessities, and a like structure of bodies for all, and one manner of birth for all, and one nature of the rational soul.
So too, they say, he provides to all men ungrudgingly the knowledge of foreknowledge of the future—to some through prophet-men, to others through oracles, to others through the flight of birds, or through sacrificial divination, or through the sending of dreams, or through omens, or throbbings of the body, or certain other signs. For they say that these things have been bestowed on all men by the providence of God, so that the prophets of the Hebrews appear to have nothing more than the rest.
Such, then, is the argument on their part; but ours will meet them in this manner. If there were some argument that truly established that gods, or divine powers, or good spirits, presided over the aforesaid oracles, or the auguries of birds, or the rest of the things named, there would be room to give place to what has been said, on the ground that the God over all had bestowed these things too, for their benefit, upon those who made use of them. But if by complete demonstrations, and by the confessions even of the Greeks themselves, it has already been shown before that these beings are demons, and not even good ones, but the causes of every harm and depravity, how could they possibly be prophets of God? Our argument has exposed them as base, through the Evangelical Preparation, both from the human sacrifice anciently performed for them in every place and city and region, and from the ways in which they deceived their inquirers through ignorance of the future, and from the ways in which they were caught out in countless falsehoods—sometimes openly, and sometimes through the ambiguity of their oracles, whereby, having entangled their suppliants time and again in the greatest evils, they stood convicted.
And since it was demonstrated beforehand that their race was defiled and unclean, from the fact that they took delight in shameful and licentious songs and hymns sung about them, and in mythical narratives, and in indecent and harmful stories—which, by ratifying against themselves and confirming as true, they stood convicted.
And, finally, the proof of all was the extinguishing of their feeble nature and their no longer giving oracles as before; and this extinguishing occurred at no other time than from the days of the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
For from the time when the word of his evangelical teaching ran through all the nations, from that time also the oracles ceased, and the deaths of demons are recorded. All these things, then, together with countless others similar to these, were the means by which those beings, being wicked demons, were exposed and convicted in the discourse of the Evangelical Preparation.
If, then, they happen to be of such a kind, what reasoning would allow us to consider the oracles of the demons to be prophecies from the God over all, or to compare their affairs with the prophets of God? And of what sort, moreover, were their predictions, which—at the time when they were even thought to exist—they used to give to those who inquired of them? Were they not concerning indecent, lowly, and worthless men—boxers, for instance, or certain such persons—whom they commanded to honour with sacrifices? And what were the customs concerning human sacrifice? For this indeed is the chief point of what has been said.
Did they, indeed, leave any base thing short of the very extreme of absurdity, if it is true that these 'saviours' of mankind, gods and good demons, exhorted their own suppliants and pious refugees to slaughter their dearest ones, as though they were some other kind of cattle—thirsting outright for human blood beyond the nature of any wild beast, and thereby proving themselves to be nothing other than blood-drinkers and man-eaters and lovers of destruction? Or let anyone who wishes say so, if he can show anything venerable or worthy of virtue among the things we have described—or divinations and predictions extending to the whole human race, or laws and civic ordinances proclaiming how all men ought to live, or the doctrines and disciplines of philosophy proposed by the gods to the lovers of philosophy.
But no one could say that anything of this kind was ever furnished to human life by the famed oracles; for if this had been so, men who were being given laws by gods would not have made use of divergent and mutually conflicting laws.
For being gods, and good, how would they not have employed the same decrees? And how not the most temperate and most just legislations? What need, then, was there of Solon, or Draco, or the other men who were lawgivers to the Greeks and to the barbarians, seeing that the gods were near at hand, and were ordaining through their oracles what was needful?
But if someone should say that these very beings, and no others, are the ones who legislate for each nation of men, then let him say who and of what sort that god is who, for instance, ordained that the Scythians should devour human flesh, or who legislated that men should have intercourse with their own mothers and daughters, or who decreed that the aged should be thrown to dogs as a good thing, or who permits men to marry their sisters and males to mix with males. And what need is there for me to enumerate the lawless doctrines current among Greeks and barbarians, as proof that these wondrous oracle-givers of theirs were not gods but wicked and accursed demons, who have cast the thrice-wretched race of men down into abominations contrary to nature?
since not even the gods and diviners famed among the Greeks are shown to have provided anything beneficial or profitable for the soul's advantage to those who consulted them.
For why in the world did Greek men, forsaking the benefit that came from these gods, set out for the barbarian land, gathering from abroad a merchandise of learning, when it was possible for them to have the gods as their teachers? For if gods, or good demons, gave oracles, and at one time displayed their own power through foreknowledge and other marvel-working, and at another time taught true wisdom through the unerring truth of their teachings, what then was the reason that the sons of the philosophers were not made disciples of these, but instead, each deriving from a different source the conceptions of certain doctrines, out of their long disagreement there arose the various sects of the philosophers? But if the many among men did not attend to them, at least those who were pious and devoted to the gods surely ought to have obtained infallibility from the benefit of the gods.
Who then are these? For whomever you might name, these are the very ones whom their rival claimants convict of error. But it seems that the oracles were of demons, reaching only as far as the detection of a thief, the loss of some vessel, or some other such matter — knowledge which it was not unlikely they possessed, since they spent their existence in the air about the earth. But of nothing good or wise did they utter any word pertaining to a philosophical doctrine, nor to a constitution, nor to a law established on right reason. Rather — if one must speak with free voice — all these ought to be reckoned the very authors of evil, who, when they heard men, in their own regard, speaking of adulteries and unions of male with male, marriages with mothers, and unlawful intercourse of brother and sister, and countless other battles of gods, and enmities and wars of gods against gods — in songs and hymns and narratives, and in the secret rites of mysteries — none of them, at any rate, ever appears to have shown indignation at what was said, as though such thoughts or words befitted licentious men, and not even temperate ones.
And why should I labor at length, when it is possible from one, the greatest example, to perceive the cruelty and inhumanity, and truly the pollution, of what has been described? I mean, from human sacrifice.
For to delight not only in the slaughter of irrational animals, but also in the destruction of human beings — what excess of cruelty has this not outstripped? These, as I have said, are the things attested through the Preparation from the Greek philosophers and writers themselves, from which it is shown, above all, that being wicked demons, through manifold devices — at one time by means of divinations, at another by omens, or symbols, or sacrificial victims, or the like — they pervert the human race.
For this reason it must be declared that their oracles were not of the God who is over all. Nor, therefore, would it be lawful to compare them with the prophets of the Hebrews, of whom the first hierophant and theologian was Moses; of how many good things he became the cause for human life! First, he put forth a sacred writing of doctrines that were good tidings and true concerning the Maker and Fashioner of all things, God, and concerning the second cause of the rational and intelligent beings after him, and concerning the coming-into-being of the world and of man. Further, by narrating the histories of the pious, godly men of old among the Hebrews, as sketching out certain images of virtues, he stirred up his subjects to emulation of good men, and he made a beginning of the discourses of a divinely inspired legislation, suited to those who used it at that time, as of a light; and he has shown himself the introducer of a godly religion; and above all, he has proclaimed aloud predictions of things that were to come to pass in ages long afterward, as will be recalled a little later.
Such then was he; and in the same manner also the prophets after him — as a secondary matter, if perchance something of the transient affairs of daily life was sought, they would foretell this too to those who inquired; but the main point of their prophecy was accomplished with regard to great things.
For the gifts of theophoric possession were not deemed worthy for the sake of divination concerning the transient matters sought for the present occasion, nor for small and lowly things; rather, over the whole human race the illumination of the divine Spirit within them held the greatest subject matter — it did not promise prediction concerning a man's bodily illness, nor concerning this temporary and much-suffering life, nor concerning something lost, nor otherwise concerning certain intermediate and indifferent things, which neither, when present, contribute to the soul's improvement, nor, when absent, bring about loss or harm. But it was, as I have said, that when they also foretold these things, it was not according to the principal aim, but as a consequence following upon the apprehension of greater things; while the primary causes of their being possessed by God in prophesying contained a subject matter greater than what has been mentioned.
If, then, one should carefully investigate the whole scope of the writing of Moses and of those after him, he would find it containing an exhortation and teaching of piety toward the God of all, the very Maker of all things himself, and knowledge and the highest theology concerning the second cause, and an aversion from every polytheistic error; and further, a remembrance of the godly men of old who indeed made the beginning of the said piety; and predictions and utterances made in the course of their lives concerning things that were destined to happen at some later time, through the manifestation and presence among men of God — namely, of the second Lord and God after the supreme Father, who himself would also serve as teacher of that same piety, and as savior about to appear to the life of men — through whom they foretold that the manner of the piety of the ancient, godly Hebrews would be handed down to all the nations, both Greeks and barbarians alike.
These things Moses taught, and these things also the sons of the remaining prophets, who all with one mouth proclaimed beforehand; and this was the cause of the bestowal of the divine Spirit's outpouring upon men — to teach men the knowledge of God and the highest theology concerning Father and Son, to instruct them in the manner of true piety, and to make mention of those of old who had lived rightly, and of those afterward who had fallen away from the piety of their forefathers, and to bring forth, in lengthy discourses, the reproof pertaining to this; also to declare in advance the coming of the savior and teacher of the whole human race, and to proclaim beforehand the transmission, through him, of the ancient piety of the Hebrews to all the nations.
These were the things proclaimed in harmony from ages past, on tablets and in the sacred books of the prophets; these very things, which even now, after so long an age, are seen with our own eyes to be still being fulfilled. And with one voice, all these men, possessed by the divine Spirit, proclaimed beforehand to all men the light of true piety — purity of soul and body, and complete cleansing of the mind — which they themselves had first practiced and then set forth as an example for those under them, restraining those who approached from every licentious act, and from imitating the unlawful practices of polytheistic error; teaching them to flee headlong from every demonic undertaking, and from those human sacrifices once so eagerly pursued, and from the shameful and infamous stories told about the gods; and, keeping them from these things, they counseled them to cleave only to the God who is Maker of all, as being the overseer and judge of what is done among men; and not to be ignorant that the Christ of God was destined to sojourn among men, having established himself as savior of the whole human race and teacher of true piety to barbarians and Greeks alike.
So great was the difference between those possessed by the divine Spirit and those who pretended to divine by a demonic operation. For the wicked demon, being as it were akin to darkness, wraps the soul in darkness and mist through its visitation, laying out, as it were, lifeless, the one it possesses, deprived of his natural reasoning, so that he neither follows what is said or done through him, but is altogether without sense and out of his mind; wherefore, it seems, men have fittingly called this sort of collapse 'mantic,' as being a kind of madness.
But the truly divine and inspired Spirit, being light-like — or rather being light itself — whatever soul it came upon, it immediately produced within it a new and most radiant day of light, rendering it far more translucent and more contemplative than it had been before, so that it became sober and watchful, and above all able to perceive and to discern the things being divinely announced.
For this reason it seems to me that we rightly and truly call such men 'prophets,' from the fact that the divine Spirit within them makes manifest beforehand and illumines beforehand not only present things, but also a true and accurate knowledge of things to come.
Consider, then, whether this account is not far better and truer, which asserts that the divine Spirit visits souls that are purified and possess a rational, translucent mind prepared for the reception of the divine — rather than the account of those who shut up the divine within lifeless matter and dark recesses, and within the impure souls of women and men, and even, further, upon ravens and hawks and other birds of omen, upon goats and other animals, yes, and even upon bodies of water, in liver-divinations, and in the blood of loathsome and repulsive creatures, and in the bodies of venomous reptiles, such as serpents and weasels and certain other things of that sort — through which these marvelous people have supposed that the God who is over all reveals foreknowledge of things to come.
But this was the view of men who had not perceived together the nature of God, nor had conceived the power of the divine Spirit — a power that in no way takes up residence in lifeless or irrational creatures, nor indeed in all rational beings, except perhaps [...] only in the souls, and in virtuous souls, such as our discourse has just now described the prophets of the Hebrews to be; whom we say were deemed worthy of the divine Spirit for the sake of great matters, contributing to the betterment of the whole inhabited world of men.
And if there ever followed upon them, after the manner of a shadow, the ability also to know present matters of the intermediate and indifferent sort, and to foretell on occasion the things unknown to those who inquired, they provided this too, of necessity, to those of old who drew near to them, so that those greedy for foreknowledge might not seem to have reasonable grounds to turn aside to the foreign oracles of alien nations for lack of prophets of their own.
But let these matters, then, have their conclusion here, being demonstrative of the divine power present in the Hebrew prophets. It is time, then, to obey them, as inspired and wise men who did not become such after the manner of ordinary men, but by the inspiration of the divine Spirit, since they teach us to be obedient, and to be instructed in the doctrines found among them, and in their pious and unerring theologies, no longer holding doubt as to whether they introduce anything alien to virtue and truth. Come, then, taking up the discourse anew from the beginning, let us now confirm, from prophetic testimony, the theology found in the Gospels concerning our Savior Jesus Christ.
The evangelical testimony, then, sets forth the theology of Christ thus: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.' It calls him also intelligible light, and it calls him Lord, just as also God.
And the divinely-inspired Paul too, being a disciple and apostle of Christ, is in harmony with this theology, saying of him these things: 'He who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, because in him all things were created, those in the heavens and those upon the earth, whether thrones, or lordships, or principalities, or powers. All things were created through him and unto him, and he is before all things, and all things hold together through him.' He is also called the power of God and the wisdom of God. It is proposed, then, that these very things now also be gathered as blossoms from the scriptures found among the Hebrews, so that through the harmony present in both parts, the demonstration of the truth might be established.
But it must not be unknown that the divine oracles, containing in the Hebrew tongue much that is extraordinary both in wording and in sense, have received differing translations into Greek, on account of the difficulty of discerning them. Seventy men, all Hebrews together, have translated them in agreement with one another; to these we shall pay especial attention, since it is also pleasing to the Church of Christ to make use of them.
But if there should ever be need, we shall not refuse even the editions of the later translators who came after, which the Jews still find it pleasing to use even now, so that from every side the presentation of our demonstration might attain a more secure establishment. Now that these things have been set forth by way of preface for us, let us at last lay hold of the divinely-inspired words themselves.
I, Wisdom, have made counsel my dwelling, and knowledge and understanding I have called upon. The fear of the Lord hates injustice, insolence and arrogance, and the ways of the wicked. And I have hated the crooked ways of evil men. Mine is counsel and security, mine is prudence, and mine is strength. Through me kings reign, and rulers write justice. Through me the great ones are magnified, and tyrants through me hold sway over the earth. I love those who love me, and those who seek me shall find grace. Wealth and glory belong to me, and abundant possession, and righteousness.
It is better to reap me as fruit than gold and much precious stone, and my offspring are better than choice silver. I walk in the ways of righteousness, and I go about in the paths of justice, that I may apportion possessions to those who love me, and fill their treasuries with good things. If I should declare to you the things that happen day by day, I will remember to number the things from of old. The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works; before the age he founded me, in the beginning, before he made the earth, and before he made the depths.
Before the springs of the waters came forth, before the mountains were settled, and before all the hills, he begets me. The Lord made the uninhabited regions and the inhabited extremities of what is under heaven. When he was preparing the heaven, I was present with him; and when he marked off his own throne upon the winds; when he made the clouds above strong, and set securely the springs of what is under heaven; when he set for the sea its fixed limit, and the waters shall not pass beyond his mouth; when he made strong the foundations of the earth, I was beside him, fitting together; I was the one in whom he delighted, and day by day I rejoiced before his face at all times, when he rejoiced, having completed the inhabited world, and delighted in the sons of men.
The divine and all-virtuous essence that exists prior to all begotten things, the intelligible and firstborn image of the unbegotten nature, the true and only-begotten Son of the God of all — being of many names, and theologically designated by very many titles — has, in the present instance, been honored with the dignity and appellation of 'Wisdom.' We have learned to address him as the Word of God, and Light, and Life and Truth, and above all, as Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Already, then, in the passage before us, he himself, as being the living Wisdom of God, subsisting in his own right, discourses concerning himself through the most wise Solomon, saying: 'I, Wisdom, have made counsel my dwelling, and knowledge and understanding I have called upon,' and the words that follow upon these.
But also, as having taken up the administration and providence of all things, he adds: 'Through me kings reign, and rulers write justice; through me the great ones are magnified.' Then, having said that he would remember the things from of old, he goes on to say: 'The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works; before the age he founded me' — by which words he teaches at once both that he himself is begotten, and that he is not the same as the unbegotten, having come into being before every age, and having been set forth after the manner of a foundation for all begotten things.
Hence it is likely that the divine apostle, taking his start from this, said concerning him: 'He who is the image of the invisible, the firstborn of all creation, because in him all things were created, those in heaven and those upon earth.' For he has been proclaimed 'firstborn of all creation' in accordance with the saying, 'The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works.' And he might fittingly be understood as 'image of God,' inasmuch as he is the offspring of the unbegotten nature.
This, then, he confesses in the passage before us, when he says, 'before the mountains were settled,' and 'before all the hills he begets me.' Hence we proclaim him only-begotten Son and firstborn Word of God, being the same as the Wisdom here spoken of. But in what manner we say he is the offspring of God would require its own particular inquiry, since we do not conceive his ineffable generation according to emanation, nor according to extension, or division, or diminution, or excision, or according to any of the processes at all that are accomplished in mortal generation.
For it is not lawful to liken his ineffable and unnameable generation and coming-into-being to that of any begotten things whatsoever, nor to compare to him any image drawn from temporal and mortal things; since it would not be pious to say that the Son proceeded from the Father as a substance divisible and separable from substance, according to the passible or divisive manner found among us in the generation of living creatures.
For the divine is without parts and indivisible, not cut, not divided, not extended, not diminished, not contracted, not becoming greater or lesser or better than itself, not having within itself some other thing of itself, which it might put forth as one part.
For everything that exists in something else either exists as an accident, as whiteness in a body, or exists as one thing in another, as that which is carried in the womb of a pregnant woman, or as a part in the whole, as a hand or foot or finger in a body, being parts of the whole; and if these should suffer amputation or some cutting or division, the whole is left incomplete and maimed, as though mutilated in its part.
But indeed, to use such an image and likeness with regard to the unbegotten nature of the God of all, and with regard to the generation of his only-begotten and firstborn, would be the most impious of all things.
Not, then, was the Son, as one thing in another, unbegotten within the Father from infinite and beginningless ages, being a part of him, which was afterward changed and, being emptied out, came to exist outside of him; for this would already belong to the category of alteration. And in that case there would be two unbegotten things — that which put forth, and that which was put forth. And which state would be the better one? The state prior to the alteration involved in the emission, or that of the separation? It is not possible, then, to conceive of the Son as related to the Father as a part or member unbegottenly united to him forever before, and then afterward separated and coming to exist apart from the whole.
For these things are unspeakable, and outright impious — belonging properly to material bodies, but foreign to the incorporeal and immaterial nature. Wherefore, at this point one might fittingly again utter that saying: 'Who shall declare his generation?'
Since indeed it is not without danger to go to the opposite extreme, and simply, in this manner, to declare the Son to have been begotten out of things that are not, in like manner to the rest of begotten things. For the generation of the Son is one thing, and the creation that comes about through the Son is another.
But indeed, just as the divine Scripture at one time proclaims the Son firstborn of all creation, speaking in his own person, saying, 'The Lord created me the beginning of his ways,' so at another time it says that he is the offspring of the Father, according to the saying, 'before all the hills he begets me.'
It would, then, be sound for us also to follow this course, and to confess that, being before all ages the Word of God, endowed with creative power, he coexists with the Father, and is the only-begotten Son of the God of all, having been begotten as minister and fellow-worker with the Father in the coming-into-being and ordering of all things.