It is now time to describe concerning the Hebrews, and concerning their philosophy and piety — which we have preferred above all our ancestral traditions — the manner of their way of life.
For since we have shown that we made our departure from the false theology common to all Greeks and barbarians alike, not without reason, but by a judged and sober process of reasoning, it is now time to settle the second matter, rendering the cause of our adoption of the Hebrew doctrines.
That, then, our adoption of what is beneficial from barbarians brings upon us no blame, we shall demonstrate at the proper leisure, showing that all the philosophical teachings of the Greeks — even of their own celebrated philosophers — as well as all else that is generally useful and profitable for the needs of civic life, have been fashioned from materials taken from barbarians. But that no nation whatsoever has ever discovered anything comparable to the good which has been procured for us from the Hebrews, may become evident in the following way.
Now all the rest of mankind, from the earliest beginning of life and throughout time, clinging solely to the perception of their bodies, and supposing that they had grasped nothing further concerning the soul within them, and that there existed nothing more than what is seen among the things that are, ascribed the noble, the beneficial, and the only good to bodily pleasure. And holding this alone — as being the only good, agreeable, and sweet thing, sufficient for the enjoyment of a happy life — to be the object of their supreme striving, they regarded it as the greatest of the gods and deified it, not even desiring life itself unless it should include a share of bodily pleasure, and embracing not life for life's own sake, but life for the sake of living pleasantly; and this same thing they prayed might be present to their own children as the only good.
Hence some, supposing that the sun and moon and stars are the providers of embodied life, and being struck with awe, in some way, at the very sight of their light, proclaimed them first to be gods, declaring that they alone are the causes of all things; others honored, again with the appellation of gods, the fruits of the earth and the moist, dry, and hot substances and the remaining parts of the cosmos, through which their bodies, being nourished and fattened, pursued embodied life together with pleasure. Others still, well before these, with bare and uncovered head, declared their own passions and their mistress pleasure — love and desire and Aphrodite — to have mastery even over the gods themselves, and thereby deified them. Others deified the men who became for them the providers and inventors of pleasures — certain tyrants and potentates — on account of the enjoyment they happened to derive from them, worshiping them as gods both while still living and after death. Others, becoming the playthings of wicked spirits and demons, further enlarged still more the passionate part of their soul, procuring their pleasures from these spirits also, through the rites customarily performed to them. Others, tolerating none of these, introduced atheism as something far superior to such a theology. And others, more shameless still than all of these, declared that the philosophical and thrice-blessed life is nothing other than the life of pleasure, defining pleasure as the end of all good things.
In this way, then, the whole human race, enslaved to this bitter and most cruel mistress — pleasure as a god, or rather as a shameful and licentious demon — was plunged into all manner of miseries. For their women, according to the sacred Apostle, exchanged the natural use into that which is against nature; and likewise the men also, abandoning the natural use of the woman, were inflamed with lust for one another, males working shameless deeds with males, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.
In this way, both Greeks and barbarians, wise men and common folk alike, falling prostrate upon the ground on their bellies, worshiped pleasure as a god, casting themselves down flat like reptiles; they regarded her and cherished her as an invincible and inexorable deity — in odes and hymns, in the festivals of the gods, and in the public spectacles, being initiated into and performing the orgies and unseemly rites of shameful and licentious pleasure alone — a practice which, if anything else, has rightly been abolished among us. 'For the beginning of fornication is the devising of idols.'
And thus the theology of the other nations had assumed, to put it briefly, so great a variety — all suspended from the one source of unclean and defiled pleasure, yet spread out, after the manner of a many-necked and many-headed hydra, into many and varied divisions and offshoots.
Since, then, they happened to have put forward so great an error, it was only fitting that, worshiping pleasure as a god and as an evil demon, evils upon evils should be heaped up for them — their whole life defiled with madness for women, corruption of males, unions with mothers, and intercourse with daughters, and surpassing even the wild and savage nature of beasts in the excess of their depravity. Such, then, was the manner of life of the ancient nations and of their false theology, as has been demonstrated in the preceding books through the Greek writers and philosophers whom we have collected.
If, then, you have surveyed together the life of the ancients, consider now with your mind how, amid so many, the sons of the Hebrews alone went the opposite way.
For these people, first and alone of all mankind, from the very foundation of life, dedicated their minds from the outset to rational contemplation, and applied themselves piously to the study of the nature of the universe as a whole. First, they came to understand the elements of bodies — earth, water, air, fire — of which this universe is composed; and they reasoned that the sun, moon, and stars are not gods, but the works of God, having recognized that the nature of bodily substance is not only irrational but also lifeless, insofar as it happens to be fluid and perishable. Then, reasoning further that it was not possible to ascribe the arrangement of the whole cosmos — so excellently and wisely fitted together, and full of living creatures both rational and irrational — to a cause that acts by chance, they concluded that one ought not to suppose the productive principle of living things to be itself lifeless, nor the maker of rational beings to be itself irrational.
Since, then, not even a building of wood and stone could ever come together of its own accord, nor could a garment ever be completed without a weaver, nor cities and constitutions arise apart from laws and the ordinance of rulers, nor a ship exist without a helmsman, nor even the smallest instrument of a craft come into being without a craftsman, nor a ship ever find a fair harbor without a good pilot — so neither could the nature of the elements taken as a whole, being itself lifeless and irrational, ever lay hold of reason and life by its own inherent principle, apart from the supreme wisdom and reason of God. Having reasoned thus and in this manner, the fathers of the piety of the Hebrews, from the greatness and beauty of created things, with a mind purified and with the clear-sighted eyes of the soul, revered God the maker of all things.
Then, perceiving themselves to be no small part of the whole, they considered that one part of themselves was precious — this being the true man, conceived of as constituted according to the soul — while the other held the place merely of a covering for this true man, this being the body. And having thus made this distinction, they applied all their care and diligence to the life of the inner man.
And they reasoned that this was pleasing to God, the maker of all things, who somewhere granted to human nature to rule over all things upon earth, not by strength of body, but as a prerogative of the virtue of the soul. For among existing things, some are lifeless, such as stones and timber; others share in a vital power, such as the growths that spring from the earth; and others are allotted sensation and impulsive imagination, such as the irrational animals. And all these have been enslaved to serve the one race of mankind — constrained not by bodily strength and force, but by reason and virtue of soul, by which they have understood the ruling and royal prerogative over all things upon earth to have been granted to them from above, by the Cause of all things.
Setting out from this, they did not think it right to prize the body and bodily pleasures any more than the other creatures nourished upon earth do, but they made their sole object of concern that governing element within themselves — as being proper to him who governs all things — that is, the rational and intelligent part of the soul, the divine and knowing part, as bearing the likeness of God who is over all.
Then, considering that nothing else is good apart from God, the provider of all good things, they declared that the goal of all happiness is the knowledge and friendship of him, since he alone holds fast the cause of life itself, of the soul, of the body, and of all the things necessary for these.
To him, then, they brought and dedicated themselves wholly, body and soul, having suspended their entire life upon him, and having deemed it right to attend to him alone, and to none other among the things that are seen.
Thus, having shown themselves at once lovers of God and beloved of God, they were declared to be in truth certain devotees and priests of the Most High God; indeed, they were deemed worthy to be called a chosen race, a royal priesthood of God, and a holy nation, having left behind the seed of this true piety even for their descendants.
Do we, then, seem to you to have preferred these men to the Greeks by mere reasoning, and to have chosen to accept the narratives found among the Hebrews concerning godly men, rather than the ill-reputed absurdities concerning the gods of the Phoenicians and Egyptians?
But observe still further to what degree of divinely-beloved virtue those we have mentioned are said to have advanced. The Divine, having accepted these men both for the rest of their piety and philosophy of life and for their devoted service toward himself, already deemed them worthy also of more divine oracles, theophanies, and angelic visions, correcting what was lacking in their mortal nature through instructions concerning what was to be done, and revealing to them the knowledge of doctrines and teachings befitting God — so that their minds should no longer be illumined by syllogisms or conjectures, but by the very radiance of truth itself, to the point that, being now borne along by God, they might behold, as though present, the apprehension of things yet to come, and might prophesy the things that would befall the human race in general.
Such, then, are the much-praised and truly God-beloved oracles containing the virtue of the Hebrews, which we have preferred to the Greek and ancestral myths and idle tales; for the latter contained the most shameful things concerning the gods, while the former contain the pious teachings concerning men beloved of God.
These things, moreover, were known long before, even before Moses and the nation of the Jews came into existence, from a still more remote age, among the forefathers of the Jews. For it is indeed good to make this distinction clear: that Judaism did not yet exist at that time, but the persons in question existed as Hebrews, both in name and in manner of life, whereas Jews did not yet exist, nor were they so called.
The difference between Hebrews and Jews you might learn in this way: the appellation, according to some, is derived from Judah, from whose tribe the kingdom of the Jews was later, after a long time, established; according to others, it is derived from Eber (who was an ancestor of Abraham).
And the sacred writings teach that the Hebrews are prior to the Jews. As for the manner of piety, Moses was the first to inaugurate for the Jews the giving of the law, handing down a certain sabbath day and the very strict observance of it, in remembrance and leisure for the sacred writings, as well as the distinction of animals fit and unfit to eat, annual feasts, certain purifications of the body, and another lengthy cycle carried out more divinely according to certain symbols. The Hebrews, however, who lived in times earlier than Moses, being unacquainted with the whole legislation given through Moses, achieved a free and unconstrained manner of piety, being adorned with a life in accordance with nature, so that they had no need of laws to govern them, on account of the utmost freedom of their soul from passion, but had received true knowledge of the doctrines concerning God. But since these matters have been stated in this manner, it is time now to proceed also through the written records.
The great theologian Moses, then, being a Hebrew of Hebrews, and knowing the ancestral traditions thoroughly if anyone did, has, as in the introductory sections of his sacred laws, handed down in unfading remembrance the lives of the Hebrew forefathers, the good things of which they were deemed worthy by God, and, again, the ways and punishments of other men, godless and impious — considering this to be a necessary lesson for those who were to be instructed in his laws, both for the avoidance of imitating the wicked and for the encouragement of the life of the godly.
And it was also necessary, in another respect, that they should not be ignorant that, even before his written laws, a good many of the forefathers had already, through right reasoning, been adorned with the virtue of the fear of God; and these, having been named friends of God and prophets, obtained eternal remembrance with him — and that these were not of a race foreign to those to whom he was ordaining the laws.
For this reason, therefore, they ought all the more, having been born the descendants of men beloved of God and righteous, to show themselves zealots of the piety of their forefathers, and to be eager to obtain from God the same things as their begetters obtained, rather than growing numb or shrinking back, as though despairing of themselves regarding impossibilities, in respect of the hope of good things.
For those things, they should know, were possible, since they had been fully accomplished by their own forefathers; and Moses handed down images of them to those being instructed in divine matters, recounting the lives of the ancients and depicting, as it were in painted portraits, the particular virtue proper to each one of them.
And there is nothing to prevent us from running briefly through this history. Now, as for the period before the flood, this is contained in the very writing of Moses himself. It is necessary, I think, to examine the ancestral traditions of the Hebrews from no other source than their own, since it is likewise from the Egyptians themselves that we learned Egyptian matters, and from their own people that we learned Phoenician matters, just as, again, we learned Greek matters from those distinguished among the Greeks, and the doctrines of philosophers from philosophers, and not from those unversed in philosophy. And from what other source, indeed, would it be fitting to inquire concerning matters of medicine, than from those skilled in that science? So, then, in like manner, I consider it necessary to receive the traditions of the Hebrews from the oracles found among the Hebrews themselves, and not from any other source whatsoever.
As, then, the account preserved among them holds, from the very beginning, before the flood, from the first origin of mankind and onward through the succeeding generations, there arose a good many men who were beloved of God and righteous; of these, one hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God.
This signifies that he acknowledged no one else, save the maker of all things, as Master and God of the universe at once. For he was convinced that this maker had not only, by his productive power, arranged the whole universe well and in order, but also, after the manner of a master over a great city, ruled the whole as lord, administering and governing the household of all things together, being at once Lord, King, and God.
This man, the one we have mentioned as beloved of God, being the first to conceive in his mind the notion and the appellation of him as Lord and God, hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God in place of all possessions, titles, and wealth — or rather, in place of every good thing — thereby procuring for himself this as a treasure of goods for both soul and body alike.
Wherefore he is recorded among the Hebrews as the first to have been styled a true man. He is called Enos, which is 'a true man,' by a name that hits the mark exactly. For they say that none other ought to be considered and named a true man except him who has attained the knowledge of God and piety, one who is at once truly a knower and pious.
Because indeed those who are not such—though called such [men]—differing in nothing from irrational cattle, being as it were cast down prone upon their belly and pleasure, the Hebrew scripture teaches us to call beasts rather than men, being accustomed to use its appellations in their strict and proper sense.
Wherefore it is accustomed to call such persons at one time wolves and dogs, at another swine that delight in wallowing in filth, and again reptiles and serpents, likening them to the manifold forms of vice.
But if ever it is necessary to signify the common and general man, and the race itself, again employing a proper and fitting appellation, it signifies every man by the name of Adam, since indeed this is the proper and fitting name for the forefather and progenitor of all men, indicating—according to the rendering into the Greek tongue—one who is earth-born, as it suggests.
Enos indeed is recorded among the Hebrews as first among those beloved of God, since he first hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God—setting forth that which, according to the soul, is truly rational and possessed of knowledge, and skilled in piety toward the divine; of which the first would demonstrate true knowledge of God, and the second, hope toward the God who has been known.
For not to neglect nor to place in second rank the things pertaining to divine knowledge, but always and continually to hope to call upon the name of the Lord God—the one as of servants toward a master, the other as toward a gracious and good father—this would be the thrice-blessed end of all things.
Such then is the first and true man introduced among the Hebrews—not the earth-born one surnamed Adam, who through transgression of God's commandment fell from the better portion, but the very first one beloved of God, who hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God.
Having ourselves also judged, with sober reasoning, we have loved to emulate such a thing, and have accepted the narration of this account as profitable and most beneficial to us, having made it our prayer, after the likeness of him who has been shown, to call upon the name of the Maker and Master of all things with sure and good hope.
But after the one mentioned, another pleased the Lord, and was not found, as Moses says, because God translated him on account of the utmost perfection of his virtue. For the truly wise man is hard to find.
This would be the one perfect in God, who has been translated from the common intercourse of the multitude. For he who is not such is swallowed up in the midst of the depth of vice, pursuing marketplaces and law-courts, shops and commerce, chasing after the great crowd, being pushed and pushing; but he who has been taken by God and translated from the things here to the things there is unseen and unfound by men, but having become a friend of God, is found by God.
This one the Hebrews name Enoch, 'friend'; and the name would signify the grace of God. And therefore, deeming this as a good image, we have judged it blessed to emulate his life.
Third after these, again another man, righteous, has been attested—Noah, in his generation. And these would be the proofs of his righteousness: a great drought and a gloom of unspeakable wickedness had overtaken the whole race of men, and those celebrated in every mouth as giants were bringing about, by godless and impious undertakings, the wars against God still cried aloud even to this day; and already those responsible for their begetting—whether they were of some portion superior to mortal nature, or however they were constituted—having initiated among men the meddlesome teaching, are said to have handed down to human life the contrivances of sorcery and other evil-working magic, so that the whole human race came under a single sentence of condemnation before God.
And indeed, when all were about to be destroyed by a single nod, this one alone, the one now being shown to us, was found righteous in his generation, together with his household. When all upon the earth were perishing by the flood, and the earth itself was being purged of its former evils by the sudden inundation of waters, the God-beloved one, together with his sons and wives, was preserved by God as a most wondrous living spark of seed for the life that followed.
Such then were those before the flood; but those after it, distinguished for piety, were again others, whose memory the sacred oracles preserve. One of these is recorded as priest of the Most High God, having been styled by the Hebrew appellation 'righteous king.'
Now for all these there was no account whatsoever of bodily circumcision, nor indeed of the Jewish precepts of Moses; wherefore it is not right to call them Jews, nor indeed Greeks, since they did not, like the Greeks or the rest of the nations, believe in a plurality of gods. They would more properly be called Hebrews, either from Heber, or rather from the interpretation of the appellation.
For they are interpreted as a kind of 'crossers-over,' having directed their course from the things here to the crossing-over unto, and the contemplation of, the God of all things. For by natural reasonings and unwritten laws, having guided the straight path of virtue, and having crossed beyond the pleasures of the flesh unto the all-wise and God-fearing life, they are so recorded.
Among all these let there also be numbered for us the celebrated founder of the whole nation, Abraham, to whom the oracles bear witness of righteousness—not that righteousness again from the law of Moses, since it did not yet exist then (for Moses appeared in the seventh generation after Abraham)—but nevertheless this man too, if any other, has been recorded as righteous and pious, in like manner to those shown above.
The scripture then says, 'And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness.' The divine oracle foretells that he would be the father of many nations, and expressly says that in him all the nations of the earth and all the tribes shall be blessed—plainly prophesying the things now being fulfilled among us.
But that Abraham, after his perfection in righteousness—not through the law of Moses, but through faith rightly accomplished in him—after the recorded theophanies, when in his very old age he was about to become the father of a legitimate son, was the first of all, according to the oracle, to be circumcised in body, having handed this down also to be performed by those born of him—whether as a manifest token of the great multitude of children to come from him, or that his children might have a paternal mark, whether living according to the zeal of their forefathers or falling short of their virtue, or for other reasons whatsoever, which it is not now the occasion to investigate closely.
Such then is this man too, set forth for imitation. After him, Isaac is shown to be the successor of his father's knowledge of God and love of God together, having inherited from his father this, the fairest and thrice-blessed of all inheritances. The divine oracles say that he, having come together with one wife, made use of a single act of begetting children; in which, having been shown to be the father of twin offspring, he is said, by an excess of self-control, to have thereafter confined his intercourse with his wife to this.
Here too let Jacob, also called Israel, be introduced to you—a man who came to bear two names, according to the differing advancement of his own virtues. When, then, being trained in the practical habits and ways of life, he was undergoing the trials of the labors for piety, his name was Jacob; and the appellation, rendered into the Greek tongue, signifies 'ascetic' and 'wrestler/athlete.'
But when at last he received and was crowned with the prizes of victory over his adversaries, and now enjoyed the goods pertaining to contemplation, then the God who addressed him also changed his name, at once deeming him worthy of the vision of God, and bestowing through the appellation the rewards of more divine honors and privileges.
The oracle then says to him: 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name, because you have prevailed with God, and are mighty with men'—indicating the man who sees and contemplates, of 'Israel'; since indeed the name, once changed, signifies 'a man who sees God.'
Such then is this man too, from whom arose the twelve-tribed race of the Jewish nation. Countless things might be said concerning the life of these men and their philosophic endurance and asceticism, some to be understood literally, others allegorized through hidden meanings—concerning which things have been said both by others, and indeed by us also, in the works we have composed concerning the abundant offspring of the ancient men. Such then were these men also.
I have also another to mention besides these—a man named Job, whom the sacred oracles testify to have been a man blameless, true, righteous, God-fearing, abstaining from every evil deed. This man, though in no way related to the Jewish race, has been attested above all for the accomplishments of piety.
The sons of Jacob, having loved their ancestral knowledge and worship of God, advanced the renown of the Hebrews of old to great glory, so that they even kindled rule over the whole of Egypt.
For Joseph, having been crowned first with the prizes of self-control, and then having received the governance of Egypt, displayed the God-beloved manner of the Hebrews—which manner we too have made it our prayer to emulate—he who had become a slave through the plotting of his own kin, and a slave of an Egyptian man.
As for all the other things which he was fortunate to possess in beauty and bodily strength and comeliness, I pass over, even though the oracles record that he surpassed all in the bloom of beauty; but as for the things concerning his soul, how could one record them, intending to give praise worthy of the man's virtue?
By nature there was present in him the mark of a free and noble spirit, the nobility of his character blossoming upon his countenance; but he had been trained exceptionally in the adornments that distinguish piety, so that his soul shone forth in self-control and righteousness, prudence and courage, and much earlier still in the knowledge and piety of the God of all things, which his parents are said to have instilled in his soul from swaddling clothes.
When, then, his master's wife became infatuated with him, and, since his body was young, attempted to drag him into licentious and amorous intercourse—first attempting to deceive him with words, then entreating him with supplications, and finally daring to lay hands upon him more violently, already resorting to shameless and impudent embraces—the hero, calling to mind the pious teaching of his fathers, and having shown himself in deed and word alike to be truly God-fearing and a true Hebrew, shakes off the shameful and licentious woman, eluding her with a stronger hand; and as if fleeing from some terrible and raging beast, he procures his safety by flight.
And then he reasons with himself with sober logic, and says: 'If my master, because of me, knows nothing of what is in his house, and has given all that he has into my hands, how then shall I do this great wicked thing, and sin before God?' In return for which, as though crowning him victoriously with the prizes of virtue, the God of all things delivers into his hands the kingship and rule over his masters and over Egypt itself; yet this man too—a Hebrew of Hebrews, not a Jew, since the things of the Jews did not yet exist—has been reckoned among those most beloved of God and thrice-blessed.