Chapter I.—Reasons for addressing the Greeks.

As I begin this hortatory address to you, ye men of Greece, I pray God that I may know what I ought to say to you, and that you, shaking off your habitual1    Literally, “former.” love of disputing, and being delivered from the error of your fathers, may now choose what is profitable; not fancying that you commit any offence against your forefathers, though the things which you formerly considered by no means salutary should now seem useful to you. For accurate investigation of matters, putting truth to the question with a more searching scrutiny, often reveals that things which have passed for excellent are of quite another sort. Since, then, we propose to discourse of the true religion (than which, I think, there is nothing which is counted more valuable by those who desire to pass through life without danger, on account of the judgment which is to be after the termination of this life, and which is announced not only by our forefathers according to God, to wit the prophets and lawgivers, but also by those among yourselves who have been esteemed wise, not poets alone, but also philosophers, who professed among you that they had attained the true and divine knowledge), I think it well first of all to examine the teachers of religion, both our own and yours, who they were, and how great, and in what times they lived; in order that those who have formerly received from their fathers the false religion, may now, when they perceive this, be extricated from that inveterate error; and that we may clearly and manifestly show that we ourselves follow the religion of our forefathers according to God.

Ἀρχόμενος τῆς πρὸς ὑμᾶς παραινέσεως, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες, εὔχομαι τῷ θεῷ ἐμοὶ μὲν ὑπάρξαι τὰ δέοντα πρὸς ὑμᾶς εἰπεῖν, ὑμᾶς δέ, τῆς προτέρας ἀφεμένους φιλονεικίας καὶ τῆς τῶν προγόνων πλάνης ἀπαλλαγέντας, ἑλέσθαι τὰ λυσιτελοῦντα νῦν, οὐδὲν οἰομένους περὶ τοὺς προγόνους ὑμῶν ἔσεσθαι παρ' ὑμῶν πλημμελές, εἰ τἀναντία νυνὶ τῶν πρότερον μὴ καλῶς δοξάντων αὐτοῖς χρήσιμα φαίνοιτο παρ' ὑμῖν. Ἡ γὰρ τῶν πραγμάτων ἀκριβὴς ἐξέτασις καὶ τὰ δόξαντα πολλάκις καλῶς ἔχειν ἀλλοιότερα δείκνυσιν, ἀκριβεστέρᾳ πείρᾳ τἀληθὲς βασανίσασα. Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν ἡμῖν ὁ περὶ τῆς ἀληθοῦς θεοσεβείας πρόκειται λόγος, ἧς οὐδέν, οἶμαι, προτιμότερον τοῖς ἀκινδύνως βιοῦν προῃρημένοις εἶναι νενόμισται διὰ τὴν μέλλουσαν μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν τοῦδε τοῦ βίου ἔσεσθαι κρίσιν, ἣν οὐ μόνον οἱ ἡμέτεροι κατὰ θεὸν προκηρύττουσι πρόγονοι, προφῆταί τε καὶ νομοθέται, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ παρ' ὑμῖν νομισθέντες εἶναι σοφοί, οὐ ποιηταὶ μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ φιλόσοφοι, οἱ τὴν ἀληθῆ καὶ θείαν εἰδέναι παρ' ὑμῖν ἐπαγγελλόμενοι γνῶσιν, ἔδοξέ μοι καλῶς ἔχειν, πρῶτον μὲν τοὺς τῆς θεοσεβείας ἡμῶν τε καὶ ὑμῶν ἐξετάσαι διδασκάλους, οἵτινες καὶ ὅσοι καὶ καθ' οὓς γεγόνασι χρόνους, ἵν' οἱ μὲν πρότερον τὴν ψευδώνυμον θεοσέβειαν παρὰ τῶν προγόνων παρειληφότες, νῦν γοῦν αἰσθόμενοι, τῆς παλαιᾶς ἐκείνης ἀπαλλαγῶσι πλάνης, ἡμεῖς δὲ σαφῶς καὶ φανερῶς ἡμᾶς αὐτοὺς ἀποδείξωμεν τῇ τῶν κατὰ θεὸν προγόνων ἑπομένους θεοσεβείᾳ.