For my part, I have not spoken against the Greeks or against others, thinking it sufficient for good men, if they could both know and speak the truth itself by itself, as it truly is. For when this, whatever it is, is rightly demonstrated according to the law of truth and stands pure, everything that is otherwise and pretends to be the truth will be refuted, being different from what truly is and unlike it, and seeming to be that rather than being it. It is therefore superfluous for the revealer of truth to contend against these or those men. For each claims to have the royal coin—and perhaps he has some deceptive image of some particle of the truth. And if you refute this one, another, and then still another, will contend about the same thing. But when the account of the truth itself is rightly set forth and remains unrefuted by all others, everything that is not so in all respects is overthrown by itself through the invincible stance of what is truly real and true. Having understood this well, as I think, I did not hasten to speak against Greeks or against others, but it is enough for me—and may God grant this!—first to know about truth, then, knowing it, to speak as is proper. But you say that the sophist Apollophanes reviles me and calls me a parricide, as one who impiously uses the teachings of the Greeks against the Greeks. And yet it were truer for us to say to him that the Greeks impiously use divine things against the divine, trying through the wisdom of God to cast out reverence for the divine. And I do not mean the opinion of the many, who materially and passionately abide in the things of the poets and worship "the creation rather than the Creator," but even Apollophanes himself impiously uses divine things against the divine; for by the knowledge of existing things, which he rightly calls philosophy and which is called the wisdom of God by the divine Paul, true philosophers should have been led up to the cause both of existing things themselves and of the knowledge of them. And lest I should refute the opinion of others or his own contrary to what is seeming, Apollophanes, being a wise man, should have understood that nothing of the celestial order and motion could ever have been diverted, unless it had as its mover to this end the one who is its being and sustainer and cause, the one who makes and transforms all things according to the sacred word. Why then does he not revere the one known to us from this very fact and who is truly the God of all things, admiring him for his all-causing and ineffable power? When sun and moon by him, according to a most supernatural power and station, are fixed together with the universe toward that which is entirely motionless, and for the measure of a whole day, all things stand at the same points; or, what is more than this, if, while the wholes and the greater and containing spheres are carried thus, the things contained were not carried around with them; and when another day is almost tripled in duration, and in twenty whole hours either the universe retraces and reverses its contrary motions of so much time with such exceedingly supernatural counter-revolutions, or the sun in its own course, having completed its fivefold motion in ten hours, again reverses the whole of it in the other ten, treading some new backward path. This is what naturally astounded the Babylonians and subjected them to Hezekiah without a battle, as to one equal to God and superior to men. And I am not, of course, speaking of the great works in Egypt or any other divine signs that have occurred elsewhere, but the common and heavenly things, both in the universe and for all, triumphantly displayed

Ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ οἶδα πρὸς Ἕλληνας ἢ πρὸς ἑτέρους εἰπών, ἀρκεῖν οἰόμενος ἀγαθοῖς ἀνδράσιν, εἰ τὸ ἀληθὲς αὐτὸ ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ δυνήσοιντο καὶ γνῶναι καὶ εἰπεῖν, ᾗ ὄντως ἔχει. Τούτου γάρ, ὅ τί ποτέ ἐστι, κατὰ νόμον ἀληθείας ὀρθῶς ἀποδεικνυμένου καὶ ἀκραιφνοῦς ἑστηκότος πᾶν τὸ ἑτέρως ἔχον καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν προσποιούμενον ἐξελεγχθήσεται καὶ ἕτερον ὂν τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος καὶ ἀνόμοιον καὶ δοκοῦν ἐκεῖνο μᾶλλον ἢ ὄν. Περιττὸν οὖν ἐστι τὸν ἀληθείας ἐκφάντορα πρὸς τούτους ἢ ἐκείνους διαμάχεσθαι. Λέγει γὰρ ἕκαστος αὐτὸς ἔχειν τὸ νόμισμα τὸ βασιλικόν-καὶ ἴσως γε ἔχει τι μορίου τινὸς τοῦ ἀληθοῦς ἀπατηλὸν εἴδωλον. Καὶ εἰ τοῦτον ἐλέγξεις, ὁ ἕτερος καὶ αὖθις ὁ ἄλλος περὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ φιλονεικήσει. Τοῦ δ' ἀληθοῦς αὐτοῦ τεθέντος ὀρθῶς λόγου καὶ πρὸς τῶν ἄλλων πάντων ἀνεξελέγκτου μείναντος πᾶν τὸ μὴ οὕτω κατὰ πάντα ἔχον αὐτὸ ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ τῇ ἀηττήτῳ στάσει τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος ἀληθοῦς καταβάλλεται. Τοῦτο μὲν οὖν, ὡς οἶμαι, καλῶς ἐγνωκὼς οὐκ ἔσπευσα πρὸς Ἕλληνας ἢ πρὸς ἑτέρους εἰπεῖν, ἀλλ' ἱκανόν μοι-καὶ τοῦτο θεὸς δοίη! -περὶ ἀληθείας εἰδέναι πρῶτον, ἔπειτα εἰδότα, ὡς χρή, λέγειν. Σὺ δὲ φῂς λοιδορεῖσθαί μοι τὸν σοφιστὴν Ἀπολλοφάνη καὶ πα τραλοίαν ἀποκαλεῖν, ὡς τοῖς Ἑλλήνων ἐπὶ τοὺς Ἕλληνας οὐχ ὁσίως χρωμένῳ. Καίτοι πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡμᾶς ἦν ἀληθέστερον εἰπεῖν, ὡς Ἕλληνες τοῖς θείοις οὐχ ὁσίως ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα χρῶνται διὰ τῆς σοφίας τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ θεῖον ἐκβάλλειν πειρώμενοι σέβας. Καὶ οὐ τὴν τῶν πολλῶν ἔγωγέ φημι δόξαν τοῖς τῶν ποιητῶν προσύλως καὶ ἐμπαθῶς ἐναπομενόντων καὶ «τῇ κτίσει παρὰ τὸν κτίσαντα» λατρευόντων, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸς Ἀπολλοφάνης οὐχ ὁσίως τοῖς θείοις ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα χρῆται· τῇ γὰρ τῶν ὄντων γνώσει, καλῶς λεγομένῃ πρὸς αὐτοῦ φιλοσοφίᾳ καὶ πρὸς τοῦ θείου Παύλου σοφίᾳ θεοῦ κεκλημένῃ, πρὸς τὸν αἴτιον καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν ὄντων καὶ τῆς γνώσεως αὐτῶν ἐχρῆν ἀνάγεσθαι τοὺς ἀληθεῖς φιλοσόφους. Καὶ ἵνα μὴ τὴν ἄλλων ἢ τὴν αὐτοῦ παρὰ τὸ δοκοῦν ἐξελέγχοιμι δόξαν, ἔδει συνιδεῖν Ἀπολλοφάνη, σοφὸν ὄντα, μὴ ἂν ἄλλως ποτὲ δυνηθῆναι τῆς οὐρανίας τι παρατραπῆναι τάξεως καὶ κινήσεως, εἰ μὴ τὸν τοῦ εἶναι αὐτὴν καὶ συνοχέα καὶ αἴτιον ἔσχεν εἰς τοῦτο κινοῦντα, τὸν ποιοῦντα πάντα καὶ μετασκευάζοντα κατὰ τὸν ἱερὸν λόγον. Πῶς οὖν οὐ σέβει τὸν ἐγνωσμένον ἡμῖν κἀκ τούτου καὶ ὄντως ὄντα τῶν ὅλων θεὸν ἀγάμενος αὐτὸν τῆς παναιτίου καὶ ὑπεραῤῥήτου δυνάμεως; Ὅταν ἥλιος ὑπ' αὐτοῦ καὶ σελήνη κατὰ δύναμιν καὶ στάσιν ὑπερφυεστάτην ἅμα τῷ παντὶ πρὸς τὸ πάντη ἀκίνητον ὁρίζωνται καὶ εἰς μέτρον ἡμέρας ὅλης ἐπὶ τῶν αὐτῶν ἑστᾶσι τὰ πάντα σημείων· ἤ, τὸ τούτου γε πλεῖον, εἴπερ τῶν ὅλων καὶ τῶν κρειττόνων καὶ περιεχόντων, οὕτω φερομένων, οὐ συμπεριήγετο τὰ περιεχόμενα· καὶ ὅταν ἄλλη τις ἡμέρα κατὰ συνέχειαν σχεδὸν τριπλα σιάζηται καὶ ἐν εἴκοσι ταῖς πάσαις ὥραις ἢ τὸ πᾶν τοσούτου χρόνου φορὰς ἐναντίας ἀναποδίζῃ καὶ ἐπαναστρέφῃ ταῖς οὕτως ἄγαν ὑπερφυε στάταις ἀντιπεριαγωγαῖς ἢ ὁ ἥλιος ἰδίῳ δρόμῳ τὴν πεντάτροπον αὐτοῦ κίνησιν ἐν ὥραις δέκα συνελών, ἀναλυτικῶς αὖθις ὅλην αὐτὴν ἐν ταῖς ἑτέραις δέκα καινήν τινα τρίβων ὁδὸν ἀναποδίζῃ. Τοῦτο δὴ τὸ καὶ Βαβυλωνίους εἰκότως ἐκπλῆξαν καὶ μάχης ἐκτὸς τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ καθυποτάξαν, ὡς ἂν ἰσοθέῳ τινὶ καὶ ὑπερέχοντι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους. Καὶ οὐ δήπου φημὶ τὰς ἐν Aἰγύπτῳ μεγαλουργίας ἢ ἄλλας τινὰς ἀλλαχοῦ θεοσημείας γε γενημένας, ἀλλὰ τὰ κοινὰ καὶ οὐράνια καὶ ἐν τῷ παντὶ καὶ πᾶσι θριαμ