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created the heaven and the earth.” And Jacob is recorded by Moses as saying to his house and all who were with him: 1.2.7 “Remove the foreign gods from your midst and let us arise and go up to Bethel, and let us make an altar there to the Lord who heard me in the day of my affliction, who was with me and saved me on the road I traveled. And they gave to Jacob the foreign gods, which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree in Shechem, and destroyed them until this present day.” 1.2.8 If, therefore, they stood aloof from the error of idolatry, and were shown to be outside of Judaism, yet still, having been born neither Greeks nor Jews, they are testified to have been God-beloved and just and pious, if any others were, it is time to consider a third way of godliness, through which it was likely they succeeded. 1.2.9 Consider, therefore, whether this was not that very third order shown by us, between Judaism and Hellenism, being most ancient and the eldest of all, but newly proclaimed to all the nations through our Savior. 1.2.10 And this would be Christianity, being neither a form of Hellenism nor of Judaism, but the most ancient system of piety between these, and a most archaic philosophy, yet newly legislated for all men throughout the whole inhabited world; so that he who transfers from Hellenism to Christianity does not fall away into Judaism, nor again does he who withdraws from Jewish self-willed religion immediately become a Greek, but he who changes from either order, from Hellenism and Judaism, comes to the middle law and life, that of the God-beloved and just men of old, which our Savior and Lord, after it had been quiet for a long time, renewed again in accordance with His own oracles of Moses and the other prophets concerning these very things. 1.2.11 At any rate, in the oracles to Abraham, Moses himself records the prophecy, that in later times it will be not the descendants of Abraham nor the Jews from his seed, but rather “all the tribes of the earth” and “all the nations” that will be deemed worthy of blessing from God in the same manner as Abraham's godliness. And he writes thus: 1.2.12 “And the Lord said to Abram, Go out from your country and from your kindred, and from your father's house, and come into the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will magnify your name, and you shall be blessed, and I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you, and in you shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.” And again God said: 1.2.13 “Shall I hide from Abraham my servant what I am doing? For Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” But how would “all the nations” and “all the tribes of the earth” be blessed in Abraham, if they had no connection to him, neither by way of the soul nor by kinship of the body? For what kinship according to the flesh did Scythians have with Abraham, for example, or Egyptians or Ethiopians or Indians or Britons or Spaniards? Or how would these nations and those still more remote from them be blessed for the sake of kinship according to the flesh with Abraham? 1.2.14 But neither was it likely that all the nations would share in the blessing of the soul with Abraham. For how could they, when some of them were mixed up in unlawful marriages with mothers and intercourse with daughters, others in licentious unions of males with males, others placed piety in human sacrifices and deifications of irrational animals, in establishments of inanimate matter and in superstitions of greatly deceptive spirits, while others thought it a fine and pious thing to burn the aged alive, to give their loved ones to the fire, and even to taste of the dead? 1.2.15 How then could those who were advanced in such a beastly life of

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ἔκτισε τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν». ὅ τε Ἰακὼβ ἀναγέγραπται παρὰ τῷ Μωσεῖ φήσας τῷ οἴκῳ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς αὐτοῦ· 1.2.7 «ἄρατε τοὺς θεοὺς τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους ἐκ μέσου ὑμῶν καὶ ἀναστάντες ἀναβῶμεν εἰς Βεθήλ, καὶ ποιήσωμεν ἐκεῖ θυσιαστήριον τῷ κυρίῳ τῷ ἐπακούσαντί μου ἐν ἡμέρᾳ θλίψεως, ὃς ἦν μετ' ἐμοῦ καὶ ἔσωσέ με ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ ᾗ ἐπορεύθην. καὶ ἔδωκαν τῷ Ἰακὼβ τοὺς θεοὺς τοὺς ἀλλοτρίους, οἳ ἦσαν ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτῶν, καὶ τὰ ἐνώτια τὰ ἐν τοῖς ὠσὶν αὐτῶν, καὶ ἔκρυψεν αὐτὰ Ἰακὼβ ὑπὸ τὴν τερέβινθον τὴν ἐν Σικίμοις, καὶ ἀπώλεσεν αὐτὰ ἕως τῆς σήμερον ἡμέρας». 1.2.8 Εἰ δὴ οὖν καὶ τῆς εἰδωλολάτρου πλάνης ἀλλότριοι καθεστήκεσαν, ἰουδαϊσμοῦ δὲ ἐκτὸς γεγονότες ἀπεδείχθησαν, ὅμως γε μὴν οὔτε Ἕλληνες οὔτε Ἰουδαῖοι φύντες θεοφιλεῖς γεγονέναι μεμαρτύρηνται καὶ δίκαιοι καὶ εὐσεβεῖς, εἰ καί τινες ἄλλοι, ὥρα τρίτον ἐπινοεῖν θεοσεβείας τρόπον, δι' οὗ κατορθῶσαι εἰκὸς ἦν αὐτούς. 1.2.9 σκόπει τοιγαροῦν εἰ μὴ τοῦτ' αὐτὸ ἦν τὸ μεταξὺ ἰουδαϊσμοῦ καὶ ἑλληνισμοῦ τρίτον ἡμῖν ἀποδεδειγμένον τάγμα, παλαίτατον μὲν καὶ πάντων τυγχάνον πρεσβύτατον, νεωστὶ δὲ διὰ τοῦ ἡμετέρου σωτῆρος πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσι κατηγγελμένον. 1.2.10 καὶ τοῦτ' ἂν εἴη ὁ χριστιανισμός, οὔτε ἑλληνισμός τις ὢν οὔτε ἰουδαϊσμός, ἀλλὰ τὸ μεταξὺ τούτων παλαιότατον εὐσεβείας πολίτευμα, καὶ ἀρχαιοτάτη μέν τις φιλοσοφία πλὴν ἀλλὰ νεωστὶ πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις τοῖς καθ' ὅλης τῆς οἰκουμένης νενομοθετημένη· ὥστε τὸν ἐξ ἑλληνισμοῦ ἐπὶ τὸν χριστιανισμὸν μετατιθέμενον οὐκ ἐπὶ ἰουδαϊσμὸν ἐκπίπτειν, οὐδ' αὖ πάλιν τὸν ἐκ τῆς ἰουδαϊκῆς ἐθελοθρησκείας ἀναχωροῦντα εὐθὺς Ἕλληνα γίνεσθαι, τὸν δὲ ἐξ ἑκατέρου τάγματος ἔκ τε ἑλληνισμοῦ καὶ ἰουδαϊσμοῦ μεθιστάμενον ἐπὶ τὸν μέσον παριέναι νόμον τε καὶ βίον, τὸν τῶν πάλαι θεοφιλῶν καὶ δικαίων ἀνδρῶν, ὃν ὁ σωτὴρ καὶ κύριος ἡμῶν μακρὸν ἐφησυχάσαντα χρόνον αὖθις ἀνενεώσατο ἀκολούθως τοῖς αὐτοῦ Μωσέως καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν προφητῶν περὶ τούτων αὐτῶν θεσπίσμασιν. 1.2.11 ἐν γοῦν τοῖς πρὸς τὸν Ἀβραὰμ χρησμοῖς αὐτὸς ὁ Μωσῆς ἀναγράφει θεσπίζων, ὡς ὅτι μελλήσουσιν ἐν ὑστέροις ποτὲ χρόνοις οὐχ οἱ τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ ἀπόγονοι οὐδ' οἱ ἐκ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ Ἰουδαῖοι, ἀλλὰ γὰρ «πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς» καὶ «πάντα τὰ ἔθνη» ἐπὶ τῷ ὁμοίῳ τρόπῳ τῆς τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ θεοσεβείας εὐλογίας παρὰ θεοῦ καταξιωθήσεσθαι. γράφει δὲ οὕτως· 1.2.12 «καὶ εἶπε κύριος τῷ Ἀβραάμ, ἔξελθε ἐκ τῆς γῆς σου καὶ ἐκ τῆς συγγενείας σου, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ πατρός σου, καὶ δεῦρο εἰς τὴν γῆν, ἣν ἄν σοι δείξω, καὶ ποιήσω σε εἰς ἔθνος μέγα, καὶ εὐλογήσω σε, καὶ μεγαλυνῶ τὸ ὄνομά σου, καὶ ἔσῃ εὐλογημένος, καὶ εὐλογήσω τοὺς εὐλογοῦντάς σε, καὶ τοὺς καταρωμένους σε καταράσομαι, καὶ ἐνευλογηθήσονται ἐν σοὶ πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς». καὶ πάλιν ὁ θεὸς εἶπεν· 1.2.13 «μὴ κρύψω ἐγὼ ἀπὸ Ἀβραὰμ τοῦ παιδός μου ἃ ἐγὼ ποιῶ; Ἀβραὰμ δὲ γινόμενος ἔσται εἰς ἔθνος μέγα καὶ πολύ, καὶ ἐνευλογηθήσονται ἐν αὐτῷ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη τῆς γῆς». Πῶς δ' ἂν ἔμελλον τῷ Ἀβραὰμ ἐνευλογηθήσεσθαι «πάντα τὰ ἔθνη» καὶ «πᾶσαι αἱ φυλαὶ τῆς γῆς», εἰ μηδέν τι προσήκοντες ὑπῆρχον αὐτῷ, μήτε κατὰ ψυχῆς τρόπον μήτε κατὰ σώματος συγγένειαν; τῆς τε γὰρ κατὰ σάρκα συγγενείας τίς ἦν πρὸς τὸν Ἀβραὰμ συγγένεια Σκύθαις, φέρε εἰπεῖν, ἢ Αἰγυπτίοις ἢ Αἰθίοψιν ἢ Ἰνδοῖς ἢ Βρεττανοῖς ἢ Ἱσπανοῖς; ἢ πῶς ἂν ταῦτα τὰ ἔθνη καὶ τὰ ἔτι τούτων ἀπῳκισμένα τῆς πρὸς τὸν Ἀβραὰμ κατὰ σάρκα συγγενείας χάριν ἔμελλον εὐλογηθήσεσθαι; 1.2.14 ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τῆς κατὰ ψυχὴν εὐλογίας εἰκὸς ἦν κοινωνήσειν τῷ Ἀβραὰμ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη. πῶς γάρ, ὅτε τὰ μὲν αὐτῶν ἐκθέσμοις μητρογαμίαις καὶ θυγατρομιξίας τὰ δ' ἀκολάστοις ὁμιλίαις ἀρρένων πρὸς ἄρρενας ἀνεφύρετο, τὰ δὲ τὴν εὐσέβειαν ἐν ἀνθρωποθυσίαις καὶ ζῴων ἀλόγων θεοποιίαις ἀψύχου τε ὕλης ἱδρύμασι καὶ πνευμάτων πολυπλανῶν δεισιδαιμονίαις ἀνετίθετο, τὰ δὲ ζῶντας κατακαίειν τοὺς γεγηρακότας, τὰ δὲ πυρὶ τοὺς φιλτάτους παραδιδόναι, τὰ δὲ καὶ νεκρῶν ἀπογεύεσθαι καλὸν εἶναι καὶ εὐσεβὲς ἡγεῖτο; 1.2.15 πῶς οὖν τοὺς ἐν τῷ τοιούτῳ θηριώδει βίῳ προηγμένους τῆς τοῦ