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to have needed their own rulers on account of the soul's extreme impassibility, and to have received true knowledge of the doctrines concerning God. But since these things have been said in this way, it is time to proceed also through the written records. 7.7.1 7. HOW MOSES HIMSELF, FOR THE HEBREWS OF THE TIME BEFORE HIM, BY

HIS OWN WRITING HAS SET DOWN THEIR LIVES Therefore, the great theologian Moses, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, if anyone else, and one well versed in the traditions of his fathers, in the prefaces to the sacred laws handed down the lives of his Hebrew forefathers in indelible records, both the good things they were counted worthy of by God, and again, the ways and punishments of other godless and impious men, having considered this to be a necessary lesson for those who were to be instructed in his laws, both for the avoidance of the ways of the wicked and for the encouragement of the life of the pious. 7.7.2 And it was necessary otherwise not to be ignorant that, having come before, even before his written laws, very many of the forefathers were already adorned with the virtue of piety by right reason; who, being called both friends of God and prophets, obtained eternal remembrance with Him, and that these were not alien in race to those 7.7.3 for whom he ordained the laws. Wherefore, it was all the more necessary for them, being born descendants of God-loving and righteous men, to be shown as zealous followers of their forefathers' piety and to hasten to obtain from God the same things as their progenitors, but not to grow numb nor to shrink back, despairing of themselves as if the hope of good things were impossible; 7.7.4 for these things were possible and had been completely achieved by their own forefathers; whose images he also handed down to those being instructed in divine things, recounting the lives of the ancients and portraying the particular virtue of each one as in a written icon. 7.8.1 8. 9. HOW WITH REASONABLE JUDGMENT AND SOBER REASONING WE HAVE ACCEPTED THE HISTORY CONCERNING THESE THINGS, AND A SURVEY OF THOSE BEFORE THE FLOOD

GOD-LOVING MEN AND UP TO MOSES

And there is nothing to prevent us from running through the history of these things briefly. Therefore, before the flood, as the writing of Moses himself contains—for it is necessary, I think, to examine the ancestral traditions of the Hebrews from no other source than from their own, since we learn Egyptian matters from Egyptians and Phoenician matters from their own people, and again Greek matters from those distinguished among them, and the matters of philosophers from philosophers, but not from those ignorant of philosophy; and from where else would it be fitting to learn about matters of medicine than from those with the knowledge?—so, then, I think it is necessary accordingly to accept the matters of the Hebrews from the oracles among the Hebrews, and not from any other source; 7.8.2 therefore, as the account among them holds, from the beginning before the flood, from the first generation of men and into the succeeding generations, certain God-loving and righteous men, and many of them, have existed; of whom one 'hoped 7.8.3 to call upon the name of the Lord God;' and this shows that he ascribed to no one but the creator of all things the title of both master and God of the universe. For he was persuaded that He had not only arranged the universe well and in order by a creative power, but also that He rules over the whole, in the manner of a master of a great city, both administering and being master of the household, being both lord 7.8.4 and king and

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δεῖσθαι τῶν ἀρξόντων αὐτῶν δι' ἄκραν ψυχῆς ἀπάθειαν, γνῶσιν δὲ ἀληθῆ τῶν περὶ θεοῦ δογμάτων ἀνειληφέναι. ἀλλὰ γὰρ τῶνδε τοῦτον εἰρημένων τὸν τρόπον, ὥρα καὶ διὰ τῶν ἐγγράφων ἐλθεῖν. 7.7.1 ζʹ. ΩΣ ΑΥΤΟΣ Ο ΜΩΣΗΣ ΕΒΡΑΙΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΠΡΟ ΤΗΣ ΗΛΙΚΙΑΣ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΤΗΙ

ΟΙΚΕΙΑΙ ΚΑΤΑΒΕΒΛΗΤΑΙ ΓΡΑΦΗΙ ΤΟΥΣ ΒΙΟΥΣ Ὁ τοίνυν μέγας θεολόγος Μωσῆς Ἑβραῖος ὢν ἐξ Ἑβραίων, εἰ καί τις ἄλλος, εὖ τε τὰ πάτρια ἐξεπιστάμενος, ὡς ἐν προοιμίοις τῶν ἱερῶν νόμων τοὺς τῶν προπατόρων Ἑβραίων βίους μνήμαις ἀνεξαλείπτοις παραδέδωκεν ὧν τε ἀγαθῶν οὗτοι παρὰ θεοῦ ἠξιώθησαν καὶ αὖ πάλιν ἄλλων ἀθέων καὶ δυσσεβῶν τρόπους τε καὶ τιμωρίας, ἀναγκαῖον ἡγησάμενος ὑπάρξειν τοῦτο τοῖς μέλλουσι τοὺς αὐτοῦ νόμους παιδεύεσθαι μάθημα εἴς τε ἀποφυγὴν τῆς τῶν φαύλων ὁμοιοτροπίας καὶ εἰς προτροπὴν τοῦ τῶν εὐσεβῶν βίου. 7.7.2 χρῆν δὲ καὶ ἄλλως μὴ ἀγνοεῖν ὅτι δὴ φθάσαντες, καὶ πρὸ τῶν ἐγγράφων αὐτοῦ νόμων, πλείους ἤδη τῶν προπατόρων ὀρθοῖς λογισμοῖς θεοσεβείας ἀρετῇ κατεκοσμήθησαν· οἳ καὶ φίλοι θεοῦ καὶ προφῆται χρηματίσαντες αἰωνίας ἔτυχον παρ' αὐτῷ μνήμης, ὧν μηδὲ ἀλλοτρίους τὸ γένος εἶναι τού7.7.3 τους, οἷς τοὺς νόμους διετάττετο. διὸ καὶ μᾶλλον χρῆναι αὐτούς, ἀπογόνους θεοφιλῶν καὶ δικαίων ἀνδρῶν φύντας, τῆς τῶν προπατόρων εὐσεβείας ζηλωτὰς ἀναδειχθῆναι σπεῦσαί τε τῶν ἴσων τοῖς γεννήσασι παρὰ θεοῦ τυχεῖν, ἀλλὰ μὴ ἀποναρκῆσαι μηδ' ἀποκνῆσαι ὡς ἐπ' ἀδυνάτοις τῆς 7.7.4 τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἐλπίδος ἑαυτοὺς ἀπογνόντας· δυνατὰ γὰρ εἶναι καὶ τοῖς οἰκείοις αὐτῶν προπάτορσιν ἐντελῶς κατωρθωμένα· ὧν καὶ τὰς εἰκόνας τοῖς τὰ θεῖα παιδευομένοις παρεδίδου, τοὺς βίους καταλέγων τῶν παλαιῶν καὶ τὴν ἰδιάζουσαν ἑνὸς ἑκάστου ἀρετὴν ὥσπερ ἐν εἰκόνι γραφῆς διατυπούμενος. 7.8.1 ηʹ. θʹ. ΩΣ ΕΥΛΟΓΩΙ ΚΡΙΣΕΙ ΚΑΙ ΣΩΦΡΟΝΙ ΛΟΓΙΣΜΩΙ ΤΗΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ∆Ε ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΝ ΠΑΡΕ∆ΕΞΑΜΕΘΑ ΚΑΙ ΕΠΙ∆ΡΟΜΗ ΤΩΝ ΠΡΟ ΤΟΥ ΚΑΤΑΚΛΥΣΜΟΥ

ΘΕΟΦΙΛΩΝ ΑΝ∆ΡΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΧΡΙ ΜΩΣΕΩΣ

Καὶ τούτων δὲ οὐδὲν ἐμποδὼν μὴ οὐχὶ διὰ βραχέων ἐπιδραμεῖν τὴν ἱστορίαν. πρὸ μὲν οὖν τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ, ὥσπερ ἡ αὐτοῦ Μωσέως περιέχει γραφή δεῖ δέ που, ὡς οἶμαι, μὴ ἄλλοθεν ἢ πάλιν οἴκοθεν τὰ Ἑβραίων πάτρια διασκοπεῖσθαι, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ Αἰγύπτια παρ' Αἰγυπτίων καὶ τὰ Φοινίκων παρὰ τῶν οἰκείων ἐμανθάνομεν, ὡς αὖ πάλιν τὰ Ἑλλήνων παρὰ τῶν ἐν τούτοις διαφανῶν τά τε φιλοσόφων παρὰ τῶν φιλοσόφων, ἀλλ' οὐ παρὰ τῶν ἀπείρων φιλοσοφίας· πόθεν δὲ ἄλλοθεν προσήκοι ἂν καὶ τὰ ἰατρικῆς ἢ παρὰ τῶν ἐπιστημόνων πυνθάνεσθαι; οὕτω δὴ κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον ἡγοῦμαι δεῖν καὶ τὰ Ἑβραίων ἐκ τῶν παρ' Ἑβραίοις λογίων, ἀλλὰ μὴ ἄλλοθέν ποθεν 7.8.2 ἀποδέχεσθαι· ὥσπερ οὖν ὁ παρὰ τούτοις κατέχει λόγος, ἄνωθεν πρὸ τοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ ἐκ πρώτης ἀνθρώπων γενέσεως καὶ εἰς τὰς ἑξῆς διαδοχὰς θεοφιλεῖς τινες ἄνδρες γεγόνασι καὶ δίκαιοι πλείους· ὧν ὁ μὲν «ἤλπισεν 7.8.3 ἐπικαλεῖσθαι τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ·» τοῦτο δὲ δηλοῖ τὸ μηδένα πλὴν τῶν ἁπάντων τὸν δημιουργὸν δεσπότην ὁμοῦ καὶ θεὸν τῶν ὅλων ἐπιγράψασθαι. πεπεῖσθαι γὰρ αὐτὸν οὐ μόνον ποιητικῇ δυνάμει εὖ καὶ ἐν κόσμῳ τὸ πᾶν διατεθεικέναι, ἀλλὰ καὶ δεσπότου δίκην, ὡς ἂν μεγάλης πόλεως, τοῦ σύμπαντος κυριεύειν οἰκονομεῖν τε καὶ οἰκοδεσποτεῖν ὁμοῦ καὶ κύριον 7.8.4 ὄντα καὶ βασιλέα καὶ