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Whatever good exists or can exist, -it is not possible to acquire it otherwise, without first knowing things as they are; and it is not possible to attain knowledge otherwise, unless one first recognizes the prophet of truth. But a prophet of truth is one who always knows all things, things that have happened as they happened, things that are happening as they are happening, and things that will be as they will be, sinless, merciful, alone entrusted to teach the truth. Read and you will find those who thought to find the truth from themselves <......>. For this is the province of a prophet, to declare the truth, just as it is the province of the sun to bring the day. For this reason, all who ever desired to know the truth, but were not fortunate enough to learn it from this one, died seeking without finding. For how could one who seeks the truth be able to receive it from his own ignorance? For even if he finds it, not knowing it, he passes it by as though it did not exist. Nor, again, will he be able to grasp the truth from another (one who likewise professes to have knowledge from ignorance), except for polity alone, and that of the kind which can be known through reason, which for each person, from not wanting to be wronged, presents the knowledge that one must not wrong another. Therefore, all who ever sought the truth, trusting in themselves to be able to find it, were entrapped. This is exactly what has happened to both the philosophers of the Greeks and the more earnest of the barbarians; for applying themselves to visible things by means of conjectures, they made pronouncements about invisible things, thinking whatever occurred to them to be true. For as if knowing the truth, those who are still seeking the truth reject some of the opinions that present themselves to them, and establish others as if they know, not knowing which are true and which are false. And those who are seeking truth dogmatize about truth, not knowing that one who seeks truth cannot learn it from his own error. For neither (as I said) is he able to recognize it when it is present, since he does not know it. But what persuades each person seeking to learn from himself is not necessarily the truth, but what is pleasing. Since, therefore, different things please different people, a different thing prevails for each as truth. But the truth is what seems good to the prophet, not what is pleasant to each person. For the one thing would be many things, if what is pleasing were true; which is impossible. For this reason the Greek philologists (not philosophers), by applying conjectures to things, dogmatized many and various things, thinking the logical consistency of their hypotheses to be truth, not knowing that since they established for themselves false first principles, their conclusion has received harmony with their beginning. Therefore one must, having set aside all things, entrust himself to the prophet of truth alone, whom we are all able to judge whether he is a prophet, even if we are very unlearned and unskilled in sophisms and inexperienced in geometry and uninitiated in music; for God, as one who cares for all, has made finding him easier for everyone, so that neither barbarians may fail to find him nor Greeks be unable to find him. Therefore, finding him is easy. And it is this: if he is a prophet and is able to know how the world came to be and the things happening in it and the things that will be in the end, if he has foretold anything to us which we have known to have happened in the end, rightly...to him from

10

ὑπάρχει καλὸν ἢ ὑπάρξαι δύναται τοῦτο, -οὐκ ἄλλως ἔστιν αὐτὸ κτή- σασθαι, μὴ πρότερον γνόντα τὰ ὄντα ὡς ἔστιν· τῆς δὲ γνώσεως οὐκ ἄλλως τυχεῖν ἔστιν, ἐὰν μὴ πρότερόν τις τὸν τῆς ἀληθείας προφήτην ἐπιγνῷ. προφήτης δὲ ἀληθείας ἐστὶν ὁ πάντοτε πάντα εἰδώς, τὰ μὲν γεγονότα ὡς ἐγένετο, τὰ δὲ γινόμενα ὡς γίνεται, τὰ δὲ ἐσόμενα ὡς ἔσται, ἀναμάρτητος, ἐλεήμων, μόνος τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὑφηγεῖσθαι πεπιστευμένος. ἀναγίνωσκε καὶ εὑρήσεις τοὺς ἀπὸ ἑαυτῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν εὑρεῖν νομίσαντας <......>. τοῦτο γὰρ προφήτου ἴδιον, τὸ τὴν ἀλήθειαν μηνύειν, ὥσπερ ἡλίου ἴδιον τὸ τὴν ἡμέραν φέρειν. διὰ τοῦτο ὅσοι ποτὲ ἀλήθειαν γνῶναι ἐπεθύμησαν, παρὰ δὲ τούτου μαθεῖν αὐτὴν οὐκ εὐτύχησαν, μὴ εὑρόντες ζητοῦντες ἐτελεύτησαν. ὁ γὰρ τὴν ἀλήθειαν ζητῶν παρὰ τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἀγνοίας λαβεῖν πῶς ἂν δύ- ναιτο; κἂν γὰρ εὕρῃ, οὐκ εἰδὼς αὐτὴν ὡς οὐκ οὖσαν παρέρχεται. οὔτ' αὖ παρ' ἑτέρου (τοῦ ὁμοίως ἐξ ἀγνωσίας γνῶσιν ἔχειν ἐπαγγελλομένου) ἀληθείας κρατεῖν δυνατὸς ἔσται, πλὴν πολιτείας μόνης, καὶ ταῦτα ἐκείνης τῆς διὰ τὸ εὔλογον γνωρισθῆναι δυναμένης, ἥτις ἑκάστῳ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ θέλειν ἀδι- κεῖσθαι τοῦ μὴ δεῖν ἄλλον ἀδικεῖν τὴν γνῶσιν παρίστησιν. πάντες μὲν οὖν ὅσοι ποτὲ ἐζήτησαν τὸ ἀληθές, τὸ δύνασθαι εὑρεῖν ἑαυτοῖς πιστεύσαντες ἐνηδρεύθησαν. τοῦτο ὅπερ πεπόνθασιν καὶ οἱ τῶν Ἑλλήνων φιλόσοφοι καὶ βαρβάρων οἱ σπουδαιότεροι· ἐκ στοχασμῶν γὰρ ἐπι- βάλλοντες τοῖς ὁρατοῖς περὶ τῶν ἀδήλων ἀπεφήναντο, τὸ ὁπώσποτε πα- ραστὰν αὐτοῖς, τοῦτο ἀληθὲς εἶναι νομίσαντες. ὡς γὰρ εἰδότες ἀλήθειαν οἱ ἀλήθειαν ἔτι ζητοῦντες τῶν παρισταμένων αὐτοῖς ὑπολήψεων ἃ μὲν ἀποδοκιμάζουσιν, ἃ δὲ κρατύνουσιν ὥσπερ εἰδότες, μὴ εἰδότες ποῖα μέν ἐστιν ἀληθῆ, ποῖα δὲ ψευδῆ. καὶ δογματίζουσιν περὶ ἀληθείας οἱ ἀλήθειαν ἐπιζητοῦντες, οὐκ εἰδότες ὅτι ὁ ἀλήθειαν ζητῶν παρὰ τῆς αὑτοῦ πλάνης μαθεῖν αὐτὴν οὐ δύναται. οὔτε γάρ (ὡς ἔφην) παρεστη- κυῖαν αὐτὴν ἐπιγνῶναι δύναται, ἣν ἀγνοεῖ. πείθει δὲ ἕκαστον ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ ζητοῦντα μαθεῖν οὐ πάντως τὸ ἀληθές, ἀλλὰ τὸ τέρπον. ἐπεὶ οὖν ἄλλον ἄλλο τέρπει, ἄλλου ἄλλο κρατεῖ ὡς ἀληθές. τὸ δὲ ἀληθές ἐστιν τὸ δοκοῦν τῷ προφήτῃ, οὐ τὸ ἑκάστῳ ἡδύ. πολλὰ γὰρ ἂν ἦν τὸ ἕν, εἰ τὸ τέρπον ἀληθὲς ἦν· ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἀδύνατον. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ οἱ τῶν Ἑλλήνων φιλόλογοι (οὐ φιλόσοφοι) διὰ στοχασμῶν τοῖς πράγμασιν ἐπιβάλλοντες πολλὰ καὶ διάφορα ἐδογμάτισαν, τὴν οἰκείαν τῶν ὑποθέσεωνἀκολουθίαν ἀλήθειαν εἶναι νομίσαντες, οὐκ εἰδότες ὅτι αὐτῶν ψευδεῖς ἀρχὰς ἑαυτοῖς ὁρισαμένων, τῇ ἀρχῇ αὐτῶν τὸ τέλος συμφωνίαν εἴληφεν. ὅθεν δεῖ πάντα παρελόμενον μόνῳ τῷ τῆς ἀληθείας πιστεύειν ἑαυτὸν προ- φήτῃ, ὃν πάντες κρῖναι δυνάμεθα εἰ προφήτης ἐστίν, κἂν πάνυ ἀμα- θεῖς ὦμεν καὶ σοφισμῶν ἰδιῶται καὶ γεωμετρίας ἄπειροι καὶ μουσικῆς ἀμύητοι· εὐκολωτέραν γὰρ τὴν περὶ αὐτοῦ εὕρεσιν ὁ θεὸς τέθεικεν πᾶσιν ὡς πάντων κηδεμών, ἵνα μήτε βάρβαροι ἐξασθενῶσιν αὐτὸν μήτε Ἕλ- ληνες ἀδυνατῶσιν εὑρεῖν. ·ᾳδία μὲν οὖν ἡ περὶ αὐτοῦ εὕρεσις ὑπάρχει. ἔστιν δὲ ἥδε· εἰ προφήτης ἐστὶν καὶ δύναται εἰδέναι ὡς ἐγένετο ὁ κό- σμος καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ γινόμενα καὶ τὰ εἰς τέλος ἐσόμενα, ἐὰν ἡμῖν ᾖ τι προειρηκὼς ὃ εἰς τέλος ἐγνώκαμεν γεγενημένον, καλῶς αὐτῷ ἐκ