Chapter XVIII.—Of the Fact that the God of the Hebrews is Not Received by the Romans, Because His Will is that He Alone Should Be Worshipped.

26. In fine, they may think of Him as they please. Still, we may ask whether it is the case that the Romans refuse to consider evil deities as also proper objects of worship,—those Romans who have erected fanes to Pallor and Fever, and who enjoin both that the good demons are to been treated,72    The text gives invitandos; others read imitandos, to be imitated. and that the evil demons are to be propitiated. Whatever their opinion, then, of Him may be, the question still is, Why is He the only Deity whom they have judged worthy neither of being called upon for help, nor of being propitiated? What God is this, who is either one so unknown, that He is the only one not discovered as yet among so many gods, or who is one so well known that He is now the only one worshipped by so many men? There remains, then, nothing which they can possibly allege in explanation of their refusal to admit the worship of this God, except that His will was that He alone should be worshipped; and His command was, that those gods of the Gentiles that they were worshipping at the time should cease to be worshipped. But an answer to this other question is rather to be required of them, namely, what or what manner of deity they consider this God to be, who has forbidden the worship of those other gods for whom they erected temples and images,—this God, who has also been possessed of might so vast that His will has prevailed more in effecting the destruction of their images than theirs has availed to secure the non-admittance of His worship. And, indeed, the opinion of that philosopher of theirs is given in plain terms, whom, even on the authority of their own oracle, they have maintained to have been the wisest of all men. For the opinion of Socrates is, that every deity whatsoever ought to be worshipped just in the manner in which he may have ordained that he should be worshipped. Consequently it became a matter of the supremest necessity with them to refuse to worship the God of the Hebrews. For if they were minded to worship Him in a method different from the way in which He had declared that He ought to be worshipped, then assuredly they would have been worshipping not this God as He is, but some figment of their own. And, on the other hand, if they were willing to worship Him in the manner which He had indicated, then they could not but perceive that they were not at liberty to worship those other deities whom He interdicted them from worshipping. Thus was it, therefore, that they rejected the service of the one true God, because they were afraid that they might offend the many false gods. For they thought that the anger of those deities would be more to their injury, than the goodwill of this God would be to their profit.

CAPUT XVIII. Hebraeorum Deus a Romanis non receptus, quia se solum coli voluerit.

26. Postremo, quod volunt de illo sentiant. Numquid Romani etiam malos deos colendos non putant, qui Pallori et Febri fana fecerunt? qui et ἀγαθοὺς daemonas invitandos , et κακοὺς daemonas placandos monent? Quodlibet ergo de illo existiment, cur eum solum sibi nec advocandum nec propitiandum esse duxerunt? Quis est Deus iste vel ita ignotus, ut in tam multis diis solus adhuc non inveniatur; aut ita notus, ut a tam multis hominibus jam solus colatur? Nihil ergo restat ut dicant cur hujus Dei sacra recipere noluerint; nisi quia solum se coli voluerit, illos autem deos Gentium, quos isti jam colebant, coli prohibuerit. Sed hoc ipsum magis ab eis requirendum est, quemnam vel qualem putent esse istum Deum, qui noluerit coli deos alios, quibus isti templa et simulacra fecerunt; tantumque potuerit, ut plus valeret ejus voluntas ad eorum simulacra evertenda, quam illorum ad ejus sacra non recipienda. Certe sententia illius eorum philosophi proditur, quem sapientissimum omnium hominum etiam oraculo fuisse firmarunt. Socratis enim sententia est, unumquemque deum sic coli oportere, quomodo se ipse colendum esse praeceperit. Proinde istis summa necessitas facta est non colendi Deum Hebraeorum; quia si alio modo eum colere vellent, quam se colendum ipse dixisset, 1054 non utique illum colerent, sed quod ipsi finxissent: si autem illo modo vellent quo ipse diceret, alios sibi colendos non esse cernebant, quos ille coli prohibebat. Ac per hoc respuerunt unius veri Dei cultum, ne multos falsos offenderent; magis arbitrantes sibi obfuturam fuisse istorum iracundiam, quam illius benevolentiam profuturam.