So that also in this God may separate us from the likeness of beasts, which, along with the eating of the flesh, also lap the blood of those whose flesh they eat. Question 140. If God foretold what was going to be, in the case of those things that had a true outcome, also through the seers among the Greeks, how is it that, whenever Greeks fought against Greeks, having often done something according to an oracle, a practice which the divine scripture forbade, they were delivered from the terrible things lying in the second inquiry? For instance, in war, as when the Seven against Thebes were about to utterly destroy the aforementioned city, but when Tiresias had prophesied, Menoeceus, according to what seemed right to the prophecy, willingly slew himself, and thus, according to the prediction of the prophecy, the city was saved, and the enemies were destroyed by those in the city. And this, one example out of many concerning trophies in wars, has been said by us. Response. The one who provides the solution to the questions must first set down the agreed-upon points, and then from them make the solution to the questions. And among the agreed-upon points is that there is one God, creator and provider for the whole world, whom the divine scriptures of the Christians proclaim with words testified to by divine powers; from whom is both the prediction and the outcome of future things. But the scriptures, which proclaim him, reject the gods of the Greeks: If the nations, it says, will change their gods, and they are not gods. And for those whose gods are not gods, of these, neither are their seers prophets of truth, nor does their prediction have an inescapable and true outcome. For just as they are far from true divinity, so also are they from the foreknowledge of future things. But that also in the battle of Greeks against Greeks, of those who in many ways, especially in wars, used prophecies, the God of the Christians established his own will, is testified to by the battle of Alexander and Darius, strengthening the prophecies for one, and abolishing them for the other, is testified to also by the battle of the Assyrian which he had against many other and strong nations, whom God called the rod of his anger and a saw, at one time saying: Behold, the Assyrian is the rod of my anger, against a sinful nation I will send him; and at another time saying concerning him: Shall the saw be lifted up without him who pulls it? And yet it is manifest that the Assyrian, according to the successful outcomes of the oracles which he received from his own gods through the seers, saws and tears apart the pitiable nations, which, likewise relying on oracles as he did, joined battle with him, and failed in the hope from the oracles, since God allowed the Assyrian to succeed with the oracles, but the nations to fail. Concerning whom God says through the prophet Isaiah: I have stretched out my hand, and they were dried up; but the Assyrian says: Did the gods of the nations deliver

Ἵνα καὶ ἐν τούτῳ χωρίσῃ ἡμᾶς ὁ θεὸς τῆς τῶν θηρίων ὁμοιότητος, τῶν σὺν τῇ βρώσει τῆς σαρκὸς λαπτόντων καὶ τὸ αἷμα ὧν τὰς σάρκας ἐσθίουσιν. Ἐρώτησις ρμ. Eἰ ὁ θεὸς ἐπὶ τῶν ἀληθῆ τὴν ἔκβασιν ἐσχηκότων καὶ διὰ τῶν παρ' Ἕλλησι μάντεων τὸ μέλλον ἔσεσθαι προεμήνυσε, πῶς, ὁπηνίκα Ἕλληνες πρὸς Ἕλληνας διεμάχοντο, πολλάκις κατὰ χρησμὸν πράξαντές τι, ὧν ἡ θεία γραφὴ τὴν πρᾶξιν ἀπη γόρευσε, τῶν ἐν τῇ δευτέρᾳ πεύσει κειμένων δεινῶν ἀπηλλά γησαν; Oἷον ἐπὶ μὲν πολέμου, ὡς ὅταν οἱ ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβαις ἄρδην μὲν καταστρέφειν τὴν προῤῥηθεῖσαν πόλιν ἔμελλον, μαντευσαμένου δὲ Τειρεσίου ὁ Μενοικεὺς κατὰ τὸ δοκοῦν τῇ μαντείᾳ ἑαυτὸν ἑτοίμως κατέσφαξε, καὶ οὕτως κατὰ τὴν πρόῤ ῥησιν τῆς μαντείας ἡ μὲν πόλις διεσώθη, οἱ δὲ πολέμιοι ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει ἀνῃρέθησαν. Καὶ τοῦτο μὲν περὶ τῶν ἐν πο λέμοις τροπαίων ἓν ἐκ πολλῶν ἡμῖν εἴρηται. Ἀπόκρισις. Ὁ ποιῶν τὴν λύσιν τῶν ζητουμένων πρῶτον ὀφείλει θεῖ ναι τὰ ὁμολογήματα, εἶτα ἐξ αὐτῶν ποιήσασθαι τῶν ζητου μένων τὴν λύσιν. Ἔστι δὲ τῶν ὁμολογουμένων τὸ ἕνα εἶναι θεὸν δημιουργόν τε καὶ προνοητὴν τοῦ κόσμου παντός, ὃν καταγγέλλουσιν αἱ θεῖαι τῶν Χριστιανῶν γραφαὶ λόγοις θείαις δυνάμεσι μεμαρτυρημένοις· παρ' οὗ ἐστι τῶν μελλόντων ἥ τε πρόῤῥησις καὶ ἡ ἔκβασις. Ἐκβάλλουσι δὲ αἱ γραφαί, αἱ τοῦτον καταγγέλλουσαι, τοὺς τῶν Ἑλλήνων θεούς· Eἰ ἀλλάξουσι, φησί, τὰ ἔθνη τοὺς θεοὺς αὑτῶν, καὶ αὐτοὶ οὐκ εἰσὶ θεοί. Ὧν δὲ οὐκ εἰσὶν οἱ θεοὶ θεοί, τούτων οὐδὲ οἱ μάντεις εἰσὶν ἀλη θείας προφῆται, οὐδ' ἡ αὐτῶν πρόῤῥησις ἀναπόδραστόν τε καὶ ἀληθῆ ἔχει τὴν ἔκβασιν. Ὥσπερ γάρ εἰσι μακρὰν τῆς ἀληθι νῆς θεότητος, οὕτως καὶ τῆς τῶν μελλόντων προγνώσεως. Ὅτι δὲ καὶ ἐν τῇ μάχῃ τῶν Ἑλλήνων πρὸς Ἕλληνας, τῶν πο λυτρόπως, μάλιστα ἐν τοῖς πολέμοις, ταῖς μαντείαις χρησα μένων, ὁ τῶν Χριστιανῶν θεὸς τὴν ἰδίαν ἔστησε βούλησιν, μαρτυρεῖ μὲν ἡ μάχη Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ ∆αρείου, τοῦ μὲν κρα τύνας τὰς μαντείας, τοῦ δὲ καταργήσας, μαρτυρεῖ δὲ καὶ τοῦ Ἀσσυρίου ἡ μάχη ἣν εἶχε πρὸς τὰ ἄλλα πολλὰ καὶ ἰσχυρὰ ἔθνη, ὃν ὁ θεὸς ·άβδον τῆς ὀργῆς καὶ πρίονα ἐκάλεσε, ποτὲ μὲν λέγων· Ἰδοὺ ὁ Ἀσσύριος ·άβδος ἐστὶ τῆς ὀργῆς μου, ἐπὶ ἔθνος ἁμαρτωλὸν ἀποστελῶ αὐτόν· ποτὲ δὲ λέγων περὶ αὐ τοῦ· Μὴ ὑψωθήσεται πρίων ἄνευ τοῦ ἕλκοντος αὐτόν; Καί τοι πρόδηλός ἐστιν ὁ Ἀσσύριος ὅτι κατὰ τὰς ἐπιτυχίας τῶν χρησμολογημένων, ἃ εἴληφε παρὰ τῶν θεῶν αὑτοῦ διὰ τῶν μάντεων, πρίζει καὶ σπαράσσει τὰ ἐλεεινὰ ἔθνη, τὰ ὁμοίως αὐτῷ τῇ πεποιθήσει τῶν χρησμῶν συμβεβληκότα αὐτῷ εἰς πό λεμον, καὶ ἀποτετυχηκότα τῆς διὰ χρησμῶν ἐλπίδος, τοῦ θεοῦ συγχωρήσαντος ἐπιτυχεῖν μὲν τῶν χρησμῶν τὸν Ἀσσύριον, ἀπο τυχεῖν δὲ τὰ ἔθνη. Περὶ ὧν ὁ μὲν θεὸς διὰ τοῦ προφήτου Ἡσαΐου φησίν· Ὁ θεὸς ἀνῆκα τὴν χεῖρά μου, καὶ ἐξηράν θησαν· ὁ δὲ Ἀσσύριός φησι· Μὴ ἐῤῥύσαντο οἱ θεοὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν