Chap. II.—Where Wisdom is to Be Found; Why Pythagoras and Plato Did Not Approach the Jews.

Wherefore, if they were not wise who were so called, nor those of later times, who did not hesitate to confess their want of wisdom, what remains but that wisdom is to be sought elsewhere, since it has not been found where it was sought. But what can we suppose to have been the reason why it was not found, though sought with the greatest earnestness and labour by so many intellects, and during so many ages, unless it be that philosophers sought for it out of their own limits? And since they traversed and explored all parts, but nowhere found any wisdom, and it must of necessity be somewhere, it is evident that it ought especially to be sought there where the title of folly480    [See vol. i. p. 289 note 2, this series.]      See 1 Cor. i. 20–22.   appears; under the covering of which God hides the treasury of wisdom and truth, lest the secret of His divine work should be exposed to view.481    The Quindecemviri were the fifteen men to whom the care of the Sibylline books was entrusted. At first two (Duumviri) were appointed. The number was afterwards increased to ten, and subsequently to fifteen. It appears probable that this last change was made by Sulla.      [“Thou art a God that hidest thyself,” Isa xlv. 15. Wisdom must be searched after as hidden treasure.]   Whence I am accustomed to wonder that, when Pythagoras, and after him Plato, inflamed with the love of searching out the truth, had penetrated as far as to the Egyptians, and Magi, and Persians, that they might become acquainted with their religious rites and institutions (for they suspected that wisdom was concerned with religion), they did not approach the Jews only, in whose possession alone it then was, and to whom they might have gone more easily. But I think that they were turned away from them by divine providence, that they might not know the truth, because it was not yet permitted for the religion of the true God and righteousness to become known to men of other nations.482    [i.e., Counsel of God. See p. 14 supra, and 16 infra.]      See Eph. i. 9, 10; Col. i. 26, 27. [This is a mysterious truth: God’s election of men and nations has been according to their desire to be enlightened. Christ must be the “Desire of Nations.”]   For God had determined, as the last time drew near,483    [Concerning the Sibyls, see also, fully, Lardner, Credib., ii. 258, 334, etc. On the use here and elsewhere made of them by our author, Ibid., p. 343, and iii. 544; also pp. 14 and 15, supra.]      The last time is the last dispensation, the time of the new covenant. Heb. i. 2.   to send from heaven a great leader,484    [Vol. ii. cap. 28, p. 143.]      See Isa. lv. 4: “Behold, I have given Him for a leader and commander to the people.”   who should reveal to foreign nations that which was taken away from a perfidious485    Matt. xxi.   and ungrateful people. And I will endeavour to discuss the subject in this book, if I shall first have shown that wisdom is so closely united with religion, that the one cannot be separated from the other.  

CAPUT II. Ubi quaerenda sit sapientia; quare Pythagoras et Plato non accesserunt ad Judaeos.

Quare, si neque illi fuere sapientes, qui sunt appellati, neque posteriores, qui non dubitaverunt insipientam confiteri: quid superest, nisi ut alibi sit quaerenda sapientia, quando non est, ubi quaerebatur, 0451B inventa? Quid autem putemus fuisse causae, cur tot ingeniis totque temporibus summo studio et labore quaesita non reperiretur; nisi quod eam philosophi extra fines suos quaesierunt? Qui quoniam peragratis et exploratis omnibus, nusquam ullam sapientiam comprehenderunt, et alicubi esse illam necesse est; 0452A apparet, illic potissimum esse quaerendam, ubi stultitiae titulus apparet; cujus velamento Deus, ne arcanum sui divini operis in propatulo esset, thesaurum sapientiae ac veritatis abscondit. Unde equidem soleo mirari, quod cum Pythagoras et postea Plato, amore indagandae veritatis accensi, ad Aegyptios, et Magos, et Persas usque penetrassent, ut earum gentium ritus et sacra cognoscerent (suspicabantur enim, sapientiam in religione versari) ad Judaeos tamen non accesserint, penes quos tunc solos erat, et quo facilius ire potuissent. Sed aversos esse arbitror divina providentia, ne scire possent veritatem; quia nondum fas erat alienigenis hominibus religionem Dei veri justitiamque notescere. Statuerat enim Deus, appropinquante ultimo tempore, ducem 0452B magnum coelitus mittere, qui eam perfido (Vid. Matth. XXI) ingratoque populo ablatam, exteris gentibus revelaret. Qua de re in hoc libro aggrediar disputare, si prius ostendero, sapientiam cum religione sic cohaerere, ut divelli utrumque non possit.