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I testify to you. See again the gentleness and meekness from the very beginning. For as a man might say to a man who is making noise and causing a disturbance, 'If you listen, I will speak; if you pay attention, I will talk;' so also the Master to His slaves, 'If you will hear me,' he says, 'I will speak.' For they were indolent and dissolute, and not even for a short time did they give a hearing with quietness to the reading of the laws. And making this clear a certain prophet who was in Persia said: 'I will be to them as the sound of a sweet-sounding psaltery;' and they continually told the prophets not to prophesy, or rather they even rejected them, and seemed to be annoyed. And a king appears threatening a certain prophet with this and ordering him not to agitate the crowd. I am God, your God. The repetition is not placed here for no reason, but since he was speaking to the insensible, and the hardened, and the deafened, he puts forth the word concerning his own lordship, giving from here an excellent beginning to the narrative that follows, and showing that they owe their freedom to him, and it would be right for them to pay their debt as slaves to a Master, as works to a Creator, as having received the greatest benefactions, and having been honored with so great an honor. I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices 55.247; and your burnt offerings are continually before me. For thus the other prophets accuse them, since, overlooking the greater part of virtue, they had their hopes of salvation in these things. For they were about to put this forward as a defense, that 'We offer sacrifices,' that 'We bring burnt offerings.' But not for these things did I come to judge, he says, nor to accuse on account of these things, that they were overlooked. But Isaiah rebukes them even more vigorously, saying: 'What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? I am full. The burnt offering of rams, and the fat of lambs, and the blood of bulls and goats I do not want. For who has required these things from your hands?' And yet many words have been spoken concerning sacrifices; but he does not legislate these things as his primary will, but condescending to their weakness. And Jeremiah also says: 'To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Sheba, and cinnamon from a far country?' And all the prophets, so to speak, say that this is nothing great. Wherefore he himself also, beginning, spoke thus: 'I am God, your God'; from here showing that this manner of worship is unworthy of him. For God must be worshipped not through smoke and the savor of sacrifice, but through an excellent, and incorporeal, and spiritual way of life. But the demons of the outsiders are not so, but they even seek these things. A certain poet among the Greeks also appears to show this, saying: ... 'For this honor we have received by lot.' But our God is not so. For they, thirsting for human blood, and wishing to lead them little by little into these bloody pollutions, continually asked for these things; but he, wishing to turn them away little by little even from the slaughter of irrational animals, used this condescension, and permitted sacrifices, in order that he might abolish sacrifices. I will not accept calves from your house, nor he-goats from your flocks. For all the beasts of the forest are mine, cattle on the mountains and oxen. I have known all the birds of the sky, and the beauty of the field is with me. See how little by little he elevates their groveling thought, opening their hardened mind, and showing that it was not because he needed them that he commanded these things, nor because he accepted them that he legislated them. For if I wished to be worshipped thus," he says, "since I have the whole world, and having myself become the creator of all things, I would have prepared abundant sacrifices for myself. Then also mocking and ridiculing them, so that the accusation might become even more striking, he added: 'If I am hungry, I will not tell you; for the world and its fullness are mine.' For since he had permitted these things, that he might lead them away from them little by little, but they remained in the cheapness, nothing great from the

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διαμαρτύρομαί σοι. Ὅρα πάλιν ἐπιείκειαν καὶ πραότητα ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ προοιμίου. Ὡς γὰρ ἂν εἰ ἄνθρωπος πρὸς ἄνθρωπον εἴποι θορυβοῦντα καὶ ταράττοντα, Ἐὰν ἀκούῃς, λαλῶ· ἐὰν προσέχῃς, ἐρῶ· οὕτω καὶ πρὸς τοὺς δούλους ὁ ∆εσπότης, Ἐὰν ἀκούῃς μου, φησὶν, ἐρῶ. Καὶ γὰρ ἦσαν ῥᾴθυμοι καὶ ἀναπεπτωκότες, καὶ οὐδὲ ἐπὶ μικρὸν μετὰ ἡσυχίας παρεῖχον τῇ τῶν νόμων ἀναγνώσει τὴν ἀκρόασιν. Καὶ τοῦτο δηλῶν τις προφήτης ἔλεγεν ὁ ἐν Περσίδι διατρίβων· Ἔσομαι αὐτοῖς ὡς φωνὴ ψαλτηρίου ἡδυφώνου· καὶ συνεχῶς ἔλεγον τοῖς προφήταις μὴ προφητεύειν, μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ διεκρούοντο αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἐνοχλεῖσθαι ἐδόκουν. Καὶ βασιλεὺς τοῦτο φαίνεται ἀπειλῶν προφήτῃ τινὶ καὶ προστάσσων, ὥστε μὴ ὀχλαγωγεῖν. Ὁ Θεὸς ὁ Θεός σου εἰμὶ ἐγώ. Οὐχ ἁπλῶς ὁ διπλασιασμὸς κεῖται, ἀλλὰ ἐπεὶ πρὸς ἀναισθήτους ἐλάλει, καὶ πεπωρωμένους, καὶ κεκωφωμένους, τὸν περὶ τῆς δεσποτείας αὐτοῦ κινεῖ λόγον, ἀρχὴν ἀρίστην τῇ μετὰ ταῦτα διηγήσει διδοὺς ἐντεῦθεν, καὶ δεικνὺς ὅτι ὀφείλουσιν αὐτῷ τὴν ἐλευθερίαν, καὶ χρέος ἂν εἶεν δίκαιοι καταθεῖναι ὡς ∆εσπότῃ δοῦλοι, ὡς ∆ημιουργῷ ἔργα, ὡς τὰ μέγιστα εὐεργετηθέντες, καὶ τοσαύτην τιμηθέντες τιμήν. Οὐκ ἐπὶ ταῖς θυσίαις 55.247 σου ἐλέγξω σε· τὰ δὲ ὁλοκαυτώματά σου ἐνώπιόν μου ἐστὶ διαπαντός. Οὕτω γὰρ οἱ λοιποὶ κατηγοροῦσιν αὐτῶν προφῆται, ἐπειδὴ τὸ πλέον τῆς ἀρετῆς παρορῶντες μέρος, ἐν τούτοις τὰς ἐλπίδας τῆς σωτηρίας εἶχον. Καὶ γὰρ εἰς ἀπολογίαν ἔμελλον αὐτὸ προβάλλεσθαι, ὅτι Θυσίας σπένδομεν, ὅτι Προσφέρομεν ὁλοκαυτώσεις. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐπὶ τούτοις εἰσῆλθον δικασόμενος, φησὶν, οὐδὲ ὑπὲρ τούτων ἐγκαλέσων, ὅτι παρώφθη ταῦτα. Ὁ δὲ Ἡσαΐας καὶ εὐτονώτερον αὐτῶν καθικνεῖται λέγων· Τί μοι πλῆθος τῶν θυσιῶν ὑμῶν; Πλήρης εἰμί. Ὁλοκαύτωμα κριῶν, καὶ στέαρ ἀρνῶν, καὶ αἷμα ταύρων καὶ τράγων οὐ βούλομαι. Τίς γὰρ ἐξεζήτησε ταῦτα ἐκ τῶν χειρῶν ὑμῶν; Καίτοι πολλοὶ περὶ θυσιῶν εἰσιν εἰρημένοι λόγοι· ἀλλ' οὐ προηγουμένως αὐτοῦ βουλομένου ταῦτα νομοθετεῖ, ἀλλὰ τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ αὐτῶν συγκαταβαίνοντος. Καὶ Ἱερεμίας δέ φησιν· Ἵνα τί μοι λίβανον ἐκ Σαβᾶ φέρεις, καὶ κινάμωμον ἐκ γῆς μακρόθεν; Καὶ πάντες δὲ, ὡς εἰπεῖν, οἱ προφῆται οὐδὲν μέγα εἶναι τοῦτό φασι. ∆ιὸ καὶ αὐτὸς ἀρχόμενος οὕτως ἔφη· Ὁ Θεὸς ὁ Θεός σου εἰμὶ ἐγώ· κἀντεῦθεν δηλῶν, ὅτι ἀνάξιος αὐτοῦ τῆς τοιαύτης θεραπείας ὁ τρόπος. Καὶ γὰρ τὸν Θεὸν οὐ διὰ καπνοῦ καὶ κνίσης, ἀλλὰ διὰ πολιτείας ἀρίστης καὶ ἀσωμάτου καὶ νοερᾶς θεραπεύεσθαι δεῖ. Ἀλλ' οὐχ οἱ δαίμονες τῶν ἔξωθεν οὕτως, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπιζητοῦσι ταῦτα. Τοῦτο καί τις παρ' Ἕλλησι ποιητὴς φαίνεται δεικνὺς, λέγων· ... Τὸ γὰρ λάχομεν γέρας ἡμεῖς. Ἀλλ' οὐχ ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν οὕτως. Ἐκεῖνοι μὲν γὰρ αἱμάτων διψῶντες ἀνθρωπίνων, καὶ κατὰ μικρὸν αὐτοὺς εἰς ταύτας τὰς μιαιφονίας ἐνάγειν βουλόμενοι, ταῦτα ᾔτουν συνεχῶς· αὐτὸς δὲ καὶ τῆς τῶν ἀλόγων ἀποστῆσαι σφαγῆς κατὰ μικρὸν ἐθέλων, ἐχρήσατο τῇ συγκαταβάσει ταύτῃ, καὶ συνεχώρησε θυσίας, ἵνα ἀνέλῃ θυσίας. Οὐ δέξομαι ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου σου μόσχους, οὐδὲ ἐκ τῶν ποιμνίων σου χιμάρους. Ὅτι ἐμά ἐστι πάντα τὰ θηρία τοῦ δρυμοῦ, κτήνη ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσι καὶ βόες. Ἔγνωκα πάντα τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καὶ ὡραιότης ἀγροῦ μετ' ἐμοῦ ἐστιν. Ὅρα πῶς κατὰ μικρὸν ἀνάγει τῶν χαμαιζήλων τὴν διάνοιαν, διανοίγων αὐτῶν τὴν πεπωρωμένην γνώμην, καὶ δεικνὺς ὅτι οὐ δεόμενος ταῦτα ἐπέταξεν, οὐδὲ ἀποδεχόμενος ἐνομοθέτησεν. Εἰ γὰρ ἐβουλόμην οὕτω θεραπεύεσθαι, φησὶ, τὴν ὑφήλιον πᾶσαν ἔχων, καὶ αὐτὸς πάντων γενόμενος δημιουργὸς, δαψιλεῖς ἂν παρεσκεύασά μοι γενέσθαι θυσίας. Εἶτα καὶ κωμωδῶν αὐτοὺς καὶ διασύρων, ὥστε καὶ πληκτικωτέραν γενέσθαι τὴν κατηγορίαν, ἐπήγαγεν· Ἐὰν πεινάσω, οὐ μή σοι εἴπω· ἐμὴ γάρ ἐστιν ἡ οἰκουμένη καὶ τὸ πλήρωμα αὐτῆς. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ αὐτὸς μὲν αὐτὰ συνεχώρησεν, ἵνα κατὰ μικρὸν αὐτοὺς ἀπαγάγῃ τούτων, αὐτοὶ δὲ ἐναπέμειναν τῇ εὐτελείᾳ, οὐδὲν μέγα ἐκ τῆς