Chapter XXXI.

After this, wishing to prove that there is no difference between Jews and Christians, and those animals previously enumerated by him, he asserts that the Jews were “fugitives from Egypt, who never performed anything worthy of note, and never were held in any reputation or account.”748    οὔτ᾽ ἐν λόγῳ οὔτ᾽ ἐν ἀριθμῷ αὐτούς ποτε γεγενημένους.  Now, on the point of their not being fugitives, nor Egyptians, but Hebrews who settled in Egypt, we have spoken in the preceding pages.  But if he thinks his statement, that “they were never held in any reputation or account,” to be proved, because no remarkable event in their history is found recorded by the Greeks, we would answer, that if one will examine their polity from its first beginning, and the arrangement of their laws, he will find that they were men who represented upon earth the shadow of a heavenly life, and that amongst them God is recognised as nothing else, save He who is over all things, and that amongst them no maker of images was permitted to enjoy the rights of citizenship.749    ἐπολιτεύετο.  For neither painter nor image-maker existed in their state, the law expelling all such from it; that there might be no pretext for the construction of images,—an art which attracts the attention of foolish men, and which drags down the eyes of the soul from God to earth.750    [See note on Book III. cap. lxxvi. supra, and to vol. iii. p. 76, this series.]  There was, accordingly, amongst them a law to the following effect:  “Do not transgress the law, and make to yourselves a graven image, any likeness of male or female; either a likeness of any one of the creatures that are upon the earth, or a likeness of any winged fowl that flieth under the heaven, or a likeness of any creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, or a likeness of any of the fishes which are in the waters under the earth.”751    Cf. Deut. iv. 16–18.  The law, indeed, wished them to have regard to the truth of each individual thing, and not to form representations of things contrary to reality, feigning the appearance merely of what was really male or really female, or the nature of animals, or of birds, or of creeping things, or of fishes.  Venerable, too, and grand was this prohibition of theirs:  “Lift not up thine eyes unto heaven, lest, when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and all the host of heaven, thou shouldst be led astray to worship them, and serve them.”752    Cf. Deut. iv. 19.  And what a régime753    πολιτεία. was that under which the whole nation was placed, and which rendered it impossible for any effeminate person to appear in public;754    οὐδὲ φαίνεσθαι θηλυδρίαν οἷόν τ᾽ ἦν. and worthy of admiration, too, was the arrangement by which harlots were removed out of the state, those incentives to the passions of the youth!  Their courts of justice also were composed of men of the strictest integrity, who, after having for a lengthened period set the example of an unstained life, were entrusted with the duty of presiding over the tribunals, and who, on account of the superhuman purity of their character,755    οἵ τινες διὰ τὸ καθαρὸν ἦθος, καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον. were said to be gods, in conformity with an ancient Jewish usage of speech.  Here was the spectacle of a whole nation devoted to philosophy; and in order that there might be leisure to listen to their sacred laws, the days termed “Sabbath,” and the other festivals which existed among them, were instituted.  And why need I speak of the orders of their priests and sacrifices, which contain innumerable indications (of deeper truths) to those who wish to ascertain the signification of things?

Μετὰ ταῦτα βουλόμενος κατασκευάζειν ὅτι μηδὲν τῶν προειρημένων παρ' αὐτῷ ζῴων διαφέρουσιν Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ Χριστιανοί φησιν Ἰουδαίους ἀπ' Αἰγύπτου δραπέτας γεγονέναι, μηδὲν πώποτε ἀξιόλογον πράξαντας, οὔτ' ἐν λόγῳ οὔτ' ἐν ἀριθμῷ αὐτούς ποτε γεγενημένους. Περὶ μὲν οὖν τοῦ μὴ δραπέτας αὐτοὺς γεγονέναι μηδ' Αἰγυπτίους ἀλλ' Ἑβραίους ὄντας παρῳκηκέναι ἐν τῇ Αἰγύπτῳ, ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω ἡμῖν λέλεκται· εἰ δὲ τὸ μήτ' ἐν λόγῳ μήτ' ἐν ἀριθμῷ αὐτοὺς γεγονέναι κατασκευάζεσθαι νομίζει ἐκ τοῦ μὴ πάνυ τι τὴν περὶ αὐτῶν ἱστορίαν εὑρίσκεσθαι παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησι, φήσομεν ὅτι εἴ τις ἐνατενίσαι τῇ ἀρχῆθεν αὐτῶν πολιτείᾳ καὶ τῇ τῶν νόμων διατάξει, εὕροι ἂν ὅτι γεγόνασιν ἄνθρωποι σκιὰν οὐρανίου βίου παραδεικνύντες ἐπὶ γῆς· παρ' οἷς οὐδὲν ἄλλο θεὸς νενόμιστο ἢ ὁ ἐπὶ πᾶσι, καὶ οὐδεὶς τῶν εἰκόνας ποιούντων ἐπολιτεύετο. Οὔτε γὰρ ζωγράφος οὔτ' ἀγαλματοποιὸς ἐν τῇ πολιτείᾳ αὐτῶν ἦν, ἐκβάλλοντος πάντας τοὺς τοιούτους ἀπ' αὐτῆς τοῦ νόμου, ἵνα μηδεμία πρόφασις ᾖ τῆς τῶν ἀγαλμάτων κατασκευῆς, τοὺς ἀνοήτους τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπισπωμένης καὶ καθελκούσης ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ εἰς γῆν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς ψυχῆς. Ἦν οὖν παρ' αὐτοῖς νόμος καὶ τοιοῦτος· "Μὴ ἀνομήσητε καὶ ποιήσητε ὑμῖν ἑαυτοῖς γλυπτὸν ὁμοίωμα, πᾶσαν εἰκόνα ὁμοίωμα ἀρσενικοῦ ἢ θηλυκοῦ, ὁμοίωμα παντὸς κτήνους τῶν ὄντων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ὁμοίωμα παντὸς ὀρνέου πτερωτοῦ, ὃ πέταται ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν, ὁμοίωμα παντὸς ἑρπετοῦ, ὃ ἕρπει ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ὁμοίωμα παντὸς ἰχθύος, ὅσα ἐστὶν ἐν τοῖς ὕδασιν ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς." Καὶ ἐβούλετό γε ὁ νόμος τῇ περὶ ἑκάστου ἀληθείᾳ ὁμιλοῦντας αὐτοὺς μὴ ἀναπλάσσειν ἕτερα παρὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ψευδόμενα τὸ ἀληθῶς ἀρσενικὸν ἢ τὸ ὄντως θηλυκὸν ἢ τὴν κτηνῶν φύσιν ἢ τὸ ὀρνέων ἢ τὸ ἑρπετῶν γένος ἢ τὸ ἰχθύων. Σεμνὸν δὲ καὶ μεγαλοφυὲς παρ' αὐτοῖς καὶ τὸ "Μὴ ἀναβλέψας εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ ἰδὼν τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας, πάντα τὸν κόσμον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, πλανηθεὶς προσκυνήσῃς αὐτοῖς καὶ λατρεύσῃς αὐτοῖς." Οἵα δὲ πολιτεία ἦν ὅλου ἔθνους, παρ' ᾧ οὐδὲ φαίνεσθαι θηλυδρίαν οἷόν τ' ἦν. Θαυμαστὸν δὲ καὶ τὸ τὰ τῶν νέων ὑπεκκαύματα, τὰς ἑταίρας, ἀναιρεῖσθαι ἀπὸ τῆς πολιτείας αὐτῶν. Ἦν δὲ καὶ δικαστήρια τῶν δικαιοτάτων καὶ ἀπόδειξιν ὑγιοῦς βίου πολλῷ δεδωκότων χρόνῳ, πιστευο μένων τὰς κρίσεις· οἵτινες διὰ τὸ καθαρὸν ἦθος καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον ἐλέγοντο εἶναι θεοὶ πατρίῳ τινὶ Ἰουδαίων ἔθει. Καὶ ἦν ἰδεῖν ἔθνος ὅλον φιλοσοφοῦν, καὶ διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸ ἀκούειν τῶν θείων νόμων σχολὴν τὰ καλούμενα σάββατα καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ παρ' αὐτοῖς ἑορταὶ ἐγίνοντο. Τί δὲ δεῖ λέγειν περὶ τῆς τάξεως τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς ἱερέων καὶ θυσιῶν, μυρία σύμβολα περιεχουσῶν τοῖς φιλομαθοῦσι σαφηνιζόμενα;