Chapter LV.

But I maintain that, if he had the patience (to use his own expression) to listen to the writings of Moses and the prophets, he would have had his attention arrested by the circumstance that the expression “God made” is applied to heaven and earth, and to what is called the firmament, and also to the lights and stars; and after these, to the great fishes, and to every living thing among creeping animals which the waters brought forth after their kinds, and to every fowl of heaven after its kind; and after these, to the wild beasts of the earth after their kind, and the beasts after their kind, and to every creeping thing upon the earth after its kind; and last of all to man.  The expression “made,” however, is not applied to other things; but it is deemed sufficient to say regarding light, “And it was light;” and regarding the one gathering together of all the waters that are under the whole heaven, “It was so.”  And in like manner also, with regard to what grew upon the earth, where it is said, “The earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after its kind and after its likeness, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself, after its kind, upon the earth.”  He would have inquired, moreover, whether the recorded commands of God respecting the coming into existence of each part of the world were addressed to one thing or to several;863    τίνι ἢ τίσιν. and he would not lightly have charged with being unintelligible, and as having no secret meaning, the accounts related in these books, either by Moses, or, as we would say, by the Divine Spirit speaking in Moses, from whom also he derived the power of prophesying; since he “knew both the present, and the future, and the past,” in a higher degree than those priests who are alleged by the poets to have possessed a knowledge of these things.

Οὔπω δὲ λέγω ὅτι, εἴπερ ὑπέμεινε καὶ ἠνέσχετο ἐπακοῦσαι τῶν, ὥς φησι, συγγραμμάτων Μωϋσέως καὶ τῶν προφητῶν, ἐπέστησεν ἄν, τί δήποτε τὸ μὲν "ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς" ἐπ' οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς τέτακται καὶ τοῦ καλουμένου στερεώματος ἔτι δὲ καὶ φωστήρων καὶ ἀστέρων καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἐπὶ κητῶν μεγάλων καὶ πάσης ψυχῆς "ζῴων ἑρπετῶν, ἃ ἐξήγαγε τὰ ὕδατα κατὰ γένη αὐτῶν", καὶ παντὸς πετεινοῦ πτερωτοῦ "κατὰ γένος" καὶ ἑξῆς τούτοις ἐπὶ τῶν θηρίων "τῆς γῆς κατὰ γένος" καὶ τῶν κτηνῶν "κατὰ γένος" καὶ πάντων τῶν ἑρπετῶν "τῆς γῆς κατὰ γένος" αὐτῶν καὶ τελευταῖον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, μὴ εἰρημένου δὲ τοῦ "ἐποίησε" περὶ ἑτέρων, ἀρκεῖται ὁ λόγος περὶ φωτὸς μὲν τῷ "Ἐγένετο φῶς" ἐπὶ δὲ συναγωγῆς μιᾶς παντὸς ὕδατος τοῦ ὑποκάτω παντὸς τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τῷ "Ἐγένετο οὕτως", ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν βλαστησάντων ἀπὸ γῆς, ὅτ' "ἐξήνεγκεν ἡ γῆ βοτάνην χόρτου σπεῖρον σπέρμα κατὰ γένος καὶ καθ' ὁμοιότητα καὶ ξύλον κάρπιμον ποιοῦν καρπόν, οὗ τὸ σπέρμα αὐτοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ κατὰ γένος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς". Καὶ ἐζήτησεν ἄν, αἱ γεγραμμέναι προστάξεις τοῦ θεοῦ περὶ τοῦ γενέσθαι ἕκαστον τοῦ κόσμου μέρος τίνι ἢ τίσιν εἴρηνται, καὶ οὐκ ἂν εὐχερῶς κατηγόρησεν ὡς ἀδιανοήτων καὶ μηδεμίαν σύνεσιν ἀπόρρητον ἐχόντων τῶν ἢ ὑπὸ Μωϋσέως ἐν τούτοις γεγραμ μένων ἤ, ὡς ἡμεῖς εἴποιμεν ἄν, ὑπὸ τοῦ ἐν Μωϋσεῖ θείου πνεύματος, ἀφ' οὗ καὶ ἐπροφήτευσεν· ἐπεὶ μᾶλλον ᾔδει τά τ' ἐόντα τά τ' ἐσσόμενα πρό τ' ἐόντα τῶν λεγομένων παρὰ τοῖς ποιηταῖς μάντεων ταῦτ' ἐγνωκέναι.