Chapter XLVI.

It was for these and similar mysterious reasons, with which Moses and the prophets were acquainted, that they forbade the name of other gods to be pronounced by him who bethought himself of praying to the one Supreme God alone, or to be remembered by a heart which had been taught to be pure from all foolish thoughts and words.  And for these reasons we should prefer to endure all manner of suffering rather than acknowledge Jupiter to be God.  For we do not consider Jupiter and Sabaoth to be the same, nor Jupiter to be at all divine, but that some demon, unfriendly to men and to the true God, rejoices under this title.1152    δαίμονα δέ τινα χαίρειν οὕτως ὀνομαζόμενον.  And although the Egyptians were to hold Ammon before us under threat of death, we would rather die than address him as God, it being a name used in all probability in certain Egyptian incantations in which this demon is invoked.  And although the Scythians may call Pappæus the supreme God, yet we will not yield our assent to this; granting, indeed, that there is a Supreme Deity, although we do not give the name Pappæus to Him as His proper title, but regard it as one which is agreeable to the demon to whom was allotted the desert of Scythia, with its people and its language.  He, however, who gives God His title in the Scythian tongue, or in the Egyptian or in any language in which he has been brought up, will not be guilty of sin.1153    [Note the bearing of this chapter on the famous controversy concerning the Chinese renderings of God’s name.]

Ταῦτα δὴ καὶ τὰ τούτοις ἀνάλογον ἀπόρρητα ἐπιστά μενοι Μωϋσῆς καὶ οἱ προφῆται ἀπαγορεύουσιν "ὄνομα θεῶν ἑτέρων" ὀνομάζειν ἐν στόματι, μελετήσαντι τῷ ἐπὶ πᾶσι μόνῳ εὔχεσθαι θεῷ, καὶ ἀναμνημονεύειν ἐν καρδίᾳ, διδασκο μένῃ καθαρεύειν ἀπὸ πάσης ματαιότητος νοημάτων καὶ λέξεων. Καὶ διὰ τὰ τοιαῦτα πᾶσαν αἰκίαν ὑπομένειν μᾶλλον αἱρούμεθα ἢ τὸν ∆ία ὁμολογῆσαι θεόν. Οὐ γὰρ τὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι ὑπολαμβάνομεν ∆ία καὶ Σαβαώθ, ἀλλ' οὐδ' ὅλως θεῖόν τι τὸν ∆ία, δαίμονα δέ τινα χαίρειν οὕτως ὀνομαζόμενον, οὐ φίλον ἀνθρώποις οὐδὲ τῷ ἀληθινῷ θεῷ. Κἂν Αἰγύπτιοι δὲ τὸν Ἀμοῦν ἡμῖν προτείνωσιν κόλασιν ἀπειλοῦντες, τεθνη ξόμεθα μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν Ἀμοῦν ἀναγορεύσομεν θεόν, παραλαμ βανόμενον ὡς εἰκὸς ἔν τισιν Αἰγυπτίαις καλούσαις τὸν δαίμονα τοῦτον ἐπῳδαῖς. Λεγέτωσαν δὲ καὶ Σκύθαι τὸν Παπαῖον θεὸν εἶναι τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσιν· ἀλλ' ἡμεῖς οὐ πεισόμεθα, τιθέντες μὲν τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεόν, ὡς δὲ φίλον τῷ λαχόντι τὴν Σκυθῶν ἐρημίαν καὶ τὸ ἔθνος αὐτῶν καὶ τὴν διάλεκτον οὐκ ὀνομάζοντες τὸν θεὸν ὡς κυρίῳ ὀνόματι τῷ Παπαῖον. Σκυθιστὶ γὰρ τὸ προσηγορικὸν τὸν θεὸν καὶ αἰγυπτιστὶ καὶ πάσῃ διαλέκτῳ, ᾗ ἕκαστος ἐντέθραπται, ὀνομάζων οὐχ ἁμαρτήσεται.