Chapter XXX.

It seems to me also that the fancy of Plato, that those stones which we call precious stones derive their lustre from a reflection, as it were, of the stones in that better land, is taken from the words of Isaiah in describing the city of God, “I will make thy battlements of jasper, thy stones shall be crystal, and thy borders of precious stones;”1669    Isa. liv. 12, 11. and, “I will lay thy foundations with sapphires.”  Those who hold in greatest reverence the teaching of Plato, explain this myth of his as an allegory.  And the prophecies from which, as we conjecture, Plato has borrowed, will be explained by those who, leading a godly life like that of the prophets, devote all their time to the study of the sacred Scriptures, to those who are qualified to learn by purity of life, and their desire to advance in divine knowledge.  For our part, our purpose has been simply to say that what we affirm of that sacred land has not been taken from Plato or any of the Greeks, but that they rather—living as they did not only after Moses, who was the oldest, but even after most of the prophets—borrowed from them, and in so doing either misunderstood their obscure intimations on such subjects, or else endeavoured, in their allusions to the better land, to imitate those portions of Scripture which had fallen into their hands.  Haggai expressly makes a distinction between the earth and the dry land, meaning by the latter the land in which we live.  He says:  “Yet once, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the dry land, and the sea.”1670    Hagg. ii. 6.

∆οκεῖ δέ μοι καὶ τὰ περὶ τῶν τῇδε τιμίων εἶναι νομιζομένων λίθων, ἀπορροήν τινα λεγομένων ἔχειν ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν τῇ κρείττονι γῇ λίθων, εἰλῆφθαι τῷ Πλάτωνι ἀπὸ τῶν ἐν τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ ἀναγεγραμμένων περὶ τῆς πόλεως τοῦ θεοῦ, περὶ ἧς γέγραπται· "Θήσω τὰς ἐπάλξεις σου ἴασπιν καὶ τοὺς λίθους σου λίθους κρυστάλλου καὶ τὸν περίβολόν σου λίθους ἐκλεκτοὺς" καὶ πάλιν· "Θήσω τὰ θεμέλιά σου σάπφειρον." Τὸν μὲν οὖν παρὰ Πλάτωνι ἀλληγοροῦντες μῦθον οἱ σεμνότερον τὰ τοῦ φιλοσόφου ἐξειληφότες διη γοῦνται, τὰς δὲ προφητείας, ἀφ' ὧν στοχαζόμεθα καὶ τὸν Πλάτωνα εἰληφέναι, οἱ συγγενῶς τοῖς προφήταις καὶ ἐνθέως βιώσαντες καὶ πάντα τὸν χρόνον ἀναθέντες τῇ ἐξετάσει τῶν ἱερῶν γραμμάτων τοῖς ἐπιτηδείοις διὰ βίου καθαρότητα καὶ τὴν περὶ τὰ θεῖα φιλομάθειαν παραστήσουσιν. Ἡμῖν δὲ προκεῖμενον ἦν δεῖξαι ὅτι ἡμεῖς μὲν οὐκ ἀπὸ Ἑλλήνων ἢ Πλάτωνος τὰ περὶ τῆς ἁγίας γῆς εἰλήφαμεν· ἐκεῖνοι δέ, νεώτεροι γενόμενοι οὐ μόνον τοῦ ἀρχαιοτάτου Μωϋσέως ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν πλείστων προφητῶν, ἤτοι παρακη κόασί τινων αἰνισσομένων περὶ τῶν τοιούτων, ἢ καὶ ταῖς ἱεραῖς ἐντυχόντες γραφαῖς παραποιήσαντες αὐτὰ τοιαῦτά τινα περὶ τῆς κρείττονος εἰρήκασι γῆς. Σαφῶς δ' ὁ Ἀγγαῖος παρίστησιν ἄλλο μὲν εἶναι "τὴν ξηρὰν" ἄλλο δὲ "τὴν γῆν", ξηρὰν καλῶν ταύτην, ἐφ' ᾗ ἐσμεν. Λέγει δὲ οὕτως· "Ἔτι ἅπαξ ἐγὼ σείσω τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ τὴν ξηρὰν καὶ τὴν θάλασσαν."