Chapter VIII. That We Showed Good Judgement and Wise Consideration in Accepting Their History : Also a Brief Survey, According to the Authors Quoted, of the Lives of the Men Beloved of God, Both Those Before the Flood and Those Who Afterwards Continued Till the Generation of Moses

NOR is there anything to hinder us from briefly running over their history. First then we will take those before the Mood, according to the contents of Moses’ own writing. For, as before, we ought, I think, to examine the ancestral history of the Hebrews from no other sources than their own, since we learned the Egyptian history from Egyptians, and the Phoenician from their own writers, as again the Grecian history from those illustrious among Greeks, and their philosophy from the philosophers, and not from those who were ignorant of philosophy. For from what other source would it be proper to inquire about the healing art than from those who are well skilled in it? In accordance then with this rule, I think we ought to receive the history of the Hebrews from the learned among the Hebrews, and not from any other source.

As then the story holds among them, from the beginning before the Flood, from the first creation of mankind and for the following generations there have been a certain number of righteous men beloved of God: one of whom ‘hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God.’ [1]

Now this shows that to none but the Creator of all things he gave the title both of Lord and God of the universe: for he was persuaded that not only by creative power had He well and orderly disposed the whole, but also, like the lord as it were of a great city, was the ruler of the whole, and dispenser, and master of the house, being at once Lord, and King, and God.

The first to lay to heart the idea and the name of this Being as Lord and God was the godly man of whom I speak, and who in place of all substance, and title, and abundance, or rather in place of all good, ‘hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God,’ having procured Him for a treasure to himself of blessings both of soul and body.

In consequence of this it is recorded that he was the first to be called among the Hebrews a true man. At all events he is named Enos, which is ‘true man,’ by a well-applied appellation. For it is said that we ought to consider and to call no other a ‘true man’ than him who attains to the knowledge of God and to piety, who is at the same time full of knowledge and of reverence.

For those who are not of this character, but differ in nothing from irrational animals, as driven headlong after the belly and lust, the Hebrew Scripture teaches us to call beasts rather than men, being accustomed to use names in their proper meaning.

Accordingly its custom is to call such men now wolves and dogs, and now swine feeding on refuse and delighting in it; and again reptiles and serpents, answering to the manifold forms of wickedness.

But if at any time it is necessary to denote the man of the common multitude and the race itself, again it uses a suitable and natural appellation, and indicates man as a whole by the name of Adam, because it suggests that this is the proper and natural name of the progenitor and forefather of all men, a name implying according to its translation into the Greek language ‘the earthborn.’

So Enos is recorded as the first of the beloved of God among the Hebrews, since he first ‘hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God,’ proving the truly rational faculty of the soul to be both capable of knowledge and of understanding the true worship of the Godhead: the first of which would be a proof of true knowledge of God, and the second of his hope in the God whom he knew.

For not to neglect nor put in a secondary place the true knowledge of God, but ever and through all to ‘hope to call upon the name of the Lord God,’ partly as lord of the household, and partly as a gracious and good Father, this must be the thrice blessed end of all.

Such then was he who among the Hebrews has been introduced as the first true man, not Adam, the earthborn by name, who for transgressing God’s commandment fell from his better lot, but the very first of God’s beloved, who ‘hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God.’

Judging therefore by sound reasoning we ourselves also were well pleased to imitate such a character as this, and welcomed the statement of the history as profitable and most beneficial to us; and made a vow that, equalling the example of the man of whom I speak, we would call upon the name of the Creator and Lord of all with a steadfast and good hope.

But now after him of whom we have spoken there was another who ‘pleased the Lord, and was not to be found,’ as Moses says,[2] ‘because God translated him’ for the high perfection of his virtue. For difficult it is to find the truly wise.

Such, however, is he who is perfect in God, he who is withdrawn from the converse of the multitude. For the man of a different character, who frequents the marketplaces and courts and taverns and shops and the general crowd, hustling and being hustled, is swallowed up in the very gulf of wickedness. But he who is taken by God, and translated from this world to that, though he cannot be seen or found by men, has become the friend of God, and is found by God.

Him the Hebrews love to name Enoch: and the name would signify the grace of God. We deemed it therefore a blessed thing to emulate the life of this example also as being good.

Again after these a third appeared: Noah who has received testimony as ‘a righteous man in his generation.’ [3] And the following will be proofs of his righteousness. A great foulness and darkness of indescribable wickedness had overtaken the whole human race, and the giants talked of by every mouth were carrying on with ungodly and impious efforts their wars with God which are still so celebrated: and already the fathers of this their brood, whether they had sprung from some condition mightier than man’s nature, or in whatever way endowed, are said to have begun the teaching of curious arts among men, and to have introduced devices of witchcraft and other mischievous sorcery into their life, so that the whole human race had fallen under one sentence of judgement with God.

And so when all were about to be destroyed by one decree, this one man alone, of whom we are now speaking, is found ‘righteous in his generation,’ together with his family. While therefore all who were upon the earth were being destroyed by a flood, and the earth itself purged from the former evils by a sudden deluge of waters, the friend of God with his sons and their wives were most wonderfully preserved by God, as a spark to kindle the life that was to follow.

This man then also would be a primitive model, a living and breathing image, who had given an example to his posterity of the character that is pleasing to God.

Such were those before the Flood. And there were others again who came after it, conspicuous for piety, whose memory is preserved by the sacred oracles. One of these is announced as ‘priest of the Most High God,’ called by his Hebrew name a ‘king of righteousness.’ [4]

For all these there was not one word about bodily circumcision, nor yet about the Jewish commandments of Moses: and therefore it is not right either to call them Jews, nor yet Greeks, because they did not believe in more gods than one like Greeks or the other nations. But they would be more properly called Hebrews, either because of Eber, or rather because of the interpretation of the name.

For by interpretation they are a kind of ‘passengers,’ who have set out on their journey from this world to pass to the contemplation of the God of the universe. For they are recorded to have travelled the straight path of virtue aright by natural reasoning and by unwritten laws, and to have passed beyond carnal pleasures to the life of perfect wisdom and piety.

Among all these then let us count also the celebrated progenitor of the whole nation, Abraham, to whose righteousness the oracles bear witness; again the righteousness not of the law of Moses, for that was not yet in existence, since Moses arose in the seventh generation after Abraham; but nevertheless he also is pronounced to be eminently righteous and pious, like those who have been mentioned above. So at least the Scripture says: ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.’ [5] The answer indeed of God foretells that he shall be ‘a father of many nations,’ and says expressly that ‘in him shall all the nations and all the tribes of the earth be blessed,’ [6] directly prophesying the things which are being now accomplished in our time.

But this Abraham, after he had been made perfect in righteousness which he had successfully maintained, not by the law of Moses, but by faith, and after the appearances of God which are recorded, when about to be called the father of a true-born son even in his old age, is the first who in accordance with a divine command circumcises himself, and enjoins the performance of this rite upon his posterity, whether as a manifest signification of the great multitude of the children to be born of him, or that the children might have a paternal mark to show whether they were living in emulation of their forefathers, or falling away from their virtue, or for any other causes whatsoever they were, which we have not now leisure to discuss carefully.

Such then was the character of Abraham set forth like the former for our imitation. And next to him Isaac is exhibited as the successor both to his father’s knowledge of God and to divine favour, having received this from his father as the noblest and most blessed of all inheritances. United to one wife, once only, say the sacred oracles, he begat children: but being made thereby the father of twin children, he is said to have set this limit to his intercourse with his wife in his extreme self-control.

Here let me bring before you Jacob, who was also called Israel, a man who received a double name in consequence of the unusual eminence of his proper virtues. When exercised indeed in practical habits and modes of life, and experiencing troubles on behalf of religion, he was called Jacob, a name which when translated into the Greek language means a man in training, an athlete; but when afterwards he receives the rewards of victory over his opponents and is crowned, and is already in the enjoyment of the blessings of contemplation, then his name also is changed by the God who communes with him, who both vouchsafes to him a vision of God, and bestows by his new name the rewards of diviner gifts and honours.

And so the answer of God says to him: ‘Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name, for thou hast had power with God, and shalt prevail with men’ [7]---- where Israel indicates ‘the man who beholds and contemplates’: since the very name when translated means ‘a man beholding God.’

Such then was the character of this man, from whom arose the Twelve Tribes of the Jewish nation. And countless things might be told concerning the life of these men, and their philosophic endurance and discipline, some things viewed literally, and some in allegorical suggestions: of which things others have spoken, as well as myself in my treatise ‘Concerning the numerous offspring of the men of old.’ Such then were these patriarchs.

Besides them I can tell you of another, whose name was Job, whom the sacred oracles testify to have been a man ‘blameless, true, just, and devout, abstaining from every evil thing.’ [8] Though he did not belong at all to the Jewish race, he has received witness for all right deeds of religion.

Now as to the children of Jacob, they cherished the knowledge of God and the piety inherited from their forefathers, and advanced the fame of the elder Hebrews to a high degree of glory, so that at length they annexed the government of all Egypt.

Joseph indeed having first been crowned with the rewards of chastity, and afterwards having received the government of Egypt, displayed the divinely favoured character of the Hebrews: and him too we have made it our prayer to emulate, though he had been made a slave by the plot of his brethren, a slave too of an Egyptian.

For I pass by all the rest of his advantages in regard to beauty and strength of body and comeliness, though the Scriptures record that he excelled all in prime of beauty: but his qualities of soul how could any one describe, though he purposed to speak his praise in a manner worthy of his virtue.

The story is that he had by nature the stamp of gentle birth, and the nobility of his disposition blooming upon his face: and so excellently was he endowed with the eminent graces of piety, that his soul shone bright in chastity and justice, in prudence and manliness, and above all in knowledge and piety towards the God of all, which his parents are said to have implanted in his soul from the cradle.

So when his master’s wife fell madly in love with him, and tried to drag him as young and beautiful into licentious and amorous intercourse, and attempted first to cajole him with words, and then besought him with entreaties, and at last ventured to lay violent hands upon him, and had recourse now to immodest and shameless embraces, the hero recalling the memory of the piety of his forefathers, and showing himself both in words and deeds the religious man and true Hebrew, shakes off the base and licentious woman, putting her aside with a stronger hand, and running away as from some terrible and raging beast finds safety in flight.

Afterwards with sober reasoning he reflects as follows within himself and says: ‘If my master from trusting me knoweth none of the things in his house, and hath given into my hands all that is therein, . . . how then shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?’ [9] For which the God of the universe, crowning him as a victor with the rewards of virtue, gives over to him the royalty and governance over his masters and over Egypt itself. Moreover, he also as a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and not a Jew (because the Jewish nation did not yet exist), has been received among the thrice blessed and most highly favoured friends of God.

But after the Hebrews who have been mentioned, the race of their descendants began to grow into a great multitude, and the Jewish nation, which they constituted, now went on multiplying daily and waxing great, until the influence of the pious conduct of their godly forefathers of old began little by little to be weakened and blunted, while the effects of their intercourse with Egyptians gained so much strength over the multitude of whom I speak, that they forgot the virtue of their forefathers, and came round in their modes of living to like customs with the Egyptians, so that their character seemed to differ in nothing from the Egyptians.

At this point then, when they had turned out such as I have described, the God of their forefathers sends forth Moses as a leader and lawgiver, thus verifying the promises given by the oracles to their progenitors: and then having performed by his hand the wonders that are recorded and the extraordinary signs from heaven, He promulgates a law that was suited to the moral condition of those who heard it. For they were unable through moral weakness to emulate the virtue of their fathers, inasmuch as they were enslaved by passions and sick in soul; so He gave them the polity that corresponded to their condition, ordaining some things openly and clearly, and implying others enigmatically, by suggesting symbols and shadows, but not the naked truth, for them to keep and observe.

And so the Jewish polity began about that time with Moses, and continues in accordance with the voices of their own prophets until the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ. For this also was a prophecy of Moses himself and the prophets who followed, that the customs and ordinances of Moses should not fail before those of the Christ appeared, the ordinances, that is, of the new covenant, which has been proclaimed to all nations through our Saviour; and thus these ordinances found a fulfilment in the way which had been announced.

But since we have briefly described the life of the Hebrews before Moses, and shown the character of their religion, it is time to consider the method of their doctrine also, from the writings of Moses and the prophets who followed him.