De Principiis

(The translation from the Greek is designedly literal, that the difference between the original and the paraphrase of Rufinus may be more clearly seen.)

1. Since, in our investigation of matters of such importance, not satisfied with the common opinions, and with the clear evi­dence of visible things, we take in addition, for the proof of our statements, testimonies from what are believed by us to be divine writings, viz., from that which is called the Old Testament, and that which is styled the New, and endeavour by reason to con­firm our faith; and as we have not yet spoken of the Scriptures as divine, come and let us, as if by way of an epitome, treat of a few points respecting them, lay­ing down those reasons which lead us to regard them as divine writings. And be­fore making use of the words of the writ­ings themselves, and of the things which are exhibited in them, we must make the following statement regarding Moses and Jesus Christ—the lawgiver of the Hebrews, and the Introducer of the sav­ing doctrines according to Christianity. For, although there have been very many legislators among the Greeks and Barbari­ans, and teachers who announced opinions which professed to be the truth, we have heard of no legislator who was able to imbue other nations with a zeal for the reception of his words; and although those who professed to philosophize about truth brought forward a great apparatus of apparent logical demonstration, no one has been able to impress what was deemed by him the truth upon other na­tions, or even on any number of persons worth mentioning in a single nation. And yet not only would the legislators have liked to enforce those laws which appeared to be good, if possible, upon the whole human race, but the teachers also to have spread what they imagined to be truth everywhere throughout the world. But as they were unable to call men of other lan­guages and from many nations to observe their laws, and accept their teaching, they did not at all attempt to do this, consider­ing not unwisely the impossibility of such a result happening to them. Whereas all Greece, and the barbarous part of our world, contains innumerable zealots, who have deserted the laws of their fathers and the established gods, for the observance of the laws of Moses and the discipleship of the words of Jesus Christ; although those who clave to the law of Moses were hated by the worshippers of images, and those who accepted the words of Jesus Christ were exposed, in addition, to the danger of death.

2. And if we observe how powerful the word has become in a very few years, notwithstanding that against those who acknowledged Christianity conspiracies were formed, and some of them on its account put to death, and others of them lost their property, and that, notwithstand­ing the small number of its teachers, it was preached everywhere throughout the world, so that Greeks and Barbarians, wise and foolish, gave themselves up to the worship that is through Jesus, we have no difficulty in saying that the result is be­yond any human power, Jesus having taught with all authority and persuasive­ness that His word should not be over­come; so that we may rightly regard as oracular responses those utterances of His, such as, “You shall be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony against them and the Gen­tiles;” and, “Many shall say unto Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten in Your name, and drunk in Your name, and in Your name cast out devils? And I shall say unto them, Depart from Me, you work­ers of iniquity, I never knew you.” Now it was perhaps (once) probable that, in uttering these words, He spoke them in vain, so that they were not true; but when that which was delivered with so much authority has come to pass, it shows that God, having really become man, delivered to men the doctrines of salvation.

3. And what need is there to mention also that it was predicted of Christ that then would the rulers fail from Judah, and the leaders from his thighs, when He came for whom it is reserved (the king­dom, namely); and that the expectation of the Gentiles should dwell in the land? For it is clearly manifest from the history, and from what is seen at the present day, that from the times of Jesus there were no longer any who were called kings of the Jews; all those Jewish institutions on which they prided themselves— I mean those arrangements relating to the temple and the altar, and the offering of the service, and the robes of the high priest ­having been destroyed. For the prophecy was fulfilled which said, “The children of Israel shall sit many days, there being no king, nor ruler, nor sacrifice, nor altar, nor priesthood, nor responses.” And these predictions we employ to answer those who, in their perplexity as to the words spoken in Genesis by Jacob to Judah, as­sert that the Ethnarch, being of the race of Judah, is the ruler of the people, and that there will not fail some of his seed, until the advent of that Christ whom they figure to their imagination. But if “the children of Israel are to sit many days without a king, or ruler, or altar, or priest­hood, or responses;” and if, since the temple was destroyed, there exists no longer sacrifice, nor altar, nor priesthood, it is manifest that the ruler has failed out of Judah, and the leader from between his thighs. And since the prediction declares that “the ruler shall not fail from Judah, and the leader from between his thighs, until what is reserved for Him shall come,” it is manifest that He has come to whom (belongs) what is reserved— the expecta­tion of the Gentiles. And this is clear from the multitude of the heathen who have believed on God through Jesus Christ.

4. And in the song in Deuteronomy, also, it is prophetically made known that, on account of the sins of the former peo­ple, there was to be an election of foolish nations, which has been brought to pass by no other than by Jesus. “For they,” He says, “moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God, they have provoked Me to anger with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people, and will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” Now it is possi­ble to understand with all clearness how the Hebrews, who are said to have moved God to jealousy by that which is not God, and to have provoked Him to anger by their idols, were (themselves) aroused to jealousy by that which was not a people— the foolish nation, namely, which God chose by the advent of Jesus Christ and His disciples. We see, indeed, “our call­ing, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble (are called); but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and base things, and things that are de­spised, has God chosen, and things that are not, to bring to nought the things which formerly existed;” and let not the Israel according to the flesh, which is called by the apostle “flesh,” boast in the presence of God.