To Autolycus 2.31–3.6

After the flood there was again a beginning of cities and kings, in this way. The first city was Babylon, and Orech and Archath and Chalane, in the land of Sennaar; and their king was named Nebroth. From these went out one named Assour, after whom the Assyrians are named. And Nebroth built the cities of Nineveh and Roboom and Calak, and Dasen between Nineveh and Calak; and Nineveh was at first a great city. Another son of Sem, the son of Noah, named Mesraein, fathered the Loudoueim and those called Enemigeim, and the Labieim, the Nephthaleim, the Patrosonieim, and the Chaslonieim, from whom came the Phylistieim. We have given the list of the three sons of Noah, their descendants and their genealogy, in summary in the book we mentioned. Now we will recall what was left out, about the cities and kings and the things that happened when there was one lip and one language. The cities described above came into being before the languages were divided. When the people were about to be divided, they took counsel by their own judgment, not through God, to build a city and a tower whose top would reach up to heaven, so as to make a glorious name for themselves. Since, then, against the will of God they dared to undertake an arrogant work, God overthrew their city and laid the tower flat. From that time he changed the languages of human beings, giving each a different language. So the Sibyl has indicated, announcing that wrath was about to come upon the world. She spoke thus: “But when the threats of the great God are fulfilled, with which he once threatened mortals, when they built a tower in the land of Assyria (they were all of one speech, and they wished to climb up to the starry heaven), at once the Immortal laid a mighty constraint on the winds; and then the winds threw down the great tower from on high and stirred up strife among mortals against one another. But when the tower had fallen, and the tongues of human beings were divided into the many languages of mortals, the earth was filled with mortals divided among kings,” and so on. These things took place in the land of the Chaldeans. In the land of Canaan there was a city named Charran. At that time the first king of Egypt was Pharaoh, who was called Nechaoth by the Egyptians; and so the kings after him followed in succession. In the land of Senaar, among those called Chaldeans, the first king was Arioch; after him another, Ellasar; after him Chodollagomor, king of Elam; and after him Thargal, king of the nations called Assyrians. Five other cities arose in the portion of Ham, the son of Noah: first the one called Sodom, then Gomorrah, Adama, Seboein, and Balak, also called Segor. The names of their kings are these: Ballas, king of Sodom; Barsas, king of Gomorrah; Sennaar, king of Adama; Hymoor, king of Seboein; and Balach, king of Segor, also called Balak. These served Chodollagomor, king of the Assyrians, for twelve years; in the thirteenth year they revolted from Chodollagomor. And so it came about that the four kings of the Assyrians made war on the five kings. This was the first beginning of wars on the earth. And they cut down the giants of Karanaein, and strong nations with them, and the Ommaeans in their city, and the Chorraeans in the mountains called Seir, as far as the place called the Terebinth of Pharan, which is in the desert. At the same time there was a righteous king named Melchizedek in the city of Salem, now called Jerusalem. He was the first priest of all the priests of God Most High. From him the city was named Hierousalem, the Jerusalem mentioned above; and from him priests came to be found over all the earth. After him Abimelech reigned in Gerar; after him another Abimelech; then Ephron reigned, also called the Hittite. Such are the names of these earlier kings. Of the Assyrian kings over many intervening years, the rest have been passed over in silence and not recorded. Last of all, in times close to our own, the kings of the Assyrians are recorded as Theglaphasar, after him Selamanasar, then Sennacherim; his commander was Adramelech the Ethiopian, who also reigned over Egypt. Yet these, compared with our Scriptures, are quite recent.

From this, those who love learning and antiquity can consider the histories, to see whether what we say through the holy prophets is recent. At first there were only a few people, in the land of Arabia and Chaldea; after their languages were divided, they gradually began to become many and to multiply over the whole earth. Some turned to settle toward the east, others in the parts of the great continent and toward the north, so as to spread as far as the Britons in the northern regions; others in the land of Canaan, also called Judea and Phoenicia, and in the regions of Ethiopia, Egypt, and Libya, the so-called torrid zone, and the regions stretching to the west; and the rest from the coast and Pamphylia, in Asia, Greece, and Macedonia, and then in Italy and the lands called the Gauls, the Spains, and the Germanies; so that now the whole earth is filled with its inhabitants. So human settlement on the earth was at first threefold, in the east, the south, and the west; and afterward, as human beings became very numerous, the remaining parts of the earth were settled too. Not knowing these things, the writers want to call the world spherical and to compare it to a cube. How can they say anything true about it, when they know neither how the world was made nor how it was settled? As human beings gradually increased and multiplied on the earth, as we said, so the islands of the sea and the other regions were settled.

Which of the so-called wise men, poets, and historians, then, was able to tell the truth about these things? They were born much later and brought in a multitude of gods; they were born so many years after the cities, later than the kings and the nations and the wars. They should have recalled all things, including what happened before the flood, about the creation of the world and the making of the human being; and the prophets of the Egyptians or the Chaldeans, and the other writers, should have told precisely what happened afterward, if indeed they spoke by a divine and pure spirit and proclaimed truly what was spoken through them. And they should have foretold not only what was past or present but also what is coming upon the world. This shows that all the others have gone astray, and that only the Christians have taken hold of the truth, since we are taught by the Holy Spirit, who spoke in the holy prophets and foretold all things.

From now on, then, be willing to search with an open mind into the things of God, I mean what was spoken through the prophets, so that by comparing what we say with what the others say, you may be able to find the truth. That the names of the so-called gods turn out, among the pagans themselves, to be the names of men, as we showed above, we have proved from the very histories they wrote. Their images are still being molded every day, to this very day: idols, the works of human hands. And the mass of foolish people worship these, but reject the Maker and Creator of all things, who nourishes everything that breathes, following vain teachings through the error of a senseless tradition received from their fathers. Yet God, the Father and Creator of all things, did not abandon humankind, but gave a law and sent holy prophets to proclaim and teach the human race, so that each one of us might come to his senses and know that God is one. They also taught us to abstain from unlawful idolatry, adultery, murder, sexual immorality, theft, love of money, perjury, anger, and all licentiousness and uncleanness; and that whatever a person does not want done to himself, he should not do to another; so that whoever acts righteously may escape the eternal punishments and be counted worthy by God of eternal life.

The divine law forbids worshiping not only idols but also the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, or the other stars; nor may one worship the heaven or the earth or the sea or springs or rivers. One must serve only the true God and Maker of all things, in holiness of heart and sincerity of mind. That is why the holy law says: “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet your neighbor's wife.” The prophets say the same. Solomon teaches us not to sin even by a nod, saying: “Let your eyes look straight ahead, and let your eyelids nod what is right.” And Moses, himself a prophet, says about the sole sovereignty of God: “This is your God, who makes firm the heaven and creates the earth, whose hands displayed all the host of heaven; and he did not show them to you so that you should go after them.” Isaiah himself says: “Thus says the Lord God, who made firm the heaven and founded the earth and all that is in it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it: this is the Lord your God.” And again through him: “I,” he says, “made the earth and man upon it; with my hand I made firm the heaven.” And in another chapter: “This is your God, who formed the ends of the earth; he will not hunger or grow weary, and his understanding is unsearchable.” Likewise Jeremiah says: “He made the earth by his strength, he set the world upright by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched out the heaven, and a mass of water in the heaven; he brought up clouds from the end of the earth, made lightnings for the rain, and brought out winds from his storehouses.” One can see how all the prophets spoke in friendship and agreement, uttering by one and the same Spirit their teaching on the sole sovereignty of God, the origin of the world, and the making of the human being. More than that: they were in anguish, grieving over the godless race of human beings, and they put to shame those who seemed to be wise, because of the error and hardness of heart in them. Jeremiah said: “Every man has become foolish, without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved images; in vain does the silversmith work the silver; there is no breath in them; in the day of their visitation they will perish.” David says the same: “They are corrupt and have become abominable in their deeds; there is no one who does good, not even one; all have turned aside, together they have become worthless.” Likewise Habakkuk: “What does a carved image profit the man who carved it, a false phantom? Woe to him who says to the stone, Wake up, and to the wood, Rise up.” So spoke the other prophets of truth as well. Why should I list the multitude of the prophets, who are many and have said ten thousand things in friendship and agreement? Those who wish can, by reading what was spoken through them, know the truth precisely, and not be led astray by opinion and futile labor. These prophets we have mentioned arose among the Hebrews: unlettered men, shepherds, and ordinary people.

The Sibyl, who was a prophetess among the Greeks and the other nations, at the beginning of her prophecy reproaches the human race, saying: “Mortal men of flesh, who are nothing, how quickly you exalt yourselves, not looking to the end of life! Do you not tremble, and do you not fear God, your overseer, the Most High, who knows and sees all things, witness of all, Creator who nourishes all, who has put his sweet spirit in all things and made it the guide of all mortals? There is one God, who alone rules, exceedingly great, unbegotten, almighty, invisible, who alone sees all things, but is not seen by any mortal flesh. For what flesh can see with its eyes the heavenly and true God, the immortal, who dwells in the heavens? Men cannot even stand facing the rays of the sun, being born mortal, men of bones, of veins and flesh. Worship him who alone exists, the ruler of the world, who alone has been from age to age, self-begotten, unbegotten, ruling all things forever, allotting judgment to all mortals in the light common to all. You will have the reward you deserve for your evil counsel, because you have given up glorifying the true and everlasting God and offering him holy hecatombs, and have made your sacrifices to the demons in Hades. You walk in conceit and madness; you have left the straight and right path and gone astray among thorns and stakes. Stop, foolish mortals, roaming in darkness and lightless black night; leave the darkness of night and take hold of the light. See, he is plain to all and does not deceive. Come, do not forever pursue darkness and gloom; see, the sweet light of the sun shines surpassingly bright. Store up wisdom in your breasts and know: there is one God, who sends rains, winds, earthquakes, lightnings, famines, plagues, and grievous sorrows, and snows and ice. Why should I tell them one by one? He rules heaven, he governs earth, he himself exists.” And to those who are said to be born gods she said: “If what is born must surely also perish, then a god cannot be formed from a man's loins and a womb. But God is one alone, most high, who made the heaven and the sun and the stars and the moon, the fruitful earth and the swelling waves of the sea, the lofty mountains and the ever-flowing streams of springs. He also brings forth the countless multitude of creatures in the waters; the creeping things that move on the earth are given life; and the many-colored birds, clear-voiced, twittering, tawny, shrill-winged, beating the air with their wings; in the mountain glens he placed the wild race of beasts. He subjected all the cattle to us mortals, and appointed a ruler of all, fashioned by God, and subjected to man things manifold and beyond comprehension. For what mortal flesh can know all these things? He alone knows who made them from the beginning, the incorruptible and eternal Creator, dwelling in the ether, who offers the good a far greater reward of good, but rouses wrath and fury against the wicked and unjust, and war and plague and tearful pains. O men, why do you exalt yourselves in vain and tear yourselves up by the roots? Be ashamed of making gods of weasels and vermin. Is it not madness and frenzy that takes away the sense from your minds, if gods steal dishes and plunder pots? Instead of dwelling in the rich golden heaven, they look out on moth-eaten things and are hung about with thick spiders' webs! You worship snakes, dogs, and cats, you fools, and you revere birds and creeping beasts of the earth, and stone figures and images made by hands, and heaps of stones by the roadsides; these you revere, and many other vain things, which it is shameful even to mention. These are gods that deceive thoughtless mortals, and from their mouth pours deadly poison. But he in whom is life and imperishable, everlasting light, who pours out for men a joy sweeter than [sweet] honey: to him alone must you bend your neck, and turn your path toward the ages of the godly. Leaving all these things, you have all, in your folly and with raving spirit, drained the cup full of justice, strong, heavy, weighty, quite unmixed; and you will not become sober and return to a sound mind, and know God the King, who oversees all things. Therefore the gleam of blazing fire is coming upon you; you will be burned with torches forever, all the day long, put to shame for your lies about useless idols. But those who honor the true and everlasting God inherit life, dwelling for the length of eternity in the flourishing garden of paradise, feasting on sweet bread from the starry heaven.” That these things are true, useful, just, and welcome to all people is clear; and that those who have done evil must necessarily be punished according to the worth of their deeds.

Some of the poets, too, have already uttered these things, as if speaking oracles against themselves and as a testimony to those who do wrong, saying that they will be punished. Aeschylus said: “For the doer it is due also to suffer.” Pindar too said: “Since for one who does something it is fitting also to suffer.” Likewise Euripides: “Bear your suffering; you rejoiced in doing. It is lawful to do harm to an enemy wherever you catch him.” And again the same poet: “I hold it a man's part to harm his enemies.” Likewise Archilochus: “One great thing I know: to repay with terrible evils the one who does me [any] evil.” And that God sees all things and nothing escapes him, but being patient he holds back until he is about to judge, Dionysius has said this too: “The eye of Justice, looking out as with a calm face, always sees all things alike.” And that the judgment of God will come and evils will suddenly overtake the wicked, Aeschylus also indicated, saying: “Evil comes swift-footed upon mortals, in return for the offense, upon one who transgresses what is right. You see Justice voiceless, unseen by one who sleeps or walks or sits; she follows next, from the side, or at another time later. Night does not hide one who has done evil; whatever terrible thing you do, think that someone sees.” And does not Simonides say: “There is no evil that men may not expect; in a short time God overturns all things”? Again Euripides: “Never should one think the good fortune of an evil man, or his arrogant wealth, secure, nor the race of the unjust; for time, born of no one, shows up the wickedness of men.” And again Euripides: “For the divine is not without understanding, but can discern oaths that were wrongly sworn and forced.” And Sophocles: “If you have done terrible things, you must also suffer terrible things.” So whether about an unjust oath or about any other offense, they themselves have all but foretold that God will examine it; and about the conflagration of the world, willingly or unwillingly, they spoke in agreement with the prophets, although they came much later and stole these things from the law and the prophets.

And what does it matter whether they came last or first? At any rate they too spoke in agreement with the prophets. About the conflagration, the prophet Malachi foretold: “See, the day of the Lord is coming like a burning furnace, and it will set all the ungodly ablaze.” And Isaiah: “For the wrath of God will come like hail driven down with violence, and like water rushing down a ravine.” So the Sibyl and the other prophets, and indeed the poets and philosophers too, have made plain the truth about righteousness, judgment, and punishment; and also about providence, that God cares not only for us who are living but also for the dead, though they said it unwillingly, since they were convicted by the truth. Among the prophets, Solomon said of the dead: “There will be healing for the flesh and care for the bones.” David says the same: “The bones that have been humbled will rejoice.” In agreement with these Timocles too said: “To the dead, God in his kindness is mercy.” So the writers, having spoken of a multitude of gods, came down to the sole sovereignty of God; speaking of there being no providence, they spoke of providence; asserting that there is no judgment, they confessed that there will be a judgment; and those who denied that there is perception after death confessed that there is. Homer, having said, “The soul flew off like a dream and is gone,” says elsewhere, “The soul flew from his limbs and went down to Hades,” and again, “Bury me as quickly as you can, that I may pass the gates of Hades.” As for the other writers you have read, I think you know well how they spoke. All these things will be understood by anyone who seeks the wisdom of God and pleases him through faith, righteousness, and good works. For one of the prophets we mentioned, called Hosea, said: “Who is wise and will understand these things, discerning and will know them? For the ways of the Lord are straight, and the righteous will walk in them, but the ungodly will stumble in them.” The lover of learning must love to learn. So try to meet with me more often, so that by hearing the living voice you may learn the truth precisely.

Theophilus to Autolycus, greeting. Writers like to compose a multitude of books for the sake of empty glory, some about gods and wars or chronology, some about useless myths and other futile labor, in which you too have been engaged up to now. You do not shrink from putting up with that toil; yet when you talk with us you still think that the word of truth is nonsense, supposing that our Scriptures are recent and newfangled. For this reason I too will not shrink from summing up for you, God permitting, the antiquity of our writings, and I am making a brief memorandum of it for you, so that you may not shrink from reading it, and may recognize the nonsense of the other writers.

Those who write ought themselves to have been eyewitnesses of what they affirm, or to have learned it accurately from those who saw it. In a way, those who write about what they cannot know are beating the air. What good did it do Homer to write of the Trojan War and deceive many people, or Hesiod his catalogue of the genealogy of the gods he names, or Orpheus his three hundred and sixty-five gods, whom at the end of his life he rejects, saying in his Testaments that God is one? What good did his description of the sphere of the heavens do Aratus, or those who wrote like him, apart from human glory, which they did not even receive as they deserved? And what truth did they tell? What good did their tragedies do Euripides and Sophocles and the other tragedians, or their comedies Menander and Aristophanes and the other comic poets, or their histories Herodotus and Thucydides? What good did his secret shrines and the Pillars of Heracles do Pythagoras, or Cynic philosophy Diogenes, or Epicurus his teaching that there is no providence, or Empedocles his teaching of atheism, or Socrates his swearing by the dog and the goose and the plane tree and by Asclepius, struck by lightning, and the spirits he used to invoke? Why did he die willingly, and what kind of reward did he hope to receive after death? What good did his learning do Plato, or their teachings the other philosophers, not to list them all, since they are many? We say these things to show how useless and godless their thinking is.

All these, being lovers of empty and vain glory, neither knew the truth themselves nor turned others toward the truth. What they said convicts them, since they said things that contradict one another, and most of them undid their own teachings. Not only did they refute one another, but some even made their own teachings void, so that their glory turned into disgrace and folly; for they are condemned by those who have understanding. They spoke about gods, and later taught atheism; or they spoke about the origin of the world, and finally said that all things come about by chance; and speaking about providence, they then taught that the world has no providence. What more? When they tried to write about decency, did they not teach the practice of licentiousness, fornication, and adultery, and even introduce loathsome unspeakable acts? And they proclaim that their gods, first of all, engage in unspeakable unions and lawless meals. For who does not sing of Kronos devouring his children, and of Zeus his son swallowing Metis and preparing foul feasts for the gods, where they say a lame smith, Hephaestus, waited on them; and of Zeus not only marrying Hera, his own sister, but also doing unspeakable things with an unclean mouth? His other deeds, all that the poets sing of, you probably know. Why should I go on to list the stories about Poseidon and Apollo, or Dionysus and Heracles, Athena the lover of embraces, and shameless Aphrodite, since we have given a more precise account of them elsewhere?

We would not even need to refute these things, except that I see you now in doubt about the word of truth. For, being wise, you gladly put up with fools; otherwise you would not have been moved by senseless people to be led away by empty words and to believe the rumor that has taken hold, from godless mouths that falsely slander us, the worshipers of God called Christians. They say that our wives are held in common, that we live in promiscuous intercourse, that we even have intercourse with our own sisters, and, most godless and cruel of all, that we eat human flesh. They also say that our teaching has only recently come into the world, that we have nothing to offer in proof of our truth and teaching, and that our teaching is foolishness. I am most surprised at you: in other matters you are serious and search into everything, yet you listen to us rather carelessly. If it were possible for you, you would not shrink from spending even the nights in libraries.

Since you have read a great deal, what do you think of the writings of Zeno, or of Diogenes and Cleanthes, all that their books contain? They teach cannibalism: that fathers should be cooked and eaten by their own children, and that if anyone refuses, or throws away some part of the abominable meal, he himself who would not eat should be eaten. Besides these, an even more godless voice is found, that of Diogenes, who teaches children to lead their own parents to sacrifice and devour them. And does not Herodotus the historian tell the tale that Cambyses slaughtered the children of Harpagus, cooked them, and set them before their father as food? He also tells that among the Indians fathers are eaten by their own children. What godless teaching from those who recorded such things, or rather taught them! What impiety and godlessness! What minds they had, who philosophized so “precisely” and professed philosophy! For those who taught these things filled the world with impiety.

And about lawless conduct, nearly all who have strayed in the chorus of philosophy are in agreement. First of all Plato, who is thought to have philosophized more nobly than the rest, in the first book of what he calls the Republic expressly lays down, in a way, that wives should be common to all. He uses the example of the son of Zeus, the lawgiver of the Cretans, so that on this pretext many children may be born of such unions, and, as he supposes, those who are grieving may be consoled by such intercourse. Epicurus too, besides teaching atheism, advises intercourse with mothers and sisters, even in defiance of the laws that forbid it. For Solon legislated clearly about this, that children should be born lawfully of a husband, so that those born would not be the offspring of adultery, and no one would honor as his father a man who was not his father, or dishonor his real father through not knowing that he was his father. And all the other laws, of the Romans and of the Greeks, forbid such things to be done. Why, then, do Epicurus and the Stoics teach incest and intercourse between males, filling whole libraries with such teachings, so that people learn lawless intercourse from childhood? And why should I spend more time on them, when they have proclaimed the same sort of things about those they call gods?