1. Hebrew Bible, Exodus, 34 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)
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2. Plato, Republic, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 589a. but to starve the man and so enfeeble him that he can be pulled about whithersoever either of the others drag him, and not to familiarize or reconcile with one another the two creatures but suffer them to bite and fight and devour one another. Yes, he said, that is precisely what the panegyrist of injustice will be found to say. And on the other hand he who says that justice is the more profitable affirms that all our actions and words should tend to give the man within u |
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3. Septuagint, Ecclesiasticus (Siracides), 40.1-40.7, 41.1-41.4 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE)
| 40.1. Much labor was created for every man,and a heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam,from the day they come forth from their mothers womb till the day they return to the mother of all. 40.1. All these were created for the wicked,and on their account the flood came. 40.2. Their perplexities and fear of heart -- their anxious thought is the day of death 40.2. Wine and music gladden the heart,but the love of wisdom is better than both. 40.3. from the man who sits on a splendid throne to the one who is humbled in dust and ashes 40.3. In the mouth of the shameless begging is sweet,but in his stomach a fire is kindled. 40.4. from the man who wears purple and a crown to the one who is clothed in burlap; 40.5. there is anger and envy and trouble and unrest,and fear of death, and fury and strife. And when one rests upon his bed,his sleep at night confuses his mind. 40.6. He gets little or no rest,and afterward in his sleep, as though he were on watch,he is troubled by the visions of his mind like one who has escaped from the battle-front; 40.7. at the moment of his rescue he wakes up,and wonders that his fear came to nothing. 41.1. O death, how bitter is the reminder of you to one who lives at peace among his possessions,to a man without distractions, who is prosperous in everything,and who still has the vigor to enjoy his food! 41.1. Whatever is from the dust returns to dust;so the ungodly go from curse to destruction. 41.2. and of silence, before those who greet you;of looking at a woman who is a harlot 41.4. and how can you reject the good pleasure of the Most High?Whether life is for ten or a hundred or a thousand years,there is no inquiry about it in Hades. |
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4. Septuagint, Wisdom of Solomon, 2.23-2.24 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 2.23. for God created man for incorruption,and made him in the image of his own eternity 2.24. but through the devils envy death entered the world,and those who belong to his party experience it. |
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5. Lucretius Carus, On The Nature of Things, 1.102-1.126 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
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6. Philo of Alexandria, On The Contemplative Life, 65-68, 73, 75-79, 64 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
| 64. But since the entertainments of the greatest celebrity are full of such trifling and folly, bearing conviction in themselves, if any one should think fit not to regard vague opinion and the character which has been commonly handed down concerning them as feasts which have gone off with the most eminent success, I will oppose to them the entertainments of those persons who have devoted their whole life and themselves to the knowledge and contemplation of the affairs of nature in accordance with the most sacred admonitions and precepts of the prophet Moses. |
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7. Epictetus, Discourses, 4.7.6 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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8. Josephus Flavius, Jewish Antiquities, 3.179-3.180, 18.63 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 3.179. 7. Now here one may wonder at the ill-will which men bear to us, and which they profess to bear on account of our despising that Deity which they pretend to honor; 18.63. 3. Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. |
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9. Josephus Flavius, Against Apion, 1.279 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.279. 31. It now remains that I debate with Manetho about Moses. Now the Egyptians acknowledge him to have been a wonderful, and a divine person; nay they would willingly lay claim to him themselves, though after a most abusive and incredible manner; and pretend that he was of Heliopolis, and one of the priests of that place, and was ejected out of it among the rest, on account of his leprosy; |
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10. New Testament, 1 Peter, 2.17, 5.9 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 2.17. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 5.9. Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings. |
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11. New Testament, 1 Corinthians, 4.15 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 4.15. For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yetnot many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through thegospel. |
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12. New Testament, 2 John, 5, 10 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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13. New Testament, 2 Corinthians, 3 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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14. New Testament, Acts, 26.18 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 26.18. to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' |
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15. New Testament, Apocalypse, 7.9 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 7.9. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. |
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16. New Testament, Colossians, 1.13 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 1.13. who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love; |
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17. New Testament, Ephesians, 2.2, 6.12 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 2.2. in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience; 6.12. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world's rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. |
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18. New Testament, Hebrews, 2.15 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 2.15. and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. |
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19. New Testament, John, 12.31 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 12.31. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out. |
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20. New Testament, Mark, 3.35 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 3.35. For whoever does the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. |
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21. New Testament, Matthew, 23.9 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
| 23.9. Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven. |
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22. Anon., Marytrdom of Polycarp, 10.1 (2nd cent. CE - missingth cent. CE)
| 10.1. 1 But when he persisted again, and said: "Swear by the genius of Caesar," he answered him: "If you vainly suppose that I will swear by the genius of Caesar, as you say, and pretend that you are ignorant who I am, listen plainly: I am a Christian. And if you wish to learn the doctrine of Christianity fix a day and listen. |
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23. Justin, First Apology, 16.8 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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24. Justin, Dialogue With Trypho, 35.3-35.6, 80.2-80.5, 133.6 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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25. Lucian, Alexander The False Prophet, 13, 22, 26, 38-40, 43, 12 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 12. This heroic entry into his long left home placed Alexander conspicuously before the public; he affected madness, and frequently foamed at the mouth — a manifestation easily produced by chewing the herb soap wort, used by dyers; but it brought him reverence and awe. The two had long ago manufactured and fitted up a serpent’s head of linen; they had given it a more or less human expression, and painted it very like the real article; by a contrivance of horsehair, the mouth could be opened and shut, and a forked black serpent tongue protruded, working on the same system. The serpent from Pella was also kept ready in the house, to be produced at the right moment and take its part in the drama — the leading part, indeed. |
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26. Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus, 12, 14, 16, 18, 23, 27-30, 11 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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27. Lucian, The Lover of Lies, 16 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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28. Marcus Aurelius Emperor of Rome, Meditations, 11.3 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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29. Pliny The Younger, Letters, 10.96 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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30. Pliny The Younger, Letters, 10.96 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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31. Origen, Against Celsus, 3.24 (3rd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 3.24. And again, when it is said of Æsculapius that a great multitude both of Greeks and Barbarians acknowledge that they have frequently seen, and still see, no mere phantom, but Æsculapius himself, healing and doing good, and foretelling the future; Celsus requires us to believe this, and finds no fault with the believers in Jesus, when we express our belief in such stories, but when we give our assent to the disciples, and eye-witnesses of the miracles of Jesus, who clearly manifest the honesty of their convictions (because we see their guilelessness, as far as it is possible to see the conscience revealed in writing), we are called by him a set of silly individuals, although he cannot demonstrate that an incalculable number, as he asserts, of Greeks and Barbarians acknowledge the existence of Æsculapius; while we, if we deem this a matter of importance, can clearly show a countless multitude of Greeks and Barbarians who acknowledge the existence of Jesus. And some give evidence of their having received through this faith a marvellous power by the cures which they perform, revoking no other name over those who need their help than that of the God of all things, and of Jesus, along with a mention of His history. For by these means we too have seen many persons freed from grievous calamities, and from distractions of mind, and madness, and countless other ills, which could be cured neither by men nor devils. |
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32. Augustine, The City of God, 19.23 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
| 19.23. For in his book called ἐκ λογίων φιλοσοφίας, in which he collects and comments upon the responses which he pretends were uttered by the gods concerning divine things, he says - I give his own words as they have been translated from the Greek: To one who inquired what god he should propitiate in order to recall his wife from Christianity, Apollo replied in the following verses. Then the following words are given as those of Apollo: You will probably find it easier to write lasting characters on the water, or lightly fly like a bird through the air, than to restore right feeling in your impious wife once she has polluted herself. Let her remain as she pleases in her foolish deception, and sing false laments to her dead God, who was condemned by right-minded judges, and perished ignominiously by a violent death. Then after these verses of Apollo (which we have given in a Latin version that does not preserve the metrical form), he goes on to say: In these verses Apollo exposed the incurable corruption of the Christians, saying that the Jews, rather than the Christians, recognized God. See how he misrepresents Christ, giving the Jews the preference to the Christians in the recognition of God. This was his explanation of Apollo's verses, in which he says that Christ was put to death by right-minded or just judges, - in other words, that He deserved to die. I leave the responsibility of this oracle regarding Christ on the lying interpreter of Apollo, or on this philosopher who believed it or possibly himself invented it; as to its agreement with Porphyry's opinions or with other oracles, we shall in a little have something to say. In this passage, however, he says that the Jews, as the interpreters of God, judged justly in pronouncing Christ to be worthy of the most shameful death. He should have listened, then, to this God of the Jews to whom he bears this testimony, when that God says, He that sacrifices to any other god save to the Lord alone shall be utterly destroyed. But let us come to still plainer expressions, and hear how great a God Porphyry thinks the God of the Jews is. Apollo, he says, when asked whether word, i.e., reason, or law is the better thing, replied in the following verses. Then he gives the verses of Apollo, from which I select the following as sufficient: God, the Generator, and the King prior to all things, before whom heaven and earth, and the sea, and the hidden places of hell tremble, and the deities themselves are afraid, for their law is the Father whom the holy Hebrews honor. In this oracle of his god Apollo, Porphyry avowed that the God of the Hebrews is so great that the deities themselves are afraid before Him. I am surprised, therefore, that when God said, He that sacrifices to other gods shall be utterly destroyed, Porphyry himself was not afraid lest he should be destroyed for sacrificing to other gods. This philosopher, however, has also some good to say of Christ, oblivious, as it were, of that contumely of his of which we have just been speaking; or as if his gods spoke evil of Christ only while asleep, and recognized Him to be good, and gave Him His deserved praise, when they awoke. For, as if he were about to proclaim some marvellous thing passing belief, he says, What we are going to say will certainly take some by surprise. For the gods have declared that Christ was very pious, and has become immortal, and that they cherish his memory: that the Christians, however, are polluted, contaminated, and involved in error. And many other such things, he says, do the gods say against the Christians. Then he gives specimens of the accusations made, as he says, by the gods against them, and then goes on: But to some who asked Hecate whether Christ were a God, she replied, You know the condition of the disembodied immortal soul, and that if it has been severed from wisdom it always errs. The soul you refer to is that of a man foremost in piety: they worship it because they mistake the truth. To this so-called oracular response he adds the following words of his own: of this very pious man, then, Hecate said that the soul, like the souls of other good men, was after death dowered with immortality, and that the Christians through ignorance worship it. And to those who ask why he was condemned to die, the oracle of the goddess replied, The body, indeed, is always exposed to torments, but the souls of the pious abide in heaven. And the soul you inquire about has been the fatal cause of error to other souls which were not fated to receive the gifts of the gods, and to have the knowledge of immortal Jove. Such souls are therefore hated by the gods; for they who were fated not to receive the gifts of the gods, and not to know God, were fated to be involved in error by means of him you speak of. He himself, however, was good, and heaven has been opened to him as to other good men. You are not, then, to speak evil of him, but to pity the folly of men: and through him men's danger is imminent. Who is so foolish as not to see that these oracles were either composed by a clever man with a strong animus against the Christians, or were uttered as responses by impure demons with a similar design - that is to say, in order that their praise of Christ may win credence for their vituperation of Christians; and that thus they may, if possible, close the way of eternal salvation, which is identical with Christianity? For they believe that they are by no means counter working their own hurtful craft by promoting belief in Christ, so long as their calumniation of Christians is also accepted; for they thus secure that even the man who thinks well of Christ declines to become a Christian, and is therefore not delivered from their own rule by the Christ he praises. Besides, their praise of Christ is so contrived that whosoever believes in Him as thus represented will not be a true Christian but a Photinian heretic, recognizing only the humanity, and not also the divinity of Christ, and will thus be precluded from salvation and from deliverance out of the meshes of these devilish lies. For our part, we are no better pleased with Hecate's praises of Christ than with Apollo's calumniation of Him. Apollo says that Christ was put to death by right-minded judges, implying that He was unrighteous. Hecate says that He was a most pious man, but no more. The intention of both is the same, to prevent men from becoming Christians, because if this be secured, men shall never be rescued from their power. But it is incumbent on our philosopher, or rather on those who believe in these pretended oracles against the Christians, first of all, if they can, to bring Apollo and Hecate to the same mind regarding Christ, so that either both may condemn or both praise Him. And even if they succeeded in this, we for our part would notwithstanding repudiate the testimony of demons, whether favorable or adverse to Christ. But when our adversaries find a god and goddess of their own at variance about Christ the one praising, the other vituperating Him, they can certainly give no credence, if they have any judgment, to mere men who blaspheme the Christians. When Porphyry or Hecate praises Christ, and adds that He gave Himself to the Christians as a fatal gift, that they might be involved in error, he exposes, as he thinks, the causes of this error. But before I cite his words to that purpose, I would ask, If Christ did thus give Himself to the Christians to involve them in error, did He do so willingly, or against His will? If willingly, how is He righteous? If against His will, how is He blessed? However, let us hear the causes of this error. There are, he says, in a certain place very small earthly spirits, subject to the power of evil demons. The wise men of the Hebrews, among whom was this Jesus, as you have heard from the oracles of Apollo cited above, turned religious persons from these very wicked demons and minor spirits, and taught them rather to worship the celestial gods, and especially to adore God the Father. This, he said, the gods enjoin; and we have already shown how they admonish the soul to turn to God, and command it to worship Him. But the ignorant and the ungodly, who are not destined to receive favors from the gods, nor to know the immortal Jupiter, not listening to the gods and their messages, have turned away from all gods, and have not only refused to hate, but have venerated the prohibited demons. Professing to worship God, they refuse to do those things by which alone God is worshipped. For God, indeed, being the Father of all, is in need of nothing; but for us it is good to adore Him by means of justice, chastity, and other virtues, and thus to make life itself a prayer to Him, by inquiring into and imitating His nature. For inquiry, says he, purifies and imitation deifies us, by moving us nearer to Him. He is right in so far as he proclaims God the Father, and the conduct by which we should worship Him. of such precepts the prophetic books of the Hebrews are full, when they praise or blame the life of the saints. But in speaking of the Christians he is in error, and caluminates them as much as is desired by the demons whom he takes for gods, as if it were difficult for any man to recollect the disgraceful and shameful actions which used to be done in the theatres and temples to please the gods, and to compare with these things what is heard in our churches, and what is offered to the true God, and from this comparison to conclude where character is edified, and where it is ruined. But who but a diabolical spirit has told or suggested to this man so manifest and vain a lie, as that the Christians reverenced rather than hated the demons, whose worship the Hebrews prohibited? But that God, whom the Hebrew sages worshipped, forbids sacrifice to be offered even to the holy angels of heaven and divine powers, whom we, in this our pilgrimage, venerate and love as our most blessed fellow citizens. For in the law which God gave to His Hebrew people He utters this menace, as in a voice of thunder: He that sacrifices unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed. Exodus 22:20 And that no one might suppose that this prohibition extends only to the very wicked demons and earthly spirits, whom this philosopher calls very small and inferior - for even these are in the Scripture called gods, not of the Hebrews, but of the nations, as the Septuagint translators have shown in the psalm where it is said, For all the gods of the nations are demons, - that no one might suppose, I say, that sacrifice to these demons was prohibited, but that sacrifice might be offered to all or some of the celestials, it was immediately added, save unto the Lord alone. The God of the Hebrews, then, to whom this renowned philosopher bears this signal testimony, gave to His Hebrew people a law, composed in the Hebrew language, and not obscure and unknown, but published now in every nation, and in this law it is written, He that sacrifices unto any god, save unto the Lord alone, he shall be utterly destroyed. What need is there to seek further proofs in the law or the prophets of this same thing? Seek, we need not say, for the passages are neither few nor difficult to find; but what need to collect and apply to my argument the proofs which are thickly sown and obvious, and by which it appears clear as day that sacrifice may be paid to none but the supreme and true God? Here is one brief but decided, even menacing, and certainly true utterance of that God whom the wisest of our adversaries so highly extol. Let this be listened to, feared, fulfilled, that there may be no disobedient soul cut off. He that sacrifices, He says, not because He needs anything, but because it behooves us to be His possession. Hence the Psalmist in the Hebrew Scriptures sings, I have said to the Lord, You are my God, for You need not my good. For we ourselves, who are His own city, are His most noble and worthy sacrifice, and it is this mystery we celebrate in our sacrifices, which are well known to the faithful, as we have explained in the preceding books. For through the prophets the oracles of God declared that the sacrifices which the Jews offered as a shadow of that which was to be would cease, and that the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun, would offer one sacrifice. From these oracles, which we now see accomplished, we have made such selections as seemed suitable to our purpose in this work. And therefore, where there is not this righteousness whereby the one supreme God rules the obedient city according to His grace, so that it sacrifices to none but Him, and whereby, in all the citizens of this obedient city, the soul consequently rules the body and reason the vices in the rightful order, so that, as the individual just man, so also the community and people of the just, live by faith, which works by love, that love whereby man loves God as He ought to be loved, and his neighbor as himself - there, I say, there is not an assemblage associated by a common acknowledgment of right, and by a community of interests. But if there is not this, there is not a people, if our definition be true, and therefore there is no republic; for where there is no people there can be no republic. |
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33. Anon., Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer, 13
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34. Photius, Bibliotheca (Library, Bibl.), 128
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