Chapter XL.—Moses More Ancient and Credible Than the Heathen Heroes.

Therefore, from what has been said it is evident that Moses was older than the ancient heroes, wars, and demons. And we ought rather to believe him, who stands before them in point of age, than the Greeks, who, without being aware of it,⁵¹³⁵¹³    This expression admits of several meanings: “Without properly understanding them,”—Worth; “not with a proper sense of gratitude.”—Maranus. drew his doctrines [as] from a fountain. For many of the sophists among them, stimulated by curiosity, endeavoured to adulterate whatever they learned from Moses,⁵¹⁴⁵¹⁴    [There is increasing evidence of the obligations of the Greek sages to that “light shining in a dark place,” i.e., amid an idolatrous world.] and from those who have philosophized like him, first that they might be considered as having something of their own, and secondly, that covering up by a certain rhetorical artifice whatever things they did not understand, they might misrepresent the truth as if it were a fable. But what the learned among the Greeks have said concerning our polity and the history of our laws, and how many and what kind of men have written of these things, will be shown in the treatise against those who have discoursed of divine things.⁵¹⁵⁵¹⁵    [Let it be noted as the moral of our author’s review, that there is no self-degradation of which man is not capable when he rejects the true God. Rom. i. 28.]