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Chapter X.
And if it be necessary for us to offer a defence of our
refusal to recognise as gods, equally with angels, and sun, and moon,
and stars, those who are called by the Greeks “manifest and
visible” divinities, we
shall answer that the law of Moses knows that these latter have been
apportioned by God among all the nations under the heaven, but not
amongst those who were selected by God as His chosen people above all
the nations of the earth. For it is written in the book of
Deuteronomy: “And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven,
and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the
host of heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them, and serve them,
which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all
nations unto the whole heaven. But the Lord hath taken us, and brought us forth out of the iron
furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as
ye are this day.”4097
The Hebrew
people, then, being called by God a “chosen generation, and a
royal priesthood, and a holy nation, and a purchased
people,”4098
regarding whom it
was foretold to Abraham by the voice of the Lord addressed to him,
“Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to
number them: and He said unto him, So shall thy seed
be;”4099
and having thus a
hope that they would become as the stars of heaven, were not likely to
bow down to those objects which they were to resemble as a result of
their understanding and observing the law of God. For it was said
to them: “The Lord our God hath
multiplied us; and, behold, ye are this day as the stars of heaven for
multitude.”4100
In the book
of Daniel, also, the following prophecies are found relating to those
who are to share in the resurrection: “And at that time thy
people shall be delivered, every one that has been written in the
book. And many of them that sleep in the dust4101
of the earth shall awake, some to
everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And
they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and
(those) of the many righteous4102
| 4102 ἀπὸ
τῶν δικαίων
τῶν πολλῶν. | as the stars for
ever and ever,”4103
etc. And
hence Paul, too, when speaking of the resurrection, says:
“And there are also celestial bodies, and bodies
terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory
of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and
another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star
differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection
of the dead.”4104
It was not
therefore consonant to reason that those who had been taught
sublimely4105
to ascend above all
created things, and to hope for the enjoyment of the most glorious
rewards with God on account of their virtuous lives, and who had heard
the words, “Ye are the light of the world,”4106
and, “Let your light so shine before
men, that they, seeing your good works, may glorify your Father who is
in heaven,”4107
and who possessed
through practice this brilliant and unfading wisdom, or who had secured
even the “very reflection of everlasting light,”4108
| 4108 Cf. Origen, de
Principiis, i. c. vii. | should be so impressed with the (mere)
visible light of sun, and moon, and stars, that, on account of
that sensible light of theirs, they should deem themselves (although
possessed of so great a rational light of knowledge, and of the true
light, and the light of the world, and the light of men) to be somehow
inferior to them, and to bow down to them; seeing they ought to be
worshipped, if they are to receive worship at all, not for the sake of
the sensible light which is admired by the multitude, but because of
the rational and true light, if indeed the stars in heaven are rational
and virtuous beings, and have been illuminated with the light of
knowledge by that wisdom which is the “reflection of everlasting
light.” For that sensible light of theirs is the work of
the Creator of all things, while that rational light is derived perhaps
from the principle of free-will within them.4109
| 4109 ἐκ
τοῦ ἐν
αὐτοῖς
αὐτεξουσίου
ἐληλυθός. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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