Exhortation to the Greeks 6.70

“God, as the ancient saying has it, holding the beginning and end and middle of all things that exist, goes straight on his way, moving in accordance with nature; and Justice always follows him, the avenger of those who fall short of the divine law.” Where did you get this hint of the truth, Plato? Where did this abundant supply of words, prophesying true religion, come from? “The races of the barbarians,” he says, “are wiser than these.” I know your teachers, even if you want to hide them. You learn geometry from the Egyptians, astronomy from the Babylonians; you take healthful incantations from the Thracians; the Assyrians too have taught you much; but the laws, those that are true, and your belief about God, you have got from the Hebrews themselves, “who honor neither with empty deceits the works of men, golden and bronze, of silver and ivory, nor images of dead men of wood and stone, such as mortals honor with empty-minded counsel; but they lift up pure arms to heaven, rising early from their beds, always purifying their skin with water, and they honor only the Immortal who rules forever.”