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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXXIX: De Hebraicis litteris, quae numquam in suae linguae proprietate non fuerint.

Non itaque credendum est, quod nonnulli arbitrantur, Hebraeam tantum linguam per illum, qui uocabatur Heber, unde Hebraeorum uocabulum est, fuisse seruatam, atque inde peruenisse ad Abraham, Hebraeas autem litteras a lege coepisse, quae data est per Moysen, sed potius per illam successionem patrum memoratam linguam cum suis litteris custoditam. denique Moyses in populo constituit qui docendis litteris praeessent, priusquam diuinae legis ullas litteras nossent. hos appellat scriptura γραμματοεισαγογεῖς, qui Latine dici possunt litterarum inductores uel introductores, eo quod eas inducant, id est introducant, quodammodo in corda discentium uel in eas potius ipsos quos docent. nulla igitur gens de antiquitate suae sapientiae super patriarchas et prophetas nostros, quibus diuina inerat sapientia, ulla se uanitate iactauerit, quando nec Aegyptus inuenitur, quae solet falso et inaniter de suarum doctrinarum antiquitate gloriari, qualicumque sapientia sua patriarcharum nostrorum tempore praeuenisse sapientiam. neque enim quisquam dicere audebit mirabilium disciplinarum eos peritissimos fuisse, antequam litteras nossent, id est, antequam Isis eo uenisset easque ibi docuisset. ipsa porro eorum memorabilis doctrina, quae appellata est sapientia, quid erat nisi maxime astronomia et si quid aliud talium disciplinarum magis ad exercenda ingenia quam ad inluminandas uera sapientia mentes solet ualere? nam quod adtinet ad philosophiam, quae se docere profitetur aliquid, unde fiant homines beati, circa tempora Mercurii, quem Trismegistum uocauerunt, in illis terris eiusmodi studia claruerunt, longe quidem ante sapientes uel philosophos Graeciae, sed tamen post Abraham et Isaac et Iacob et Ioseph, nimirum etiam post ipsum Moysen. eo quippe tempore, quo Moyses natus est, fuisse reperitur Atlans ille magnus astrologus, Promethei frater, maternus auus Mercurii maioris, cuius nepos fuit Trismegistus iste Mercurius.

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The City of God

Chapter 39.--About the Hebrew Written Characters Which that Language Always Possessed.

Now we must not believe that Heber, from whose name the word Hebrew is derived, preserved and transmitted the Hebrew language to Abraham only as a spoken language, and that the Hebrew letters began with the giving of the law through Moses; but rather that this language, along with its letters, was preserved by that succession of fathers. Moses, indeed, appointed some among the people of God to teach letters, before they could know any letters of the divine law. The Scripture calls these men grammateisagogeis, who may be called in Latin inductores or introductores of letters, because they, as it were, introduce them into the hearts of the learners, or rather lead those whom they teach into them. Therefore no nation could vaunt itself over our patriarchs and prophets by any wicked vanity for the antiquity of its wisdom; since not even Egypt, which is wont falsely and vainly to glory in the antiquity of her doctrines, is found to have preceded in time the wisdom of our patriarchs in her own wisdom, such as it is. Neither will any one dare to say that they were most skillful in wonderful sciences before they knew letters, that is, before Isis came and taught them there. Besides, what, for the most part, was that memorable doctrine of theirs which was called wisdom but astronomy, and it may be some other sciences of that kind, which usually have more power to exercise men's wit than to enlighten their minds with true wisdom? As regards philosophy, which professes to teach men something which shall make them happy, studies of that kind flourished in those lands about the times of Mercury, whom they called Trismegistus, long before the sages and philosophers of Greece, but yet after Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and even after Moses himself. At that time, indeed, when Moses was born, Atlas is found to have lived, that great astronomer, the brother of Prometheus, and maternal grandson of the elder Mercury, of whom that Mercury Trismegistus was the grandson.