Traduction
Masquer
Address of Tatian to the Greeks
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, 1 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, 2 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. 3
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This expression admits of several meanings: "Without properly understanding them,"--Worth; "not with a proper sense of gratitude."--Maranus. ↩
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[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.] ↩
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[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.] ↩
Traduction
Masquer
Le Discours aux Grecs de Tatien
XL.
De ce qui vient d’être dit, il résulte que Moïse est plus ancien que les héros, que les cités, que les divinités.1 Il faut donc avoir foi à celui qui l’emporte par l’âge plutôt qu’aux Grecs qui ont puisé à cette source ses doctrines sans les comprendre. Leurs sophistes en effet, avec beaucoup d’activité inutile, se sont appliqués à démarquer tout ce qu’ils ont emprunté à Moïse et aux disciples de sa philosophie, d’abord pour paraître dire quelque chose de personnel, en second lieu pour que, voilant de je ne sais quelle fausse rhétorique ce qu’ils n’avaient pas entendu, ils fissent de la vérité un tissu de fables. Quant à ce qu’ont dit de notre discipline et de l’histoire de nos lois les savants Grecs, quant au nombre et aux noms de ces savants, je le montrerai dans mon traité sur Ceux qui ont rapporté ce qui concerne Dieu.
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Texte très incertain. ↩