Traduction
Masquer
Gegen die Heiden (BKV)
Nr. 2
S. 56 Aber dagegen freilich ist Er des Hasses würdig, daß Er die Religionen aus dem Erdkreis trieb, daß Er zum Dienst der Götter zu nahen verbot? Um deßwillen wird Er als der Verlöscher der Religion und Urheber der Gottlosigkeit bezüchtigt, der die wahre Religion dem Erdkreis einführte? der den blinden und wahrhaftig in Gottlosigkeit lebenden Menschen die Pforten der Frömmigkeit öffnete, und wem sie sich unterwerfen sollten, kund that? Ist irgend eine Religion wahrer, zuständiger, mächtiger, geehrter, als den obersten Gott kennen, wissen diesen obersten Gott anzurufen, der aller Güter alleiniges Haupt und einzige Quelle ist, der immer gleichmäßige Gründer und Urheber der beständig sich folgenden Dinge, der alles Irdische und Himmlische insgesammt beseelt und mit belebender Bewegung erquickt, und ohne dessen Seyn wahrlich kein Ding wäre, welches irgend einen Namen und eine Substanz besitzt? Außer ihr zweifelt etwa, ob dieser oberste Herr, von dem wir sprechen, sey, und vielmehr glaubt, solcher sey Apollo, Diana, Merkur, Mars. Gieb einen Knaben zum Schiedsrichter, und er wird, dieß Alles, was wir zeigen, betrachtend, mehr an der Existenz der übrigen Götter zweifeln, als wegen Gott zaudern, dessen Seyn wir alle von Natur wissen; entweder da wir ausrufen o Gott, oder da wir zum Zeugen wider die Bösen aufstellen und gleichsam als sähe er uns das Angesicht zum Himmel erheben.
Traduction
Masquer
The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen
2.
But indeed, some one will say, He deserved our hatred because He has driven religion 1 from the world, because He has kept men back from seeking to honour the gods. 2 Is He then denounced as the destroyer of religion and promoter of impiety, who brought true religion into the world, who opened the gates of piety to men blind and verily living in impiety, and pointed out to whom they should bow themselves? Or is there any truer religion--one more serviceable, 3 powerful, and right--than to have learned to know the supreme God, to know how to pray to God Supreme, who alone is the source and fountain of all good, the creator, 4 founder, and framer of all that endures, by whom all things on earth and all in heaven are quickened, and filled with the stir of life, and without whom there would assuredly be nothing to bear any name, and have any substance? But perhaps you doubt whether there is that ruler of whom we speak, and rather incline to believe in the existence of Apollo, Diana, Mercury, Mars. Give a true judgment; 5 and, looking round on all these things which we see, any one will rather doubt whether all the other gods exist, than hesitate with regard to the God whom we all know by nature, whether when we cry out, O God, or when we make God the witness of wicked deeds, 6 and raise our face to heaven as though He saw us.
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Pl. ↩
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This seems the true rationale of the sentence, viewed in relation to the context. Immediately before, Arnobius suggests that the hatred of Christ by the heathen is unjustifiable, because they had suffered nothing at His hands; now an opponent is supposed to rejoin, "But He has deserved our hatred by assailing our religion." The introductory particles at enim fully bear this out, from their being regularly used to introduce a rejoinder. Still, by Orelli and other editors the sentence is regarded as interrogative, and in that case would be, "Has He indeed merited our hatred by driving out," etc., which, however, not merely breaks away from what precedes, but also makes the next sentence somewhat lame. The older editors, too, read it without any mark of interrogation. ↩
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i.e., according to Orelli, to the wants of men; but possibly it may here have the subjunctive meaning of "more full of service," i.e., to God. ↩
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So the ms., reading perpetuarum pater, fundator conditor rerum, but all the editions pa-ri-ter, "alike," which has helped to lead Orelli astray. He suggests et fons est perpetu-us pariter, etc., "perpetual fountain,...of all things alike the founder and framer." It has been also proposed by Oehler (to get rid of the difficulty felt here) to transfer per metathesin, the idea of "enduring," to God; but the reference is surely quite clear, viewed as a distinction between the results of God's working and that of all other beings. ↩
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So the ms. and almost all edd, reading da verum judicium, for which Heraldus suggested da naturae, or verum animae judicium, "give the judgment of nature," or "the true judgment of the soul," as if appeal were made to the inner sense; but in his later observations he proposed da puerum judicem, "give a boy as judge," which is adopted by Orelli. Meursius, merely transposing d-a, reads much more naturally ad--"at a true judgment." ↩
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The ms. reading is illum testem d-e-um constituimus improbarum, retained in the edd. with the change of -arum into -orum. Perhaps for deum should be read r-e-r-um, "make him witness of wicked things." With this passage compare iii. 31-33. ↩