Greeks are acquainted with the staves of the Ephori at Lacedæmon, inscribed with the law on wood. But my law, as was said above, is both royal and living; and it is right reason. "Law, which is king of all—of mortals and immortals," as the Bœotian Pindar sings. For Speusippus,[1] in the first book against Cleophon, seems to write like Plato on this wise: "For if royalty be a good thing, and the wise man the only king and ruler, the law, which is right reason, is good;"[2] which is the case. The Stoics teach what is in conformity with this, assigning kinghood, priesthood, prophecy, legislation, riches, true beauty, noble birth, freedom, to the wise man alone. But that he is exceedingly difficult to find, is confessed even by them.
CHAPTER V.
HE PROVES BY SEVERAL EXAMPLES THAT THE GREEKS DREW FROM THE SACRED WRITERS.
Accordingly all those above mentioned dogmas appear to have been transmitted from Moses the great to the Greeks. That all things belong to the wise man, is taught in these words: "And because God hath showed me mercy, I have all things."[3] And that he is beloved of God, God intimates when He says, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob."[4] For the first is found to have been expressly called "friend;"[5] and the second is shown to have received anew name, signifying "he that sees God;"[6] while Isaac, God in a figure selected for Himself as a consecrated sacrifice, to be a type to us of the economy of salvation.
Now among the Greeks, Minos the king of nine years' reign,
- ↑ Plato's sister's son and successor.
- ↑ σπονδαὶος.
- ↑ The words of Jacob to Esau slightly changed from the Septuagint: "For God hath showed mercy to me, and I have all things"—ὅτι ἠλέηοέ με ὁ Θεὸς καὶ ἔστι μοι πάντα (Gen. xxxiii. 11).
- ↑ Ex. iii. 16.
- ↑ Jas. ii. 23.
- ↑ So the name Israel is explained, Stromata i. p. 334, Potter; vol. i. p. 369 of translation of Clement in Ante-Nicene Library.
