The commonwealth of the Hebrews
After this, wishing to establish that Jews and Christians differ in no way from the creatures he named earlier, he says that “the Jews were runaways from Egypt, who never did anything worth mentioning, and were never of any account or number.” Now, that they were not runaways, nor Egyptians, but Hebrews who lived as sojourners in Egypt, we have already said above. But if he thinks it is proved that they were “of no account or number” from the fact that their history is scarcely to be found among the Greeks, we will say that if anyone looks closely at their commonwealth from its beginning and at the ordering of their laws, he would find that they were men who showed on earth a shadow of the heavenly life.
Among them nothing else was held to be God but the One who is over all, and none of those who make images had a place among their citizens. For there was neither painter nor sculptor in their commonwealth, since the law banished all such people from it, so that there might be no occasion for the making of statues, which lures the foolish among men and drags the eyes of the soul down from God to earth. So they had a law such as this: “Do not act lawlessly and make for yourselves a carved likeness, any image, a likeness of male or female, a likeness of any beast of those that are on the earth, a likeness of any winged bird that flies under heaven, a likeness of any creeping thing that creeps on the earth, a likeness of any fish, all that are in the waters beneath the earth” (Deuteronomy 4:16–18). Indeed, the law wished them to keep company with the truth about each thing and not to fashion other things contrary to the truth, counterfeiting what is truly male or really female, or the nature of beasts, or the kind of birds, of creeping things, or of fish.
Solemn and lofty, too, is their precept: “Do not, when you look up to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the array of heaven, be led astray and bow down to them and serve them” (Deuteronomy 4:19). And what a commonwealth it was, that of a whole nation in which it was not even possible for an effeminate man to be seen! Wonderful, too, is the fact that the courtesans, who inflame the young, were removed from their commonwealth (Deuteronomy 23:17). They had courts made up of the most just men, men who had given proof of a sound life over a long time, to whom judgments were entrusted; and these, because of their pure character and what in them was more than human, were called gods, by an ancestral custom of the Jews. One could see a whole nation practising philosophy; and, to give leisure for hearing the divine laws, there were the so-called sabbaths and their other ordinances, those of priests and of sacrifices, which contain countless symbols made clear to those who love learning.
Greek
Μετὰ ταῦτα βουλόμενος κατασκευάζειν ὅτι μηδὲν τῶν προειρημένων παρ᾿ αὐτῷ ζῴων διαφέρουσιν Ἰουδαῖοι καὶ Χριστιανοί φησιν Ἰουδαίους ἀπ᾿ Αἰγύπτου δραπέτας γεγονέναι, μηδὲν πώποτε ἀξιόλογον πράξαντας, οὔτ᾿ ἐν λόγῳ οὔτ᾿ ἐν λόγῳ οὔτ᾿ ἐν ἀριθμῷ αὐτούς ποτε γεγενημένους. περὶ μὲν οὖν τοῦ μὴ δραπέτας αὐτοὺς γεγονέναι μηδ᾿ Αἰγυπτίους ἀλλ᾿ Ἑβραίους ὄντας παρῳκηκέναι ἐν τῇ Αἰγύπτῳ, ἐν τοῖς ἀνωτέρω ἡμῖν λέλεκται· εἰ δὲ τὸ μήτ᾿ ἐν λόγῳ μήτ᾿ ἐν ἀριθμῷ αὐτοὺς γεγονέναι κατασκευάζεσθαι νομίζει ἐκ τοῦ μὴ πάνυ τι τὴν περὶ αὐτῶν ἱστορίαν εὑρίσκεσθαι παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησι, φήσομεν ὅτι εἴ τις ἐνατενίσαι τῇ ἀρχῆθεν αὐτῶν πολιτείᾳ καὶ τῇ τῶν νόμων διατάξει, εὕροι ἂν ὅτι γεγόνασιν ἄνθρωποι σκιὰν οὐρανίου βίου παραδεικνύντες ἐπὶ γῆς· παρ᾿ οἷς οὐδὲν ἄλλο θεὸς νενόμιστο ἢ ὁ ἐπὶ πᾶσι, καὶ οὐδεὶς τῶν εἰκόνας ποιούντων ἐπολιτεύετο. οὔτε γὰρ ζωγράφος οὔτ᾿ ἀγαλματοποιὸς ἐν τῇ πολιτείᾳ αὐτῶν ἦν, ἐκβάλλοντος πάντας τοὺς τοιούτους ἀπ᾿ αὐτῆς τοῦ νόμου, ἵνα μηδεμία πρόφασις ᾖ τῆς τῶν ἀγαλμάτων κατασκευῆς, τοὺς ἀνοήτους τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπισπωμένης καὶ καθελκούσης ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ εἰς γῆν τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς ψυχῆς. ἦν οὖν παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς νόμος καὶ τοιοῦτος· „μὴ ἀνομήσητε καὶ ποιήσητε ὑμῖν ἑαυτοῖς γλυπτὸν ὁμοίωμα, πᾶσαν εἰκόνα ὁμοίωμα ἀρσενικοῦ ἢ θηλυκοῦ, ὁμοίωμα παντὸς κτήνους τῶν ὄντων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ὁμοίωμα παντὸς ὀρνέου πτερωτοῦ, ὃ πέταται ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανὸν, ὁμοίωμα παντὸς ἑρπετοῦ, ὃ ἕρπει ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, ὁμοίωμα παντὸς ἰχθύος, ὅσα ἐστὶν ἐν τοῖς ὕδασιν ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς.“ καὶ ἐβούλετό γε ὁ νόμος τῇ περὶ ἑκάστου ἀληθείᾳ ὁμιλοῦντας αὐτοὺς μὴ ἀναπλάσσειν ἕτερα παρὰ τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ψευδόμενα τὸ ἀληθῶς ἀρσενικὸν ἢ τὸ ὄντως θηλυκὸν ἢ τὴν κτηνῶν φύσιν ἢ τὸ ὀρνέων ἢ τὸ ἑρπετῶν γένος ἢ τὸ ἰχθύων. σεμνὸν δὲ καὶ μεγαλοφυὲς παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς καὶ τὸ „μὴ ἀναβλέψας εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ ἰδὼν τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ τοὺς ἀστέρας, πάντα τὸν κόσμον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, πλανηθεὶς προσκυνήσῃς αὐτοῖς καὶ λατρεύσῃς αὐτοῖς.“ οἵα δὲ πολιτεία ἦν ὅλου ἔθνους, παρ᾿ ᾧ οὐδὲ φαίνεσθαι θηλυδρίαν οἷόν τ᾿ ἦν. θαυμαστὸν δὲ καὶ τὸ τὰ τῶν νέων ὑπεκκαύματα, τὰς ἑταίρας, ἀναιρεῖσθαι ἀπὸ τῆς πολιτείας αὐτῶν. ἦν δὲ καὶ δικαστήρια τῶν δικαιοτάτων καὶ ἀπόδειξιν ὑγιοῦς βίου πολλῷ δεδωκότων χρόνῳ, πιστευομένων τὰς κρίσεις· οἵτινες διὰ τὸ καθαρὸν ἦθος καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον ἐλέγοντο εἶναι θεοὶ πατρίῳ τινὶ Ἰουδαίων ἔθει. καὶ ἦν ἰδεῖν ἔθνος ὅλον φιλοσοφοῦν, καὶ διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸ ἀκούειν τῶν θείων νόμων σχολὴν τὰ καλούμενα σάββατα καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς ἱερέων καὶ θυσιῶν, μυρία σύμβολα περιεχουσῶν τοῖς φιλομαθοῦσι σαφηνιζόμενα;