17.
What Jesus said, then, settling the people on the holy land, Scripture might now say to us. The wording runs: 'Now fear the Lord, and serve him in uprightness and righteousness.' And to us, persuaded to commit idolatry, it will say this and what follows, running thus: 'Put away the strange gods your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.' At the beginning, when you were about to be catechized, it would rightly have been said to you: 'But if it please you not to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you shall serve — whether the gods of your fathers beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell.' And your catechist would have said to you, 'But I and my house shall serve the Lord, for he is holy.' Now these have no place being said to you. For then you said, 'Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods. The Lord our God himself is God, who brought us and our fathers up from Egypt, and kept us in all the way we walked in.' But in the godliness compacts too, you answered your catechists of old with this: 'We too shall serve the Lord; for this is our God.' If, then, he who transgresses compacts with men is a truce-breaker, foreign to salvation — what of those who, by denying, annul the compacts they made with God, running back to Satan, whom at baptism they renounced? To such must be said the words Eli spoke to his sons: 'If a man sinning sin against a man, they shall pray for him; but if he sin against the Lord, who shall pray for him?'
Greek (GCS)
μεν κυρίῳ, ὅτι ayıög ἐστιν. νῦν δὲ ταῦ- τα 00x ἔχει χώραν ὑμῖν λέγεσϑαι᾽ τότε γὰρ εἴπετε" μὴ γένοιτο ἡμῖν καταλιπεῖν κύριον, ὥστε λατρεύειν ϑεοῖς ἕ ἑτέροις. κύριος ὁ ϑεὸς ἡμῶν αὐτὸς ϑεός ἐστιν, ὃς ἀνήγαγεν ἡμῦς καὶ τοὺς πατέρας ἡμῶν ἐξ Al, ὕπ- του, καὶ διεφύ λαξεν ἡμᾶς ἐν πάσῃ τῇ ὁδῷ, ἡ ἐπορεύϑημεν ἐν αὐτῇ “ ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν ταῖς περὶ ϑεοσεβείας συνϑήκαις πάλαι τοῖς κατηχοῦσιν ὑμᾶς ἀπεχρίϑητε τόδε" „xal ἡμεῖς λατρεύσομεν χυρίφ᾽ οὗτος γὰρ ὁ ϑεὸς ἡμῶν ἐστιν." εἰ τοίνυν ὁ παραβὰς τὰς πρὸς ἀνϑρώπους συνϑή- κας ἀσπονδός τις ἐστὶ καὶ σωτηρίας ἀλλότριος, τί λεκτέον περὶ τῶν διὰ τοῦ ἀρτνεῖσϑαι ἀϑετούντων ἃς ἔϑεντο πρὸς ϑεὸν συνϑήχας καὶ παλινδρομούντων ἐπὶ τὸν σατανᾶν, ᾧ βαπτιζόμενοι ἀπετάξαντο; λεχτέον γὰρ πρὸς τὸ τοιοῦτον τοὺς λελαλημένους ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἠλεὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς λόγους" (ἐὰν ἁμαρτάνων ἁμαρτάνῃ ἀνὴρ εἰς ἄνδρα, καὶ προσεύξον- ται περὶ αὐτοῦ᾽ ἐὰν δὲ εἰς κύριον ἁμαρτάνῃ, τίς προσεύξεται περὶ αὐτοῦ;" XVIIL Μέγα ϑέατρον συγκροτεῖται ἐφ᾽ ὑμῖν ἀγωνιζομένοις καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ μαρτύριο» καλουμένοις" ὡς εἰ τὸ τοιοῦτον ἐλέγομεν γίνεσϑαι ἐπί τινων νομιζομένων παραδόξων ἀγωνιστῶν συναγωνιζομένων 13 mm,, die etwa fünf Buchst. fassen könnte | 21 τὸ τοιοῦτον M τοὺὶς τοιούτοις hergehenden Wort entstandener Schreibfehler; συναϑροιζομένων vermute ich, ar- ἐπὶ τὴν ϑέαν τοῦ ἀγῶνος μυρίων ὅσων. καὶ οὐκ ἔλαττόν γε τοῦ Παύ- λου ἐρεῖτε, ὅταν ἀγωνίζησϑε: »ϑέατρον ἐγενήϑημεν τῷ κόσμῳ καὶ ἀγγέλοις καὶ ἀνϑρώποις." ὅλος οὖν ὃ κόσμος καὶ πάντες οἱ ἄγγελοι δεξιοὶ καὶ ἀριστεροὶ xal πάντες avdomroı, οἵ τε ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ ϑεοῦ μερίδος καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν λοιπῶν, ἀκούσονται ἡμῶν ἀγωνιζομένων τὸν περὶ χριστιανισμοῦ ἀγῶνα. καὶ ἤτοι οἱ ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἄγγελοι ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν εὐφρανϑήσονται, καὶ «ποταμοὶ κροτήσουσι χειρὶ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, καὶ τὰ ὄρη ἀγαλλιάσονται", «καὶ πάντα τὰ ξύλα τοῦ πεδίου ἐπικροτήσει τοῖς κλάδοις“ ἢ, ὃ μὴ εἴη, καὶ κάτω δυνάμεις αἱ ἐπιχαιρεσίκαχοι | εὐφραν- ϑήσονται. οὐδὲν δὲ ἄτοπον ἰδεῖν x τῶν τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ γεγραμμένων τὰ λεχϑησόμενα ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν ἄδου τοῖς νενικημένοις χαὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ οὐρα- νίου μαρτυρίου καταπεπτωχόσιν, ἵν ἔτι φρίξωμεν τὴν ἐν τῷ apvelo- ϑαι ἀσέβειαν. λεχϑήσεσ