40:40
Οὐκοῦν πέφηνε Μωυσῆς ἀπό γε τῶν προειρημένων πρεσβύτερος ἡρώων παλαιῶν, πολέμων, δαιμόνων. Καὶ χρὴ τῷ πρεσβεύοντι κατὰ τὴν ἡλικίαν πιστεύειν, ἤπερ τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς πηγῆς ἀρυσαμένοις Ἕλλησιν οὐ κατ ἐπίγνωσιν τὰ ἐκείνου δόγματα· πολλοὶ γὰρ οἱ κατ αὐτοὺς σοφισταί, κεχρημένοι περιεργίᾳ, τὰ ὅσα παρὰ τῶν κατὰ Μωυσέα καὶ τῶν ὁμοίως αὐτῷ φιλοσοφούντων ἔγνωσαν καὶ παραχαράττειν ἐπειράθησαν, πρῶτον μὲν ἵνα τι λέγειν ἴδιον νομισθῶσι, δεύτερον δὲ ὅπως, τὰ ὅσα μὴ συνίεσαν διά τινος ἐπιπλάστου ῥητολογίας παρακαλύπτοντες, ὡς μυθολογίαν τὴν ἀλήθειαν παραπρεσβεύωσι.Περὶ μὲν οὖν τῆς καθ ἡμᾶς πολιτείας, ἱστορίας τε τῆς κατὰ τοὺς ἡμετέρους νόμους, ὅσα τε εἰρήκασιν οἱ παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν λόγιοι καὶ πόσοι καὶ τίνες εἰσὶ μνημονεύσαντες, ἐν τῷ πρὸς τοὺς ἀποφηναμένους τὰ περὶ θεοῦ δειχθήσεται
Moses, therefore, has been shown, from the things aforesaid at least, to be older than the ancient heroes, wars, and demons. And one ought to trust the one who takes precedence in age, rather than the Greeks who drew his doctrines from the source without acknowledgment; for many were the sophists among them who, employing meddlesome curiosity, took whatever they learned from those around Moses and from those who philosophized in like manner with him, and attempted to falsify it, first in order that they might be thought to say something of their own, and second in order that, by veiling under a certain counterfeit verbosity whatever they did not understand, they might misrepresent the truth as a mythology. Now concerning our polity, and the history according to our laws—how much the learned men among the Greeks have said about them, and how many and who they are who have made mention—it will be shown in the treatise against those who have made declarations about God.
如此，至少從前述之事看來，摩西已被證為比那古時的英雄、戰爭與鬼魔都更古老。人理當信靠那年代居先的，而非那些不加承認便從本源汲取其學說的希臘人；因為他們當中有許多智者，運用好管閒事的鑽營，把凡從摩西左右之人、以及與他同樣研習哲學之人那裡學來的，都拿去設法竄改，一來是要叫人以為他們說了什麼自己的東西，二來是要把凡他們所不領會的，藉某種虛假的繁辭加以遮掩，好把真理歪曲成神話。至於我們的制度，以及照我們律法而有的歷史——希臘人中的學者論到這些說了多少、有多少人、是哪些人曾提及——這要在那駁斥論神之人的論著中加以說明。