游斯丁護教辭與對話 第 3-55 章

And Trypho answered: "We will remember this interpretation of yours too, if you confirm this difficulty also by other passages. But for now, taking up the argument, show us that another God besides the Maker of all has been confessed by the prophetic Spirit to exist—being careful not to mean the sun and the moon, which it is written that God permitted the nations to worship as gods; and the prophets, as though misusing this manner of speech, often say, 'Your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords,' often adding 'the great and mighty and terrible.'"

"For these things are not said as though they were gods, but as the word teaches us that, of those reckoned to be gods and lords, He who is truly God, who made all things, is the only Lord. For in order that the Holy Spirit might also expose this, it said through holy David: 'The gods of the nations, reckoned to be gods, are idols of demons, but not gods.' And it brings a curse upon those who make them and worship them."

And I said: "It was not these proofs that I intended to bring, O Trypho, by which I know those who worship these and such things are condemned; but proofs against which no one will be able to speak. Yet they will seem strange to you, although they are read by you every day—so that even from this you may understand that, because of your wickedness, God has hidden from you the ability to perceive the wisdom in His words, except for a few, to whom, according to the grace of His great compassion, as Isaiah said, He left a seed for salvation, lest your race too should utterly perish like the Sodomites and Gomorrites. Give heed, therefore, to those things I am about to recall from the holy Scriptures, which need not even be interpreted, but only to be heard."