How to Live

Answering Pagans and Jews

42 passages, 5 quoted here

How the early writers explained and defended the faith to pagans and Jews.

What each writer said, earliest first

Tertullian Teaches: Argument from the prophets and Israel's older writings

c. 155–c. 220 AD · Apology 21

We have shown that the earliest Jewish writings back this sect, even though most people know it only dates to Tiberius’ reign and we ourselves claim it.

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Clement of Alexandria Partly: Greek philosophy can prepare hearers for the truth

c. 150–c. 215 AD · Miscellanies 17

As it appears, the Greek philosophers call him God but do not truly know him, because they do not reverence God as God deserves. Their philosophical systems, as Empedocles describes them, have come down to us through many tongues in vain, having seen only a tiny fraction of the whole.

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Greek

Ἀλλ’, ὡς ἔοικεν, οἱ φιλόσοφοι τῶν Ἑλλήνων θεὸν ὀνομάζοντες οὐ γιγνώσκουσιν, ἐπεὶ μὴ σέβουσι κατὰ θεὸν τὸν θεόν. τὰ φιλοσοφούμενα δὲ παρ’ αὐτοῖς κατὰ τὸν Ἐμπεδοκλέα ὡς διὰ πολλῶν δὴ γλώσσης ἐλθόντα ματαίως ἐκκέχυται στομάτων, ὀλίγον τοῦ παντὸς ἰδόντων.

Clement of Alexandria Teaches: Greek philosophy can prepare hearers for the truth

c. 150–c. 215 AD · Miscellanies 20

Just as the many men pulling a ship do not attribute the motion to many causes but to one cause arising from many — since no single person is the cause of the ship being pulled, but each works together with the others — so also philosophy, because it is a search for truth, is taken up for the attainment of truth, not…

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Greek

Ὡς δὲ οἱ πολλοὶ ἄνθρωποι οἱ καθέλκοντες τὴν ναῦν οὐ πολλὰ αἴτια λέγοιντ’ ἄν, ἀλλ’ ἐκ πολλῶν αἴτιον ἕν (οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ αἴτιος ἕκαστος τοῦ καθέλκεσθαι τὴν ναῦν, ἀλλὰ σὺν τοῖς ἄλλοις), οὕτω καὶ ἡ φιλοσοφία πρὸς κατάληψιν τῆς ἀληθείας, ζήτησις οὖσα ἀληθείας, συλλαμβάνεται, οὐκ αἰτία…

Clement of Alexandria Teaches: Argument from the prophets and Israel's older writings

c. 150–c. 215 AD · Miscellanies 21

We will address a little later how the philosophers' doctrines were received among the Hebrews, but first, as proper order requires, we must speak of the times of Moses; through them it will be shown beyond dispute that the philosophy of the Hebrews is the most ancient of all wisdom.

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Greek

Καὶ περὶ μὲν τοῦ παρ’ Ἑβραίων τὰ τῶν φιλοσόφων ἐσκευωρῆσθαι δόγματα μικρὸν ὕστερον διαληψόμεθα, πρότερον δέ, ὅπερ ἀκόλουθον ἦν, περὶ τῶν κατὰ Μωυσέα χρόνων ἤδη λεκτέον, δἰ ὧν δειχθήσεται ἀναμφηρίστως πάσης σοφίας ἀρχαιοτάτη ἡ κατὰ Ἑβραίους φιλοσοφία.

Tertullian Teaches: Argument from the prophets and Israel's older writings

c. 155–c. 220 AD · An Answer to the Jews 9

Let us start, then, by proving the prophets announced Christ's birth. Isaiah says: "Listen, house of David; this is no trivial dispute with mere mortals, because God himself guarantees the outcome.

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