Why the Jews needed prophets
Now that we have come to the subject of the prophets, what we are about to bring forward will not be without use to the Jews, who believe that the prophets spoke by a divine Spirit, nor to fair-minded Greeks either. To them we shall say that one must accept that the Jews too had prophets, if they were to be kept within the law given them, to believe in the Creator as they had received him, and, as far as the law was concerned, to have no occasion to fall away into the many gods of the nations. We shall show this necessity as follows. “The nations,” as is written in the very law of the Jews, “will listen to omens and divinations” (Deuteronomy 18:14); but to that people it is said, “But to you the Lord your God has not granted it so” (Deuteronomy 18:14). And to this is added, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers” (Deuteronomy 18:15).
The nations, then, used divination by “omens,” or by augury, or by birds, or by mediums, or by those who profess the art of reading sacrifices, or by Chaldeans who cast nativities, all of which were forbidden to the Jews (Deuteronomy 18:10–11). If the Jews had had no comfort from knowledge of the future, the mere human craving to know what is to come would have led them to despise what was their own, as having nothing divine in it. They would not have received any prophet after Moses, nor written down the prophets’ words, but would have deserted to the oracles and oracle-shrines of the nations, or else tried to set up something of the kind among themselves. So it is not at all strange that their prophets foretold even ordinary matters, to comfort those who longed for such things: so that Samuel prophesied even “about lost asses” (1 Samuel 9:20), and the prophet recorded in First Kings prophesied about the illness of a king’s son (1 Kings 14:1–13). And how could the champions of the Jewish law have rebuked anyone who wanted to get divination from idols? Elijah, for instance, is found rebuking Ahaziah and saying, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you go to inquire of Baal the Fly, the god of Ekron?” (2 Kings 1:3).
Greek
Ἐπεὶ δ᾿ ἅπαξ εἰς τὸν περὶ τῶν προφητῶν ἤλθομεν λόγον, Ἰουδαίοις μὲν, τοῖς πιστεύουσι θείῳ πνεύματι αὐτοὺς λελαληκέναι, οὐ μόνον οὐκ ἔσται ἀχρήσιμα τὰ ἐποισθησόμενα (ἀλλὰ) καὶ τοῖς εὐγνωμονοῦσι δὲ τῶν Ἑλλήνων. πρὸς οὓς ἐροῦμεν ὅτι ἀναγκαῖον παραδέξασθαι ὅτι καὶ Ἰουδαῖοι προφήτας εἶχον, εἴπερ ἔμελλον συνέχεσθαι ἐν τῇ δοθείσῃ αὐτοῖς νομοθεσίᾳ καὶ πιστεύειν τῷ δημιουργῷ, καθάπερ εἰλήφεισαν, καὶ ὅσον ἐπὶ τῷ νόμῳ μὴ ἔχειν ἀφορμὰς ἀποστῆναι εἰς τὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν πολυθεότητα. τὸ δ᾿ ἀναγκαῖον οὕτω παραστήσομεν. „τὰ ἔθνη,“ ὡς γέγραπται καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ τῶν Ἰουδαίων νόμῳ, „κληδόνων καὶ μαντειῶν ἀκούσονται“· τῷ δὲ λαῷ ἐκείνῳ εἴρηται· „σοὶ δὲ οὐχ οὕτως ἔδωκε κύριος ὁ θεός σου.“ καὶ ἐπιφέρεται τούτῳ τὸ „προφήτην ἐκ τῶν ἀδελφῶν σου ἀναστήσει σοι κύριος ὁ θεός σου.“ εἴπερ οὖν τῶν ἐθνῶν χρωμένων μαντείαις εἴτε διὰ „κληδόνων“ εἴτε δι᾿ οἰωνῶν εἴτε δι᾿ ὀρνίθων εἴτε δι᾿ ἐγγαστριμύθων εἴτε καὶ διὰ τῶν τὴν θυτικὴν ἐπαγγελλομένων εἴτε καὶ διὰ Χαλδαίων γενεθλιαλογούντων, ἅπερ πάντα Ἰουδαίοις ἀπείρητο. Ἰουδαῖοι εἰ μηδεμίαν εἶχον παραμυθίαν γνώσεως τῶν μελλόντων, ὑπ᾿ αὐτῆς ἂν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης περὶ τὴν γνῶσιν λιχνείας τῶν ἐσομένων ἀγόμενοι κατεφρόνησαν μὲν ἂν τῶν ἰδίων ὡς οὐδὲν ἐχόντων θεῖον ἐν ἑαυτοῖς καὶ οὐκ ἂν μετὰ Μω(??)σέα προφήτην προσήκαντο οὐδ᾿ ἀνέγραψαν αὐτῶν τοὺς λόγους, αὐτόμολοι δὲ ἐπὶ τὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν μαντεῖα καὶ χρηστήρια μετέστησαν ἢ ἐπεχείρησαν ἂν ἱδρῦσαί τι τοιοῦτον καὶ παρ᾿ ἑαυτοῖς. ὥστ᾿ οὐδὲν ἄτοπόν ἐστι καὶ περὶ τῶν τυχόντων τοὺς παρ᾿ αὐτοῖς προφήτας εἰς παραμυθίαν τῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα ποθούντων προειρηκέναι, ὥστε καὶ „περὶ ὄνων ἀπολωλυιῶν“ προφητεύειν τὸν Σαμουὴλ καὶ περὶ νόσου παιδὸς βασιλικοῦ τὸν ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ τῶν Βασιλειῶν ἀναγεγραμμένον. πῶς δ᾿ ἂν τῷ βουλομένῳ ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων μαντείαν λαβεῖν ἐπέπλησσον οἱ τὰ τοῦ νόμου Ἰουδαίων πρεσβεύοντες; ὥσπερ εὑρίσκεται Ἠλίας τῷ Ὀχοζίᾳ ἐπιπλήσσων καὶ λέγων· „εἰ παρὰ τὸ μὴ εἶναι θεὸν ἐν Ἰσραὴλ ὑμεῖς πορεύεσθε ἐκζητῆσαι ἐν τῇ Βαὰλ μυῖαν θεὸν Ἀκκαρῶν.“