Divine teaching stoops to the speech of the many
If the example has been understood, we must carry it over to the quality of the rational food of rational beings. And consider whether Plato and the wise men of the Greeks, in the things they say well, are not like the physicians who cared only for those reckoned more refined and despised the multitude of men; while the prophets among the Jews and the disciples of Jesus, who would have nothing to do with the ornate arrangement of words, and with what Scripture has called “the wisdom of men” (1 Corinthians 2:5) and “wisdom according to the flesh” (compare 1 Corinthians 1:26; 2 Corinthians 1:12), phrases by which it hints at skill in language, might be likened to those who took care to prepare and make ready the same most wholesome quality of food in an arrangement of words that reaches the multitudes of men: one that does not sound foreign to their speech, and does not, by sounding foreign, turn them away from listening, as though such discourses were unfamiliar to them.
For indeed, if the aim of rational food, if I may call it so, is to make the one who eats it forbearing and gentle, how could the discourse that produces multitudes of forbearing and gentle people, or at least of people advancing towards these virtues, not be better prepared than the one that makes a very few, easily counted, forbearing and gentle, granting even that it does so?
And just as, if Plato, being a Greek, had wished to benefit with sound doctrines those who speak Egyptian or Syriac, he would have taken care to learn the languages of those who were to hear him, and, as the Greeks call it, to speak like a barbarian for the improvement of Egyptians and Syrians, rather than remain a Greek and be able to say nothing useful to Egyptians and Syrians; so the divine nature, which cares not only for those reckoned educated in Greek learning but also for the rest of the Greeks, came down to the plainness of the multitude of its hearers, so that, by using the words familiar to them, it might call the multitude of ordinary people to listen. Once they have been introduced, they can readily strive to grasp even the deeper of the meanings hidden in the Scriptures. For it is plain even to anyone at all who reads them that many passages can have a meaning deeper than what appears at first sight, a meaning that becomes clear to those who give themselves to examining the word, and becomes clear in proportion to the leisure they devote to the word and their zeal in its practice.
Greek
Εἰ νενόηται δὴ τὸ παράδειγμα. μεταβιβαστέον αὐτὸ ἐπὶ τὴν ποιότητα τῆς τῶν λογικῶν ζῴων λογικῆς τροφῆς. καὶ ὅρα εἰ μὴ Πλάτων μὲν καὶ οἱ Ἑλλήνων σοφοὶ ἐν οἷς λέγουσι καλῶς παραπλήσιοί εἰσι τοῖς προνοησαμένοις ἰατροῖς τῶν καθαριωτέρων εἶναι νομιζομένων μόνων, τοῦ πλήθους (δὲ) τῶν ἀνθρώπων καταφρονήσασιν· οἱ δ᾿ ἐν Ἰουδαίοις προφῆται καὶ οἱ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ μαθηταὶ, οἱ μακρὰν χαίρειν εἰπόντες τῇ ποικίλῃ τῶν λέξεων συνθέσει καὶ τῇ, ὡς ὠνόμασεν ἡ γραφὴ, „σοφίᾳ ἀνθρώπων“ καὶ „σοφίᾳ“ „κατὰ σάρκα,“ τὴν γλῶσσαν αἰνισσομένη, ὁμοιωθεῖεν ἂν τοῖς τὴν αὐτὴν τῶν βρωμάτων ποιότητα ὑγιεινοτάτην προνοησαμένοις συνθέσει λέξεων σκευάσαι καὶ εὐτρεπίσαι φθανούσῃ ἐπὶ τὰ πλήθη τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ μὴ ξενιζούσῃ τὴν διάλεκτον αὐτῶν μηδὲ διὰ τοῦ ξενισμοῦ ἀποστρεφούσῃ ἀκούειν ὡς ἀσυνήθων τῶν τοιῶνδε διαλέξεων. καὶ γὰρ εἴπερ πρόκειται τῷ, ἵν᾿ οὕτως ὀνομάσω, λογικῷ βρώματι ἀνεξίκακον καὶ πρᾷον ποιῆσαι τὸν ἐμφαγόντα, πῶς οὐ βέλτιον συνεσκευασμένος εἴη ἂν λόγος ὁ πλήθη ἀνεξικάκων καὶ πρᾴων κατασκευάζων ἢ προκοπτόντων γε ἐπὶ ταύτας τὰς ἀρετὰς παρὰ τὸν πάνυ ὀλίγους καὶ εὐαριθμήτους, ἵνα (καὶ τοῦτο) δοθῇ, ἀνεξικάκους καὶ πρᾴους ποιοῦντα; ὥσπερ δὲ εἰ ὁ (Πλάτων) τοὺς αἰγυπτιάζοντας ἢ τοὺς συριάζοντας ὠφελεῖν ὑγιέσι δόγμασιν ἐβούλετο, Ἕλλην τυγχάνων, προενοήσατο ἂν μαθεῖν τὰς τῶν ἀκουσομένων διαλέκτους καὶ, ὡς Ἕλληνες ὀνομάζουσι, βαρβαρίζειν μᾶλλον ὑπὲρ τῆς Αἰγυπτίων καὶ Σύρων βελτιώσεως ἢ Ἕλλην μένων μηδὲν δύνασθαι χρήσιμον λέγειν Αἰγυπτίοις καὶ Σύροις· οὕτως ἡ προνοουμένη θεία φύσις οὐ τῶν πεπαιδεῦσθαι νομιζομένων μόνον τὰ Ἑλλήνων ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν Ἑλλήνων συγκατέβη τῇ ἰδιωτείᾳ τοῦ πλήθους τῶν ἀκροωμένων, ἵνα ταῖς συνήθεσιν αὐτοῖς χρησαμένη λέξεσι προκαλέσηται ἐπὶ ἀκρόασιν τὸ τῶν ἰδιωτῶν πλῆθος, δυνάμενον ἐξ εὐχεροῦς μετὰ τὴν ἅπαξ γενομένην εἰσαγωγὴν φιλοτιμήσασθαι πρὸς τὸ καὶ βαθύτερα τῶν κεκρυμμένων νοημάτων ἐν ταῖς γραφαῖς καταλαβεῖν. καὶ τῷ τυχόντι γὰρ δῆλον, ταύτας ἀναγινώσκοντι, ὅτι πολλὰ βαθύτερον τοῦ αὐτόθεν ἐμφαινομένου ἔχειν δύναται νοῦν, τοῖς ἀνατιθεῖσιν αὑτοὺς τῇ ἐξετάσει τοῦ λόγου φανερούμενον. καὶ φανερούμενον> κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τῆς εἰς τὸν λόγον σχολῆς καὶ εἰς τὴν ἄσκησιν αὐτοῦ προθυμίας.