Against the Galileans 27

Julian

50 If therefore you try to prove anything from these writings, show me a single saying that you have drawn from that source whence I have drawn very many. But that Moses believed in one God, the God of Israel, he says in Deuteronomy: So that thou mightest know that the Lord thy God he is one God; and there is none else beside him.[ Deuteronomy 4. 35] And moreover he says besides, And lay it to thine heart that this the Lord thy God is God in the heaven above and upon the earth beneath, and there is none else[ Deuteronomy 4. 39]. And again, Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord[ Deuteronomy 6. 4]. And again, See that I am and there is no God save me[ Deuteronomy 32. 39]. These then are the words of Moses when he insists that there is only one God. But perhaps the Galilaeans will reply: But we do not assert that there are two gods or three. But I will show that they do assert this also, and I call John to witness, who says : In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.[ John 1. 1] You see that the Word is said to be with God? Now whether this is he who was born of Mary or someone else,----that I may answer Photinus 100 at the same time,----this now makes no difference; indeed I leave the dispute to you; but it is enough to bring forward the evidence that he says "with God," and "in the beginning." How then does this agree with the teachings of Moses?

51 But, say the Galilaeans, it agrees with the teachings of Isaiah. For Isaiah says, Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son[ Isaiah 7. 14]. Now granted that this is said about a god, though it is by no means so stated; for a married woman who before her conception had lain with her husband was no virgin,----but let us admit that it is said about her,---- does Isaiah anywhere say that a god will be born of the virgin? But why do you not cease to call Mary the mother of God, if Isaiah nowhere says that he that is born of the virgin is the only begotten Son of God [ John 1. 18] and the firstborn of all creation[ Colossians 1. 15]? But as for the saying of John, All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made,[ John 1. 3] can anyone point this out among the utterances of the prophets? But now listen to the sayings that I point out to you from those same prophets, one after another. O Lord our God, make us thine; we know none other beside thee[~ Isaiah 26. 13]. And Hezekiah the king has been represented by them as praying as follows : O Lord God of Israel, that sittest upon the Cherubim, thou art God, even thou alone[ Isaiah 37. 16]. Does he leave any place for the second god? But if, as you believe, the Word is God born of God and proceeded from the substance of the Father, why do you say that the virgin is the mother of God? For how could she bear a god since she is, according to you, a human being? And moreover, when God declares plainly I am he, and there is none that can deliver beside me,[~ Deuteronomy 32. 39] do you dare to call her son Saviour?

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