Ebionites, following these, assert that He was begotten by Joseph; thus destroying, as far as in them lies, such a marvellous dispensation of God, and setting aside the testimony of the prophets which proceeded from God. For truly this prediction was uttered before the removal of the people to Babylon; that is, anterior to the supremacy acquired by the Medes and Persians. But it was interpreted into Greek by the Jews themselves, much before the period of our Lord's advent, that there might remain no suspicion that perchance the Jews, complying with our humour, did put this interpretation upon these words. They indeed, had they been cognizant of our future existence, and that we should use these proofs from the Scriptures, would themselves never have hesitated to burn their own Scriptures, which do declare that all other nations partake of [eternal] life, and show that they who boast themselves as being the house of Jacob and the people of Israel, are disinherited from the grace of God.
2. For before the Romans possessed their kingdom,[1] while as yet the Macedonians held Asia, Ptolemy the son of Lagus, being anxious to adorn the library which he had founded in Alexandria with a collection of the writings of all men, which were [works] of merit, made request to the people of Jerusalem, that they should have their Scriptures translated into the Greek language. And they—for at that time they were still subject to the Macedonians—sent to Ptolemy seventy of their elders, who were thoroughly skilled in the Scriptures and in both the languages, to carry out what he had desired.[2] But he, wishing to test them individually, and fearing lest
- ↑ The Greek text here is, κρατῦναι τὴν ἀρχὴν αὐτὼν, translated into Latin by "possiderent regnum suum,"—words which are somewhat ambiguous in both languages. Massuet remarks, that "regnum eorum" would have been a better rendering, referring the words to the Jews.
- ↑ The Greek text of this narrative has been preserved by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. v. 8). Grabe considers it to be faulty in this passage; so the Latin translation has been adopted here. Eusebius has ποιήσαντος τοῦ Θεοῦ ὄτερ ἐβουλετο—God having accomplished what He intended.
This reference to the version of Theodotion furnishes a note of date as to the time when Irenseus published liis work: it must have been subsequently to A.D. 181.
