Augustine in His Own Words (continued)
The Exegete 183 be its presiding deity. Nor just because [pagans] have consecrated temples to Justice and Virtue and have chosen to adore in stone what should be carried in the heart must we, therefore, shun justice and virtue. On the contrary, every good and true Christian should understand that wherever one discovers truth, it is the Lord's. . . .
(40.60) Furthermore, if those who are called philosophers, especially the Platonists, have perhaps said things that are truthful and can be conformed to our faith, we must not only have no fear of them, but even appropriate whatever we find useful from those who are, in a sense, their illegal possessors. The Egyptians not only had idols and crushing burdens, which the people of Israel detested and from which they fled, but they also had vessels and ornaments of gold and silver and clothing, which the Israelites, as they left Egypt, secretly claimed for themselves as though for a better use (Ex 11:2–3, 12:35–36). Not on their own authority did they make this appropriation, but by the command of God, while the Egyptians themselves, without realizing it, were supplying the things that they were not using properly. In the same way, all the teachings of the pagans have counterfeit and superstitious notions and oppressive burdens of useless labor, which any one of us, leaving the association of pagans with Christ as our leader, ought to abominate and shun. They also, however, contain liberal instruction more adapted to the service of truth and also very useful principles about morals; even some truths about the service of the one God Himself are discovered among them. These are, in a sense, their "gold" and "silver." They themselves did not create these things, but excavated them, as it were, from the mines of divine Providence, which is everywhere present, but they wickedly and unjustly misuse this treasure for the service of demons. When a Christian severs himself in spirit from a wretched association with these people, he ought to take these truths from them for the lawful service of preaching the Gospel. It is also right for us to receive and possess, in order to convert it to Christian use, their "clothing," that is, those human institutions appropriate to human society which we cannot do without in this life.51
The Legend of the Septuagint
The Septuagint was a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, done during the third century b.c.e. According to legend, it was commissioned by Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphius (283–246 b.c.e.) for his great library at Alexandria. Supposedly seventy
51. Doc. Chr. 2.18.28–40.60 (Green, 88–126); trans. Gavigan, FOTC 2:87–113 (modified).