32. Perhaps
it was a greater piece of audacity to alter the books of the divine
Scriptures which had been delivered to the Churches of Christ by the
Apostles to be a complete record of their faith by making a new
translation under the influence of the Jews. Which of these two things
appears to you to be the less legitimate? As to the sayings of Origen,
if we agree with them, we agree with them as the sayings of a man; if
we disagree, we can easily disregard them as those of a mere man. But
how are we to regard those translations of yours which you are now
sending about everywhere, through our churches and monasteries, through
all our cities and walled towns? are they to be treated as human or
divine? And what are we to do when we are told that the books which
bear the names of the Hebrew Prophets and lawgivers are to be had from
you in a truer form than that which was approved by the Apostles? How,
I ask, is this mistake to be set right, or rather, how is this crime to
be expiated? We hold it a thing worthy of condemnation that a man
should have put forth some strange opinions in the interpretation of
the law of God; but to pervert the law itself and make it different
from that which the Apostles handed down to us,—how many times
over must this be pronounced worthy of condemnation? To the daring
temerity of this act we may much more justly apply your words:
“Which of all the wise and holy men who have gone before you has
dared to put his hand to that work?” Which of them would have
presumed thus to profane the book of God, and the sacred words of the
Holy Spirit? Who but you would have laid hands upon the divine gift and
the inheritance of the Apostles?