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If I may recall far more ancient times, our patriarch Noah was
certainly even before that great deluge, and I might not undeservedly
call him a prophet, forasmuch as the ark he made, in which he escaped
with his family, was itself a prophecy of our times. What of Enoch,
the seventh from Adam? Does not the canonical epistle of the Apostle
Jude declare that he prophesied? But the writings of these men could
not be held as authoritative either among the Jews or us, on account
of their too great antiquity, which made it seem needful to regard them
with suspicion, lest false things should be set forth instead roof
true. For some writings which are said be theirs are quoted by those
who, according to their own humor, loosely believe what they please.
But the purity of the canon has not admitted these writings, not
because the authority of these men who pleased God is rejected, but
because they are not believed to be theirs. Nor ought it to appear
strange if writings for which so great antiquity is claimed are held in
suspicion, seeing that in the very history of the kings of Judah and
Israel containing their acts, which we believe to belong to the
canonical Scripture, very many things are mentioned which are not
explained there, but are said to be found in other books which the
prophets wrote, the very names of these prophets being sometimes
given, and yet they are not found in the canon which the people of God
received. Now I confess the reason of this is hidden from me; only
I think that even those men, to whom certainly the Holy Spirit
revealed those things which ought to be held as of religious authority,
might write some things as men by historical diligence, and others as
prophets by divine inspiration; and these things were so distinct,
that it was judged that the former should be ascribed to themselves,
but the latter to God speaking through them: and so the one pertained
to the abundance of knowledge, the other to the authority of religion.
In that authority the canon is guarded. So that, if any writings
outside of it are now brought forward under the name of the ancient
prophets, they cannot serve even as an aid to knowledge, because it is
uncertain whether they are genuine; and on this account they are not
trusted, especially those of them in which some things are found that
are even contrary to the truth of the canonical books, so that it is
quite apparent they do not belong to them.
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