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Chapter VIII. I Salute Him Who Is Reckoned Worthy to Go to Antioch in My Stead, as I Commanded Thee · Justin's Hortatory Address to the Greeks · Chapter XVIII

Testimony of Sophocles

Page 602 of 830

And if it is needful that we add testimonies concerning one God, even from the dramatists, hear even Sophocles speaking thus:—

"There is one God, in truth there is but one,

Who made the heavens and the broad earth beneath,

The glancing waves of ocean and the winds

But many of us mortals err in heart,

And set up for a solace in our woes

Images of the gods in stone and wood,

Or figures carved in brass or ivory,

And, furnishing for these our handiworks,

Both sacrifice and rite magnificent,

We think that thus we do a pious work."

Thus, then, Sophocles.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe (1885–96). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.