[519-33.] You say therefore that it has been discovered by certain persons concerning Balaam the soothsayer and seer and propitiator of falsely-named gods that it is testified by the divine words that he had such power in his mouth that those whom he blessed were bles'sed, and those on the contrary whom he cursed were cursed. For this reason therefore the man who bore such a character was then lifted up to bless Israel also the holy people, the people which was named God's people; for you say that the same men who discovered this plainly produce these words. And at this I am not surprised; for it is the peculiarity of those who repeat the contents of divine Scripture cursorily and as it were from hearing, and not from learning and accurate knowledge, to arrive at false and erring notions. Where did the divine Scripture testify of the reprobate Balaam, as they said, that he had such a power? Moses who wrote these things, being inspired by the very excellent Spirit and being a minister of the truth, neither gave this testimony as in his own person, nor said of God that he gave any such testimony concerning Balaam, but recorded that Balak, King of the Moabites, being a demon-worshipper and a slave of foul fiends, thought of Balaam the soothsayer that he could curse and bless authoritatively and not in a worthless manner. And it is a simple thing to listen to the divine Scriptures manifestly proclaiming this: «And Balak son of Zippor, King of Moab, was at that time, and he sent ambassadors to Balaam son of Beor the interpreter of dreams, who was on the river-land of the sons of his people, to call him. saying. 'Lo! a people hath come out of Egypt, and lo! they have covered the face of the land, and this people hath encamped round me. And now come, curse me this people, because this people is stronger than we, in case we may be able to overthrow some of them, and cast them out of the land; because I know that they whom thou blessest are blessed, and they whom thcu cursest are cursed'» . Since therefore Balak and the Moabites who were under subjection to him, and the Midianites their neighbours, who were barbarians, held this belief, God 'who wisheth that all men should live and come to the knowledge of the truth' according to the apostle's saying, instructing our race, hard as it is to turn, by many various methods, first showed his power with which none can contend, and displayed the kings round about them, Sihon, King of the Amorites, and Og, King of Bashan, who were giants, and trusted to their strength, and were eager to engage in battle, and met Israel in warlike guise, slain with the sword and dead together with their followers; and afterwards, when the same Balak, prince, of the Moabites, as we have said, perceived the feebleness of his own power, and feared lest he also should become the prey of the Israelite sword, and had recourse to the power of the falsely-named gods, and thought that by means of the soothsayer's curse he was escaping from his troubles, the wisdom that is higher than all understanding instructed the barbarian by the instrumentality of the very soothsayer himself in whom he trusted that there is no other god beside him, and that by the very demons and the very soothsayers who serve them witness is borne that he alone is true God. For it is his habit to convert those who are in error to the truth by the very paths of the error. And this we do not say out of our imagination, but because we learn it from Scripture itself. It is recorded in the first book of Kingdoms that the Philistines who dwelt in Ascalon and Gaza and the neighbouring cities took arms against Israel and won a great victory over them in combat, insomuch that together with the rest of the spoil they took the ark of God also and placed it in the sanctuaries and shrines of the idols, and every city to which they carried it was smitten with the disease of emerods for which there was no cure, and the land produced a multitude of mice, and they [deliberated] and took counsel what they could do to escape from such distresses, and, having called upon the soothsayers, who were accustomed to instigate their actions by making use of the deceit of demons, they begged them to find a means of release from these calamities, and those men proposed to them the following plan; to bring cows that were first-born and were unaccustomed to the yoke, and to yoke these to a new cart bearing the ark and golden figures of the emerods and of the mice, equal in number to the cities that had been smitten with a plague of this kind, and upon this to shut up the calves that had been born in one house, that, if their mothers went on drawing the cart to the land of Judah, where the ark was previously placed, they might know that the God of Israel had laid the plagues upon them as a punishment, but, if hey turned towards the cry of the calves and were affected in accordance with their own natural instincts, they might learn that it was not on account of Israel that the punishment came upon them, but they happened as men to suffer these things. And, when these things had been thus stated, those cows as if very forcibly driven by the command of God, went of their own accord to the land of Judah and brought the ark with the propitiatory offerings, though it was not those words of the soothsayers that were able to do these things, but God himself acted according to their words, and by means of the soothsaying to which they were accustomed and which they loved led the Philistines who were in error to the knowledge of the truth. So too Nebuchadnezzar also had future things revealed to him beforehand by an ordinary vision seen in dreams, in order that by Daniel's wise interpretation concerning the things seen in the dream the Babylonians might know what the God of the Hebrews was; and Nebuchadnezzar must not on this account be placed among religious men, as neither must the soothsayers who advised the Philistines to adopt the above-mentioned plan; for even they themselves also could if they wished on the strength of such signs have recognised God and not remained in error. For neither did God bring such things about for any other purpose, condescending as he did at times to men who were not in the perfect state, except that every man might be saved, because he is indeed the Creator of all. The prophesyings and workings of miracles are not under all circumstances performed by men who are worthy, but perhaps by men who are unworthy also for their own profit, because they are barbarians, and cannot be brought to religion by teaching or by any other similar method. This same thing our Lord and God Jesus Christ also said in the gospel: «Many shall say in that day, 'Our Lord,] our Lord, did we not in [thy] name prophesy, and in [thy] name cast out demons, and in thy name do many mighty works?' and then will I profess unto them, ' I never knew you, depart ye from me, workers of iniquity'» . And Caiphas, being president and ruler of the assembly of the Jews that contended with God, those who crucified our Lord, said prophetically that he should be crucified for the people; and this John the Evangelist who was indeed the Theologian described as follows: «But one of them, Caiaphas, who was the high-priest of that year, said to them, 'Ye know nothing, and do not consider that it is expedient for us that one man die for the people, and the whole people perish not'. But this he said not of himself, but, because he was the high-priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the people, and not for the people only, but also that he might gather into one the sons of God who were scattered». Accordingly therefore neither Caiaphas nor Balaam are religious men, but actually blasphemers and contenders against God, and remained in the snares of impiety, although God, In order to show the truth, and in order to convert those who were in error, made use of their words.