Note (return) — Chapter III

The foundations of the faith—whose abridged form was, on the one hand, the confession of the one true God, μονος αλεθινος θεος,175 and of Jesus, the Lord, the Son of God, the Saviour176 and also of the Holy Spirit, and on the other hand, the confident hope of Christ's kingdom and the resurrection—were laid on the Old Testament interpreted in a Christian sense together with the Apocalypses,177 and the progressively enriched traditions about Jesus Christ ('ε παροδοσις—'ο παραδοθεις λογος—'ο κανων της αληθειας or της παραδοσεως—'η πιστις—'ο κανων της πιστεως—'ο δοθεισα πιστις—το κηρυγμα—τα διδαγματα του χριστου—'η διδαχη—τα μαθηματα, or το μαθημα).178 The Old Testament revelations and oracles were regarded as pointing to Christ; the Old Testament itself, the words of God spoken by the Prophets, as the primitive Gospel of salvation, having in view the new people, which is, however, the oldest, and belonging to it alone.179 The exposition of the Old Testament, which, as a rule, was of course read in the Alexandrian Canon of the Bible, turned it into a Christian book. A historical view of it, which no born Jew could in some measure fail to take, did not come into fashion, and the freedom that was used in interpreting the Old Testament,—so far as there was a method, it was the Alexandrian Jewish—went the length of even correcting the letter and enriching the contents.180