Lactantius

“ II.—Where Wisdom is to Be Found; Why Pythagoras and Plato Did Not Approach the Jews.
Wherefore, if they were not wise who were so called, nor those of later times, who did not hesitate to confess their want of wisdom, what remains but that wisdom is to be sought elsewhere, since it has not been found where it was sought. But what can we suppose to have been the reason why it was not found, though sought with the greatest earnestness and labour by so many intellects, and during so many ages, unless it be that philosophers sought for it out of their own limits? ”

“ For God had determined, as the last time drew near, [4] to send from heaven a great leader, [5] who should reveal to foreign nations that which was taken away from a perfidious [6] and ungrateful people. ”

“ And I will endeavour to discuss the subject in this book, if I shall first have shown that wisdom is so closely united with religion, that the one cannot be separated from the other.
Footnotes ↑ See 1 Cor. i. 20–22. ↑ [“Thou art a God that hidest thyself,” Isa xlv. 15. Wisdom must be searched after as hidden treasure.] ↑ See Eph. i. 9, 10; Col. i. 26, 27. [This is a mysterious truth: God’s election of men and nations has been according to their desire to be enlightened. Christ must be the “Desire of Nations.”] ”