Letter 308

To Firmilianus. "Instead of your fathers, your sons have been born" [Psalm 44:17 LXX, Hebrew 45:16]. For those who in former times worshipped God under the Mosaic law and were pleasing to him were shown, within the Church, to be second to the apostles; for the apostles were the sons of the synagogue of the Hebrews. But since the apostles were deemed worthy to be made disciples of Christ, and through all things to imitate the Teacher, they made their own fathers, those who of old were justified under the law, into their own sons in citizenship and in dignity.

Ἀντὶ τῶν πατέρων ἐγεννήθησαν οἱ υἱοί σου, Οἱ γὰρ ἐν τῷ Μωσαϊκῷ νόμῳ λατρευκότες πρώην θεῷ, καὶ εὐηρεστηκότες, δεύτεροι τῶν ἀποστόλων ἐδείχθησαν κατὰ τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν· οἱ υἱοὶ γὰρ οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἦσαν τῆς τῶν Ἑβραίων συναγωγῆς· ἀλλ’ ἐπειδὴ κατηξίωται τῷ Χριστῷ μαθητευσαὶ, καὶ διὰ πάντων μιμήσασθαι τὸν Διδάσκαλον, υἱοὺς ἀπέδειξαν ἑαυτῶν τῇ πολιτείᾳ, καὶ τῷ ἀξιώματι, τοὺς οἰ- κείους πατέρας τοὺς ἐν τῷ νόμῳ πάλαι δικαιω- θέντας.