To Autolycus 3.10 · Sophia Scriptura

Summary: Because Israel had been strangers in Egypt for 430 years, God's law commanded them not to oppress strangers.

Greek text · Otto 8:214–216

Ἐπειδὴ οὖν προσήλυτοι ἐγενήθησαν ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ ὄντες τὸ γένος Ἑβραῖοι ἀπὸ γῆς τῆς Χαλδαϊκῆς (κατʼ ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ λιμοῦ γενομένης ἀνάγκην ἔσχον μετελθεῖν εἰς Αἴγυπτον σιτίων ἐκεῖ πιπρασκομένων, ἔνθα καὶ χρόνῳ παρῴκησαν· ταῦτα δὲ αὐτοῖς συνέβη κατὰ προαναφώνησιν θεοῦ), παροικήσαντες οὖν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ἔτεσι τετρακοσίοις καὶ τριάκοντα, ἐν τῷ τὸν Μωσῆν μέλλειν ἐξάγειν αὐτοὺς εἰς τὴν ἔρημον ὁ θεὸς ἐδίδαξεν αὐτοὺς διὰ τοῦ νόμου λέγων· Προσήλυτον οὐ θλίψετε· ὑμεῖς γὰρ οἴδατε τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ προσηλύτου· αὐτοὶ γὰρ προσήλυτοι ἦτε ἐν τῇ γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ.

English · Claude translation

The Hebrews by race had come as sojourners into the land of Egypt from the land of the Chaldeans. At that time, when a famine had come, they were forced to move to Egypt, where grain was being sold, and they sojourned there for some time; and this happened to them as God had foretold. After they had sojourned in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years, when Moses was about to lead them out into the desert, God taught them through the law, saying: “You shall not oppress a sojourner; for you know the soul of a sojourner, since you yourselves were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

About this passage

Source

Otto 8:214–216 · Johann Carl Theodor Otto, ed., Theophili episcopi Antiocheni ad Autolycum libri tres, Corpus apologetarum Christianorum saeculi secundi 8 (Jena: Mauke, 1861) · Greek text: J. C. T. Otto, Theophili episcopi Antiocheni ad Autolycum libri tres (Corpus apologetarum Christianorum saeculi secundi 8, 1861), digitized by the Perseus Digital Library and published by the First Thousand Years of Greek project (Open Greek and Latin), CC BY-SA 4.0

Text

As printed in Otto, CorpApol 8. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.

Translation

Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-26 · Translated by Claude from the Greek text of Otto (1861); made independently of existing English translations.

Compare

Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made)

Scripture

Gen 15:13 · allusion, medium confidence
Gen 42:5 · allusion, low confidence
Exod 12:40 · allusion, high confidence
Exod 23:9 · quotation, high confidence

Topics

Ethics

Cite this passage

Theophilus, Autol. 3.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/theophilus-autolycus/3/10/).

Plain text

Theophilus, Autol. 3.10 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/theophilus-autolycus/3/10/).