Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN I 8

He calls knowledge "falsely named," falsely named; and it seems to me that Caesar says elsewhere, in completing my discourse—he means the evangelical one—and he took this from the proclamation: we have grafted into the word of the angelic proclamation, for "finishing and cutting short the word in righteousness, because the Lord will make a shortened word upon the whole inhabited world." For the evangelical word has not remained living and active as something [merely] perfect, but it has been shortened, as if in brevity, containing within itself much and great knowledge. And because of this, all that knowledge which is meddled with so exceedingly; and because that which the old law taught to achieve through long-windedness and through care for worldly matters, this is easily achieved through the holy blood of Christ and through the regeneration of baptism. This abbreviated word, then, the divine Apostle proclaims and teaches, which we especially have learned and are being taught. For we would not have needed so many prophetic proclamations if it were not possible, beyond the commandments, to set our life as if unmixed with laughter; like the sea, the remnant of the covenant; for "the Lord will finish and cut short the word upon the earth." And again, someone will perhaps say that we have learned many things, likewise as a teacher the divine Apostle [calls] Timothy orderly and temperate; and he says that he himself tries, not receiving the proclamation from sin; for it does not receive persuasion, but that which is of Christ is called a "seeking." He calls this to all disciples and teachers alike in so many ways, etc. For we grammarians have not only learned the facts about the proclamation, they did not separate [them]. And from these same things, just as we were saying, he says the Gospel is to them, the Lord's [word] among the Gentiles. and elsewhere he says, at least, that Paul [received] the Gospel as if from the Blessed One. Therefore, because of these things, you call them disciples to all and a teacher, and because of this; and we proclaimed it beforehand just as they did. Concerning the things they performed, they taught nothing foreign to theirs, but they taught the same things as them and for them. And since it was a labor for them to be called disciples of those men, and another having learned while also being a teacher of that one, saying: from this the Gospel is to be sung to them; having been discipled through the Savior just as they were taught, and this, to follow their [example] and to preach—not to those who are superabundant nor lawless—

Just as they call "jesting" (eutrapelia) "versatility" (eustrophia); and the discourse here shows that boorish and crafty men, having begun last year to do things not spiritual and excessive in our life, and the "cutting" of sophists, or both, and the hunting for words, is itself even contrary to expectation; which is bitter and ridiculous concerning a ridiculous matter.

The divine Apostle, therefore, the master and disciple and teacher of all, does not call the world "decorous" and the world "polluted" and an "absurdity," all that which lies in insults concerning man and concerning God; for I do not care about names, so much as commanding us to attempt those things which we have learned, as if from a similar word of theirs, as they call "jesting" "versatility"; and he shows these things also in relation to actions. Either, then, the forms of philosophy pertaining to piety, with safety from the precipices—for one must also speak concerning the one who carves up, either a "cutting" or both, and one must try with such hunting of words, at least with such things. But neither did they say that the "cutting" was for us of such great things. Would that it had also seemed so to the dogmas through the Spirit; and to give up that [tendency] of theirs exceedingly, just as one might use "versatility" and show it, but also unto the end, for such is the history.