Philonis Judaei Paralipomena Armena

and drew from Philo to offer to the listeners, he extracted the commentaries on Genesis word for word, made them his own, and transcribed them. It happens by this method that just as for some Philo was another Plato, so for us Ambrose is a Christian Philo. A wondrous thing indeed, how joyful, yet how much all of Europe will receive it with wonder. It is true, indeed, that the most learned editors of the Ambrosian works, the Benedictine Fathers, along with other men of letters, comparing the Ambrosian works with the Philonic works found in the West in Greek and Latin, saw the traces of the style sufficiently, and caught the scent of the sense of one in the other not obscurely; however, the matter was not yet so clearly evident. Indeed, whenever they wished to cleanse Ambrose, obscured by a certain fog, they doubted much and for a long time whether they had cleansed it or not. Now, light risen from Armenia has dissipated all the shadows. For by the collation of the works of our Author with the works of Ambrose, it is permitted for all to see that the Archbishop of Milan will be, as it were, another Philo, the best interpreter of himself. Let this be said sufficiently for now.

XII. Wherefore, because I have already noted in the Philonic Preface to the three Discourses, it must be confessed by me again, and indeed professed, that I am compelled not only to have our Author faithfully translated from the Armenian into the Latin tongue, but also that the words be rendered for words, even if I seem to some to be lacking in pure Latinity, specifically from that eloquence with which St. Ambrose adorned our Philo. For the common agreement of the Learned religiously demands of me that, seeing the native image of the Author expressed in its very own features in Latium, and hearing him speak, even if sometimes barbarously, they may be able to fish out his sentiments; and then, both concerning the desired Greek text, and concerning the faith of the Armenian reading, and also concerning various eclogues selected passages in different languages, especially concerning the collation between Philo and Ambrose, they may be able to bring a fair judgment.