Hortatory Address to the Greeks

I begin this exhortation to you, men of Greece, and I pray to God that I may know what I should say to you, and that you, shaking off your habitual love of disputing and being freed from the error of your fathers, may now choose what is beneficial; not thinking that you commit any offense against your forefathers, even if the things you once considered by no means beneficial now seem useful to you. For careful investigation of matters, examining truth with a more thorough scrutiny, often reveals that things which have been considered excellent are quite the opposite. Since we intend to discuss the true religion (which I believe is valued most by those who wish to pass through life safely, due to the judgment that comes after this life, as announced not only by our forefathers according to God, the prophets, and lawgivers but also by those among you who have been regarded as wise, not just poets but also philosophers, who claimed among you that they attained true and divine knowledge), I think it appropriate first to examine the teachers of religion, both ours and yours, who they were, how great they were, and in what times they lived; so that those who have previously accepted the false religion from their fathers may now, upon realizing this, be freed from that deep-rooted error; and so that we may clearly and openly show that we ourselves follow the religion of our forefathers according to God.