115. However, because there are some people who assert and have confirmed in themselves that people could have known of the existence of God without the Word, and also of heaven and hell, as well as something of whatever else the Word teaches, and because they consequently weaken the authority and sanctity of the Word, if not by what they say, still at heart, therefore we cannot deal with them from the Word, but in accord with their rational sight. For they do not believe in the Word, but in themselves.

Inquire in accord with your rational sight and you will find that everyone has in him two faculties of life, called his intellect and his will. You will also find that the intellect is subject to the will, and not the will to the intellect. For the intellect only informs and shows the way.

Inquire further and you will find that a person’s will is his native self, that regarded in itself it is nothing but evil, and that it produces falsity in the intellect.

[2] When you discover this, you will see that of himself a person is unwilling to comprehend anything that does not accord with the native character of his will, and that it is impossible for him to do so unless he has some other impetus that causes him to see it.

Prompted by the native character of his will, a person is unwilling to comprehend anything that does not have to do with himself and the world. Anything higher than that is for him shrouded in darkness. So, for example, when he sees the sun, the moon and the stars, if by chance he were to think about their origin, he would be unable to think other than that they came into being by themselves. Could he possibly think more deeply than many of the learned in the world, who, even though they know from the Word of the creation of everything by God, still ascribe it to nature? What then would these same people have thought if they had known nothing from the Word?

[3] Do you suppose that ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, and others who wrote about the immortality of the soul arrived at this in the first place on their own? They did not. Rather they learned it from others by its being handed down from people who first knew about it from the Ancient Word.

Writers of natural theology do not derive anything of the kind on their own, either, but only confirm with rational arguments what they know from the church where the Word is found. There may even be some among them who confirm these things and yet do not believe them.

103. The existence of a Word among ancient peoples is clear also in the writings of Moses, who refers to it and quotes something from it in Numbers 21:14-15, 27-30; 21:14-15, 27-30. And the narrative portions of that Word were called The Wars of Jehovah, and the prophetic portions Oracles.

From the narrative portions of that Word Moses quoted the following:

Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah: “Waheb in Suphah, and the streams, the Arnon, and the channel of the streams which went down to the dwelling place of Ar and stops at the border of Moab.” (Numbers 21:14-15)

The wars of Jehovah in that book — as in ours — meant and described the Lord’s combats with hell and His victories over it, which would take place when He came into the world. These same combats are also meant and described in many places in the narrative portions of our Word — such as by the wars of Joshua with the nations of the land of Canaan, and by the wars of the judges and kings of Israel.

[2] From the prophetic portions of the Ancient Word Moses quoted the following:

Therefore the Oracles say: “Go into Heshbon; the city of Sihon will be built and established. For a fire has gone out from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon; it consumed Ar of Moab, the possessors of the heights of the Arnon. Woe to you, Moab! You have perished, O people of Chemosh! He has made his sons fugitives, and given his daughters into captivity to Sihon king of the Amorites. We finished them with arrows; Heshbon has perished as far as Dibon. And we laid them waste as far as Nophah, which [reaches] even to Medeba.” (Numbers 21:27-30)

Translators render the source as “those who speak in proverbs, ” but they ought to be called Oracles or Prophetic Utterances, as can be seen from the meaning of the word moshalim in the original Hebrew, which means not only proverbs but also prophetic utterances — as in Numbers 23:7, 18, 24:3, 15. In each of these verses Balaam is said to have uttered his oracle, which was a prophetic one (prophetic, in fact, of the Lord). His oracle each time is called mashal, in the singular. Moreover, the words quoted by Moses in these verses are not proverbs, but prophecies.

[3] That the Ancient Word was likewise Divine or Divinely inspired is apparent in Jeremiah, where almost the same words occur, namely:

...a fire has gone out from Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, which consumed the corner of Moab and the crown of the head of the sons of tumult. Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished! For your sons have been taken off into captivity, and your daughters into captivity. (Jeremiah 48:45-46)

In addition to these references, a prophetic book of the Ancient Word, called the Book of Jashar or Book of the Upright, is also cited by David and Joshua. By David:

David lamented...over Saul and over Jonathan..., and he wrote to teach the children of Judah [the Song of] the Bow; is it not written in the Book of Jasher? (2 Samuel 1:17-18)

And by Joshua:

...Joshua...said...: “Sun, stand still in Gibeon; and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon." ...Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? (Joshua 10:12-13)

Moreover, I have been told that the first seven chapters of Genesis are found in the same Ancient Word, so completely that not the least word is missing.