Vinity. It is remarkable that no Jewish controversialist seriously
envisaged the problem of the real view of the gods embodied in the
popular belief of the ancients, namely, that they are personal beings of
a higher order than man. It is inconceivable that men like Philo,
Josephus and the author of the Wisdom of Solomon should have been
ignorant of it. I know nothing to account for this curious phenomenon;
and till some light has been thrown upon the matter, I should hesitate
to assert that the Jewish conception of Polytheism was purely atheistic,
however much appearance it may have of being so. It was otherwise with
Christian polemical writing. As early as St. Paul the demon-theory
appears distinctly, though side by side with utterances of seemingly
atheistic character. Other New Testament authors, too, designate the
gods as demons. The subsequent apologists, excepting the earliest,
Aristides, lay the main stress on demonology, but include for the sake
of completeness idolatry and the like, sometimes without caring about or
trying to conciliate the contradictions. In the long run demonology is
victorious; in St.