The Seventy Served the Churches Well

All this makes three things clear. First, the version of the seventy translators, which has won an established place by long use, was profitable to the churches, because through it the Gentiles heard of the coming of Christ before he came. Second, the other translators are not to be blamed, since what they published was not their own work but the divine books, which they translated. Third, my own familiar friend should frankly accept from a Christian and a friend what he has taken great pains to obtain from the Jews, and has had written down for him at great cost. I have gone beyond the limits of a letter. Though I had taken pen in hand to fight against a wicked heresy, I have been forced to answer on my own behalf, while waiting for my friend’s three books and living in constant suspense of mind about the charges he had heaped up against me. It is easier to guard against someone who openly declares himself an enemy than to hold out against an enemy who hides under the guise of a friend. [a]