Question II. Whether the ancestors of the Israelites, whom Joshua led into the land of promise, were idolaters in Mesopotamia and Egypt?

Concerning the ancestors of those Israelites, for the sake of greater perspicuity, I shall speak in order. First, therefore: the ancestors of these [Israelites] older than Abraham’s father, grandfather, [or] great-grandfather were not idolaters. Noah indeed followed God with the true worship, and [so did] Sem, Arphaxad, Sale [Salah], Heber, and Phaleg [Peleg]. And of the first [ones] indeed [it is] certain; but of the later [ones] not likewise. For [it] is not sufficiently established when, in this very stock [line], impiety began — [impiety] which the recent destruction and deluge of the whole world ought by right to have prevented. Secondly: Abraham’s grandfather Nachor [Nahor], and this [man’s] son — the former’s father — Thare [Terah], were idolaters. Expressly [diserte] the second verse names these two among idolaters — so that, up to this [point], the true worship of one God seems to have stood in that lineage [prosapia]. For why [should] these [men’s] fathers Sarug [Serug], Reu, or others [rather] be named? And for this cause I said before, “older than the great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather.” And the Jews confess this very [thing] yearly in that Paschal little prayer which is in their booklet Haggadah, and in Rambam [Maimonides] (Tome 1, at the end of the tract Zemanim, fol. 249b); and that little prayer begins Mihthechillah, that is, “from the beginning”; and in it this testimony of Joshua is cited, which is generally repeated here a little below (v. 14). Thirdly: Abraham himself, when [he] was younger in age, was also an idolater with these his parents. This indeed Abulensis denies (here, q. 6), [as do] Caietanus [Cajetan] and the Carthusian [Denis]: but I declared this [in] Genesis ch. 11; and the Rabbis in the Talmud affirm [it], where [they] discourse of Avodah Zarah [strange worship]; and [that] he worshiped the stars, Rambam says (bk. 1, Helacah [Hilchot] 4, ch. 1; and bk. 3, Helacah 1, ch. 8, p. 247b); R. Godolias [Gedaliah] in Schalscheleth [Shalshelet], fol. 8; Philo, bk. περὶ ἀποικίας [peri apoikias, “On Migration”]; St. Ephrem, sermon 2 on penitence; the Recognitions of Clement, bk. 1; and very many others, and especially the more recent [ones] cited by Alphonsus Mendoza (Controversies). 7. [A] Positive [point]: although, at the end of the question, [he] leaves to the Readers the choice of either opinion. And indeed [there] are [those] who think [that] for that reason the same Abraham [was] called by the Apostle “ungodly” [ἀσεβῆ, asebē] (Rom. 4:5), when [he] said: “And to him that worketh not, but believeth in him who justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reputed to justice.” Fourthly: In Mesopotamia, or beyond the river Euphrates, this impiety was committed, as [is clear] in vv. 2 & 14. Fifthly: Whether in Egypt [there] were any of the Israelites contaminated by the same crime, St. Epiphanius seems to deny or doubt (bk. 1, after the beginning) — unless [he] wishes to deny [it] generally of all. For of some [there] is no place for denying or doubting. “Take away,” says our Joshua (v. 14), “the Gods whom your fathers served in Mesopotamia, and in Egypt.” Ezechiel 20:7 & 8, the Lord says: “Defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt. And provoking me, they turned [their back], and would not hear me. Every one did not cast away the abominations of his eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt.” And this Rambam confesses in the cited place, and in the cited Talmudic tract, [and] other Rabbis, and in the beginning of his Cabala [Kabbalah], R. Abraham Levita: “From the death,” he says, “of Joseph, up to the time when false Prophets of the children of Ephraim and Galaad rose up in Egypt, seducing Israel, [who] were slain — a hundred [and] ten years.” D. Hieronymus [Jerome] on Galatians 3: “After the idolatry, to which [they] were enslaved in Egypt, so that [they] forgot the God of their fathers,” etc. And on the cited chapter of Ezekiel, and at the same time Theodoret: and here the same [one] on Jeremiah ch. 7; Cyril, bk. 11 On Adoration, or On the priests. And to this matter R. Abraham applies that [passage] of Psalm 105 [104]: “Our fathers in Egypt understood not thy wonders.” Sixthly: Some too were idolaters after the Egyptian departure [exodus], in the desert. Which would scarcely seem credible, unless beyond all exception the ancestors asserted [it] — Amos the Prophet (ch. 5:25, 26) and St. Stephen (Acts 7:42).