Demonstration of the Gospel — Book III

Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek

praef.1| The preliminaries to the gospel demonstration have now been worked through sufficiently. I have shown the character of our Savior's gospel teaching; I have given the reason why we have embraced the oracles of the Jews and yet renounced the way of life that goes with them; and I have established besides that the prophetic writings among them foresaw and recorded what was to come, our calling through Christ, which is why we lay claim to them as our own and not as another's. The time now summons me to set foot on the subject itself and begin on what was promised.

praef.2| And what were these, if not the matters concerning the dispensation of Jesus, the Christ of God, as man: the teachings of the prophets among the Hebrews on the theology concerning him, and the predictions of his appearing among men, which I shall very shortly show, from their plain outcomes, fit him alone? First, though, we must of necessity consider how the prophets took up the mention of the gospel in connection with Christ.

1.1| Isaiah would be a witness to this in his very words, crying out in Christ's person: "The Lord's Spirit is upon me, for which reason he anointed me, sending me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives and, to the blind, recovery of sight." Our Savior once read through this prophecy in the synagogue before the crowd of the Jews, and when he had rolled up the book he said: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears."

1.2| And indeed, starting from this point in his own teaching, he brought the good news of his beatitudes to the poor, putting first: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven." To those troubled by evil spirits, too, and long held fast by demons like captives, he proclaimed release, calling all to freedom and to the loosing of the bonds of wickedness when he said: "Come to me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

1.3| And to the blind he gave recovery of sight: to those whose bodily eyes had been destroyed he gave the gift of seeing, and in the mind he gave those who had long been lifting their eyes toward the truth the light of true piety to see. The prophecy set out, then, shows that Christ would be, first of all, the author and founder of the gospel work; and the same prophet foretells that his disciples would, after him, be ministers of the same work, when he says: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things, or of those who bring good news of peace!"

1.4| Here he said with great precision that the feet of those who bring the good news of Christ's good things would be beautiful. For how could they fail to be beautiful, who in a short and brief time were to run round the whole inhabited world and fill every place with the God-fearing teaching about the Savior of the world? And another prophet in turn declares that they did not rely on human words to win over their hearers, but that the power of God cooperated with them in the gospel proclamation: "The Lord will give a word, with great power, to the bearers of good news."

1.5| And again Isaiah: "Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good news to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good news to Jerusalem; lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah: Behold your God! Behold, the Lord comes in strength, with his arm bringing lordship; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. Like a shepherd he will tend his flock, and with his arm he will gather lambs, and he will comfort those that are with young."

1.6| What sense these words hold we shall learn as we advance along the road of the gospel teaching. But it has now been made plain that the gospel, and the very name of the gospel, are attested by the prophetic voices; and you have clear and evident demonstrations of where the gospel would begin, namely from Christ himself; through whom it would be proclaimed, namely through his apostles; and also by what power it would prevail, namely not a human one, which is itself established by the saying: "The Lord will give a word, with great power, to those who bring good news."

1.7| What, then, remains after this but to take up first a few of the many things prophesied about Christ among the Hebrews from of old, so that you may know what the gospel was that was announced as coming in later times, and at the same time the marvel of the prophets' foreknowledge of things to come, and the outcomes of their predictions, how they are shown to have been fulfilled in our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God?

2.1| Moses, first of the prophets, announces the good news that another prophet like himself will arise. For since the legislation through him belonged only to the nation of the Jews, and to them in the land of Judea or around it, and not to those who dwell far off in foreign lands, as has been seen from what we worked through earlier, and since he who is God not only of the Jews but also of the nations had of course to supply for life what would benefit all the nations toward knowledge of him and piety, Moses reasonably foretells by an oracle that God would raise up from the Jewish nation another prophet, falling short in nothing of the dispensation through Moses himself; God himself spoke in this way:

2.2| "I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers, like you; in his mouth I will put my word, and all that I command him he shall tell them. And the man who will not listen to his words, whatever the prophet shall speak in my name, from him I will exact vengeance."

2.3| Moses himself, when he interprets God's oracle for the people, says the same: "The Lord your God will raise up a prophet from among your brothers, like me; to him you shall listen, according to all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly."

2.4| Did any of the prophets after Moses, say Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, or any other of the twelve, prove a lawgiver like Moses? By no means. Did any of them accomplish deeds like those of Moses? One cannot say so. Each of them, from the first to the last, sent their hearers back to Moses, and made their rebuke of the people on account of transgressions of the law of Moses, and urged nothing other than to hold fast to what had been legislated through Moses.

2.5| None of these, then, is like him; yet Moses speaks definitely of one. Whom, then, does the oracle foretell as a prophet like Moses, if not only our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ? It is necessary to consider in what way this was said.

2.6| Moses was the first to lead the nation of the Jews. Finding them attached to the polytheistic error of the Egyptians, he was first to turn them away from it, forbidding idol worship under inexorable penalties. He was the first to announce to them the theology of a single sovereignty, commanding them to worship solely the Maker and Creator of all. He was also the first to lay down for them a certain discipline of a God-fearing life, and was shown to be the first and only lawgiver of a pious polity for them. But Jesus the Christ, in like manner to Moses and far more excellently, was the first to lead the remaining nations into the teaching of piety, and the first to bring about the overthrow of idol worship throughout the whole inhabited world. He was the first to set before all mankind the knowledge and worship of the one God, King of all, and the first to be shown as the introducer and lawgiver of a new life and a polity befitting the God-fearing.

2.7| And the other matters, concerning the origin of the world, the immortality of the soul, and whatever other philosophical teachings, Moses first handed down to the nation of the Jews; and Jesus the Christ first proclaimed these, in a manner more worthy of God, to the rest of the nations through his disciples. So Moses was reasonably declared the first and only lawgiver of piety for the Jews, and Jesus the Christ for all the nations, according to the prophecy that speaks of him: "Appoint a lawgiver over them, O Lord; let the nations know that they are men."

2.8| Again, Moses confirmed the piety announced by him with wondrous deeds and marvels; and likewise Christ, having used the recorded miracles to bring those who saw them to faith, established the new lessons of his gospel teaching.

2.9| Again, Moses brought the nation of the Jews out of bitter slavery under the Egyptians into freedom; and Jesus the Christ called the race of all men back into freedom from the impious, Egyptian idolatry under wicked demons.

2.10| Again, Moses promised a holy and God-beloved land, and a blessed life in it, to those who kept the laws. Likewise Jesus the Christ says: "Blessed are the gentle, for they themselves shall inherit the land," a far better land, truly holy and God-beloved, not the one in Judea, since that differs in nothing from the rest, but the land in heaven that belongs to God-loving souls, promising it to those who would undertake the way of life announced by him. And making this plainer, he proclaimed to those whom he declared blessed the kingdom of heaven.

2.11| And you would find other acts done by our Savior with a power greater than that of Moses, yet like those which Moses also accomplished.

2.12| For example, Moses fasted forty days in succession, as the Scripture testifies, saying: "And Moses was there before the Lord forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water."

2.13| Christ did the same. For it stands written: "And he was led into the wilderness forty days, tempted by the devil, and he ate nothing in those days." Again, Moses supplied food to the people in the wilderness. Scripture says: "Behold, I am giving you loaves from heaven."

2.14| And a little later: "When the dew around the camp ceased, behold, on the face of the wilderness there was something fine, like white coriander seed, like frost on the ground." And our Savior and Lord says to his disciples: "Why do you reason among yourselves, you of little faith, because you have taken no bread? Do you not yet understand, nor recall the five loaves for the five thousand and the number of baskets you took up? Nor the seven for the four thousand, and the number of baskets you took up?"

2.15| Again, Moses crossed through the middle of the sea and guided the people. The Scripture says: "Moses stretched his hand out over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back with a strong south wind all that day, and made the sea dry, and the water was split, and the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on dry ground, and the water was a wall for them on their right and a wall on their left."

2.16| Likewise, and more befitting God, Jesus the Christ of God, having himself walked on the sea, made Peter also tread upon it. For it is written: "In the fourth watch of the night Jesus came to them, walking on the sea; and having seen him walking upon the sea, they were troubled."

2.17| And a little later: "Peter replied to him and said, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the waters. And he said, Come. And Peter got down from the boat and walked on the waters."

2.18| Again, Moses made the sea stand firm by a strong south wind. The Scripture says: "Moses stretched his hand out over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back with a strong south wind." And it adds: "The waves stood fixed in the midst of the sea."

2.19| Likewise, and far more excellently, our Savior rebuked the wind and the sea, and a great calm ensued. Again, as Moses came down from the mountain, his face was seen to be full of glory. For it is written: "When Moses came down from the mountain, he was unaware that the look of the skin on his face had been glorified as he spoke with him. Aaron too, and all the elders of the sons of Israel, saw Moses, and the look of the skin on his face was glorified."

2.20| Likewise, and far more surpassingly, our Savior, having led his disciples up a very high mountain, was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. Again, a leper was cleansed by Moses, as it is written: "Miriam, behold, was leprous, like snow."

2.21| And a little later: "And Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, O God, I beg you, heal her."

2.22| Likewise, and with a greater power of authority, when a leper came to him and said, "If you will, you can cleanse me," the Christ of God answered: "I will; be cleansed. And his leprosy was cleansed." Again, Moses said that the law was written by the finger of God, as it is written: "And when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written by the finger of God."

2.23| And in Exodus: "The enchanters said to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God." Likewise Jesus, the Christ of God, spoke to the Pharisees: "But if I cast out demons by the finger of God."

2.24| Besides all this, Moses renamed Nave's son Jesus, and our Savior likewise renamed Simon Peter. And again, Moses appointed seventy leaders for the people. The Scripture says: "Gather for me seventy men out of Israel's elders, and I will take from the Spirit that is on you and put it on them; and he gathered seventy men." Likewise the Savior appointed seventy disciples of his own, and sent them out two by two before his face. And again, Moses dispatched twelve men to spy out the land; likewise, and far better, our Savior sent forth twelve apostles to visit all the nations. Again, Moses legislates, saying: "You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not swear falsely."

2.26| But our Savior, intensifying the law, forbids not only murder but even anger; in place of not committing adultery he counsels not even to look at a woman with unrestrained desire; and in place of not stealing he commands giving one's own goods to the needy. And going beyond swearing falsely, he legislates not to swear at all.

2.27| Why need I prolong the account to prove that Moses and Jesus our Savior and Lord did like and nearly similar things, when anyone who likes may read these at leisure? For they say that no one knew Moses' death or his burial, just as no one knew our Savior's change into divinity after the resurrection.

2.28| If, then, through so many points no one else but our Savior alone has been shown to have done things like Moses, observe that the prophecy in Moses must be referred to him alone and to no other, by which God foretold that he would set up one like him, saying: "I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brothers, like you, and I will give my word into his mouth, and he shall tell them just as I command him. And the man who will not listen to his words, whatever the prophet speaks in my name, I shall exact vengeance from him."

2.29| Moses himself, interpreting the voice of God to the people, said: "The Lord your God will raise up a prophet from among your brothers; to him you shall listen, according to all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly."

2.30| That none of the prophets after Moses before our Savior arose like Moses, the old Scripture teaches plainly: "And there arose no longer in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord had known face to face, in all the signs and wonders."

2.31| It has been shown, then, that the divine Spirit prophesied through Moses about our Savior, if he alone, and no other, having become like Moses, stands in accord with the words of Moses. Consider another prophecy on record as well.

2.32| Countless multitudes in all the nations call our Savior and Lord, who became a man in the flesh from the seed of Israel, "Lord," confessing him Lord because of his divine power. Moses, seeing this beforehand by the divine Spirit, proclaimed it in his writing in this way: "A man shall come out of his seed" (he means of Israel), "and he shall rule over nations, and his kingdom shall be exalted."

2.33| If no other of the rulers and kings of the circumcision ever became lord of many nations (for no history shows this), and the truth cries out and proclaims of our Savior alone that countless multitudes from all the nations confess him Lord, and not with the lips only but with a thoroughly sincere disposition, what stands in the way of saying that he is the one prophesied? And that Moses does not say this without limit, nor veil the prediction in infinite and unmeasured time, but defines with precision the outcome of what is prophesied within fixed times, hear what he foretells about this: "A ruler will not fail out of Judah, nor a leader out of his thighs, until there comes the one for whom it is reserved, and he himself is the expectation of the nations."

2.34| By these words he declares that rulers and leaders from the nation of the Jews will not fail, one following another, until the coming of the one expected, and that when their rulers have ceased the one prophesied will be present.

2.35| By "Judah" he does not now mean the tribe; rather, since in later times the whole nation of the Jews took a designation from the royal tribe of Judah, so that to this day they are called Jews, he named the whole nation of the Jews in a most wonderful and prophetic way, just as we too call them Jews.

2.36| Then he says that rulers and leaders will not fail from their nation before the one prophesied is present; and when he appears, the rule of the Jews will at once be dissolved, and he will no longer be the Jews' expectation but that of the nations. This you could not apply to any prophet, but only to our Savior and Lord.

2.37| For at the very time that he came among men, the kingdom of the Jews was taken down. Their ruler, by succession from their ancestors, and the leader according to their own laws, failed at once, when Augustus was then the first to hold sole rule over the Romans, and Herod, from foreign nations, was set up as their king.

2.38| And while those had failed, he has appeared as the expectation of the nations throughout the whole inhabited world, according to the divine prediction, so that even now all who from all the nations have believed in him place on him the hope of their expectation toward God.

2.39| So much does Moses announce about the Christ to all of us, and more besides. Akin to him, Isaiah too foretells, specifically about one who would arise from the seed and succession of David the king: "A rod shall come forth out of the root of Jesse, [….] shall rise from his root, and upon him shall rest the Spirit of God, the spirit of wisdom and understanding," and the rest.

2.40| Then, going on next in the prophetic manner, he foretells the change toward gentleness and mildness, through the teaching of Christ, of the foreign nations, both barbarians and Greeks, the wildest and most beastlike of men. He says: "And the wolf shall rest together with the lamb, and the leopard shall rest with the kid, and the calf and the bull and the lion together,"

2.41| and the like, which he explains clearly right at hand, saying: "And it shall be that he who rises to rule the nations, on him shall nations hope."

2.42| For plainly the irrational creatures and the beasts just mentioned are none other than the nations, because of their beastlike manner, over which nations he says the one rising from the seed of Jesse will rule, from whom our Savior and Lord traces his genealogy, and in whom the nations that believe in him hope even now, in agreement with the prediction: "And it shall come to pass that he who rises to rule the nations, on him shall nations hope."

2.43| Set this beside what is reported in Moses, and distinguish: apply "He who rises to rule the nations" to "A man shall go forth from his seed and hold lordship over many nations," and "on him shall nations hope" to "and he shall be the nations' expectation."

2.44| For what difference is there between saying "on him shall nations hope" and "he shall be the nations' expectation"? Again the same Isaiah prophesies as follows about Christ: "Behold my servant, whom I chose, my beloved, in whom my soul takes pleasure; he will bring forth judgment to the nations." And he adds: "until he sets judgment on the earth; and nations will hope in his name."

2.45| Here already, for the second time, the prophet declares that the nations will hope in Christ, having said above "on him shall nations hope," and here "and in his name nations will hope." It was said to David too that from the fruit of his body one would arise, of whom God next says: "He will call upon me, You are my father; and I will set him as my firstborn."

2.46| And about him it is said again: "And he shall rule from sea to [….], and from the rivers as far as the limits of the inhabited world." And again: "All the nations shall serve him, and in you all the tribes of the earth will receive blessing." And a particular place, set apart, for the birth of the one prophesied is foretold by Micah, who says: "And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrathah, are few in number to be among the thousands of Judah. From you shall come forth for me a ruler, who will shepherd my people Israel. His goings forth are from the beginning, out of the days of eternity."

2.47| It is agreed by all that Jesus the Christ was born in Bethlehem, so that the natives there even show a cave to those who come from foreign lands to see it.

2.48| This place, then, where he was to be born, was foretold; and the wonder of his birth Isaiah sets forth, sometimes through riddles and sometimes more plainly. Through riddles, when he says: "Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? We announced before him: like a child, like a root in thirsty ground."

2.49| In place of this Aquila rendered it thus: "And it will be proclaimed as one suckled at his face; and like a root out of an untrodden land." And Theodotion: "And he will rise up, nursing before him, and like a root in a thirsty land."

2.50| For through these words the prophet, who has made mention of the arm of the Lord, that is, the Word of God, says: "Before him we announced him as a child nursing and suckled, and as a root from an untrodden land." The child who is suckled and nurses plainly signifies the birth of Christ; and the untrodden and thirsty land, the virgin who bore him, on whom no man had set foot, from whom, though untrodden, the blessed root came forth, and the suckled child who nursed.

2.51| These things he hinted at under a veil; but more openly the same prophet interprets the thought when he says: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a son, and they shall name him God with us." For this is what Emmanuel means.

2.52| Such things about the birth of Christ among men were long ago studied among the Hebrews. Do they, then, sketch the one prophesied as some notable potentate, or tyrant, or any other of those who have great power in life? It cannot be said, for no such man appeared.

2.53| Rather, such as he appeared in his life, such they foretold he would be, falling short of the truth in nothing. Isaiah, having said "we proclaimed in his presence: a child, like a root in parched ground," next joins on: "In him there is neither form nor glory; we looked upon him, and he possessed neither form nor beauty. His appearance was without honor and deficient beside that of men. A man in affliction and knowing how to bear weakness was dishonored and was not esteemed."

2.54| What remains after this? For if they predicted his tribe and family, and the manner of his birth, and the wonder of the virgin, and the manner of his life, it followed next that they would not keep silent about his death. What, then, does Isaiah foretell about this?

2.55| "A man," he says, "in affliction and knowing how to bear weakness was dishonored and was not esteemed. He it is who carries our sins and grieves on our behalf. And we counted him to be in toil and in affliction and in ill-treatment; but he himself was wounded for our sins, and made weak for our lawless deeds; upon him lay the discipline of our peace, and by his bruise we were healed.

2.56| All of us like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord gave him over to our sins, and he, because he was ill-treated, does not open his mouth; like a sheep he was brought to slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer he is voiceless; so he does not open his mouth. His generation: who will describe it? For his life is removed from the earth," and the rest.

2.57| By these words he signifies that Christ, though free of every fault, would take upon himself the sins of men. Therefore he will suffer the sufferings of sinners and be pained on our behalf, not for himself.

2.58| And if he is to be wounded, pelted with blasphemous words, this too will be the work of our sins; for he was made weak because of our sins, so that we, since he has taken upon himself our transgressions and the injuries of our evil, might be healed by his bruise. These, then, were the reasons why the sinless one would suffer among men. But as for the Jews who contrived his death, the marvelous prophet, shrinking from nothing, expressly convicts them, openly lamenting this and saying: "From the lawless acts of my people he was brought to death."

2.59| Then, since immediately and not long after the daring deed against Christ complete destruction overtook them when the Romans laid siege to them, he does not overlook this either, adding: "And I will give the wicked in return for his burial, and the rich in return for his death."

2.60| So it would have sufficed to close the prophecy here, had he seen nothing further to come after Christ's death. But since he was just about to return after his death and burial and come to life again, he adds this too about him, saying next: "And the Lord wishes to cleanse him of the blow. If you give for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed. And the Lord wishes to take away from the toil of his soul, to show him light."

2.61| Having said above "a man in affliction and knowing how to bear weakness," he says that now, after his death and burial, "the Lord wishes to cleanse him of the blow." And how will this be? "If you offer," he says, "on behalf of sin, your soul shall see long-lived offspring."

2.62| For it is not granted to all to see the long-lived seed of Christ, but only to those who confess and bring to God the gifts for sins. For the soul of these alone will see the long-lived seed of Christ, that is, either his eternal life after death, or his word, sown over the whole inhabited world, which will be long-lived and last forever.

2.63| Again, having said above "and we esteemed him to be in toil," he says now, after his slaughter and death: "And the Lord wishes to take away from the toil of his soul, to show him light." Since, then, the Lord, the God of all, has resolved to cleanse him of the blow and to show him light, surely, having wished it, he would do what he wished.

2.64| For there is nothing he wishes that does not come to pass; and he wished [….] him and to show him light. He did these things, then, and having cleansed him he showed him light. And since he wished it, and having wished it took away the toil of his soul and showed him light, the prophet reasonably adds: "Therefore he shall inherit many, and shall divide the spoils of the strong."

2.65| Here he now mentions the inheritance of Christ too, in harmony with the second psalm, where the Word, having foretold by name the plot contrived against him in the words "The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers assembled in one place against the Lord and against his Christ," next adds: "The Lord told me: You are my Son; this day I have begotten you. Make your request of me, and I will give you nations for your heritage, and for your possession the ends of the earth."

2.66| These nations the prophet also hinted at, saying "Therefore he shall inherit many," and adding "and shall divide the spoils of the strong." For having rescued from the opposing powers, which long ruled the nations, the souls under their hand, he distributed them, as spoils of a kind, to his own disciples.

2.67| Hence Isaiah says about them: "And they will rejoice before you as those who divide spoils." And the psalm-singer: "The Lord will grant speech to those who bring good news, with great power. The king of the hosts of the beloved—to the beauty of the house, spoils."

2.68| Reasonably, therefore, here too he says of Christ: "Therefore he shall inherit many, and shall divide the spoils of the strong." And for what reason this is so, he teaches next, saying: "Because his soul was given over to death, and he was counted among the lawless; and he bore the sins of many, and on account of their sins he was given over."

2.69| In return for these things the Father, rewarding him for his obedience and endurance, has granted him what is laid up; for he became obedient to the Father even unto death. So it is foretold that he will inherit many, not before, but after his soul was given over to death and he was counted among the lawless. For it is on account of these things that it is said that he will inherit multitudes and share out the plunder of the mighty.

2.70| I think these words indisputably set out the resurrection from the dead of the one prophesied. For how could one who was led away, and given over to death from the lawless deeds of the Jewish people, and counted with the lawless and handed over to burial, then be cleansed by the Lord, and see light with him, and inherit many, and distribute spoils to his own? And elsewhere too David, prophesying in the person of Christ, speaks somewhere of his coming to life again after death: "You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor give your holy one to see corruption."

2.71| And again: "O Lord, you brought up my soul from Hades; you saved me from those who go down into the pit." And again: "You who raise me from the gates of death, so that I may declare all your praises."

2.72| I think that not even the most perverse could face down all this. Moreover, the conclusion of Isaiah's prophecy announces good news to the soul long barren and bereft of God, or rather to the church from the nations, in keeping with the interpretation of what has been said.

2.73| For since Christ endured everything for her sake, after the predictions about him he reasonably goes on to say: "Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor, for the children of the desolate are more numerous than those of her who has a husband. For the Lord said, Enlarge the place of your tent, and fix the curtains of your courts; do not spare; widen your [….] and strengthen your pegs; stretch out still further to the right and to the left, and your seed shall inherit nations."

2.74| The Word announces by these words the church from the nations, spread out over the whole inhabited world and reaching from the rising of the sun to its setting, and he sets this out most clearly through "and your seed shall inherit nations."

2.75| Since the matters in this place require fuller treatment, let it suffice that we cut them short for the present; you could read a great deal more yourself, at leisure, about the question at hand, and the present work, the Demonstration of the Gospel, will give and explain each point in its proper time.

2.76| For the present, then, what has been said is sufficient concerning the prophets' prediction and foreknowledge about our Savior, and how it was proclaimed as good news to all men. It foretold the arrival of a certain prophet, and a piety given by a lawgiver like Moses; his family and tribe and the place from which he would come forth; the time at which he was prophesied to come; his birth, his coming to life again, and his rule over all the nations. All of this has been shown,

2.77| and it will be shown still more through what follows that all this was brought to completion in our Savior and Lord alone.

2.78| But these things have been set before believers from the sacred oracles. To those who disbelieve the prophetic writings we shall make a particular answer, for the time being conducting the inquiry as about an ordinary man like the rest, so that when he appears far better than all who have ever been celebrated among men from the beginning, with an incomparable superiority and difference, we may then, in due season, take up his nature itself, showing by clear proofs that the power about him was not of human nature; and following upon this we shall make our account of the theology concerning him, as far as we are able to look into it. Since, then, most of the unbelievers call him a sorcerer and deceiver and blaspheme him with countless other slanders, and do not cease even now, come, let us answer these also, adding nothing of our own, but making our citations from his own words and the teaching he handed down.

3.1| We must ask them whether any other such deceiver has ever been recorded as a teacher of gentleness, moderation, self-control and the rest of virtue, and as the cause of these things for those he deceived; and whether it is lawful to apply these names to one who did not permit even looking at women with unrestrained desire; and whether he is a deceiver who handed down philosophy at its highest point, in teaching his students to share their possessions with the needy and to prize industry; and whether he is a deceiver who roused men from the common, herd-like and tumultuous gatherings of the crowd and taught them to embrace only the leisure spent on the divine oracles.

3.2| He who turned men away from every falsehood and urged them to honor truth above all, so that they would not need even an honest oath, much less swear falsely, saying, "Let your yes be yes, and your no, no." How could he justly be called a deceiver? Why should I say more now, when from what was said earlier one can know what the manner was of the way of life he sowed in men's lives, from which every lover of truth would acknowledge him, not as a deceiver, but as truly some divine person, the introducer of a divine and pious philosophy, not of the common and popular kind?

3.3| The way of life of the God-beloved Hebrews of old, which had already all but vanished from among men, he alone renewed, and he has been shown to have spread it not to a few and modest numbers but over the whole world, as the first treatise of the present work demonstrated; through it one can show, [….] among men throughout the whole inhabited world, the countless zealots of the God-beloved men around Abraham and of their God-fearing polity, not from the Greeks only but from the barbarians as well.

3.4| Such, then, are the more ethical parts of his teaching. Come, let us consider whether the deceiver was ever occupied with the most authoritative of doctrines.

3.5| Is it not recorded that he himself was dedicated to God the universal King, the Maker of heaven and earth and the whole world, and that he led his students to him alone? And even to this day the words of his teaching lead every Greek and barbarian upward in mind to the God above all, rising above all visible nature.

3.6| Was this, then, his deception: that he does not permit the worship of many gods, now that what is truly deception has been overthrown by the highest and only true theology? But this is no newer or private doctrine of his; it was dear to the Hebrews, God-beloved from a long time before, as was shown in the Preparation, and from them even the sons of the newer philosophers, greatly helped, took up the doctrine. Indeed the most learned of the Greeks themselves, boasting of the oracles of their own gods, name the Hebrews in this way: "Only the Chaldeans obtained wisdom, and the Hebrews too, revering purely a self-begotten king, God."

3.7| He called the same men Chaldeans on account of Abraham, since he was by race a Chaldean, as is recorded. If, then, the children of the Hebrews long ago, those most of all who were also attested for wisdom by the oracles, directed their worship toward the one God, Maker of all, why must one call a deceiver, and not a marvelous teacher of piety, the man who, by an unseen and divine power, carried to all men what long ago was known only to the God-beloved Hebrews, and spread it so that no longer, as in ancient times, were a few, who could be counted, holding right opinions about God, but countless multitudes of barbarians who had once been the most beastlike, and of learned Greek men as well, who were taught by his power alone to be pious just as the prophets and righteous men of old?

3.8| But now let us consider a third point, whether this was perhaps the reason they call him a deceiver: that he did not ordain that the divine be honored with sacrifices of oxen, the slaughter of irrational animals, blood and fire, or smoke rising from the earth. He judged these things lowly and earthy, in no way fitting to the immortal nature, and judged that the most acceptable and sweet sacrifice to God is the right performance of his own commandments, through which he taught those who had been purified in body and soul, with clear mind and adorned with pious doctrines, to imitate likeness to God, saying expressly: "You shall be perfect, as your Father is perfect."

3.9| If any of the Greeks should bring this as a charge, let him know that he is thinking things not dear to his own teachers, who, as is likely, were helped by us, since they came later than we, I mean after the teaching set before us by our Savior; listen to what they acknowledged in writing. From Porphyry's On Abstinence from Animal Food.

3.10| "To God, who is over all, as a wise man said, we should offer nothing of the things perceived by sense, neither burning it nor naming it; for nothing material is not at once unclean to the immaterial. Hence neither is spoken word proper to him, nor even the word within, when it is stained by a passion of the soul. But through pure silence and pure thoughts about him we shall worship him. We must, therefore, joined to him and made like him, offer our own way of life as a holy sacrifice to God, which is at once a hymn and our salvation. In freedom from passion of the soul, then, and in contemplation of God, this sacrifice is accomplished." From the Theology of Apollonius of Tyana.

3.11| "In this way, then, a man would best pay the fitting attention to the divine and obtain from it, beyond any other man, a gracious and kindly disposition: if to the God of whom we speak, who is one and separate from all, and after whom the rest must be recognized, he sacrificed nothing at all, nor kindled fire, nor named anything at all of the things perceived by sense. For he needs nothing, not even from beings better than we are; neither is there any plant whatever that the earth sends up, or any animal that it or the air nourishes, to which some pollution does not cling. Rather, let him use toward him always only the better word, I mean the one that does not pass through the mouth, and ask for good things from the most beautiful of beings through the most beautiful thing in us. And this is mind, which needs no instrument."

3.12| If, then, these things are acknowledged by the distinguished philosophers and theologians among the Greeks, how could he be a deceiver, who handed on to his students not only words but, long before the words, the carrying out of deeds, by which they were to serve the divine according to right reason? As for how and on what principles the ancient Hebrews are recorded to have offered sacrifice, we shall be satisfied with what was laid out in the first treatise of the present work.

3.13| But since, besides what has been examined, we learned from Christ that the world is begotten, and that heaven itself and the sun and moon and stars are works of God, and that we should worship not these but their maker, we must consider whether we have been deceived in being taught by him to think in this way.

3.14| Yet this was also the doctrine of the Hebrews, and the most illustrious of the philosophers agreed on the same points, declaring that heaven itself, the sun and moon and stars, and the entire world were begotten, having come to be by the Maker of the universe. He also taught us to expect an end and a change of this whole universe for the better, again in agreement with the writings of the Hebrews.

3.15| What then? Does not Plato also know heaven itself, the sun, the moon, and the remaining stars to be of a dissoluble and perishable nature, even if he says that they will not be dissolved because he who fastened them together does not wish it?

3.16| And if he should indeed wish them to be of such a nature, and having taught us to hold that we have an immortal soul, in no way resembling the irrational animals but bearing copies of the powers of God, and having educated every barbarian and common man to hold, be disposed and think in this way, has he not made those throughout the inhabited world who think his thoughts wiser than those who have raised their eyebrows high, who declared that the soul in men does not differ in essence from a gnat, a worm or a fly; indeed that the soul of the most philosophical among them differs in nothing, as far as the account of nature and essence goes, from the soul of a snake, a viper, a bear, a leopard or a pig?

3.17| And besides this, constantly reminding men of the divine tribunal and the judgment to come, sketching inexorable chastisements and punishments for the impious, and for the pious the promises of God: eternal life, the kingdom of heavens and a blessed life spent with God, whom would he deceive? Would he not rather urge them to hasten to virtue for the sake of the prizes awaiting the pious, and to turn away from all wickedness because of the punishments hanging over the impious?

3.18| In the doctrinal parts of his words we have received that there are certain powers after the God above all, bodiless in nature, intelligent, rational and wholly virtuous, who dance in chorus around the King of all, many of whom have even been sent as far as men at the Father's nod, for certain saving dispensations. We were taught to recognize and honor these according to the measure of their worth, rendering the reverent honor to God, King of all, alone.

3.19| Besides this we learned from him that certain hostile powers, enemies of the human race, fly about the air around the earth and dwell with the wicked: powers of demons and evil spirits and their rulers. We were taught to flee them with all our strength, even if they especially snatch for themselves the names and honors of gods, and to turn away from them still more because of this war against God and hatred of God, as I demonstrated at great length in the Preparation. Such are the things that are reported in the doctrinal lessons of our Savior, plainly the pious teachings of the Hebrews, men and prophets beloved of God in ancient times.

3.20| If, then, these teachings are solemn, beneficial, philosophical, and full of virtue, on what grounds could the teacher of them reasonably be given the name of deceiver? But let these matters be examined for the present as concerning him in his common human nature, since they bear witness to his solemn teaching, so useful for life. Come, let us now consider the more divine aspects.

4.21| Let us consider, then, how many and how astonishing were the works he performed while he spent his days among men: at one time cleansing lepers in body by divine power, at another driving the demons out of men by a word of command, and at yet another time bestowing healing without stint on the sick and on those worn down by every kind of illness.

4.22| And once he said to a paralytic, "Rise, take up your bed, and walk," and the man did what he was told.

4.23| At another time he gave to the blind the power of seeing the light. And once a woman who had a flow of blood, worn down by her affliction through long cycles of years, saw countless crowds surrounding him and in no way allowing her to kneel before him and ask to be freed from her affliction; so she resolved merely to touch the edge of his garment, and slipped in beneath the crowd, and taking hold of the fringe she took hold at the same moment of the cure of her ills. At once she was well, carrying away the greatest proof of the divine power of our Savior.

4.24| Another man, a royal official, fell at the feet of Jesus on behalf of his sick child and received him back well at once; and another man, a ruler of the synagogue of the Jews, received back his daughter, though she was already dead.

4.25| Why need I tell how another man, four days dead, was raised by Jesus' power? Or how he made his journeys on the sea as on a public highway, with his disciples sailing with him, and how, when they were storm-tossed, he rebuked the sea and the surge and the winds, and everything stood still at once, as if cowering at a master's voice?

4.26| And he filled five thousand men to satisfaction from five loaves, with another vast crowd of women and children present besides, so that the leftovers were enough to fill twelve baskets. Whom would that not astonish, and rightly rouse to inquire into the ineffable power that was in him? But so that my discourse may not now stretch out to great length, let his death be set before you last of all, a death that was not common to other men.

4.27| For he did not perish by disease, nor by a noose or by fire, nor even, at the very trophy of the cross, did he have his legs broken with iron as other criminals do, nor did he endure any violent end at the hands of any man, of the kind that usually kills; rather, as soon as he had of his own will handed over his body, and that alone, to those plotting against him, he was raised up from the earth at once, and then upon the gibbet he cried out in a loud voice and committed his spirit to the Father, saying in these very words, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Thus, unconstrained and free, he of his own accord made his departure from the body.

4.28| Then, when his body was taken by his acquaintances and given the burial that was fitting, on the third day he received it back again, he who had earlier departed willingly.

4.29| And he shows himself again, in flesh and body, the very same man he had been before, to his own disciples. After conversing with them briefly and spending some time with them, he went up to the place from which he had come, making his journey to the heavens before their eyes. To them he also gave instructions about what must be done, and appointed them teachers of all the nations in the highest piety toward God.

4.30| Such were the much-celebrated wonders of our Savior's virtue; these were the proofs of the divinity in him; these we ourselves have wondered at with sober reasoning, and have accepted with a judgment tested and examined.

4.31| These matters have been examined and tested by us also through other plain facts that disclose the whole account, facts through which our Lord himself even now is accustomed to display, to those he judges fit, some small part of his power; and also by the more rational method that we are accustomed to bring to those who do not accept what has been said, but either disbelieve it altogether and claim that nothing of the kind was done by him at all, or say that it was done, but by sorcery, for no other end than to deceive the onlookers, as by a deceiver. And if we must also at the present moment offer a brief resistance to those I have described, we shall not fall short in zeal, but we shall meet them in a different way. 32. If they should say that our Savior did nothing wonderful or marvelous at all, nothing of what his acquaintances testified, let us consider whether their argument will be plausible when they cannot give the reason for which some were called disciples and the other teacher. For the one who teaches professes to teach some subject, and the disciples, in turn, reaching out for lessons, offer themselves and entrust themselves to the teacher.

4.33| What reason, then, can be given for the disciples of Jesus spending their time with him, what was the necessity of their eagerness about him, and of what lessons did they style him teacher? Or is this plain? Surely it was of whatever they learned from him and carried out to others. His precepts were of the kind that belong to a philosopher's life, which he outlined for them when he said, "Do not acquire gold or silver in your belts, nor a bag for the road," and the like, and that by committing themselves to the providence that governs all things they should be anxious about nothing for the sake of their needs; and he urged them also to think higher thoughts than what was commanded to the Jews by Moses.

4.34| For Moses, as though legislating for people prone to murder, laid down the law not to kill; likewise also not to commit adultery, as though for the most lustful and inclined to it, and again not to steal, as though for the most slavish. But these men, he said, must consider that such laws do not apply to them, and must prize above all the freedom of the soul from passion, cutting off the shoots of vice from beneath, from the depth of the mind itself, as if from the roots. They should try to master anger and every shameful desire, or rather not even to be angry, through the soul's utmost freedom from passion, nor to look at a woman with unrestrained desire. As for stealing, they should do the opposite and give away their own goods to the needy; nor should they take pride in not defrauding one another, but in bearing without resentment those who take the lead in defrauding them.

4.35| And why need I gather together everything that the one taught and the others learned? Among other things he urged them to hold to the truth in such a way that they would not even need to swear well, much less swear falsely; and to make their character appear more trustworthy than any oath, going no further than "yes" and "no" and using words with truth.

4.36| We must ask, then, what reasonable ground there could be for supposing that men who were the hearers of such teachings, and who by then had themselves become teachers of the same lessons, had made up the things they testified that their teacher had accomplished.

4.37| And what plausibility is there in thinking that all of them lied in agreement, when there were twelve of them as chosen men, and seventy as the rest, whom he is also said to have sent out two by two ahead of him into every place and region where he himself was about to go? No argument leads to disbelieving so great a multitude of men who embraced a pious and solemn way of life, who made light of all their own possessions and, in place of those dearest to them (I mean wife and children and every kindred), chose a life without property, and who carried their testimony about their teacher to all mankind in agreement, as from a single mouth.

4.38| This, then, would be the principal, primary, and true account. But let us consider the opposite one also. Suppose there is a teacher and there are disciples; then, as a hypothesis for the argument, let him teach not what was said before but the opposite of it, namely to break the law, to be impious, to do wrong, to be grasping, to defraud, and whatever other evil may be named, while taking pains to conceal all this and cleverly disguising his character under the pretense of solemn teaching and the profession of a new piety. And let the disciples pursue these things, and things still worse than these, because of the downhill slope of vice and its being self-taught; and let them exalt the teacher greatly with fabricated words, sparing no false story, and ascribe to him by invention all his marvels and miracle-workings, so that they themselves might be admired and counted blessed as disciples deemed worthy of such a master.

4.39| Come, then, let us see whether, if they were such men, the undertaking could have held together. They say that a bad man is no friend to a bad man, nor indeed to a good one. Whence, then, was agreement among bad men found in a multitude of so many? Whence came the unanimous testimony of all of them about the same things, and their harmony of mind even to death? And who at all would have paid attention to a sorcerer who taught such things and made such promises? You might say that other sorcerers did so, who were in no way different from their leader. Then had these men not seen the end of their teacher and the kind of death he had met? Why then did they stay on even after that most shameful end of his, proclaiming him as God among the dead, or what were they yearning for, to suffer the same? And who ever would choose, for no reason, a punishment so plainly in view?

4.40| Grant, moreover, that they honored him while he was still with them and spending his time among them, and that he was leading them astray by deceit, as someone might say. Then why did they deify him after his death, and far more then than before? For they are said to have abandoned and even denied him at one point while he remained among men, when the plot against him was being arranged; but after he had gone from among men, they gladly chose to die rather than give up their good testimony on his behalf.

4.41| If, then, they knew nothing good about the teacher, no life, no lesson, no deed, no work worthy of praise, and had been benefited by him in nothing except to the extent of wickedness and the deception of men, how did they die so eagerly while bearing solemn and glorious witness about him, when each of them might have lived free of trouble and passed a danger-free life at his own hearth with his dearest ones?

4.42| And how could deceivers and impostors have thought death for another man's sake something to be welcomed, when they knew better than anyone that he had been the cause of no good to them, as one might say, but a teacher of every vice? A man who shares in reason and virtue might reasonably at some time endure a glorious death for the sake of some good achievement; but the wicked man, who loves the passions and loves pleasure, and who pursues only this present life and the indulgences that belong to it, would never choose death in preference to life, nor submit to punishments for the sake of his own family and dearest ones, still less for the sake of one condemned for baseness.

4.43| How, then, did the disciples of the man I have described, if indeed he was a deceiver and sorcerer, not being ignorant that he was such, and being themselves enmeshed in their souls in a worse sort of depravity, endure suffering at the hands of their own countrymen every kind of outrage and take upon themselves every sort of punishment for the sake of his testimony, when this is not proper to the nature of the base?

4.44| Pay attention also to this: suppose that they themselves were deceivers and impostors (add that they were also uneducated and complete laymen, or rather even barbarians, understanding nothing beyond the Syrian tongue), how did they go forth over the whole inhabited world? Or with what intention did they imagine they would dare this? And by what power did they carry the undertaking to success?

4.45| Grant that rustic men rolling about in their own land might deceive and be deceived, and that the matter might not be left to settle quietly. But to proclaim the name of Jesus to all, to teach his marvelous acts in the countryside and in the city, and for some of them to take as their share the empire of the Romans and its most royal city, others that of the Persians, others that of the Armenians, others the nation of the Parthians, and again that of the Scythians, and for some even to reach the very ends of the inhabited world and arrive in the land of the Indians, and for others to cross beyond the Ocean to the islands called British: this I no longer think to be the work of mere men, still less of simple laymen, and far from the work of deceivers and sorcerers.

4.46| And these men, who had experienced a bad and perverse teacher and had witnessed the outcome of his death, what arguments, then, did they use with one another to fabricate agreement about him? For from one mouth they all testified that cleansings of lepers, expulsions of demons, restorations of the dead to life, recoveries of sight for the blind, and countless other healings of the sick were wrought by him, and above all these, that his return to life after death was seen first by themselves.

4.47| For how could they, as from one mouth, testify that these things had happened, which had not occurred or even been heard of in their own times, confirming their confession even to death? Or did they perhaps meet together, form a conspiracy for the same end, and make covenants with one another to fabricate and lie about things that had not happened?

4.48| And what arguments is it plausible to say they used in making such covenants, if not something like this: "Friends, the man of yesterday and the day before, the deceiver and teacher of error, who underwent the extreme punishment before the eyes of all of us, we know best of all what sort of man he was, as we have been initiates of his secret matters. He seemed solemn to the many, and thought he had something more than the many; but he brought forward nothing great or worthy of a resurrection, unless one were to call his craftiness and hidden malice, his perverse teaching of ourselves, and his deceitful pomposity such.

4.49| Therefore, come, let us give each other our right hands and together all agree to carry a deception about him, in common, to all men; and let us say that we saw him grant sight to the blind, which none of us ever learned of; and give hearing to the deaf, of which none of us ever heard; and cleanse lepers and raise the dead; and, in short, what we neither saw done by him nor heard said, let us insist was truly done.

4.50| But since his final end also had a notorious and conspicuous death, so that it could not be hidden, let us also undo this without wavering, testifying with the utmost shamelessness that after he came back to life from the dead he was with all of us, and shared a common hearth and food. 33. Let shamelessness and unwavering resolve be kept by all of us; let our frenzy hold firm to death. For what is absurd in dying for nothing? What grief is there in taking lashes and tortures on the body for no reasonable cause, and, if need be, in making trial of prisons, of dishonors and insults for nothing true? Let us rehearse this too from now on.

5.52| Let us all lie together in agreement, and invent for the benefit of no one, neither of ourselves nor of those who are deceived, nor even of him himself, whom we deify with our falsehoods.

5.53| Let us stretch the lie not merely to our countrymen, but advance to all men and fill the whole inhabited world with the stories we compose about him. And from here on let us legislate for all the nations a code that runs contrary to the beliefs they have held from ages past about their ancestral gods.

5.54| Let us first of all command the Romans not to worship the beings their forefathers thought gods; let us pass on also to the Greeks, and proclaim against their wise men; let us not spare the Egyptians either, but make war on their gods as well, not holding up against them what was done earlier by Moses,

5.55| And let us set the death of our teacher against them like a bugbear, and overthrow the reputation about gods that has come down to all men from ancient times, not by petty phrases and arguments, but by the power of the crucified teacher; let us go off also to the rest of the barbarian land, and overturn what is held by all. And let none of us fall short in eagerness.

5.56| For the prize of what we dare is not small, since no ordinary rewards will await us, but the punishments, as is likely, from the laws of each place: bonds, that is, and tortures and prisons, fire and iron, and crosses and wild beasts. To these we must be most eager, and we must meet evils head on, having a teacher as our example.

5.57| For what could be finer than these things: to become, for no reason, enemies both to gods and to men, never to enjoy anything pleasant, nor profit from our dearest ones, nor obtain wealth, nor gain hope of any good at all, but to wander aimlessly and in vain, and to lead others astray? For this was to be our advantage: to be borne in opposition to all the nations, to make war on the gods acknowledged among all peoples from ages past, and to proclaim that the teacher before our own eyes is God and the child of God, and to be ready ourselves to die for him, though we have learned nothing true or useful from him.

5.58| In this way, then, we should honor him all the more, if we have gained nothing from him; and we must do everything to glorify his title, and endure all insults and punishments, and accept every manner of death for the sake of nothing true. For truth is perhaps an evil, while falsehood holds the opposite of evil.

5.59| Therefore let us say that he even raised the dead, and cleansed lepers, and drove out demons, and was the doer of the other marvelous works, though we know of nothing of the kind about him, but are inventing everything ourselves, deceiving those we can; and if someone is not persuaded, we ourselves at least, for what we have agreed on, will be drawing down upon ourselves the wages of the deception."

5.60| Do these things seem plausible to you, or do you think such things hold to a true account? And could anyone persuade himself that humble men and laymen, having invented such things and made covenants with one another, went out into the empire of the Romans; or that human nature, which has love of life as its own, could ever endure a self-chosen death for nothing; or that the disciples of our Savior went to such an extreme of frenzy as to have seen no marvel done by him, yet by agreement together invented all such things, and then, having composed false little stories about him, stood ready to die willingly for them? But what do you say? That they did not expect or hope that they would suffer anything terrible from their testimony about Jesus, and so went forward fearlessly to proclaim him? But it was not likely that they ruled out suffering everything on his account, when they were introducing the overthrow of the gods to Romans, Greeks, and barbarians alike.

5.61| The history about them shows plainly that after the teacher's death certain plotters seized them and first handed them over to prison, and then released them after commanding them to speak to no one in the name of Jesus; but when they learned that afterward they were discussing him publicly with the crowd, they seized and flogged them, rebuking them for their teaching.

5.62| On that occasion Peter answered them again and said, "We must obey God rather than men." After this Stephen was put to death by stoning, having spoken boldly before the multitude of the Jews, and no ordinary persecution rose against those who professed the name of Jesus.

5.63| And again at another time Herod, the king of the Jews, put James the brother of John to the sword, and the same man threw Peter into bonds, as the Acts of the Apostles has recorded. And though these men had suffered this, the rest of the disciples, clinging fast to Jesus, remained, announcing him and his marvelous works to all the more.

5.64| After these, James the brother of the Lord, whom the ancient inhabitants of Jerusalem called the Just on account of the surpassing excellences of his virtue, was asked by the high priests and teachers of the nation of the Jews what opinion he held about the Christ; and when he replied that he was God's Son, he too was struck with stones by them.

5.65| And Peter at Rome is crucified head downward, Paul is beheaded, and John is handed over to an island. And though these men suffered this, none of the rest abandoned his purpose, but praying that they too might obtain the same fate as those named, for the sake of piety toward the divine, they bore witness all the more boldly to Jesus and his marvelous works.

5.66| Moreover, if these were falsehoods fabricated by covenant among them, it is worth wondering how so great a multitude kept their agreement over the fabrications even to death, and how none of them ever, in fear of what had befallen those already put to death, withdrew from the company or made counter-proclamation to the others by bringing the arrangements to light; instead, even the man who dared to betray him while he lived brought the penalty on himself at once by his own hand.

5.67| And how is this not full of astonishment: that deceivers and laymen, who knew how to speak and hear nothing beyond their native tongue, not only dared to conceive of going forth on a circuit through all the nations, but, having gone forth, brought the enterprise to success? Consider, too, what it means that no one anywhere put forward a discordant account of the acts of Jesus.

5.68| For if, in all disputed matters, in the lawful courts and in common disagreements, the agreement of witnesses confirms what is in dispute, and "by the mouth of two witnesses or of three every word is established," how would the truth not also stand firm here, when there were twelve apostles, seventy disciples, and a countless multitude besides these, all of whom displayed a wonderful agreement, and who testified to the deeds done by Jesus not without sweat, but through the endurance of tortures and every outrage and death, and who above all were attested by God, who even now and for all the age confirms the word proclaimed by them?

5.69| Let these things, then, serve as an exercise, an absurd premise having been granted by concession. For to suppose the opposite of what is written, and to say that Jesus became a teacher not of sober words but of injustice, greed, and every license, and that his disciples, taught such things by him, became capable of anything and wholly wicked beyond any men that ever were, was conceded to us as a hypothesis. This was the most absurd thing of all, just as if, when Moses says in the laws, "You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness," someone were to slander him maliciously, saying that he spoke these things in irony and pretense;

5.70| that he wanted his subjects to murder and commit adultery and do the opposite of what he legislates, and merely pretended, put on a show, and played the hypocrite about the solemn life. By this method someone could also slander the counsels of the philosophers among the Greeks, and their life of endurance, and all their words, saying that they were disposed and lived contrary to what is written down, and had adopted the philosopher's life as a hypocritical pretense.

5.71| And in just this way one could slander, in short, all the histories of the ancients, rejecting the truth in them, and taking what is shown there to mean the opposite.

5.72| But as none of the sensible would hesitate to pronounce such a person mad, so it is also in the case of the Savior's words and lessons, if anyone, perverting the truth, tried to attach to him an opinion opposite to what he taught.

5.73| Still, this too was granted as a hypothesis, so that, from superabundance and by an absurd concession, the incoherence of the argument from the opposite side might appear.

5.74| That having been refuted, come, let us go back to the truth of the holy Scriptures and observe the character of Jesus' disciples. From the outset, how would any sensible person not judge them worthy of full acceptance: men admittedly humble and unlearned in speech, who had fallen in love with pious and philosophical teaching, and had embraced a life of endurance and toil, achieved through fasting, abstinence from wine and meat, and much other humbling of the body, through prayers and supplications to God, and long before these through the utmost self-control and purity of body and soul together?

5.75| And who would not admire them, who through excess of philosophy even renounced the wives allowed by the law, and were neither dragged down by natural pleasure nor enslaved by desire for children and descendants, since they longed not for mortal offspring but for immortal ones?

5.76| And how would one not be astonished at their freedom from the love of money? One may gauge this from the fact that they did not shun but embraced a teacher who prohibited owning gold and silver and legislated that one should not increase one's property even to a second tunic. Hearing this, someone might perhaps have declined the heaviness of the command, but they show that they made the saying a deed. At any rate, when a lame man once begged from Peter and his companions (he was one of those who beg their food because of extreme want), Peter, having nothing to give, confessed that he was clear of every possession of gold and silver, saying, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have, this I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk."

5.77| And since their teacher announced gloomy things to them in advance, and they heeded what he said to them, "In the world you have tribulation," and again, "You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice," how are they not plainly shown, in character, to have been firm and deep men, not shrinking from the training exercises of the soul and not pursuing what leads to pleasure? And as for the teacher, was it not clear that he did not charm them by deceit and win them over by putting forward what was congenial to them, but with free and true speech foretold what was to happen, and placed on them the choice of the way of life that was his? Such also were the things about the future that would befall them on account of his name, of which he bore witness in advance that they would be brought before governors, and would reach as far as kings, and would endure punishments of every kind, for nothing base, nor for any other reasonable cause, but wholly for this very thing, on account of his name.

5.78| And this, which one can see being carried out even to this day, makes one marvel at the prediction; since confessing the name of Jesus is accustomed to kindle the wrath of rulers.

5.79| For even if the one who confesses Christ has done nothing wrong, they punish him with outrages all the same on account of his name, as though he were worse than every criminal; but if someone renounces the title and denies that he is among the disciples of Christ, he is released at once, free, even if he is found guilty of countless offenses.

5.80| And why must I pile up countless examples while trying to sketch the character of the apostles of our Savior, when what has been said suffices to demonstrate the matter at hand? After adding the following to it, I will move on to the other band of slanderers.

5.81| The apostle Matthew did not come in his earlier life from a solemn occupation, but from those engaged in tax-collecting and greed. None of the evangelists made this known, neither John, his fellow apostle, nor Luke, nor Mark; Matthew himself did, holding up his own life to public notice and becoming his own accuser.

5.82| Listen, then, how expressly he mentions himself by name in the Gospel written by him, speaking in this manner: "And as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man sitting at the tax office, Matthew by name, and said to him, Follow me; and he rose and followed him. And it happened, as he was reclining at table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples." And again, going on in order and counting up the list of the disciples, he himself adds to his own name the title of tax collector.

5.83| For he says, "These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector."

5.84| Thus Matthew, revealing the love of truth in his own character through an excess of fair-mindedness, even called himself a tax collector, not hiding his earlier life, and he listed himself second to his yoke-mate.

5.85| For being paired with Thomas, with Peter paired to Andrew, James to John, and Philip to Bartholomew, he puts Thomas before himself, honoring his fellow apostle as the better man, whereas the other evangelists did the opposite. Hear Luke, for example, how when he mentions Matthew he does not call him a tax collector, nor does he put him below Thomas, but knowing him to be the better, he lists him first and adds Thomas second.

5.86| Mark has done likewise; his words read thus: "And when day came, he summoned his disciples and, choosing twelve from among them, whom he also designated apostles, Simon, to whom he also gave the name Peter, and his brother Andrew, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas.

5.87| Thus Luke honored Matthew, according to what was handed down to him by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. And you will find John similar to Matthew.

5.88| For in his letters he does not even make mention of his own name, or he calls himself an elder, but nowhere an apostle or an evangelist; and in the Gospel, marking out the one whom Jesus loved, he did not make himself known by name. Peter, for his part, did not even set his hand to writing a gospel, through excess of reverence.

5.89| Mark, who became his acquaintance and pupil, is said to have set down in memory Peter's discourses about the acts of Jesus. When he reaches that part of the history in which Jesus asks what men say of him, and what opinion his own disciples hold about him, and Peter answers that he is the Christ, he writes that Jesus made no reply to him and said nothing to him, but only that he rebuked them, that they should tell no one about him.

5.90| For Mark was not present at what was said by Jesus, and Peter did not consider it fitting to put forward, in his own testimony, the things said to him and about him by Jesus. What was said to him, Matthew makes clear through these words: "But who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the God who lives. Jesus answered him and said, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but my Father who is in the heavens; and I say to you, You are Peter, and on this rock I shall build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it, and to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatever you bind on the earth will be bound in the heavens, and whatever you loose on the earth will be loosed in the heavens.

5.91| Though so much was said to Peter by Jesus, Mark makes mention of none of it, since Peter, as is likely, did not relate it in his teachings; see what he says, when Jesus asked: "Peter answered and says, You are," and he rebuked them, that they should tell no one about him.

5.92| Peter, then, reasonably thought it right that these things be passed over in silence; and so Mark left them out, while the story of his denial he proclaimed to all men, since Peter also wept bitterly over it.

5.93| You will find Mark relating about him the following: "And while Peter was in the courtyard, one of the maidservants of the high priest comes to him, and seeing him warming himself, she looked at him and says, You too were with Jesus the Nazarene. But he denied it, saying, I neither know nor understand what you are saying. And he went out into the forecourt, and a cock crowed. And the maidservant, seeing him again, began to say to the bystanders, This is one of them.

5.94| But he denied it again. And after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, Truly you are one of them, for you also are a Galilean. Then he began to curse and to swear, I do not know this man whom you speak of. And immediately the cock crowed a second time."

5.95| Mark writes these things, but Peter bears witness to them about himself; for everything in Mark is said to be memoirs of Peter's discourses. So men who decline what seemed to bring them a good reputation, while writing down for the unforgetting ages the slanders against themselves, and who publish against themselves the charges of their own offenses, which none of those after them would have known had they not learned it from their own voice: how could they not justly be agreed to be free of all self-love and falsehood, and to have given clear and evident proofs of a disposition that loves the truth?

5.96| But those who suppose that such men have been fabricated and lied about, and who try to slander them as deceivers, how would they not become laughingstocks, caught as friends of envy and malice and enemies of the truth itself, when men so free of guile, who have shown through their own words a character truly unfeigned and unspoiled, they suppose to be cunning and clever sophists who invented what did not exist and graciously ascribed to their own teacher things not done by him? As it seems to me well said, either one must believe all the disciples of Jesus, or not; and if these men alone are to be disbelieved, then so must all who among Greeks or barbarians ever wrote down the lives, words, and memoirs of men who in their times were celebrated for good achievements; or else it is reasonable to believe the others but to disbelieve these alone.

5.97| And how is the envy not evident? What then? Did those who lied about the teacher, and committed to their writing things that had not happened, also falsify his sufferings? I mean the betrayal by one disciple, and the accusation of the slanderers, the mockery and ridicule by the judges, the insults and the blows to the face, the lashes on the back, the crown of thorns put on him for dishonor, the scarlet tunic thrown around him in the manner of a cloak, and at last his carrying the very trophy of the cross, being nailed upon it, his hands and feet pierced, being given vinegar to drink, being struck on the head with a reed, and being reproached by the onlookers?

5.98| Must these things, and all that goes with them, have been fabricated by his disciples? Or must one believe them in these as most truthful, but disbelieve them in the glorious and more solemn parts?

5.99| And from where will the opposite doctrine about them be established? For to say that the same men speak the truth and in the same matter lie is nothing other than to say opposite things in the same respect about the same subjects.

5.100| What, then, is the refutation of these people? For if their aim had been to fabricate and to adorn their teacher with falsehoods, they would never have written down for themselves the things mentioned above, nor made known to later men that he was grieved and distressed and troubled in soul, that they themselves abandoned him and went away, or that Peter, the foremost of them all, apostle and disciple of his, denied him three times, without any tortures or any threat from authorities. For these things, even if others were telling them, those whose only purpose was to bestow the more solemn tales on their teacher would surely have denied.

5.101| But if they appear lovers of the truth in their gloomy narratives about him, much more would they be such in the more glorious ones. For those who had once chosen to lie ought rather to have avoided what is painful, either by silence or by denial of it, since otherwise later generations could not refute what had been passed over.

5.102| Why did they not invent lies and claim that Judas, who had betrayed him with a kiss, daring to display the sign of betrayal, was turned to stone at once; that the man who had dared to slap him was withered in his right hand on the spot; and that the high priest Caiaphas, as one in league with the slanderers against him, was blinded in his eyes?

5.103| And why did they not all lie that nothing gloomy had in truth happened to him, but that he vanished, laughing at their court, while his plotters, led astray by a god-sent illusion, imagined they were acting against him when he was not there? What then? Was it not more solemn than inventing that he was the doer of such marvelous works to write that nothing human or mortal befell him, but that, having arranged everything by divine power, he made his return to the heavens with a more godlike glory? For those who had believed their other narratives were hardly going to disbelieve these.

5.104| Those, then, who falsified nothing of the truth in the unseemly and gloomy matters, how would they not be worthy to stand free from base suspicion in the rest, in which they testified to his marvels? The testimony of these men about our Savior is sufficient in itself. But it is no bad thing, out of abundance, to use as a witness also Josephus, from among the Hebrews, who in the eighteenth book of the Jewish Antiquities, relating the events of Pilate's time, mentions our Savior in these words.

5.105| "Now at that time there arises Jesus, a wise man—if one must in fact call him a man. He was, after all, a worker of marvelous deeds, a teacher of men who receive the truth with reverence. And he drew over to himself many of the Jewish and many also of the Greek element. This man was the Christ; and when Pilate, on the indictment of the leading men among us, had sentenced him to the cross, those who had first loved him did not cease.

5.106| For on the third day he appeared to them alive once more, the divine prophets having said these things and countless others about him. And even now the tribe of Christians, named after him, has not died out."

5.107| If, therefore, according to the historian also, he is attested to have been intimate not only with the twelve apostles or with the seventy disciples, but to have been drawing to himself many from the Jewish and many from the Greek element, he would clearly be one who possessed something surpassing the rest of mankind.

5.108| For how else would he have drawn more than a few of the Jewish and the Greek, unless he had used some wonderful and marvelous works and a strange teaching? The writing called the Acts of the Apostles likewise attests that many tens of thousands of Jewish men were persuaded that he was the Christ of God, announced by the prophets. And history preserves that there was a very great church of Christ at Jerusalem, formed from Jews, down to the times of the siege under Hadrian.

5.109| At any rate, the first bishops who presided there in succession are reported to have been Jews, and their names are even now remembered among the people of the place; so that from these facts too the whole slander against his disciples is dissolved, since it is acknowledged, both through them and apart from their testimony, that Jesus himself, the Christ of God, brought countless multitudes of Jews and Greeks under his sway through the marvelous works he performed.

5.110| But with this much said by us against the first class of unbelievers, come, let us stand against the second band. This was the band of those who agree that Jesus did the marvelous things, but say that he amazed those who were present by sorcery, for no other end than to deceive the onlookers, like some wonder-worker or poisoner.

6.1| And these first of all must be asked what they would say to what has been set out. For is it possible to imagine that a man who was the teacher of a solemn and altogether virtuous way of life, and of sound and true doctrines such as we have set out, was a sorcerer in character? But if he really were a charlatan and a poisoner, a deceiver and a sorcerer, how could he have come to be the author, for all the nations, of such a teaching as we now see with our eyes and receive with our ears to this day? And who would choose to bring together things that do not combine? For a sorcerer who is truly unholy and foul in character, laying his hands to forbidden and unholy things, does everything for the sake of shameful and filthy gain.

6.2| Was our Savior and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, guilty of anything of the sort? Where, or how, if he is the one who, as his disciples have testified, said to them, "Do not acquire gold or silver in your belts, nor a bag for the road, nor sandals"? Would they have obeyed one who spoke so, and thought it right to hand down these things in written memoirs, if they saw their teacher making money and pursuing the opposite of what he taught others?

6.3| They would long ago, and reasonably, have laughed at him and spat on his words and withdrawn from discipleship, if they had seen him legislating such lofty things for them, while the lawgiver himself in no way followed his own words.

6.4| Again, the sorcerer and truly deceiver gives himself to forbidden and unholy things for the sake of hunting unholy and unlawful pleasures, so that by his charms he even brings down certain women and draws them under with his vice; but of our Savior and Lord one cannot even put into words how he conducted himself in self-control, when his disciples again testify that he urged not even to look at a woman with unrestrained desire, saying, "It was said to the ancients, You shall not commit adultery; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

6.5| And when they once saw him, out of necessity, for the benefit and salvation of many, conversing with a Samaritan woman, they were amazed that he was speaking with a woman, and at another earlier time as well. The account thus establishes the weighty and austere quality of our Savior's character; and a great proof of his self-control was also that teaching by which he taught them to be pure by cutting off passionate appetites from the very depth of the mind, saying, "There are eunuchs who were born so, others who were castrated by human hands, and others who made eunuchs of themselves on account of the kingdom of the heavens."

6.6| Again, the sorcerer and true deceiver of the people undertakes and does everything, for the most part courting reputation and juggling appearances, and boasting that he knows and has something more than the many; but our Savior and Lord, that he was no glory-seeker or braggart or juggler of appearances, would be evident from the fact that he told those he healed to tell no one and not to make him known to the many, and from his pursuing days spent in the mountains and withdrawals, and shunning the harmful gatherings of crowds in the cities.

6.7| If, therefore, he did not set himself to teaching for the sake of glory or money or pleasure, what room is left for the suspicion that he was a deceiver and sorcerer? And consider this too. When a sorcerer imparts vice to others, what sort of men does he produce? Are they not sorcerers and deceivers and poisoners, like him in every way? Who then has ever yet found the whole race of Christians practicing sorcery or poisoning as a result of his teaching?

6.8| But one cannot say so; on the contrary, they pursue philosophical discourse, as has been shown. He, then, who has been the cause to others of a solemn and sober life and of the highest piety, who could justly be reckoned anything but the first of philosophers and the teacher of pious men? For every teacher is surely better than his pupils; a philosopher, then, and truly pious, far from a deceiver and sorcerer, our Savior and Lord would be agreed to be.

6.9| If, then, he was such a man, how else would he have attempted his miracles than by divine and ineffable power and the highest piety toward the God of the universe, whom he is shown from his words about him to honor and revere most of all as a Father? And so far were his disciples, those who attached themselves to him from the beginning and those who afterward succeeded to their company, from any base and evil suspicion, that even when sick they did not try the things many try, either using inscribed leaves and amulets, or giving their mind to those who profess to chant incantations over them, or procuring for themselves cures for their ailments by the fumigations of roots and herbs and other such means.

6.10| All these things have been driven out of the teaching of Christ; nor can one ever see a Christian using an amulet, or charms, or inscriptions on certain curious leaves, or the other things whose use the many have considered a matter of indifference.

6.11| What reasoning, then, persuades anyone to think that they were disciples of such a teacher, a sorcerer and deceiver? Indeed, for anyone who professes anything, the company of his pupils is a great test.

6.12| Skilled and knowledgeable men, certainly, declare the source of their knowledge to be far superior to themselves; so physicians would be witnesses of their teacher's success in the subject, and geometers will name as their leader none other than a geometer, and arithmeticians an arithmetician. In the same way, the pupils would be the greatest witnesses of a sorcerer, since they too would pursue things similar to their teacher's.

6.13| But no disciple of Jesus has been found a sorcerer in so many years, although the governors and emperors of the various times, by trial through tortures, have made an exact examination of our affairs.

6.14| So far, indeed, was there no sorcerer among them that anyone compelled by them merely to sacrifice was let go free and out of all danger. And if no one of those in our time, nor of those early disciples of Jesus, was ever convicted of sorcery, then neither was the teacher such. And so that the argument may not proceed for us from unwritten matters, receive the proofs from written history too.

6.15| The first disciples of Jesus are related in the book of their own Acts to have [….] those from the nations who came to their teaching, so that many who had earlier been discredited for sorcery changed their way of life to such a degree as to dare to bring into the open the forbidden books and give them to the fire before all.

6.16| Listen to what the Scripture contains: "And a good number of those who had practiced curious arts brought their books together and burned them before everyone; and they counted up the price of them, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver."

6.17| Such, then, were the disciples of our Savior, bringing forward such power of words in their talks with their hearers that they reached the depth of their soul, and took hold of and wounded the conscience of each, so that they could no longer keep silent and conceal, but brought the hidden things into the open, and made them accusers of themselves and of their former wickedness.

6.18| And such too were those who were taught by them: pure and genuine in their dispositions, so that nothing festering lay hidden in them, and they took solemn pride and spoke freely about the change from worse to better.

6.19| Those, then, who gave the magical books to the fire and decreed their complete destruction, how would it not be plain to all that they had no further concern for sorcery, and from that time stood clear of all suspicion on that account? When, therefore, the disciples of our Savior have been shown to have been such, how much more must their teacher have been?

6.20| But if you wish at all to judge what sort of man a leader was from his acquaintances, you have even now countless disciples of the words of Jesus, among whom are very great multitudes of men who have set their battle line against the body's natural pleasures, and have kept their mind unwounded by any shameful passion, men who have grown old in self-control through their whole life and have displayed brilliant proofs of the nourishment that comes from his words.

6.21| And not men only practice philosophy in this way among his people, but also women, tens of thousands of them over the whole inhabited world, too many to say, who like priestesses of the God of the universe have embraced the highest wisdom, taken with love of heavenly wisdom, and have disregarded offspring of the flesh; having made all their care for the soul, they have devoted themselves entirely, body and soul, to the all-sovereign God of the universe, practicing complete purity and virginity.

6.22| The sons of the Greeks lead around here and there a single man who left his own country to the sheep on the pretext of philosophy: Democritus was their man. And a single Crates is admired among them, because he left his property to his fellow citizens and boasted, "Crates sets Crates free."

6.23| But the zealots of the words of Jesus are countless in number, not one or two; they have sold their possessions and shared them with the poor and needy, and of this we ourselves are witnesses, having associated with such people and having seen the accomplishments of the discipleship of Jesus in deeds themselves, and not in words alone.

6.24| Why need I say how many tens of thousands, even of barbarians, and not only of Greeks, have through the words of Jesus risen above all polytheistic error, and testified that they know as the one God only the Father and Maker of this universe? He whom Plato, the only one of the ancient philosophers who knew him, confessed that he did not dare to proclaim to all, saying expressly, "To find the Father and Maker of this All is a task, and once he is found, speaking of him to everyone is impossible."

6.25| But to him the matter seemed a task to find, and it was in truth the greatest; yet it was impossible for him to speak of it to all, because there was not in him so great a power of piety as in the disciples of Jesus, to whom, through the collaboration of their teacher, it became easy to find and know the Father and Maker of the universe, and having found him, to carry him out to every race of men, to disclose, to fill, and to proclaim the knowledge to all. And so, as a result of their teaching, even now at the present time, in all the nations on earth, countless multitudes, not men only but also women and children, household slaves and country people, so far disobey Plato as to recognize the Maker and Creator of this universe as the only God, to worship only him, and to speak of God only through Christ. These were the achievements of the new and strange sorcerer; such were the enchantments of the supposed deceiver; and such were the disciples of Jesus, by whom one should know what sort of man the teacher was.

6.26| Come, let us probe the argument in this way too. You say, my good man, that he was a sorcerer, and you even call him a clever poisoner and impostor. Was he, then, the one who alone first discovered the thing, or must the causes surely, by logical sequence, be traced back to teachers? For if, with no one teaching him, he alone was the first to discover the undertaking, having learned nothing at all from others and having gleaned nothing from the ancients, how could one not confess that he was of divine nature, who without books or discourses or teachers, self-taught and self-instructed, appeared as the discoverer of such things? Indeed, it is not possible to take up the learning of any manual craft or rational science, or even of the first elements, without a guide and some teacher, unless one has stepped beyond common nature.

6.27| At any rate, no one has ever yet appeared to us as a self-taught teacher of grammar, nor an orator who has not learned, nor a physician sprung from himself, nor a carpenter, nor a craftsman of any other art; and these are small, human matters. But to say that the teacher of the true piety of men, who worked such wonders in the time he sojourned in life and performed such marvelous portents as we have just gone through, sprang up such as he was of his own accord, having gleaned nothing from the ancients and been helped by no later teachers who had done similar things before him: what else is this than to testify and confess that the man in question became something truly divine and surpassed all human nature?

6.28| But you say that he attached himself to deceiving teachers, and that the Egyptians' wisdom and the secret doctrines of those spoken of among them in the past did not escape him, and that by collecting from them he was shown to be the sort of man the account sets forth. What then? Did some others appear who were better than he and earlier in time and his teachers, whether in Egypt or wherever?

6.29| Why, then, did the fame of those men not reach all mankind before the accusation against this one? Or why is the glory of those men not still sung even now, like ours? And which sorcerer ever, from the beginning of the age, barbarian or Greek, became the teacher of such pupils and the author of such laws and words as the power of our Savior has displayed? And who is recorded ever to have accomplished so many healings and such marvelous benefactions as our Savior is remembered to have performed?

6.30| Whose acquaintances and eyewitnesses of the events, through the testing of fire and iron, confirmed the truth of what they attested, as did the disciples of our Savior, who endured every outrage, underwent every form of torture, and at last by their own blood confirmed the testimony given about him?

6.31| Moreover, let the one who stands with the opposing argument tell us which of the sorcerers ever so much as put into his mind to make the constitution of a new nation under his own name. And not merely to conceive this, but to carry out what he wished: how would this not surpass all human nature? And to set, against the decrees of kings and of the ancient lawgivers, philosophers, poets, and theologians, laws against idol worship, and to make these firm and show them unconquered and undefeated for a long age: which of the sorcerers ever had such a thought? But our Savior and Lord did not conceive it and then lack the daring to attempt it; nor did he attempt it without succeeding.

6.32| With one word and one voice he told his disciples, "Set out and make disciples among all the nations in my name, instructing them to keep everything I have commanded you," and he added deed to word: at once, in a short time, the whole race of Greeks and barbarians alike was being made disciples, and laws were sown among all the nations that were contrary to the superstition of the ancients: laws hostile to demons and enemies of all polytheistic error, laws that bring Scythians and Persians and the other barbarians to their senses, and turn them from every lawless and beastly way of life, laws that overturn the customs the Greeks had held among them from ages past, and proclaim a new and true piety.

6.33| What, then, was dared by the sorcerers of old, before the times of Jesus, or even after, that was of this sort or even similar, so that one might reasonably say he was helped by others in the arts of sorcery? And if no one could be named as like him, for no one was the cause to him of so great a virtue, it is time to acknowledge that a strange and divine nature visited life, by which alone and first things were accomplished that had never been remembered among men. But let this matter end here.

6.34| Again we must turn to the opposing party: has he ever seen with his eyes or learned by hearing of sorcerers and poisoners who work their spells without libations and sacrifices and the invocation and presence of demons? Can anyone, then, bring such a charge against our Savior, or against his words, or against those who even now emulate his way of life? Is it not plain even to a blind man that we, who think the thoughts of Jesus, practice the very opposite of these things, daring sooner to give up our soul to death than a sacrifice to demons, and giving up life sooner than submitting to be enslaved to evil demons?

6.35| And who does not know how it is our delight, with the very name of Jesus and with the purest prayers, to drive away every work of demons? This word of Jesus and his teaching have made all of us far stronger than this invisible power, and have made us enemies and foes of demons, and not friends or intimates, far from being their subjects and underlings.

6.36| How could the one who brought us forward to be such men himself have become a slave of demons? How would he have sacrificed to the evil spirits? Or how would he have called on demons as helpers in his marvelous works, when to this day every demon and every unclean spirit, as at something that punishes and tortures its own nature, shudders at the name of Jesus, and gives way and yields to the power of the name?

6.37| So also long ago, in the time he sojourned in life, unable to bear his presence, one after another from various places cried out, "Ha! What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come before the time to torment us?" But a man who gives his mind wholly to sorcery, and who surely lays his hands on forbidden things, would he not be plainly unholy in character, foul and shameful, godless, unjust, and impious? And being such, from where or how would he teach others about piety, or self-control, or the knowledge of God, or the judgment and tribunal of the God over all? Does he not rather proclaim the opposite of all these things, acting in accord with his own wickedness, denying God, along with God's providence and judgment, and mocking the statements concerning virtue and the soul's immortality?

6.38| If something of this kind could be seen about our Savior and Lord, there would be nothing to say; but if in every deed and word he is shown calling on God the Father, Maker of all, and making his pupils such, and if he is himself sober and a teacher of sober words, and if he is a doer and herald of justice and truth and love of humanity and all virtue, and an introducer of reverence for God the sovereign of all, how does it not follow from these that one must hold that he did none of his marvels by sorcery, but must agree that he did them by an ineffable and truly divine power?

6.39| But you are driven to such harshness as not to give your mind to sober reasoning and the sequence of arguments, nor to be persuaded by plausible proofs, suspecting perhaps us who say these things. Yet you at least hear your own demons, the very gods who give oracles, who bear witness to our Savior not, as you do, of sorcery, but of piety and wisdom and ascent into the heavens. And what confession could be more credible to you than the writing of the enemy against us, which in the work he entitled "On the Philosophy from Oracles," in the third treatise, he has set down, recording in these words, more or less, verbatim:

7.1| "What we are about to say may seem paradoxical to some. For the gods have declared Christ most pious and become immortal, and they mention him with good words." And going on a little further he adds: "Concerning Christ, then, when they asked whether he is a god, Hecate says: 'That the soul advances immortal after the body you know; but, cut off from wisdom, it wanders always. That soul belongs to a man most outstanding in piety.' She said, therefore, that he was most pious and that his soul, as with others, became immortal after death, and that the Christians in their ignorance worship it. And when they asked why he was punished, she gave the oracle: 'The body is ever exposed to feeble tortures; but the soul of the pious sits in the heavenly plain.'"

7.2| And after the oracle he adds next: "He himself, then, was pious, and has gone to the heavens, like the pious. So you shall not blaspheme him, but shall pity the folly of men."

7.3| So says Porphyry here as well. Is this man, then, a deceiver? Let the friendly words of your own people put you to shame. You have, then, our Savior Jesus, the Christ of God, acknowledged even among your own people as no sorcerer or poisoner, but as pious and most just and wise and an inhabitant of the heavenly arches.

7.4| Such a man, then, how else could he have become the doer of marvelous works than by divine power, which the sacred oracles also testify belongs to him, bearing witness that the Word of God, the supreme power of God, took up residence in the form and figure of a man, or rather in flesh and body itself, and fulfilled the whole dispensation among men?

7.5| And you yourself could learn the divine character of the power about him, if you considered who he must have been in nature, and how great, when he took to himself humble men from the fishing trade and a lowly life and used them as servants for the accomplishment of a deed that surpasses all reckoning.

7.6| For when he had conceived what no one ever had, to sow laws of his own and a strange teaching among all the nations, and to show himself the teacher of piety toward the one God over all for every race of men, he resolved to use the rudest and most humble of all men as the servants of his own purpose; one might think that he did this most unreasonably.

7.7| For how could men who could not even open their mouths have been established as teachers of any single person, let alone an assembly of men? How could those wholly outside education have spoken to a multitude? Yet this was a demonstration of the divine purpose and of the divine power at work in them. At any rate, when he called them, he first says, "Come after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men."

7.8| And when he had afterward gained them as followers, he breathed into them divine power and filled them with strength and courage; and as one who truly is the Word of God and himself God, the doer of such mighty wonders, he made them hunters of intelligent and rational souls, and put a deed to the voice that said, "Come after me, and I will make you to be fishers of men," and having made them at once workers and teachers of piety, he sent them out into all the nations, appointing them heralds of his teaching.

7.9| And who would not be astonished, and reasonably disbelieve, at the paradox of the wonder, when no one of the eminent men there ever were among men, neither king, nor lawgiver, nor philosopher, neither Greek nor barbarian, is recorded to have conceived any such thing, or even to have come to an imagination of anything like it? For it was enough for each of them if he established his own undertaking even in his own land alone, and if he was able to make firm the laws that seemed good even in his single nation. But he, who had conceived nothing mortal or human, see whether he did not again utter the voice of a truly divine being, saying in these very words to those humblest disciples of his, "Go, and make disciples of every nation."

7.10| "And how," the disciples would surely have said in reply to their teacher, "will this be possible for us? How, come, will we preach to the Romans? How will we converse with the Egyptians? What speech will we use toward the Greeks, we who were raised on the Syrian tongue alone?

7.11| And the Persians and Armenians and Chaldeans and Scythians and Indians, and whatever nations of barbarians there may be, how shall we persuade them to withdraw from their ancestral gods and worship the Maker of all? With what ability in speech shall we have the confidence to go forward to this? Or what hope shall we have of success, when we dare to legislate against the laws, laid down from ages past, of all the nations concerning their own gods? And by what power is it possible to prevail in this daring venture?"

7.12| If the disciples of Jesus had said or thought these things, as is likely, the teacher supplied the solution to their difficulties by the addition of a single phrase, saying that success would come "in my name"; for he did not command them simply and without qualification to make disciples of all the nations, but with the necessary addition, that it be done in his name.

7.13| For since the power of his title was such that the apostle says, "God gave him the name above every name, so that every knee of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth should bend in the name of Jesus," reasonably, in pointing to the excellence of the power in his name, which escapes the many, he told his disciples, "Go, and make all the nations disciples in my name."

7.14| Then he also prophesies the future with great exactness, saying, "This gospel must be preached in the whole inhabited world as a testimony to all the nations." Now the word was spoken then in a corner of the earth, and only those present heard it. How then was he trusted by them in saying this, unless they had received proof that his words were true from the other divine works done by him? For that they believed him as he spoke, you must agree on reflecting.

7.15| For no one disobeyed him when he commanded, but obeying his word as it was ordered, they made disciples of every race of men, setting out from their own land to all the nations, and in a short time the words could be seen as works. The gospel was proclaimed, in a brief time, in the whole inhabited world as a testimony to the nations, and barbarians and Greeks received the writings about Jesus in their native characters and in their native speech.

7.16| And yet who would not reasonably wonder what the manner of the disciples' teaching of Jesus was? Did they go into the middle of a city, then stand in the marketplace and, using a louder voice, call together the passers-by, and then make speeches? And what was the argument of their speech, by which the hearers were likely to be persuaded? And how could they make speeches, being men inexperienced in words and sharing nothing of education?

7.17| But in fact they did not speak to a crowd, but conversed in turn with whomever they met. What arguments, then, and of what sort, did they use for the persuasion of those who heard, since their struggle was not small, as they did not deny the shameful death of the one proclaimed?

7.18| For if they had concealed this, and not confessed to everyone what and how much he suffered at the hands of the Jews, and had brought forward only what was solemn and glorious (I mean his miracles and marvelous works and his philosophical teachings), even so their account would not have been easy for making the hearers readily agree, when they were being addressed in a foreign tongue and were hearing new words for the first time from men who brought nothing credible to support what was said; though still, what was said would have seemed more plausible.

7.19| But as it is, at one time they say that the God they proclaim came to be in a man's body and was nothing else in nature than the Word of God, and therefore performed such miraculous powers as befit a god; at another, in contrast to this, that he endured insults and dishonors, and finally the most shameful punishment, the cross, reserved for the worst criminals of all mankind. Who would not reasonably have spat upon men who said opposite things?

7.20| And who was so foolish as to believe readily those who said they had seen, after his death, risen from the dead, one who could not defend himself even when he was among the living? And who would ever have been persuaded by those laymen and humble men who said that one should despise the ancestral gods, condemn as folly all that had been held from ages past, and obey only themselves and the commands of the crucified man? For they said he was the sole beloved, the only-begotten child of the one God over all.

7.21| I, for my part, examining the account in myself with a love of truth, find in it no persuasive power, nothing solemn or credible, nor anything plausible enough to be able to persuade even a single one of the foolish.

7.22| But looking again to the power of the word, how it has persuaded countless multitudes, and how churches of tens of thousands were established by those humblest and rustic disciples of Jesus themselves, set up not in obscure and unseen places but in the most distinguished cities, I mean in the imperial city of the Romans itself, in that of the Alexandrians and of the Antiochenes, and throughout all Egypt and Libya, Europe and Asia, in villages and countrysides and among nations of every kind, I am again forced of necessity to run back to the inquiry into the cause, and to agree that they prevailed in their daring enterprise by no other means than by a more divine power, beyond man, and by the cooperation of the one who told them, "Make all the nations disciples in my name."

7.23| Having said this, he attached a promise by which they were to take courage and give themselves eagerly to what had been commanded. He says to them, in fact, "And behold, I am with you every day, to the close of the age." But he is also said to have breathed into them a divine Spirit, and to have made them possessors of a divine power that works marvels, at one time saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit," at another, "Cure the sick, cleanse lepers, expel demons; you received freely, give freely."

7.24| You yourself can see, then, how the word prevailed through them, since the book of their Acts also bears witness in agreement and harmony with these things; there they themselves are recorded as astonishing those present and those who watched by the working of marvels accomplished by them through the name of Jesus.

7.25| For through their works they first astonished, as is likely, those who watched; then in this way they had them eager to find out who this was, through whose power and name the wonder had come about; and then, as they taught, they found their teaching already anticipated by faith.

7.26| For the hearers were not persuaded by words, but, prepossessed by deeds, they readily accepted the disposition conveyed in the words. Indeed, some are said even to have offered to the disciples of Jesus, as though they were already gods, ox-sacrifices and libations, and some of them to have thought one was Hermes and another Zeus, so greatly did the display of marvelous deeds astonish their minds.

7.27| And for men thus disposed, everything the disciples proclaimed about Jesus was from then on reasonably thought true, and they bore witness to his coming back to life after death not with simple and undemonstrated words, but persuaded them by the very working of his power, setting before them the works of one who lives.

7.28| And if they also proclaimed him as God and child of God, existing with the Father before his arrival among men, how would the hearers not have given their assent to this all the more, reasonably thinking the opposite unbelievable and impossible, having reasoned that what was being done could not be thought the works of a mortal nature, but of God, even if no one said so?

7.29| This, then, and nothing else, was what was being sought: by what power the disciples of Jesus prevailed over those who heard them in the beginning, and how they persuaded Greeks and barbarians alike to regard him as the Word of God, and in what way, in the midst of cities and across the countryside, they established schools of piety toward the one God over all.

7.30| And yet who would not marvel, reflecting with himself and considering that it was not a human thing that the majority of the nations of the inhabited world had never before come under the single rule of the Romans, but did so from the times of Jesus?

7.31| For at the same time as his marvelous sojourn among men the affairs of the Romans came to their height, Augustus then for the first time ruling alone over most of the nations; in his time, with the capture of Cleopatra, the line of the Ptolemies in Egypt was dissolved; and from then until now the kingdom of Egypt, which had stood from ages past and, so to speak, from the very first human society, was brought down.

7.32| From that time also the nation of the Jews became slave to the Romans, and likewise that of the Syrians, of the Cappadocians, the Macedonians, the Bithynians, the Greeks too, and, to put it briefly, all the rest that lie under the Roman rule.

7.33| Who would not agree that it was not without God that this came about together with the teaching about our Savior, considering that it was not easy for his disciples to make their journey into foreign lands when the nations stood apart from one another and there was no intercourse among them because of the many separate governments? With these removed, they now carried out the task set before them without fear and with impunity, the God over all having made their journey easy beforehand, and having quieted the passions of the superstitious in the cities through fear of the greater authority.

7.34| For reckon it up: if nothing had stood in the way of those infatuated with the error of many gods, and kept them from making war on the teaching of Christ, you would long since have seen, in the cities and in the countryside alike, civil strife, persecutions, and wars of no ordinary kind, if indeed the superstitious had held power over us in their own hands.

7.35| As it is, this too was the work of the God over all: to hold the enemies of his own word in subjection through a greater fear of the supreme rule. For he wills that the word advance day by day and grow until it reaches all mankind.

7.36| And once more, lest it be supposed that the word survived only by the indulgence of those in power, whenever any of them, seized by wickedness, set himself to make war on the word of Christ, God gave way and let him do what he had at heart: at once to display the athletes of piety, and at once to make it plain to all that the establishment of the word came not from human counsel but from the power of God.

7.37| For instance, who would not marvel at what regularly happens at such times? The athletes of piety became, first of all, plain and illustrious in the sight of all men, and were counted worthy of the prizes laid up with God; while the enemies of piety paid the penalty they deserved, driven mad by god-sent scourges and wasting away in their whole body with terrible and grievous diseases, so that in the end they were forced even to confess their impiety against Christ.

7.38| All the rest, who had been counted worthy of the divine name and made it their boast to think the thoughts of Christ, after being exercised a little while by the trials and showing the genuineness and purity of their conviction, received their own freedom back again, while the saving word shone out more brightly through them day by day and prevailed in the very midst of its enemies,

7.39| as they rose up not only against visible enemies but also against invisible ones, if indeed there are evil demons, and rulers over them, about the murky air that surrounds the earth. These too the genuine disciples of Christ drive out, through purity of life and prayers to God and through his divine name, and so give signs of the marvels recorded long ago to have been done by him; and in this they also display, to those able to see it, the proofs of his divine excellence.

7.40| But now that these matters have been worked through in their proper place, the moment calls us to take up the more mystical theology concerning him, and to contemplate God the Word: who he was that performed the miracles through the man who was seen.

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