Chapter Seventeen
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The Gift of Understanding
HE WAS extremely prudent. The wonderful thing was that, not having learned letters, he was yet a quick-witted and clever man. Once two Greek philosophers came to him, thinking that they could experiment on Antony. He was then in the outer hills. But understanding the men from their looks, he went out to them and said through an interpreter, “Why, O philosophers, have you toiled all this way to a foolish man?” And when they answered that he was not foolish, but very wise, he said to them, “If you have come to a fool, your labor is useless; but if you think me wise, then become as I, for we ought to imitate what is good. If I had gone to you, I would have imitated you; as you have come to me, become as I, for I am a Christian.” They departed in wonder, for they saw that even demons feared Antony.
Some others of the same kind met him again in the outer hills and thought to mock him because he had not learned letters. Antony said to them, “And what say you, which is first, the mind or letters? And which is the cause of which, the mind of letters, or letters of the mind?” When they answered that the mind is first and is the inventor of letters, Antony said, “Then to one whose mind is sound, letters are needless.” This answer astounded both them and the listeners. They went away marveling to see such wisdom in a plain man.2 For he had not the rough character of one who is reared in the hills and grows old there, but he was both gracious and courteous. His speech was seasoned with the wisdom of God, so that none had against him, but rather, all rejoiced on his account who went to see him.
Later, some others came. They were of those who among the Greeks seem to be wise. When they asked from him an account of our faith in Christ and tried to argue about the preaching of the Cross of God and wished to scoff, Antony waited for a little, and first pitying them for their ignorance, said through an interpreter (who could render his words excellently), “Which is nobler: to confess the Cross, or to attribute adulteries and impurities to those who among you are called gods? For to say what we say is a sign of manly courage, a proof of contempt of death, but yours is a yielding to lewdness. Next, which is better: to say that the Word of God was not changed, but remaining the same, took to him a human body to save and help men, in order that, sharing our human birth, he might make men sharers of the divine and spiritual nature, or to liken the divine to senseless things, and for that cause to worship beasts and serpents and images of men? For these are the things worshipped by you who are wise. And how do you dare to scoff at our saying that Christ has appeared as man, when you make the soul come from Heaven, saying that it had strayed and fell from the vault of Heaven into the body?—and would that it were only into the body of man, and not shared with beasts and serpents. Our faith declares the coming of Christ to save men, but you talk amiss of the soul unbegotten. We believe the power of Providence and His love of men, that this also is not impossible with God; but you, calling the soul an image of the spirit, impute falls to it and make fables of how it can be changed. And now through the soul you are making the spirit too a thing changeable. For as was the image, so needs must be that of which it is the image. And when you thus deem about the spirit, bear in mind that you are blaspheming also the Father of the Spirit.
“And touching the Cross, which would you say is better: when plotted against by wicked men to endure the Cross and not shrink from any manner of death whatever, or to tell tales of the wanderings of Osiris and Isis, and the plots of Typhon, and the flight of Kronos, and swallowings of children and slaying of fathers? For this among you is wisdom. And if you mock at the Cross, why do you not marvel at the Resurrection? For those who tell of the one wrote the other, too. Or why, when you remember the Cross, do you say nothing of the dead who were raised, the blind who saw, the paralytics who were cured and the lepers made clean, the walking on the sea and the other signs and wonders which show Christ, not as man, but as God? To me it seems that you are utterly unfair to yourselves and that you have not honestly read our Scriptures. But do you read them and see that the things which Christ did prove Him to be God dwelling with us for men’s salvation.
“But do you also tell us your own teachings. Though what could you say about brute things except brutishness and savagery? But if, as I hear, you wish to say that these things are spoken among you in figure, and you make the rape of Persephone an allegory of the earth and Hephaestus of the fire, and Hera of the air, and Apollo of the sun, and Artemis of the moon, and Poseidon of the sea; nonetheless, you are again worshipping that which is no god; you are serving the creature instead of the God who created all. For if you have made up these tales because of the loveliness of the world, you are right to go as far as admiring it, but not to make gods of creatures, lest you give to things made, the honor of the Maker. In that case, it is time you should hand over the architect’s honor to the house he has built, or the general’s honor to the soldier. Now, what do you say to all this?—that we may see if the Cross has anything that deserves to be scoffed at.”
As they were quite at a loss, turning this way and that, Antony smiled and said again through the interpreter, “All this is clear even at first sight. But since you lean rather on proofs and arguments and because you have this art, you want us also not to worship God without reasoned proofs. Do you first tell me this: How comes sure knowing of things, and especially knowledge about God? Is it through reasoned proof, or through a faith which acts; and which is the earlier, the faith that acts, or proof by reasoning?” And when they answered that the faith that acts comes earlier, and that this is the sure knowledge, Antony said, “You say well, for that faith comes from the very build of the soul, but the art of logic from the skill of those who framed it. It follows that, to those who have an active belief, reasoned proofs are needless and probably useless. For what we know by faith, that you are trying to establish by argument. And often you cannot even put in words what we know, so that the action of faith is better and surer than your sophist’s proofs.
“Now, we Christians hold not our secret in the wisdom of Greek reasonings, but in the power of a faith which is added to us by God through Christ Jesus. For proof that this is a true account, look how without learning letters we believe in God, knowing from His works, His providence over all things. And for our faith being a force which acts, look how we lean on the belief in Christ; whereas you lean on sophistical debates, and yet your monstrous idols are coming to naught, while our faith is spreading everywhere. And you with your syllogisms and sophisms do not draw any from Christianity to Hellenism; we, teaching faith in Christ, despoil your superstition, for all are learning that Christ is God and the Son of God. You with all your beauty of speech do not stop the teaching of Christ, but we by naming Christ crucified drive away all the demons whom you fear as gods. And where the Sign of the Cross comes, magic fails and poisons do not work.
“For tell me, where are now your oracles, where the incantations of the Egyptians, where the phantoms of magicians? When did all these cease and fail, but at the coming of the Cross of Christ? And is it the Cross then that deserves scorn, and not rather the things which by it have been made void and proved powerless? For this is another wonderful thing, that your teaching was never persecuted, but was honored by cities publicly, while the Christians are persecuted, and yet it is we and not you that flourish and grow. Your teachings, praised on all sides, guarded on all sides, perish; while the faith and teaching of Christ, mocked by you and persecuted by kings, has filled the world. For when did the knowledge of God so shine out? When did chastity and the virtue of virginity so show itself, or when was death so scorned as since the Cross of Christ came? And this none doubts who looks at the martyrs scorning death for Christ’s sake, or looks at the virgins of the Church, who for Christ’s sake keep their bodies pure and undefiled.
“These are sufficient proofs to show that for serving God, faith in Christ is the only true faith. Even now, behold, you who seek conclusions from reasonings, you have no faith. But we do not prove, as our teacher said, in persuasive words of Greek wisdom; we win men by faith, which lays hold of real things before argument can logically establish them (cf. 1 Cor. 2:4). See, there are some standing here suffering from demons (they were people who had come to him beset by demons, and bringing them into the midst he said): Either do you make them clean by your syllogisms and by any art or magic you wish, calling on your idols, or if you cannot, then cease attacking us, and see the power of the Cross of Christ? ” Having said this, he invoked Christ, and signed the sufferers with the Sign of the Cross twice and thrice. And at once the men stood up, whole now and in their right mind and blessing God. And the so-called philosophers were astonished and really stupefied at his wisdom and at the miracle that was done. But Antony said, “Why do you wonder over this? It is not we that do it, but Christ, who does these things through those who believe in Him. Believe, then, you also; and you will see that what we have is not tricks of words, but belief through a love that is active unto Christ, which if you also have, you will no longer seek proofs by reasonings, but will think faith in Christ sufficient by itself.”
This was Antony’s discourse. The men wondered at it and departed embracing him and acknowledging that they had been helped.
2. One of the philosophers came to the holy Antony and said, “Father, how do you keep up without the comfort of books?” And Antony said, “My book is nature, and whenever I will, I can read the words of God.” (Socrates of Constantinople, Hist. IV, c. 23.).