CHAPTER 5
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk, III. heavens before their eyes.
And giving them instructions on what was to be done, He proclaimed them teachers of the highest reHgion to all the nations.
Such were the far-famed wonders of (our Saviour's) power.
Such were the proofs of His divinity.
And we ourselves have marvelled at them with reverent reasoning, and received them after subjecting them to the tests and inquiries of a critical judgment.
We have inquired into and tested them not only by other plain facts which make the whole subject clear, by which our Lord is still wont to shew to those, whom He thinks worthy, some slight evidences of His power,^ but also by the more logical
(b) method which we are accustomed to use in arguing with those who do not accept what we have said, and either completely disbelieve in it, and deny that such things were done by Him at all, or hold that if they were done, they were done by wizardry for the leading-astray of the spectators, as deceivers often do.
And if I must be brief in dealing with these opponents, at least I will be earnest, and refute them in some way or other.
CHAPTER
Against those that disbelieve the Account of Our Saviour's Miracles given by His Disciples.
(c) Now if they say that our Saviour worked no miracle at all, nor any of the marvels to which His friends bore witness, let us sec if what they say will be credible, if they have no rational ex[)lanation why the disciples and the ^Llster were associated.
For a teacher always promises some special form of instruction, and pupils always, in pursuit of that instruction, come and connnit themselves to the teacher.
/. c. The Lord's miracles have been leslcil both by tlieir aijicemeiU wiili wh.il the Christian rcco^ni/.es as miraculous in a minor degree SI ill, and also by a logical method tiiat should appeal to the uid>elievcr.
(There seems lo be sonietliing corrupt in the text.) F"or tiie continuance of miraculous powers in the lliird century, cf. t^rigen r.
Cels. i.
13, also i. 9 (pp. 411, 405).
Ch.
PURITY AND TRUTH
What cause then shall we assign to the union of the (d) disciples with Christ and of Christ with them, what lay at the root of their earnestness, and of what instruction did they rank Him as Master?
Is not the answer clear?
It was only and altogether the instruction which they carried to other men, when they had learned it from Him.
And His precepts were those of a philosopher's life, which He outlined when He said to them :
" Provide neither gold nor silver ' in your girdles. Matt. x. 9. nor a staff for the road," and similar words, that they should commit themselves to all-governing Providence, and take no care for their needs, and bade them to aim higher than the Jews under Moses' commandments, to whom he gave a law as to men prone to murder.
"Do (no) not kill," and likewise, "Thou shalt not commit adultery as to men who were lascivious and lecherous, and again, "Thou shalt not steal," as to men of the type of slaves; but our Saviour taught that they must regard such laws as not applying to them, and aim above all at a soul free from passion, cutting away from the depths of their minds as from the roots the shoots of sin : they must try to (b) master anger and every base lust, and more, they must never ruffle the sublime calm of the sc^ul with anger : they must not look upon a woman with unbridled lust, and so far from stealing they must lavish their own property on the needy : they must not be proud of not defrauding one another, but consider rather that they must bear no malice against those who defrauded them.
But why should I collect everything that He taught and that they learned ? (c) He commanded them besides all this to hold so fast to truth, that so far from swearing falsely they should not need to swear at all, and to contrive to exhibit a life more faithful than any oath, going so far only as Yea and Nay, and using the words with truth.
I would ask, then, where would be the sense in suspecting that hearers of such teaching, who were themselves masters in such instruction, invented their account of their Master's work?
How is it possible to think that they were all in ('') agreement to lie, being twelve in number especially chosen, and seventy besides, whom He is said to have sent two * W. II. add ^»j5« x*'^"'^''-
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. Ill, and two before His face into every place and country into which He Himself would come?
But no argument can prove that so large a body of men were untrustworthy, who embraced a holy and godly life, regarded their own affairs as of no account, and instead of their dearest ones — I mean their wives, children, and all their family—chose a life of poverty, and carried to all men as from one mouth a consistent account of their Master.
Such would be the right and obvious and true argument ; let us I'll) examine that which opposes it.
Imagine the teacher and his disciples.
Then admit the fanciful hyjjothesis that he teaches not the aforesaid things, but doctrines opposed to them, that is to say, to transgress, to be unholy, to be unjust, to be covetous and fraudulent, and anything else that is evil ; that he recommends them to endeavour so to do without being found out, and to hide their disposition quite cleverly with a screen of holy teaching and a novel profession of godliness.
Let the pupils pursue these, and more vicious ideals still, with the eagerness and (1>) inventiveness of evil : let them exalt their teacher with lying words, and spare no falsity : let them record in fictitious narrative his miracles and works of wonder, so that they may gain admiration and felicitation for being the pupils of such a master.
Come, tell me, if such an enterprise engineered by such men would hold together ?
(c) You know the saying, " The rogue is neither dear to rogue nor saint.'"
^ Whence came, among a crew of so many, a harmony of rogues?
\\'hence their general and consistent evidence about everything, and their agreement even unto death ?
^\'ho, in the fust place, would give heed to a wizard giving such teaching and commands?
Perhaps you will say that the rest were wizards no less than their guide.
Yes—but surely they had all seen the end of their (<') teacher, and the death to which He came.
\\'hy then after seeing His miserable end did they stand their ground?
Why did they construct a theology about Him when He Wiis dead?
Did they desire to share His fate?
\o one surely on any reasonable ground would choose such a punishment with his eyes open.
And if it lie supposed that they honoure»l Him, while '
KaK<u xaiyhi'
01' <pl\oy, tiiSi ayaOif,
Ch.
THE CHRISTIAN PARADOX
He was still their comrade and companion, and as some might say their deceitful cozener, yet why was it that after His death they honoured Him far more than before?
For while He was still witli men they are said to have once deserted Him and denied Him, when the plut was engineered against Him, yet after He had departed from men, they chose willingly to die, rather than to depart from their good witness about Him.
Surely if they recog-(n2) nized nothing that was good in their Master, in His life, or His teaching, or His actions—no praiseworthy deed, n<jthing in which He had benefited them, but only wickedness and the leading astray of men, they could not possibly have witnessed eagerly by their deaths to His glory and holiness, when it was open to them all to live on untroubled, and to pass a life of safety by their own hearths with their dear ones.
How could tleceitful and shifty men have thought it desirable to die for some one else, especially, if one may say so, for a man who they knew had been of no service to them, but their teacher in all evil?
For(l>) while a reasonable and honourable man for the sake of some good object may with good reason sometimes undergo a glorious death, yet surely men of vicious nature, slaves to passion and pleasure, pursuing only the life of the moment and the satisfactions which belong to it, are not the people to undergo punishment even for friends and relations, far less for those who have been condemned for crime.
How then could His disciples, if He was really a deceiver and a wizard, recognized by them as such, with their own minds enthralled by still worse vieiousness, (c) undergo at the hands of their fellow-countrymen every insult and every form of punishment on account of the witness they delivered about Him ?—this is all quite foreign to the nature of scoundrels.
And once more consider this.
Granted that they were deceitful cozeners, you must add that they were uneducated, and (juite common men, and l>arbarians to boot, with no knowledge of any tongue but Syrian how, then, did they go into all the world?
Where was the intellect to sketch out ^ so daring a scheme ?
\\'hat was the power that
i(pavri<TdT)(ray, cf :
P.E.
17 c, of learning (iod'.s greatness from Hi-; works : here it has the Arisiotclian sense of something imagined.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. III. enabled them to succeed in their adventure ?
For I will admit that if they confined their energies ^ to their own (d) country, men of no education might deceive and be deceived, and not allow a matter to rest.^ But to preach to all the Name of Jesus, to teach about His marvellous deeds in country and town, that some of them should take possession of the Roman Empire, and the Queen of Cities itself, and others the Persian, others the Armenian, that others should go to the Parthian race, and yet others to the Scythian, that some already should have reached the very ends of the world, should have reached the land of the Indians, and some have crossed the Ocean and reached the Isles of Britain, all this I for my part will not admit (113) to be the work of mere men, far less of poor and ignorant men, certainly not of deceivers and wizards.^
I ask you how these pupils of a base and shifty master, who had seen His -end, discussed with one another how they should invent a story about Him which would hang together ?
For they all with one voice bore witness that He cleansed lepers, drove out daemons, raised the dead (1)) to life, caused the blind to sec, and worked many other ^ Ka\ivSjvu.ei'oi ; cf. fKaXivSovvTO, I'.K.
511, a, I.
Lit.:
"rolling ahtnit," so in common i<liom "busied."
So Ueni. 40J, 9; Xcn.
Cj'r.
; Isoc. 295 B.
* c<p' r,(Tvxici^CJ.
Arist.
I'l's/). 1517.
Cf.
//.£. iii.
I, which gives the liadiiion thai the apostles evangelized the whole world :
Thomas receiving Parthia, Andrew Scyihia, John Asii, Peter the Jews of the Dispersion in Pontus, (Jalatia, IJithynia, Capjiadocia and Asia; Paul, preaching fiom Jerusalem to Iliyricum, and ii.
16 makes Mark the apostle of Egypt, and V.
tells how Panl;enus (ciira 160) went to India, and found a Church tiiat had been founded by B.arlh.ilomew.
Harnack regards all traditions of apostolic missions as legendary, except those of Paul, Peter, and " perhaps John of I'.phesus," but accepts the Mission of Vs.n\.xn\i?.(K.\/'aiisioii 0/ Ch> istiiiiiilVs
I. pp. 430441).
For earlier statements fif the difl'usion of Christianity cf. Justin, TryftJio, c. cxvii.
; Teilullian Apol. xxxvii., iiiir. Jiid. 7: "The haunts of the Prilons inaccessible to the Romans subjugated to Christ."'
About A. n.
the Church of I'Messa counted the king among its members (see F. C.
Hmkitt, Early Christianity outside the Reman Empire, p.
II, Cambridge, 1899) and Persia, Media, Parthia and Hactiia were evangelized.
Origcn (185-254! visited the .\rabi.in Churches more than once.
In Africa, Egypt, Cyrene, and Carihagc were evangelized before 200.
In Caul there were strong Churches, t. cLyons and \iennc.
(G.
Fisher, HiJory ef the Chunk, pji. 46, 47.
London, 1892.)
Ch. 5.
AN AP.SURD HYPOTHESIS
cures on the sick—and to crown all they agreed in saying that He had been seen alive after His death first by them.
If these events had not taken place in their time, and if the tale had not yet been told, how could they have witnessed to them unanimously, and guaranteed their evidence by their death, unless at some time or other they had met together, made a conspiracy with the same intent, and come to an agreement with one another with regard to their lies and inventions about what had never taken place ?
\\'hat speech shall we suppose was made at their covenant?
Perhaps it was something like this "Dear friends, you and I are of all men the best- (c) informed with regard to the character of him, the deceiver and master of deceit of yesterday, whom we have all seen undergo the extreme penalty, inasmuch as we were initiated into his mysteries.^ He ap{)eared a holy man to the people, and yet his aims were selfish beyond those of the people, and he has done nothing great, or worth a resurrection, if one leaves out of account the craft and guile of his disposition, and the crooked teaching he gave us and its vain deceit.
In return for which, come, let us join hands, and all together make a compact (d) to carry to all men a tale of deceit in which we all agree, and let us say that we have seen him bestow sight on the blind, which none of us ever heard he did, and giving hearing to the deaf, which none of us ever heard tell of:
(let us say) he cured lepers, and raised the dead.
To j)Ut it in a word, we must insist that he really did and said what we never saw him do, or heard him say.
But since his last end was a ntjtorious and well-known death, as we cannot disguise the fact, yet we can slip out even of this difficulty by determin- (114^ ation, if quite shamelessly we bear witness that he joined us after his resurrection from the dead, and shared our usual home and food.
Let us all be impudent and determined, and let us see that our freak lasts even to death.
There is nothing ridiculous in dying for nothing at all.
And why should we dislike for no good reason undergoing scourging and bodily * oia /xvarai ruv airoppriTiuv axnov •yfyevTififvoi.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. III. torture, and if need be to experience imprisonment, dishonour, and insult for what is untiue?
Let us now (b) make this our business.
We will tell the same falsehoods, and invent stories that will benefit nobody, neither ourselves, nor those we deceive, nor him who is deified' by our lies.
And we will extend our lies not only to men of our own race, but go forth to all men, and fill the whole world with our fabrications about him.
And then let us lay down laws for all the nations in direct opposition to the opinions they have held for ages about their ancestral gods.
Let us bid the Romans first of all not to worship the gods (c) their forefathers recognized.
Let us pass over into Greece, and o[)pose the teaching of their wise men.
Let us not neglect the Egyptians, but declare war on their gods, not going back to Moses' deeds against them of old time for our weapons, but arraying against them oar Master's death, to scare them ; so we will destroy the faith in the gods which from immemorial time has gone forth to all men, not by words and argument, but by the power of our Master Crucified.
Let us go to other foreign lands, and overturn all their (d) institutions.
None of us must fail in zeal ; for it is no petty contest that we dare, and no common prizes lie before us -but most likely the punishments inflicted according to the laws of each land : bonds, of course, torture, imprisonment, fire and sword, and wild beasts.
We must greet them all with enthusiasm, and meet evil bravely, having our Master as our model.
For what (115) could be finer than to make both gods and men our enemies for no reason at all, and to have no enjoyment of any kind, to have no profit of our dear ones, to make no money, to have no hope of anything good at all, but just to be deceived and to deceive without aim or object ?
This is our prize, to go straight in the teeth of all the nations, to war on the gods that have been acknowledged l)y them all for ages, to say that our ^Lister, who (was crucified)^ before our very eyes was God, and to re|)resent Him as God's Son, for Whom wo are ready to ^ (TTavpwOft'Ta supplied by Gaisford.
Ch.
RISKS OF THE APOSTLES
die, though \vc know we have learned from Him nothing either true or useful.
Yes, that is the reason we must (1^) honour Him the more—His utter uselessness to us—we must strain every nerve to gloril'y His name, undergo all insults and punishments, and welcome every form of death for the sake of a lie. rerhaj)S truth is the same thing as evil, and falsehood must then be the opposite of evil.
So let us say that He raised the dead, cleansed lepers, drove out divmons, and did many other marvellous works, knowing all the time that He did nothing of the kind, while we invent everything for ourselves, and deceive those we can.
And suppose we convince nobody, at any rate we shall have the satisfaction of(c) drawing down upon ourselves, in return for our inventions, the retribution for our deceit."
Now is all this plausible?
Does such an account have the ring of truth?
Can any one persuade himself that poor and unlettered men could make up such stories, and form a conspiracy to invade the Roman Empire?
Or that human nature, whose characteristic element is self-preservation, would ever be able for the sake of nothing at all to undergo a voluntary death?
(or) that our Saviour's (<1) disci[)les reached such a pitch of madness, that, though they had never seen Him work miracles, they with one consent invented many, and having heaped together a mass of lying words about Him were ready to suffer death to uphold them?
What is that you suggest?
That they never looked forward to or expected to suffer anything unpleasant because of their witness^ to Jesiis. and so they had no fear in going forth to preach about Him ?
What, you think it unlikely, that men who announced to Romans, Greeks, and barbarians the total rout of their gods, would expect to undergo extreme sufferings on behalf of their (116) Master?
At least the record about them is clear in shewing, that after the Master's death they were taken by plotters, who first imprisoned them, and afterwards released them, bidding them speak to none about the Name of Jesus.
And discovering that after this they had publicly discussed the questions about Him before the multitude, they took them in charge and scourged them as a punishment
' iir" avTov (F'.).
Amended lo inttp by Gaisfurd.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. TIL for their teaching.
It was then Peter answered them, Acts V. 29. and said :
" It is right to obey God rather than men."
And after this Stephen was stoned to death for boldly addressing the Jewish populace, and an extraordinary .
(b) persecution arose against those who preached in Jesus'
Name.
Herod again later on, the King of the Jews, killed James Arts xii. the brother of John with the sword, and cast Peter into 1^3 prison, as is written in the Acts of the Apostles.
And yet, though they had suffered thus, the rest of the disciples held tenaciously to Jesus, and were still more diligent in preaching to all of Him and His miracles.
Afterwards James, the Lord's brother, whom of old the people of Jerusalem called " the Just " for his extraordinary
(c) virtue, being asked by the chief priests, and teachers of the Jews what he thought about Christ, and answering that He was the Son of God, was also stoned by them.^ Peter was crucified head downwards at Rome,Paul beheaded,^ and John exiled to an island.
Yet though they suffered thus, not one of the others gave up his intention, ((l)but they made their prayer to God that they themselves might suffer a like fate for their religion, and continued to bear witness to Jesus and His marvellous works with vet more boldness.
And even supposing that they combined together to invent falsehoods, it is surely wonderful that so large a number of conspirators should continue to agree about their inventions even to death, and that not one of them in alarm at what happened to those who had been already killed ever severed himself from the association, or preached against the others, and brought to light their conspiracv ; nay, the very one who dared to betray his Master while He lived, dying by his own hand, at once p.\id the penalty for his treachery.
("7^ And would it not be a most inexiilicable thing thai shifty and unlettered men, unable to speak or understand any other language but their own, should not only take it into their heads to dare to go forth to the whole circle "• of the nations, hut that having gone forth they should '
Si-e Kus., II. E. ii.
2\.
• Ihid. ii. 25.
' Ihid. iii. 23.
* ircptoSot.
Cf.
T. K. 72 b.
Ch. 5.
A PLEA FOR FAIRNESS
succeed in their undertaking.
And note, what a remarkable thing it is that they all agreed in every point in their account of the acts of Jesus.
For if it is true that in all matters of dispute, either in legal tribunals or in ordinary (h) disagreements, the agreement is decisive (in the mouth Diut. xiv. of two or three witnesses every word is established),^ '5; 2 Cor. surely the truth must be established in their case, there ^'"'' being twelve apostles and seventy disciples, and a large number apart from them, who all shewed an extraordinary agreement, and gave witness to the deeds of Jesus, not without labour, and by bearing torture, all kinds of outrage and death, and were in all things borne witness to by God, Who even now empowers the Word they preached, and will do so for ever.
I have thus concluded the working out of what would (c) follow if for the sake of argument a ridiculous hypothesis were supposed.
This hypothesis was, to make suppositions contrary to the records, and to argue that Jesus was a teacher of impure words, injustice, covctousness, and all kinds of intemperance, that the disciples, profiting by such instruction from Him, surpassed all men in cupidity and wickedness.
It was, indeed, the height of absurdity, equivalent to saying that when Moses said in his laws :
"Thou shall not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness,"' he should be calumniated and accused falsely of speaking in irony and pretence, and of really desiring that (d) his hearers should kill and commit adultery, and do the opposite to what his laws commanded, and of merely putting on the appearance and disguise of a holy life for a pretence.
In this way, too, any one might slander the records of all the Greek philosophers, their strenuous life and sayings, with the calumny that their disposition and mode of life was contrary to their writings, and that their choice of a philosopher's life was but a hypocritical pretence.
And in this way, to speak generally, (iiS) one might slander all the records of the ancients, annul '
^Deut. xix. 15):
^~^ (TTOfioToj 5uo fiaprvpuiv, nal iirl (TTouarot rpiuv fiapTvpaiy ari\a(rai irav prift-aW.I I.
(2 Cor. xiii. l) : t'fl trTSnaros hi'O fxaprvpuv koX "rptuv crra,Oi\iTCTat irav ^nfxa.
\\.
^wl (TTtJ^aros h^ovv hvo koX Tpiuv fiaprvp'jiv (TVfitrrarai irav ftrjfK^-
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. III. their truth, and turn them upside down.
But just as no one who had any sense would not scruple to set down one who acted thus as a madman, so also (should it be) with regard to our Saviour's words and teaching, when people try to pervert the truth, and suggest that He really believed the opposite to what He taught.
But my argument has been, of course, purely hypothetical, with the object of shewing the inconsistency of the contrary, by proving too much would follow from granting for the moment an absurd supposition.
(1>) This line of argument, then, being refuted, let me recur to the truth of the sacred writings, and consider the character of the disciples of Jesus.
From the men as they stand, surely any sensible person would be inclined to consider them worthy of all confidence ; they were admittedly poor men without eloquence, they fell in love with holy and philosophic instruction, they embraced and persevered in a strenuous and a laborious life, with fasting and abstinence from wine and meat, and much bodily restriction besides, with prayers and intercessions to God, (c)and, last but not least, excessive purity, and devotion both of body aiid soul.
And who would not admire them, cut off by their divine philosophy even from lawful nuptials, not dragged in the train of sensual pleasure, not enslaved by the desire of children and descendants, since they did not yearn for mortal but immortal progeny?
And who would not be astonished at their indifference to money, certified by their not turning from but welcoming a Master, Who forbade the possession of gold and silver, \\'hose law did not even allow the acquisition of a second coat ?
AN hy, any one i>nly hearing such a law might reject it as too heavy, but these men are shewn to have carried out the words in fact.
For once, when a lame man was begging from Peter's companions (it was a man in extreme need who begged for food), Peter, not having anything to give him, confessed that he had no belongings in silver or gold, and said :
(no) "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I Acts iii.
6. unto thee :
In the Name of Jesus Christ,' arise and walk.'"
\\ hen the Master gave them gloomy projihecics, if llioy
Ch.
HIS NAME'S SAKE
gave heed to the things He said to them : "Ye shall have yohn xvi tribulation," and again:
"Ye shall weep and lament, 33. but the world shall rejoice"—the strength and depth of J"''" ^^'• ~°' their nature is surely plain, since they did not fear the discipline of the body, nor run after pleasures.
And the Master also, as One Who would not soothe them by deceit Himself, was like them in renouncing His property, and in His prophecy of the future, so open and so true, fixed in their minds the choice of His way of life.
These were ('') the prophecies of what would happen to them for His Name's sake—in which He bore witness, saying that they should be brought before rulers, and come even unto kings, and undergo all sorts of punishments, not for any fault, nor on any reasonable charge, but solely for this— His Name's sake.
And we who see it now fulfilled ought to be struck by the prediction ; for the confession of the Name of Jesus ever inflames the minds of rulers.
And f^") though he who confesses Christ has done no evil, yet they punish him with every contumely " for His Names sake,"' as the worst of evil-doers, while if a man swears away the Name, and denies that he is one of Christ's disciples, he is let off scot-free, tlipugh he be convicted of many crimes.^ But why need I attempt to describe further the character of our Saviour's disciples ?
Let what I have said sufifice to prove my contention.
I will add a few words (d) more, arid then pass to another class of slanderers.
The Apostle Matthew, if you consider his former life, did not leave a holy occupation, but came from those occupied in tax-gathering and overreaching one another, j ^^j^^ ^ None of the evangelists has made this clear, neither his 27 ; Mark fellow-apostle John, nor Luke, nor Mark, but Matthew ii.
14. himself,^ who brands his own life, and becomes his own accuser.
Listen how he dwells emphatically on his own name in the Cjospel written by him,-'' when he speaks in this way :
* Cf.
Teiliill., ^/.'/. c.
" Illiul solum expectalur quo i odio publico neccssarium est, confessio nominis, iion examinatio criniinis."
" W.H.
: hfY6fitvoi'.
: ovAfiaTi.
' That Matthew "wrote in Hebrew the Gospel that bears his name"' is stated by Ens., H.E. iii.
24.
And the words of I'apias that " Matllicw compiled the I.ot^ia in Hebrew, while they were interpreted by each man according lo his ability," are quoted, H.E. iii. 39.
It is agreed that E. was wrong in thinking our Matlhew a translation of the VOL.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. III.
(120) "9. And as Jesus passed by from thence, he saw a man, called Matthew, sitting at the place of toll, and he saith unto him. Follow me.
And he arose, and followed him.
10. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came
Malt. ix. 9. and sat down with Jesus and his disciples."
And again further on, when he gives a list of the disciples, he adds the name " Publican " to his own.
For he says :
(b) " Of the twelve apostles the names are these :
First, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew his brother ; James Mau. X. the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and 2-3Bartholomew ; Thomas, and Matthew the publican."
Thus Matthew, in excess of modesty, reveals the nature of his own old life, and calls himself a publican, he does not conceal his former mode of life, and in addition to this he places himself second after his yoke-fellow.
For he is paired with Thomas, Peter with Andrew, James with John, and Philip with Bartholomew, and he puts Thomas before himself, preferring his fellow apostle to himself, while the (c) other evangelists have done the reverse.
If you listen to Luke, you will not hear him calling ^Latthew a publican, nor subordinating him to Thomas, lor he knows him to be the greater, and puts him first and Thomas second.
Mark has done the same.
Luke's words are as follows :
"And when it was day, he called his disciples unto him, and chose twelve whom he also named apostles, Simon whom he also called Peter, and Andrew his Luke vi. brother, James and John, and Philip and Bartholomew,
Matthew and Thomas."
(d) So Luke honoured Matthew, according to what they delivered, who from the beginning were eye witnesses and ministers of the word.
And you would find John like Matthew.
For in his epistles he never mentions his own llcl>rew /.Oi;iii.
Mill ihere is ro iloiiht a sironi; .Maltli.v:in clement in the non-Maican, and even in .some of the Marcan, constiuienis of our
Mntllicw.
.See J.
\'.
Harllel (Hastings' /)./V. vol. iii. p. 296
.c/. ), who postulates Palestinian catechetical Matlha-an Logi.i, earlier than the matter used by Mark in its I'etrine form, taking written form as the main constituent in our Gospel, wliich was composed cither liofore or after A.I>. 70, as the b.isis of them and the Marcan memoirs of IVtcr (iti. p. 304).
If this be so, the argument of K. as to Matthew's moilesty would to a slight extent hold good.
; :
Ch.
PETERS MODESTY
name, or call himself the Elder, or Apostle, or Evangelist and in the Gospel, though he declares himself as the one whom Jesus loved, he docs not reveal himself by name.
Neither did Peter permit himself to write a Gospel through (121) his excessive reverence.^ Mark, being his friend and companion, is said to have recorded the accounts of Peter about the acts of Jesus, and when he comes to that part of the story where Jesus asked whom men said that lie was, and what opinion His disciples had of Him, and Peter had replied that they regarded Him as (the) Christ, he writes that Jesus answered nothing, and said naught to him, except that He charged them to say nothing to any one about Him.
For Mark was not present when Jesus spoke those words ; and Peter did not think it right to bring forward on his own testimony what was said to him and concerning him by Jesus.
Put Matthew tells us what was actually said to him, in these words "15.
Put whom say ye that I am?
16. And Simon (b) Peter answered and said, 'i'hou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Plessed art thou, Simon bar-Jonah : for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. iS. And I also say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19. And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thingsthou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever things thou shalt loose on earth shall be ^^atf. \vi. loosed in heaven."
'5.
Though all this was said to Peter by Jesus, Mark does not record it, because, most likely, Peter did not include it in his teaching— see what he says in answer to Jesus' question
: (c) " Peter answered and .said, Thou, art the Christ.
And ^fark viii. he straitly charged them that they should tell no man."' '*?
About this event Peter for good reasons thought it best to keep silence.
And so Mark also omitted it, though he made known to all men Peter's denial, and how he wept * (vKafieia: rf. Hebrews xii.
20. fifra (v\a$fias ko.) Seovf.
^ W.I I.
: u «ai' an<l .^in^;ul.^r ii.Trtici]>les.
: offa Hv and pi.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. III. about it bitterly.
You will find Mark gives this account of him :
('^) "66. And as Peter was in the court,' there cometh one of the maids of the high priest ; 67. and when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and said, And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.
68.
But he denied saying (I know not) - neither understand what thou sayest ; and he went into the outside porch, and the cock crew.
69. And the maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, This is one of them.
70. And he denied it again.
And a little after, they that stood by said again to Peter, Surely thou art one of them : for thou art a Galilcean.
71.
But he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not this Mark xiv. man of whom ye speak.
72. And the second lime the "^cock crew."
(122) IVIark writes thus, and Peter through him bears witness about himself.
For the whole of ^Iark's Gospel is said to be the record of Peter's teaching.
Surely, then, men who refused (to record) what seemed to them to spread their good fame, and handed down in writing slanders against themselves to unforgetting ages, and accusations of sins, which no one in after years would ever have known of unless he had heard it from their own voice, by thus placarding themselves, may justly be considered to have (1>) been void of all egoism and false speaking, and to have given plain and clear proof of their truth-loving dispositioji.
And as for such people who think they invented and lied, and try to slander them as deceivers, ought they not to become a laui,diing-stock, being convicted as friends of envy and malice, and foes of truth itself, who take men that have exhibited in their own words good proof of their integrity, and their really straightforward and sincere char- (c) acter, and suggest that they are rascals and clever sophists, who invent what never took place, and ascribe gratuitously to their own Master what He never did ?
I think then it has been well said: "One must put complete confidence in the disciples of Jesus, or none at all."
And if we arc to distrust these men, we must distrust ' v.. cli.Tnf^c"^ okUt nf woftls :
N'oiscs 67 and 60 roail *u t};»'
?{»' ir()iiai>Aii', fur f^w fU Ti( Tpiav\ioy (68).
W.H, n<M Kiru> (66).
* I'aris Text a<ii!s oUrt ofSa.
Ch. 5-
THE OFFENCE OF THE CROSS
all writers, who at any time have compiled, either in Greece or other lands, lives and histories and records of men of their own times, celebrated for noble achievements,^ or else we should be considering it reasonable to believe others, (d) and to disbelieve them only.And this would be clearly invidious.
What !
Did these liars about their Master, who handed down in writing the deeds He never did, also falsify the account of His Passion?
I mean His betrayal by one of His disciples, the accusation of the false witnesses, the insults and the blows on His face, the scourging of His back, and the crown of acanthus set on His head in contumely, the soldier's purple coat thrown round Him like a cloak, and finally His bearing ^ the very trophy of the Cross, His being nailed to it, His hands and feet pierced, His being given vinegar to drink, struck on the cheek with a reed, and reviled ty those who looked on.
Were these things and everything like them in the Gospels, (i2j) also invented by the disciples, or must we disbelieve in the glorious and more dignified parts, and yet believe in these as in truth itself?
And how can the opposite opinion be supported ?
For to say that the same men both speak the truth, and at the same time lie, is nothing else but predicating contraries about the same people at the same time.
What, then, is the disproof?
That if it was their aim to deceive, and to adorn their Master with false words, they would never have written the above accounts, neither would they have revealed to posterity that He was pained and {'•) troubled and disturbed in spirit, that they forsook Him and fled, or that I'eler, the apostle and disciple who was chief of them all, denied Him thrice though untortured and '
It is ccrlainly true that modern Criticism has judged the Gospels by canons th.it would be considered unduly rigorous in other fields of histof)'.
But the enormous imjiortance of the issues has made this inevitable, and the Church has not shrunk from the minutest examination of her documents.
I do not know the author of the saying :
'"One must .... at all."
* The x^of"* was the short military cloak.
It is used by Pluiarch (Peric 35, Lysander 13) for the " paludamentum," or general's cloak, an<l also for the royal cloak.
The x'tw*' was the soldier's frock worn under the outer garment, t. says the " frock " was u^ed in mockery for a (royal) cloak.
' eViKo^i'ioi-Ta usual'y "carry to "
There seems no force here in the €iri.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. III. unthreatened by rulers.
For surely if their aim was solely to present the more dignified side of their Master they would have had to deny the trutli of such things, even when stated by others.
• And if their good faith is evident in (c) their gloomier passages about Him, it is far more so in the more glorious.
For they who had once adopted the policy of lying would have the more shunned the painful side, and either passed it over in silence, or denied it, for no man in an after age would be able to prove that they had omitted them.
AVhy, then, did they not lie, and say that Judas who betrayed Him with a kiss, when he dared to give the sign of treachery, was at once turned into a stone?' and that the man who dared to strike Him had his right hand at once dried up; and that the high priest Caiaphas, as he conspired with the false witnesses against Him, lost the (d) sight of his eyes ?
And why did they not all tell the lie that nothing disastrous happened to Him at all, but that He vanished laughing at them from the court, and that they who plotted against Him, the victims of an hallucination divinely sent, thought they were proceeding against Him still though He was no longer {)resent ? But what ?
Would it not have been more impressive, instead of making up these inventions of His miraculous deeds, to have written that He experienced nothing of the lot of human beings or mortals, but that after having settled all things with power 124) divine He returned to heaven with diviner glory?
For, of course, those who believed their other accounts would have believed this.
And surely they who have set no false stamp ^ on anything that is true in the incidents of shame and gloom, ought to be regarded as above suspicion in other accounts wherein they have attributed miracles to Him.
Their evidence then may be considered sufficient about our (!') Saviour.
And here it will not be inappropriate for me to make use of the evidence of the Hebrew Josephus* as * rossilily E. is condemning l)y implication some absurd talcs in llic Apocryphal Gospels.
* As ihe Docetists taupht.
' napaxapa^avrts, cf.
V.V.. 495 a.
A word used both literally and nu'la])horically ol "m;irkin!X with a false stamp,'' " falsilyinj;.
* Joscpbiis, .////. X\'IIl. iii .V The pas<a|^c is also (piotcd, f/.^.
II.
6, 7.
Il is loiind in all MSS. of Josephus, none being earlier than
Ch. 5-
WITNESS OF JOSEPHUS
well, who in the eighteenth chapter of The Archieology of the Jeivs, in his record of the times of Pilate, mentions our
Saviour in these words :
"And Jesus arises at that time, a wise man, if it is befitting to call him a man.
For he was a doer of no common works, a teacher of men who reverence truth.
And he gathered many of the Jewish and many of the Greek race.
This was Christus ; and when Pilate con- (c) demned him to the Cross on the information of our rulers, his first followers did not cease to revere him.
For he appeared to them the third day alive again, the divine prophets having foretold this, and very many other things about him.
And from that time to this the tribe of the Christians has not ftiiled.
" ^ If, then, even the historian's evidence shews that He attracted to Himself not only the twelve Apostles, nor the seventy disciples, but had in addition many Jews and Greeks, He must evidently have had some extraordinary power beyond that of other men.
For how otherwise could (d) He have attracted many Jews and Greeks, except by wonderful miracles and unheard-of teaching?
And the evidence of the Acts of the Apostles goes to shew that there were many myriads of Jews who believed Him to be the Christ of God foretold by the prophets.
And histor)' also assures us that there was a very important Christian Church in Jerusalem, composed of Jews, which existed until the siege of the city under Hadrian. ^ The bishops, too, who stand first in the line of succession there are said to have been Jews, whose names are still remembered by the eleventh century.
But it is not quoted by Origen {couira Celstim, i. 47, and the extant part of Comm. in Malt.
Tcm. x.
17), and his use of Ant. xx.
9, for Josephus' evidence to Christ seems to count against his knowledge of this passage.
Barnes' recent reexamination of the question makes out a strong case for its authenticity.
(See II.
St.
J. Th.ickeray in Hastings' D.B. extra vol., p. 471, and, on the other side, \V. E. Barnes, The Testiriioiiy offosephus to Christ,
1920, S.P.C.K.)
* E. has iKtivov for roZrov. fffBofitvaiv for Sfxofifyuiy. tov 'IovSoikoi, for lovZaiovs. tuv irap' 7)fuv aLp\ovTiiiv for ruiv xpwTwv a.yBpwi' trap' rifxlv. o0ey (Is tri for eiV-tTi 5e—and dird Tov5f raiv XP '• °"'' eirj'\iire for twv Xp ' ciiro TovSf wvofjuiff/xeyoy oi/K iireKiire.
* A.I).
130.
Cf. //.£. iv. 6, "eighteenth year of Hadrian."
In his Chroniion Eusebius puts the rebellion in Hadrian's sixteenth ye.Tr.
Hadrian reigned from A.D.
117 to a.d. 138.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. III.
(125) the inhabitants.^ So that thus the whole slander against His disciples is destroyed, when by their evidence, and apart also from their evidence, it has to be confessed that many myriads of Jews and Greeks were brought under His yoke by Jesus the Christ of God through the miracles that He performed.
Such being my answer to the first division of the unbelievers, now let us address ourselves to the second body, (b) This consists of those, who while they admit that Jesus worked miracles, say that it was by a species of sorcery that deceived those who looked on, like a magician or enchanter.
He impressed them with wonder.
CHAPTER tj Against Those who think that the Christ of God was a Sorcerer.
Of course, such opponents must first of all be asked how they would reply to what has been already said.
The question is about the possibility of a teacher of a noble and virtuous way of life, and of sane and reasonable doctrines, such as I have described, being a mere sorcerer in character.
And supposing He was a magician and (c) enchanter, a charlatan and a sorcerer, how could He have become the source to all the nations of such teaching, as we ourselves see with our eyes, and hear even now with our ears ?
What sort of a person was He Who undertook to unite things which have never before been united?
For a sorcerer being truly unholy and vile in his nature, dealing with things forbidden and unholy, always acts for the sake of base and sordid gain.
Our Lord and Saviour Jesus, the ( "hrist of ( iod, was surely not open to such a charge.
In (il) what sense could such a thing be said of One Who said to His disciples, according to their written record: "Provide neither gold nor silver in your girdles, nor a stall' for the Matt X. 10. road, nor shoes'?
How could they have heeded His sayings, and thought fit to hand thorn down recorded in '
Sec lius..
//./:. iv.
Ch. 6.
CHRISTS MODESTY
writing, if they had seen their ^[aster bent on making money, and Himself doing the opposite of what He taught others?
They would .soon have ridiculed Him and His words and left their discipleship in natural disgust, if they had seen Him laying down such noble laws for them, and Himself the Lawgiver in no way following His own words.
Once more, sorcerers and real charlatans devote themselves ('26) to the forbidden and the unholy in order to pursue vile and unlawful pleasures, with the object of ruining women by magic, and seducing them to their own desires.
But our Lord and Saviour is devoted to purity beyond the poiver of words to say, for His disciples record that He forbade them to look on a woman with unbridled lust, saying " It was said to them of old time. Thou shalt not commit adultery : but I say unto you, that every one that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed Matt. v. adultery with her already in his heart."
27.
And on one occasion when they saw Him conversing with ('>) a woman of Samaria when it was the only possible way to aid and save many, they wondered that He spoke with the woman, thinking they saw something marvellous, such as they had never before seen.
And surely our Saviour's words commend a seiious and severe tone of behaviour: while of His purity the great evidence is that teaching of His. in which He taught men to attain purity by cutting away from the depth of the heart the lustful desires
"There are some eunuchs who so were born,* and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs of men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves Mati. xii. eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake."
19.
The sorcerer again and the true charlatan courts notoriety (c) and ostentation"^ in all his enterprises and actions, and always makes a boast of knowing more and having more than other people.
But that our Lord and Saviour was not thirsty for notoriety, or a braggart or ostentatious, is shewn by His bidding those He cured to tell no one, and not to reveal Him to th.e crowd, so that He might escape notice, and also from His seeking periods of retirement in ' W.H. a<ld :
^k koiAIos /jrirpos.
S)(nKoirui>.
Cf. So^oKOnia, I'K. 167a.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. Ill- (d) the mountains, and shunning the vicious society of the crowd in cities.
If then He neither devoted Himself W teaching for glory, nor money, nor pleasure, what ground of suspicion remains for considering Him a charlatan and a sorcerer?
But once more think of this point.
A sorcerer, when he shares the fruits of his wickedness with others, makes men resemble himself: how can he help making sorcerers and charlatans and enchanters in all ways like himself?
But who has ever so far found the whole body of Christians from His teaching given to sorcery or enchant- (127) ment?
No one would suggest that, but rather that it has been concerned with philosophic words, as we have shewn.
AVhat, then, could you rightly call One Who was the source to others of a noble and pure life and of the highest holiness, but the prince of philosophers and the teacher of holy men ?
And I suppose so far as every master is better than his pupils, our Lord and Saviour must be considered, so far from being a charlatan and a sorcerer, but philosophic and truly holy (!') If, then. He was such. He could only have attempted His miracles by divine and unspeakable power and by the highest piety towards the Supreme (lod, AN'hom He is proved to have honoured and worshipped as His Father in the highest degree, from the accounts of Him.
And the disciples, who were with Him from the beginning, with those who inherited their mode of life afterwards, are to such an incalculable extent removed from base and evil suspicion (of sorcery), that they will not allow their sick (c) even to do what is exceedingly common with non-Christians, to make use of charms written on leaves or amulets, or to pay attention to those promising to soothe them with songs of enchantment, or to procure ease for their pains by burning incense made of roots and herbs, or anything else of the kind.'
* ij TTtraKuv iTriypa(pa'is Ka\ Ktptajj.fiacri X(i7)a0ai, ^ to??
Kartira^tiv (TTayyfWofifi/ots irpofftxfiv rhv roOc, i} pt<^o.'f Ka\ ^orai'wv Ov/xtduafft.
C"(. Urii^cn, <-. Cc/siim, i. 402, for incanliilii)ns.
Tht: irtra.Kti.-v 4-Ki-ypa<pal were mystic figures or words on metal disks, such as the shielii of I )avid, the Tetni^ranimatoM, or the Acrostic AC! LA, cf.
Isa. iii. 23.
The catacombs reveal the Christians using such tokens and medals far more than K. would allow in this jinss.itji'.
The irfpii^ixara or iftflaitTa were charms or amulets used as <pv\aKri)ina ai^ainst divmon-; or the evil eve.
For the us-^ of incantations to expel spirits, cf. Origen, i. Cilsuin,
Ch. 6.
SORCERY UNCHRISTIAN
m7 All these things at any rale are forbidden by Christian teaching, neither is it ever possible to see a Christian using an amulet, or incantations, or charms written on curious leaves, or other things which the crowd consider quite permissible.
NN'hat argument, then, can rank the disciples of such a Master with the disciples of a sorcerer and charlatan ?
And yyt the one great proof of the worth of any one who (d) promises to effect anything is found in the circle of his pupils.
In the arts and sciences it is so, men always claim him who was the source of their skill to be greater than themselves
; so medical students would witness to the excellence of their instructor in their own subject, geometricians will not regard any other as their master but a geometrician, and arithmeticians any but one skilled in arithmetic.
In the same way, also, the best witnesses to a sorcerer are his pupils, who it may be presumed will themselves share in the character of their master.
And yet through all these (128) years no disciple of Jesus has been proved a .sorcerer, although rulers and kings from time tg time have attempted by means of torture to extract the exactest information about our religion.
No, in spite of all, none has admitted himself to be a sorcerer, though had he done so he might have gone free, and without any danger, only being compelled by them to offer sacrifice.
And if not one of our own people has ever been convicted of sorcery, nor any of those ancient disciples of Jesus, it follows that their Master could not have been a sorcerer.
But that my argument may not be based solely on the (b) unwritten, hear the proofs also that I draw from the written record.
The first disciples of Jesus in the Hook of their own Acts, describe without doubt how the Gentiles thronging to their teaching (were so impressed),^ that many of those i.
Ilippolylus.
Refutation of all Heresies, I\'.
2S-42, gives a full account of the tricks of the magicians of the fourth century, cf. W. K.
Inge, The Philosophy of rioliniis, i. 50
; " We prol)ah)Iy realize very inadequately the pernicious efTects of astrology and magic in ihe \^^\. days of pagan antiquity.
These superstitions were all-pervading .
Christian apologists might well claim more credit than they have done for the Church, as the liberator of Europe from these two causes of human wretchedness."
* The lacuna is thus supplied by Gaisford (outoi Siarfflefffloi).
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. III. witli a bad reputation for sorcery, changed their ways to such an extent that they had the courage to bring the forbidden books into the midst, and commit them to the fire in the sight of all.
Hear how the Scripture describes it (c) "And many of those who used curious arts, brought their books, and burned them before all, and they reckoned the price of the buoks, and found it fifty Acts XIX. thousand pieces of silver."'
It shews what our Saviour's discii'les were, it shews the extraordinary influence of their words when they addressed their audience, that they so touched the depths of their souls, caught hold of and pierced the individual conscience, that men no longer hid anything away in concealment, but brought their forbidden things to light, and (d) themselves completed the indictment of themselves and their own former wickedness.
It shews what their pupils were like, how pure and honourable in disposition, determined that nothing evil in them should lurk below the surface, and how boldly they prided themselves on their change from the worse to the better.
Yes, they who gave their magic books to the flames, and voted for their complete destruction, left no one in any doubt that they would never again have anything to do with sorcery, and from that day forth were pure from the slightest suspicion of it.
If, then, our Saviour's disciples are seen to have been like this, must not their Master have been so long before them ?
('29) And if in the widest sense you wish to deduce from the character of His followers the character of their Head, you have to day a myriad disciples of the teaching of Jesus, great numbers of whom have declared war against the natural pleasures of the body, and guard their minds from the stroke of every base passion, and when they grow old in temperance provide bright evidence of the nurture c>f His words.
And not men only live the life of wisdom in this wise for His sake, but innumerable myriads of women, too, throughout the world, like priestesses of the .Supreme (lod. embracing the highest wisdom, ennipturcd with the love of CO heavenly wisdom, have lost all joy of bodily progeny, and spending ;dl their care on the soul, liave devoted themselves entirely body and soul alike to the King of kings, the Supreme C'lod, practising complete purity and virginity.
Ch. 6.
WITNESS OF DTSCIPLESHIP
Of one shepherd/ we know, who left his own country for the sake of philosophy the sons of Greece are ever carrying the story hither and thither.
This was their Democritus. (c) And Krates " is the second man who is a miracle among them, because, forsooth I he resigned his property to the citizens, and boasted that " Krates himself had freed himself."
But the zealots of the teaching of Jesus are myriads in number, not one or two, who have sold their goods and given them to the poor and needy, a fact to which I can witness, as 1 am specially concerned in such matters, and can see the results of the discipleship of Jesus not only in their words, but in their works as well.
But why need I tell how many myriads of actual bar-('l) barians, and not Greeks only, learning from the teaching of Jesus to despise every form of polytheistic error, have borne witness to their knowledge of the one God as Saviour and Creator of the Universe ?
Whom long ago, Plato was the only {)hilosophcr who knew, but confessed that he dare not carry I lis Name to all, saying in so many words:
"To discover the Father and Creator of the Universe is a hard matter, and when He is found it is impossible to tell Titmrus, of Him to all."^ Yes, to him the discovery seemed a P28.
^ \i.-r\\ofiarov.
Sec Menag. ap. Diog.
Lai-rt. ii. 6.
For the exile of Democritus, the Atomic philosopher of Ahdera, 430-360 n. C.
, cf.
Clem.
.\Iex., Strom, i.
15.
" About himself, loo, where, pluming himself on his erudition, he says, ' I have roamed over the most ground of any man of my time, investigating the most remote parts.
I have s^een most skies and lands, and I have heard of learned men in great numbeis.
And in composition no one has surpassed me : in demonstration, not even those among the I-'-gyptians, who are called -XrI'INoDAI'TAE, with all of whom I lived in exile eighty years."
For he went to Babylon, and Persia, and Egyj't, to learn from the Magi and the priesis"
(trans, in Antc-Nicene Library).
Cf.
Kilter and Preller, p.
143.
He combined an explicit theory of knowledge with scientific atomism ; he distinguished primary and secondary qualities of matter, making the Latter unreal, and thus was the originator of subjective idealism. lie postulated a plurality of real beings in the concf])tion of reality as a congeries of quantitative atoms, which was further developed by Epicurus.
Thus, in a sen.^e, Democritus is the father of modern mechanism, of the I^^ibnizian mona<lolr)gv, and also of Herktleyanism.
Cf. T. Whitlaker, The AW-riafonists (1901), pp.
10, II.
* He was a Platonic ]ihilosopher, and head of the Academy at Athons, <-/rrrt 315.
Ding.
I.aert. iv.
24:
Kitter and Preller, p.
247.
He is quotctl by Clem.
.Alex., Sh-oin. ii.
20.
* War f pa.
Gai'^ford from Paris M.S.
I50
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
P.k. TIT. hard matter, Un it is indeed the greatest thing of all, and it seemed to him impossible to speak of Him to all, because he did not possess so great a power of holiness as the (130) disciples of Jesus, to whom it has become easy by the cooperation of their Master to discover and to know the Father and Creator of all, and having discovered Him to bear forth that knowledge, to unveil it, to supply it, and to preach it to all men among all races of the world, with the result that even now at the present time owing to the instruction given by these men there are among all the nations of the earth many multitudes not only of men, but of women and children, slaves and country-folk, who are so far away from fulfilling Plato's dictimi, that they know (b) the One God to be the Maker and Creator of the Universe, worship Him only, and base their whole theology on Christ.
'I'll is, theri, is the success of the new modern sorcerer ; such are the sorcerers who spring from Him \\'ho is reckoned a charlatan ; and such are the disciples of Jesus, from whose character we may deduce that of their Master.
But once more, let us follow the argument in this direction : You say, my friend, that He was a sorcerer, and dub Him a clever enchanter and deceiver.
Would you say, then, that He was the first and only discoverer of the (c) business, or that wc must not, as would be done in similar cases, look for the original source of His work directly in His own teaching ?
For if nobody taught Him, and He was Himself the first and only discoverer of the enterprise, if He had no benefit at all from the teaching of others, if he did not share in the feast ^ of the ancients, we ought surely to ascribe divinity to Him, as One Who (d) without books, or education, or teachers, self-taught, selfeducated, is assumed to have discovered such a new wojld.
We know that it is imi)()ssible to acquire the knowledge of a lower-class trade, or of the art of reasoning, or indeed of the elements of knowledge without the help of a guide or teacher, unless the learner transcends the powers of ordinary j)eople.
I am sure we have not yet had a teacher of literature who was self taught, nor an orator who had not been to school, nor a physician "born and not made," nor a carpenter, nor any other kind of craftsman : and these ' i,>ai>irTiin(voi.
Cf. P.K.
35-^(1, 7SO(l. r\iul .}r>o<l.
Ch. 6.
CHRIST NOT TAUGHT IN EGYPT
things are relatively insignificant and human ; what does it mean, then, to suggest that the Teacher of true religion to men, Who worked such miracles in the period of His earthly life, and did the extraordinary prodigies which I have lately described, was born actually endowed with (131 such power, and had not to share the feast of the ancients, nor to take advantage of the instruction of modern teachers, who had done like things before Him?
What is it but to witness and confess that He was indeed divine, and that He altogether transcended humanity ?
And supposing you say that He had foregathered with masters of deceit, and was accjuainted with the wisdom of the Egyptians, and the secret knowledge c)f their ancient teachers, and that collecting His equipment from them, He appeared in the character that His story exhibits.' (b) How is it, then, I reply, that no others have appeared greater than He, and no teachers antecedent to Him in time, either in Egypt, or anywhere else ?
Why has not their fame among all men preceded this accusation of Him, and why is not their glory even now celebrated in strains like ours ?
And what enchanter from the remotest age, either Greek or Barbarian, has ever been the Master of so many pupils, the prime mover of such laws and (c) teaching, as the power of our Saviour has shewn forth, or is recorded to have worked such cures, and bestowed such marvellous blessings, as our Saviour is reported to have done ?
Who has had friends and eye-witnesses of his deeds, ready to guarantee by the proof of fire and sword the truth of their witness, like the disciples of our Saviour, who have borne all insults, submitted to all forms of torture, and at last have sealed their witness about Him with their very blood ?
Then, moreover, let him who supports the contention opposed to mine, inform me if any enchanter that ever existed hiis ever even taken it into his head to institute a new nation called after his own name?
Tf) go beyond the (d) mere conception, and to succeed in effecting it, is surely beyond the power of humanity.
What sorcerer has ever thought of establishing laws against idolatry in direct opposition to the decrees of kings,
* Ck Origen. c. Cclstim.
I. 3S.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. III. ancient legislators, poets, philosophers, and theologians, and of giving them power, and of promulgating them so that they should last on unconquered and invincible for long ages?
But our Lord and Saviour did not conceive and not dare to attempt, neither did he attempt and not succeed.
('32) With one word and voice He said to His disciples:
"Go, and make disciples of all the nations in My Name, Malt. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have xxviii.
19. commanded you," and He joined the effect to His Word ; and in a little while every race of the Greeks and Barbarians was being brought into discipleship, and laws were spread among all nations opposed to the superstition of the ancients, laws inimical to daemons, and to all the deceits of polytheism, laws that have made Scythians, Persians, and the other barbarians temperate, and revolutionized every lawless and uncivilized custom, laws that have overturned the immemorial habits of the Greeks themselves, (b) and heralded a new and real religion.^
What similar daring has been shewn by the ancient sorcerers before the time of Jesus, or even after Him, wliich would make it plausible that He was assisted in His sorcery by others?
And if the only answer to this is that no one has ever been like Him, for no one was the source of His virtue, surely it is time to confess that a strange and divine Being has sojourned in our humanity, by ^^'hom alone, and for the first time in (c) man's history, things unrecorded before in human annals have been effected.
In such wise I will conclude this part of the subject, but I must again attack my opposer, and inquire if he has ever seen or heard of sorcerers and enchanters doing their sorcery without libations, incense, and the invocation and ]iresence of daemons.
IJut no one surely coukl venture to cast this aspersion on our Saviour, or on His teaching, or on those even now imitating His life.
It must be clear even to the blind that we who follow Jesus arc totally oi)poscd to surh agencies, and woukl sooner dare to sacrifice our (il)soul to death than an offering to the d;vmons. yea, would ' What Apolc^tjist would li.nvo wiillcn tlnis in fiHy yo.iis' lime?
Did tlic .St.Tic recognition of Clirislianily liinder a i^rc.il moral Iriiimph of the Church ?
Ch. 6.
CHRIST AND D.^.MONS
sooner depart from life than remain alive under the tyranny of evil diiimons.
Who does not know how we love by the mere Name of Jesus and the purest prayers to drive away all the work of the d;vmons?
The mere word of Jesus and His teaching has made us all far stronger than this invisible Power, and has trained us to be enemies and foes of daemons, not their friends or associates, and certainly not their slaves and tributaries.
And how could He Who (133) has led us on to this. Himself be the slave of the ditmons?
How could He sacrifice to evil spirits?
Or how could He have invoked the daemons to aid Him in His Miracles, when even to-day every dnemon and unclean spirit shudders at the Name of Jesus as at something that is likely to punish and torment its own nature, and so departs and yields to the power of His Name alone?
So was it of old in the days when He sojourned in this life : they could n >{ bear His Presence, but cried, one from one side and one from another: "Come,^ what have we to do with thee, Jesus, i^) Son of God ?
Art thou come to torment us before the ^I-^tiviii. time ? "
29.
And a man whose mind was wholly devoted to sorcery, and in every way involved in the quest of the forbidden, would surely be (would he not?) unholy in his ways; scandalous, base, atheistic, unjust, irreligious.
And if He were such, from what source, or by what means, could He teach others about religion, or temperance, or the knowledge of God, or about the tribunal and judgment of Almighty God?
\Vould He not rather commend the (c) opposites of these, and act according to His own wickedness, deny God and God's
Providence, and God's Judgment, and revile teaching ab;jut virtue and the immortality of the soul?
And if one could see such a character in our Lord and Saviour, there would be no more to say.
But (d) if instead we see Him calling on God the Father, the Creator of all things, in every act and word, and training His pupils to resemble Him, if He being pure Himself teaches purity, if He is a maker and herald of justice, truth, philanthropy, and every virtue, and the introducer of the worship of God the King of kings, surely it follows from this that He cannot be suspected of working His > \V. II. oniil "Ea, VOL.