Source: About this page Source. Translated by Archibald Robertson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series , Vol. 4. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. ( Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1892. ) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2802.htm. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can’t reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.

1. Introductory.– The subject of this treatise: the humiliation and incarnation of the Word. Presupposes the doctrine of Creation, and that by the Word. The Father has saved the world by Him through Whom he first made it .

In the previous sections we have set out—selecting a few points from many—a sufficient account of the error of the pagans concerning idols and the worship of idols, and how these originally came to be invented: namely, how out of wickedness people devised for themselves the worship of idols. And by God’s grace we have also noted something of the divinity of the Word of the Father, and of His universal Providence and power, and that the good Father through Him orders all things, and all things are moved by Him, and in Him are quickened. Come now, Macarius (worthy of that name), and true lover of Christ, let us follow up the faith of our religion and set forth also what relates to the Word’s becoming human and to His divine appearing among us, which Jews slander and Greeks ridicule, but we worship. In this way, all the more because of the seeming lowly condition of the Word, your piety toward Him may be increased and multiplied. For the more He is mocked among the unbelieving, the more witness does He give of His own Godhead, inasmuch as He not only Himself demonstrates as possible what people mistakenly think impossible, but what people deride as unseemly, this by His own goodness He clothes with seemliness, and what people in their conceit of wisdom laugh at as merely human, He by His own power demonstrates to be divine, subduing the pretensions of idols by His supposed humiliation—by the Cross—and invisibly winning over those who mock and disbelieve to recognize His divinity and power. But to treat this subject it is necessary to recall what has been previously said, so that you may neither fail to know the cause of the bodily appearing of the Word of the Father, so high and so great, nor think it a consequence of His own nature that the Savior has worn a body, but that being incorporeal by nature, and Word from the beginning, He has yet of the loving-kindness and goodness of His own Father been manifested to us in a human body for our salvation. It is, then, proper for us to begin the treatment of this subject by speaking of the creation of the universe and of God its Artificer, so that it may be duly perceived that the renewal of creation has been the work of the self-same Word that made it at the beginning. For it will appear not inconsistent for the Father to have accomplished its salvation in Him by whose means He made it.

2. Erroneous views of Creation rejected. (1) Epicurean (fortuitous generation). But diversity of bodies and parts argues a creating intellect. (2.) Platonists (pre-existent matter.) But this subjects God to human limitations, making Him not a creator but a mechanic. (3) Gnostics (an alien Demiurge). Rejected from Scripture .

Many people have held different views about the making of the universe and the creation of all things, and each person has stated what they please. For example, some say that all things have come into being by themselves and by chance, such as the Epicureans, who in their self-contempt say that universal providence does not exist, speaking directly against obvious fact and experience. For if, as they claim, everything has begun by itself and without purpose, it would follow that everything would have come into mere existence in such a way as to be identical and not distinct. Because of the unity of body, it would follow that everything would be sun or moon, and in the case of human beings, that the whole would be hand, or eye, or foot. But this is not the case. Instead, we see a distinction between sun, moon, and earth, and likewise in human bodies between foot, hand, and head. Now, such distinct arrangement tells us not that they came into being by themselves, but shows that a cause preceded them, from which cause it is possible to understand God also as the Maker and Orderer of all things.

However, others, including Plato, who is held in such high regard among the Greeks, argue that God made the world out of previously existing matter that had no beginning. They say that God could not have made anything if the material had not already existed, just as wood must be available beforehand for a carpenter to be able to work at all.

But in saying this, they do not realize that they are attributing weakness to God. For if He is not Himself the cause of the material, but makes things only out of previously existing material, He proves to be weak, because He cannot produce anything He makes without the material, just as it is certainly a weakness of the carpenter not to be able to make anything he needs without his timber. For, according to their theory, if the material had not existed, God would not have made anything. And how could He be called Maker and Artificer if He owes His ability to make to some other source, namely to the material? So if this is true, then according to their theory God will be only a Mechanic, and not a Creator out of nothing, if He works with existing material but is not Himself the cause of the material. For He could not in any sense be called Creator unless He is Creator of the material from which the things created have in their turn been made.

But the sectaries imagine for themselves a different creator of all things, other than the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, showing deep blindness even regarding the words they use.

For the Lord says to the Jews: “Have you not read that from the beginning, He who created them made them male and female, and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall become one flesh’?” And then, referring to the Creator, He says, “What, therefore, God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” So how can these people claim that the creation is independent of the Father? Or if, in the words of John, who makes no exception when he says, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made,” how could the artificer be someone else, distinct from the Father of Christ?

3. The true doctrine. Creation out of nothing, of God’s lavish bounty of being. Man created above the rest, but incapable of independent perseverance. Hence the exceptional and supra-natural gift of being in God’s Image, with the promise of bliss conditionally upon his perseverance in grace.

Thus they speculate in vain. But godly teaching and the faith according to Christ marks their foolish language as godlessness. For it knows that the universe came to exist not spontaneously, because forethought is not absent, nor from existing matter, because God is not weak, but that out of nothing, and without any previous existence, God made the universe exist through His word. He says this firstly through Moses: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Secondly, in the most edifying book of the Shepherd: First of all believe that God is one, who created and framed all things, and made them exist out of nothing. Paul also refers to this when he says, By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the Word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which do appear. For God is good, or rather is essentially the source of goodness. No one who is good could be stingy with anything. Therefore, grudging existence to no one, He has made all things out of nothing by His own Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Among these things, having taken special pity above all things on earth upon the race of men, and having perceived their inability by virtue of the condition of their origin to continue in one state, He gave them a further gift. He did not merely create man as He did all the irrational creatures on the earth, but made them after His own image, giving them a portion even of the power of His own Word. So having as it were a kind of reflection of the Word and being made rational, they might be able to remain forever in blessedness, living the true life which belongs to the saints in paradise. But knowing once more how the will of man could sway to either side, He secured in anticipation the grace given them by a law and by the place where He put them. For He brought them into His own garden and gave them a law, so that if they kept the grace and remained good, they might still keep the life in paradise without sorrow or pain or care, besides having the promise of incorruption in heaven. But if they transgressed and turned back and became evil, they would know that they were incurring that corruption in death which was theirs by nature—no longer to live in paradise, but cast out of it from that time forth to die and to remain in death and in corruption. Now this is what Holy Scripture also warns, saying in the Person of God: Of every tree that is in the garden, you shall eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, but on the day that you eat, dying you shall die. But by dying you shall die, what else could be meant than not merely dying, but also remaining forever in the corruption of death?

4. Our creation and God’s Incarnation most intimately connected. As by the Word man was called from non-existence into being, and further received the grace of a divine life, so by the one fault which forfeited that life they again incurred corruption and untold sinand misery filled the world.

You may be wondering why, having set out to speak about the Incarnation of the Word, we are now discussing the origin of humanity. But this too properly belongs to the purpose of our treatise. For in speaking about the appearance of the Savior among us, we must also speak about the origin of human beings, so that you may know that the reason for His coming down was because of us, and that our transgression called forth the loving-kindness of the Word, so that the Lord would both hasten to help us and appear among human beings. For we were the object of His becoming Incarnate, and for our salvation He acted so lovingly as to appear and be born even in a human body. God made humanity in this way and willed that human beings should remain in incorruption. But human beings, having despised and rejected the contemplation of God and devised and contrived evil for themselves (as was said in the former treatise), received the condemnation of death with which they had been threatened. From that point forward they no longer remained as they were made, but were being corrupted according to their schemes, and death ruled over them as king. For transgression of the commandment was turning them back to their natural state, so that just as they came into being out of nothing, so also, as might be expected, they could look forward to corruption into nothing in the course of time. For if, out of a former normal state of non-existence, they were called into being by the Presence and loving-kindness of the Word, it naturally followed that when human beings were deprived of the knowledge of God and were turned back to what was not (for what is evil is not, but what is good is), they should, since they derive their being from God who IS, be everlastingly deprived even of being. In other words, they should be disintegrated and remain in death and corruption. For a human being is by nature mortal, inasmuch as he is made out of what is not. But by reason of his likeness to Him who IS (and if he still preserved this likeness by keeping Him in his knowledge) he would halt his natural corruption and remain incorrupt, as Wisdom says: The taking heed to His laws is the assurance of immortality. But being incorrupt, he would live henceforth as God, to which I suppose the divine Scripture refers when it says: I have said you are gods, and you are all sons of the most Highest; but you die like men, and fall as one of the princes.

5. For God has not only made us out of nothing; but He gave us freely, by the Grace of the Word, a life in correspondence with God. But men, having rejected things eternal, and, by counsel of the devil, turned to the things of corruption, became the cause of their own corruption in death, being, as I said before, by nature corruptible, but destined, by the gracefollowing from partaking of the Word, to have escaped their natural state, had they remained good.

Because the Word was dwelling with them, even their natural corruption did not come near them, as Wisdom also says: God made man for incorruption, and as an image of His own eternity; but by envy of the devil death came into the world. But when this happened, men began to die, while corruption from that point forward prevailed against them, gaining even more than its natural power over the whole race, since it had, because of the transgression of the commandment, the threat of the Deity as an additional advantage against them.

Even in their wrongdoing, people had not stopped at any fixed boundaries. Instead, they gradually pressed forward and went beyond all measure. At first they became inventors of wickedness and brought upon themselves death and corruption. Later, having turned to wrong and exceeded all lawlessness, and not stopping at any single evil but devising all kinds of new evils one after another, they became insatiable in sinning. Adulteries were everywhere, along with thefts, and the whole earth was full of murders and robberies. As for corruption and injustice, no attention was paid to law, but all crimes were being committed everywhere, both by individuals and by groups. Cities were at war with cities, and nations were rising up against nations. The whole earth was torn apart by civil conflicts and battles, with each person competing with his fellows in lawless acts. Even crimes against nature were not far from them. As the Apostle and witness of Christ says: “For their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the women, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”

6. The human race then was wasting, God’s image was being effaced, and His work ruined. Either, then, God must forego His spoken word by which man had incurred ruin; or that which had shared in the being of the Word must sink back again into destruction, in which case God’s design would be defeated. What then? Was God’s goodness to suffer this? But if so, why had man been made? It could have been weakness, not goodness on God’s part.

For this reason, then, with death having gained power over human beings, and corruption remaining upon them, the human race was perishing; the rational human being made in God’s image was disappearing, and the handiwork of God was in the process of dissolution. Secondly, death, as I said above, gained from that time forward a legal hold over us, and it was impossible to evade the law, since it had been established by God because of the transgression, and the result was truly both monstrous and unseemly. Thirdly, it would be monstrous, first of all, that God, having spoken, should prove false—that is, when He had once decreed that man, if he transgressed the commandment, should die the death, after the transgression man should not die, but God’s word should be broken. For God would not be true if, when He had said we should die, man did not die. Again, it would be unseemly that creatures once made rational, and having partaken of the Word, should go to ruin and turn back toward non-existence by way of corruption. For it would not be worthy of God’s goodness that the things He had made should waste away because of the deceit practiced on human beings by the devil. Especially it was unseemly to the highest degree that God’s handiwork among human beings should be done away with, either because of their own carelessness or because of the deceitfulness of evil spirits.

So, as rational creatures were wasting away and such works were in the course of ruin, what was God in His goodness to do? Should He allow corruption to prevail against them and death to hold them fast? And where would be the benefit of their having been made in the first place? For it would have been better that they not be made at all than, once made, to be left to neglect and ruin. For neglect reveals weakness, and not goodness on God’s part—if, that is, He allows His own work to be ruined once He had made it—even more so than if He had never made man at all. For if He had not made them, no one could accuse Him of weakness; but once He had made them, and created them out of nothing, it would be utterly monstrous for the work to be ruined, and that before the eyes of the Maker. It was, then, out of the question to leave men to the current of corruption, because this would be unseemly and unworthy of God’s goodness.

7. On the other hand there was the consistency of God’s nature, not to be sacrificed for our profit. Were men, then, to be called upon to repent? But repentance cannot avert the execution of a law; still less can it remedy a fallen nature. We have incurred corruption and need to be restored to the Grace of God’s Image. None could renew but He Who had created. He alone could (1) recreate all, (2) suffer for all, (3) represent all to the Father.

But just as this consequence must necessarily hold, so too the just claims of God stand against it: that God should appear true to the law He had established concerning death. For it would be monstrous for God, the Father of truth, to appear a liar for our profit and preservation. So here, once more, what possible course was God to take? To demand repentance of men for their transgression? For this one might say is worthy of God, as though, just as men became set toward corruption through transgression, so through repentance they might once more be set in the way of incorruption. But repentance would, first, fail to uphold the just claim of God. For He would still be no more true if men did not remain in the grasp of death; nor, second, does repentance call men back from what is their nature—it merely stops them from acts of sin. Now, if there were merely a wrong action in question, and not a resulting corruption, repentance would be sufficient. But if, once transgression had gained a foothold, men became trapped in that corruption which was their nature, and were stripped of the grace which they had, being in the image of God, what further step was needed? Or what was required for such grace and such restoration, but the Word of God, who had also in the beginning made everything out of nothing? For it was His task once more both to bring the corruptible to incorruption, and to preserve intact the just claim of the Father upon all. For being Word of the Father, and above all, He alone by natural fitness was both able to recreate everything, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be ambassador for all with the Father.

8. The Word, then, visited that earth in which He was yet always present ; and saw all these evils. He takes a body of our Nature, and that of a spotless Virgin, in whose womb He makes it His own, wherein to reveal Himself, conquer death, and restore life.

For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God comes to our realm, though he was not far from us before. For no part of Creation is left empty of Him: He has filled all things everywhere, while remaining present with His own Father. But He comes by lowering himself to show loving-kindness to us, and to visit us. And seeing the race of rational creatures on the way to destruction, and death ruling over them through corruption; seeing also that the threat against transgression gave a firm grip to the corruption that was upon us, and that it was absurd that before the law was fulfilled it should collapse; seeing further the indecency of what had happened—that the things He Himself had made were passing away; seeing also the extreme wickedness of human beings, and how little by little they had increased it to an unbearable level against themselves; and seeing finally how all people were under the penalty of death: He took pity on our race, and had mercy on our weakness, and descended to our corruption, and, unable to bear that death should have the mastery—lest the creature should perish, and His Father’s handiwork in human beings be wasted—He takes to Himself a body, and that of no different kind from ours. For He did not simply wish to become embodied, or wish merely to appear. For if He wished merely to appear, He could have accomplished His divine appearance by some other and greater means as well. But He takes a body of our kind, and not merely so, but from a spotless and stainless virgin who had not known a man, a body clean and truly pure from sexual intercourse. For being Himself mighty, and Maker of everything, He prepares the body in the Virgin as a temple for Himself, and makes it His very own as an instrument, being revealed in it and dwelling in it. And thus taking from our bodies one of like nature, because all were under penalty of the corruption of death, He handed it over to death in place of all, and offered it to the Father—doing this, moreover, out of His loving-kindness, so that, first, since all were considered to have died in Him, the law involving the destruction of human beings might be abolished (since its power was fully exhausted in the Lord’s body, and had no longer any hold against human beings, his peers), and second, since human beings had turned toward corruption, He might turn them back toward incorruption, and give them life from death by the taking on of His body and by the grace of the Resurrection, driving death away from them like straw from fire.

9. The Word, since death alone could stay the plague, took a mortal body which, united with Him, should avail for all, and by partaking of His immortalitystay the corruption of the Race. By being above all, He made His Flesh an offering for our souls; by being one with us all, he clothed us with immortality. Simile to illustrate this.

The Word understood that the corruption of humanity could only be undone through death as a necessary condition, but it was impossible for the Word to suffer death, being immortal and Son of the Father. For this reason He takes to Himself a body capable of death, so that this body, by partaking of the Word Who is above all, might be worthy to die in place of all, and might remain incorruptible because of the Word who had come to dwell in it, and so that from then on corruption might be stopped for all by the grace of the Resurrection. Therefore, by offering to death the body He Himself had taken as an offering and sacrifice free from any stain, He immediately removed death from all His peers by the offering of an equivalent. Since He is over all, the Word of God naturally satisfied the debt by His death through offering His own temple and bodily instrument for the life of all. And so He, the incorruptible Son of God, being joined with all by a shared physis, naturally clothed all with incorruptibility through the promise of the resurrection. For the actual corruption in death no longer has any hold over humanity because of the Word, who through His one body has come to dwell among them. It is like when a great king has entered a large city and taken up residence in one of its houses—that city is certainly held worthy of high honor, and no enemy or bandit any longer descends upon it and conquers it. On the contrary, it is considered entitled to every care because the king has taken up residence in a single house there. So it has been with the Monarch of all. Now that He has come to our realm and taken up residence in one body among His peers, from this point forward the whole conspiracy of the enemy against humanity is stopped, and the corruption of death which was previously prevailing against them is done away with. For the human race would have gone to ruin had not the Lord and Savior of all, the Son of God, come among us to meet the end of death.

10. By a like simile, the reasonableness of the work of redemption is shown. How Christ wiped away our ruin, and provided its antidote by His own teaching. Scripture proofs of the Incarnation of the Word, and of the Sacrifice He wrought.

Now in truth this great work was especially suited to God’s goodness. 1. For if a king, having founded a house or city, does not neglect it when it is attacked by bandits because of the carelessness of its inhabitants, but instead avenges and reclaims it as his own work, paying attention not to the carelessness of the inhabitants but to what is fitting for himself; how much more did God the Word of the all-good Father not neglect the human race, His work, as it went to corruption. Instead, while He wiped out the death that had resulted by offering His own body, He corrected their neglect by His own teaching, restoring everything that belonged to humanity by His own power. 2. One can be assured of this from the Saviour’s own inspired writers, if one reads their writings, where they say: For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge this, that if one died for all, then all died, and He died for all so that we should no longer live for ourselves, but for Him Who died and rose again for our sakes, our Lord Jesus Christ. And, again: But we see Him Who was made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He should taste death for everyone. 3. Then He also points out the reason why it was necessary for none other than God the Word Himself to become incarnate, as follows: For it was fitting for Him, for Whom are all things, and through Whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. By these words He means that it belonged to none other to bring humanity back from the corruption which had begun, than the Word of God, Who had also made them from the beginning. 4. And that it was for the sacrifice of bodies such as His own that the Word Himself also took on a body, to this also they refer in these words: Therefore, since the children share in blood and flesh, He also Himself in the same way partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might free those who, through fear of death, were all their lives subject to bondage. 5. For by the sacrifice of His own body, He both put an end to the law which was against us, and made a new beginning of life for us, by the hope of resurrection which He has given us. For since it was from a man that death prevailed over humanity, for this reason conversely, through the Word of God being made man has come about the destruction of death and the resurrection of life; as the man who bore Christ says: For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive: and so forth. For we no longer die as those subject to condemnation; but as people who rise from the dead we await the general resurrection of all, which in its own times He shall show, even God, Who has also accomplished it, and granted it to us. 6. This then is the first reason for the Saviour’s being made man. But one might also see from the following reasons that His gracious coming among us was fitting to have taken place.

11. Second reason for the Incarnation. God, knowing that man was not by nature sufficient to knowHim, gave him, in order that he might have some profit in being, a knowledge of Himself. He made them in the Image of the Word, that thus they might knowthe Word, and through Him the Father. Yet man, despising this, fell into idolatry, leaving the unseen God for magic and astrology; and all this in spite of God’s manifold revelation of Himself.

God, who has power over all things, when he was creating the human race through his own Word, saw the weakness of their nature—that it was not sufficient by itself to know its Maker or to get any idea at all of God. For while he was uncreated, the creatures had been made from nothing, and while he was incorporeal, human beings had been fashioned in a lower way in the body, and because in every way created things fell far short of being able to comprehend and know their Maker—taking pity, I say, on the human race, since he is good, he did not leave them without knowledge of himself, lest they should find no benefit in existing at all. For what benefit would there be to creatures if they did not know their Maker? Or how could they be rational without knowing the Word (and Reason) of the Father, in whom they received their very being? For there would be nothing to distinguish them even from brute animals if they had knowledge of nothing but earthly things. Indeed, why would God have made them at all, if he did not wish to be known by them? Therefore, to prevent this from being so, being good, he gives them a share in his own Image, our Lord Jesus Christ, and makes them according to his own Image and according to his likeness, so that by such grace, perceiving the Image—that is, the Word of the Father—they may be able through him to get an idea of the Father, and knowing their Maker, live the happy and truly blessed life. But human beings once more in their perversity, having set at nothing, in spite of all this, the grace given them, so completely rejected God and so darkened their soul that they not merely forgot their idea of God but also fashioned for themselves one invention after another. For not only did they carve idols for themselves instead of the truth and honor things that did not exist before the living God and serve the creature rather than the Creator, but worst of all, they transferred the honor of God even to logs and stones and to every material object and to human beings, and went even further than this, as we have said in the former treatise. So far indeed did their impiety go that they proceeded to worship demons and proclaimed them as gods, fulfilling their own lusts. For they performed, as was said above, offerings of brute animals and sacrifices of human beings, as was fitting for them, binding themselves down all the more firmly under their maddening inspirations. For this reason magic arts were also taught among them, and oracles in various places led people astray, and all people attributed the influences of their birth and existence to the stars and to all the heavenly bodies, having no thought of anything beyond what was visible. And in a word, everything was full of irreligion and lawlessness, and God alone, and his Word, was unknown, although he had not hidden himself from human sight or given the knowledge of himself in one way only, but had, on the contrary, unfolded it to them in many forms and by many ways.

12. For though man was created in grace, God, foreseeing his forgetfulness, provided also the works of creation to remind man of him. Yet further, He ordained a Law and Prophets, whose ministry was meant for all the world. Yet men heeded only their own lusts.

The grace of the Divine Image was in itself enough to reveal God the Word, and through Him the Father. But God, knowing human weakness, made provision even for their negligence. If people did not care to know God by themselves, they could still avoid ignorance of the Maker through the works of creation. Since human carelessness gradually descends to lower things, God made provision once again for this weakness by sending a law and prophets, people whom they knew, so that even if they were not ready to look up to heaven and know their Creator, they could receive instruction from those close at hand. People can learn about higher things more directly from other people. It was therefore possible for them to look into the height of heaven and perceive the harmony of creation, and thus know its Ruler, the Word of the Father, who by His own providence over all things makes the Father known to all and moves all things to this end, so that through Him all may know God. Or if this was too much for them, they could at least meet the holy men and through them learn about God, the Maker of all things, the Father of Christ, and learn that the worship of idols is godlessness and full of all impiety. Or they could simply know the law and cease from all lawlessness and live a virtuous life. For the law was not only for the Jews, nor were the prophets sent only for them. Though they were sent to the Jews and persecuted by the Jews, they were for all the world a holy school of the knowledge of God and the conduct of the soul. Despite God’s goodness and loving-kindness being so great, people nevertheless, overcome by the pleasures of the moment and by the illusions and deceits sent by demons, did not raise their heads toward the truth. Instead they loaded themselves even more with evils and sins, so that they no longer seemed rational but were, judging from their ways, considered void of reason.

13. Here again, was God to keep silence? To allow to false gods the worship He made us to render to Himself? A king whose subjects had revolted would, after sending letters and messages, go to them in person. How much more shall God restore in us the grace of His image. This men, themselves but copies, could not do. Hence the WordHimself must come (1) to recreate, (2) to destroy death in the Body.

So then, since human beings had become like brute beasts in this way, and since demonic deception was covering every place and hiding the knowledge of the true God, what was God to do? Should He remain silent about such a great matter and allow people to be led astray by demons and not know God? And what would be the point of human beings having been originally made in God’s image? For it would have been better for them to have been made simply like a brute animal than, having once been made rational, to live the life of brutes. Or where was there any necessity at all for them to receive the idea of God in the first place? For if they are not fit to receive it even now, it would have been better if it had not been given to them at first. Or what benefit to God who made them, or what glory to Him could there be, if human beings, made by Him, do not worship Him but think that others are their makers? For in this case God proves to have made them for others instead of for Himself. Once again, even a human king does not allow the lands he has colonized to pass to others to serve them, nor permit them to go over to other people; but he warns them by letters, and often sends messengers to them by friends, or, if necessary, he comes in person to rebuke them as a last resort by his presence, just so that they may not serve others and his own work be wasted. Shall not God much more spare His own creatures, so that they not be led astray from Him and serve things that are nothing? Especially since such going astray proves to be the cause of their ruin and destruction, and since it was unfitting that those who had once been partakers of God’s image should perish. What then was God to do? Or what was to be done except the renewing of that which was in God’s image, so that through it people might once more be able to know Him? But how could this have come to pass except by the presence of the very Image of God, our Lord Jesus Christ? For it was impossible through human means, since they are only made after an image; nor through angels either, for not even they are God’s images. Therefore the Word of God came in His own person, so that, as He was the Image of the Father, He might be able to create afresh the human being after the image. But again, this could not otherwise have taken place unless death and corruption had been done away with. Therefore He took, in natural fitness, a mortal body, so that while death might in it be done away with once and for all, human beings made after His Image might once more be renewed. No other was sufficient for this need, except the Image of the Father.

14. A portrait once effaced must be restored from the original. Thus the Son of the Father came to seek, save, and regenerate. No other way was possible. Blinded himself, man could not see to heal. The witness of creation had failed to preserve him, and could not bring him back. The Word alone could do so. But how? Only by revealing Himself as Man.

When a portrait painted on a wooden panel has been damaged by stains from outside, the person whose likeness it is must come again so the portrait can be restored on the same wood. For the sake of the picture, even the wood itself on which it is painted is not discarded, but the image is renewed on it. In the same way, the most holy Son of the Father, being the Image of the Father, came to our region to renew humanity once made in His likeness, and to find us as lost people through the forgiveness of sins, just as He says in the Gospels: I came to find and to save the lost. This is why He also said to the Jews: Unless a person is born again—not meaning, as they thought, physical birth from a woman, but speaking of the soul born and created anew in the likeness of God’s image. But since wild idolatry and godlessness had taken over the world, and the knowledge of God was hidden, whose role was it to teach the world about the Father? Should we say humanity’s? But it was not within human power to reach everywhere under the sun, for people did not have the physical strength to travel so far, nor would they be able to gain belief in this matter, nor were they capable by themselves to resist the deception and tricks of evil spirits. For when everyone was struck and confused in soul by demonic deception and the emptiness of idols, how could they possibly win over the human soul and human mind when they cannot even see them? Or how can someone change what he cannot see? Perhaps one might say that creation was enough, but if creation were enough, these terrible evils would never have happened. For creation was already there, and yet people were still wallowing in the same error about God. Who, then, was needed except the Word of God, who sees both soul and mind, who gives movement to all things in creation, and through them makes the Father known? For He who by His own Providence and ordering of all things was teaching people about the Father was the same one who could renew this teaching as well. How, then, could this have been done? Perhaps one might say that the same methods were available as before, for Him to reveal the truth about the Father once again through the work of creation. But this was no longer a reliable method. Quite the opposite, for people had already failed to see this before and had turned their eyes no longer upward but downward. Therefore, naturally wishing to benefit humanity, He dwells here as a human being, taking to Himself a body like the others, and from earthly things, that is through the works of His body, He teaches them, so that those who would not recognize Him from His Providence and rule over all things may even from the works done by His actual body come to know the Word of God who is in the body, and through Him the Father.

15. Thus the Word condescended to man’s engrossment in corporeal things, by even taking a body. All man’s superstitions He met halfway; whether men were inclined to worship Nature, Man, Demons, or the dead, He showed Himself Lord of all these.

For just as a kind teacher who cares for his students, if some of them cannot benefit from more advanced subjects, comes down to their level and teaches them at least through simpler courses, so also did the Word of God. As Paul also says: For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the word preached to save those who believe. For seeing that men, having rejected the contemplation of God and with their eyes downward, as though sunk in the deep, were searching for God in nature and in the world of sense, making up gods for themselves out of mortal men and demons, to this end the loving and universal Savior of all, the Word of God, takes to himself a body, and as a man walks among men and meets the senses of all men halfway, so that those who think that God is corporeal may perceive the truth from what the Lord accomplishes through his body, and through him recognize the Father. So, being human as they were and thinking human thoughts in all things, on whatever objects they focused their senses, there they saw themselves met halfway and taught the truth from every side. For if they looked with awe upon creation, yet they saw how she confessed Christ as Lord; or if their mind was drawn toward men, so as to consider them gods, yet from the Savior’s works, if they compared them, the Savior alone among men appeared to be the Son of God, for there were no such works done among the rest as have been done by the Word of God. Or if they were inclined toward evil spirits, even so, yet seeing them cast out by the Word, they were to know that he alone, the Word of God, was God, and that the spirits were nothing. Or if their mind had already sunk even to the dead, so as to worship heroes and the gods spoken of in the poets, yet, seeing the Savior’s resurrection, they were to confess them to be false gods, and that the Lord alone is true, the Word of the Father, who was Lord even of death. For this reason he was both born and appeared as a man, and died, and rose again, outshining and casting into the shade the works of all former men by his own, so that in whatever direction the inclination of men might be, from there he might call them back and teach them of his own true Father, as he himself says: I came to save and to find that which was lost.

16. He came then to attract man’s sense-bound attention to Himself as man, and so to lead him on to knowHim as God.

Since humanity’s mind had completely fallen into the world of physical things, the Word disguised himself by appearing in a body. His purpose was to transfer people to himself as a man, to focus their senses on himself, and to persuade them—once they saw him as a man—through the works he performed that he is not only a man, but also God, and the Word and Wisdom of the true God. This is also what Paul is pointing out when he says: That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God. For by the Word revealing himself everywhere—both above and below, and in the depth and in the breadth: above, in creation; below, in becoming man; in the depth, in Hades; and in the breadth, in the world—all things have been filled with the knowledge of God. For this reason, he did not immediately accomplish his sacrifice on behalf of all when he came by offering his body to death and raising it again, because by doing so he would have made himself invisible. Instead, he made himself sufficiently visible through what he did, remaining present and performing such works and showing such signs that he became known no longer as a man, but as God the Word. For by becoming a man, the Savior was to accomplish both works of love: first, removing death from us and renewing us again; second, though unseen and invisible in himself, manifesting and making himself known through his works to be the Word of the Father, and the Ruler and King of the universe.

17. How the Incarnation did not limit the ubiquity of the Word, nor diminish His Purity. (Simile of the Sun.)

For He was not, as one might imagine, confined within the body, nor was He absent from other places while present in the body; nor was the universe left without His activity and Providence while He moved the body. Rather—and this is most marvelous—being the Word, far from being contained by anything, He actually contained all things Himself. Just as He is present in all of creation while remaining distinct in being from the universe, and present in all things by His own power—giving order to all things and revealing His own providence over all and in all, and giving life to each thing and all things, encompassing the whole without being encompassed by it, but existing wholly and in every respect in His own Father alone—in the same way, even while present in a human body and giving it life, He was, without contradiction, giving life to the universe as well. He was active in every natural process, and was outside the whole, and while He was known through the body by His works, He was no less evident through the activity of the universe as well. Now, it is the function of the soul to perceive even what is outside its own body through acts of thought, without working outside its own body or moving distant things by its presence. That is, a man never moves or displaces things at a distance simply by thinking about them. If a man were to sit in his own house and think about the heavenly bodies, he would not by that fact move the sun or make the heavens revolve. He observes that they move and exist without actually being able to influence them. But the Word of God in His human nature was not like that, for He was not bound to His body but rather was Himself directing it, so that He was not only in it but was actually in everything, and while being external to the universe, He abode in His Father only. And this was the wonderful thing: He was at once walking as a man, and as the Word was giving life to all things, and as the Son was dwelling with His Father. So not even when the Virgin bore Him did He undergo any change, nor was His glory diminished by being in the body; rather, He sanctified the body as well. For not even by being in the universe does He share in its nature, but all things, on the contrary, are given life and sustained by Him. For if the sun, which was made by Him and which we see revolving in the heaven, is not defiled by touching the bodies on earth, nor is it extinguished by darkness, but on the contrary illuminates and cleanses them as well, much less was the all-holy Word of God, Maker and Lord also of the sun, defiled by being made known in the body. On the contrary, being incorruptible, He gave life to and cleansed the body as well, which was in itself mortal: who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, as it says.

18. How the Word and Power of God works in His human actions: by casting out devils, by Miracles, by His Birth of the Virgin.

When inspired writers speak of Him eating and being born, understand that the body, as body, was born and sustained with food appropriate to its nature. Meanwhile, God the Word Himself, who was united with the body, was ordering all things and through the works He did in the body showed Himself to be not man but God the Word. These things are said of Him because the actual body that ate, was born, and suffered belonged to no one else but the Lord. And because He had become man, it was proper for these things to be said of Him as man, to show that He had a body in truth and not in appearance. 2. But just as from these things He was known to be bodily present, so from the works He did in the body He made Himself known to be Son of God. This is why He cried out to the unbelieving Jews: “If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do them, though you believe not Me, believe My works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” 3. For just as, though invisible, He is known through the works of creation, so having become man and being in the body unseen, it may be known from His works that He who can do these things is not man but the Power and Word of God. 4. For when He commanded evil spirits and they were driven out, this deed is not of man but of God. Or who that saw Him healing the diseases to which the human race is subject can still think Him man and not God? For He cleansed lepers, made lame men walk, opened the hearing of deaf men, made blind men see again, and in a word drove away from men all diseases and infirmities. From these acts it was possible even for the most ordinary observer to see His Godhead. For who that saw Him give back what was lacking to men born lacking, and open the eyes of the man blind from his birth, would have failed to perceive that the nature of men was subject to Him and that He was its Artificer and Maker? For He who gave back what the man from his birth had not must be, it is surely evident, the Lord also of men’s natural birth. 5. Therefore, even to begin with, when He was descending to us, He fashioned His body for Himself from a Virgin, thus to give to all no small proof of His Godhead, in that He who formed this is also Maker of everything else as well. For who, seeing a body proceeding forth from a Virgin alone without man, can fail to conclude that He who appears in it is Maker and Lord of other bodies also? 6. Or who, seeing the substance of water changed and transformed into wine, fails to perceive that He who did this is Lord and Creator of the substance of all waters? For this reason He went upon the sea also as its Master and walked as on dry land, to give evidence to those who saw it of His lordship over all things. And in feeding so vast a multitude on so little, and of His own self producing abundance where none existed, so that from five loaves five thousand had enough and left so much again over, did He show Himself to be any other than the very Lord whose Providence is over all things?

19. Man, unmoved by nature, was to be taught to knowGod by that sacred Manhood, Whose deity all nature confessed, especially in His Death.

But it seemed good for the Saviour to do all this so that since people had failed to know His Providence revealed in the Universe and had failed to perceive His Godhead shown in creation, they might at least from the works of His body recover their sight and through Him receive an idea of the knowledge of the Father, inferring, as I said before, from particular cases His Providence over the whole. For who that saw His power over evil spirits, or who that saw the evil spirits confess that He was their Lord, will hold his mind any longer in doubt whether this is the Son and Wisdom and Power of God? For He made even the creation break silence, in that even at His death, marvelous to relate, or rather at His actual trophy over death—the Cross I mean—all creation was confessing that He who was made manifest and suffered in the body was not merely man, but the Son of God and Saviour of all. For the sun hid its face, and the earth quaked and the mountains were split; all people were awed. Now these things showed that Christ on the Cross was God, while all creation was His slave and was witnessing by its fear to its Master’s presence. Thus, then, God the Word showed Himself to people by His works. But our next step must be to recount and speak of the end of His bodily life and course, and of the nature of the death of His body, especially as this is the sum of our faith, and all people without exception are full of it, so that you may know that no less from this also Christ is known to be God and the Son of God.

20. None, then, could bestow incorruption, but He Who had made, none restore the likeness of God, save His Own Image, none quicken, but the Life, none teach, but the Word. And He, to pay our debt of death, must also die for us, and rise again as our first-fruits from the grave. Mortal therefore His Body must be; corruptible, His Body could not be.

We have now explained, as far as possible and as we have been able to understand, the reason for His bodily appearance: that it was in the power of no one else to turn the corruptible to incorruption except the Savior Himself, who in the beginning also made all things out of nothing, and that no one else could create anew the likeness of God’s image for humanity except the Image of the Father, and that no one else could render the mortal immortal except our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Very Life, and that no one else could teach people about the Father and destroy the worship of idols except the Word, who orders all things and is alone the true Only-begotten Son of the Father. But since it was also necessary that the debt owed by all should be paid again—for, as I have already said, it was owed that all should die, which was the specific reason He came among us—to this end, after the proofs of His divinity from His works, He next offered up His sacrifice also on behalf of all, yielding His temple to death in place of all, in order first to make people quit and free of their old trespass, and further to show Himself more powerful even than death, displaying His own body incorruptible as the first-fruits of the resurrection of all. And do not be surprised if we frequently repeat the same words on the same subject. For since we are speaking of the counsel of God, we explain the same meaning in more than one form, lest we should seem to be leaving anything out and incur the charge of inadequate treatment, for it is better to accept the blame of repetition than to leave out anything that ought to be set down. The body, then, as sharing the same nature with all—for it was a human body, though by an unparalleled miracle it was formed from a virgin only—yet being mortal, was to die also, in keeping with its peers. But by virtue of the union of the Word with it, it was no longer subject to corruption according to its own nature, but by reason of the Word who had come to dwell in it, it was placed beyond the reach of corruption. And so it was that two marvels came to pass at once: that the death of all was accomplished in the Lord’s body, and that death and corruption were wholly done away with by reason of the Word who was united with it. For there was need of death, and death had to be suffered on behalf of all, so that the debt owed by all might be paid. Therefore, as I said before, the Word, since it was not possible for Him to die, as He was immortal, took to Himself a body such as could die, so that He might offer it as His own in place of all, and as suffering through His union with it on behalf of all, bring to nothing Him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

21. Death brought to nought by the death of Christ. Why then did not Christ die privately, or in a more honourableway? He was not subject to natural death, but had to die at the hands of others. Why then did He die? Nay but for that purpose He came, and but for that, He could not have risen.

Since the common Saviour of all has died on our behalf, we who are faithful in Christ no longer die the death we died before, according to the warning of the law. This condemnation has ceased. Corruption has ceased and been put away by the grace of the Resurrection. From now on, we are only dissolved according to our bodies’ mortal nature, at the time God has fixed for each person, so that we may gain a better resurrection. For like seeds cast into the earth, we do not perish by dissolution. Instead, sown in the earth, we will rise again, because death has been brought to nothing by the grace of the Saviour. This is why blessed Paul, who was made a guarantee of the Resurrection to all, says: This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality; but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is your sting? O grave where is your victory? Now someone might ask: if it was necessary for Him to yield up His body to death in place of all, why did He not lay it aside privately as a man, instead of going so far as to be crucified? It would have been more fitting for Him to have laid His body aside honorably than to endure such a shameful death. But consider whether such an objection is merely human, whereas what the Saviour did is truly divine and for many reasons worthy of His Godhead. First, the death that happens to men comes to them according to the weakness of their nature. Being unable to remain in one condition, they dissolve with time. Therefore diseases also befall them, and they fall sick and die. But the Lord is not weak; He is the Power of God and Word of God and Very Life. If He had laid aside His body somewhere in private, on a bed, in the manner of men, it would have been thought that He also did this according to the weakness of His nature, and that there was nothing in Him more than in other men. But since He was, first, the Life and the Word of God, and it was necessary, second, for the death on behalf of all to be accomplished, for this reason, on the one hand, because He was life and power, the body gained strength in Him. On the other hand, since death had to come to pass, He did not take it upon Himself, but received it at others’ hands, the occasion for perfecting His sacrifice. It was not fitting for the Lord to fall sick, since He healed the diseases of others. Nor was it right for that body to lose its strength, since in it He gives strength to the weaknesses of others also. Why then did He not prevent death, as He did sickness? Because it was for this purpose that He had the body, and it was unfitting to prevent it, lest the Resurrection also should be hindered. Yet it was equally unfitting for sickness to precede His death, lest it should be thought weakness on the part of Him that was in the body. Did He not hunger? Yes, He hungered, according to the properties of His body. But He did not perish of hunger, because of the Lord that wore it. Therefore, even if He died to ransom all, He saw no corruption. For His body rose again in perfect soundness, since the body belonged to none other but to the very Life.

22. But why did He not withdraw His body from the Jews, and so guard its immortality? (1) It became Him not to inflict death on Himself, and yet not to shun it. (2) He came to receive death as the due of others, therefore it should come to Him from without. (3) His death must be certain, to guarantee the truth of His Resurrection. Also, He could not die from infirmity, lest He should be mocked in His healing of others.

But someone might say it would have been better to hide from the plots of the Jews so that He could keep His body entirely from death. Now let such a person be told that this too was unfitting for the Lord. For just as it was not fitting for the Word of God, being the Life, to inflict death Himself on His own body, so neither was it suitable to flee from death offered by others, but rather to pursue it to its destruction, for which reason He naturally neither laid aside His body of His own accord, nor fled from the Jews when they plotted against Him. But this did not show weakness on the part of the Word, but on the contrary, showed Him to be Savior and Life; in that He both waited for death to destroy it, and hastened to accomplish the death offered to Him for the salvation of all. And besides, the Savior came to accomplish not His own death, but the death of men; therefore He did not lay aside His body by a death of His own—for He was Life and had none—but received that death which came from men, in order to perfectly do away with it when it met Him in His own body. Again, from the following also one might see the reasonableness of the Lord’s body meeting this end. The Lord was especially concerned for the resurrection of the body which He was set to accomplish. For what He was to do was to show it as a monument of victory over death, and to assure all of His having accomplished the blotting out of corruption, and of the incorruption of their bodies from that time forward; as a pledge of which and a proof of the resurrection in store for all, He has preserved His own body incorrupt. If, then, once more, His body had fallen sick, and the Word had been separated from it in the sight of all, it would have been unfitting that He who healed the diseases of others should allow His own instrument to waste in sickness. For how could His driving out the diseases of others have been believed in if His own temple fell sick in Him? For either He would have been mocked as unable to drive away diseases, or if He could but did not, He would be thought uncaring toward others also.

23. Necessity of a public death for the doctrine of the Resurrection.

But even if, without any disease or pain, He had hidden His body away privately and by Himself in a corner, or in a desert place, or in a house, or anywhere, and afterwards suddenly appeared and said that He had been raised from the dead, He would have seemed to everyone to be telling idle tales, and what He said about the Resurrection would have been even more discredited, since there was no one at all to witness His death. Now, death must come before resurrection, since it would not be resurrection if death did not come first; so if the death of His body had taken place anywhere in secret, with the death not being visible or taking place before witnesses, His Resurrection too would have been hidden and without evidence. Or why, while when He had risen He proclaimed the Resurrection, should He cause His death to take place in secret? Or why, while He drove out evil spirits in the presence of everyone, and made the man blind from birth recover his sight, and changed the water into wine, so that by these means He might be believed to be the Word of God, should He not demonstrate His mortal nature as incorruptible in the presence of everyone, so that He might be believed to be the Life? Or how were His disciples to have boldness in speaking of the Resurrection if they were not able to say that He first died? Or how could they be believed, saying that death had first taken place and then the Resurrection, if they did not have as witnesses of His death the very people before whom they spoke with boldness? For if, even as it was, when His death and Resurrection had taken place in the sight of everyone, the Pharisees of that day would not believe, but even compelled those who had seen the Resurrection to deny it, then surely, if these things had happened in secret, how many excuses for disbelief would they have invented? Or how could the end of death and the victory over it be proved, unless by challenging it before the eyes of everyone He had shown it to be dead, cancelled for the future by the incorruption of His body?

24. Further objections anticipated. He did not choose His manner of death; for He was to prove Conqueror of death in all or any of its forms: (simile of a good wrestler). The death chosen to disgrace Him proved the Trophy against death: moreover it preserved His body undivided.

But we must also respond to what others might say. For perhaps someone might argue as follows: If it was necessary for His death to happen before everyone, with witnesses, so that the account of His Resurrection would also be believed, it would have been better for Him to arrange a glorious death for Himself, if only to avoid the disgrace of the Cross. But if He had done even this, He would give reason for people to suspect that He was not powerful against every form of death, but only against the death He chose for Himself; and so there would still be an excuse for disbelief about the Resurrection. So death came to His body not from Himself, but from hostile plots, so that whatever death they inflicted on the Saviour, this He might completely destroy. And just as a noble wrestler, great in skill and courage, does not choose his opponents for himself, lest he raise suspicion that he is afraid of some of them, but leaves the choice to the spectators, especially if they happen to be his enemies, so that whichever opponent they match him against, he may defeat him and be believed superior to them all; so also the Life of all, our Lord and Saviour, Christ Himself, did not arrange a death for His own body, so as not to appear to be afraid of some other death; but He accepted and endured a death inflicted by others on the Cross, and above all by His enemies, which they considered dreadful and disgraceful and not to be faced; so that when this also was destroyed, both He Himself might be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be completely brought to nothing. So something surprising and startling has happened; for the death which they thought to inflict as a disgrace was actually a monument of victory against death itself. Therefore He did not suffer the death of John, whose head was cut off, nor was He sawn in two like Isaiah; so that even in death He might still keep His body undivided and in perfect wholeness, and no excuse be given to those who would divide the Church.

25. Why the Cross, of all deaths? (1) He had to bear the curse for us. (2) On it He held out His hands to unite all, Jews and Gentiles, in Himself. (3) He defeated the Prince of the powers of the air in His own region, clearing the way to heaven and opening for us the everlasting doors.

To respond to those outside the faith who pile up arguments: if any of our own people also ask—not from a love of debate, but from a love of learning—why He suffered death in no other way except on the cross, let him also be told that no other way than this was good for us, and that it was fitting that the Lord suffered this for our sake. For if He came Himself to bear the curse laid upon us, how else could He have become a curse, unless He received the death appointed for a curse? And that is the cross. For this is exactly what is written: Cursed is he that hangs on a tree. Again, if the Lord’s death is the ransom of all, and by His death the middle wall of partition is broken down, and the calling of the nations is brought about, how would He have called us to Him had He not been crucified? For it is only on the cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. Therefore it was fitting for the Lord to bear this also and to spread out His hands, so that with the one He might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the Gentiles, and unite both in Himself. For this is what He Himself has said, indicating by what manner of death He was to ransom all: I, when I am lifted up, He says, shall draw all men to Me. And once more, if the devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from heaven, wanders about our lower atmosphere, and there bearing rule over his fellow-spirits as his peers in disobedience, not only works illusions by their means in those who are deceived, but tries to hinder those who are going up (and about this the Apostle says: According to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience); while the Lord came to cast down the devil and clear the air and prepare the way for us up into heaven, as the Apostle said: Through the veil, that is to say, His flesh—and this must necessarily be by death—well, by what other kind of death could this have come to pass, than by one which took place in the air, I mean the cross? For only he who is perfected on the cross dies in the air. Therefore it was quite fitting that the Lord suffered this death. For thus being lifted up He cleared the air of the malice both of the devil and of demons of all kinds, as He says: I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven; and made a new opening of the way up into heaven as He says once more: Lift up your gates, O you princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors. For it was not the Word Himself who needed an opening of the gates, being Lord of all; nor were any of His works closed to their Maker; but we were the ones who needed it, whom He carried up by His own body. For as He offered it to death on behalf of all, so by it He once more made ready the way up into the heavens.

26. Reasons for His rising on the Third Day. (1) Not sooner for else His real death would be denied, nor (2) later; to (a) guard the identity of His body, (b) not to keep His disciplestoo long in suspense, nor (c) to wait till the witnesses of His death were dispersed, or its memory faded.

The death on the Cross, then, has proven to be fitting and appropriate for us, and its cause has been shown to be reasonable in every way. It can justly be argued that salvation for all people could not rightly have taken place in any other way than by the Cross. For not even on the Cross did He hide Himself. Rather, while He made creation bear witness to the presence of its Maker, He did not allow the temple of His body to remain long in death. Instead, having simply shown it to be dead through death’s contact with it, He immediately raised it up on the third day, carrying away incorruptibility and impassibility in His body as the sign of victory and triumph over death. He could have raised His body immediately after death and shown it alive, but the Saviour in His wisdom chose not to do this. Otherwise, someone might have said that He had not really died at all, or that death had not fully touched Him, if He had revealed the Resurrection at once. Again, if the time between His dying and rising had been only two days, the glory of His incorruptibility would have been unclear. So in order that the body might be proven to be truly dead, the Word waited one full day in between, and on the third day showed it incorruptible to everyone. Therefore, to prove that the death on the Cross was real, He raised His body on the third day. But to prevent people from disbelieving Him—thinking He had substituted a different body—if He raised it after it had remained a long time and completely decayed (for after too much time had passed, a person might distrust what he saw and forget what had happened), for this reason He waited no more than three days. Nor did He keep those whom He had told about the Resurrection in suspense for long. Rather, while the word was still echoing in their ears and their eyes were still watching expectantly and their minds were still waiting, and while those who had killed Him were still alive on earth and present on the spot and could testify to the death of the Lord’s body, the Son of God Himself, after three days, showed His body—though it had been dead—now immortal and incorruptible. It was made clear to everyone that the body had not died because of any natural weakness of the Word that dwelt in it, but so that death might be destroyed in it by the power of the Saviour.

27. The change wrought by the Cross in the relation of Death to Man.

For that death is destroyed, and that the Cross has become the victory over it, and that it no longer has any power but is truly dead, this is no small proof, or rather clear evidence, that it is despised by all Christ’s disciples, and that they all take the offensive against it and no longer fear it. By the sign of the Cross and by faith in Christ they trample it down as something dead. Before the divine coming of the Savior took place, even the saints found death terrifying, and everyone wept for the dead as though they had perished. But now that the Savior has raised His body, death is no longer terrifying. All who believe in Christ trample him underfoot as nothing, and would rather die than deny their faith in Christ. They truly know that when they die they are not destroyed, but actually begin to live and become incorruptible through the Resurrection. And that devil who once maliciously rejoiced in death, now that its pains were released, remained the only one truly dead. And proof of this is that before people believe in Christ, they see death as an object of terror and act like cowards before him. But when they cross over to Christ’s faith and teaching, their contempt for death is so great that they even eagerly rush toward it and become witnesses for the Resurrection the Savior has accomplished against it. For while still young in years they hurry to die, and not only men but also women train themselves by bodily discipline against it. Death has become so weak that even women who were formerly deceived by him now mock at him as dead and paralyzed. For just as when a tyrant has been defeated by a true king and bound hand and foot, then everyone who passes by laughs him to scorn, hitting and mocking him, no longer fearing his rage and cruelty because of the king who has conquered him, so also death, having been conquered and exposed by the Savior on the Cross and bound hand and foot, all those who are in Christ, as they pass by, trample on him. Witnessing to Christ they scoff at death, joking at him and saying what was written against him long ago: O death, where is your victory? O grave, where is your sting.

28. This exceptional fact must be tested by experience. Let those who doubtit become Christians.

Is this, then, a small proof of the weakness of death? Or is it a small demonstration of the victory the Savior has won over death, when the young men and young women who are in Christ despise this life and train themselves to die? For by nature, man is afraid of death and of the body’s dissolution; but here is this most startling fact: the person who has put on the faith of the Cross despises even what is naturally fearful, and for Christ’s sake is not afraid of death. And just as fire has the natural property of burning, but if someone said there was a substance that did not fear its burning and instead proved fire to be weak—as the asbestos among the Indians is said to do—then a person who did not believe this story, if he wanted to test it, would at any rate, after putting on the fireproof material and touching the fire, be convinced of the weakness attributed to the fire; or if anyone wished to see the tyrant bound, he could at any rate go into the country and domain of his conqueror and see the man who is a terror to others now reduced to weakness—so if a person is still incredulous even after so many proofs and after so many who have become martyrs in Christ, and after the scorn shown for death every day by those who are distinguished in Christ, and if his mind is still doubtful as to whether death has been brought to nothing and has ended, he does well to wonder at so great a thing, only let him not remain stubborn in unbelief, nor hardened in the face of what is so clear. But just as the person who has the asbestos knows that fire has no burning power over it, and as the person who wants to see the tyrant bound goes over to the empire of his conqueror, so too let the person who is incredulous about the victory over death receive the faith of Christ and pass over to His teaching, and he will see the weakness of death and the triumph over it. For many who were formerly unbelievers and scoffers have afterward believed and so despised death as even to become martyrs for Christ Himself.

29. Here then are wonderful effects, and a sufficient cause, the Cross, to account for them, as sunrise accounts for daylight.

Now if death is trampled down by the sign of the Cross and by faith in Christ, it must be clear before the tribunal of truth that it is none other than Christ Himself who has displayed trophies and triumphs over death and made him lose all his strength. And if death was previously strong and therefore terrible, but now after the sojourn of the Savior and the death and Resurrection of His body it is despised, it must be clear that death has been brought to nothing and conquered by the very Christ who ascended the Cross. For just as, when the sun rises after nighttime and the whole region of earth is illuminated by it, there is no doubt that it is the sun who has revealed his light everywhere, who has also driven away the darkness and given light to all things, so now that death has become an object of contempt and been trampled underfoot from the time when the Savior’s saving manifestation in the flesh and His death on the Cross took place, it must be quite plain that it is the very Savior who also appeared in the body who has brought death to nothing and who displays the signs of victory over him day by day in His own disciples. For when one sees men, weak by nature, leaping forward toward death and not fearing its corruption nor frightened of the descent into Hades, but with eager soul challenging it, and not flinching from torture but on the contrary choosing for Christ’s sake to rush upon death rather than live on earth, or even if one is an eyewitness of men and women and young children rushing and leaping upon death for the sake of Christ’s religion, who is so foolish, or who is so unbelieving, or who is so impaired in his mind as not to see and conclude that Christ, to whom the people bear witness, Himself supplies and gives to each person the victory over death, depriving him of all his power in each one of those who hold His faith and bear the sign of the Cross? For anyone who sees the serpent trampled underfoot, especially knowing his former fierceness, no longer doubts that he is dead and has completely lost his strength, unless he is perverted in mind and does not even have his bodily senses sound. For who that sees a lion being mocked by children fails to see that he is either dead or has lost all his power? Just as it is possible to see the truth of all this with the eyes, so now that death is mocked and despised by believers in Christ, let no one any longer doubt, nor any prove unbelieving, that death has been brought to nothing by Christ and the corruption of death destroyed and stopped.

30. The reality of the resurrection proved by facts: (1) the victory over death described above: (2) the Wonders of Grace are the work of One Living, of One who is God: (3) if the gods be (as alleged) real and living, a fortiori He Who shatters their power is alive.

What we have said so far, then, is no small proof that death has been destroyed and that the Cross of the Lord is a sign of victory over him. But concerning the Resurrection of the body to immortality that Christ accomplished afterward—the common Savior and true Life of all—the demonstration by facts is clearer than arguments to those whose mental vision is sound. For if, as our argument showed, death has been destroyed, and because of Christ all people trample him underfoot, how much more did He Himself first trample him down with His own body and destroy him? But if death was killed by Him, what else could have happened except the rising again of His body and its being displayed as a monument of victory against death? Or how could death have been shown to be destroyed unless the Lord’s body had risen? But if this demonstration of the Resurrection seems insufficient to anyone, let him be assured of what is said even from what takes place before his eyes. For when a man dies he can put forth no power, but his influence lasts only to the grave and from that point ceases; and actions, and power over men, belong only to the living. Let anyone who wishes see and be the judge, confessing the truth from what appears to sight. For now that the Savior works such great things among people, and day by day invisibly persuades such a great multitude from every side—both from those who dwell in Greece and in foreign lands—to come over to His faith, and all to obey His teaching, will anyone still hold his mind in doubt whether a Resurrection has been accomplished by the Savior, and whether Christ is alive, or rather is Himself the Life? Or is it like a dead man to be pricking the consciences of people, so that they deny their hereditary laws and bow before the teaching of Christ? Or how, if He is no longer active (for this is proper to one dead), does He stop from their activity those who are active and alive, so that the adulterer no longer commits adultery, and the murderer murders no more, nor is the inflicter of wrong any longer grasping, and the profane person is henceforth religious? Or how, if He has not risen but is dead, does He drive away, and pursue, and cast down those false gods said by the unbelievers to be alive, and the demons they worship? For where Christ is named, and His faith, there all idolatry is deposed and all imposture of evil spirits is exposed, and any spirit is unable to endure even the name—in fact, on barely hearing it, flees and disappears. But this work is not that of one dead, but of one who lives—and especially of God. In particular, it would be ridiculous to say that while the spirits cast out by Him and the idols brought to nothing are alive, He who chases them away, and by His power prevents their even appearing—yes, and is being confessed by them all to be Son of God—is dead.

31. If Power is the sign of life, what do we learn from the impotence of idols, for good or evil, and the constraining power of Christ and of the Sign of the Cross? Death and the demonsare by this proved to have lost their sovereignty. Coincidence of the above argument from facts with that from the Personality of Christ.

But those who don’t believe in the Resurrection provide strong proof against themselves. Instead of all the spirits and gods they worship casting out Christ, whom they claim is dead, Christ actually proves that all of them are dead. If it’s true that someone who is dead can’t exercise any power, while the Savior performs so many works every day—drawing people to religion, persuading them toward virtue, teaching about immortality, leading them to desire heavenly things, revealing knowledge of the Father, giving them strength to face death, showing Himself to each person, and removing the godlessness of idolatry—and the gods and spirits of unbelievers can do none of these things but instead show themselves to be dead in Christ’s presence, their splendor reduced to powerlessness and emptiness; and by the sign of the Cross all magic is stopped, all witchcraft brought to nothing, all idols are being abandoned and left behind, every uncontrolled pleasure is restrained, and everyone is looking up from earth to heaven: who should we call dead? Christ, who does so many works? But working is not characteristic of someone who is dead. Or those who exercise no power at all but lie as if lifeless? That is exactly what characterizes the idols and spirits, dead as they are. For the Son of God is living and active, and works every day, bringing about the salvation of all. But death is proven daily to have lost all its power, and idols and spirits are proven to be dead rather than Christ, so that from now on no one can doubt the Resurrection of His body. But whoever doesn’t believe in the Resurrection of the Lord’s body seems to be ignorant of the power of the Word and Wisdom of God. For if He took a body to Himself at all, and—as our argument showed in reasonable consistency—made it His own, what was the Lord to do with it? Or what should be the final state of the body once the Word had descended upon it? It had to die, since it was mortal and was to be offered to death on behalf of all—which is the very purpose for which the Savior fashioned it for Himself. But it was impossible for it to remain dead, because it had been made the temple of life. Therefore, while it died as something mortal, it came to life again because of the Life within it; and the works are a sign of its Resurrection.

32. But who is to see Him risen, so as to believe? Nay, God is ever invisible and known by His works only: and here the works cry out in proof. If you do not believe, look at those who do, and perceive the Godhead of Christ. The demonssee this, though men be blind. Summary of the argument so far.

But if His resurrection is disbelieved because He is not seen, it is high time for those who refuse to believe to deny the very course of nature. For it is God’s peculiar property to be invisible while at the same time being known from His works, as has already been stated above. If the works are not there, they do well to disbelieve what does not appear. But if the works cry aloud and show it clearly, why do they choose to deny the life so clearly resulting from the Resurrection? For even if they are impaired in their intelligence, yet even with their external senses people can see the unimpeachable power and Godhead of Christ. For even a blind man, though he does not see the sun, if he takes hold of the warmth the sun gives out, knows that there is a sun above the earth. Thus let our opponents also, even if they do not yet believe, being still blind to the truth, yet at least knowing His power through others who believe, not deny the Godhead of Christ and the Resurrection accomplished by Him. For it is clear that if Christ were dead, He could not be expelling demons and destroying idols; for spirits would not have obeyed a dead man. But if they are clearly expelled by the naming of His name, it must be evident that He is not dead, especially since spirits, seeing even what is unseen by men, could tell if Christ were dead and would refuse Him any obedience at all. But as it is, what irreligious men do not believe, the spirits see—that He is God—and therefore they flee and fall at His feet, saying just what they said when He was in the body: We know who You are, the Holy One of God; and, What have we to do with You, Son of God? I beg You, do not torment me. Since demons confess Him, and His works bear witness to Him day by day, it must be evident, and let no one brazenly deny the truth, both that the Savior raised His own body, and that He is the true Son of God, being from Him, as from His Father, His own Word, and Wisdom, and Power, who in later ages took a body for the salvation of all, and taught the world concerning the Father, and brought death to nothing, and bestowed incorruption upon all by the promise of the Resurrection, having raised His own body as a first-fruits of this, and having displayed it by the sign of the Cross as a monument of victory over death and its corruption.

33. Unbelief of Jews and scoffing of Greeks. The former confounded by their own Scriptures. Prophecies of His coming as God and as Man.

These things being so, and the Resurrection of His body and the victory gained over death by the Saviour being clearly proved, come now let us refute both the disbelief of the Jews and the scoffing of the Gentiles. These are perhaps the points where Jews express doubt, while Gentiles mock, finding fault with the scandalous nature of the Cross and with the Word of God becoming man. But our argument will not hesitate to engage with both, especially since the proofs we have against them are as clear as day. For Jews in their disbelief may be refuted from the Scriptures, which they themselves read; for this passage and that, and indeed the whole inspired Scripture, cries aloud concerning these things, as even its very words abundantly show. For prophets proclaimed beforehand concerning the wonder of the Virgin and the birth from her, saying: Behold, the Virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means, being interpreted, God with us. But Moses, the truly great, and whom they believe to speak truth, with reference to the Saviour’s becoming man, having considered what was said as important and assured of its truth, set it down in these words: There shall rise a star out of Jacob, and a man out of Israel, and he shall break in pieces the captains of Moab. And again: How lovely are your habitations O Jacob, your tabernacles O Israel, as shadowing gardens, and as parks by the rivers, and as tabernacles which the Lord has fixed, as cedars by the waters. A man shall come forth out of his seed, and shall be Lord over many peoples. And again, Isaiah: Before the Child knows how to call father or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria before the king of Assyria. That a man, then, shall appear is foretold in those words. But that He who is to come is Lord of all, they predict once more as follows: Behold the Lord sits upon a light cloud, and shall come into Egypt, and the graven images of Egypt shall be shaken. For from there also the Father calls Him back, saying: I called My Son out of Egypt.

34. Prophecies of His passionand death in all its circumstances.

Nor is even His death passed over in silence. On the contrary, it is referred to in the divine Scriptures with exceeding clarity. So that no one should go astray for lack of instruction about what actually happened, they did not hesitate to mention even the reason for His death—that He suffers it not for His own sake, but for the immortality and salvation of all—and the plots of the Jews against Him and the insults they inflicted on Him. They say then: A man in stripes, and knowing how to bear weakness, for his face is turned away: he was dishonoured and held in no account. He bears our sins, and is in pain on our account; and we reckoned him to be in labour, and in stripes, and in ill-usage; but he was wounded for our sins, and made weak for our wickedness. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we were healed. What a marvel is the loving-kindness of the Word, that for our sakes He is dishonoured, so that we may be brought to honour. For all we, it says, like sheep had gone astray; man had erred in his way; and the Lord delivered him for our sins; and he opens not his mouth, because he has been evilly entreated. As a sheep was he brought to the slaughter, and as a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opens he not his mouth: in his abasement his judgment was taken away. Then lest anyone should conclude from His suffering that He is a common man, Holy Scripture anticipates the assumptions of man and declares the power that worked for Him and the difference of His nature compared with ourselves, saying: But who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. From the wickedness of the people was he brought to death. And I will give the wicked instead of his burial, and the rich instead of his death; for he did no wickedness, neither was guile found in his mouth. And the Lord will cleanse him from his stripes.

35. Prophecies of the Cross. How these prophecies are satisfied in Christ alone.

But perhaps, after hearing the prophecy of His death, you want to learn also what is said about the Cross. For not even this is passed over—it is shown by the holy men with great clarity. First Moses predicts it, and that with a loud voice, when he says: You shall see your Life hanging before your eyes, and shall not believe. Next, the prophets after him bear witness to this, saying: But I as an innocent lamb brought to be slain, knew it not; they counseled an evil counsel against me, saying, Come and let us cast a tree upon his bread, and wipe him out from the land of the living. And again: They pierced my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones, they parted my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Now a death that is raised up and that takes place on a tree could be nothing other than the Cross—and again, in no other death are the hands and feet pierced, except on the Cross alone. But since through the Savior’s time among men all nations on every side began to know God, they did not leave this point without a reference either—this matter is also mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. For there shall be, he says, the root of Jesse, and he that rises to rule the nations, on him shall the nations hope. This then is a little of the proof of what has happened. But all Scripture is full of refutations of the disbelief of the Jews. For which of the righteous men and holy prophets and patriarchs recorded in the divine Scriptures ever had his bodily birth from a virgin only? Or what woman has been sufficient without a man for the conception of a human being? Was not Abel born of Adam, Enoch of Jared, Noah of Lamech, and Abraham of Terah, Isaac of Abraham, Jacob of Isaac? Was not Judah born of Jacob, and Moses and Aaron of Amram? Was not Samuel born of Elkanah, was not David of Jesse, was not Solomon of David, was not Hezekiah of Ahaz, was not Josiah of Amon, was not Isaiah of Amoz, was not Jeremiah of Hilkiah, was not Ezekiel of Buzi? Did not each have a father as the source of his existence? Who then is he that is born of a virgin only? For the prophet made very much of this sign. Or whose birth did a star in the heavens precede, to announce to the world the one who was born? For when Moses was born, he was hidden by his parents. David was not known even by those in his neighborhood, since even the great Samuel did not know him, but asked, does Jesse have yet another son? Abraham again became known to his neighbors as a great man only after his birth. But for Christ’s birth the witness was not man, but a star in that heaven from which He was descending.

36. Prophecies of Christ’s sovereignty, flight into Egypt, etc.

But what king that ever existed, before he had the strength to call for his father or mother, reigned and won victories over his enemies? Did not David come to the throne at thirty years of age, and Solomon when he had grown to be a young man? Did not Joash enter the kingdom when he was seven years old, and Josiah, a later king, receive the government around the seventh year of his age? And yet they at that age had the strength to call for their father or mother. 2. Who, then, is there who was reigning and plundering his enemies almost before his birth? Or what king of this kind has ever existed in Israel and in Judah—let the Jews, who have searched out the matter, tell us—in whom all the nations have placed their hopes and had peace, instead of being at war with them on every side? 3. For as long as Jerusalem stood there was constant war between them, and everyone fought with Israel; the Assyrians oppressed them, the Egyptians persecuted them, the Babylonians attacked them; and, strangely enough, they even had the Syrians their neighbors at war against them. Or did not David war against the Moabites and strike down the Syrians, did not Josiah guard against his neighbors, and Hezekiah tremble at the boasting of Sennacherib, and did not Amalek make war against Moses, and the Amorites oppose him, and the inhabitants of Jericho array themselves against Joshua son of Nun? And, in a word, treaties of friendship had no place between the nations and Israel. Who, then, it is on whom the nations are to set their hope, it is worth considering. For there must be such a person, as it is impossible for the prophet to have spoken falsely. 4. But which of the holy prophets or of the early patriarchs died on the cross for the salvation of all? Or who was wounded and destroyed for the healing of all? Or which of the righteous men, or kings, went down to Egypt, so that at his coming the idols of Egypt fell? For Abraham went there, but idolatry prevailed universally all the same. Moses was born there, and the deluded worship of the people was there nonetheless.

37. Psalm 22:16, etc. Majesty of His birth and death. Confusion of oracles and demonsin Egypt.

Or who among those recorded in Scripture was pierced in the hands and feet, or hung at all upon a tree, and was sacrificed on a cross for the salvation of all? For Abraham died, ending his life on a bed; Isaac and Jacob also died with their feet raised on a bed; Moses and Aaron died on the mountain; David in his house, without being the object of any conspiracy at the hands of the people. True, he was pursued by Saul, but he was preserved unhurt. Isaiah was sawn in two, but not hung on a tree. Jeremiah was shamefully treated, but did not die under condemnation. Ezekiel suffered, but not for the people—rather to indicate what was to come upon the people. Moreover, these men, even when they suffered, were human beings sharing in our common nature. But the one who is declared in Scripture to suffer on behalf of all is called not merely man, but the Life of all, even though He was in fact like human beings in nature. For it says, you shall see your Life hanging before your eyes; and who shall declare his generation? For one can determine the genealogy of all the saints and declare it from the beginning, and say from whom each was born. But the generation of Him who is the Life, the Scriptures refer to as not able to be declared. Who then is he of whom the Divine Scriptures say this? Or who is so great that even the prophets predict such great things about him? None other is found in the Scriptures except the common Savior of all, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. For He is the one who came forth from a virgin and appeared as a man on the earth, and whose generation according to the flesh cannot be declared. For there is no one who can tell His father according to the flesh, His body not being from a man but from a virgin alone. So no one can declare the bodily generation of the Savior from a man, in the same way as one can draw up a genealogy of David and of Moses and of all the patriarchs. For He is the one who caused the star also to mark the birth of His body, since it was fitting that the Word, coming down from heaven, should have His constellation also from heaven, and it was fitting that the King of Creation when He came forth should be openly recognized by all creation. Indeed, He was born in Judea, and men from Persia came to worship Him. He is the one who even before His appearing in the body won the victory over His demon adversaries and a triumph over idolatry. All heathen at any rate from every region, renouncing their ancestral tradition and the impiety of idols, are now placing their hope in Christ and enrolling themselves under Him, as you may see with your own eyes. For at no other time has the impiety of the Egyptians ceased, except when the Lord of all, riding as it were upon a cloud, came down there in the body and brought to nothing the delusion of idols, and brought over all to Himself, and through Himself to the Father. He is the one who was crucified before the sun and all creation as witnesses, and before those who put Him to death, and by His death salvation has come to all, and all creation has been ransomed. He is the Life of all, and He is the one who as a sheep yielded His body to death as a substitute for the salvation of all, even though the Jews do not believe it.

38. Other clear prophecies of the coming of Godin the flesh. Christ’s miraclesunprecedented.

For if they do not think these proofs sufficient, let them be persuaded at any rate by other reasons, drawn from the oracles they themselves possess. For of whom do the prophets say: I was made manifest to them that sought me not, I was found of them that asked not for me: I said Behold, here am I, to the nation that had not called upon my name; I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people. 2. Who, then, one might say to the Jews, is he that was made manifest? For if it is the prophet, let them say when he was hidden, afterward to appear again. And what kind of prophet is this, who was not only made manifest from obscurity, but also stretched out his hands on the Cross? None of the righteous, surely, except the Word of God alone, who, incorporeal by nature, appeared for our sakes in the body and suffered for all. 3. Or if not even this is sufficient for them, let them at least be silenced by another proof, seeing how clear its demonstrative force is. For the Scripture says: Be strong you hands that hang down, and feeble knees; comfort ye, you of faint mind; be strong, fear not. Behold, our God recompenses judgment; He shall come and save us. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be plain. 4. Now what can they say to this, or how can they dare to face this at all? For the prophecy not only indicates that God is to dwell here, but it announces the signs and the time of His coming. For they connect the blind recovering their sight, and the lame walking, and the deaf hearing, and the tongue of the stammerers being made plain, with the Divine Coming which is to take place. Let them say, then, when such signs have come to pass in Israel, or where in Jewry anything of the sort has occurred. 5. Naaman, a leper, was cleansed, but no deaf man heard nor lame man walked. Elijah raised a dead man; so did Elisha; but no one blind from birth regained his sight. For in truth, to raise a dead man is a great thing, but it is not like the wonder wrought by the Saviour. Only, if Scripture has not passed over the case of the leper, and of the dead son of the widow, certainly, had it come to pass that a lame man also had walked and a blind man recovered his sight, the narrative would not have omitted to mention this also. Since then nothing is said in the Scriptures, it is evident that these things had never taken place before. 6. When, then, have they taken place, except when the Word of God Himself came in the body? Or when did He come, if not when lame men walked, and stammerers were made to speak plainly, and deaf men heard, and men blind from birth regained their sight? For this was the very thing the Jews said who then witnessed it, because they had not heard of these things having taken place at any other time: Since the world began it was never heard that any one opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.

39. Do you look for another? But Daniel foretells the exact time. Objections to this removed.

But perhaps, being unable even they to fight continually against plain facts, they will, without denying what is written, maintain that they are still looking for these things, and that the Word of God has not yet come. For this is what they keep harping on forever, not blushing to brazen it out in the face of plain facts. But on this one point, above all, they shall be all the more refuted, not by us, but by the most wise Daniel, who marks both the actual date and the divine sojourn of the Savior, saying: Seventy weeks are cut short upon your people, and upon the holy city, for a full end to be made of sin, and for sins to be sealed up, and to blot out iniquities, and to make atonement for iniquities, and to bring everlasting righteousness, and to seal vision and prophet, and to anoint a Holy of Holies; and you shall know and understand from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Christ the Prince. Perhaps with regard to the other prophecies they may be able even to find excuses and to put off what is written to a future time. But what can they say to this, or can they face it at all? For not only is the Christ referred to, but He that is to be anointed is declared to be not simply man, but Holy of Holies; and Jerusalem is to stand until His coming, and from then on, prophet and vision cease in Israel. David was anointed of old, and Solomon and Hezekiah; but then, nevertheless, Jerusalem and the place stood, and prophets were prophesying: Gad and Asaph and Nathan; and, later, Isaiah and Hosea and Amos and others. And again, the actual men that were anointed were called holy, and not Holy of Holies. But if they shield themselves with the captivity, and say that because of it Jerusalem was not, what can they say about the prophets too? For in fact when first the people went down to Babylon, Daniel and Jeremiah were there, and Ezekiel and Haggai and Zechariah were prophesying.

40. Argument (1) from the withdrawal of prophecyand destruction of Jerusalem, (2) from the conversion of the Gentiles, and that to the God of Moses. What more remains for the Messiah to do, that Christ has not done?

So the Jews are fooling themselves, and the time they claim is still future has actually already come. For when did prophet and vision cease from Israel, except when Christ came, the Holy of Holies? It is a sign and an important proof of the coming of the Word of God that Jerusalem no longer stands, nor is any prophet raised up nor vision revealed to them—and this is quite natural. For when the one who was signified had come, what further need was there for anyone to signify him? When the truth was present, what further need was there for the shadow? This was the reason they prophesied at all—namely, until the true Righteousness should come, and he who was to ransom the sins of all. And this was why Jerusalem stood until then—namely, so that there they might be trained in the types as a preparation for the reality. So when the Holy of Holies had come, naturally vision and prophecy were sealed and the kingdom of Jerusalem ceased. For kings were to be anointed among them only until the Holy of Holies should have been anointed; and Jacob prophesies that the kingdom of the Jews should be established until him, as follows: The ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor the Prince from his loins, until that which is laid up for him shall come; and he is the expectation of the nations. This is why the Savior himself also cried aloud and said: The law and the prophets prophesied until John. If then there is now among the Jews a king or prophet or vision, they do well to deny the Christ who has come. But if there is neither king nor vision, and from that time forward all prophecy is sealed and the city and temple taken, why are they so irreligious and so perverse as to see what has happened, yet still deny Christ, who has brought it all to pass? Or why, when they see even heathens deserting their idols and placing their hope, through Christ, on the God of Israel, do they deny Christ, who was born of the root of Jesse according to the flesh and is henceforth King? For if the nations were worshiping some other God, and not confessing the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses, then once more they would be doing well in claiming that God had not come. But if the Gentiles are honoring the same God who gave the law to Moses and made the promise to Abraham, and whose word the Jews dishonored—why are they ignorant, or rather why do they choose to ignore, that the Lord foretold by the Scriptures has shone forth upon the world and appeared to it in bodily form, as the Scripture said: The Lord God has shined upon us; and again: He sent his Word and healed them; and again: Not a messenger, not an angel, but the Lord himself saved them? Their condition may be compared to that of someone out of his right mind who sees the earth illuminated by the sun but denies the sun that illuminates it. For what more is there for the one they expect to do, when he has come? To call the heathen? But they are already called. To make prophecy and king and vision cease? This too has already happened. To expose the godlessness of idolatry? It is already exposed and condemned. Or to destroy death? He is already destroyed. What then has not come to pass that the Christ must do? What is left unfulfilled that the Jews should now disbelieve with impunity? For if, I say—which is just what we actually see—there is no longer king nor prophet nor Jerusalem nor sacrifice nor vision among them, but even the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God, and Gentiles, leaving their godlessness, are now taking refuge with the God of Abraham through the Word, even our Lord Jesus Christ, then it must be plain, even to those who are exceedingly obstinate, that the Christ has come, and that he has illuminated absolutely all with his light and given them the true and divine teaching concerning his Father. So one can fairly refute the Jews by these and by other arguments from the Divine Scriptures.

41. Answer to the Greeks. Do they recognise the Logos? If He manifests Himself in the organism of the Universe, why not in one Body? For a human body is a part of the same whole.

But one cannot help being utterly astonished at the Gentiles, who laugh at what is no matter for jesting, while they remain insensible to their own disgrace, which they do not see they have set up in the form of wooden idols and stones. However, since our argument is not lacking in demonstrative proof, come let us put them to shame on reasonable grounds, mainly from what we ourselves also see. For what is there on our side that is absurd or worthy of ridicule? Is it merely our saying that the Word has been made manifest in the body? But even they will agree that this has happened without any absurdity, if they show themselves friends of truth. If they deny that there is a Word of God at all, they do so gratuitously, mocking what they do not know. But if they confess that there is a Word of God, and that He is ruler of the universe, and that in Him the Father has produced the creation, and that by His Providence all things receive light and life and being, and that He reigns over all, so that from the works of His providence He is known, and through Him the Father—consider, I ask you, whether they are not unwittingly raising the mockery against themselves. The philosophers of the Greeks say that the universe is a great body, and rightly so. For we see it and its parts as objects of our senses. If, then, the Word of God is in the universe, which is a body, and has united Himself with the whole and with all its parts, what is there surprising or absurd if we say that He has united Himself with man also. For if it were absurd for Him to have been in a body at all, it would be absurd for Him to be united with the whole either, and to be giving light and movement to all things by His providence. For the whole also is a body. But if it is fitting for Him to unite Himself with the universe and to be made known in the whole, it must also be fitting for Him to appear in a human body, and that by Him it should be illumined and work. For mankind is part of the whole as well as the rest. And if it is unseemly for a part to have been adopted as His instrument to teach men of His Godhead, it must be most absurd that He should be made known even by the whole universe.

42. His union with the body is based upon His relation to Creation as a whole. He used a human body, since to man it was that He wished to reveal Himself.

Just as the whole body is given life and illuminated by man, and someone would be thought foolish if he said it were absurd that man’s power should also be in the toe—because while he grants that man pervades and works in the whole body, he objects to his being in the part as well—so too the person who grants and believes that the Word of God is in the whole universe, and that the whole is illuminated and moved by Him, should not think it absurd that a single human body should also receive movement and light from Him. But if they regard the manifestation of the Savior in man, which we speak of, as not fitting because the human race is a created thing and has been made out of nothing, then it is high time for them to reject Him from creation also, for it too has been brought into existence by the Word out of nothing. But if, even though creation is a thing made, it is not absurd that the Word should be in it, then neither is it absurd that He should be in man. For whatever idea they form of the whole, they must necessarily apply the same idea to the part. For man also, as I said before, is a part of the whole. Thus it is not at all unseemly that the Word should be in man, while all things are deriving from Him their light and movement and life, as their authors also say, “In him we live and move and have our being.” So then, what is there to mock in what we say, if the Word has used that in which He is as an instrument to manifest Himself? For if He were not in it, neither could He have used it; but if we have previously acknowledged that He is in the whole and in its parts, what is there incredible in His manifesting Himself in that in which He is? For by His own power He is united wholly with each and all, and orders all things without limit, so that no one could have called it out of place for Him to speak and make known Himself and His Father by means of sun, if He so willed, or moon, or heaven, or earth, or waters, or fire, since He holds all things together at once and is in fact not only in all but also in the particular part in question, and there invisibly manifests Himself. In the same way it cannot be absurd if, ordering as He does the whole and giving life to all things and having willed to make Himself known through men, He has used a human body as His instrument to manifest the truth and knowledge of the Father. For humanity too is an actual part of the whole. And just as the mind, pervading man all through, is expressed by a part of the body—I mean the tongue—without anyone saying, I suppose, that the essence of the mind is on that account lowered, so if the Word, pervading all things, has used a human instrument, this cannot appear unseemly. For, as I have said previously, if it is unseemly to have used a body as an instrument, it is unseemly also for Him to be in the whole.

43. He came in human rather than in any nobler form, because (I) He came to save, not to impress ; (2) man alone of creatures had sinned. As men would not recognise His works in the Universe, He came and worked among them as Man; in the sphere to which they had limited themselves.

Now, if they ask why He did not appear by means of other and nobler parts of creation, and use some nobler instrument, such as the sun, or moon, or stars, or fire, or air, instead of merely as man, let them know that the Lord came not to make a display, but to heal and teach those who were suffering. For the way for someone aiming at display would be simply to appear and to dazzle the observers. But for someone seeking to heal and teach, the way is not simply to dwell here, but to give himself to help those in need, and to appear in a form that those who need him can bear, so that he may not, by exceeding what the sufferers require, trouble the very persons who need him, making God’s appearance useless to them. Now, nothing in creation had gone astray in their understanding of God except man alone. Why, neither sun, nor moon, nor heaven, nor the stars, nor water, nor air had turned away from their proper order. Knowing their Maker and Sovereign, the Word, they remain as they were made. But men alone, having rejected what was good, then invented empty things instead of the truth, and have given the honor due to God, and their knowledge of Him, to demons and men in the form of stones. With good reason, then, since it would be unworthy of the Divine Goodness to overlook such a serious matter, while men were unable to recognize Him as ordering and guiding the whole, He takes to Himself as an instrument a part of the whole, His human body, and unites Himself with it, so that since men could not recognize Him in the whole, they should not fail to know Him in the part. And since they could not look up to His invisible power, they might be able, at least, from what resembled themselves to reason up to Him and to contemplate Him. For, being men as they are, they will be able to know His Father more quickly and directly through a body of like nature and through the divine works accomplished through it, judging by comparison that these are not human, but the works of God, which are done by Him. And if it were absurd, as they say, for the Word to be known through the works of the body, it would likewise be absurd for Him to be known through the works of the universe. For just as He is in creation, and yet does not share in its nature in the least degree, but rather all things share in His power, so while He used the body as His instrument He shared in no bodily property, but, on the contrary, He Himself sanctified even the body. For if even Plato, who is held in such high regard among the Greeks, says that its author, seeing the universe storm-tossed and in danger of sinking down to the place of chaos, takes his seat at the helm of the soul and comes to the rescue and corrects all its troubles, what is incredible in what we say, that, mankind being in error, the Word came down upon it and appeared as man, so that He might save it in its storm by His guidance and goodness?

44. As God made man by a word, why not restore him by a word? But (1) creation out of nothing is different from reparation of what already exists. (2) Man was there with a definite need, calling for a definite remedy. Death was ingrained in man’s nature: He then must wind life closely to human nature. Therefore the Word became Incarnate that He might meet and conquer death in His usurped territory. (Simile of straw and asbestos.)

But perhaps, ashamed into agreeing with this, they will choose to say that God, if He wished to reform and save mankind, ought to have done so by a mere command, without His Word taking a body, in just the same way as He did formerly when He produced them out of nothing. To this objection of theirs a reasonable answer would be: that formerly, when nothing existed at all, what was needed to make everything was a command and the bare will to do so. But when man had once been made, and necessity demanded a cure, not for things that did not exist, but for things that had come to be, it naturally followed that the Physician and Savior should appear in what had come to be, in order also to cure the things that existed. For this reason, then, He has become man and used His body as a human instrument. For if this were not the right way, how was the Word, choosing to use an instrument, to appear? Or where was He to take it from, except from those already in being and in need of His Godhead by means of one like themselves? For it was not things without being that needed salvation, so that a bare command should suffice, but man, already in existence, was going to corruption and ruin. It was then natural and right that the Word should use a human instrument and reveal Himself everywhere. Secondly, you must know this also, that the corruption which had set in was not external to the body, but had become attached to it; and it was required that, instead of corruption, life should cleave to it; so that, just as death has been engendered in the body, so life may be engendered in it also. Now if death were external to the body, it would be proper for life also to have been engendered externally to it. But if death was wound closely to the body and was ruling over it as though united to it, it was required that life also should be wound closely to the body, that so the body, by putting on life in its place, should cast off corruption. Besides, even supposing that the Word had come outside the body and not in it, death would indeed have been defeated by Him, in perfect accordance with nature, since death has no power against the Life; but the corruption attached to the body would have remained in it nonetheless. For this reason the Savior reasonably put on Him a body, in order that the body, becoming wound closely to the Life, should no longer, as mortal, abide in death, but, as having put on immortality, should from then on rise again and remain immortal. For once it had put on corruption, it could not have risen again unless it had put on life. And death likewise could not, from its very nature, appear except in the body. Therefore He put on a body, that He might find death in the body and blot it out. For how could the Lord have been proved at all to be the Life, had He not quickened what was mortal? And just as, whereas stubble is naturally destructible by fire, supposing firstly a man keeps fire away from the stubble, though it is not burned, yet the stubble remains, for all that, merely stubble, fearing the threat of the fire—for fire has the natural property of consuming it—while if a man secondly encloses it with a quantity of asbestos, the substance said to be an antidote to fire, the stubble no longer dreads the fire, being secured by its enclosure in incombustible matter; in this very way one may say, with regard to the body and death, that if death had been kept from the body by a mere command on His part, it would nonetheless have been mortal and corruptible, according to the nature of bodies; but that this should not be, it put on the incorporeal Word of God, and thus no longer fears either death or corruption, for it has life as a garment, and corruption is done away in it.

45. Thus once again every part of creation manifests the glory of God. Nature, the witness to her Creator, yields (by miracles) a second testimony to God Incarnate. The witness of Nature, perverted by man’s sin, was thus forced back to truth. If these reasons suffice not, let the Greeks look at facts.

The Word of God therefore took a body and used a human instrument in order to give life to the body as well, and just as He is known in creation through His works, to work in humanity also and to reveal Himself everywhere, leaving nothing empty of His own divinity and of the knowledge of Him. I say again what I said before: the Savior did this so that, just as He fills all things everywhere by His presence, He might also fill all things with the knowledge of Him, as the divine Scripture says: The whole earth was filled with the knowledge of the Lord. For if a person simply looks up to heaven, he sees its order, or if he cannot lift his face to heaven but only looks at humanity, he sees His power, far beyond comparison with human power, demonstrated by His works, and learns that He alone among humans is God the Word. Or if someone has gone astray among demons and fears them, he may see this man drive them out and conclude that He is their Master. Or if someone has descended to the waters and thinks they are God—as the Egyptians, for example, revere the water—he may see their nature changed by Him and learn that the Lord is Creator of the waters. But if someone has gone down even to Hades and stands in awe of the heroes who have descended there, regarding them as gods, yet he may see the fact of Christ’s Resurrection and victory over death and infer that among them also Christ alone is true God and Lord. For the Lord touched all parts of creation and freed and undeceived all of them from every deception, as Paul says: Having put off from Himself the principalities and the powers, He triumphed on the Cross, so that no one might by any possibility be deceived any longer, but might everywhere find the true Word of God. For thus humanity, hemmed in on every side and seeing the divinity of the Word displayed everywhere—that is, in heaven, in Hades, in humanity, upon earth—is no longer exposed to deception concerning God, but is to worship Christ alone and through Him come rightly to know the Father. By these arguments, then, based on reason, the Gentiles in their turn will fairly be put to shame by us. But if they consider the arguments insufficient to shame them, let them be convinced of what we are saying at least by facts obvious to everyone’s sight.

46. Discredit, from the date of the Incarnation, of idol-cultus, oracles, mythologies, demoniacal energy, magic, and Gentile philosophy. And whereas the old cults were strictly local and independent, the worship of Christ is catholic and uniform.

When did people begin to abandon the worship of idols, if not since God, the true Word of God, came among humanity? Or when have the oracles among the Greeks, and everywhere else, ceased and become empty, if not since the Savior manifested Himself on earth? Or when did those called gods and heroes in the poets begin to be exposed as merely mortal men, if not since the Lord established His victory over death and preserved incorruptible the body He had taken, raising it from the dead? Or when did the deceitfulness and madness of demons fall into contempt, if not when the power of God, the Word, the Master of all these as well, condescending because of human weakness, appeared on earth? Or when did the art and schools of magic begin to be trampled down, if not when the divine manifestation of the Word took place among humanity? And in short, at what time has the wisdom of the Greeks become foolish, if not when the true Wisdom of God manifested itself on earth? For previously the whole world and every place was led astray by the worship of idols, and people regarded nothing else but the idols as gods. But now, throughout the entire world, people are abandoning the superstition of the idols and taking refuge with Christ; and worshiping Him as God, they are through Him coming to know the Father also, whom they did not know before. And it is a marvelous fact that whereas the objects of worship were various and vastly numerous, and each place had its own idol, and the one considered a god among them had no power to cross over to the neighboring place so as to persuade those of neighboring peoples to worship him, but was barely served even among his own people—for no one else worshiped his neighbor’s god; on the contrary, each person kept to his own idol, thinking it to be lord of all—Christ alone is worshiped as one and the same among all peoples; and what the weakness of the idols could not do—namely, to persuade even those dwelling close at hand—this Christ has done, persuading not only those close at hand, but simply the entire world, to worship one and the same Lord, and through Him God, even His Father.

47. The numerous oracles — fancied apparitions in sacred places, etc., dispelled by the sign of the Cross. The old gods prove to have been mere men. Magic is exposed. And whereas Philosophy could only persuade select and local cliques of Immortality, and goodness — men of little intellect have infused into the multitudes of the churches the principle of a supernatural life.

And whereas formerly every place was full of the deceit of the oracles, and the oracles at Delphi and Dodona, and in Boeotia and Lycia and Libya and Egypt and those of the Cabiri, and the Pythoness, were held in high regard by people’s imagination, now, since Christ has begun to be preached everywhere, their madness has also ceased and there is no one among them who practices divination anymore. And whereas formerly demons used to deceive people’s perception, occupying springs or rivers, trees or stones, and thus tricked the simple-minded by their illusions, now, after the divine visitation of the Word, their deception has ceased. For by the Sign of the Cross, even if a person merely uses it, he drives out their deceits. And while formerly people held Zeus and Cronos and Apollo and the heroes mentioned in the poets to be gods, and went astray in honoring them, now that the Savior has appeared among people, those others have been exposed as mortal men, and Christ alone has been recognized among people as the true God, the Word of God. And what is one to say about the magic esteemed among them? That before the Word dwelt among us this was strong and active among Egyptians, and Chaldeans, and Indians, and inspired awe in those who saw it, but that by the presence of the Truth, and the Appearing of the Word, it also has been thoroughly refuted and brought wholly to nothing. But as to Gentile wisdom and the pompous claims of the philosophers, I think no one can need our argument, since the wonder is before the eyes of all: that while the wise among the Greeks had written so much and were unable to persuade even a few from their own neighborhood concerning immortality and a virtuous life, Christ alone, by ordinary language and by men not skilled with the tongue, has throughout all the world persuaded whole churches full of people to despise death and to give attention to the things of immortality, to overlook what is temporary and to turn their eyes to what is eternal, to think nothing of earthly glory and to strive only for the heavenly.

48. Further facts. Christiancontinence of virgins and ascetics. Martyrs. The power of the Cross against demonsand magic. Christ by His Power shows Himself more than a man, more than a magician, more than a spirit. For all these are totally subject to Him. Therefore He is the Word of God.

Now these arguments of ours are not merely words, but have a witness to their truth in actual experience. For let anyone who wishes go up and see the proof of virtue in the virgins of Christ and in the young men who practice holy chastity, and the assurance of immortality in so great a company of His martyrs. And let him come who would test by experience what we have now said, and in the very presence of the deceit of demons and the imposture of oracles and the marvels of magic, let him use the Sign of that Cross which is laughed at among them, and he will see how by its means demons flee, oracles cease, all magic and witchcraft is brought to nothing. Who, then, and how great is this Christ, Who by His own Name and Presence casts into shadow and brings to nothing all things on every side, and is alone strong against all, and has filled the whole world with His teaching? Let the Greeks tell us, who are pleased to laugh, and are not ashamed. For if He is a man, how then has one man exceeded the power of all whom they themselves hold to be gods, and convicted them by His own power of being nothing? But if they call Him a magician, how can it be that by a magician all magic is destroyed, instead of being confirmed? For if He conquered particular magicians, or prevailed over only one, it would be proper for them to hold that He excelled the rest by superior skill; but if His Cross has won the victory over absolutely all magic, and over the very name of it, it must be plain that the Savior is not a magician, seeing that even those demons who are invoked by the other magicians flee from Him as their Master. Who He is, then, let the Greeks tell us, whose only serious pursuit is jesting. Perhaps they might say that He, too, was a demon, and hence His strength. But say this as they will, they will have the laugh against them, for they can once more be put to shame by our former proofs. For how is it possible that He should be a demon who drives the demons out? For if He simply drove out particular demons, it might properly be held that by the chief of demons He prevailed against the lesser, just as the Jews said to Him when they wished to insult Him. But if, by His Name being named, all madness of the demons is uprooted and chased away, it must be evident that here, too, they are wrong, and that our Lord and Savior Christ is not, as they think, some demonic power. Then, if the Savior is neither simply a man, nor a magician, nor some demon, but has by His own Godhead brought to nothing and cast into shadow both the doctrine found in the poets and the delusion of the demons and the wisdom of the Gentiles, it must be plain and will be owned by all, that this is the true Son of God, even the Word and Wisdom and Power of the Father from the beginning. For this is why His works also are not works of man, but are recognized to be above man, and truly God’s works, both from the facts themselves, and from comparison with the rest of mankind.

49. His Birth and Miracles. You call Asclepius, Heracles, and Dionysus gods for their works. Contrast their works with His, and the wonders at His death, etc.

For what man who was ever born formed a body for himself from a virgin alone? Or what man ever healed such diseases as the common Lord of all? Or who has restored what was lacking to human physis (nature) and made someone blind from birth to see? Asclepius was made a god among them because he practiced medicine and discovered herbs for sick bodies—not forming them himself out of the earth, but discovering them through knowledge drawn from physis. But what is this compared to what was done by the Savior, who, instead of healing a wound, changed a man’s original physis and restored the body completely whole? Heracles is worshiped as a god among the Greeks because he fought against men who were his equals and destroyed wild beasts by cunning. What is this compared to what was done by the Word in driving away from humanity diseases and demons and death itself? Dionysus is worshiped among them because he taught mankind drunkenness, but the true Savior and Lord of all, for teaching self-control, is mocked by these people. But let these matters pass. What will they say to the other miracles of His Godhead? At what man’s death was the sun darkened and the earth shaken? Look, even to this day men are dying, and they died also in ancient times. When did any such wonder happen in their case? Or, to pass over the deeds done through His body and mention those after its rising again: what man’s teaching that ever existed has prevailed everywhere, one and the same, from one end of the earth to the other, so that his worship has spread its wings through every land? Or why, if Christ is, as they say, a man and not God the Word, is His worship not prevented by the gods they have from passing into the same land where they are? Or why on the contrary does the Word Himself, dwelling here, by His teaching stop their worship and put their deception to shame?

50. Impotence and rivalries of the Sophists put to shame by the Death of Christ. His Resurrection unparalleled even in Greek legend.

Many people before this Man have been kings and tyrants of the world, and many wise men and magicians are on record among the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Indians. Which of these, I ask, not after death but while still alive, was ever able to prevail so far as to fill the whole earth with his teaching and reform so great a multitude from the superstition of idols, as our Savior has brought over from idols to Himself? The philosophers of the Greeks have composed many works with plausibility and verbal skill. What result, then, have they exhibited as great as what the Cross of Christ has achieved? The refinements they taught were plausible enough until they died, but even the influence they seemed to have while alive was subject to their mutual rivalries. They were competitive and spoke against one another. But the Word of God, most strangely, teaching in simpler language, has overshadowed the distinguished sophists. While He has brought their schools to nothing by drawing all people to Himself, He has filled His own churches. The marvelous thing is that by going down as man to death, He has brought to nothing the impressive utterances of the wise concerning idols. For whose death ever drove out demons? Or whose death did demons ever fear as they did Christ’s death? Where the Savior’s name is spoken, every demon is driven out. Or who has so freed people from the passions of the natural man, that sexually immoral people become chaste, murderers no longer take up the sword, and those who were formerly ruled by cowardice become courageous? And in short, who persuaded people of barbarous countries and pagans in various places to lay aside their madness and pursue peace, if not the Faith of Christ and the Sign of the Cross? Or who else has given people such assurance of immortality as the Cross of Christ and the Resurrection of His Body have? For although the Greeks have told all manner of false tales, they were not able to invent a resurrection of their idols—for it never even occurred to them whether it is at all possible for the body to exist again after death. And here one would especially accept their testimony, since by this opinion they have exposed the weakness of their own idolatry while leaving the possibility open to Christ, so that from this also He might be made known among all as Son of God.

51. The new virtue of continence. Revolution of Society, purified and pacified by Christianity.

Which person in all of human history, either after his death or while still alive, taught about virginity and showed that this virtue was actually possible for people to practice? But Christ, our Savior and King of all, had such power in His teaching about it that even children who have not yet reached the legal age of marriage make vows of virginity that go beyond what the law requires. What person has ever been able to travel as far as the Scythians and Ethiopians, or the Persians or Armenians or Goths, or those we hear about beyond the ocean or beyond Hyrcania, or even the Egyptians and Chaldeans—people who practice magic and are unnaturally superstitious and live in savage ways—and preach to them about virtue and self-control and against the worship of idols, as has the Lord of all, the Power of God, our Lord Jesus Christ? He not only preached through His own disciples but also brought conviction to people’s minds, persuading them to put aside their fierce ways and no longer serve their ancestral gods, but to learn to know Him and through Him to worship the Father. For previously, while caught up in idolatry, Greeks and barbarians used to make war against each other and were even cruel to their own relatives. It was impossible for anyone to travel by sea or land at all without carrying weapons, because of their relentless fighting among themselves. Their entire way of life revolved around warfare, and the sword served them like a walking staff and was their support in every situation. And still, as I said before, they were serving idols and offering sacrifices to demons, and despite all their idolatrous superstition they could not be freed from this violent spirit. But when they have come over to the teaching of Christ, then—remarkably enough—as people truly convicted in their conscience, they have laid aside their savage murders and no longer care about the things of war. Instead, all is at peace among them, and from that point forward what promotes friendship is what they desire.

52. Wars, etc., roused by demons, lulled by Christianity.

Who then is He that has done this, or who is He that has united in peace people who hated one another, except the beloved Son of the Father, the common Savior of all, Jesus Christ, Who by His own love endured all things for our salvation? For even long ago it was prophesied concerning the peace He was to bring, where the Scripture says: They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and nation shall not take the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. And this is certainly not unbelievable, since even now those barbarians who have an inborn savage way of life, while they still sacrifice to the idols of their country, are enraged against one another and cannot bear to go a single hour without weapons. But when they hear the teaching of Christ, immediately instead of fighting they turn to farming, and instead of arming their hands with weapons they raise them in prayer, and in short, in place of fighting among themselves, from then on they arm themselves against the devil and against evil spirits, subduing these by self-restraint and virtue of soul. Now this is at once a proof of the divinity of the Savior, since what people could not learn among idols they have learned from Him, and no small exposure of the weakness and worthlessness of demons and idols. For demons, knowing their own weakness, for this reason formerly set people to make war against one another, lest, if they stopped their mutual conflict, they should turn to battle against demons. Indeed, those who become disciples of Christ, instead of warring with each other, stand arrayed against demons by their conduct and their virtuous actions, and they defeat them and mock their leader the devil, so that in youth they are self-controlled, in temptations they endure, in labors they persevere, when insulted they are patient, when robbed they make light of it, and, as wonderful as it is, they despise even death and become martyrs of Christ.

53. The whole fabric of Gentilism levelled at a blow by Christ secretly addressing the conscience of Man.

And to mention one proof of the divinity of the Saviour, which is indeed utterly surprising—what mere man or magician or tyrant or king was ever able by himself to take on so many opponents and fight the battle against all idolatry and the whole demonic host and all magic, and all the wisdom of the Greeks, while they were so strong and still flourishing and deceiving everyone, and in one attack to stop them all, as was our Lord, the true Word of God, who, invisibly exposing each person’s error, is by himself drawing all people away from them all, so that those who were worshipping idols now trample on them, those who were famous for magic burn their books, and the wise prefer the interpretation of the Gospels above all studies? For those whom they used to worship, they are now abandoning, and the one whom they used to mock as crucified, they now worship as Christ, confessing him to be God. And the beings called gods among them are defeated by the Sign of the Cross, while the crucified Saviour is proclaimed in all the world as God and the Son of God. And the gods worshipped among the Greeks are falling into disgrace among their own people as shameful beings, while those who receive the teaching of Christ live more chastely than they did. If, then, these things and others like them are human works, let anyone who wishes point out similar works done by people in former times, and so convince us. But if they prove to be, and are, not human works but God’s, why are the unbelievers so irreligious as not to recognize the Master who did them? For their situation is like that of a person who, from the works of creation, failed to know God their Maker. For if they knew his Godhead from his power over the universe, they would have known that the bodily works of Christ also are not human, but are the works of the Saviour of all, the Word of God. And if they had known this, they would not, as Paul said, have crucified the Lord of glory.

54. The Word Incarnate, as is the case with the Invisible God, is known to us by His works. By them we recognise His deifying mission. Let us be content to enumerate a few of them, leaving their dazzling plentitude to him who will behold.

Just as someone who wants to see God, who is invisible by nature and not seen at all, can know and understand Him through His works, so too should anyone who fails to see Christ with his understanding at least grasp Him through the works of His body, and examine whether they are human works or God’s works. If they are human, let him mock; but if they are not human but of God, let him acknowledge it and not laugh at what deserves no mockery. Rather, let him marvel that through such ordinary means divine things have been revealed to us, and that through death immortality has come to all, and that through the Word becoming man, the universal Providence has been made known, along with its Giver and Creator, the very Word of God. For He was made man so that we might be made God, and He revealed Himself through a body so that we might receive understanding of the unseen Father, and He endured the abuse of men so that we might inherit immortality. For though He Himself was not harmed in any way, being impassible and incorruptible and the very Word and God, He maintained and preserved in His own impassibility those men who were suffering and for whose sake He endured all this. And in short, the accomplishments of the Savior resulting from His becoming man are of such kind and number that if anyone should want to list them all, he could be compared to people who gaze at the vast sea and want to count its waves. For just as one cannot take in all the waves with his eyes, since the incoming waves overwhelm the perception of anyone who tries, so too for anyone who would try to take in all the accomplishments of Christ in the body, it is impossible to grasp the whole, even by counting them up, since those that exceed his thought are more numerous than those he thinks he has grasped. It is better, then, not to try to speak of the whole when one cannot do justice even to a part, but after mentioning one more thing, to leave the whole for you to marvel at. For all are equally marvelous, and wherever a person turns his attention, he can see on that side the divinity of the Word and be filled with exceeding great awe.

55. Summary of foregoing. Cessation of pagan oracles, etc.: propagation of the faith. The true King has come forth and silenced all usurpers.

Here is what you need to understand after everything we have said so far, and you should take it as the summary of what we have already stated, and marvel at it greatly: since the Savior came among us, idolatry has not only stopped increasing, but what existed is diminishing and gradually coming to an end. Not only has the wisdom of the Greeks stopped advancing, but what exists is now fading away. Demons no longer cheat people with illusions, prophecies, and magic arts—if they even dare to try, they are put to shame by the sign of the Cross. To sum it up: look at how the Savior’s teaching is spreading everywhere, while all idolatry and everything opposed to the faith of Christ is daily shrinking, losing power, and falling. Seeing this, worship the Savior, who is above all and mighty, even God the Word, and condemn those who are being defeated and destroyed by Him. Just as when the sun rises, darkness no longer prevails, and if any darkness remains anywhere it is driven away, so now that the divine appearing of the Word of God has come, the darkness of the idols no longer prevails, and all parts of the world in every direction are illuminated by His teaching. It is like when a king is ruling in some country but does not appear and stays at home in his own house. Often some disorderly people take advantage of his absence, proclaim themselves king, and each of them, by assuming that role, deceives the simple people as if they were king. People are led astray by the title, hearing that there is a king but not seeing him, because they cannot enter the house. But when the real king comes out and appears, the disorderly impostors are exposed by his presence, and people, seeing the real king, abandon those who previously deceived them. In the same way, the evil spirits used to deceive people, taking for themselves the honor due to God. But when the Word of God appeared in a body and made known to us His own Father, then the deceit of the evil spirits was finally done away with and stopped, and people, turning their eyes to the true God, the Word of the Father, are abandoning the idols and now coming to know the true God. This is proof that Christ is God the Word and the Power of God. For whereas human things cease and the Word of Christ remains, it is clear to everyone that what ceases is temporary, but He who remains is God and the true Son of God, His only-begotten Word.

56. Search then, the Scriptures, if you can, and so fill up this sketch. Learn to look for the Second Advent and Judgment.

Let this, then, Christ-loving man, be our offering to you, just as a basic sketch and outline, in brief form, of the faith of Christ and of His divine appearing to us. But you, taking this as your starting point, if you come upon the text of the Scriptures, by genuinely applying your mind to them, will learn from them more completely and clearly the precise details of what we have said. For they were spoken and written by God, through men who spoke of God. But we are sharing what we have learned from inspired teachers who have studied them closely, who have also become martyrs for the deity of Christ, with you in your eagerness to learn. And you will also learn about His second glorious and truly divine appearing to us, when no longer in lowliness, but in His own glory—no longer in humble form, but in His own magnificence—He is to come, no longer to suffer, but from then on to give to all the fruit of His own Cross, that is, the resurrection and incorruption; and no longer to be judged, but to judge all, by what each has done in the body, whether good or evil; where the kingdom of heaven is prepared for the good, but for those who have done evil, everlasting fire and outer darkness. For the Lord Himself also says: From now on you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven in the glory of the Father. And for this very reason there is also a word of the Savior to prepare us for that day, in these words: Be ready and watch, for He comes at an hour you do not know. For, according to the blessed Paul: We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, so that each one may receive according to what he has done in the body, whether it be good or bad.

57. Above all, so live that you may have the right to eat of this tree of knowledgeand life, and so come to eternal joys. Doxology.

To search the Scriptures and gain true knowledge of them requires an honorable life, a pure soul, and virtue that follows Christ, so that the mind, guided by these things, may reach what it seeks and comprehend it as far as human nature can learn about the Word of God. Without a pure mind and a life modeled after the saints, no one could possibly understand the words of the saints. Just as someone who wants to see the light of the sun must first wipe and brighten his eye, purifying himself to become somewhat like what he wants to see, so that his eye, becoming light, may see the sun’s light; or just as someone who wants to see a city or country must actually go to that place to see it—in the same way, anyone who wants to comprehend the mind of those who speak of God must begin by washing and cleansing his soul through his way of life, and approach the saints themselves by imitating their works. Then, joined with them in living a common life, he may also understand what God has revealed to them, and from that point forward, closely united with them, may escape the danger of the sinners and their fire on the day of judgment, and receive what is stored up for the saints in the kingdom of heaven, which Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, whatever things are prepared for those who live a virtuous life and love the God and Father, in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom and with whom be to the Father himself, with the Son himself, in the Holy Spirit, honor and might and glory forever and ever. Amen.