Chapter XXI.

But having asserted that our religion is supported by the writings of the Jews, the oldest which exist, though it is generally known, and we fully admit that it dates from a comparatively recent period—no further back indeed than the reign of Tiberius—a question may perhaps be raised on this ground about its standing, as if it were hiding something of its presumption under shadow of an illustrious religion, one which has at any rate undoubted allowance of the law, or because, apart from the question of age, we neither accord with the Jews in their peculiarities in regard to food, nor in their sacred days, nor even in their well-known bodily sign, nor in the possession of a common name, which surely behoved to be the case if we did homage to the same God as they. Then, too, the common people have now some knowledge of Christ, and think of Him as but a man, one indeed such as the Jews condemned, so that some may naturally enough have taken up the idea that we are worshippers of a mere human being. But we are neither ashamed of Christ—for we rejoice to be counted His disciples, and in His name to suffer—nor do we differ from the Jews concerning God. We must make, therefore, a remark or two as to Christ’s divinity. In former times the Jews enjoyed much of God’s favour, when the fathers of their race were noted for their righteousness and faith. So it was that as a people they flourished greatly, and their kingdom attained to a lofty eminence; and so highly blessed were they, that for their instruction God spake to them in special revelations, pointing out to them beforehand how they should merit His favor and avoid His displeasure. But how deeply they have sinned, puffed up to their fall with a false trust in their noble ancestors, turning from God’s way into a way of sheer impiety, though they themselves should refuse to admit it, their present national ruin would afford sufficient proof. Scattered abroad, a race of wanderers, exiles from their own land and clime, they roam over the whole world without either a human or a heavenly king, not possessing even the stranger’s right to set so much as a simple footstep in their native country. The sacred writers withal, in giving previous warning of these things, all with equal clearness ever declared that, in the last days of the world, God would, out of every nation, and people, and country, choose for Himself more faithful worshippers, upon whom He would bestow His grace, and that indeed in ampler measure, in keeping with the enlarged capacities of a nobler dispensation.  Accordingly, He appeared among us, whose coming to renovate and illuminate man’s nature was pre-announced by God—I mean Christ, that Son of God. And so the supreme Head and Master of this grace and discipline, the Enlightener and Trainer of the human race, God’s own Son, was announced among us, born—but not so born as to make Him ashamed of the name of Son or of His paternal origin. It was not His lot to have as His father, by incest with a sister, or by violation of a daughter or another’s wife, a god in the shape of serpent, or ox, or bird, or lover, for his vile ends transmuting himself into the gold of Danaus. They are your divinities upon whom these base deeds of Jupiter were done. But the Son of God has no mother in any sense which involves impurity; she, whom men suppose to be His mother in the ordinary way, had never entered into the marriage bond.27    [That is, by the consummation of her marriage with Joseph.] But, first, I shall discuss His essential nature, and so the nature of His birth will be understood. We have already asserted that God made the world, and all which it contains, by His Word, and Reason, and Power. It is abundantly plain that your philosophers, too, regard the Logos—that is, the Word and Reason—as the Creator of the universe. For Zeno lays it down that he is the creator, having made all things according to a determinate plan; that his name is Fate, and God, and the soul of Jupiter, and the necessity of all things. Cleanthes ascribes all this to spirit, which he maintains pervades the universe. And we, in like manner, hold that the Word, and Reason, and Power, by which we have said God made all, have spirit as their proper and essential substratum, in which the Word has in being to give forth utterances, and reason abides to dispose and arrange, and power is over all to execute. We have been taught that He proceeds forth from God, and in that procession He is generated; so that He is the Son of God, and is called God from unity of substance with God.  For God, too, is a Spirit. Even when the ray is shot from the sun, it is still part of the parent mass; the sun will still be in the ray, because it is a ray of the sun—there is no division of substance, but merely an extension.  Thus Christ is Spirit of Spirit, and God of God, as light of light is kindled.28    [Language common among Christians, and adopted afterwards into the Creed.] The material matrix remains entire and unimpaired, though you derive from it any number of shoots possessed of its qualities; so, too, that which has come forth out of God is at once God and the Son of God, and the two are one. In this way also, as He is Spirit of Spirit and God of God, He is made a second in manner of existence—in position, not in nature; and He did not withdraw from the original source, but went forth.  This ray of God, then, as it was always foretold in ancient times, descending into a certain virgin, and made flesh in her womb, is in His birth God and man united. The flesh formed by the Spirit is nourished, grows up to manhood, speaks, teaches, works, and is the Christ. Receive meanwhile this fable, if you choose to call it so—it is like some of your own—while we go on to show how Christ’s claims are proved, and who the parties are with you by whom such fables have been set a going to overthrow the truth, which they resemble. The Jews, too, were well aware that Christ was coming, as those to whom the prophets spake. Nay, even now His advent is expected by them; nor is there any other contention between them and us, than that they believe the advent has not yet occurred. For two comings of Christ having been revealed to us:  a first, which has been fulfilled in the lowliness of a human lot; a second, which impends over the world, now near its close, in all the majesty of Deity unveiled; and, by misunderstanding the first, they have concluded that the second—which, as matter of more manifest prediction, they set their hopes on—is the only one. It was the merited punishment of their sin not to understand the Lord’s first advent: for if they had, they would have believed; and if they had believed, they would have obtained salvation. They themselves read how it is written of them that they are deprived of wisdom and understanding—of the use of eyes and ears.29    Isa. vi. 10. As, then, under the force of their pre-judgment, they had convinced themselves from His lowly guise that Christ was no more than man, it followed from that, as a necessary consequence, that they should hold Him a magician from the powers which He displayed,—expelling devils from men by a word, restoring vision to the blind, cleansing the leprous, reinvigorating the paralytic, summoning the dead to life again, making the very elements of nature obey Him, stilling the storms and walking on the sea; proving that He was the Logos of God, that primordial first-begotten Word, accompanied by power and reason, and based on Spirit,—that He who was now doing all things by His word, and He who had done that of old, were one and the same. But the Jews were so exasperated by His teaching, by which their rulers and chiefs were convicted of the truth, chiefly because so many turned aside to Him, that at last they brought Him before Pontius Pilate, at that time Roman governor of Syria; and, by the violence of their outcries against Him, extorted a sentence giving Him up to them to be crucified. He Himself had predicted this; which, however, would have signified little had not the prophets of old done it as well. And yet, nailed upon the cross, He exhibited many notable signs, by which His death was distinguished from all others. At His own free-will, He with a word dismissed from Him His spirit, anticipating the executioner’s work. In the same hour, too, the light of day was withdrawn, when the sun at the very time was in his meridian blaze. Those who were not aware that this had been predicted about Christ, no doubt thought it an eclipse. You yourselves have the account of the world-portent still in your archives.30    Elucidation V. Then, when His body was taken down from the cross and placed in a sepulchre, the Jews in their eager watchfulness surrounded it with a large military guard, lest, as He had predicted His resurrection from the dead on the third day, His disciples might remove by stealth His body, and deceive even the incredulous. But, lo, on the third day there a was a sudden shock of earthquake, and the stone which sealed the sepulchre was rolled away, and the guard fled off in terror:  without a single disciple near, the grave was found empty of all but the clothes of the buried One. But nevertheless, the leaders of the Jews, whom it nearly concerned both to spread abroad a lie, and keep back a people tributary and submissive to them from the faith, gave it out that the body of Christ had been stolen by His followers. For the Lord, you see, did not go forth into the public gaze, lest the wicked should be delivered from their error; that faith also, destined to a great reward, might hold its ground in difficulty. But He spent forty days with some of His disciples down in Galilee, a region of Judea, instructing them in the doctrines they were to teach to others.  Thereafter, having given them commission to preach the gospel through the world, He was encompassed with a cloud and taken up to heaven,—a fact more certain far than the assertions of your Proculi concerning Romulus.31    Proculus was a Roman senator who affirmed that Romulus had appeared to him after his death. All these things Pilate did to Christ; and now in fact a Christian in his own convictions, he sent word of Him to the reigning Cæsar, who was at the time Tiberius.  Yes, and the Cæsars too would have believed on Christ, if either the Cæsars had not been necessary for the world, or if Christians could have been Cæsars. His disciples also, spreading over the world, did as their Divine Master bade them; and after suffering greatly themselves from the persecutions of the Jews, and with no unwilling heart, as having faith undoubting in the truth, at last by Nero’s cruel sword sowed the seed of Christian blood at Rome.32    [Chapter l. at close. “The blood of Christians is the seed of the Church.”] Yes, and we shall prove that even your own gods are effective witnesses for Christ.  It is a great matter if, to give you faith in Christians, I can bring forward the authority of the very beings on account of whom you refuse them credit. Thus far we have carried out the plan we laid down. We have set forth this origin of our sect and name, with this account of the Founder of Christianity. Let no one henceforth charge us with infamous wickedness; let no one think that it is otherwise than we have represented, for none may give a false account of his religion. For in the very fact that he says he worships another god than he really does, he is guilty of denying the object of his worship, and transferring his worship and homage to another; and, in the transference, he ceases to worship the god he has repudiated. We say, and before all men we say, and torn and bleeding under your tortures, we cry out, “We worship God through Christ.” Count Christ a man, if you please; by Him and in Him God would be known and be adored.  If the Jews object, we answer that Moses, who was but a man, taught them their religion; against the Greeks we urge that Orpheus at Pieria, Musæus at Athens, Melampus at Argos, Trophonius in Bœotia, imposed religious rites; turning to yourselves, who exercise sway over the nations, it was the man Numa Pompilius who laid on the Romans a heavy load of costly superstitions. Surely Christ, then, had a right to reveal Deity, which was in fact His own essential possession, not with the object of bringing boors and savages by the dread of multitudinous gods, whose favour must be won into some civilization, as was the case with Numa; but as one who aimed to enlighten men already civilized, and under illusions from their very culture, that they might come to the knowledge of the truth. Search, then, and see if that divinity of Christ be true. If it be of such a nature that the acceptance of it transforms a man, and makes him truly good, there is implied in that the duty of renouncing what is opposed to it as false; especially and on every ground that which, hiding itself under the names and images of dead, the labours to convince men of its divinity by certain signs, and miracles, and oracles.

CAPUT XXI.

21. Sed quoniam edidimus, antiquissimis Judaeorum instrumentis sectam istam esse suffultam, quam aliquanto novellam , ut Tiberiani temporis , plerique sciunt, profitentibus nobis quoque; fortasse an hoc nomine de statu ejus retractetur , quasi sub umbraculo insignissimae religionis, certe licitae , aliquid propriae praesumptionis abscondat, vel quia praeter aetatem neque de victus exceptionibus, neque de solemnitatibus dierum, neque de ipso signaculo corporis, neque de consortio nominis cum Judaeis agimus, quod utique oporteret, si eidem 0392B Deo manciparemur? Sed et vulgus jam scit Christum, hominem utique aliquem, qualem Judaei judicaverunt, quo facilius quis nos hominis cultores existimaverit . Verum neque de Christo erubescimus, quum 0393A sub nomine ejus deputari et damnari juvat, neque de deo aliter praesumimus. Necesse est igitur pauca dicamus de Christo ut Deo . Tantum Judaeis erat apud Deum gratia, ubi et insignis justitia et fides originalium auctorum, unde illis et generis magnitudo et regni sublimitas floruit et tanta felicitas, ut Dei vocibus, quibus edocebantur, de promerendo Deo, et non offendendo, praemonerentur . Sed quanta deliquerint , fiducia patrum inflati [ad delirandum] , derivantes a disciplina in profanum modum, etsi ipsi non confiterentur, probaret exitus hodiernus ipsorum. Dispersi, palabundi, 0394A et coeli et soli sui extorres, vagantur per orbem, sine homine, sine Deo rege , quibus nec advenarum jure terram patriam saltem vestigio salutare conceditur. Cum haec illis sanctae voces praeminarentur, eaedem fere semper omnes ingerebant fore, uti sub extimis curriculis saeculi ex omni jam gente, et populo, et loco cultores sibi allegeret Deus multo fideliores, in quos gratiam transferret, et pleniorem quidem ob disciplinae auctioris capacitatem . [Venit igitur, qui ad reformandam et illuminandam eam venturus a Deo praenuntiabatur, Christus ille 0395A Filius dei] . Hujus igitur gratiae disciplinaeque arbiter et magister, illuminator atque deductor generis humani, Filius Dei annuntiabatur, non quidem ita genitus, ut erubescat de filii nomine aut de patris 0396A semine; non de sororis incesto , nec de stupro filiae aut conjugis alienae deum patrem passus est, squamatum, aut cornutum, aut plumatum amatorem , aut in aurum conversum : Jovis enim 0397A ista sunt numina vestri . Caeterum Dei Filius nullam de impudicitia habet matrem, etiam quam videtur habere non nupserat. Sed prius substantiam edisseram, et ita nativitatis qualitas intelligetur. Jam ediximus Deum universitatem hanc 0398A mundi Verbo et Ratione et Virtute molitum. Apud vestros quoque sapientes ΛΌΓΟΝ, id est Sermonem atque Rationem, constat artificem videri universitatis. Hunc enim Zeno determinat factitatorem, qui cuncta in dispositione formaverit, eumdem et fatum 0399A vocari, et deum et animum Jovis , et necessitatem omnium rerum, Haec Cleanthes in spiritum congerit, quem permeatorem universitatis affirmat. Et nos etiam Sermoni atque Rationi itemque Virtuti, per quae omnia molitum Deum ediximus, propriam substantiam spiritum inscribimus, cui et Sermo insit pronuntianti, et Ratio adsit disponenti, et virtus praesit perficienti. Hunc ex Deo prolatum didicimus, et prolatione generatum, et idcirco Filium Dei et Deum dictum ex unitate substantiae. Nam et Deus spiritus. Et cum radius ex sole porrigitur, portio ex summa; sed sol erit in radio , quia solis est radius, nec separatur substantia, sed extenditur. Ita de Spiritu Spiritus, et de Deo Deus , ut lumen de lumine accensum. Manet integra et indefecta materiae matrix, etsi plures inde traduces 0399B qualitatum mutueris . Ita et quod de Deo profectum est, Deus est, et Dei Filius, et unus ambo. Ita et de Spiritu Spiritus, et de Deo Deus modulo alterum, non numero , gradu, non statu fecit, et a matrice non recessit, sed excessit. Iste igitur Dei radius, ut retro semper praedicabatur , delapsus in virginem quamdam, et in utero ejus caro figuratus , nascitur Homo Deo mistus. Caro spiritu instructa nutritur, adolescit, affatur, docet, operatur, et Christus est. Recipite interim hanc fabulam, similis est vestris, dum ostendimus quomodo Christus probetur. Sciebant et qui penes vos ejusmodi fabulas aemulas ad destructionem veritatis istiusmodi praeministraverunt . Sciebant et Judaei venturum esse 0400A Christum, scilicet quibus prophetae loquebantur. Nam et nunc adventum ejus exspectant, nec alia magis inter nos et illos compulsatio est, quam quod jam venisse non credunt. Duobus enim adventibus ejus significatis: primo, qui jam expunctus est in humilitate conditionis humanae; secundo, qui concludendo saeculo imminet in sublimitate divinitatis exsertae: primum non intelligendo, secundum, quem manifestius praedicatum sperant, unum existimaverunt. Ne enim intelligerent pristinum, credituri si intellexissent, et consecuturi salutem si credidissent, meritum fuit delictum eorum . Ipsi legunt ita scriptum mulctatos se sapientia et intelligentia et oculorum et aurium fruge. Quem igitur solummodo hominem praesumpserant de humilitate, sequebatur uti magum aestimarent de 0400B potestate, cum ille verbo daemonia de hominibus excuteret, caecos reluminaret , leprosos purgaret, paralyticos restringeret, mortuos denique verbo redderet vitae, elementa ipsa famularet , compescens procellas et freta ingrediens, ostendens se esse ΛΟΓΟΝ Dei, id est verbum illud primordiale primogenitum, virtute et ratione comitatum, et spiritu fultum , eumdem qui verbo omnia, et faceret, et fecisset. Ad doctrinam vero ejus, qua revincebantur magistri primoresque Judaeorum, ita exasperabantur, maxime quod ad eum ingens multitudo deflecteret , ut postremo oblatum Pontio Pilato Syriam tunc ex parte Romana procuranti , violentia suffragiorum in crucem dedi sibi extorserint. 0401A Praedixerat et ipse ita facturos. Parum hoc, si non et prophetae retro. Et tamen suffixus spiritum cum verbo sponte dimisit, praevento carnificis officio . Eodem momento dies, medium orbem signante sole, subducta est. Deliquium utique putaverunt, qui id quoque super Christo praedicatum non scierunt; [ratione non deprehensa, negaverunt] ; et tamen eum mundi casum relatum in arcanis vestris habetis. Tunc Judaei detractum et sepulcro conditum magna etiam militaris custodiae diligentia circumsederunt , ne, quia praedixerat tertia die resurrecturum se a morte, discipuli furto amoliti cadaver fallerent suspectos. Sed ecce die tertia concussa repente terra, et mole revoluta, quae obstruxerat 0402A sepulcrum, et custodia pavore disjecta, nullis apparentibus discipulis, nihil in sepulcro repertum est, praeterquam exuviae sepulti. Nihilominus tamen primores, quorum intererat, et scelus divulgare, et populum vectigalem et famularem sibi a fide revocare, subreptum a discipulis jactitaverunt. Nam nec ille se in vulgus eduxit, ne impii errore liberarentur, ut et fides, non mediocri praemio destinata, difficultate constaret. Cum discipulis autem quibusdam apud Galilaeam Judaeae regionem ad quadraginta dies egit, docens eos quae docerent. Dehinc ordinatis eis ad officium praedicandi per orbem, circumfusa nube in coelum est ereptus , multo verius quam apud vos asseverare de Romulo Proculi solent. Ea 0403A omnia super Christo Pilatus, et ipse jam pro sua conscientia christianus , Caesari tum Tiberio nuntiavit. Sed et Caesares credidissent super Christo, si aut Caesares non essent saeculo necessarii , aut si et christiani potuissent esse caesares . Discipuli quoque diffusi per orbem, ex praecepto magistri Dei paruerunt, qui et ipsi a Judaeis insequentibus multa perpessi, utique pro fiducia veritatis libenter, Romae postremo per Neronis saevitiam, sanguinem christianum seminaverunt. Sed monstrabimus vobis idoneos testes Christi, ipsos illos quos adoratis. Multum est, si eos adhibeam ut credatis Christianis, propter quos non creditis Christianis . Interim hic est ordo nostrae institutionis, hunc edidimus et sectae et nominis censum cum suo auctore. Nemo jam infamiam 0403B incutiat, nemo aliud existimet, quia nec fas est ulli de sua religione mentiri. Ex eo enim, quod aliud a se coli dicit, quam colit, negat quod colit, et culturam et honorem in alterum transfert, et transferendo jam non colit quod negavit. Dicimus, et palam dicimus, et vobis torquentibus lacerati et cruenti vociferamur: Deum colimus per Christum. Illum hominem putate, per eum et in eo se cognosci vult Deus et coli. Ut autem Judaeis respondeam, et ipsi Deum per [hominem] Moysen colere didicerunt; ut Graecis occurram, Orpheus Pieriae, Musaeus 0404A Athenis, Melampus Argis, Trophonius Boeotiae initiationibus homines obligaverunt; ut ad vos quoque dominatores gentium aspiciam, homo fuit Pompilius Numa, qui Romanos operosissimis superstitionibus oneravit. Licuerit et Christo commentari divinitatem rem propriam; non qui rupices et adhuc feros homines multitudine tot numinum demerendorum attonitos efficiendo ad humanitatem temperaret, quod Numa; sed qui jam expolitos et ipsa urbanitate deceptos in agnitionem veritatis ocularet . Quaerite ergo, si vera sit ista divinitas Christi. Si ea est, qua cognita ad bonum quis reformetur , sequitur, ut falsa renuntietur quaevis alia contraria comperta; imprimis illa omni ratione , quae delitescens sub nominibus et imaginibus mortuorum, quibusdam signis, 0404B et miraculis, et oraculis fidem divinitatis operatur.