§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, &c.

For what man, that ever was 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 wanting to man’s nature, and made one blind from his birth to see? 2. Asclepius was deified among them, because he practised medicine and found out herbs for bodies that were sick; not forming them himself out of the earth, but discovering them by science drawn from nature. But what is this to what was done by the Saviour, in that, instead of healing a wound, He modified a man’s original nature, and restored the body whole. 3. Heracles is worshipped as a god among the Greeks because he fought against men, his peers, and destroyed wild beasts by guile. What is this to what was done by the Word, in driving away from man diseases and demons and death itself? Dionysus is worshipped among them because he has taught man drunkenness; but the true Saviour and Lord of all, for teaching temperance, is mocked by these people. 4. 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? Lo even to this day men are dying, and they died also of old. When did any such-like wonder happen in their case? 5. Or, to pass over the deeds done through His body, and mention those after its rising again: what man’s doctrine that ever was has prevailed everywhere, one and the same, from one end of the earth to the other, so that his worship has winged its way through every land? 6. Or why, if Christ is, as they say, a man, and not God the Word, is not His worship prevented by the gods they have from passing into the same land where they are? Or why on the contrary does the Word Himself, sojourning here, by His teaching stop their worship and put their deception to shame?

Τίς γὰρ τῶν πώποτε γενομένων ἀνθρώπων ἐκ παρθένου μόνης ἑαυτῷ συνεστήσατο σῶμα; ἢ τίς πώποτε ἀνθρώπων τοιαύτας νόσους ἐθεράπευσεν, οἵας ὁ κοινὸς πάντων Κύριος; Τίς δὲ τὸ τῇ γενέσει ἐλλεῖπον ἀποδέδωκε, καὶ ἐκ γενετῆς τυφλὸν ἐποίησε βλέπειν; Ἀσκληπιὸς ἐθεοποιήθη παρ' αὐτοῖς, ὅτι τὴν ἰατρικὴν ἤσκησε, καὶ βοτάνας πρὸς τὰ πάσχοντα τῶν σωμάτων ἐπενόει, οὐκ αὐτὸς ταύτας πλάττων ἀπὸ γῆς, ἀλλὰ τῇ ἐκ φύσεως ἐπιστήμῃ ταύτας ἐφευρίσκων. Τί δὲ πρὸς τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ Σωτῆρος γενόμενον, ὅτι οὐ τραῦμα ἐθεράπευσεν, ἀλλὰ γένεσιν ἔπλασε καὶ ἀποκατέστησε τὸ πλάσμα; Ἡρακλῆς ὡς θεὸς προσκυνεῖται παρ' Ἕλλησιν, ὅτι πρὸς ἴσους ἀνθρώπους ἀντεμαχέσατο, καὶ θηρία δόλοις ἀνεῖλε. Τί πρὸς τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ Λόγου γενόμενα, ὅτι νόσους καὶ δαίμονας καὶ τὸν θάνατον αὐτὸν ἀπήλαυνε τῶν ἀνθρώπων; ∆ιόνυσος θρησκεύεται παρ' αὐτοῖς, ὅτι μέθης γέγονε διδάσκαλος τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. Ὁ δὲ Σωτὴρ τῷ ὄντι καὶ Κύριος τοῦ παντός, σωφροσύνην διδάξας, χλευάζεται παρ' ἐκείνων. Ἀλλ' ἔστω ταῦτα. Τί καὶ πρὸς τὰ ἕτερα θαύματα τῆς θεότητος αὐτοῦ; Τίνος ἀποθνῄσκοντος ἀνθρώπου, ὁ μὲν ἥλιος ἐσκοτίσθη, ἡ δὲ γῆ ἐσείετο; Ἰδοὺ μέχρι νῦν ἀποθνῄσκουσι καὶ ἀπέθανον ἔτι ἄνωθεν ἄνθρωποι· πότε τι τοιοῦτον ἐπ' αὐτοῖς γέγονε θαῦμα; Ἤ, ἵνα τὰς διὰ τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ πράξεις παραλίπω, καὶ τὰς μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ μνημονεύσω, τίνος πώποτε τῶν γενομένων ἀνθρώπων ἡ διδασκαλία, ἀπὸ περάτων ἕως περάτων γῆς μία καὶ ἡ αὐτὴ δι' ὅλων ἴσχυσεν, ὥστε διὰ πάσης γῆς τὸ σέβας αὐτοῦ διαπτῆναι; Ἢ διὰ τί, εἴπερ ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν ὁ Χριστὸς καὶ οὐ Θεὸς Λόγος κατ' αὐτούς, οὐ κωλύεται ὑπὸ τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς θεῶν εἰς τὴν αὐτὴν χώραν, ἔνθα εἰσί, τὸ τούτου σέβας διαβῆναι, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον αὐτὸς ὁ Λόγος ἐπιδημῶν τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ ἑαυτοῦ τὴν ἐκείνων θρησκείαν παύει, καὶ τὴν φαντασίαν αὐτῶν καταισχύνει;