Thinking it needful, for the sake of those who do not know what Christianity really is, to set it forth by means of the treatise now proposed, which promises to contain the demonstration of the Gospel, I have dedicated this work to you, O godly ornament among bishops, Theodotus, friend of God and sacred head, together with my prayers, if by any means I might obtain your help, since by your God-loving priestly ministrations on our behalf you greatly cooperate with me toward the subject I have proposed concerning the teaching of the Gospel.
But it is good, first of all, to articulate what we mean when we speak of 'gospel' and what it intends to signify. This, then, is what it proclaims as good news to all men: the presence of the highest and greatest goods, foretold long ago but now newly shining forth upon all — not wealth that cannot be seen, nor does it procure this small and much-suffering life, nor whatever belongs to the body and to corruption, but those things that are dear and congenial to souls possessed of an intelligent essence, on which even bodies depend, following after them like shadows.
The chief of these would be piety — not that which is falsely named and much-wandering, but that which truly bears its name in accordance with truth. This is the turning of the soul toward the One who alone is truly confessed and truly is God, and the life lived in accordance with him, from which also arises friendship toward him, which is attended by that end which is truly God-beloved and thrice-blessed, suspended from above from the better things, steered toward them, and again in turn ending in them.
What then could be more blessed than this good and all-happy love of God? Is he not himself established as the steward and provider of life, light, and truth, and of all good things, to all? Has he not comprehended in himself the cause both of the being and of the living of all things? What, then, would still be lacking to the one who has embraced friendship with him? Of what would he be deprived who makes the Creator of good things his own? Or in what would he be diminished who inscribes as his great patron and universal king the One who stands to him in the place of both father and guardian?
Indeed, it is impossible to name anything in which he who, by disposition, draws near to God the universal King, and who through knowledgeable piety has been deemed worthy of that all-blessed friendship, would not fare well — alike in soul and body and in all things external.
This good and saving friendship of men toward God, then, the Word of God — sent down from above by the all-good God, like the radiance of some light of boundless magnitude — proclaims as good news to all men, urging them to come, not from this quarter or that, but from everywhere, from every nation, to the God of all, and to hasten and with all eagerness of soul to receive the gift — Greeks and barbarians alike, men together with women and infants, poor and rich, wise and unlearned — not even disdaining the class of slaves for this calling.
For since their Father, having constituted the being and nature of all as one, has rightly deemed all worthy again of one and the same great gift, bestowing knowledge of himself and friendship with himself upon all who are willing to obey and who readily embrace his grace.
This is the friendship toward his own Father which the Word of Christ came to proclaim as good news to the whole world: for God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them — as the divine oracles teach; and 'having come,' it says, 'he preached peace to those far off, and peace to those near.'
These things the sons of the Hebrews, long ago moved by God, foretold to the whole world — one crying out, 'All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before him, for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he himself rules over the nations'; and again, 'Say among the nations that the Lord has reigned, for he has set the world aright, and it shall not be moved'; and another declaring, 'The Lord shall appear against them and shall utterly destroy all the gods of the nations of the earth, and every man shall worship him from his own place.'
These things, laid up long ago in the divine oracles, have now been manifested to us ourselves through the teaching of our Savior Jesus Christ, so that the knowledge of God among all the nations, which was of old proclaimed and expected by those not unacquainted with these oracles, is fittingly proclaimed to us as good news by the Word who has recently come present from heaven — showing that the results accomplished in deeds run together in harmony with the ancient utterances.
But why should I hasten, outrunning in my eagerness the proper sequence of the arguments that lie between, when it is necessary first to take things up from the beginning and to dissolve all the obstacles in the way? For since some suppose that Christianity preserves no rational account at all, but that those who aspire to this name ratify what seems good to them by an irrational faith and an unexamined assent — asserting that no one is able to supply, through clear demonstration, proof of the truth of what is promised, but that those who come forward are required to attend to faith alone, on account of which they are even styled 'believers,' for the sake of an undiscriminating and untested faith — therefore, having rightly set myself to this treatise of the demonstration of the Gospel, I judge it necessary, as a preparation for the whole subject, first to discuss briefly those matters which might reasonably be raised against us by the Greeks and by those of the circumcision, and by everyone who examines our affairs with careful scrutiny.
For it seems to me that in this way the discourse will proceed in order toward the more complete teaching of the demonstration of the Gospel and toward the comprehension of the deeper doctrines, if the matters of this preliminary preparation should first go before us on the way, occupying the place of elementary instruction and introduction, and being suited to those newly coming to us from the nations; while what comes after these will, for those who have already advanced beyond this point and who are already disposed in readiness to receive the better things, hand on the exact knowledge of the most essential matters concerning the mystical economy of God according to our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us, then, begin the preparation, bringing forward the things that would reasonably be said to us by the Greeks and by those of the circumcision, and by everyone who scrutinizes our affairs with careful examination.
For, in the first place, one might reasonably raise the question who we are, that we have come forward to write — whether Greeks or barbarians, or what might be intermediate between these — and what we say we ourselves are, not as to our name, since this is plain to all, but as to the manner and the moral choice of our life; for we are seen neither thinking as the Greeks think, nor practicing what the barbarians practice.
What, then, would be this strange thing about us, and what is this innovation in our way of life? For would not those who have apostatized from their ancestral customs, by which every nation and every city has been constituted, be in every respect impious and godless? Or what good is it reasonable to hope for, for those who have become enemies and foes of the things that bring salvation and have thrust away their benefactors? For what else are they doing but fighting against God?
And what pardon could be deemed worthy of those who have turned away from the gods theologically affirmed from eternity among all Greeks and barbarians, in cities and in the countryside, through every kind of sacred rite and initiation and mystery, by all kings and lawgivers and philosophers together, and who have instead chosen the impious and godless things among men? To what punishments could they not justly be subjected — men who are fugitives from their own ancestral ways, but have become zealots for foreign myths of the Jews, myths discredited by all?
And how is it not the height of depravity and utmost fickleness, easily to have exchanged the things of one's own people, only to choose, with irrational and unexamined faith, the things of men who are impious and hostile to all nations — and not even to adhere, with regard to the God honored among the Jews, to the customary observances practiced among them, but instead to cut out for oneself some new and desolate path, keeping neither the ways of the Greeks nor the ways of the Jews?
These things, then, some Greek, understanding nothing true either of his own affairs or of ours, might reasonably raise as difficulties against us. But the sons of the Hebrews too would find fault with us, if indeed, being of another race and another stock, we make use of their books, which belong to us not at all — and that shamelessly, as they themselves would say, and impudently we thrust ourselves in, while we forcibly try to thrust out those who are their own kin and blood-relations from their own ancestral heritage.
For whether there is any Christ foretold — yet it was the prophets of the Jews who proclaimed beforehand his coming, and they announced that he would come as redeemer and king of the Jews, not of nations of another race; or whether the Scriptures contain some other more radiant things, these too are proclaimed to the Jews, and it is no good deed of ours to overhear them, since they are not ours.
And it is exceedingly absurd that we should very eagerly accept the reproaches leveled against that nation for the sins they committed, while passing over in silence the promises of good things again foretold to them — or rather, forcing our way in and transferring these to ourselves, blatantly grasping for more than our share, and deceiving no one so much as ourselves.
But the most unreasonable thing of all is that, without even observing the laws in like manner as they do, but openly transgressing the law, we nevertheless draw to ourselves the better rewards that were promised to the keepers of the law.
Since these questions have reasonably been raised against us at the outset, come, let us call upon the God of all through our Savior, his own Word, as through a high priest, and clear away the first of the objections proposed — first showing that those who have declared that we have nothing to establish by demonstration, but that we attend to an irrational faith, are false accusers.
This, then, we shall refute at once and not after long delay, from the demonstrations we employ toward those who come to be taught our doctrines, and from the refutations we make against those who set themselves in opposition to us in more rational inquiries, and from the discourses, both unwritten and written, both privately to each one who questions us and publicly to the crowds, which we are ambitious to conduct.
Yes, indeed, and also through the treatises now in hand, which contain the general treatment of the demonstration of the Gospel, in which the present discourse proclaims to all men, as good news, the whole grace from God and the heavenly benefaction, confirming in a more rational manner, through very many clear demonstrations, the economy of God according to our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, much other work of this kind has been undertaken with diligence by very many before us — at one time composing refutations and rebuttals of the arguments opposed to us, at another time interpreting the divinely inspired and sacred Scriptures by exegetical commentaries and by homilies on particular passages, and at yet another time advocating our doctrines in a more contentious, polemical manner.
And indeed the purpose now being worked out in hand is peculiarly our own. For the sacred apostle Paul, first of all, rejecting deceitful and sophistical persuasions, but employing indisputable demonstrations, says somewhere: 'Our speech and our preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power'; and he adds to this: 'Yet we speak wisdom among the perfect, a wisdom not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing; but we speak the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery.' And again he says: 'Our sufficiency is from God, who also has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant.'
It has, then, quite reasonably been commanded also to us all, to be ready always to give a defense to everyone who asks us a reason concerning the hope that is in us. Whence it is possible to discern countless most wise and lucid demonstrations, accompanied by syllogistic reasonings, as has been said, written by newer authors on behalf of our own doctrine, and no small number of commentaries laboriously composed upon the sacred and divinely inspired Scriptures, establishing by rigorous demonstrations the truthfulness and unerring reliability of those who from the beginning proclaimed to us the doctrine of piety toward God.
Nevertheless, all such arguments are superfluous, since the deeds are clearer and more evident than they — deeds which the divine and heavenly power of our Savior, proclaiming to all men the God-inspired and heavenly life as good news, plainly displays even to this very day.
Consider first, then, that he declared his teaching would be preached throughout the whole inhabited world as a testimony to all nations; and that the Church, which was afterwards at some time constituted out of all the nations by his power — though at the time when he had become man it was not yet visible nor established — would by divine foreknowledge be unconquerable and unshaken, and would never be overcome by death, but would stand and remain unshaken, as though founded and rooted by his power upon an unshaken and unbroken rock. The outcome of this prediction, being beyond all reckoning, would fittingly stop up every unbarred mouth of those prepared shamelessly to talk impudently against it.
For who would not confess the truth of the prediction, when the facts so clearly all but cry aloud with a voice that it was indeed the power of God, and not human nature, which foresaw these things — that they would come to pass in this very manner — before they happened, and which foretold them and brought them to fulfillment in deeds?
The report of the Gospel concerning him has, at any rate, filled the whole world over which the sun looks down, and has run through all nations, and even now the proclamations concerning him continue to grow and increase, in accordance with his own words.
And his Church, foretold by name, stands firmly rooted, exercising mighty power, and by the prayers of holy and God-loving souls is lifted up as far as the vaults of heaven, being glorified day by day, and flashing forth to all the intellectual and God-inspired light of the piety proclaimed by him; nowhere overcome or yielding to enemies, nor even retreating before the gates of death — because of that one saying which he himself declared, when he said, 'Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.'
And gathering together, under their own proper heading, countless other things said and foretold by our Savior, and showing that the outcomes of events are in harmony with his God-inspired foreknowledge, we demonstrate the indisputable truth of what we hold and believe concerning him.
In addition to all these things, no small demonstration of the truth of our position is also the testimony from the Hebrew Scriptures, in which, many thousands of years before, the prophets among the Hebrews, proclaiming to the whole mortal life the promise of good things, made mention by name of the appellation of Christ, and foretold beforehand his coming to men, and announced the new manner of his teaching which would run through all the nations — foretelling as well the unbelief and contradiction toward him that would arise from the Jewish nation, and the things that were done against him by them, and the grievous events which immediately, and not after a long time, came upon them thereafter. I mean the final siege of their royal metropolis, and the utter overthrow of their kingdom, and their dispersion among all the nations, and their servitude under enemies and foes — all of which, in accordance with the predictions, they are seen to have suffered after the coming of our Savior.
In addition to these things, who would not be astonished on hearing these same prophets proclaiming, with bright and clear utterances, that after the coming of Christ and the falling away of the Jews, the calling of the nations would come as good news? And this very thing indeed came directly to pass, in accordance with the prophecies, through the teaching of our Savior.
Through him, from every race of men, countless multitudes, having turned away from the error of idols, have received the true knowledge and piety of the God who is over all — thereby all but confirming the oracles of the ancients, and among others especially that spoken through the prophet Jeremiah, who said: 'O Lord my God, to you the nations shall come from the end of the earth, and shall say: Our fathers possessed false idols, and there was no profit in them. Shall a man make gods for himself? And these are not gods.'
All these things, then, confirm the account concerning our affairs, showing that they were not pursued from a merely human impulse, but were foreknown by God, and proclaimed beforehand by God through the written oracles, and — far more than this — set forth by God for all men through our Savior, and again given power and constituted by God; so that, though driven for so many years' time by both the invisible demons and the visible rulers throughout the ages, it nonetheless shines forth all the more, prospers and grows day by day, and multiplies far more, plainly displaying the invincible and unconquerable character bestowed from above through the cooperation of the God of all, together with the victorious power over its enemies granted to the name and teaching of our Savior.
And likewise the immediate benefit toward right living granted to all men, put forward not only from his manifest words, but also from a hidden power — how could this not be evidence of his divine power? For it was a matter of divine and hidden power that, together with his own word, along with the teaching he set forth concerning the sole rule of the one God over all, the human race should be set free at once both from the manifold error and demonic activity, and from the multiplicity of rule among the nations.
For of old, when countless kings and local rulers held sway over each nation, and in the cities some were governed democratically and others by rule of the many, and wars of all kinds naturally arose from this — nations clashing against nations, and continually rising up against their neighbors, ravaging and being ravaged, and campaigning against one another in sieges — so that, on account of these things, all alike, both those dwelling in the cities and those farming in the countryside, were taught the arts of war from childhood, and everywhere carried the sword continually, along the highways and in villages and fields.
But when Christ of God appeared, concerning whom it had been prophesied long before through the prophets, 'Righteousness shall arise in his days, and abundance of peace; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more' — deeds followed the predictions accordingly. Immediately the whole multiplicity of rule among the Romans was removed, Augustus having become sole ruler at the very time of the appearing of our Savior. And from that time until now you would not see, as before, cities warring against cities, nor nation contending against nation, nor life being worn away in the old confusion.
And indeed, how is it not worthy of wonder to consider why it was that, in former times, when the demons tyrannized over all the nations, and there was much religious service rendered to them by men, the people, being goaded on by the gods themselves, were inflamed to wars against one another — so that at one time Greeks fought Greeks, at another Egyptians fought Egyptians, and Syrians fought Syrians, and Syrians fought Romans, enslaving one another and wearing each other down with sieges, just as the ancient histories concerning these things make plain — whereas, together with the most pious and most peaceable teaching of our Savior, there took place at once both the overthrow of the polytheistic error and, immediately, a cessation of the ancient evils of division among the nations? This I consider to be the greatest proof of the divine and hidden power of our Savior.
You would also see clear evidence of the benefit that shines forth from his words, if you consider that never before, from all eternity, nor by any of the ancient men of renown, but only from his words alone, and from the teaching of him that has been spread throughout the whole inhabited world, have the customs of all nations been so well set in order — those very things which were formerly savage and barbarous, such as the Persians who had become his disciples no longer marrying their mothers, nor the Scythians eating human flesh, on account of the Word of Christ that reached even to them; nor other barbarian peoples any longer unlawfully mingling with their daughters and sisters, nor men being mad with lust for men and pursuing the pleasures contrary to nature, nor exposing their own dead to dogs and birds as those of old used to do, nor strangling their aged, as was done before, nor feasting on the flesh of their dearest dead according to the ancient custom, nor sacrificing human beings to the gods, that is, to the demons, as the ancients did, nor slaughtering their dearest kin under the pretext of piety.
For these things, and countless others akin to them, were the practices that in ancient times ruined the life of men. It is recorded that the Massagetae and the Derbices considered the most wretched of their own people to be those who died a natural death, and therefore they would hasten to slay them beforehand, and would feast upon their aged kinsmen who were dearest to them. The Tibareni used to hurl their nearest of kin, while still living, from precipices when they grew old. The Hyrcanians and Caspians would cast the living — some to birds and dogs, others the dead. The Scythians would bury the living together with the dead, and would slaughter over the pyres those whom the dead had loved most. And the Bactrians would cast their aged, while still living, to the dogs.
But these things belonged to former times; now it is no longer so, since the one saving law of the power of the Gospel has dissolved the whole savage and inhuman disease of all these practices.
And as for no longer regarding as gods either dead and dumb idols, or the wicked demons operating within them, or the parts of the visible cosmos, or the souls of mortals long departed, or the most harmful of irrational animals — but instead of all these, through the single Gospel teaching of our Savior, that Greeks and barbarians alike, those who genuinely and not merely in pretense adhere to his word, have come to such a height of the loftiest philosophy as to worship, hymn, and theologize only the highest God — that very one who is beyond all things, the universal King and Lord of heaven and earth, and of the sun, the stars, and the whole cosmos, its Maker — and to live so precisely, and to be so instructed even down to the very glance of their eyes, that they think nothing licentious from looking with desire, but cut off root and branch, from the very mind itself, every shameful passion — how could all this not contribute in every way to the good life of all?
And as for no longer needing oaths — far from perjuring themselves — because they are taught by him not even to swear at all, but in all things to speak without falsehood and to speak truly, so as to be content with 'yes' and 'no,' thereby making their moral resolve more secure than any oath; and as for not being indifferent even in trivial expressions and common conversations, but being scrupulous even down to these, so as never to let slip from their mouth any falsehood, any abusive word, or any shameful and unseemly expression — on account of his further command, in which he said, 'concerning every idle word you shall give account on the day of judgment' — of what surpassing excellence of philosophical life does this partake!
And consider too, all together, the fact that countless myriads of men and women and children, both slaves and free, both obscure and distinguished — and moreover barbarians and Greeks alike — in every place and city and country, among all the nations on which the sun shines, resort to be taught such lessons as we have just now learned, and lend their ears to these words, being persuaded to master not only unrestrained undertakings, but even shameful thoughts conceived in the mind, mastering the belly and what is beneath the belly; and that the whole human race is being educated in a God-inspired and pious discipline, and is learning to bear nobly and with a deep-thinking spirit the insults of those who rise up against them, and not to retaliate against the wicked in kind, but to become superior to wrath and anger and every furious desire; and further, to share their possessions with the poor and needy, to welcome every man of the same kind as kin, and to recognize the reputed stranger, as by a law of nature, as one's own closest relative and brother.
Now, gathering all these things together at once, how could one not confess that our doctrine has proclaimed to all men the greatest and truly good things as glad tidings, and has furnished to human life an outstanding and immediate advantage toward the good life?
What, then, do you think of this — that the whole human race, not only the Greeks, but even the most savage barbarians and those dwelling at the very ends of the earth, should have been made to abandon irrational savagery and to take up philosophical convictions?
Such, for example, are the doctrines concerning the immortality of the soul, and concerning the life laid up with God for those who love him after their departure from this life — a doctrine for the sake of which they have been taught to despise this transitory life — so much so that, by the power and cooperation of our Savior, women, mere children, barbarian men, and men of the humblest reputation have been shown to demonstrate, by deeds before words, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, thereby proving to be children those who had ever been celebrated for philosophy, and showing to be a mere game that death so much talked about, so celebrated on the lips of all philosophers.
Such, too, is the fact that all men in general, in every nation, are being taught, from the lessons of our Savior, to think soundly and rightly concerning the providence of God, as overseeing all things; and that every soul is learning the doctrine concerning the tribunal and judgment of God; and to live thoughtfully, and to keep guard against the practices of wickedness.
You may know the chief point of the first and greatest benefaction of the saving Word, if you take into consideration the superstitious error of the ancient idolatry, by which the whole human race was formerly worn down under the compulsions of demons — from which, as though from a most gloomy darkness, he transferred both Greeks and barbarians alike, by divine power, unto the intelligent and most luminous day of the true piety of the universal King, God, and led all men over to it.
And why is it necessary to prolong our efforts to demonstrate that we have not committed ourselves to an irrational faith, but to sound and beneficial arguments that comprise the manner of true piety? Since the present subject is treating precisely this matter in general, we exhort and encourage those who are suitably disposed to follow the demonstrations of reasoned arguments, to attend to understanding, to accept the demonstrations of the doctrines in a more rational manner, and to be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks us for the reason of the hope that is in us.
But since not all are of this kind, our Word being full of loving-kindness toward men, and in no way turning anyone away, but healing every man with the remedies suited to him, and exhorting even the unlearned and the simple toward the therapy of their character — it is reasonable that, in leading by the hand, as an initial introduction, the more simple among beginners — women, children, and the common multitude of the flock — toward the pious life, we should administer, as by way of a medicine, sound faith, implanting in them right opinions concerning the providence of God, concerning the immortality of the soul, and concerning a life lived according to virtue.