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| Chapter XVI
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Chapter XVI.
Exceedingly weak is his assertion, that “the
disciples of Jesus wrote such accounts regarding him, by way of
extenuating the charges that told against him: as if,” he
says, “any one were to say that a certain person was a just man,
and yet were to show that he was guilty of injustice; or that he was
pious, and yet had committed murder; or that he was immortal, and yet
was dead; subjoining to all these statements the remark that he had
foretold all these things.” Now his illustrations are at
once seen to be inappropriate; for there is no absurdity in Him who had
resolved that He would become a living pattern to men, as to the manner
in which they were to regulate their lives, showing also how they ought
to die for the sake of their religion, apart altogether from the fact
that His death on behalf of men was a benefit to the whole world, as we
proved in the preceding book. He imagines, moreover, that the
whole of the confession of the Saviour’s sufferings confirms his
objection instead of weakening it. For he is not acquainted
either with the philosophical remarks of Paul,3264
| 3264 ὅσα
περὶ τούτου
καὶ παρὰ τῷ
Παύλῳ
πεφιλοσόφηται. | or
the statements of the prophets, on this subject. And it escaped
him that certain heretics have declared that Jesus underwent His
sufferings in appearance, not in reality. For had he known, he
would not have said: “For ye do not even allege this, that
he seemed to wicked men to suffer this punishment, though not
undergoing it in reality; but, on the contrary, ye acknowledge that he
openly suffered.” But we do not view His sufferings as
having been merely in appearance, in order that His resurrection also
may not be a false, but a real event. For he who really died,
actually arose, if he did arise; whereas he who appeared only to have
died, did not in reality arise. But since the resurrection of
Jesus Christ is a subject of mockery to unbelievers, we shall quote the
words of Plato,3265
| 3265 Cf. Plato, de
Rep., x. p. 614. | that Erus the son
of Armenius rose from the funeral pile twelve days after he had been
laid upon it, and gave an account of what he had seen in Hades; and as
we are replying to unbelievers, it will not be altogether useless to
refer in this place to what Heraclides3266
| 3266 Cf. Plin.,
Nat. Hist., vii. c. 52. |
relates respecting the woman who was deprived of life. And many
persons are recorded to have risen from their tombs, not only on the
day of their burial, but also on the day following. What wonder
is it, then, if in the case of One who performed many marvellous
things, both beyond the power of man and with such fulness of evidence,
that he who could not deny their performance, endeavoured to calumniate
them by comparing them to acts of sorcery, should have manifested also
in His death some greater display of divine power, so that His soul, if
it pleased, might leave its body, and having performed certain offices
out of it, might return again at pleasure? And such a declaration
is Jesus said to have made in the Gospel of John, when He said:
“No man taketh My life from Me, but I lay it down of
Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
again.”3267
And perhaps
it was on this account that He hastened His departure from the body,
that He might preserve it, and that His legs might not be broken, as
were those of the robbers who were crucified with Him. “For
the soldiers brake the legs of the first, and of the other who was
crucified with Him; but when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was
dead, they brake not His legs.”3268
We have accordingly answered the question, “How is it
credible that Jesus could have predicted these things?” And
with respect to this, “How could the dead man be immortal?”
let him who wishes to understand know, that it is not the dead man who
is immortal, but He who rose from the dead. So far, indeed, was
the dead man from being immortal, that even the Jesus before His
decease—the compound being, who was to suffer death—was not
immortal.3269
| 3269 Οὐ μόνον οὖν
οὐχ ὁ νεκρὸς
ἀθάνατος,
ἀλλ᾽ οὐδ᾽ ὁ
πρὸ τοῦ
νεκροῦ
᾽Ιησοῦς ὁ
σύνθετος
ἀθάνατος ἦν,
ὅς γε ἔμελλε
τεθνήξεσθαι. | For no one is
immortal who is destined to die; but he is immortal when he shall no
longer be subject to death. But “Christ, being raised from
the dead, dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over
Him;”3270
although those may
be unwilling to admit this who cannot understand how such things should
be said.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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