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| Chapter XXXVI
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Chapter
XXXVI.
But as he next introduces the case of the
favourite of Adrian (I refer to the accounts regarding the youth
Antinous, and the honours paid him by the inhabitants of the city of
Antinous in Egypt), and imagines that the honour paid to him falls
little short of that which we render to Jesus, let us show in what a
spirit of hostility this statement is made. For what is there in
common between a life lived among the favourites of Adrian, by one who
did not abstain even from unnatural lusts, and that of the venerable
Jesus, against whom even they who brought countless other charges, and
who told so many falsehoods, were not able to allege that He
manifested, even in the slightest degree, any tendency to what was
licentious?3549
| 3549 ὡς
κἄν τὸ τυχὸν
ἀκολασίας
κἂν ἐπ᾽
ὀλίγον
γευσαμένου. | Nay, further,
if one were to investigate, in a spirit of truth and impartiality, the
stories relating to Antinous, he would find that it was due to the
magical arts and rites of the Egyptians that there was even the
appearance of his performing anything (marvellous) in the city
which bears his name, and that too only after his decease,—an
effect which is said to have been produced in other temples by the
Egyptians, and those who are skilled in the arts which they
practise. For they set up in certain places demons claiming
prophetic or healing power, and which frequently torture those who seem
to have committed any mistake about ordinary kinds of food, or about
touching the dead body of a man, that they may have the appearance of
alarming the uneducated multitude. Of this nature is the being
that is considered to be a god in Antinoopolis in Egypt, whose
(reputed) virtues are the lying inventions of some who live by the gain
derived therefrom;3550
| 3550 οὗ ἀρετὰς
οἱ μέν τινες
κυβευτικώτερον
ζῶντες
καταψεύδονται. | while others,
deceived by the demon placed there, and others again convicted by a
weak conscience, actually think that they are paying a divine penalty
inflicted by Antinous. Of such a nature also are the mysteries
which they perform, and the seeming predictions which they utter.
Far different from such are those of Jesus. For it was no company
of sorcerers, paying court to a king or ruler at his bidding, who
seemed to have made him a god; but the Architect of the universe
Himself, in keeping with the marvellously persuasive power of His
words,3551
| 3551 ἀκολούθως τῇ
ἐν τῷ λέγειν
τεραστὶως
πιστικῇ
δυνάμει. | commended Him as
worthy of honour, not only to those men who were well disposed, but to
demons also, and other unseen powers, which even at the present time show that
they either fear the name of Jesus as that of a being of superior
power, or reverentially accept Him as their legal ruler.3552
| 3552 ὡς
κατὰ
νόμους αὐτῶν
ἄρχοντος. | For if the commendation had not been
given Him by God, the demons would not have withdrawn from those whom
they had assailed, in obedience to the mere mention of His
name.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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