Chapter 29

At that time there was a public festival of the false-named gods in that city; and the king was bound to be present at the feast and to adorn it with an abundance of sacrifices. But the temple-keepers were afraid, seeing him carelessly and lukewarmly disposed toward their worship, lest he should neglect to appear at the temple, and they themselves should be deprived of the royal gift given to them and of their other revenues.

So they rose up and reached a cave lying in the deepest part of the desert, where there dwelt a man given to magical arts, a most fervent champion of the idolatrous error, Theudas by name, whom the king honoured exceedingly, and held as a friend and teacher, saying that through his divination his kingdom prospered and flourished. So when the priests of the idols came to him, they called upon him for help, and made plain to him the contempt for the gods that had arisen in the king — what the king's son had done, and what Nachor had publicly declared against them — and said: "Unless you yourself come to help us, every hope is gone, all the objects of worship of the gods are lost; for you alone are left to us as the comfort of our misfortune, and on you we have set our hopes." So Theudas marched out with the satanic army present with him, and armed himself against the truth, calling up many of the wicked spirits, which he knew worked eagerly together for evil, and which that man always used as his servants; with these he came to the king. When his arrival was announced to the king, and he entered, holding a staff of palm and girded with a sheepskin cloak, the king rose from his throne,

and going to meet him greeted him, and bringing a throne made him sit beside him. Then Theudas said to the king: "O king, live forever, sheltered by the favour of the greatest gods. For I have heard that you fought a great contest against the Galileans and were crowned with the most brilliant diadems of victory. Therefore I have come, that we may together hold a feast of thanksgiving, and sacrifice comely young men and fair maidens to the immortal gods, and offer them a hundred bulls and very many animals, so that we may have them, for the time to come also, as unconquered allies, smoothing out the whole of our life." To this the king said: "We have not conquered, old man; we have not conquered, but rather have been utterly defeated. For those who were for us have suddenly become against us. Finding our battle-line frenzied and mad and weak, they cast it down completely. But now, if any power and strength is in you to help our religion that lies prostrate and to set it up again, tell me." And Theudas gave such answers to the king: "Do not fear the obstinacy and idle talk of the Galileans, O king; for what are the things said by them against men of reason and good sense? Which, if I think fit, will be cast down more easily than a leaf shaken by the wind. For they will not endure even to come before my face, much less to join words with me and proceed to propositions and rebuttals with me. But, that both this present contest and whatever else we may wish may go straight for us

and that matters may flow in their course, adorn this public feast, and put on the favour of the gods as some mighty weapon; and may it be well with you." Thus boasting, he who was mighty in evil, and had devised lawlessness all the day — for let David join his voice with ours — and given his neighbour, as Isaiah says, a turbid overthrow to drink, by the cooperation of the wicked spirits that accompanied him made the king altogether forget the reasonings that called him toward salvation, and again hold carefully to his accustomed ways. Whence, royal letters having been dispatched everywhere for all to come together at their abominable festival, one might see the multitudes streaming in, and sheep and oxen and various kinds of animals being led along. So when all had come together, the king rose with the deceiver Theudas and went to the temple, bringing a hundred and twenty bulls to sacrifice, and many animals. And they performed their accursed feast, so that the city was filled with the sound of the irrational animals, and the very air was defiled with the savour of the sacrifices. When these things had been so accomplished, and the spirits of wickedness had greatly boasted of the victory of Theudas, and the temple-keepers had rendered him thanks, the king returned again to the palace,

and said to Theudas: "Behold, as you ordered, we left out no diligence in the splendour of the festival and the abundance of the sacrifices. It is time, then, now to fulfil what you promised, and to rescue from the error of the Christians my son, who has apostatized from our objects of worship, and to reconcile him to the kindly gods. For I, having set in motion every art and every effort, found no cure for the evil; rather, I saw his resolve stronger than all. If I dealt with him gently and mildly, I found him not attending to my mind at all; if I treated him sternly and severely, I saw him raised rather to defiance. From now on I commit the matter of the misfortune that has come upon me to your wisdom. If, then, being delivered from it through you, I see my son again serving my gods together with me, and enjoying the desires of this pleasant life and kingdom, I will raise you a golden statue, and ordain that you be honoured by all like the gods for all the unending time to come." So Theudas, inclining a willing ear to the evil one, and initiated by him into a wicked and ruinous counsel, becoming a tongue and mouth for him, said to the king:

"If you wish to subdue your son and to make his resistance empty, I have found an art against which he will not even be able to hold out; rather, his hard and unyielding reasoning will be softened more easily than wax that has met a most violent fire." But the king, seeing the vain man so puffing himself up to no purpose, was at once changed to pleasure and gladness, hoping that that unbridled and bold tongue would prevail over a soul taught of God and full of philosophy. And he asked to learn what the art was. Then Theudas wove his crime like a sharpened razor, and dreadfully prepared his drugs. And behold the evil-crafted sophism and the suggestion of the evil one. "Remove from your son," he said, "O king, all who stand by him and serve him, and order that women fair of form and exceedingly beautiful, and adorned in the most alluring way, be with him continually and serve him, and live with him and lodge with him. And I, sending against him one of the spirits appointed to me for such things, will the more violently kindle the fire of pleasure. And the moment he consorts with even one single such woman, if everything does not go for you according to your wish, then let me henceforth be despised by you and useless, and worthy of the greatest punishments, not of honours.

For nothing is so apt to draw on and charm the reasonings of males as the sight of women. And hear a tale that bears witness to my word."