Chapter 31

Once again, then, despondency seized the king; once again he despaired of his whole life, and turning dreadful things over within himself he withdrew to his own palace. But the spirits of wickedness that had been sent by Theudas against the divine youth, returning to him, confessed their defeat in shame, lovers of falsehood though they were; for they bore clear tokens of the defeat upon their wicked countenances. And he said, "Are you so weak and wretched, then, that you cannot prevail over a single boy?" Then the wicked spirits, chastised by divine power, brought the truth unwillingly to light, saying, "We cannot endure even to look in the face of the power of Christ and the symbol of his passion, which they call the cross. For when that is traced, we, all of us—the rulers of the air and world-rulers of the darkness—flee headlong and are thrust away

before it is fully traced. Thus, when we fell upon this young man, we troubled him grievously; but he, calling upon Christ for aid and arming himself with the sign of the cross, drove us off in anger and set himself in safety. So, without delay, we found an instrument by which our ruler once spoke with the first-formed man and overcame him. And indeed we ourselves would have counted the young man's hope as nothing, but Christ, being called again to his aid, scorched us with the fire of wrath from above and made us fugitives. And we have resolved no longer to come near him." So plainly, then, did the wicked spirits make known to Theudas what had happened. But the king, at a loss on every side, summoned Theudas again, and said, "Most wise one, we have done all that you resolved, yet have found no benefit. Now, if any other contrivance is left to you,

let us make trial of that also; perhaps I may find some release from this evil." And when Theudas asked to come and converse with the son, the king took him along at dawn and went out to visit his son. And sitting down, the king began to speak, reproaching him and finding fault with his disobedience and his unyielding resolve. But when the son again confirmed the same things and cried out that he preferred nothing to the love of Christ, Theudas came forward into their midst and said, "Why have you condemned our immortal gods, Josaphat, that you have departed from their worship, and, provoking your father and king in this way, have become hateful to all the people? Is not your very life from them? Did they not themselves grant you to your father, hearing his prayer and freeing him from the bonds of childlessness?" And as the man grown old in wickedness put forward many vain words and useless arguments, stitching together syllogisms about the preaching of the Gospel, wishing on the one hand to mock it and on the other to strengthen the cause of the idols, the son of the kingdom above—a citizen of that city which the Lord set fast, and not man—held off a little and said to Theudas: "Listen, you abyss of error, you murkier than the darkness that can be felt, you seed of Babylon, you offspring of the tower-building of Chalane, by which the world was thrown into confusion, you vain-minded and wretched old man,

you for whom even the five cities burned up with fire and brimstone proved lighter in their sins. Why do you set out to mock the preaching of salvation, by which the things in darkness were enlightened, by which the wandering found the road, by which the lost and grievously captive were recalled? Tell me, which is better: to worship God Almighty, with his only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit—God uncreated and immortal, the beginning and fountain of good things, whose power is beyond likening and whose glory is past comprehension, beside whom stand a thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand of the ranks of angels and heavenly hosts, and full are heaven and earth of his glory; through whom all things were brought forth from nothing, through whom the whole is upheld and held together and governed by his providence—is it better to worship him, or destructive demons and lifeless idols, whose glory and praise is adultery and the corruption of boys and the rest of the works of lawlessness which are written about your gods in the books of your superstition? Are you not ashamed, wretches, food for the unsleeping fire, likeness of the Chaldean race,

are you not ashamed to bow down before dead images, the works of a man's hand? For having carved a stone or worked a piece of wood, you have called it god; and then, taking the fairest bull from the herds, or perhaps some other of the most comely animals, you sacrifice to a dead object of worship, you fools. The victim is more precious than your object of worship; for the image a man made, but the animal God created. And by how much is the irrational animal more understanding than you, the rational one? For it knows its feeder; but you have failed to know God, through whom you were brought forth from nothing, through whom you live and are kept in being; and you call him god whom a little while ago you watched being struck with iron and burned in the fire and melted down and beaten with hammers; whom you overlaid with silver and gold, and, raising up from the ground, set on high; and then, falling to the earth, you lie lower than the lowly stone, bowing down not to God but to the works of your hands, dead and lifeless.

Or rather, it would not even be right to call the idol dead. For how could that be dead which never lived? Rather, some new name had to be devised for it, worthy of so great a madness. For the one of stone is shattered, the one of earthenware is broken, the one of bronze rusts, the one of gold and the one of silver are melted down. And indeed your gods are sold, some cheaply, others for as great a price as possible. For it is not their divinity but their material that gives them their costliness. And who buys a god? Who sells a god? And how is a god that cannot move called a god? Or do you not see that the one standing never sits down, and the one sitting never rises up? Be ashamed, you fool; put your hand over your mouth, you who have lost your wits, praising such things. For having become estranged from the truth, you were led astray by false images, fashioning statues and putting the name of God upon the works of your hands. Sober up, wretch, and understand that you are older than the god made by you. This is great madness. You have persuaded yourself that, being a man, you can make a god. And how can this come to pass? So that you do not make a god, but a shape of a man or of some animal, having no tongue, no throat, no brain, nor any of the inner parts; so that it is neither a likeness of a man nor of an animal, but altogether useless and full of vanity. Why, then, do you flatter senseless things? Why do you sit beside things motionless and unprofitable? If the craft of the stone-cutter or the carpenter or the hammer-smith had not been at hand, you would not have had a god. If guards did not sit beside it, you would have lost your god. For the very thing to which a populous city of fools often prays

to be preserved, as to a god—beside that thing a few guards remain, so that it may not be stolen. And if it is of silver or of gold, it is carefully guarded; but if it is of stone or of clay, or of some other such cheaper material, it guards itself; for perhaps, according to you, the one of clay is stronger than the one of gold. Is it not fitting that you, the foolish, the blind and witless, should justly be laughed at—or rather, be mourned over? For your works are works of madness, not of piety. For the man who practised war set up an image in imitation of a military figure, and called it Ares; the man who shaped his soul to a woman-mad desire deified the passion, naming it Aphrodite. Another, for the sake of his love of wine, fashioned an idol which he called Dionysus. And likewise those who lusted after the other vices set up idols of their own passions; for they named their passions gods. And for this reason, beside their altars, there are voluptuous dances, the sounds of harlots' songs, and frenzied impulses. And who could tell in order their abominable practice? Who could bear to defile his own mouth in reciting their obscenities? But these things are plain to all, even if we keep silent. These are your objects of worship, Theudas, you who are more senseless than your images; to these you bid me bow down, these you bid me reverence. Truly this counsel is of your own malice and witless mind; but may you become like them, you and all who trust in them.

But I will worship my God, and to him I will sacrifice my whole self, to God the Creator and Provider of all things, through our Lord Jesus Christ our hope, through whom we have obtained our approach to the Father of lights in the Holy Spirit, through whom we were ransomed from bitter slavery in his blood. For if he had not humbled himself even to the form of a servant, we would not have been counted worthy of adoption. He humbled himself, then, for our sake, not regarding his divinity as a thing to be grasped at, but remaining what he was and taking up what he was not; he conversed with men, went up on the cross in his flesh, was laid in a tomb for three days, descended into Hades, and led out those whom the dread world-ruler held in bonds, sold under sin. What harm, then, came to him from these things, that you think to mock him? Do you not see this sun, into how many useless and foul places it sends down its ray? How many dead and stinking bodies it looks upon?

Does any stain cling to it? Does it not dry up and bind together what is foul and rotted, and enlighten what is in darkness, while it remains itself wholly unharmed and incapable of receiving any defilement? And what of fire? Taking the iron, black and cold in itself, does it not make the whole of it like flame and red-hot? Has it taken on any of the properties of the iron? When the iron is struck with hammers and beaten, does the fire suffer anything, or undergo any harm at all? If, then, these created and corruptible things naturally suffer nothing from contact with baser things, by what reasoning, you fool and stony-hearted one, do you dare to mock me when I say that the Son and Word of God, in no way departing from the Father's glory, but being himself God, for the salvation of men took up a human body, that he might make men sharers in the divine and intelligent nature; and, leading our essence out of the lowest depths of Hades, might honour it with heavenly glory; that, by the taking on of flesh having lured the ruler of the darkness of this age, he might overcome him, and free our race from his tyranny? Therefore, indeed, without suffering he takes part in the suffering of the cross, displaying his two natures: for as a man he is crucified, but as God he darkens the sun, shakes the earth, and raises many sleeping bodies from their graves;

again, as a man he dies, but as God he rises up, having despoiled Hades. Therefore the prophet cried out: 'Hades was embittered, meeting you below.' For it was embittered and mocked, supposing it had taken a mere man, but having fallen in with God, and suddenly become empty and itself a captive. He rises up, then, as God, and ascends into the heavens, from which he was never in any way separated. And our base nature—the most witless of all, the thankless and dishonoured—he has made higher than all, and seated it on a throne of glory, shining with immortal glory. What harm, then, came from this to God and the Word, that you do not blush to blaspheme? And what of it? Is it not better to confess these things, and to reverence such a God, good and loving toward mankind, who commands righteousness, enjoins self-control, lays down purity as law, teaches mercy, supplies faith, proclaims peace, who is named—and is—Truth itself, Love itself, Goodness itself? Is it not better to reverence him than your gods, the much-suffering and wicked ones, shameful both in their deeds and in their names? Woe to you, more stony than the stones and more irrational than the irrational beasts, sons of perdition, heirs of darkness; but blessed am I and all Christians, having a God good and loving toward mankind. For those who worship him, even if for a short time in this present life they suffer hardship, yet shall reap the immortal fruit of recompense in the kingdom of

unending and divine blessedness"