Chapter 32

But Theudas said to him: "See, it is plain that our religion was established by many and great wise men, by interpreters, and by men wonderful in virtue and knowledge, and that all the kings of the earth and the powerful received it as good and having nothing perilous in it; whereas the religion of the Galileans was proclaimed by certain rustic men, poor and of no account, and these few, not exceeding the number of twelve. How, then, should the preaching of the few—obscure and rustic men—be preferred to the legislation of the many and great, who shone with such great wisdom? And what is the proof that these speak the truth and those lie?" The king's son answered again: "Perhaps, Theudas, you are, as the saying goes, an ass that hears the lyre and remains uncomprehending—or rather an asp that stops up its ears so as not to hear the voice of the charmers. Well, then, did the prophet say of you: 'If the Ethiopian can change his skin and the leopard its spots, then you also can do good, having learned to do evil.' Fool and blind man, how does the strength of the truth not bring you to your senses?

For this very thing—that your foul objects of worship are praised by many who are admired for wisdom, and upheld by many kings, while the preaching of the Gospel was proclaimed by few and obscure men—shows the strength of our worship of God and the weakness and ruin of your wicked teachings; for your doctrines, though they have wise advocates and powerful defenders, are nonetheless being quenched and growing weak, while the things of the worship of God, possessing no human help, shine brighter than the sun and have taken hold of the fullnesses of the world. For if it had been set forth by orators and philosophers, and had kings and rulers working with it, you, the wicked one, would have found grounds to say that the whole thing came about by human power; but as it is, seeing that the holy Gospel was composed by lowly fishermen, was persecuted by all the tyrants, and after this took hold of the whole inhabited world—

for its sound went out into all the earth, and its words to the ends of the world—what could you say, except that it is a divine and unconquerable power, confirming its own works for the salvation of men? And what proof do you seek, you fool, that your people lie and ours speak the truth, better than what has been said? For if all your doctrines were not nonsense and falsehood, they would not, having so much strength from men, be diminished and growing weak. 'For I saw the impious one,' it says, 'exalted on high and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and behold, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found.' These things the prophet said about you, the henchmen of the madness for idols. For in a very little while your place too will not be found, but, as smoke vanishes, you shall vanish, and as wax melts before the face of the fire. But concerning the knowledge of God in the Gospel the Lord said: 'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.' And again the psalmist says: 'You, Lord, in the beginning

laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They shall perish, but you remain; and they shall all grow old like a garment, and like a mantle you shall roll them up, and they shall be changed; but you are the same, and your years shall not fail.' And the divine heralds of Christ's coming, the wise fishermen of the world, who drew all men up from the deep of error, whom you, the lowly one and truly a slave of sin, despise—they shone with signs and wonders and various works of power, like the sun in the world, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, walking to the lame, freely granting life to the dead. For their shadows alone healed all the sufferings of men. The demons, whom you fear as gods, they not only drove out from the bodies of men, but chased from the very inhabited world, by the sign of the cross, through which they made all sorcery vanish and showed all witchcraft to be without effect. And those men, having thus healed human weakness by the power of Christ, and made the whole creation new, are rightly admired by all the sound-minded as heralds of the truth. But what

can you yourself say about your own people and orators—whose wisdom God made foolish—the advocates of the devil? What worthy of remembrance did they leave to the world? Tell me. And what could you say about them, except unreason and shamefulness, and a vain craft that with the fine speech of words conceals the mire of their foul-smelling religion? But even of the poets themselves, all who had power to lift their heads a little out of their great madness spoke the truer word: that those who are called gods were men, and that, because some of them ruled over lands and cities, and others did some trifling thing in their lifetime, men were led astray and called them gods. For at the beginning that Serug is recorded to have invented the making of statues.

For he is said to have honoured with statues and pillars those who in ancient times displayed some deed of courage or friendship or some other manly excellence worthy of remembrance. But those who came after, being ignorant of the intention of their forefathers—that they had set up statues and pillars for the sake of remembrance alone, for those who had done something praiseworthy—being little by little led astray by the working of the demon who is the author of evil, attached themselves, as to immortal gods, to men of like passions and corruptible, and devised sacrifices and libations for them; the demons, of course, having taken up dwelling in the images, and drawn the honour and the sacrifices to themselves. Those demons, then, persuade those who do not see fit to keep God in their knowledge to regard themselves as gods, for two reasons: that they themselves might be glorified by this title—for they delight, being full of arrogance, to be honoured as gods—and that they might drag those whom they have deceived into the unquenchable fire prepared for themselves. Hence they taught men all lawlessness and shamefulness, since they had once been subjected to their deceit. Having come, then, to this summit of evils, men, being darkened, each set up a pillar of his own passion and his own desire,

and called it god—abominable in their error, and become more abominable through the absurdity of the things they worshipped—until the Lord came, and through the bowels of his mercy ransomed us who believe in him from this wicked and ruinous error, and taught the true knowledge of God. For there is no salvation except in him, and there is no other god, neither in heaven nor on earth, except he alone, the Maker of all, who bears all things by the word of his power. 'For by the word of the Lord,' it says, 'the heavens were established, and by the breath of his mouth all their power'; and, 'all things came to be through him, and without him came to be not one thing that has been made.'" But Theudas, hearing these words, and that the discourse was full of God-taught wisdom, struck as it were by the crash of thunder, was held fast in speechlessness. And late and with difficulty coming to a sense of his own wretchedness—for the saving word touched the darkened eyes of his heart, and great repentance for his former deeds came over him—and condemning the error of the idols, he ran to the light of true religion. And from that time he so turned away from his wretched manner of life, and so set himself at war against the base passions and the magic arts, as great as had been the friendship he had once made with them. For then, standing in the midst of the council, with the king seated before him, he cried out with a loud voice:

"Truly, O king, the Spirit of God dwells in your son; truly we are defeated, and we have no further defence, nor are we able to look in the face of the things he says. Great indeed, then, is the God of the Christians, great is their faith, great are their mysteries." And turning to the king's son, he said: "Tell me, then, you who are enlightened in soul: does Christ receive me, if, departing from my wicked deeds, I turn to him?" "Yes," said the herald of the truth, "yes, he receives you too, and all who turn to him. And he receives them not in a bare way, but, as a son returning from a far country, he goes out to meet the one who turns back from the road of lawlessness; and embracing him he kisses him, and at once stripping off the disgrace of sin, he puts upon him the garment of salvation, and clothing him with a robe of most splendid glory, he holds a mystical festival of gladness for the powers above, celebrating the return of the lost sheep. For the Lord himself said that there is great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. And again, 'I came not,' he says, 'to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.' And he says also through the prophet: 'As I live, says the Lord,

I do not wish the death of the sinner and the impious, but rather that he should turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil way; and why do you die, house of Israel? For the lawlessness of the lawless one shall not harm him in the day in which he turns from his lawlessness and does righteousness; and if he walks in the ordinances of life, he shall surely live and shall not die; all his sins that he committed shall not be remembered; because he did a judgment of righteousness, in it he shall live.' And again, through another prophet he cries: 'Wash yourselves, become clean, take away the wickedness from your souls before my eyes; cease from your wickednesses; learn to do good. And come, let us reason together; and though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as crimson, I will make them white as wool.' Such promises, then, being set before those who turn back from God, do not delay, O man, nor put it off; but come to Christ our God who loves mankind, and be enlightened, and your face shall not be put to shame. For at the moment you go down into the font of divine baptism, all the disgrace of the old man and the whole burden of your many sins is buried in the water and passes into nothingness, and you come up from there new and clean of all defilement,

carrying no spot or wrinkle of sin; and for the rest it lies with you to preserve for yourself the cleansing that has come to you from there through the bowels of the mercy of our God." So Theudas, instructed by these words, went out at once, and reaching that wicked cave, took his books of magic—as the first-fruits of all wickedness, as treasuries of demonic rites—and burned them up with fire. And he himself reached the cave of that holy man, to whom Nachor too had withdrawn, and recounted to him all his story, pouring dust upon his head, heaving heavy groans and washing himself with tears, and relating to the old man in order his abominable deeds. And that man, being most skilled at saving a soul and snatching it from the throat of the crafty serpent, charmed him with saving words, pledged him forgiveness, promised that the Judge would be merciful. Then, having instructed him and bidden him fast for many days, he cleansed him by divine baptism. And the man was genuinely repentant all his days for the offences he had committed, propitiating God with tears and groans"