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but the second was for the dissolution of the tyranny of death. For it was necessary for that which was superior to the godless and demonic deceit, and consistent with the divine Word, to receive as a worthy honor for its own work the victory over death. For the demons gathered against him and their chief, together with the spirits that wander about the air above the earth, invisible to mortal eyes, having turned their backs in the first encounter with him, were considering the second contest, awaiting then the final destruction of his life and eagerly watching for the end of this mortal to be like that of all men. For they would never have expected mortal nature to become superior to death, but that death was the common king of all who have once experienced mortal birth. But while they thought it the most terrible of all things, which no one could flee or escape, he, after the first trophies against the demons, was already preparing for battle also against death. And just as if someone wished to show us some vessel that was incombustible and by nature superior to fire, he would not demonstrate the wonder in any other way than by handing over to the fire that which he held, and then taking it out of the fire safe and uncorrupted, in just the same way the life-giving Word of God of all things, wishing to show the mortal instrument, which he had used for the salvation of men, to be superior to death, and to declare it a partaker of his own life and immortality, undertook a very useful economy, leaving the body for a short time and giving over the mortal part to death for a proof of its own nature, then not long after snatching it back again from death, for a demonstration of the divine power, by which he showed that the eternal life proclaimed by him was superior to all death. This then was the first reason, and the second was the demonstration of the divine power that had dwelt in the body. For since men had previously deified men who had been conquered by death, who were truly mortal and had accepted the common end, and called heroes and gods those who had been overcome by death, there also with good reason the philanthropic Word of God revealed himself for this reason, showing to men a nature superior to death, and leading the mortal part after its dissolution to a second life, and offering to all a trophy of immortality against death to see, and teaching to confess that this one alone is true God in death, the one who had bound on the prize of victory over death. And a third reason for the saving death would be that which secret doctrines contain. What are these? He was a victim given over to death as a ransom for the common race, a victim sacrificed for the common flock of men, a victim to turn away demonic deceit. Indeed, when the one great victim and sacrifice, the all-holy body of our Savior, had been slain like a sheep for the race of men and offered as a ransom for all the nations formerly entangled in the impiety of demonic deceit, then all the power of the impure and unholy demons was destroyed, and all earthly and deceitful error was at once dissolved and done away with by a superior power. So then the saving victim from among men, that is, the bodily instrument of the divine Word, was consecrated for the common flock of men; and this was the sacrificial victim exposed to death through the slander of men, concerning which the voices of the sacred oracles cry out, at one time saying something like this: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," and at another time proclaiming beforehand thus: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is dumb," and they teach the reason, adding: "He bears our sins and is in anguish for us. And we considered him to be in trouble and in affliction and in distress, but he was wounded for our sins, and was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him. By the

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δὲ δεύτερος ἐπὶ λύσει τῆς τοῦ θανάτου καταδυναστείας ἐγίνετο. ἔδει γὰρ τὸ τῆς ἀθέου καὶ δαιμονικῆς πλάνης κρεῖττον καὶ τῷ θεῷ λόγῳ ἀκόλουθον καὶ τοῦ ἑαυτοῦ ἔργου ἀξίαν τιμὴν τὴν δὴ κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου νίκην ἀπολαβεῖν. οἱ μὲν γὰρ κατ' αὐτοῦ συνηγμένοι δαίμονες ὅ τε τούτων ἐξάρχων ὁμοῦ τοῖς ἀμφ' ἀέρα ὑπὲρ γῆς συμπεριπολοῦσι πνεύμασι τοῖς ὄψεσι θνητῶν ἀοράτοις τὰ νῶτα κατὰ τὴν πρώτην αὐτῷ συμβολὴν παραχωρήσαντες, τὸν δεύτερον ἆθλον ἐσκόπουν, τοῦ βίου λοιπὸν τὴν ὑστάτην καταστροφὴν ἐκδεχόμενοι καὶ τὴν τοῦ θνητοῦ τελευτὴν ὁμοίαν ἔσεσθαι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις καραδοκοῦντες. οὐ γὰρ ἂν πώποτε θνητῶν φύσιν θανάτου κρείττονα γενέσθαι προσεδόκησαν, τὸν δὲ θάνατον εἶναι κοινὸν βασιλέα ἁπάντων τῶν ἅπαξ θνητῆς γενέσεως πεπειραμένων. ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ἐνόμιζον πάντων αὐτὸν εἶναι δεινότατον, ὃν φύγοι καὶ ἀναχωρήσειεν ἂν οὐδείς, ὁ δὲ μετὰ τὰ πρῶτα κατὰ δαιμόνων τρόπαια ἤδη καὶ κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου παρετάττετο. ὥσπερ δὲ εἴ τις ἄκαυστον ἡμῖν καὶ πυρὸς τῇ φύσει κρεῖττον δεῖξαί τι σκεῦος ἤθελεν, οὐκ ἄλλως ἂν τὸ θαῦμα παρεστήσατο ἢ πυρὶ παραδοὺς τὸ μετὰ χεῖρας κἄπειτα σῶον αὐτὸ καὶ ἀδιάφθορον τοῦ πυρὸς ἐξελών, κατὰ ταὐτὰ δὴ καὶ ὁ τῶν ὅλων ζωοποιὸς τοῦ θεοῦ λόγος τὸ θνητὸν ὄργανον, ᾧ πρὸς ἀνθρώπων ἐκέχρητο σωτηρίαν, κρεῖττον θανάτου φῆναι βουληθεὶς κοινωνόν τε ἀποφῆναι τῆς οἰκείας ζωῆς τε καὶ ἀθανασίας, εὖ μάλα χρησίμην ὑπῄει τὴν οἰκονομίαν, τὸ σῶμα πρὸς βραχὺ καταλιπὼν καὶ τὸ θνητὸν τῷ θανάτῳ παραδοὺς εἰς ἔλεγχον τῆς οἰκείας φύσεως, εἶτ' οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν αὐτὸ τοῦ θανάτου πάλιν ὑφαιρούμενος, εἰς παράστασιν τῆς ἐνθέου δυνάμεως, δι' ἧς παντὸς θανάτου κρείττονα τὴν πρὸς αὐτοῦ καταγγελθεῖσαν ζωὴν ἀΐδιον ἔφαινεν. ἡ μὲν οὖν πρώτη αἰτία ἦν αὕτη, δευτέρα δὲ ἡ τῆς ἐν τῷ σώματι κατοικησάσης ἐνθέου δυνάμεως ἔνδειξις. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τὸ πρότερον τοὺς ὑπὸ τοῦ θανάτου νενικημένους ἄνδρας θνητοὺς ἀληθῶς καὶ κοινὸν τέλος ὑποδεδεγμένους ἐθείαζον ἄνθρωποι, ἥρωάς τε καὶ θεοὺς ὠνόμαζον τοὺς ὑπὸ τοῦ θανάτου κεκρατημένους, κἀκεῖ εἰκότως ἑαυτὸν ταύτης ἕνεκα τῆς αἰτίας ἔφηνεν ὁ φιλάνθρωπος τοῦ θεοῦ λόγος, κρείττονα θανάτου φύσιν ἀνθρώποις δεικνύς, καὶ τὸ μὲν θνητὸν μετὰ τὴν λύσιν ἐπὶ τὴν δευτέραν ζωὴν ἄγων, τρόπαιον δὲ ἀθανασίας κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου τοῖς πᾶσι παρέχων ὁρᾶν, καὶ διδάσκων μόνον τοῦτον ἐν θανάτῳ θεὸν ἀληθῆ εἶναι ὁμολογεῖν τὸν τὰ βραβεῖα τῆς κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου νίκης ἀναδησάμενον. τρίτη δ' ἂν εἴη αἰτία τοῦ σωτηρίου θανάτου ἣν ἀπόρρητοι λόγοι περιέχουσιν. τίνες οὗτοι; ἱερεῖον ἦν ἀντίψυχον τοῦ κοινοῦ γένους παραδιδόμενον τῷ θανάτῳ, ἱερεῖον ὑπὲρ τῆς κοινῆς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀγέλης σφαγιαζόμενον, ἱερεῖον δαιμονικῆς πλάνης ἀποτρόπαιον. ἱερείου δῆτα ἑνὸς καὶ μεγάλου θύματος, τοῦ πανιέρου σώματος τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν, ὁμοίως προβάτῳ ὑπὲρ τοῦ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένους σφαγιασθέντος καὶ πάντων ἐθνῶν τῶν πρὶν ἀσεβείᾳ δαιμονικῆς πλάνης ἐνεσχημένων ἀντίψυχον ἀνενεχθέντος, πᾶσα λοιπὸν ἡ τῶν ἀνάγνων καὶ ἀνιέρων δαιμόνων δύναμις καθῄρητο, ἐλέλυτό τε καὶ παρεῖτο αὐτίκα δυνάμει κρείττονι πᾶσα γεώδης καὶ ἀπατηλὸς πλάνη. τὸ μὲν οὖν σωτήριον ἐξ ἀνθρώπων θῦμα, αὐτὸ δὴ τὸ τοῦ θείου λόγου σωματικὸν ὄργανον ὑπὲρ τῆς κοινῆς ἀνθρώπων ἀγέλης καθιεροῦτο καὶ τοῦτο δ' ἦν τὸ δι' ἀνθρώπων διαβολῆς τῷ θανάτῳ παραβεβλημένον σφάγιον, οὗ πέρι λόγων ἱερῶν βοῶσι φωναί, τοτὲ μὲν ὧδέ πη λέγουσαι· «ἴδε ὁ ἀμνὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ὁ αἴρων τὴν ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ κόσμου,» τοτὲ δὲ ὧδε προαναφωνοῦσαι· «ὡς πρόβατον ἐπὶ σφαγὴν ἤχθη, καὶ ὡς ἀμνὸς ἐναντίον τοῦ κείροντος αὐτὸν ἄφωνος», καὶ τό γε αἴτιον διδάσκουσιν ἐπιλέγουσαι· «οὗτος τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν φέρει, καὶ περὶ ἡμῶν ὀδυνᾶται. καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐλογισάμεθα αὐτὸν εἶναι ἐν πόνῳ καὶ ἐν πληγῇ καὶ ἐν κακώσει, αὐτὸς δὲ ἐτραυματίσθη διὰ τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν, καὶ μεμαλάκισται διὰ τὰς ἀνομίας ἡμῶν· παιδεία εἰρήνης ἡμῶν ἐπ' αὐτόν. τῷ