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they suffered. For I do not marvel so much at those then, that they were afflicted, as I marvel that being afflicted they rejoiced for God's sake. For this belongs to a noble and God-loving soul, to be afflicted and to suffer evils; but to bear the trial nobly, and to give thanks to Him who permits the afflictions, this is of the greatest courage, this is of an awakened soul and one delivered from all human things. Not here only, but also elsewhere showing how many evils the believers of that time suffered from their own households and relatives (for this was the most grievous), he speaks somewhat thus: For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea. In what way imitators? Because you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Jews. Behold both war, and civil war, which makes the pain greater. For if an enemy had reproached me, I would have borne it, he says; but you, a man of like soul, my guide and my acquaintance; which was then happening symbolically. Therefore they also needed much consolation. Which therefore Paul, perceiving, and seeing those under him growing weary and sweating, weighed down by the magnitude of their misfortunes and pained by the successive blows, in many ways raises up their spirits, now saying, Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled rest with us; now saying, The Lord is at hand, be anxious for nothing; and again, Cast not away your confidence; for you have need of patience, that, after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promise. Then, anointing them for patience, he adds: For yet a little while, a very little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. And just as one sitting beside a whimpering, fretful child, seeking its mother, comforts it, saying, "Wait yet a little while, and your mother will surely come"; so also Paul, seeing the believers of that time growing impatient, lamenting, seeking the coming of Christ because of the unbearable onslaught of evils, comforting them said: Yet a little while, a very little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. 6. That the disciples, then, were afflicted, and suffered ten thousand terrible things, and just like lambs caught in the midst of wolves, were thus driven from all sides, is clear from these things; but that you may learn that the teachers also endured not less than these things, but even much more grievous things then (for by how much more they grieved the enemies 51.295 of the truth, by so much more were they assailed by more people), let us hear these things also from the one who said the former things. For writing to the Corinthians, he spoke thus: Giving no offense in anything, that our ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings. Have you seen how many struggles he enumerated, how many snowstorms of temptations? Again writing to the same people, Are they ministers of Christ? he says, (I speak as a fool) I am more. Then wishing to persuade us that it is much more glorious to be afflicted for Christ's sake than to perform signs, and making proof of his apostleship, and showing that he is better than they—I do not mean the apostles, but the false apostles—he makes the test of his superiority not from miracles and signs, but from successive dangers, speaking thus: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft; of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one, thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labor

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ἔπασχον. ∆ιότι οὐχ οὕτω θαυμάζω τοὺς τότε, ὅτι ἐθλίβοντο, ὡς θαυμάζω, ὅτι θλιβόμενοι διὰ τὸν Θεὸν ἔχαιρον. Τοῦτο γὰρ γενναίας καὶ φιλοθέου ψυχῆς, τὸ θλίβεσθαι καὶ κακῶς πάσχειν· τὸ δὲ γενναίως φέρειν τὸν πειρασμὸν, καὶ τῷ συγχωροῦντι τὰς θλίψεις εὐχαριστεῖν, τοῦτο μεγίστης ἀνδρείας, τοῦτο διεγηγερμένης ψυχῆς καὶ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἀπηλλαγμένης ἁπάντων. Οὐκ ἐνταῦθα δὲ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑτέρωθι δηλῶν, ὅσα ἔπασχον οἱ πιστεύοντες τότε κακὰ παρὰ τῶν οἰκείων καὶ συγγενῶν (τοῦτο γὰρ ἦν τὸ χαλεπώτατον), οὑτωσί πώς φησιν· Ὑμεῖς γὰρ μιμηταὶ ἐγενήθητε, ἀδελφοὶ, τῶν Ἐκκλησιῶν τοῦ Θεοῦ τῶν οὐσῶν ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ. Κατὰ τί μιμηταί; Ὅτι καὶ ὑμεῖς τὰ αὐτὰ ἐπάθετε ἀπὸ τῶν ἰδίων συμφυλετῶν, καθὼς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὑπὸ τῶν Ἰουδαίων. Ἰδοὺ καὶ πόλεμος, ἀλλὰ καὶ πόλεμος ἐμφύλιος, ὃ μείζω ποιεῖ τὴν ὀδύνην. Εἰ γὰρ ἐχθρὸς ὠνείδισέ με, ὑπήνεγκα ἂν, φησί· σὺ δὲ, ἄνθρωπε ἰσόψυχε, ἡγεμών μου καὶ γνωστέ μου· ὅπερ τότε συνέβαινε συμβολικῶς. ∆ιὸ καὶ πολλῆς ἐδέοντο τῆς παρακλήσεως. Ὅπερ οὖν καὶ Παῦλος συνορῶν, καὶ τοὺς ὑπ' αὐτῷ ταττομένους βλέπων κάμνοντας καὶ ἱδροῦντας, βαρυνομένους τῷ μεγέθει τῶν συμφορῶν καὶ ταῖς ἐπαλλήλοις ὀδυνωμένους πληγαῖς, πολυτρόπως αὐτῶν διανίστησι τὰ φρονήματα, νῦν μὲν λέγων, Εἴπερ δίκαιον παρὰ Θεῷ ἀνταποδοῦναι τοῖς θλίβουσιν ὑμᾶς θλίψιν, καὶ ὑμῖν τοῖς θλιβομένοις ἄνεσιν μεθ' ἡμῶν· νῦν δὲ λέγων, Ὁ Κύριος ἐγγὺς, μηδὲν μεριμνᾶτε· καὶ πάλιν, Μὴ ἀποβάλητε τὴν παῤῥησίαν ὑμῶν· ὑπομονῆς γὰρ ἔχετε χρείαν, ἵνα τὸ θέλημα τοῦ Θεοῦ ποιήσαντες, κομίσησθε τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν. Εἶτα πρὸς τὴν ὑπομονὴν ἀλείφων αὐτοὺς, ἐπάγει· Ἔτι γὰρ μικρὸν ὅσον, ὅσον, ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἥξει, καὶ οὐ χρονιεῖ. Καὶ καθάπερ παιδίον κλαυθμυρίζον, δυσχεραῖνον, καὶ τὴν μητέρα ἐπιζητοῦν παρακαθήμενός τις παραμυθεῖται λέγων, ὅτι Ἔτι μικρὸν ἀνάμεινον, καὶ ἀπαντήσεται πάντως ἡ μήτηρ· οὕτω καὶ Παῦλος ὁρῶν δυσανασχετοῦντας, ὀδυρομένους, τὴν παρουσίαν ἐπιζητοῦντας τοῦ Χριστοῦ τοὺς τότε πιστεύοντας διὰ τὴν ἀφόρητον τῶν κακῶν ἐπαγωγὴν, παραμυθούμενος ἔλεγεν· Ἔτι μικρὸν ὅσον, ὅσον, ὁ ἐρχόμενος ἥξει, καὶ οὐ χρονιεῖ. ςʹ. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν οἱ μαθηταὶ ἐθλίβοντο, καὶ μυρία ἔπασχον δεινὰ, καὶ καθάπερ ἐν μέσοις ἐπειλημμένοι λύκοις ἄρνες, οὕτω πάντοθεν ἠλαύνοντο, δῆλον ἐκ τούτων· ἵνα δὲ μάθῃς ὅτι καὶ οἱ διδάσκαλοι οὐκ ἐλάττονα τούτων, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλῷ χαλεπώτερα τότε ὑπέμενον (ὅσῳ γὰρ μειζόνως ἐλύπουν τοὺς ἐχθροὺς 51.295 τῆς ἀληθείας, τοσούτῳ καὶ παρὰ πλειόνων ἐβάλλοντο), καὶ ταῦτα παρὰ τοῦ τὰ πρότερα εἰρηκότος ἀκούσωμεν. Κορινθίοις γὰρ γράφων, οὕτως ἔλεγε· Μηδεμίαν ἐν μηδενὶ διδόντες προσκοπὴν, ἵνα μὴ μωμασθῇ ἡ διακονία ὑμῶν, ἀλλ' ἐν παντὶ συνιστῶντες ἑαυτοὺς, ὡς Θεοῦ διάκονοι, ἐν ὑπομονῇ πολλῇ, ἐν θλίψεσιν, ἐν ἀνάγκαις, ἐν στενοχωρίαις, ἐν πληγαῖς, ἐν φυλακαῖς, ἐν ἀκαταστασίαις, ἐν κόποις, ἐν ἀγρυπνίαις, ἐν νηστείαις. Εἶδες πόσους ἄθλους ἠρίθμησε, πόσας πειρασμῶν νιφάδας; Πάλιν τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐπιστέλλων, ∆ιάκονοι Χριστοῦ εἰσι, φησὶ, παραφρονῶν λαλῶ, ὑπὲρ ἐγώ. Εἶτα βουλόμενος ἡμᾶς πεῖσαι, ὅτι τοῦ σημεῖα ποιεῖν πολλῷ λαμπρότερον τὸ διὰ τὸν Χριστὸν θλίβεσθαι, καὶ ποιούμενος ἀπόδειξιν ἀποστολῆς, καὶ δεικνὺς ὅτι βελτίων αὐτῶν ἐστιν, οὐχὶ τῶν ἀποστόλων λέγω, ἀλλὰ τῶν ψευδαποστόλων, οὐκ ἀπὸ θαυμάτων καὶ σημείων, ἀλλ' ἀπὸ κινδύνων ἐπαλλήλων ποιεῖται τὸν τῆς ὑπεροχῆς ἔλεγχον, οὑτωσὶ λέγων· Ἐν κόποις περισσοτέρως, ἐν πληγαῖς ὑπερβαλλόντως, ἐν φυλακαῖς περισσοτέρως, ἐν θανάτοις πολλάκις· πεντάκις τεσσαράκοντα παρὰ μίαν ὑπὸ Ἰουδαίων ἔλαβον, τρὶς ἐῤῥαβδίσθην, ἅπαξ ἐλιθάσθην, τρὶς ἐναυάγησα, νυχθήμερον ἐν τῷ βυθῷ πεποίηκα· ὁδοιπορίαις πολλάκις, κινδύνοις ποταμῶν, κινδύνοις λῃστῶν, κινδύνοις ἐκ γένους, κινδύνοις ἐξ ἐθνῶν, κινδύνοις ἐν πόλει, κινδύνοις ἐν ἐρημίᾳ, κινδύνοις ἐν θαλάσσῃ, κινδύνοις ἐν ψευδαδέλφοις· ἐν κόπῳ