24.  But what was most excellent and most characteristic, though least generally recognized, was his simplicity, and freedom from guile and resentment.  For among men of ancient and modern days, each is supposed to have had some special success, as each chanced to have received from God some particular virtue:  Job unconquered patience in misfortune,52    Job i. 21. Moses53    Numb. xii. 3. and David54    Ps. cxxxii. 1 (LXX.). meekness, Samuel prophecy, seeing into the future,55    1 Sam. ix. 9. Phineas zeal,56    Numb. xxxv. 7. for which he has a name, Peter and Paul eagerness in preaching,57    Gal. ii. 7. the sons of Zebedee magniloquence, whence also they were entitled Sons of thunder.58    S. Mark iii. 17.  But why should I enumerate them all, speaking as I do among those who know this?  Now the specially distinguishing mark of Stephen and of my father was the absence of malice.  For not even when in peril did Stephen hate his assailants, but was stoned while praying for those who were stoning him59    Acts vii. 59. as a disciple of Christ, on Whose behalf he was allowed to suffer, and so, in his long-suffering, bearing for God a nobler fruit than his death:  my father, in allowing no interval between assault and forgiveness, so that he was almost robbed of pain itself by the speed of pardon.

ΚΔʹ. Ὃ δὲ κάλλιστον τῶν ἐκείνου καὶ ἰδιώτατον, καὶ οὐδὲ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀγνοούμενον, ἡ ἁπλότης, καὶ τὸ τοῦ ἤθους ἄδολόν τε καὶ ἀμνησίκακον. Ἄλλος μὲν γὰρ ἄλλο τι τῶν παλαιῶν ἢ τῶν νέων κατωρθωκέναι πιστεύεται, ὡς ἕκαστος ἔτυχεν ἐκ Θεοῦ χάριτός τινος ἠξιωμένος. Ἰὼβ, τὸ ἐν τοῖς πάθεσι καρτερικὸν καὶ ἀνάλωτον: Μωσῆς καὶ Δαβὶδ, τὸ πρᾶον: Σαμουὴλ τὸ χρηματίσαι, βλέπων τὰ ἔμπροσθεν: Φινεὲς τὸν ζῆλον, ἀφ' οὗ καὶ ὀνομάζεται: Πέτρος καὶ Παῦλος, τὸ σύντονον τοῦ κηρύγματος: οἱ τοῦ Ζεβεδαίου τὸ μεγαλόφωνον, ὃ καὶ βροντῆς υἱοὺς αὐτοὺς προσηγόρευσεν: καὶ τί ἂν καταριθμοίην ἅπαντας; ἐν γὰρ εἰδόσιν ὁ λόγος. Στεφάνου δὲ καὶ τοῦ ἐμοῦ πατρὸς, οὐδὲν οὕτως, ὡς τὸ ἀπόνηρον γνώρισμα. Ὁ μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ κινδυνεύων ἐμίσει τοὺς βάλλοντας, ἀλλ' ἐλιθάζετο μὲν, ὑπὲρ δὲ τῶν λιθαζόντων ηὔχετο, ὡς Χριστοῦ μαθητὴς, ὑπὲρ οὗ καὶ τὸ πάσχειν ἦν αὐτῷ, μεῖζον τοῦ θανάτου καρποφορῶν τῷ Θεῷ, τὴν μακροθυμίαν: τῷ δὲ οὐδὲν μέσον ἦν τῆς ἐπιπλήξεως καὶ τῆς ἀφέσεως, ὡς μικροῦ καὶ κλέπτεσθαι τὸ λυποῦν τῷ τάχει τῆς συγχωρήσεως.