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being refashioned, not by old thinkers for the most part but by certain new ones, who have contrived rather vain apologies for the difficulties of their own dogmas? And how can those who pay attention to these things say that there are waters above the heaven according to Scripture, or that the first and second and third day came to be without the course of the sun and moon and stars? Or how did the flood in the time of Noah cover all the earth and the waters again recede? 3.58 Or how can they again speak of the consummation of the world, and the course of the falling stars ceasing, and no longer making days and nights in succession, and this state ceasing altogether, and another being revealed, estranged from and surpassing this one, and the righteous entering into the higher heaven within this visible heaven, where the kingdom of heaven is, the second tabernacle called the Holy of Holies, of which the inner space in the tabernacle was a type, where also the Lord Christ entered, having ascended into heaven above the firmament, becoming a forerunner for us, inaugurating for us a new and living way? Or how can they again say that after the consummation there are seven or eight or nine heavens, or that the heaven, the so-called sphere of theirs, circles again? For what use? Let them say, let them not begrudge us. 3.59 Or how can such men believe also concerning the paradoxical miracles often mentioned by us, those in the time of the great Moses? Likewise also in the time of Joshua the son of Nun, the standing still of the sun and the moon and making a very long day, until he should rout the enemies? In the time of Hezekiah, the turning back of the sun, making it go back ten steps, which also astonished the Babylonian and prepared him to send gifts to Hezekiah? The all-consuming fire in the time of Nebuchadnezzar that burned the bonds of the three children, but did not destroy them even to a hair or their garments? Elijah, so great a man, traversing the heaven in a fiery chariot and raising a dead person and holding back the rain with his tongue for forty-two months? His disciple Elisha, who threw the wood into the water and drew up the iron, whose very dust raised a dead man? 3.60 Likewise also the miracles performed in the time of the Lord of all, Christ, the paradoxical birth from a Virgin, the testimony of the star that appeared, the adoration of the magi, the joyful evangelism of the shepherds by the angel, the doxology of the multitude of the army of angels, the prayer of Simeon with thanksgiving, the confession of Anna, the first miracle of the Lord himself in Cana of Galilee, how at a wedding he lavishly provided a paradoxical wine-drinking, the re-fashioning of the eyes of the man blind from birth from clay through spittle, the re-forging of the entrails of Lazarus on the fourth day, already decayed and stinking, the multitude of opposing demons trembling at his presence and crying out: "Have you come before the time to torment us?", the command and the muzzling of the raging sea, the walking on the back of the waters, as he also commanded Peter to walk with him, and when that one was overcome by unbelief and was sinking and crying out: "Lord, help me," and having pulled him up from the deep, he walked with him again and restored him safe to the boat? The eclipse of the sun that occurred for three hours at the time of the passion, on the fourteenth day of the moon? The quaking of the earth and of the rocks and the veil of the temple being torn? 3.61 And all the other things, which it is not easy to recount now, omitting them I will run on at last to the resurrection itself, the renewal of men and of the whole world, the gift of incorruptibility and of immortality and of immutability which is given by God to the whole world, their ascent again into heaven, where the Lord Christ first entered according to the flesh, the shadows of the apostles, which healed the sick, of the apostle Paul the

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ἀναπλαττομένοις, οὐ παλαιοῖς μάλιστα ἀλλὰ νέοις τισίν, οἳ πρὸς τὰς ἀπορίας τῶν οἰκείων δογμάτων ματαιοτέρας ἀπολογίας ἐπινενοήκασι; Πῶς δὲ δύνανται οἱ τούτοις προσέχοντες λέγειν ὕδατα εἶναι ἐπάνω τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κατὰ τὴν Γραφήν, ἢ πρώτην καὶ δευτέραν καὶ τρίτην ἡμέραν ἄνευ δρόμου ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης καὶ ἄστρων γενέσθαι; Ἢ καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ Νῶε κατακλυσμὸν πῶς ἐκάλυψε πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν καὶ πάλιν ὑπεχώρησαν τὰ ὕδατα; 3.58 Ἢ πῶς δύνανται πάλιν λέγειν συντέλειαν κόσμου, καὶ παύεσθαι τὸν δρόμον τῶν ἄστρων πιπτόντων, καὶ μηκέτι ἐκ διαδοχῆς ποιεῖν ἡμέρας καὶ νύκτας, καὶ παύεσθαι μὲν καθόλου ταύτην τὴν κατάστασιν, ἀναδείκνυσθαι δὲ ἑτέραν ἀπεξενωμένην καὶ ὑπερβαίνουσαν ταύτην, καὶ εἰσέρχεσθαι τοὺς δικαίους εἰς τὸν ἀνώτερον οὐρανὸν ἐσώτερον τούτου τοῦ ὁρωμένου οὐρανοῦ, ἔνθα ἐστὶν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, ἡ δευτέρα σκηνὴ ἡ λεγομένη Ἅγια ἁγίων, ἧς τύπος ἦν ὁ ἐν τῇ σκηνῇ ἐσώτερος χῶρος, ἔνθα καὶ εἰσῆλθεν ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστὸς ἀναληφθεὶς εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ὑπεράνω τοῦ στερεώματος, γενόμενος πρόδρομος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, ἐγκαινίσας ἡμῖν ὁδὸν πρόσφατον καὶ ζῶσαν; Ἢ πῶς δύνανται πάλιν λέγειν μετὰ τὴν συντέλειαν ἑπτὰ ἢ ὀκτὼ ἢ ἐννέα οὐρανούς, ἢ κυκλεύειν πάλιν τὸν οὐρανόν, τὴν παρ' αὐτῶν λεγομένην σφαῖραν; Εἰς τί χρήσιμον; Λεγέτωσαν, μὴ φθονησάτωσαν ἡμῖν. 3.59 Ἢ πῶς δύνανται οἱ τοιοῦτοι πιστεύειν καὶ περὶ τῶν παραδόξων θαυμάτων τῶν πολλάκις ἡμῖν εἰρημένων, τῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ μεγάλου Μωϋσέως; Ὁμοίως καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Ναυὴ τὸ στῆσαι τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην καὶ ποιῆσαι μεγάλην πάνυ ἡμέραν, μέχρις οὗ τροπώσηται τοὺς ἐναντίους; Ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἐζεκίου τὸν ἀναποδισμὸν τοῦ ἡλίου ἐπὶ δέκα κλιμάκων ἀναποδίσαντα, ὃ καὶ τὸν Βαβυλώνιον ἐκπλῆξαν δῶρα παρεσκεύασεν ἐκπέμψαι τῷ Ἐζεκίᾳ; Τὸ παμφάγον πῦρ ἐπὶ τοῦ Ναβοχοδονόσορ τὰ μὲν δεσμὰ τῶν τριῶν παίδων καῦσαν, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἕως τριχὸς ἢ ἱματίων μὴ διαφθεῖραν; Ἠλίαν τὸν τηλικοῦτον ἅρματι πυρίνῳ τὸν οὐρανὸν διατρέχοντα καὶ νεκρὸν ἐγείραντα καὶ τὸν ὑετὸν τῇ γλώσσῃ ἐπὶ τεσσαράκοντα καὶ δύο μῆνας κατασχόντα; Τὸν τούτου μαθητὴν Ἐλισσαῖον, τὸν ῥίψαντα εἰς τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ξύλον καὶ τὸν σίδηρον ἀνασπάσαντα, οὗ καὶ ἡ κόνις νεκρὸν ἀνέστησεν; 3.60 Ὁμοίως καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τοῦ ∆εσπότου τῶν ὅλων Χριστοῦ γενόμενα θαύματα, τὴν παράδοξον ἐκ Παρθένου γένεσιν, τὴν τοῦ φανέντος ἀστέρος μαρτυρίαν, τῶν μάγων τὴν προσκύνησιν, τῶν ποιμένων τὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀγγέλου μετὰ χαρᾶς εὐαγγελισμόν, τοῦ πλήθους τῆς στρατιᾶς τῶν ἀγγέλων τὴν δοξολογίαν, τοῦ Συμεῶνος τὴν μετ' εὐχαριστίας προσευχήν, τῆς Ἄννης τὴν ἐξομολόγησιν, αὐτοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου τὸ πρῶτον θαῦμα ἐν Κανᾷ τῆς Γαλιλαίας, ὡς ἐν γάμῳ παράδοξον οἰνοποσίαν φιλοτίμως ἐχορήγησε, τοῦ ἐκ γενετῆς τυφλοῦ τὸν ἀπὸ πηλοῦ διὰ πτύσματος ὀφθαλμῶν ἀναπλασμόν, τὴν τοῦ Λαζάρου τεταρταίαν καὶ πεπορθμευμένην καὶ ὄζουσαν ἤδη σπλάγχνων ἀναχάλκευσιν, τὸ πλῆθος τῶν ἀντικειμένων δαιμόνων τρεμόντων τὴν παρουσίαν καὶ βοώντων· "Ἦλθες πρὸ καιροῦ βασανίσαι ἡμᾶς", τὴν πρόσταξιν καὶ τὸν φιμὸν τῆς μαινομένης θαλάσσης, τὴν πορείαν τὴν ἐπὶ νώτου τῶν ὑδάτων, ὡς καὶ τὸν Πέτρον συμβαδίζειν ἐκέλευσε, κἀκείνου ἀπιστίᾳ κατασχεθέντος καὶ καταποντουμένου καὶ βοῶντος· "Κύριε, βοήθει μοι", καὶ τοῦ βυθοῦ ἀνασπάσαντος αὖθις συμβαδίσας ὑγιῆ ἐπὶ τὸ πλοῖον ἀποκατέστησε; Τὴν γενομένην ἔκλειψιν ἡλίου ἐπὶ ὥρας τρεῖς ἐν καιρῷ τοῦ πάθους, ἐν τεσσαρεσκαιδεκαταίᾳ τῆς σελήνης; Τὸν κλόνον τῆς γῆς καὶ τῶν πετρῶν καὶ τοῦ ναοῦ τὸ καταπέτασμα διαρραγέν; 3.61 Καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα, ἅπερ νῦν καταλέγειν οὐκ εὐχερές, παραλείψας ἐπ' αὐτὴν τὴν ἀνάστασιν λοιπὸν δραμοῦμαι, τὸν τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ παντὸς τοῦ κόσμου ἀνακαινισμόν, τὴν δωρεὰν τῆς ἀφθαρσίας καὶ τῆς ἀθανασίας καὶ τῆς ἀτρεπτότητος τῆς δωρουμένης παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ παντὶ τῷ κόσμῳ, τὴν ἄνοδον αὐτῶν πάλιν τὴν εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, ἔνθα καὶ πρῶτος εἰσελήλυθε κατὰ σάρκα ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστός, τῶν ἀποστόλων τὰς σκιάς, αἳ τοὺς ἀρρώστους ἀνερρώννυον, τοῦ ἀποστόλου Παύλου τὴν