to look to another life, in which the distinction between the just and the unjust occurs according to glory and dishonor. Question 125. If the apostle Paul forbade returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, how did he himself do the opposite of what he said, by cursing at one time the high priest, at another Alexander the coppersmith? Response. If Paul had struck back at the high priest who struck him, or had done evil in return to Alexander who did evil to him, it would be possible to say that he did the opposite of what he taught. But to say what was going to happen to each from God—to the high priest: "God is about to strike you, you whitewashed wall;" and to Alexander: "The Lord will repay him on that day"—is neither a curse nor a reviling, but prophecies befitting an apostle, not avenging himself but giving place to wrath. Question 120. If God rewards the pious with splendor in this life, like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and their descendants with wealth and good children and abundance of fruits, from where were similar things also provided to the Greeks, when they were worshipping idols everywhere? And how is Hellenism not shown to be more pious, because, for as long as it held the cities, the cities and the fields possessed all prosperity and abundance, and this though they were more frequently at war, but from when the Christian preaching took them over, they became desolate of houses and inhabitants and the rest of their abundance, and barely holding the remnants of the buildings formerly built by the Greeks, they show that they were once cities, bringing forward the respective religions as the causes of both the old abundance and the new desolation? Response. By the Lord God, who makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, the bodily splendor in the present life is supplied to both (for by whose power the world came to be, by his providence it is also governed), so that the just, at least, seeing themselves abounding in labors for piety's sake, but being equal to the impious in the things of this life, may look forward to another life, in which there is a difference of honor and punishment in the distribution between the just and the unjust, as has been said. But that the destructions of cities and fields occurred while Hellenism prevailed, the desolation of the Babylonians and Assyrians and of Nineveh and of many other nations testifies; but which of the two cities was laid waste while Christianity prevails, it is not possible to show. And from the abundance and plenty of habitations, and the desolation of cities and fields, it is not possible to judge the piety of the superior

ἄλλον βίον ἀφορᾶν, ἐν ᾧ γίνεται κατὰ δόξαν τε καὶ ἀδοξίαν δικαίων τε καὶ ἀδίκων ἡ διάκρισις. Ἐρώτησις ρκε. Eἰ ἀποδιδόναι κακὸν ἀντὶ κακοῦ ἢ λοιδορίαν ἀντὶ λοιδο ρίας ὁ ἀπόστολος Παῦλος ἀπηγόρευσε, πῶς αὐτὸς ὧν εἶπεν ἐναντία ἔπραξε, ποτὲ μὲν τῷ ἀρχιερεῖ ποτὲ δὲ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ τῷ χαλκεῖ ἀρασάμενος; Ἀπόκρισις. Eἰ μὲν ἀντέτυπτεν ὁ Παῦλος τὸν τυπτήσαντα αὐτὸν ἀρ χιερέα, ἢ ἀντεκάκωσε τὸν κακώσαντα αὐτὸν Ἀλέξανδρον, ἐνῆν λέγειν ὅτι τὰ ἐναντία ὧν ἐδίδαξεν ἔπραττε. Τὸ δὲ λέγειν τὰ ἑκάστῳ μέλλοντα συμβήσεσθαι παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ, τῷ μὲν ἀρχιε ρεῖ· Τύπτειν σε μέλλει ὁ θεός, τοῖχε κεκονιαμένε· τῷ δὲ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ τὸ Ἀποδῴη αὐτῷ κύριος ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ· οὐκ ἔστιν οὔτε κατάρα οὔτε λοιδορία, ἀλλὰ προῤῥήσεις πρέ πουσαι ἀνδρὶ ἀποστόλῳ, μὴ ἐκδικοῦντι ἑαυτὸν ἀλλὰ διδόντι τόπον τῇ ὀργῇ. Ἐρώτησις ρκ. Eἰ τοὺς εὐσεβεῖς ἀμείβεται ὁ θεὸς τῇ κατὰ τόνδε τὸν βίον λαμπρότητι, ὡς τὸν Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακὼβ καὶ τοὺς ἐξ αὐτῶν πλούτῳ καὶ εὐπαιδίᾳ καὶ καρπῶν εὐφορίᾳ, πόθεν καὶ τὰ ὅμοια παρείχοντο Ἕλλησιν, ἡνίκα τὰ εἴδωλα πανταχοῦ ἐθεράπευον; Πῶς δὲ ὁ ἑλληνισμὸς οὐ δείκνυται ὁσιώτερος, ὅτι, ἕως μὲν ἐκεῖνος κατεῖχε τὰς πόλεις, πᾶσαν αἱ πόλεις καὶ οἱ ἀγροὶ εὐπραγίαν καὶ εὐθηνίαν ἐκέκτηντο, καὶ ταῦτα συχνότερον πολεμούμεναι, ἀφ' οὗ δὲ αὐτὰς τὸ χριστιανικὸν κατέλαβε κήρυγμα, καὶ οἴκων καὶ οἰκούντων καὶ τῆς λοιπῆς εὐθηνίας κατέστησαν ἔρημοι, καὶ μόλις τὰ λείψανα τῶν πάλαι ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων γεγενημένων κτισμάτων κατέχουσαι τό ποτε πόλεις γεγενῆσθαι δεικνύουσι, τῆς παλαιᾶς εὐθηνίας καὶ τῆς νέας ἐρημίας ἑκατέρας τὰς θρησκείας αἰτίας ἀμφοτέρων προ φέρουσαι; Ἀπόκρισις. Παρὰ τοῦ δεσπότου θεοῦ, τοῦ τὸν ἥλιον αὑτοῦ ἀνατέλ λοντος ἐπὶ πονηρούς τε καὶ ἀγαθοὺς καὶ βρέχοντος ἐπὶ δι καίους καὶ ἀδίκους, ἀμφοτέροις χορηγεῖται ἡ κατὰ τὸν παρόντα βίον σωματικὴ λαμπρότης (οὗ γὰρ τῇ δυνάμει ὁ κόσμος γε γένηται, τούτου καὶ τῇ προνοίᾳ διοικεῖται), ἵνα γοῦν ἑαυτοὺς ὁρῶντες οἱ δίκαιοι πλεονάζοντας μὲν ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐσε βείας πόνοις, ἰσαζομένους δὲ τοῖς ἀσεβέσι τοῖς βιωτικοῖς, βίον ἕτερον προσδοκήσωσιν, ἐν ᾧ γίνεταί τις διαφορὰ τιμῆς τε καὶ τιμωρίας, δικαίων τε καὶ ἀδίκων τὴν διανομήν, καθάπερ εἴρηται. Ὅτι δὲ κρατοῦντος τοῦ ἑλληνισμοῦ ἐγίνοντο οἱ ἀφα νισμοὶ πόλεών τε καὶ ἀγρῶν, μαρτυρεῖ ἡ ἐρημία τῶν Βαβυ λωνίων καὶ Ἀσσυρίων καὶ τῆς Νινευῒ καὶ ἑτέρων πολλῶν ἐθνῶν· ποία δὲ πόλις τῶν ἀμφοτέρων πόλεων κρατοῦντος τοῦ χριστιανισμοῦ ἠρημώθη, οὐκ ἔστι δεῖξαι. Ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς εὐθηνίας τε καὶ εὐφορίας οἰκήσεών τε καὶ ἐρημίας πόλεών τε καὶ ἀγρῶν οὐκ ἔνεστι τεκμήρασθαι τῶν κρειττόνων τὴν ὁσιό