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for beauty, but those who are thirsty partake of the stream, not looking at the cups, but admiring the wine. 8.5 All men continually do this; and enjoying the divine streams, they not only do not ridicule the apostles' tongues, but also greatly admire, that being uninitiated in talkative words, and some having learned from childhood to fish, others having sat at the tax-collectors' workshops, and others having practiced the tanner's art, were suddenly revealed as ministers of divine words and distributors of heavenly gifts, and saviors who ward off evil and most brilliant lights, not illuminating one nation, 8.6 but as many as the visible sun. And all exceptionally revere and marvel, that even though dead they accomplish, what they were accustomed to do while living, or rather things much greater and more splendid are accomplished by them after their departure from here. For when they were living with their bodies, they went now to these, now to those, and at one time they spoke to Romans, at another to Spaniards or Celts; but since they have departed to Him by whom they were sent down, all continually enjoy them, not only Romans, and all who love their yoke and are governed by them, but also Persians and Scythians and Massagetae and Sauromatae and Indians and Ethiopians, and, to speak concisely, all the 8.7 ends of the inhabited world. For indeed their writings, though being simple and stripped of Hellenic splendor, and indeed both small and few, are most beloved to all men, except for you and anyone like you who has the mist of unbelief poured over him, and does not wish to see the splendor of the truth. Not only are these writings stripped of Hellenic elegance, but also of the matters about which they teach, the nature is not in any way grand and manifest and conspicuous. 8.8 For it does not show to its devotees any visible kingdom, adorned with purple and made splendid with a crown and glorying in the multitude and size of its shield-bearers and spear-bearers and having so great an army and generals taught to excel in wars and the other things that make their possessors famous, but a cave and a manger and a poor virgin and an infant wrapped in humble swaddling clothes and cast upon an empty manger and an obscure and small place, in which these things happened, and again, the poverty of the infant as he grew and hunger and thirst and the toil from journeying and after these things the passion sung by all, the blows on the cheek, the scourges on the back, the scaffold, the nails, the gall, the vinegar, 8.9 the death. But nevertheless the writings of the apostles, relating these and such things, have persuaded all men, that He is the Son of God and God before the ages and the maker and craftsman of all things, the one who took on human nature and through it wrought the salvation of men. And it did not simply persuade, but instilled such faith in the majority, that they most gladly accepted death on behalf of these doctrines and to those commanding them to deny, they would by no means give up their tongues, but would offer their backs to those willing to scourge them and their sides to torches and claws and submit their necks to swords and to be eagerly beaten to death and impaled, and indeed also to be burned and to see wild beasts feasting on their bodies. 8.10 Therefore the Judge of the contest bestowed upon them unquenchable glory and a memory that conquers the nature of time; for although time is accustomed to make all things wither, it has preserved their unfading glory. And the noble souls of the victors roam about heaven, dancing with the choirs of the incorporeal; and their bodies are not hidden each in a single tomb, but cities and villages, having divided these among themselves, name them saviors of both souls and bodies and physicians and honor them as city-guardians and protectors; and using them as ambassadors to the Master of all, through them 8.11

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εἰς κάλλος, ἀλλ' οἵ γε διψῶντες ἐπεμφοροῦνται τοῦ νάματος, οὐκ εἰς τὰς κύλικας ἀφορῶντες, ἀλλὰ τὸν οἶνον θαυμάζοντες. 8.5 Τοῦτο πάντες ἄνθρωποι δρῶντες διατελοῦσι· καὶ τῶν θείων ἀπολαύοντες ῥείθρων, οὐ μόνον οὐ κωμῳδοῦσι τῶν ἀποστόλων τὰς γλώττας, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄγαν θαυμάζουσιν, ὅτι δὴ λόγων στωμύ λων ὄντες ἀμύητοι, καὶ οἱ μὲν ἁλιεύειν παιδόθεν μεμαθηκότες, οἱ δὲ τελωνικοῖς ἐργαστηρίοις προσηδρευκότες, ἄλλοι δὲ σκυτο τομικὴν μεταχειρίσαντες τέχνην, ἀπεφάνθησαν ἐξαίφνης θείων λόγων διάκονοι καὶ δωρεῶν ἐπουρανίων διανομεῖς, καὶ σωτῆρες ἀλεξίκακοι καὶ φωστῆρες φανότατοι, οὐχ ἓν ἔθνος φωτίζοντες, 8.6 ἀλλ' ὅσαπερ ὁ ὁρώμενος ἥλιος. Ἄγανται δὲ διαφερόντως ἅπαντες καὶ θαυμάζουσιν, ὅτι δὴ καὶ τεθνεῶτες ἐπιτελοῦσιν, ἅπερ δὴ καὶ περιόντες εἰώθεσαν ἐνεργεῖν, μᾶλλον δὲ πολλῷ μείζονα καὶ λαμπρότερα τὰ μετὰ τὴν ἐντεῦθεν ἐκδημίαν παρ' ἐκείνων τελού μενα. Ἡνίκα μὲν γὰρ μετὰ τῶν σωμάτων ἐπολιτεύοντο, νῦν μὲν παρὰ τούτους, νῦν δὲ παρ' ἐκείνους ἐφοίτων, καὶ ἄλλοτε μὲν Ῥωμαίοις, ἄλλοτε δὲ Ἱσπανοῖς ἢ Κελτοῖς διελέγοντο· ἐπειδὴ δὲ πρὸς ἐκεῖνον ἐξεδήμησαν, ὑφ' οὗ κατεπέμφθησαν, ἅπαντες αὐτῶν ἐνδελεχῶς ἀπολαύουσιν, οὐ μόνον Ῥωμαῖοι, καὶ ὅσοι γε τὸν τούτων ἀγαπῶσι ζυγὸν καὶ ὑπὸ τούτων ἰθύνονται, ἀλλὰ καὶ Πέρσαι καὶ Σκύθαι καὶ Μασσαγέται καὶ Σαυρομάται καὶ Ἰνδοὶ καὶ Αἰθίοπες, καὶ ξυλλήβδην εἰπεῖν ἅπαντα τῆς οἰκουμένης τὰ 8.7 τέρματα. Τὰ γὰρ δὴ τούτων ξυγγράμματα, ἁπλᾶ γε ὄντα καὶ τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς γεγυμνωμένα λαμπρότητος, καὶ μὲν δὴ καὶ σμικρὰ καὶ ὀλίγα, πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἐστὶν ἀξιέραστα, πλὴν ὑμῶν καὶ εἴ τις ὑμῖν παραπλησίως τὴν τῆς ἀπιστίας κατακεχυμένην ἔχων ἀχλύν, ἰδεῖν οὐκ ἐθέλει τῆς ἀληθείας τὴν αἴγλην. Οὐ μόνον δὲ τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς ταῦτα κομψείας γεγύμνωται, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν πραγμάτων, ὧν πέρι διδάσκει, τὴν φύσιν οὐ σεμνήν τινα ἔχει καὶ περιφανῆ καὶ περίβλεπτον. 8.8 Οὐ γὰρ ὁρωμένην τινὰ τοῖς θιασώταις ἐπιδείκνυσι βασιλείαν, ἁλουργίδι κοσμουμένην καὶ στεφάνῳ λαμπρυνομένην καὶ τῷ τῶν ἀσπιδηφόρων καὶ δορυφόρων καὶ πλήθει καὶ μεγέθει σεμνυνο μένην καὶ τόσην ἔχουσαν στρατιὰν καὶ στρατηγοὺς ἀριστεύειν ἐν πολέμοις δεδιδαγμένους καὶ τἄλλα, ὅσα πολυθρυλήτους τοὺς κεκτημένους ποιεῖ, ἀλλὰ σπήλαιον καὶ φάτνην καὶ παρθένον χερνῆτιν καὶ βρέφος εὐτελέσι σπαργάνοις ἐνειλημένον καὶ ἐπὶ κενῆς ἐρριμμένον τῆς φάτνης καὶ χωρίον ἄδοξον καὶ σμικρόν, ἐν ᾧ ταῦτα ἐγένετο, καὶ αὖ πάλιν πενίαν αὐξηθέντος τοῦ βρέφους καὶ πεῖναν καὶ δίψος καὶ τὸν ἐξ ὁδοιπορίας πόνον καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα τὸ παρὰ πάντων ᾀδόμενον πάθος, τὰς ἐπὶ κόρρης πληγάς, τὰς κατὰ νώτου μάστιγας, τὸ ἰκρίον, τοὺς ἥλους, τὴν χολήν, τὸ ὄξος, 8.9 τὸν θάνατον. Ἀλλ' ὅμως ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα διηγούμενα τῶν ἀποστόλων τὰ ξυγγράμματα ἔπεισεν ἅπαντας ἀνθρώπους, ὅτι υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ Θεὸς προαιώνιος καὶ τῶν ἁπάντων ποιητὴς καὶ δημιουργὸς ὁ τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν ὑποδὺς φύσιν καὶ διὰ ταύτης τὴν τῶν ἀνθρώπων πραγματευσάμενος σωτηρίαν. Καὶ οὐχ ἁπλῶς ἔπεισεν, ἀλλὰ τοσαύτην γε πίστιν τοῖς πλείστοις ἐντέθεικεν, ὡς ἥδιστα τὸν ὑπὲρ τῶνδε τῶν δογμάτων καταδέξασθαι θάνατον καὶ τοῖς ἀρνηθῆναι κελεύουσιν ἥκιστα μὲν προέσθαι τὰς γλώττας, προτεῖναι δὲ τὰ νῶτα τοῖς ἐθέλουσι μαστιγοῦν καὶ λαμπάσι καὶ ὄνυξι τὰς πλευρὰς καὶ τοὺς αὐχένας ὑποθεῖναι τοῖς ξίφεσι καὶ ἀποτυμπανισθῆναι προθύμως καὶ ἀνασκινδυλευθῆναι, καὶ μέντοι καὶ ἐμπρησθῆναι καὶ θῆρας ἀγρίους ἰδεῖν θοινωμένους τὰ σώματα. 8.10 Τῷ τοι καὶ ἄσβεστον αὐτοῖς ὁ ἀγωνοθέτης ἐδωρήσατο κλέος καὶ μνήμην νικῶσαν τοῦ χρόνου τὴν φύσιν· μαραίνειν γὰρ δὴ οὗτος ἅπαντα πεφυκώς, τὴν τούτων ἀμάραντον διετήρησε δόξαν. Καὶ αἱ μὲν γενναῖαι τῶν νικηφόρων ψυχαὶ περιπολοῦσι τὸν οὐρα νόν, τοῖς ἀσωμάτων χοροῖς ξυγχορεύουσαι· τὰ δὲ σώματα οὐχ εἷς ἑνὸς ἑκάστου κατακρύπτει τάφος, ἀλλὰ πόλεις καὶ κῶμαι ταῦτα διανειμάμεναι σωτῆρας καὶ ψυχῶν καὶ σωμάτων καὶ ἰατροὺς ὀνομάζουσι καὶ ὡς πολιούχους τιμῶσι καὶ φύλακας· καὶ χρώμενοι πρεσβευταῖς πρὸς τὸν τῶν ὅλων δεσπότην, διὰ τούτων 8.11