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he commanded to walk unshod, and Jeremiah to put a loincloth on his loins and so to offer the prophecy to the disobedient, and at another time, after this, to put wooden and iron collars around his neck; and Hosea to take a wife who was a prostitute, and again to love a wicked and adulterous woman; and Ezekiel to lie on his right side for forty days and on his left for one hundred and fifty; and again, to dig through a wall and go out as a fugitive, and to portray captivity in his own person; and at another time to sharpen a sword to a fine edge and with it to shave his head and to divide the hair into four parts and to assign some to this place, and others to that, so that I do not list everything. The ruler of all things commanded each of these things to be done, gathering those who were not persuaded by word nor endured to listen to prophecy by the strangeness of the sight, and preparing them to hear the oracles. For who would not have been astonished seeing a divine man walking naked? Who indeed would not have longed to learn the reason for what was happening? Who indeed would not have asked why ever the prophet endures to live with a prostitute? Just as, then, the God of all commanded each of those things to be done, providing for the benefit of those living in indifference, so also he ordained this new and strange spectacle, drawing all to the sight by its strangeness and preparing a persuasive exhortation for those who came; for the novelty of the spectacle becomes a worthy pledge of the teaching, and he who comes for the sight returns having been taught divine things. And just as those who have been allotted to rule over men change the images on the coins at a certain period of time, sometimes stamping impressions of lions, sometimes of stars and angels, at other times trying to show the gold as more precious by a strange character, so the king of all, placing these new and varied ways of life like certain characters upon piety, moves the tongues to praise not only of the nurslings of the faith, but also of those who are sick with unbelief. 26.13 And that these things are this way, not words are the witnesses, but the cry of the facts. For the station upon the pillar enlightened the Ishmaelites, many myriads enslaved to the gloom of impiety. For just as if placed on some lampstand, this most brilliant lamp sent out its rays everywhere like the sun. And it is possible to see Iberians, as I said, and Armenians and Persians arriving and receiving divine baptism. But Ishmaelites arriving in companies, two hundred and three hundred at the same time, and sometimes even a thousand, renounce their ancestral deceit with a shout, smashing the idols worshipped by them before that great luminary and renouncing the orgies of Aphrodite—for from of old they had accepted the worship of this demon—they receive the divine mysteries, receiving laws from that sacred tongue and bidding farewell to their ancestral customs, and renouncing the eating of wild asses and camels. 26.14 And of these things I myself became an eyewitness and I have heard them renouncing their ancestral impiety and assenting to the evangelical teaching. And once I endured a very great danger; for he himself commanded them to approach and to receive the priestly blessing from me, saying that they would reap the greatest benefit from it. But they, running together rather barbarously, some pulled from the front, others from behind, others from the sides, while those standing apart from the others, stepping on them and stretching out their hands, some pulled my beard, others took hold of my garments. And I would have been suffocated by their rather ardent approach, if he had not, using a shout, scattered them

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ἀνυπόδητον βαδίσαι προσέταξε, καὶ τὸν Ἱερεμίαν περίζωμα τῇ ὀσφύϊ περιθεῖναι καὶ οὕτω τοῖς ἀπειθέσι προσφέρειν τὴν προφητείαν, καὶ ἄλλοτε δὲ κλοιοὺς ξυλίνους καὶ σιδηροῦς μετὰ ταῦτα τῷ τραχήλῳ περιβαλεῖν· καὶ τῷ Ὠσηὲ γυναῖκα πόρνην λαβεῖν, καὶ αὖθις ἀγαπῆσαι γυναῖκα πονηρὰν καὶ μοιχαλίδα· καὶ τῷ Ἰεζεκιὴλ ἐπὶ τοῦ δεξιοῦ πλευροῦ τεσσαράκοντα κατα κλιθῆναι ἡμέρας καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ εὐωνύμου πεντήκοντα καὶ ἑκατόν· καὶ πάλιν, διορύξαι τοῖχον καὶ φεύγοντα ἐξελθεῖν, καὶ αἰχμαλωσίαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ διαγράψαι· καὶ ἄλλοτε δὲ ξίφος εἰς ἀκμὴν παραθῆξαι καὶ ξυρᾶσθαι τούτῳ τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τετραχῇ τὰς τρίχας διελεῖν καὶ ἀπονεῖμαι τὰς μὲν εἰς τόδε, τὰς δὲ εἰς τόδε, ἵνα μὴ ἅπαντα καταλέγω. Γίνεσθαι δὲ τούτων ἕκαστον προσέταττε τῶν ὅλων ὁ πρύτανις, τοὺς λόγῳ μὴ πειθομένους μηδὲ τῆς προφητείας ἐπαΐειν ἀνεχο μένους τῷ τῆς θεωρίας παραδόξῳ συλλέγων καὶ τῶν θεσπισμάτων ἀκούειν παρασκευάζων. Τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν ἐξεπλάγη θεῖον ἄνθρωπον γυμνὸν βαδίζοντα θεωρῶν; Τίς δαὶ οὐκ ἂν τοῦ γιγνομένου μαθεῖν τὴν αἰτίαν ἐπόθησε; Τίς δαὶ οὐκ ἂν ἤρετο τί δήποτε πόρνῃ συνοικεῖν ὁ προφήτης ἀνέχεται; Καθάπερ τοίνυν ἐκείνων ἕκαστον ὁ τῶν ὅλων θεὸς γενέσθαι προσέταξε τῆς τῶν ῥᾳστώνῃ συζώντων προμηθούμενος ὠφελείας, οὕτω καὶ τὸ καινὸν τοῦτο καὶ παράδοξον ἐπρυτάνευσε θέαμα τῷ ξένῳ πάντας ἕλκων εἰς θεωρίαν καὶ πιθανὴν τοῖς ἀφικνουμένοις παρασκευάζων τὴν προσφερομένην παραίνεσιν· τὸ γὰρ καινὸν τοῦ θεάματος ἐνέχυρον ἀξιόχρεων γίνεται τοῦ διδάγματος, καὶ ὁ εἰς θεωρίαν ἀφικνούμενος τὰ θεῖα παιδευθεὶς ἐπανέρχεται. Καὶ ὥσπερ οἱ βασιλεύειν τῶν ἀνθρώπων λαχόντες ἀμείβουσι κατά τινα χρόνου περίοδον τὰς τῶν νομισμάτων εἰκόνας, ποτὲ μὲν λεόντων ἐκτυποῦντες ἰνδάλματα, ποτὲ δὲ ἀστέρων καὶ ἀγγέλων, ἄλλοτε τῷ ξένῳ χαρακτῆρι τιμιώτερον ἀποφαί νειν πειρώμενοι τὸν χρυσόν, οὕτως ὁ τῶν ὅλων παμβασιλεὺς οἷόν τινας χαρακτῆρας τὰς καινὰς ταύτας καὶ παντοδαπὰς πολιτείας τῇ εὐσεβείᾳ περιτιθεὶς οὐ μόνον τῶν τροφίμων τῆς πίστεως, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν τὴν ἀπιστίαν νοσούντων εἰς εὐφημίαν τὰς γλώττας κινεῖ. 26.13 Καὶ ὅτι ταῦτα τοῦτον ἔχει τὸν τρόπον, οὐ λόγοι μάρτυρες, ἀλλ' ἡ τῶν πραγμάτων βοή. Τοὺς γὰρ Ἰσμαηλίτας, πολλὰς μυριάδας τῷ ζόφῳ τῆς ἀσεβείας δουλευούσας ἡ ἐπὶ τοῦ κίονος ἐφώτισε στάσις. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐπί τινος λυχνίας τεθεὶς ὁ φανότατος οὗτος λύχνος ἡλίου δίκην πάντοσε τὰς ἀκτῖνας ἐξέπεμψε. Καὶ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν καὶ Ἴβηρας, ὡς ἔφην, καὶ Ἀρμενίους καὶ Πέρσας ἀφικνουμένους καὶ τοῦ θείου βαπτίσματος ἀπολαύοντας. Ἰσμαηλῖται δὲ κατὰ συμμορίας ἀφικνούμενοι, διακόσιοι κατὰ ταὐτὸν καὶ τριακόσιοι, ἔστι δ' ὅτε καὶ χίλιοι, ἀρνοῦνται μὲν τὴν πατρῴαν ἐξαπάτην μετὰ βοῆς, τὰ δὲ ὑπ' ἐκείνων σεβασθέντα εἴδωλα πρὸ τοῦ μεγάλου ἐκείνου φωστῆρος συντρίβοντες καὶ τοῖς τῆς Ἀφροδίτης ὀργίοις ἀποταττόμενοι- τούτου γὰρ ἀνέκαθεν τοῦ δαίμονος κατεδέξαντο τὴν λατρείαν-τῶν θείων ἀπολαύουσι μυστηρίων, νόμους παρὰ τῆς ἱερᾶς ἐκείνης δεχόμενοι γλώττης καὶ τοῖς ἔθεσι τοῖς πατρῴοις χαίρειν φράζοντες, καὶ τῶν τε ὄνων τῶν ἀγρίων τῶν τε καμήλων τὴν ἐδωδὴν ἀπαρνούμενοι. 26.14 Καὶ τούτων αὐτόπτης ἐγενόμην ἐγὼ καὶ ἀκήκοα καὶ τὴν πατρῴαν ἀσέβειαν ἀρνουμένων καὶ τῇ εὐαγγελικῇ διδασκαλίᾳ συντιθεμένων. Καὶ κίνδυνον δὲ ἅπαξ ὑπέμεινα μέγιστον· αὐτὸς μὲν γὰρ αὐτοῖς προσελθεῖν ἐκέλευσε καὶ παρ' ἐμοῦ τὴν ἱερατικὴν εὐλογίαν λαβεῖν, μέγιστον φήσας αὐτοὺς ἐντεῦθεν καρπώσασθαι κέρδος. Βαρβαρικώτερον δὲ συνδραμόντες ἐκεῖνοι, οἱ μὲν ἔμπροσθεν εἷλκον, οἱ δὲ ὄπισθεν, ἄλλοι ἐκ πλαγίων, οἱ δὲ ἀφεστῶτες τῶν ἄλλων ἐπιβαίνοντες καὶ τὰς χεῖρας προτείνοντες, οἱ μὲν τὸ γένειον εἷλκον, οἱ δὲ τῶν ἱματίων ἐπελαμβάνοντο. Κἂν ἀπεπνίγην ὑπὸ τῆς ἐκείνων θερμοτέρας προσόδου, εἰ μὴ βοῇ χρησά μενος ἀπεσκέδασεν