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showing. And it was fitting and similar to the beginnings that the end of his departure from men was also undertaken. For even until death and the very grave, the laws of philanthropy called him, so that he might also call back the souls of those long dead, 4.12.2 because indeed he cared for the salvation of all from eternity. And so that "through death he might destroy him who has the power of death," as the divine oracles teach, here again he entered into the economy in a mixed way, as a man yielding his body to the customary burial, but departing from it as God. 4.12.3 For having cried out with a loud voice, and having said "to the Father I commend my spirit," he departed from the body of his own accord, in no way waiting for death to approach him, but when it was hesitating and as if shrinking away, or rather falling at his feet and fleeing, he himself pursued and drove it from behind, breaking through the eternal gates of the dark recesses and making for the dead there, who were bound by the chains of death, a return path for the ascent to life. 4.12.4 In this way indeed the dead were raised by him, and "many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep" arose, entering with him "into the holy" and truly heavenly city, so that it was fittingly said in the divine utterances: "Death has swallowed them up in its strength, and again God has wiped away every tear from every face." 4.12.5 And he himself, the savior and Lord of all, the Christ of God, called victorious, is introduced in the prophetic predictions as mocking death and loosing the souls bound there, for which he utters the victory hymn, saying these very things: "From the hand of Hades I will deliver them, and from death I will redeem their souls. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law." 4.12.6 Such was his economy even unto death, for which one might find not one cause but several, if one wished to seek. For the word teaches the first, "that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living;" a second, that he might wipe away our sins, being sacrificed for us and "becoming a curse for us;" 4.12.7 a third, that as a victim of God and a great sacrifice for the whole world he might be offered to the God over all; a fourth, that he might thus work a cleansing from the greatly deceptive and demonic energy by ineffable words; 4.12.8 a fifth in addition to this, that by presenting to his own acquaintances and disciples the hope of life with God after death not by words nor by sayings and utterances but by deeds themselves, and by delivering to their eyes the promise made through words, he might make them confident and more eager to proclaim to all Greeks and barbarians alike the pious way of life established by him. 4.12.9 Immediately, therefore, he filled these very acquaintances and followers, whom he himself had chosen by merit and selected as his apostles and disciples, with his divine power, to teach every race of men the knowledge of God proclaimed by him, establishing one way of piety for all Greeks and barbarians, proclaiming the withdrawal and flight of demons and the renunciation of the polytheistic error, and the true knowledge of one God only, who is over all, and remission of former sins, if they no longer persisted in them, and promising one hope of salvation for all, through the all-wise and all-virtuous way of life which he has established. 4.13.1 Since these things are so, one must not be disturbed in mind when hearing of birth and body and passions and death in connection with the immaterial and incorporeal Word of God. For just as rays of sunlight would not suffer anything, though they fill all things and touch dead and unclean bodies, much more the incorporeal power of God would neither suffer in its essence nor be harmed nor ever become worse than itself, by touching a body incorporeally. 4.13.2 For what? Is it not also,

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ἐπιδεικνύμενος. Εἰκότα δὲ καὶ ὅμοια ταῖς ἀρχαῖς καὶ τὰ τέλη αὐτῷ τῆς ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἀπαλλαγῆς ἐνεχειρεῖτο. καὶ γὰρ μέχρι θανάτου καὶ αὐτῶν νεκρῶν οἱ τῆς φιλανθρωπίας αὐτὸν ἐκάλουν νόμοι, ὡς ἂν καὶ τῶν πάλαι τεθνεώτων τὰς ψυχὰς ἀνακαλέσοιτο, 4.12.2 ὅτι δὴ τῶν ἐξ αἰῶνος ἁπάντων αὐτῷ τῆς σωτηρίας ἔμελεν. καὶ ὅπως «διὰ τοῦ θανάτου καταργήσῃ τὸν τὸ κράτος ἔχοντα τοῦ θανάτου», ᾗ τὰ θεῖα παιδεύει λόγια, κἀνταῦθα πάλιν ἀναμὶξ ὑπῄει τὴν οἰκονομίαν, ὡς μὲν ἄνθρωπος τὸ σῶμα τῇ συνήθει παραχωρῶν ταφῇ, ἀναχωρῶν δὲ αὐτοῦ ὡς θεός. 4.12.3 φωνήσας γοῦν μέγα, καὶ «τῷ πατρὶ παρατίθεμαι τὸ πνεῦμα» εἰπών, ἄφετος ἀνεχώρει τοῦ σώματος, οὐδαμῶς περιμείνας προσιέναι αὐτῷ τὸν θάνατον, μέλλοντα δὲ καὶ ὥσπερ ἀποκνοῦντα μᾶλλον δ' ὑπὸ πόδα χωροῦντα καὶ ἀποφεύγοντα διώκων αὐτὸς ὄπισθεν καὶ ἐλαύνων, τάς τε ἐξ αἰῶνος πύλας τῶν σκοτίων μυχῶν διαρρηγνὺς καὶ τοῖς αὐτόθι νεκροῖς σειραῖς θανάτου πεπεδημένοις παλίντροπον τῆς ἐπὶ τὴν ζωὴν ἀνόδου τὴν πορείαν ποιούμενος. 4.12.4 ταύτῃ τοι αὐτῷ καὶ ὁ τεθνεὼς ἀνηγείρετο, καὶ «πολλὰ σώματα τῶν κεκοιμημένων ἁγίων» ἀνίσταντο, συνεισελαύνοντα αὐτῷ «εἰς τὴν ἁγίαν» καὶ ὡς ἀληθῶς οὐρανόπολιν, ὡς εἰκότως ἐν ταῖς θείαις ἀνειρῆσθαι φωναῖς· «κατέπιεν ὁ θάνατος ἰσχύσας, καὶ πάλιν ἀφεῖλεν ὁ θεὸς πᾶν δάκρυον ἀπὸ παντὸς προσώπου». 4.12.5 καὶ αὐτὸς δ' ὁ τῶν ὅλων σωτὴρ καὶ κύριος ἡμῶν, ὁ Χριστὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, νικηφόρος λεγόμενος, ἐν ταῖς προφητικαῖς προρρήσεσιν ἐπικερτομῶν εἰσάγεται τῷ θανάτῳ καὶ τὰς αὐτόθι λύων πεπεδημένας ψυχάς, δι' ὧν τὸν ἐπινίκιον ὕμνον προφέρεται, αὐτὰ δὴ ταῦτα λέγων· «ἐκ χειρὸς ᾅδου ῥύσομαι αὐτούς, καὶ ἐκ θανάτου λυτρώσομαι αὐτῶν τὰς ψυχάς. ποῦ σου, θάνατε, τὸ νῖκος; ποῦ σου, θάνατε, τὸ κέντρον; τὸ δὲ κέντρον τοῦ θανάτου ἐστὶν ἡ ἁμαρτία, ἡ δὲ δύναμις τῆς ἁμαρτίας ὁ νόμος.» 4.12.6 Τοιαύτη τις αὐτῷ καὶ μέχρι τοῦ θανάτου ἐγένετο ἡ οἰκονομία, ἧς οὐ μίαν αἰτίαν ἀλλὰ καὶ πλείους εὕροι ἄν τις ἐθελήσας ζητεῖν. πρώτην μὲν γὰρ ὁ λόγος διδάσκει, «ἵνα καὶ νεκρῶν καὶ ζώντων κυριεύσῃ»· δευτέραν δέ, ὅπως τὰς ἡμετέρας ἀπομάξοιτο ἁμαρτίας, ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τυθεὶς καὶ «γενόμενος ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν κατάρα»· 4.12.7 τρίτην, ὡς ἂν ἱερεῖον θεοῦ καὶ μεγάλη θυσία ὑπὲρ τοῦ σύμπαντος κόσμου προσαχθείη τῷ ἐπὶ πάντων θεῷ· τετάρτην, ὡς ἂν οὕτω τῆς πολυπλανοῦς καὶ δαιμονικῆς ἐνεργείας ἀπορρήτοις λόγοις καθαίρεσιν ἀπεργάσαιτο· 4.12.8 πέμπτην ἐπὶ ταύτῃ, ὡς ἂν τοῖς αὐτοῦ γνωρίμοις καὶ μαθηταῖς τῆς μετὰ τὸν θάνατον παρὰ θεῷ ζωῆς τὴν ἐλπίδα μὴ λόγοις μηδὲ ῥήμασι καὶ φωναῖς ἀλλ' αὐτοῖς ἔργοις παραστήσας, ὀφθαλμοῖς τε παραδοὺς τὴν διὰ τῶν λόγων ἐπαγγελίαν, εὐθαρσεῖς αὐτοὺς καὶ προθυμοτέρους ἀπεργάσαιτο καὶ πᾶσιν Ἕλλησιν ὁμοῦ καὶ βαρβάροις τὴν πρὸς αὐτοῦ καταβληθεῖσαν εὐσεβῆ πολιτείαν κηρύξαι. 4.12.9 αὐτίκα δ' οὖν αὐτοὺς δὴ τούτους τοὺς γνωρίμους καὶ θιασώτας, οὓς αὐτὸς αὐτῷ ἀριστίνδην ἐπικρίνας ἀποστόλους τε αὐτοῦ καὶ μαθητὰς ἀνελέξατο, τῆς ἐξ αὐτοῦ θείας δυνάμεως ἐνέπλησε, πᾶν γένος ἀνθρώπων ἐκδιδάξαι τὴν πρὸς αὐτοῦ καταγγελθεῖσαν θεογνωσίαν, ἕνα τοῖς πᾶσιν Ἕλλησίν τε καὶ βαρβάροις εὐσεβείας ὑποθέμενος τρόπον, δαιμόνων ἀναχώρησίν τε καὶ φυγὴν καὶ τῆς πολυθέου πλάνης ἀνάνευσιν, ἑνὸς δὲ μόνου θεοῦ τοῦ ἐπὶ πάντων γνῶσιν ἀληθῆ προκηρύττοντα, καὶ λύσιν μὲν τῶν προηγνοημένων, εἰ μηκέτ' αὐτοῖς ἐπιμένοιεν, μίαν δὲ τοῖς πᾶσιν σωτηρίας ἐλπίδα, δι' ἧς ὑποτέθειται πανσόφου καὶ παναρέτου πολιτείας, ὑπισχνούμενον. 4.13.1 Οὕτω δὴ τούτων ἐχόντων οὐ δεῖ ταράττεσθαι τὸν νοῦν, γένεσιν καὶ σῶμα καὶ πάθη καὶ θάνατον περὶ τὸν ἄυλον καὶ ἀσώματον τοῦ θεοῦ λόγον ἀκούοντα. ὡς γὰρ οὐδ' ἡλιακοῦ φωτὸς πάθοιέν ἂν τι ἀκτῖνες τὰ πάντα πληροῦσαι καὶ σωμάτων νεκρῶν καὶ οὐ καθαρῶν ἐφαπτόμεναι, πολὺ πλέον ἡ ἀσώματος τοῦ θεοῦ δύναμις οὔτ' ἂν πάθοι τὴν οὐσίαν οὔτ' ἂν βλαβείη οὔτ' ἂν χείρων ποτὲ ἑαυτῆς γένοιτο, σώματος ἀσωμάτως ἐπαφωμένη. 4.13.2 τί γάρ; οὐχὶ καί,