97

you will fail, and as wax melts before the face of fire. But concerning the knowledge of God from the Gospel, the Lord said: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. And: You, Lord, in the beginning, says the psalmist again, laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; and all will grow old like a garment, and like a cloak you will roll them up and they will be changed, but you are the same, and your years will not fail. And the divine heralds of the presence of Christ, the wise fishers of the world, who drew all men from the abyss of deceit, whom you, the worthless one, and truly a slave of sin, despise, shone with signs and wonders and various powers like the sun in the world, bestowing sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, walking to the lame, granting life to the dead. For their shadows alone healed all the sufferings of men. Demons, whom you fear as gods, they not only drove out from human bodies, but also pursued from the world itself, by the sign of the cross, through which they made all magic disappear and showed all sorcery to be powerless. And they indeed, having thus healed human weakness by the power of Christ and having renewed all creation, as heralds of the truth are admired rightly by all who are of sound mind. But what 496 do you yourself have to say about your wise men and orators, whose wisdom God has made foolish, the advocates of the devil? What worthy of memory have they left to life? Tell me. What could you say about them, but irrationality and shamefulness, and a vain art, covering with elegance of words the mire of their foul-smelling religion? But even of the poets, as many as have been able to emerge a little from their great madness, have said the truer thing, that the so-called gods were men, and, because some of them ruled over countries and cities, and others did something else of no account during their life, that men, being deceived, called them gods. For in the beginning, that Serug is recorded to have invented the making of statues. For it is said that he honored with statues and pillars those who in ancient times had displayed a deed worthy of memory, either of courage or friendship, or some other valiant exploit. But those who came after, being ignorant of the intention of their forefathers, and that, for the sake of memory alone, they had erected statues and pillars to those who had done something praiseworthy, being gradually deceived by the working of the primevally evil demon, attached themselves to men of like passions and corruptible as to immortal gods, and they devised for them sacrifices and libations, as the demons had obviously taken up residence in the wooden images, and drawn the honor and the sacrifices to themselves. They, therefore, persuade those who do not approve of having God in their knowledge to consider them to be gods, for two reasons: 498 first, that they themselves might be glorified by this title (for they rejoice, being full of arrogance, to be honored as gods), and second, that they might drag those whom they have deceived into the unquenchable fire prepared for them. Whence they taught them all lawlessness and shamefulness, as men once subjected to their deceit. Having come, therefore, to this culmination of evils, men, being darkened, each one set up a pillar to his own passion and his own desire, and called it a god, becoming abominable for their error, and more abominable for the absurdity of the things they worshipped, until the Lord, coming through the bowels of his mercy, redeemed us who believe in him from this wicked and destructive error, and taught the true knowledge of God. For there is no salvation, except in him, and there is no other god either in heaven or on earth, except him alone, the maker of the universe, who upholds all things by the word of his power. For by the word, he says, of the Lord were the heavens made firm, and

97

ἐκλείψετε, καὶ ὡς τήκεται κηρὸς ἀπὸ προσώπου πυρός. περὶ δὲ τῆς Εὐαγγελικῆς θεογνωσίας εἶπεν ὁ Κύριος· Ὁ οὐρανὸς καὶ ἡ γῆ παρελεύσονται, οἱ δὲ λόγοι μου οὐ μὴ παρέλθωσι. καί· Σὺ κατ' ἀρχάς, Κύριε, φησὶν αὖθις ὁ ψαλμῳδός, τὴν γῆν ἐθεμελίωσας, καὶ ἔργα τῶν χειρῶν σού εἰσιν οἱ οὐρανοί· αὐτοὶ ἀπολοῦνται· σὺ δὲ διαμένεις· καὶ πάντες ὡσεὶ ἱμάτιον παλαιωθήσονται, καὶ ὡσεὶ περιβόλαιον ἑλίξεις αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀλλαγήσονται, σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ, καὶ τὰ ἔτη σου οὐκ ἐκλείψουσι. καὶ οἱ μὲν θεῖοι κήρυκες τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ παρουσίας, οἱ σοφοὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἁλιεῖς, οἱ πάντας ἑλκύσαντες τοῦ βυθοῦ τῆς ἀπάτης, οὓς ὁ εὐτελὴς σύ, καὶ δοῦλος ὄντως τῆς ἁμαρτίας, ἐξευτελίζεις, ἔλαμψαν σημείοις καὶ τέρασι καὶ ποικίλαις δυνάμεσιν ὡς ἥλιος ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, τυφλοῖς τὸ φῶς δωρούμενοι, κωφοῖς τὸ ἀκούειν, χωλοῖς τὸ περιπατεῖν, νεκροῖς τὸ ζῆν χαριζόμενοι. αἱ σκιαὶ γὰρ αὐτῶν μόναι πάντα τὰ πάθη τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐθεράπευον. δαίμονας, οὓς ὑμεῖς φοβεῖσθε ὡς θεούς, οὐ μόνον τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἀπήλαυνον σωμάτων, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτῆς ἐδίωκον τῆς οἰκουμένης, τῷ τοῦ σταυροῦ σημείῳ, δι' οὗ πᾶσαν μὲν ἠφάνισαν μαγείαν πᾶσαν δὲ φαρμακείαν ἀνενέργητον ἔδειξαν. καὶ ἐκεῖνοι μέν, οὕτως τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἰασάμενοι ἀσθένειαν τῇ τοῦ Χριστοῦ δυνάμει καὶ τὴν κτίσιν πᾶσαν καινουργήσαντες, ὡς τῆς ἀληθείας κήρυκες θαυμάζονται παρὰ πάντων εἰκότως τῶν εὖ φρονούντων. τί δὲ ὃ 496 αὐτὸς ἔχεις εἰπεῖν περὶ τῶν σοφῶν σου καὶ ῥητόρων, ὧν ἐμώρανεν ὁ Θεὸς τὴν σοφίαν, τῶν συνηγόρων τοῦ διαβόλου; τί μνήμης ἄξιον κατέλιπον τῷ βίῳ; εἰπέ. τί δ' ἂν εἴποις περὶ αὐτῶν, ἢ ἀλογίαν καὶ αἰσχρότητα, καὶ τέχνην ματαίαν, τῇ καλλιεπείᾳ τῶν λόγων τὸν βόρβορον συγκαλύπτουσαν τῆς δυσώδους αὐτῶν θρησκείας; Ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν ποιητῶν ὅσοι μικρόν τι δεδύνηνται τῆς πολλῆς ἀνανεῦσαι μανίας, εἶπον τὸ ἀληθέστερον, ὅτι οἱ λεγόμενοι θεοὶ ἄνθρωποι ἦσαν, καί, διὰ τό τινας μὲν αὐτῶν ἄρξαι χωρῶν τε καὶ πόλεων, τινὰς δὲ ἄλλο τι οὐδαμινὸν κατὰ τὸν βίον ποιῆσαι, πλανηθέντας τοὺς ἀνθρώπους θεοὺς αὐτοὺς καλέσαι. καταρχὰς μὲν γὰρ ὁ Σεροὺχ ἐκεῖνος ἱστόρηται τὰ τῶν ἀγαλμάτων ἐξευρεῖν. τοὺς γὰρ ἐν τοῖς πάλαι χρόνοις ἢ ἀνδρείας ἢ φιλίας, ἤ τινος ἑτέρας ἀνδραγαθίας ἔργον μνήμης ἄξιον ἐπιδειξαμένους ἀνδριάσι λέγεται καὶ στήλαις τιμῆσαι. οἱ δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα τὴν τῶν προγόνων ἀγνοήσαντες γνώμην, καὶ ὅτι, μνήμης ἕνεκα μόνον, τοῖς ἐπαινετόν τι ποιήσασιν ἀνδριάντας καὶ στήλας ἀνέστησαν, κατὰ μικρὸν πλανώμενοι τῇ τοῦ ἀρχεκάκου δαίμονος ἐνεργείᾳ, ὡς ἀθανάτοις θεοῖς τοῖς ὁμοιοπαθέσι καὶ φθαρτοῖς ἀνθρώποις προσετέθησαν, καὶ θυσίας αὐτοῖς καὶ σπονδὰς ἐπενοήσαντο, τῶν δαιμόνων δηλονότι τοῖς ξοάνοις ἐνοικησάντων, καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς τὴν τιμὴν καὶ τὰς θυσίας μεθελκυσάντων. ἐκεῖνοι τοίνυν τοὺς μὴ δοκιμάζοντας τὸν Θεὸν ἔχειν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει πείθουσι θεοὺς αὐτοὺς ἡγεῖσθαι, δυοῖν χάριν 498 ἵν' αὐτοὶ μὲν τῇ προσηγορίᾳ δοξάζοιντο ταύτῃ (ἥδονται γάρ, ἅτε πλήρεις ἀλαζονείας ὄντες, ὡς θεοὶ τιμᾶσθαι), αὐτοὺς δὲ οὓς ἠπατήκασιν εἰς τὸ ἡτοιμασμένον αὐτοῖς ἄσβεστον ἑλκύσωσι πῦρ. ὅθεν πᾶσαν αὐτοὺς ἐδίδαξαν παρανομίαν καὶ αἰσχρότητα, ὡς ἅπαξ ὑποταγέντας τῇ ἐκείνων ἀπάτῃ. ἐπὶ τοῦτον οὖν τὸν κολοφῶνα τῶν κακῶν ἐλθόντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι, ἐσκοτισμένοι ὄντες, ἕκαστος τοῦ ἰδίου πάθους καὶ τῆς ἰδίας ἐπιθυμίας ἔστησε στήλην, καὶ θεὸν ὠνόμασε, βδελυκτοὶ τῆς πλάνης, βδελυκτότεροι τῆς ἀτοπίας τῶν προσκυνουμένων γενόμενοι, ἕως ἐλθὼν ὁ Κύριος διὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους αὐτοῦ ἐλυτρώσατο ἡμᾶς τοὺς πιστεύοντας αὐτῷ τῆς πονηρᾶς ταύτης καὶ ὀλεθρίου πλάνης, καὶ ἐδίδαξε τὴν ἀληθῆ θεογνωσίαν. οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ σωτηρία, εἰ μὴ ἐν αὐτῷ, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλος θεὸς οὔτε ἐν οὐρανῷ, οὔτε ἐπὶ γῆς, εἰ μὴ αὐτὸς μόνος ὁ τοῦ παντὸς ποιητής, ὁ πάντα φέρων τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ. Τῷ λόγῳ γάρ, φησί, Κυρίου οἱ οὐρανοὶ ἐστερεώθησαν, καὶ