Ante-Nicene Fathers • VOLUME 2
Fathers of the Second Century
SECTION 81
Chapter VII.--Superiority of the Christian Doctrine Respecting God.
Chapter VII.--Superiority of the Christian Doctrine Respecting God. Since, therefore, the unity of the Deity is confessed by almost all, even against their will, when they come to treat of the first principles of the universe, and we in our turn likewise assert that He who arranged this universe is God,--why is it that they can…
872 wordsSECTION 82Chapter IX.--The Testimony of the Prophets.
Chapter IX.--The Testimony of the Prophets. If we satisfied ourselves with advancing such considerations as these, our doctrines might by some be looked upon as human. But, since the voices of the prophets confirm our arguments--for I think that you also, with your great zeal for knowledge, and your great attainments in learnin…
803 wordsSECTION 83Chapter XI.--The Moral Teaching of the Christians Repels the Charge Brought Against Them.
Chapter XI.--The Moral Teaching of the Christians Repels the Charge Brought Against Them. If I go minutely into the particulars of our doctrine, let it not surprise you. It is that you may not be carried away by the popular and irrational opinion, but may have the truth clearly before you. For presenting the opinions themselves…
833 wordsSECTION 84Chapter XIII.--Why the Christians Do Not Offer Sacrifices.
Chapter XIII.--Why the Christians Do Not Offer Sacrifices. But, as most of those who charge us with atheism, and that because they have not even the dreamiest conception of what God is, and are doltish and utterly unacquainted with natural and divine things, and such as measure piety by the rule of sacrifices, charges us with n…
1,037 wordsSECTION 85Chapter XVI.--The Christians Do Not Worship the Universe.
Chapter XVI.--The Christians Do Not Worship the Universe. Beautiful without doubt is the world, excelling, [742] as well in its magnitude as in the arrangement of its parts, both those in the oblique circle and those about the north, and also in its spherical form. [743] Yet it is not this, but its Artificer, that we must worsh…
1,175 wordsSECTION 86Chapter XVIII.--The Gods Themselves Have Been Created, as the Poets Confess.
Chapter XVIII.--The Gods Themselves Have Been Created, as the Poets Confess. But, since it is affirmed by some that, although these are only images, yet there exist gods in honour of whom they are made; and that the supplications and sacrifices presented to the images are to be referred to the gods, and are in fact made to the …
959 wordsSECTION 87Chapter XX.--Absurd Representations of the Gods.
Chapter XX.--Absurd Representations of the Gods. If the absurdity of their theology were confined to saying that the gods were created, and owed their constitution to water, since I have demonstrated that nothing is made which is not also liable to dissolution, I might proceed to the remaining charges. But, on the one hand, the…
1,337 wordsSECTION 88Chapter XXII.--Pretended Symbolical Explanations.
Chapter XXII.--Pretended Symbolical Explanations. But perhaps these things are poetic vagary, and there is some natural explanation of them, such as this by Empedocles:-- "Let Jove be fire, and Juno source of life, With Pluto and Nêstis, who bathes with tears The human founts." If, then, Zeus is fire, and Hera the earth, an…
1,000 wordsSECTION 89Chapter XXIII.--Opinions of Thales and Plato.
Chapter XXIII.--Opinions of Thales and Plato. You may say, however, since you excel all men in understanding, How comes it to pass, then, that some of the idols manifest power, if those to whom we erect the statues are not gods? For it is not likely that images destitute of life and motion can of themselves do anything without …
845 wordsSECTION 90Chapter XXIV.--Concerning the Angels and Giants.
Chapter XXIV.--Concerning the Angels and Giants. What need is there, in speaking to you who have searched into every department of knowledge, to mention the poets, or to examine opinions of another kind? Let it suffice to say thus much. If the poets and philosophers did not acknowledge that there is one God, and concerning thes…
701 wordsSECTION 91Chapter XXV.--The Poets and Philosophers Have Denied a Divine Providence.
Chapter XXV.--The Poets and Philosophers Have Denied a Divine Providence. These angels, then, who have fallen from heaven, and haunt the air and the earth, and are no longer able to rise to heavenly things, and the souls of the giants, which are the demons who wander about the world, perform actions similar, the one (that is, t…
1,020 wordsSECTION 92Chapter XXVII.--Artifices of the Demons.
Chapter XXVII.--Artifices of the Demons. What then? In the first place, the irrational and fantastic movements of the soul about opinions produce a diversity of images (eidola) from time to time: some they derive from matter, and some they fashion and bring forth for themselves; and this happens to a soul especially when it par…
1,124 wordsSECTION 93Chapter XXIX.--Proof of the Same from the Poets.
Chapter XXIX.--Proof of the Same from the Poets. But among the Greeks, also, those who are eminent in poetry and history say the same thing. Thus of Heracles:-- "That lawless wretch, that man of brutal strength, Deaf to Heaven's voice, the social rite transgressed." [809] Such being his nature, deservedly did he go mad, and …
836 wordsSECTION 94Chapter XXXI.--Confutation of the Other Charges Brought Against the Christians.
Chapter XXXI.--Confutation of the Other Charges Brought Against the Christians. But they have further also made up stories against us of impious feasts [818] and forbidden intercourse between the sexes, both that they may appear to themselves to have rational grounds of hatred, and because they think either by fear to lead us a…
1,122 wordsSECTION 95Chapter XXXIII.--Chastity of the Christians with Respect to Marriage.
Chapter XXXIII.--Chastity of the Christians with Respect to Marriage. Therefore, having the hope of eternal life, we despise the things of this life, even to the pleasures of the soul, each of us reckoning her his wife whom he has married according to the laws laid down by us, and that only for the purpose of having children. F…
1,245 wordsSECTION 96Chapter XXXVI.--Bearing of the Doctrine of the Resurrection on the Practices of the Christians.
Chapter XXXVI.--Bearing of the Doctrine of the Resurrection on the Practices of the Christians. Who, then, that believes in a resurrection, would make himself into a tomb for bodies that will rise again? For it is not the part of the same persons to believe that our bodies will rise again, and to eat them as if they would not; …
749 wordsSECTION 97Chapter I.--Defence of the Truth Should Precede Discussions Regarding It.
Chapter I.--Defence of the Truth Should Precede Discussions Regarding It. By the side of every opinion and doctrine which agrees with the truth of things, there springs up some falsehood; and it does so, not because it takes its rise naturally from some fundamental principle, or from some cause peculiar to the matter in hand, b…
1,345 wordsSECTION 98Chapter III.--He Who Could Create, Can Also Raise Up the Dead.
Chapter III.--He Who Could Create, Can Also Raise Up the Dead. Moreover also, that His power is sufficient for the raising of dead bodies, is shown by the creation of these same bodies. For if, when they did not exist, He made at their first formation the bodies of men, and their original elements, He will, when they are dissol…
728 wordsSECTION 99Chapter V.--Reference to the Processes of Digestion and Nutrition.
Chapter V.--Reference to the Processes of Digestion and Nutrition. But it appears to me that such persons, in the first place, are ignorant of the power and skill of Him that fashioned and regulates this universe, who has adapted to the nature and kind of each animal the nourishment suitable and correspondent to it, and has nei…
954 wordsSECTION 100Chapter VII.--The Resurrection-Body Different from the Present.
Chapter VII.--The Resurrection-Body Different from the Present. Nay, suppose we were to grant that the nourishment coming from these things (let it be so called, as more accordant with the common way of speaking), although against nature, is yet separated and changed into some one of the moist or dry, or warm or cold, matters w…
1,028 wordsSECTION 101Chapter IX.--Absurdity of Arguing from Man's Impotency.
Chapter IX.--Absurdity of Arguing from Man's Impotency. As there are many things of more importance to the inquiry before us, I beg to be excused from replying for the present to those who take refuge in the works of men, and even the constructors of them, who are unable to make anew such of their works as are broken in pieces,…
750 wordsSECTION 102Chapter XI.--Recapitulation.
Chapter XI.--Recapitulation. If, then, by means of that which is by nature first and that which follows from it, each of the points investigated has been proved, it is very evident that the resurrection of dissolved bodies is a work which the Creator can perform, and can will, and such as is worthy of Him: for by these consider…
1,667 wordsSECTION 103Chapter XIII.--Continuation of the Argument.
Chapter XIII.--Continuation of the Argument. [837] Confident of these things, no less than of those which have already come to pass, and reflecting on our own nature, we are content with a life associated with neediness and corruption, as suited to our present state of existence, and we stedfastly hope for a continuance of bein…
1,075 wordsSECTION 104Chapter XV.--Argument for the Resurrection from the Nature of Man.
Chapter XV.--Argument for the Resurrection from the Nature of Man. But while the cause discoverable in the creation of men is of itself sufficient to prove that the resurrection follows by natural sequence on the dissolution of bodies, yet it is perhaps right not to shrink from adducing either of the proposed arguments, but, ag…
763 wordsSECTION 105Chapter XVI--Analogy of Death and Sleep, and Consequent Argument for the Resurrection.
Chapter XVI--Analogy of Death and Sleep, and Consequent Argument for the Resurrection. And let no one think it strange that we call by the name of life a continuance of being which is interrupted by death and corruption; but let him consider rather that this word has not one meaning only, nor is there only one measure of contin…
967 wordsSECTION 106Chapter XVIII.--Judgment Must Have Reference Both to Soul and Body: There Will Therefore Be a Resurrection.
Chapter XVIII.--Judgment Must Have Reference Both to Soul and Body: There Will Therefore Be a Resurrection. The arguments I just now proposed for examination, as establishing the truth of the resurrection, are all of the same kind, since they all start from the same point; for their starting-point is the origin of the first men…
845 wordsSECTION 107Chapter XIX.--Man Would Be More Unfavourably Situated Than the Beasts If There Were No Resurrection.
Chapter XIX.--Man Would Be More Unfavourably Situated Than the Beasts If There Were No Resurrection. In replying, then, to those who acknowledge a divine superintendence, and admit the same principles as we do, yet somehow depart from their own admissions, one may use such arguments as those which have been adduced, and many mo…
878 wordsSECTION 108Chapter XXI.--Continuation of the Argument.
Chapter XXI.--Continuation of the Argument. For if good deeds are rewarded, the body will clearly be wronged, inasmuch as it has shared with the soul in the toils connected with well-doing, but does not share in the reward of the good deeds, and because, though the soul is often excused for certain faults on the ground of the b…
1,011 wordsSECTION 109Chapter XXIII.--Continuation of the Argument.
Chapter XXIII.--Continuation of the Argument. But the most irrational thing of all is this: to impose properly sanctioned laws on men, and then to assign to their souls alone the recompense of their lawful or unlawful deeds. For if he who receives the laws would also justly receive the recompense of the transgression of the law…
835 wordsSECTION 110Chapter XXV.--Argument Continued and Concluded.
Chapter XXV.--Argument Continued and Concluded. Nor again is it the happiness of soul separated from body: for we are not inquiring about the life or final cause of either of the parts of which man consists, but of the being who is composed of both; for such is every man who has a share in this present existence, and there must…
2,333 wordsSECTION 111The full title of the Stromata, according to Eusebius and Photius, was Titou Phlauiou Klementos ton kata ten alethe philosophian gnostikon h
The full title of the Stromata, according to Eusebius and Photius, was Titou Phlauiou Klementos ton kata ten alethe philosophian gnostikon hupomnematon stromateis [854] --"Titus Flavius Clement's miscellaneous collections of speculative (gnostic) notes bearing upon the true philosophy." The aim of the work, in accordance with th…
1,457 wordsSECTION 112Chapter I.--Exhortation to Abandon the Impious Mysteries of Idolatry for the Adoration of the Divine Word and God the Father.
Chapter I.--Exhortation to Abandon the Impious Mysteries of Idolatry for the Adoration of the Divine Word and God the Father. Amphion of Thebes and Arion of Methymna were both minstrels, and both were renowned in story. They are celebrated in song to this day in the chorus of the Greeks; the one for having allured the fishes, a…
2,458 wordsSECTION 113He awed men by the fire when He made flame to burst from the pillar of cloud--a token at once of grace and fear: if you obey, there is the l
He awed men by the fire when He made flame to burst from the pillar of cloud--a token at once of grace and fear: if you obey, there is the light; if you disobey, there is the fire; but since humanity is nobler than the pillar or the bush, after them the prophets uttered their voice,--the Lord Himself speaking in Isaiah, in Elias…
955 wordsSECTION 114Chapter II.--The Absurdity and Impiety of the Heathen Mysteries and Fables About the Birth and Death of Their Gods.
Chapter II.--The Absurdity and Impiety of the Heathen Mysteries and Fables About the Birth and Death of Their Gods. Explore not then too curiously the shrines of impiety, or the mouths of caverns full of monstrosity, or the Thesprotian caldron, or the Cirrhæan tripod, or the Dodonian copper. The Gerandryon, [877] once regarded …
2,279 wordsSECTION 115O unblushing shamelessness! Once on a time night was silent, a veil for the pleasure of temperate men; but now for the initiated, the holy n
O unblushing shamelessness! Once on a time night was silent, a veil for the pleasure of temperate men; but now for the initiated, the holy night is the tell-tale of the rites of licentiousness; and the glare of torches reveals vicious indulgences. Quench the flame, O Hierophant; reverence, O Torch-bearer, the torches. That light…
2,258 wordsSECTION 116And now, then, hear the loves of your gods, and the incredible tales of their licentiousness, and their wounds, and their bonds, and their l
And now, then, hear the loves of your gods, and the incredible tales of their licentiousness, and their wounds, and their bonds, and their laughings, and their fights, their servitudes too, and their banquets; and furthermore, their embraces, and tears, and sufferings, and lewd delights. Call me Poseidon, and the troop of damsel…
2,372 wordsSECTION 117Nor shall I forget the Samians: the Samians, as Euphorion says, reverence the sheep. Nor shall I forget the Syrians, who inhabit Phoenicia,
Nor shall I forget the Samians: the Samians, as Euphorion says, reverence the sheep. Nor shall I forget the Syrians, who inhabit Phoenicia, of whom some revere doves, and others fishes, with as excessive veneration as the Eleans do Zeus. Well, then, since those you worship are not gods, it seems to me requisite to ascertain if t…
743 wordsSECTION 118Chapter III.--The Cruelty of the Sacrifices to the Gods.
Chapter III.--The Cruelty of the Sacrifices to the Gods. Well, now, let us say in addition, what inhuman demons, and hostile to the human race, your gods were, not only delighting in the insanity of men, but gloating over human slaughter,--now in the armed contests for superiority in the stadia, and now in the numberless contes…
1,329 wordsSECTION 119Chapter IV.--The Absurdity and Shamefulness of the Images by Which the Gods are Worshipped.
Chapter IV.--The Absurdity and Shamefulness of the Images by Which the Gods are Worshipped. If, in addition, I take and set before you for inspection these very images, you will, as you go over them, find how truly silly is the custom in which you have been reared, of worshipping the senseless works of men's hands. Anciently, …
2,202 wordsSECTION 120I know fire to be capable of exposing and curing superstition. If thou art willing to abandon this folly, the element of fire shall light th
I know fire to be capable of exposing and curing superstition. If thou art willing to abandon this folly, the element of fire shall light thy way. This same fire burned the temple in Argos, with Chrysis the priestess; and that of Artemis in Ephesus the second time after the Amazons. And the Capitol in Rome was often wrapped in f…
2,506 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.