However, some one hard pressed by this argument may have recourse to the opinion of those who reject this epistle as not being Paul’s; against whom I must at some other time use other arguments to prove that it is Paul’s. At pre- sent I shall adduce from the Gospel what Jesus Christ testifies concerning the prophets, together with a story which He refers to, but which is not found in the Old Testament, since in it also there is a scandal against unjust judges in Israel. The words of our Saviour run thus: “ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of tlie prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye gencration of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of Gehenna? Where- fore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and per- secute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.” And what follows is of the same tenor: “ O Jeru- salem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”?
Let us see now if in these cases we are not forced to the conclusion, that while the Saviour gives a true account of them, none of the Scriptures which could prove what He tells are to be found. For they who build the tombs of the 1 Matt. xxiii. 29-36.
wee le ORIGEN TO AFRICANUS. 379 prophets and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, con- demning the crimes their fathers committed against the righteous and the prophets, say, “‘ If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.”’ In the blood of what prophets, can any one tell me? For where do we find any- thing like this written of Esaias, or Jeremias, or any of the twelve, or Daniel? Then about Zacharias the son of Bara- chias, who was slain between the temple and the altar, we learn from Jesus only, not knowing it otherwise from any Scripture. Wherefore I think no other supposition is pos- sible, than that they who had the reputation of wisdom, and the rulers and elders, took away from the people every passage which might bring them into discredit among the people. We need not wonder, then, if this history of the evil device of the licentious elders against Susanna is true, but was con- cealed and removed from the Scriptures by men themselves not very far removed from the counsel of these elders.
In the Acts of the Apostles also, Stephen, in his other tes- timony, says, “ Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.” That Stephen speaks the truth, every one will admit who receives the Acts of the Apostles; but it is impossible to show from the extant books of the Old Testament how with any justice he throws the blame of having persecuted and slain the prophets on the fathers of those who believed not in Christ. And Paul, in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, testifies this concerning the Jews: “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men.”® What I have said is, I think, sufficient to prove that it would be nothing wonderful if this history were true, and the licentious and cruel attack was 380 ORIGEN TO AFRICANUS.
actually made on Susanna by those who were at that time elders, and written down by the wisdom of the Spirit, but removed by these rulers of Sodom,’ as the Spirit would call them. | 10. Your next objection is, that in this writing Daniel is said to have been seized by the Spirit, and to have cried out that the sentence was unjust; while in that writing of his which is universally received he is represented as pro- phesying in quite another manner, by visions and dreams, and an angel appearing to him, but never by prophetic inspi- ration. You seem to me to pay too little heed to the words, ‘“‘ At sundry times, and in divers manners, God spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets.”* This is true not only in the general, but also of individuals. For if you notice, you will find that the same saints have been favoured with divine dreams and angelic appearances and [direct] in- spirations. For the present it will suffice to instance what is testified concerning Jacob. Of dreams from God he speaks thus: “ And it came to pass, at the time that the cattle con- ceived, that I saw them before my eyes in a dream, and, behold, the rams and he-goats which leaped upon the sheep and the goats, white-spotted, and speckled, and grisled. And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob. And I said, What is it? And he said, Lift up thine eyes and see, the goats and rams leaping on the goats and sheep, white-spotted, and speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. I am God, who appeared unto thee in the place of God, where thou anointedst to me there a pillar, and vowed a vow there to me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.”* And as to an appearance (which is better than a dream), he speaks as follows about himself: ‘“‘ And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And he saw that he prevailed not against him, and he touched the breadth of his thigh; and the breadth of Jacob’s thigh grew stiff while he was wrestling with him. And he said to him, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And ORIGEN TO AFRICANUS. 381 he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said to him, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel shaH be thy name: for thou hast prevailed with God, and art powerful with men. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Vision of God: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is pre- served. And the sun rose, when the vision of God passed by.”* And that he also prophesied by inspiration, is evident from this passage: “ And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father. Reuben, my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my children, hard to be born, hard and stubborn. Thou wert wanton, boil not over like water; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou the couch to which thou wentest up.”” And so with the rest: it was by inspi- ration that the prophetic blessings were pronounced. We need not wonder, then, that Daniel sometimes prophesied by inspiration, as when he rebuked the elders sometimes, as you say, by dreams and visions, and at other times by an angel appearing unto him.
11. Your other objections are stated, as it appears to me, somewhat irreverently, and without the becoming spirit of piety. I cannot do better than quote your very words: “Then, after crying out in this extraordinary fashion, he detects them in a way no less incredible, which not even Philistion the play-writer would have resorted to. For, not satisfied with rebuking them through the Spirit, he placed them apart, and asked them severally where they saw her committing adul- tery; and when the one said, ‘ Under a holm-tree’ (prinos), he answered that the angel would saw him asunder (prisein); and in a similar fashion threatened the other, who said, ‘Under a mastich-tree’ (schinos), with being rent asunder.”
1 Gen. xxxii. 24. 2 Gen. xlix. 1.
382 ORIGEN TO AFRICANUS.
You might as reasonably compare to Philistion the play- writer, a story somewhat like this one, which is found in the third book of Kings, which you yourself will admit to be well written. Here is what we read in Kings: ‘Then there appeared two women that were harlots before the king, and stood before him. And the one woman said, To me, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and we were delivered in the house. And it came to pass, the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there is no one in our house except us two. And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from my arms. And thine handmaid slept. And she laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And I arose in the morning to give my child suck, and he was dead; but when I had considered it in the morn- ing, behold, it was not my son which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay; the dead is thy son, but the living is my son. And the other said, No; the living is my son, but the dead is thy son. Thus they spake before the king. Then said the king, Thou sayest, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and thou sayest, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king (for her bowels yearned after her son), and she said, To me, my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give the child to her which said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: for she is the mother of it. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the face of the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.”?
For if we were at liberty to speak in this scoffing way of the Scriptures in use in the churches, we should rather com- ORIGEN TO AFRICANUS. 383 pare this story of the two harlots to the play of Philistion than that of the chaste Susanna. And just as the people would not have been persuaded if Solomon had merely said, “ Give this one the living child, for she is the mother of it;” so Daniel’s attack on the elders would not have been sufficient had there not been added the condemnation from their own mouth, when both said that they had seen her lying with the young man under a tree, but did not agree as to what kind of tree it was. And since you have asserted, as if you knew for certain, that Daniel in this matter judged by inspiration (which may or may not have been the case), I would have you notice that there seem to me to be some analogies in the story of Daniel to the judgment of Solomon, concerning whom the Scripture testifies that the people saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment.’ This might be said also of Daniel, for it was because wisdom was in him to do judgment that the elders were judged in the manner described.
12. I had nearly forgotten an additional remark I have to make about the prino-prisein and schino-schisein difficulty; that is, that in our Scriptures there are many etymological fancies, so to call them, which in the Hebrew are perfectly suitable, but not in the Greek. It need not surprise us, then, if the translators of the History of Susanna contrived it so that they found out some Greek words, derived from the same root, which either corresponded ‘exactly to the Hebrew form (though this I hardly think possible), or presented some analogy to it. Here is an instance of this in our Scripture. When the woman was made by God from the rib of the man, Adam says, “She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her husband.’ Now the Jews say that the woman was called “ /ssa,” and that “taken” is a translation of this word, as is evident from “chos isouoth essa,’ which means, “I have taken the cup of salvation;”” and that “is” means “man,” as we see from “ Hesre ais,” which is, “ Blessed is the man.”* According to the Jews, then, “is” is “man,” and “essa” “woman,” because she was taken out of her hus- band (is). It need not then surprise us if some interpreters O84 ORIGEN TO AFRICANUS.
of the Hebrew “ Susanna,” which had been concealed among them at a very remote date, and had been preserved only by the more learned and honest, should have either given the Hebrew word for word, or hit upon some analogy to the Hebrew forms, that the Greeks might be able to follow them. For in many other passages we can find traces of this kind of contrivance on the part of the translators, which I noticed when I was collating the various editions.
13. You raise another objection, which I give in your own words: ‘ Moreover, how is it that they, who were captives among the Chaldzans, lost and won at play, thrown out unburied on the streets, as was prophesied of the former cap- tivity, their sons torn from them to be eunuchs, and their daughters to be concubines, as had been prophesied; how is it that such could pass sentence of death, and that on the wife of their king Joakim, whom the king of the Baby- lonians had made partner of his throne? Then, if it was not this Joakim, but some other from the common people, whence had a captive such a mansion and spacious garden?”
Where you get your “lost and won at play, and thrown out unburied on the streets,” I know not, unless it is from Tobias; and Tobias (as also Judith), we ought to notice, the Jews do not use. They are not even found in the Hebrew Apocrypha, as I learned from the Jews themselves. However, since the churches use Tobias, you must know that even in the captivity some of the captives were rich and well to do. Tobias him- self says, “ Because I remembered God with all my heart; and the Most High gave me grace and beauty in the eyes of Nemessarus, and I was his purveyor; and I went into Media, and left in trust with Gabael, the brother of Gabrias at Ragi, a city of Media, ten talents of silver.” And he adds, as he were a rich man, “ In the days of Nemessarus I gave many alms to my brethren. I gave my bread to the hungry, and my clothes to the naked: and if I saw any of my nation dead, and cast outside the walls of Nineve, I buried him; and if king Senachereim had slain any when he came fleeing from Judea, I buried them privily (for in his wrath he killed - 2 SSS Gs ORIGEN TO AFRICANUS. 339 many). Think whether this great catalogue of Tobias’ good deeds does not betoken great wealth and much property, especially when he adds, “ Understanding that I was sought for to be put to death, I withdrew myself for fear, and all my goods were forcibly taken away.”?
And another captive, Dachiacharus, the son of Ananiel, the brother of Tobias, was set over all the exchequer of the _ kingdom of king Acherdon; and we read, “Now Achiacharus was cup-bearer and keeper of the signet, and steward and overseer of the accounts.”?
Mardochaios, too, frequented the court of the king, and had such boldness before him, that he was inscribed among — the benefactors of Artaxerxes.
Again we read in Esdras, that Neemias, a cup-bearer and eunuch of the king, of Hebrew race, made a request about the rebuilding of the temple, and obtained it; so that it was granted to him, with many more, to return and build the temple again. Why then should we wonder that one Joakim had garden, and house, and property, whether these were very expensive or only moderate, for this is not clearly told us in the writing?
14. But you say, “ How could they who were in captivity pass sentence of death?” asserting, I know not on what erounds, that Susanna was the wife of a king, because of the name Joakim. The answer 1s, that it is no uncommon thing, when great nations become subject, that the king should allow the captives to use their own laws and courts of justice. Now, for instance, that the Romans rule, and the Jews pay the half-shekel to them, how great power by the concession of Czsar the ethnarch has; so that we, who have had expe- rience of it, know that he differs in little from a true king! Private trials are held according to the law, and some are condemned to death. And though there is not full licence for this, still it is not done without the knowledge of the ruler, as we learned and were convinced of when we spent much time in the country of that people. And yet the Romans only take account of two tribes, while at that time ORIG. 2B 386 ORIGEN TO AFRICANUS.
besides Juda there were the ten tribes of Israel. Probably the Assyrians contented themselves with holding them in sub- jection, and conceded to them their own judicial processes.
15. I find in your letter yet another objection in these words: “ And add, that among all the many prophets who had been before, there is no one who has quoted from another word for word. For they had no need to go a-begging for words, since their own were true. But this one, in rebuking one of these men, quotes the words of the Lord, ‘The inno- _ cent and righteous shalt thou not slay.” I cannot understand how, with all your exercise in investigating and meditating on the Scriptures, you have not noticed that the prophets con- tinually quote each other almost word for word. For who of all believers does not know the words in Esaias? “ And in the last days the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, and the house of the Lord on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall come unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, unto the house of the God of Jacob; and Ie will teach us His way, and we will walk in it: for out of Zion shall go forth a law, and a word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”?
But in Micah we find a parallel passage, which is almost word for word: “ And in the last days the mountain of tlic Lord shall be manifest, established on the top of the moun- tains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall hasten unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and they will teach us His way, and we will walk in His paths: for a law shall go forth from Zion, and a word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears Aqsa. il. 2, ORIGEN TO AFRICANUS. 387 into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”?
Again, in First Chronicles, the psalm which is put in the hands of Asaph and his brethren to praise the Lord, begin- ning, “ Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name,”? is in the beginning almost identical with Ps. civ., down to “ and do my prophets no harm;” and after that it is the same as Ps. xcv., from the beginning of that psalm, which is something like this, “ Praise the Lord all the earth,” down to “ For He cometh to judge the earth.” (It would have taken up too much time to quote more fully; so I have given these short references, which are sufficient for the matter before us.) And you will find the law about not bearing a burden on the Sabbath-day in Jeremia, as well as in Moses.* And the rules about the passover, and the rules for the priests, are not only in Moses, but also at the end of Ezekiel.* I would have quoted these, and many more, had I not found that from the shortness of my stay in Nicomedia my time for writing you was already too much restricted. © Your last objection is, that the style is different. This I cannot see.
This, then, is my defence. I might, especially after all these accusations, speak in praise of this history of Susanna, dwelling on it word by word, and expounding the exquisite nature of the thoughts. Such an encomium, perhaps, some of the learned and able students of divine things may at some other time compose. This, however, is my answer to your strokes, as you call them. Would that I could instruct you! But I do not now arrogate that to myself. My lord and dear brother Ambrosius, who has written this at my dictation, and has, in looking over it, corrected as he pleased, salutes you. Hfis faithful spouse, Marcella, and her children, also salute you. Also Anicetus. Do you salute our dear father Apol- linarius, and all our friends.
1 Mic. iv. 1. 2 1 Chron. xvi. 8. 3 Ex. xxxv. 2; Num. xv. 32; Jer. xvii, 21-24. * In Levit. passim; Inzek. xii. xliv. xlv. xlvi.
A LETTER FROM ORIGEN TO GREGORY.
venerable son Gregory, from Origen. A natural readiness of comprehension, as you well know, may, if practice be added, contribute somewhat to the contingent end, if I may so call it, of that which any one wishes to practise. Thus, your natural good parts might make of you a finished Roman lawyer or a Greek philo- sopher, so to speak, of one of the schiools in high reputation. But I am anxious that you should devote all the strength of your natural good parts to Christianity for your end; and in order to this, I wish to ask you to extract from the philo- sophy of the Greeks what may serve as a course of study or a preparation for Christianity, and from geometry and astro- nomy what will serve to explain the sacred Scriptures, in order that all that the sons of the philosophers are wont to say about geometry and music, grammar, rhetoric, and astro- nomy, as fellow-helpers to philosophy, we may say about philosophy itself, in relation to Christianity.
2. Perhaps something of this kind is shadowed forth in what is written in Exodus from the mouth of God, that the chil- dren of Israel were commanded to ask from their neighbours, and those who dwelt with them, vessels of silver and gold, and raiment, in order that, by spoiling the Egyptians, they might have material for the preparation of the things which pertained to the service of God. For from the things which the children of Israel took from the Egyptians the vessels in the holy of holies were made,—the ark with its lid, and the cherubim, and the mercy-seat, and the golden coffer, where 1 This Gregory, styled the Wonder-worker, was afterwards bishop of Neo-Casarea..
ORIGEN TO GREGORY. 389 was the manna, the angels’ bread. These things were pro- bably made from the best of the Egyptian gold. An inferior kind would be used for the solid golden candlestick near the inner veil, and its branches, and the golden table on which were the pieces of shewbread, and the golden censer between them. And if there was a third and fourth quality of gold, from it would be made the holy vessels; and the other things would be made of Egyptian silver. For when the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt, they gained this from their dwelling there, that they had no lack of such precious material for the utensils of the service of God. And of the Egyptian raiment were probably made all those things which, as the Scripture mentions, needed sewed and embroidered work, sewed with the wisdom of God, the one to the other, that the veils might be made, and the inner and the outer courts. And why should I go on, in this untimely digression, to set forth how useful to the children of Israel were the things brought from Egypt, which the Egyptians had not put to a proper use, but which the Hebrews, guided by tle wisdom of God, used for God’s service? Now the sacred Scripture is wont to represent as an evil the going down from the land of the children of Israel into Egypt, indicating that certain persons get harm from sojourning among the Egyptians, that is to say, from meddling with the knowledge of this world, after they have subscribed to the law of God, and the Israelitish service of Him. Ader" at least, the Idumzan, so long as he was in the land of Israel, and had not tasted the bread of the Egyptians, made no idols. It was when he fled from the wise Solomon, and went down into Egypt, as it were flying from the wis- dom of God, and was made a kinsman of Pharaoh by marry- ing his wife’s sister, and begetting a child, who was brought up with the children of Pharaoh, that he did this. Wherefore, although he did return to the land of Israel, he returned only to divide the people of God, and to make them say to the golden calf, “ These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up from the land of Egypt. And I may tell you from 1 Origen evidently confounds Hadad the Edomite, of 1 Kings xii. 14, with Jeroboam.
390 ORIGEN TO GREGORY.
my experience, that not many take from Egypt only the useful, and go away and use it for the service of God; while Ader the Idumzan has many brethren. These are they who, from their Greek studies, produce heretical notions, and set them up, like the golden calf, in Bethel, which signifies “ God’s house.” In these words also there seems to me an indication that they have set up their own imaginations in the Scriptures, where the word of God dwells, which is called in a figure Bethel. The other figure, the word says, was set up in Dan. Now the borders of Dan are the most extreme, and nearest the borders of the Gentiles, as is clear from what is written in Joshua, the son of Nun. Now some of the devices of these brethren of Ader, as we call them, are also very near the borders of the Gentiles.
3. Do you then, my son, diligently apply yourself to the reading of the sacred Scriptures. Apply yourself, Isay. For we who read the things of God need much application, lest we should say or think anything too rashly about them. And applying yourself thus to the study of the things of God, with faithful prejudgments such as are well pleasing to God, knock at its locked door, and it will be opened to you by the porter, of whom Jesus says, “ To him the porter opens.”' And applying yourself thus to the divine study, seck aright, and with unwavering trust in God, the meaning of the hole Scriptures, which so many have ed: Be not satisfied with knocking and secking; for prayer is of all things indispen- sable to ‘the knowledge of the things of God. For to this the Saviour exhorted, and said not only, “ Knock, and it shall be opened to you; and seek, and ye shall find,”? but also, “ Ask, and it shall be given unto you.”* My fatherly love to you has made me thus bold; but whether my boldness be good, God will know, and His Christ, and all partakers of the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. May you also be a partaker, and be ever increasing your inheritance, that you may say not only, “ We are become partakers of Christ,”* but also partakers of God.
ORIGHN CONTRA CELSUM, ORIGEN AGAINST CELSUS.
BOOK I. PREFACE.
ALLEN false witnesses testified against our Lord ‘y} and Saviour Jesus Christ, He remained silent; and when unfounded charges were brought against Him, He returned no answer, believing that His whole life and conduct among the Jews were a better refutation than any answer to the false testimony, or than any formal defence against the accusations. And I know not, my pious Ambrosius,' why you wished me to write a reply to the false charges brought by Celsus against the Christians, and to his accusations directed against the faith of the churches in his treatise; as if the facts themselves did not furnish a manifest refutation, and the doctrine a better answer than any writing, seeing it both disposes of the false statements, and does not leave to the accusations any credi- bility or validity. Now, with respect to our Lord’s silence when false witness was borne against Him, it is sufficient at present to quote the words of Matthew, for the testimony of Mark is to the same effect. And the words of Matthew are as follow: “And the high priest and the council sought false witness against Jesus to put Him to death, but found none, although many false witnesses came forward. At last two false witnesses came and said, This fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and after three days to 1 This individual is mentioned by Eusebius (Eccles. Hist. b. vi. c. 18) as having been converted from the heresy of Valentinus to the faith of the church by the efforts of Origen.
od OhRIGEN AGAINST CELSUS. [Book 1.
build it up. And the high priest arose, and said to Him. Answerest thou nothing to what these witness against thee? But Jesus held His peace.”* And that He returned no answer when falsely accused, the following is the statement: “¢ And Jesus stood before the governor; and he asked Him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, Thou sayest. And when He was accused of the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto Him, Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And He answered him to never a word, in- somuch that the governor marvelled greatly.” ’ 2. It was, indeed, matter of surprise to men even of ordi- nary intelligence, that one who was accused and assailed by false testimony, but who was able to defend Himself, and to show that He was guilty of none of the charges [alleged], and who might have enumerated the praiseworthy deeds of His own life, and His miracles wrought by divine power, so as to give the judge an opportanity of delivering a more honourable judgment regarding Him, should not have done this, but should have disdained such a procedure, and in the nobleness of His nature have contemned His accusers.’ That the judge would, without any hesitation, have set Him at liberty if He had offered a defence, is clear from what is related of him when he said, “ Which of the two do ye wish that I should release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus, who is called Christ? ” * and from what the Scripture adds, “For he knew that for envy they had delivered Him.”° Jesus, however, is at all times assailed by false witnesses, and, while wickedness re- mains in the world, is ever exposed to accusation. And yet even now He continues silent before these things, and makes no audible answer, but places His defence in the lives of His genuine disciples, which are a pre-eminent testimony, and one that rises superior to all false witness, and refutes and overthrows all unfounded accusations and charges.
3. I venture, then, to say that this “apology” which you