(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing intially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.


TATIAN THE SYRIAN

ADDRESS TO THE GREEKS.

[TRANSLATED BY J. E. RYLAND.]

CHAP. I.--THE GREEKS CLAIM, WITHOUT REASON, THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS.

   BE not, O Greeks, so very hostilely disposed towards the Barbarians,
nor look with ill will on their opinions. For which of your institutions
has not been derived from the Barbarians? The most eminent of the
Telmessians invented the art of divining by dreams; the Carians, that of
prognosticating by the stars; the Phrygians and the most ancient Isaurians,
augury by the flight of birds; the Cyprians, the art of inspecting victims.
To the Babylonians you owe astronomy; to the Persians, magic; to the
Egyptians, geometry; to the Phoenicians, instruction by alphabetic writing.
Cease, then, to miscall these imitations inventions of your own. Orpheus,
again, taught you poetry and song; from him, too, you learned the
mysteries. The Tuscans taught you the plastic art; from the annals of the
Egyptians you learned to write history; you acquired the art of playing the
flute from Marsyas and Olympus,--these two rustic Phrygians constructed the
harmony of the shepherd's pipe. The Tyrrhenians invented the trumpet; the
Cyclopes, the smith's art; and a woman who was formerly a queen of the
Persians, as Hellanicus tells us, the method of joining together epistolary
tablets:, her name was Atossa. Wherefore lay aside this conceit, and be not
ever boasting of your elegance of diction; for, while you applaud
yourselves, your own people will of course side with you. But it becomes a
man of sense to wait for the testimony of others, and it becomes men to be
of one accord also in the pronunciation of their language. But, as matters
stand, to you alone it has happened not to speak alike even in common
intercourse; for the way of speaking among the Dorians is not the same as
that of the inhabitants of Attica, nor do the AEolians speak like the
Ionians. And, since such a discrepancy exists where it ought not to be, I
am at a loss whom to call a Greek. And, what is strangest of all, you hold
in honour expressions not of native growth, and by the intermixture of
barbaric words have made your language a medley. On this account we have
renounced your wisdom, though I was once a great proficient in it; for, as
the comic poet[2] says,--

        These are gleaners' grapes and small talk,--
        Twittering places of swallows, corrupters of art.

   Yet those who eagerly pursue it shout lustily, and croak like so many
ravens. You have, too, contrived the art of rhetoric to serve injustice and
slander, selling the free power of your speech for hire, and often
representing the same thing at one time as right, at another time as not
good. The poetic art, again, you employ to describe battles, and the amours
of the gods, and the corruption of the soul.

CHAP. II.--THE VICES AND ERRORS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.

   What noble thing have you produced by your pursuit of philosophy? Who
of your most eminent men has been free from vain boasting? Diogenes, who
made such a parade of his independence with his tub, was seized with a
bowel complaint through eating a raw polypus, and so lost his life by
gluttony. Aristippus, walking about in a purple robe, led a profligate
life, in accordance with his professed opinions. Plato, a philosopher, was
sold by Dionysius for his gormandizing propensities. And Aristotle, who
absurdly placed a limit to Providence and made happiness to consist in the
things which give pleasure, quite contrary to his duty as a preceptor
flattered Alexander, forgetful that he was but a youth; and he, showing how
well he had learned the lessons of his master, because his friend would not
worship him shut him up and and carried him about like a bear or a leopard
He in fact obeyed strictly the precepts of his teacher in displaying
manliness and courage by feasting, and transfixing with his spear his
intimate and most beloved friend, and then, under a semblance of grief,
weeping and starving himself, that he might not incur the hatred of his
friends. I could laugh at those also who in the present day adhere to his
tenets,--people who say that sublunary things are not under the care of
Providence; and so, being nearer the earth than the moon, and below its
orbit, they themselves look after what is thus left uncared for; and as for
those who have neither beauty, nor wealth, nor bodily strength, nor high
birth, they have no happiness, according to Aristotle. Let such men
philosophize, for me !

CHAP. III.--RIDICULE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.

   I cannot approve of Heraclitus, who, being self-taught and arrogant,
said, "I have explored myself." Nor can I praise him for hiding his poem[1]
in the temple of Artemis, in order that it might be published afterwards as
a mystery; and those who take an interest in such things say that Euripides
the tragic poet came there and read it, and, gradually learning it by
heart, carefully handed down to posterity this darkness[2] of Heraclitus.
Death, however, demonstrated the stupidity of this man; for, being attacked
by dropsy, as he had studied the art of medicine as well as philosophy, he
plastered himself with cow-dung, which, as it hardened, contracted the
flesh of his whole body, so that he was pulled in pieces, and thus died.
Then, one cannot listen to Zeno, who declares that at the conflagration the
same man will rise again to perform the same actions as before; for
instance, Anytus and Miletus to accuse, Busiris to murder his guests, and
Hercules to repeat his labours; and in this doctrine of the conflagration
he introduces more wicked than just persons--one Socrates and a Hercules,
and a few more of the same class, but not many, for the bad will be found
far more numerous than the good. And according to him the Deity will
manifestly be the author of evil, dwelling in sewers and worms, and in the
perpetrators of impiety. The eruptions of fire in Sicily, moreover, confute
the empty boasting of Empedocles, in that, though he was no god, he falsely
almost gave himself out for one. I laugh, too, at the old wife's talk of
Pherecydes, and the doctrine inherited from him by Pythagoras, and that of
Plato, an imitation of his, though some think otherwise. And who would give
his approval to the cynogamy of Crates, and not rather, repudiating the
wild and tumid speech of those who resemble him, turn to the investigation
of what truly deserves attention? Wherefore be not led away by the solemn
assemblies of philosophers who are no philosophers, who dogmatize one
against the other, though each one vents but the crude fancies of the
moment. They have, moreover, many collisions among themselves; each one
hates the other; they indulge in conflicting opinions, and their arrogance
makes them eager for the highest places. It would better become them,
moreover, not to pay court to kings unbidden, nor to flatter men at the
head of affairs, but to wait till the great ones come to them.

CHAP. IV.--THE CHRISTIANS WORSHIP GOD ALONE.

   For what reason, men of Greece, do you wish to bring the civil powers,
as in a pugilistic encounter, into collision with us? And, if I am not
disposed to comply with the usages of some of them, why am I to be abhorred
as a vile miscreant ?[3] Does the sovereign order the payment of tribute, I
am ready to render it. Does my master command me to act as a bondsman and
to serve, I acknowledge the serfdom. Man is to be honoured as a fellow-man;
[4] God alone is to be feared,--He who is not visible to human eyes, nor
comes within the compass of human art. Only when I am commanded to deny
Him, will I not obey, but will rather die than show myself false and
ungrateful. Our God did not begin to be in time:[5] He alone is without
beginning, and He Himself is the beginning of all things. God is a
Spirit,[6] not pervading matter, but the Maker of material spirits,[7] and
of the forms that are in matter; He is invisible, impalpable, being Himself
the Father of both sensible and invisible things. Him we know from His
creation, and apprehend His invisible power by His works.[8] I refuse to
adore that workman  ship which He has made for our sakes. The sun and moon
were made for us: how, then, can I adore my own servants? How can I speak
of stocks and stones as gods? For the Spirit that pervades matter[7] is
inferior to the more divine spirit; and this, even when assimilated to the
soul, is not to be honoured equally with the perfect God. Nor even ought
the ineffable God to be presented with gifts; for He who is in want of
nothing is not to be misrepresented by us as though He were indigent.But I
will set forth our views more distinctly.

CHAP. V.--THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIANS AS TO THE CREATION OF THE WORLD.

   God was in the beginning; but the beginning, we have been taught, is
the power of the Logos. For the Lord of the universe, who is Himself the
necessary ground (hupo'stasis) of all being, inasmuch as no creature was
yet in existence, was alone; but inasmuch as He was all power, Himself the
necessary ground of things visible and invisible, with Him were all things;
with Him, by Logos-power (dia` logikh^s  duna'mews), the Logos Himself
also, who was in Him, subsists.[1] And by His simple will the Logos springs
forth; and the Logos, not coming forth in vain, becomes the first-begotten
work of the Father. Him (the Logos) we know to be the beginning of the
world. But He came into being by participation,[2] not by abscission; for
what is cut off is separated from the original substance, but that which
comes by participation, making its choice of function,[3] does not render
him deficient from whom it is taken. For just as from one torch many fires
are lighted, but the light of the first torch is not lessened by the
kindling of many torches, so the Logos, coming forth from the Logos-power
of the Father, has not divested of the Logos-power Him who begat Him. I
myself, for instance, talk, and you hear; yet, certainly, I who converse do
not become destitute of speech (lo'gos) by the transmission of speech, but
by the utterance of my voice I endeavour to reduce to order the unarranged
matter in your minds. And as the Logos[4] begotten in the beginning, begat
in turn our world, having first created for Himself the necessary matter,
so also I, in imitation of the Logos, being begotten again,[5] and having
become possessed of the truth, am trying to reduce to order the confused
matter which is kindred with myself. For matter iS not, like God, without
beginning, nor, as having no beginning, is of equal power with God; it is
begotten, and not produced by any other being, but brought into existence
by the Framer  of all things alone.

CHAP. VI.--CHRISTIANS' BELIEF IN THE RESURRECTION.

   And on this account we believe that there will be a resurrection of
bodies after the consummation of all things; not, as the Stoics affirm,
according to the return of certain cycles, the same things being produced
and destroyed for no useful purpose, but a resurrection once for all,[6]
when our periods of existence are completed, and in consequence solely of
the constitution of things under which men alone live, for the purpose of
passing judgment upon them. Nor is sentence upon us passed by Minos or
Rhadamanthus, before whose decease not a single soul, according to the
mythic tales, was judged; but the Creator, God Himself, becomes the
arbiter. And, although you regard us as mere triflers and babblers, it
troubles us not, since we have faith in this doctrine. For just as, not
existing before I was born, I knew not who I was, and only existed in the
potentiality (hupo'stasis) Of fleshly matter, but being born, after a
former state of nothingness, I have obtained through my birth a certainty
of my existence; in the same way, having been born, and through death
existing no longer, and seen no longer, I shall exist again, just as before
I was not, but was afterwards born. Even though fire destroy all traces of
my flesh, the world receives the vaporized matter ;[7] and though dispersed
through rivers and seas, or torn in pieces by wild beasts, I am laid up in
the storehouses of a wealthy Lord. And, although the poor and the godless
know not what is stored up, yet God the Sovereign, when He pleases, will
restore the substance that is visible to Him alone to its pristine
condition.

CHAP. VII.--CONCERNING THE FALL OF MAN.

   For the heavenly Logos, a spirit emanating from the Father and a Logos
from the Logos-power, in imitation of the Father who begat Him made man an
image of immortality, so that, as incorruption is with God, in like manner,
man, sharing in a part of God, might have the immortal principle also. The
Logos,[8] too, before the creation of men, was the Framer of angels. And
each of these two orders of creatures was made free to act as it pleased,
not having the nature of good, which again is with God alone, but is
brought to perfection in men through their freedom of choice, in order that
the bad man may be justly punished, having become depraved through his own
fault, but the just man be deservedly praised for his virtuous deeds, since
in the exercise of his free choice he refrained from transgressing the will
of God. Such is the constitution of things in reference to angels and men.
And the power of the Logos, having in itself a faculty to foresee future
events, not as fated, but as taking place by the choice of free agents,
foretold from time to time the issues of things to come; it also became a
forbidder of wickedness by means of prohibitions, and the encomiast of
those who remained good. And, when men attached themselves to one who was
more subtle than the rest, having regard to his being the first-born,[1]
and declared him to be God, though he was resisting' the law of God, then
the power of the Logos excluded the beginner of the folly and his adherents
from all fellowship with Himself. And so he who was made in the likeness of
God, since the more powerful spirit is separated from him, becomes mortal;
but that first-begotten one through his transgression and ignorance becomes
a demon; and they who imitated him, that is his illusions, are become a
host of demons, and through their freedom of choice have been given up to
their own infatuation.

CHAP. VIII.--THE DEMONS SIN AMONG MANKIND.

   But men form the material (hupo'thesis) of their apostasy. For, having
shown them a plan of the position of the stars, like dice-players, they
introduced Fate, a flagrant injustice. For the judge and the judged are
made so by Fate; the murderers and the murdered, the wealthy and the needy,
are the offspring of the same Fate; and every nativity is regarded as a
theatrical entertainment by those beings of whom Homer says,--

                 "Among the gods
   Rose laughter irrepressible."[2]

But must not those who are spectators of single combats and are partisans
on one side or the other, and he who marries and is a paederast and an
adulterer, who laughs and is angry, who flees and is wounded, be regarded
as mortals? For, by whatever actions they manifest to men their characters,
by these they prompt their hearers to copy their example. And are not the
demons themselves, with Zeus at their head, subjected to Fate, being
overpowered by the same passions as men? And, besides, how are those beings
to be worshipped among whom there exists such a great contrariety of
opinions? For Rhea, whom the inhabitants of the Phrygian mountains call
Cybele, enacted emasculation on account of Attis, of whom she was
enamoured; but Aphrodite is delighted with conjugal embraces. Artemis is a
poisoner; Apollo heals diseases. And after the decapitation of the Gorgon,
the beloved of Poseidon, whence sprang the horse Pegasus and Chrysaor,
Athene and Asclepios divided between them the drops of blood; and, while he
saved men's lives by means of them, she, by the same blood, became a
homicide and the instigator of wars. From regard to her reputation, as it
appears to me, the Athenians attributed to the earth the son born of her
connection with Hephaestos, that Athene might not be thought to be deprived
of her virility by Hephaestos, as Atalanta by Meleaget. This limping
manufacturer of buckles and earrings, as is likely, deceived the motherless
child and orphan with these girlish ornaments. Poseidon frequents the seas;
Ares delights in wars; Apollo is a player on the cithara; Dionysus is
absolute sovereign of the Thebans; Kronos is a tyrannicide; Zeus has
intercourse with his own daughter, who becomes pregant by him. I may
instance, too, Eleusis, and the mystic Dragon, and Orpheus, who says,--

    "Close the gates against the profane!"

Aidoneus carries off Kore, and his deeds have been made into mysteries;
Demeter bewails her daughter, and some persons are deceived by the
Athenians. In the precincts of the temple of the son of Leto is a spot
called Omphalos; but Omphalos is the burial-place of Dionysus. You now I
laud, O Daphne!--by conquering the incontinence of Apollo, you disproved
his power of vaticination; for, not foreseeing what would occur to you,[3]
he derived no advantage from his art. Let the far-shooting god tell me how
Zephyrus slew Hyacinthus. Zephyrus conquered him; and in accordance with
the saying of the tragic poet,-

    "A breeze is the most honourable chariot of the gods," [4]--

conquered by a slight breeze, Apollo lost his beloved.

CHAP. IX.--THEY GIVE RISE TO SUPERSTITIONS.

   Such are the demons; these are they who laid down the doctrine of Fate.
Their fundamental principle was the placing of animals in the heavens. For
the creeping things on the earth, and those that swim in the waters, and
the quadrupeds on the mountains, with which they lived when expelled from
heaven,--these they dignified with celestial honour, in order that they
might themselves be thought to remain in heaven, and, by placing the
constellations there, might make to appear rational the irrational course
of life on earth.[5] Thus the high-spirited and he who is crushed with
toil, the temperate and the intemperate, the indigent and the wealthy, are
what they are simply from the controllers of their nativity. For the
delineation of the zodiacal circle is the work of gods. And, when the light
of one of them predominates, as they express it, it deprives all the rest
of their honour; and he who now is conquered, at another time gains the
predominance. And the seven planets are well pleased with them,[1] as if
they were amusing themselves with dice. But we are superior to Fate, and
instead of wandering (planhtw^n) demons, we have learned to know one Lord
who wanders not; and, as we do not follow the guidance of Fate, we reject
its lawgivers. Tell me, I adjure you(2) did Triptolemus sow wheat and prove
a benefactor to the Athenians after their sorrow? And why was not Demeter,
before she lost her daughter, a benefactress to men? The Dog of Erigone is
shown in the heavens, and the Scorpion the helper of Artemis, and Chiron
the Centaur, and the divided Argo, and the Bear of Callisto. Yet how,
before these performed the aforesaid deeds, were the heavens unadorned? And
to whom will it not appear ridiculous that the Deltotum[3] should be placed
among the stars, according to some, on account of Sicily, or, as others
say, on account of the first letter in the name of Zeus (Dio's)? For why
are not Sardinia and Cyprus honoured in heaven? And why have not the
letters of the names of the brothers of Zeus, who shared the kingdom with
him, been fixed there too? And how is it that Kronos, who was put in chains
and ejected from his kingdom, is constituted a manager[4] of Fate? How,
too, can he give kingdoms who no longer reigns himself? Reject, then, these
absurdities, and do not become transgressors by hating us unjustly.

CHAP. X.--RIDICULE OF THE HEATHEN DIVINITIES.

   There are legends of the metamorphosis of men: with you the gods also
are metamorphosed. Rhea becomes a tree; Zeus a dragon, on account of
Persephone; the sisters of Phaethon are changed into poplars, and Leto into
a bird of little value, on whose account what is now Delos was called
Ortygia. A god, forsooth, becomes a swan, or takes the form of an eagle,
and, making Ganymede his cupbearer, glories in a vile affection. How can I
reverence gods who are eager for presents, and angry if they do not receive
them? Let them have their Fate! I am not willing to adore wandering stars.
What is that hair of Berenice? Where were her stars before her death? And
how was the dead Antinous fixed as a beautiful youth in the moon? Who
carried him thither: unless perchance, as men, perjuring themselves for
hire, are credited when they say in ridicule of the gods that kings have
ascended into heaven, so some one, in like manner, has put this man also
among the gods,[5] and been recompensed with honour and reward? Why have
you robbed God? Why do you dishonour His workmanship? You sacrifice a
sheep, and you adore the same animal. The Bull is in the heavens, and you
slaughter its image. The Kneeler[6] crushes a noxious animal; and the eagle
that devours the man-maker Prometheus is honoured. The swan is noble,
forsooth, because it was an adulterer; and the Dioscuri, living on
alternate days, the ravishers of the daughters of Leucippus, are also
noble! Better still is Helen, who forsook the flaxen-haired Menelaus, and
followed the turbaned and gold-adorned Paris. A just man also is
Sophron,[7] who transported this adulteress to the Elysian fields! But even
the daughter of Tyndarus is not gifted with immortality, and Euripides has
wisely represented this woman as put to death by Orestes.

CHAP. XI.--THE SIN OF MEN DUE NOT TO FATE, BUT TO FREE-WILL

   How, then, shall I admit this nativity according to Fate, when I see
such managers of Fate? I do not wish to be a king; I am not anxious to be
rich; I decline military command; I detest fornication; I am not impelled
by an insatiable love of gain to go to sea; I do not contend for chaplets;
I am free from a mad thirst for fame; I despise death; I am superior to
every kind of disease; grief does not consume my soul. Am I a slave, I
endure servitude. Am I free, I do not make a vaunt of my good birth. I see
that the same sun is for all, and one death for all, whether they live in
pleasure or destitution. The rich man sows, and the poor man partakes of
the same sowing. The wealthiest die, and beggars have the same limits to
their life. The rich lack many things, and are glorious only through the
estimation they are held in;[8] but the poor man and he who has very
moderate desires, seeking as he does only the things suited to his lot,
more easily obtains his purpose. How is it that you are fated to be
sleepless through avarice? Why are you fated to grasp at things often, and
often to die? Die to the world, repudiating the madness that is in it. Live
to God, and by apprehending Him lay aside your old nature.[9] We were not
created to die, but we die by our own fault.[1] Our free-will has destroyed
us; we who were free have become slaves; we have been sold through sin.
Nothing evil has been created by God; we Ourselves have manifested
wickedness; but we, who have manifested it, are able again to reject it.

CHAP. XII.--THE TWO KINDS OF SPIRITS.

   We recognise two varieties of spirit, one of which is called the
soul[2] (psuche'), but the other is greater than the soul, an image and
likeness of God: both existed in the first men, that in one sense they
might be material (hulikoi'), and in another superior to matter. The case
stands thus: we can see that the whole structure of the world, and the
whole creation, has been produced from matter, and the matter itself
brought into existence[3] by God; so that on the one hand it may be
regarded as rude and unformed before it was separated into parts, and on
the other as arranged in beauty and order after the separation was made.
Therefore in that separation the heavens were made of matter, and the stars
that are in them; and the earth and all that is upon it has a similar
constitution: so that there is a common origin of all things. But, while
such is the case, there yet are certain differences in the things made of
matter, so that one is more beautiful, and another is beautiful but
surpassed by something better. For as the constitution of the body is under
one management, and is engaged in doing that which is the cause of its
having been made,[4] yet though this is the case, there are certain
differences of dignity in it, and the eye is one thing, and another the
ear, and another the arrangement of the hair and the distribution of the
intestines, and the compacting together of the marrow and the bones and the
tendons; and though one part differs from another, there is yet all the
harmony of a concert of music in their arrangement;--in like manner the
world, according to the power of its Maker containing some things of
superior splendour, but some unlike these, received by the will of the
Creator a material spirit. And these things severally it is possible for
him to perceive who does not conceitedly reject those most divine
explanations which in the course of time have been consigned to writing,
and make those who study them great lovers of God. Therefore the demons,[5]
as you call them, having received their structure from matter and obtained
the spirit which inheres in it, became intemperate and greedy; some few,
indeed, turning to what was purer, but others choosing what was inferior in
matter, and conforming their manner of life to it. These beings, produced
from matter, but very remote from right conduct, you, O Greeks, worship.
For, being turned by their own folly to vaingloriousness, and shaking off
the reins[of authority], they have been forward to become robbers of Deity;
and the Lord of all has suffered them to besport themselves, till the
world, coming to an end, be dissolved, and the Judge appear, and all those
men who, while assailed by the demons, strive after the knowledge of the
perfect God obtain as the result of their conflicts a more perfect
testimony in the day of judgment. There is, then, a spirit in the stars, a
spirit in angels, a spirit in plants and the waters, a spirit in men, a
spirit in animals; but, though one and the same, it has differences in
itself.[6] And while we say these things not from mere hearsay, nor from
probable conjectures and sophistical reasoning, but using words of a
certain diviner speech, do you who are willing hasten to learn. And you who
do not reject with contempt the Scythian Anacharsis, do not disdain to be
taught by those who follow a barbaric code of laws. Give at least as
favourable a reception to our tenets as you would to the prognostications
of the Babylonians. Hearken to us when we speak, if only as you would to an
oracular oak. And yet the things just referred to are the trickeries of
frenzied demons, while the doctrines we inculcate are far beyond the
apprehension of the world.

CHAP. XIII.--THEORY OF THE SOUL'S IMMORTALITY.

   The soul is not in itself immortal, O Greeks, but mortal.[7] Yet it is
possible for it not to die. If, indeed, it knows not the truth, it dies,
and is dissolved with the body, but rises again at last at the end of the
world with the body, receiving death by punishment in immortality. But,
again, if it acquires the knowledge of God, it dies not, although for a
time it be dissolved. In itself it is darkness, and there is nothing
luminous in it. And this is the meaning of the saying, "The darkness
comprehendeth not the light."[8] For the soul does not preserve the spirit,
but is preserved by it, and the light comprehends the darkness. The Logos,
in truth, is the light of God, but the ignorant soul is darkness. On this
account, if it continues solitary, it tends downward towards matter, and
dies with the flesh; but, if it enters into union with the Divine Spirit,
it is no longer helpless, but ascends to the regions whither the Spirit
guides it: for the dwelling-place of the spirit is above, but the origin of
the soul is from beneath. Now, in the beginning the spirit was a constant
companion of the soul, but the spirit forsook it because it was not willing
to follow. Yet, retaining as it were a spark of its power, though unable by
reason of the separation to discern the perfect, while seeking for God it
fashioned to itself in its wandering many gods, following the sophistries
of the demons. But the Spirit of God is not with all, but, taking up its
abode with those who live justly, and intimately combining with the soul,
by prophecies it announced hidden things to other souls. And the souls that
are obedient to wisdom have attracted to themselves the cognate spirit;[1]
but the disobedient, rejecting the minister of the suffering God,[2] have
shown themselves to be fighters against God, rather than His worshippers.

CHAP. XIV.--THE DEMONS SHALL BE PUNISHED MORE SEVERELY THAN MEN.

   And such are you also, O Greeks,--profuse in words, but with minds
strangely warped; and you acknowledge the dominion of many rather than the
rule of one, accustoming yourselves to follow demons as if they were
mighty. For, as the inhuman robber is wont to overpower those like himself
by daring; so the demons, going to great lengths in wickedness, have
utterly deceived the souls among you which are left to themselves by
ignorance and false appearances. These! beings do not indeed die easily,
for they do not partake of flesh; but while living they practise the ways
of death, and die themselves as often as they teach their followers to sin.
Therefore, what is now their chief distinction, that they do not die like
men, they will retain when about to suffer punishment: they will not
partake of everlasting life, so as to receive this instead of death in a
blessed immortality. And as we, to whom it now easily happens to die,
afterwards receive the immortal with enjoyment, or the painful with
immortality, so the demons, who abuse the present life to purposes of
wrong-doing, dying continually even while they live, will have hereafter
the same immortality, like that which they had during the time they lived,
but in its nature like that of men, who voluntarily performed what the
demons prescribed to them during their lifetime. And do not fewer kinds of
sin break out among men owing to the brevity of their lives,[3] while on
the part of these demons transgression is more abundant owing to their
boundless existence?

CHAP. XV.--NECESSITY OF A UNION WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.

   But further, it becomes us now to seek for what we once had, but have
lost, to unite the soul with the Holy Spirit, and to strive after union
with God. The human soul consists of many parts, and is not simple; it is
composite, so as to manifest itself through the body; for neither could it
ever appear by itself without the body, nor does the flesh rise again
without the soul. Man is not, as the croaking philosophers say, merely a
rational animal, capable of understanding and knowledge; for, according to
them, even irrational creatures appear possessed of understanding and
knowledge. But man alone is the image and likeness of God; and I mean by
man, not one who performs actions similar to those of animals, but one who
has advanced far beyond mere humanity--to God Himself. This question we
have discussed more minutely in the treatise concerning animals. But the
principal point to be spoken of now is, what is intended by the image and
likeness of God. That which cannot be compared is no other than abstract
being; but that which is compared is no other than that which is like. The
perfect God is without flesh; but man is flesh. The bond of the flesh is
the soul;[4] that which encloses the soul is the flesh. Such is the nature
of man's constitution; and, if it be like a temple, God is pleased to dwell
in it by the spirit, His representative; but, if it be not such a
habitation, man excels the wild beasts in articulate language only,--in
other respects his manner of life is like theirs, as one who is not a
likeness of God. But none of the demons possess flesh; their structure is
spiritual, like that of fire or air. And only by those whom the Spirit of
God dwells in and fortifies are the bodies of the demons easily seen, not
at all by others,--I mean those who possess only soul;[5] for the inferior
has not the ability to apprehend the superior. On this account the nature
of the demons has no place for repentance; for they are the reflection of
matter and of wickedness. But matter desired to exercise lordship over the
soul; and according to their free-will these gave laws of death to men; but
men, after the loss of immortality, have conquered death by submitting to
death in faith;[6] and by repentance a call has been given to them,
according to the word which says, "Since they were made a little lower than
the angels."[7] And, for every one who has been conquered, it is possible
again to conquer, if he rejects the condition which brings death. And what
that is, may be easily seen by men who long for immortality.

CHAP. XVI.--VAIN DISPLAY OF POWER BY THE DEMONS.

   But the demons[1] who rule over men are not the souls of men; for how
should these be capable of action after death? unless man, who while living
was void of understanding and power, should be believed when dead to be
endowed with more of active power. But neither could this be the case, as
we have shown elsewhere.[2] And it is difficult to conceive that the
immortal soul, which is impeded by the members of the body, should become
more intelligent when it has migrated from it. For the demons, inspired
with frenzy against men by reason of their own wickedness, pervert their
minds, which already incline downwards, by various deceptive scenic
representations, that they may be disabled from rising to the path that
leads to heaven. But from us the things which are in the world are not
hidden, and the divine is easily apprehended by us if the power that makes
souls immortal visits us. The demons are seen also by the men possessed of
soul, when, as sometimes, they exhibit themselves to men, either that they
may be thought to be something, or as evil-disposed friends may do harm to
them as to enemies, or afford occasions of doing them honour to those who
resemble them. For, if it were possible, they would without doubt pull down
heaven itself with the rest of creation. But now this they can by no means
effect, for they have not the power; but they make war by means of the
lower matter against the matter that is like themselves. Should any one
wish to conquer them, let him repudiate matter. Being armed with the
breastplate[3] of the celestial Spirit, he will be able to preserve all
that is encompassed by it. There are, indeed, diseases and disturbances of
the matter that is in us; but, when such things happen, the demons ascribe
the causes of them tO themselves, and approach a man whenever disease lays
hold of him. Sometimes they themselves disturb the habit of the body by a
tempest of folly; but, being smitten by the word of God, they depart in
terror, and the sick man is healed.

CHAP. XVII.--THEY FALSELY PROMISE HEALTH TO THEIR VOTARIES.

   Concerning the sympathies and antipathies of Democritus what can we say
but this, that, according to the common saying, the man of Abdera is
Abderiloquent? But, as he who gave the name to the city, a friend of
Hercules as it is said, was devoured by the horses of Diomedes, so he who
boasted of the Magian Ostanes[4] will be delivered up in the day of
consummation s as fuel for the eternal fire. And you, if you do not cease
from your laughter, will gain the same punishment as the jugglers.
Wherefore, O Greeks, hearken to me, addressing you as from an eminence, nor
in mockery transfer your own want of reason to the herald of the truth. A
diseased affection (<greek>paqos</greek>) is not destroyed by a counter-
affection (<greek>antipaqeia</greek>), nor is a maniac cured by hanging
little amulets of leather upon him. There are visitations of demons; and he
who is sick, and he who says he is in love, and he who hates, and he who
wishes to be revenged, accept them as helpers. And this is the method of
their operation: just as the forms of alphabetic letters and the lines
composed of them cannot of themselves indicate what is meant, but men have
invented for themselves signs of their thoughts, knowing by their peculiar
combination what the order of the letters was intended to express; so, in
like manner, the various kinds of roots and the mutual relation of the
sinews and bones can effect nothing of themselves, but are the elemental
matter with which the depravity of the demons works, who have determined
for what purpose each of them is available. And, when they see that men
consent to be served by means of such things, they take them and make them
their slaves. But how can it be honourable to minister to adulteries? How
can it be noble to stimulate men in hating one another? Or how is it
becoming to ascribe to matter the relief of the insane, and not to God? For
by their art they turn men aside from the pious acknowledgment of God,
leading them to place confidence in herbs and roots.[6] But God, if He had
prepared these things to effect just what men wish, would be a Producer of
evil things; whereas He Himself produced everything which has good
qualities, but the profligacy of the demons has made use of the productions
of nature for evil purposes, and the appearance of evil which these wear is
from them, and not from the perfect God. For how comes it to pass that when
alive I was in no wise evil, but that now I am dead and can do nothing, my
remains, which are incapable of motion or even sense, should effect
something cognizable by the senses? And how shall he who has died by the
most miserable death be able to assist in avenging any one? If this were
possible, much more might he defend himself from his own enemy; being able
to assist others, much more might he constitute himself his own avenger.

CHAP. XVIII.--THEY DECEIVE, INSTEAD OF HEALING.

   But medicine and everything included in it is an invention of the same
kind. If any one is healed by matter, through trusting to it, much more
will he be healed by having recourse to the power of God. As noxious
preparations arc material compounds, so are curatives of the same nature.
If, however, we reject the baser matter, some persons often endeavour to
heal by a union of one of these bad things with some other, and will make
use of the bad to attain the good. But, just as he who dines with a robber,
though he may not be a robber himself, partakes of the punishment on
account of his intimacy with him, so he who is not bad but associates with
the bad, having dealings with them for some supposed good, will be punished
by God the Judge for partnership in the same object. Why is he who trusts
in the system of matter[1] not willing to trust in God? For what reason do
you not approach the more powerful Lord, but rather seek to cure yourself,
like the dog with grass, or the stag with a viper, or the hog with river-
crabs, or the lion with apes? Why you deify the objects of nature? And why,
when you cure your neighbour, are you called a benefactor? Yield to the
power of the Logos! The demons do not cure, but by their art make men their
captives. And the most admirable Justin[2] has rightly denounced them as
robbers. For, as it is the practice of some to capture persons and then to
restore them to their friends for a ransom, so those who are esteemed gods,
invading the bodies of certain persons, and producing a sense of their
presence by dreams, command them to come forth into public, and in the
sight of all, when they have taken their fill of the things of this world,
fly away from the sick, and, destroying the disease which they had
produced, restore men to their former state.

CHAP. XIX.--DEPRAVITY LIES AT THE BOTTOM OF DEMON-WORSHIP.

   But do you, who have not the perception of these things, be instructed
by us who know them: though you do profess to despise death, and to be
sufficient of yourselves for everything. But this is a discipline in which
your philosophers are so greatly deficient, that some of them receive from
the king of the Romans 600 aurei yearly, for no useful service they
perform, but that they may not even wear a long beard without being paid
for it! Crescens, who made his nest in the great city, surpassed all men in
unnatural love (paiderasti'a), and was strongly addicted to the love of
money. Yet this man, who professed to despise death, was so afraid of
death, that he endeavoured to inflict on Justin, and indeed on me, the
punishment of death, as being an evil, because by proclaiming the truth he
convicted the philosophers of being gluttons and cheats. But whom of the
philosophers, save you only, was he accustomed to inveigh against? If you
say, in agreement with our tenets, that death is not to be dreaded, do not
court death from an insane love of fame among men, like Anaxagoras, but
become despisers of death by reason of the knowledge of God. The
construction of the world is excellent, but the life men live in it is bad;
and we may see those greeted with applause as in a solemn assembly who know
not God. For what is divination? and why are ye deceived by it? It is a
minister to thee of worldly lusts. You wish make war, and you take Apollo
as a counsellor of slaughter. You want to carry off a maiden by force, and
you select a divinity to be your accomplice. You are ill by your own fault;
and, as Agamemnon[3] wished for ten councillors, so you wish to have gods
with you. Some woman by drinking water gets into a frenzy, and loses her
senses by the fumes of frankincense, and you say that she has the gift of
prophecy. Apollo was a prognosticator and a teacher of soothsayers: in the
matter of Daphne he deceived himself. An oak, forsooth, is oracular, and
birds utter presages! And so you are inferior to animals and plants! It
would surely be a fine thing for you to become a divining rod, or to assume
the wings of a bird! He who makes you fond of money also foretells your
getting rich; he who excites to seditions and wars also predicts victory in
war. If you are superior to the passions, you will despise all worldly
things. Do not abhor us who have made this attainment, but, repudiating the
demons,[4] follow the one God. "All things[5] were made by Him, and without
Him not one thing was made." If there is poison in natural productions,
this has supervened through our sinfulness. I am able to show the perfect
truth of these things; only do you hearken, and he who believes will
understand.

CHAP. XX.--THANKS ARE EVER DUE TO GOD.

   Even if you be healed by drugs (I grant you that point by courtesy),
yet it behoves you to give testimony of the cure to God. For the world
still draws us down, and through weakness I incline towards matter. For the
wings of the soul were the perfect spirit, but, having cast this off
through sin, it flutters like a nestling and falls to the ground. Having
left the heavenly companionship, it hankers after communion with inferior
things. The demons were driven forth to another abode; the first created
human beings were expelled from their place: the one, indeed, were cast
down from heaven; but the other were driven from earth, yet not out of this
earth, but from a more excellent order of things than exists here now. And
now it behoves us, yearning after that pristine state, to put aside
everything that proves a hindrance. The heavens are not infinite, O man,
but finite and bounded; and beyond them are the superior worlds which have
not a change of seasons, by which various, diseases are produced, but,
partaking of every happy temperature, have perpetual day, and light
unapproachable by men below.[1] Those who have composed elaborate
descriptions of the earth have given an account of its various regions so
far as this was possible to man; but, being unable to speak of that which
is beyond, because Of the impossibility of personal observation, they have
assigned as the cause the existence of tides; and that one sea is filled
with weed, and another with mud; and that some localities are burnt up with
heat, and others cold and frozen. We, however, have learned things which
were unknown to us, through the teaching of the prophets, who, being fully
persuaded that the heavenly spirit[2] along with the soul will acquire a
clothing of mortality, foretold things which other minds were unacquainted
with. But it is possible for every one who is naked to obtain this apparel,
and to return to its ancient kindred.

CHAP.XXI.--DOCTRINES OF THE CHRISTIANS AND GREEKS RESPECTING GOD COMPARED.

   We do not act as fools, O Greeks, nor utter idle tales, when we
announce that God was born in the form of a man. I call on you who reproach
us to compare your mythical accounts with our narrations. Athene, as they
say, took the form of Deiphobus for the sake of Hector,[3] and the unshorn
Phoebus for the sake of Admetus fed the trailing-footed oxen, and the
spouse us came as an old woman to Semele. But, while you treat seriously
such things, how can you deride us? Your Asclepios died, and he who
ravished fifty virgins in one night at Thespiae lost his life by delivering
himself to the devouring flame. Prometheus, fastened to Caucasus, suffered
punishment for his good deeds to men. According to you, Zeus is envious,
and hides the dream[4] from men, wishing their destruction. Wherefore,
looking at your own memorials, vouchsafe us your approval, though it were
only as dealing in legends similar to your own. We, however, do not deal in
folly, but your legends are only idle tales. If you speak of the origin of
the gods, you also declare them to be mortal. For what reason is Hera now
never pregnant? Has she grown old? or is there no one to give you
information? Believe me now, O Greeks, and do not resolve your myths and
gods into allegory. If you attempt to do this, the divine nature as held by
you is overthrown by your own selves; for, if the demons with you are such
as they are said to be, they are worthless as to character; or, if regarded
as symbols of the powers of nature, they are not what they are called. But
I cannot be persuaded to pay religious homage to the natural elements, nor
can I undertake to persuade my neighbour. And Metrodorus of Lampsacus, in
his treatise concerning Homer, has argued very foolishly, turning
everything into allegory. For he says that neither Hera, nor Athene, nor
Zeus are what those persons suppose who consecrate to them sacred
enclosures and groves, but parts of nature and certain arrangements of the
elements. Hector also, and Achilles, and Agamemnon, and all the Greeks in
general, and the Barbarians with Helen and Paris, being of the same nature,
you will of course say are introduced merely for the sake of the
machinery[5] of the poem, not one of these personages having really
existed. But these things we have put forth only for argument's sake; for
it is not allowable even to compare our notion of God with those who are
wallowing in matter and mud.

CHAP. XXII.--RIDICULE OF THE SOLEMNITIES OF THE GREEKS.

   And of what sort are your teachings? Who must not treat with contempt
your solemn festivals, which, being held in honour of wicked demons, cover
men with infamy? I have often seen a man[1]--and have been amazed to see,
and the amazement has ended in contempt, to think how he is one thing
internally, but outwardly counterfeits what he is not--giving himself
excessive airs of daintiness and indulging in all sorts of effeminacy;
sometimes darting his eyes about; sometimes throwing his hands hither and
thither, and raving with his face smeared with mud; sometimes personating
Aphrodite, sometimes Apollo; a solitary accuser of all the gods, an epitome
of superstition, a vituperator of heroic deeds, an actor of murders, a
chronicler of adultery, a storehouse of madness, a teacher of cynaedi, an
instigator of capital sentences;--and yet such a man is praised by all. But
I have rejected all his falsehoods, his impiety, his practices,--in short,
the man altogether. But you are led captive by such men, while you revile
those who do not take a part in your pursuits. I have no mind to stand
agape at a number of singers, nor do I desire to be affected in sympathy
with a man when he is winking and gesticulating in an unnatural manner.
What wonderful or extraordinary thing is performed among you? They utter
ribaldry in affected tones, and go through indecent movements; your
daughters and your sons behold them giving lessons in adultery on the
stage. Admirable places, forsooth, are your lecture-rooms, where every base
action perpetrated by night is proclaimed aloud, and the hearers are
regaled with the utterance of infamous discourses! Admirable, too, are your
mendacious poets, who by their fictions beguile their hearers from the
truth!

CHAP. XXIII.--OF THE PUGILISTS AND GLADIATORS,

   I have seen men weighed down by bodily exercise, and carrying about the
burden of their flesh, before whom rewards and chaplets are set, while the
adjudicators cheer them on, not to deeds of virtue, but to rivalry in
violence and discord; and he who excels in giving blows is crowned. These
are the lesser evils; as for the greater, who would not shrink from telling
them? Some, giving themselves up to idleness for the sake of profligacy,
sell themselves to be killed; and the indigent barters himself away, while
the rich man buys others to kill him. And for these the witnesses take
their seats, and the boxers meet in single combat, for no reason whatever,
nor does any one come down into the arena to succour. Do such exhibitions
as these redound to your credit? He who is chief among you collects a
legion of blood-stained murderers, engaging to maintain them; and these
ruffians are sent forth by him, and you assemble at the spectacle to be
judges, partly of the wickedness of the adjudicator, and partly of that of
the men who engage in the combat. And he who misses the murderous
exhibition is grieved, because he was not doomed to be a spectator of
wicked and impious and abominable deeds. You slaughter animals for the
purpose of eating their flesh, and you purchase men to supply a cannibal
banquet for the soul, nourishing it by the most impious bloodshedding. The
robber commits murder for the sake of plunder, but the rich man purchases
gladiators for the sake of their being killed.[2]

CHAP. XXIV.--OF THE OTHER PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS.

   What advantage should I gain from him who is brought on the stage by
Euripides raving mad, and acting the matricide of Alcmaeon; who does not
even retain his natural behaviour, but with his mouth wide open goes about
sword in hand, and, screaming aloud, is burned to death, habited in a robe
unfit for man? Away, too, with the mythical tales of Acusilaus, and
Menander, a versifier of the same class! And why should I admire the mythic
piper? Why should I busy myself about the Theban Antigenides,[3] like
Aristoxenus? We leave you to these worthless things; and do you either
believe our doctrines, or, like us, give up yours.

CHAP. XXV.--BOASTINGS AND QUARRELS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.

   What great and wonderful things have your philosophers effected? They
leave uncovered one of their shoulders; they let their hair grow long; they
cultivate their beards; their nails are like the claws of wild beasts.
Though they say that they want nothing, yet, like Proteus,[4] they need a
currier for their wallet, and a weaver for their mantle, and a wood-cutter
for their staff, and the rich,[5] and a cook also for their gluttony. O man
competing with the dog,[6] you know not God, and so have turned to the
imitation of an irrational animal. You cry out in public with an assumption
of authority, and take upon you to avenge your own self; and if you receive
nothing, you indulge in abuse, and philosophy is with you the art of
getting money. You follow the doctrines of Plato, and a disciple of
Epicurus lifts up his voice to oppose you. Again, you wish to be a disciple
of Aristotle, and a follower of Democritus rails at you. Pythagoras says
that he was Euphorbus, and he is the heir of the doctrine of Pherecydes;
but Aristotle impugns the immortality of the soul. You who receive from
your predecessors doctrines which clash with one another, you the
inharmonious, are fighting against the harmonious. One of you asserts that
God is body, but I assert that He is without body; that the world is
indestructible, but I say that it is to be destroyed; that a conflagration
will take place at various times, but I say that it will come to pass once
for all; that Minos and Rhadamanthus are judges, but I say that God Himself
is Judge; that the soul alone is endowed with immortality, but I say that
the flesh also is endowed with it.[1] What injury do we inflict upon you, O
Greeks? Why do you hate those who follow the word of God, as if they were
the vilest of mankind? It is not we who eat human flesh[2]--they among you
who assert such a thing have been suborned as false witnesses; it is among
you that Pelops is made a supper for the gods, although beloved by
Poseidon, and Kronos devours his children, and Zeus swallows Metis.

CHAP. XXVI.- RIDICULE OF THE STUDIES OF THE GREEKS.

   Cease to make a parade of sayings which you have derived from others,
and to deck yourselves like the daw in borrowed plumes. If each state were
to take away its contribution to your speech, your fallacies would lose
their power. While inquiring what God is, you are ignorant of what is in
yourselves; and, while staring all agape at the sky, you stumble into
pitfalls. The reading of your books is like walking through a labyrinth,
and their readers resemble the cask of the Danaids. Why do you divide time,
saying that one part is past, and another present, and another future? For
how can the future be passing when the present exists? As those who are
sailing imagine in their ignorance, as the ship is borne along, that the
hills are in motion, so you do not know that it is you who are passing
along, but that time (<greek>o</greek> <greek>aiwn</greek>) remains present
as long as the Creator wills it to exist. Why am I called to account for
uttering my opinions, and why are you in such haste to put them all down?
Were not you born in the same manner as ourselves, and placed under the
same government of the world? Why say that wisdom is with you alone, who
have not another sun, nor other risings of the stars, nor a more
distinguished origin, nor a death preferable to that of other men? The
grammarians have been the beginning of this idle talk; and you who parcel
out wisdom are cut off from the wisdom that is according to truth, and
assign the names of the several parts to particular men; and you know not
God, but in your fierce contentions destroy one another. And on this
account you are all nothing worth. While you arrogate to yourselves the
sole right of discussion, you discourse like the blind man with the deaf.
Why do you handle the builder's tools without knowing how to build? Why do
you busy yourselves with words, while you keep aloof from deeds, puffed up
with praise, but cast down by misfortunes? Your modes of acting are
contrary to reaSon, for you make a pompons appearance in public, but hide
your teaching in corners. Finding you to be such men as these, we have
abandoned you, and no longer concern ourselves with your tenets, but follow
the word of God. Why, O man, do you set the letters of the alphabet at war
with one another? Why do you, as in a boxing match, make their sounds clash
together with your mincing Attic way of speaking, whereas you ought to
speak more according to nature? For if you adopt the Attic dialect though
not an Athenian, pray why do you not speak like the Dorians? How is it that
one appears to you more rugged, the other more pleasant for intercourse?

CHAP. XXVII.- THE CHRISTIANS ARE HATED UNJUSTLY .

   And if you adhere to their teaching, why do you fight against me for
choosing such views of doctrine as I approve? Is it not unreasonable that,
while the robber is not to be punished for the name he bears,[3] but only
when the truth about him has been clearly ascertained, yet we are to be
assailed with abuse on a judgment formed without examination? Diagoras was
an Athenian, but you punished him for divulging the Athenian mysteries; yet
you who read his Phrygian discourses hate us. You possess the commentaries
of Leo, and are displeased with our refutations of them; and having in your
hands the opinions of Apion concerning the Egyptian gods, you denounce us
as most impious. The tomb of Olympian Zeus is shown among you,[4] though
some one says that the Cretans are liars.[5] Your assembly of many gods is
nothing. Though their despiser Epicurus acts as a torch-bearer,[6] I do not
any the more conceal from the rulers that view of God which I hold in
relation to His government of the universe. Why do you advise me to be
false to my principles? Why do you who say that you despise death exhort us
to use art in order to escape it? I have not the heart of a deer; but your
zeal for dialectics resembles the loquacity of Thersites. How can I believe
one who tells me that the sun is a red-hot mass and the moon an earth? Such
assertions are mere logomachies, and not a sober exposition of truth. How
can it be otherwise than foolish to credit the books of Herodotus relating
to the history of Hercules, which tell of an upper earth from which the
lion came down that was killed by Hercules? And what avails the Attic
style, the sorites of philosophers, the plausibilities of syllogisms, the
measurements of the earth, the positions of the stars, and the course of
the sun? To be occupied in such inquiries is the work of one who imposes
opinions on himself as if they were laws.

CHAP. XXVIII.--CONDEMNATION OF THE GREEK LEGISLATION.

   On this account I reject your legislation also; for there ought to be
one common polity for all; but now there are as many different codes as
there are states, so that things held disgraceful in some are honourable in
others. The Greeks consider intercourse with a mother as unlawful, but this
practice is esteemed most becoming by the Persian Magi; paederasty is
condemned by the Barbarians, but by the Romans, who endeavour to collect
herds of boys like grazing horses, it is honoured with certain privileges.

CHAP. XXIX.- ACCOUNT OF TATIAN'S CONVERSION.

   Wherefore, having seen these things, and moreover also having been
admitted to the mysteries, and having everywhere examined the religious
rites performed by the effeminate and the pathic, and having found among
the Romans their Latiarian Jupiter delighting in human gore and the blood
of slaughtered men, and Artemis not far from the great city[1] sanctioning
acts of the same kind, and one demon here and another there instigating to
the perpetration of evil,--retiring by myself, I sought how I might be able
to discover the truth. And, while I was giving my most earnest attention to
the matter, I happened to meet with certain barbaric writings, too old to
be compared with the opinions of the Greeks, and too divine to be compared
with their errors; and I was led to put faith in these by the unpretending
east of the language, the inartificial character of the writers, the
foreknowledge displayed of future events, the excellent quality of the
precepts, and the declaration of the government of the universe as centred
in one Being.[2] And, my soul being taught of God, I discern that the
former class of writings lead to condemnation, but that these put an end to
the slavery that is in the world, and rescue us from a multiplicity of
rulers and ten thousand tyrants, while they give us, not indeed what we had
not before received, but what we had received but were prevented by error
from retaining.

CHAP. XXX.--HOW HE RESOLVED TO RESIST THE DEVIL.

   Therefore, being initiated and instructed in these things, I wish to
put away my former errors as the follies of childhood. For we know that the
nature of wickedness is like that of the smallest seeds; since it has waxed
strong from a small beginning, but will again be destroyed if we obey the
words of God and do not scatter ourselves. For He has become master of all
we have by means of a certain "hidden treasure,"[3] which while we are
digging for we are indeed covered with dust, but we secure it as our fixed
possession. He who receives the whole of this treasure has obtained command
of the most precious wealth. Let these things, then, be said to our
friends. But to you Greeks what can I say, except to request you not to
rail at those who are better than yourselves, nor if they are called
Barbarians to make that an occasion of banter? For, if you are willing, you
will be able to find out the cause of mews not being able to understand one
another's language; for to those who wish to examine our principles I will
give a simple and copious account of them.

CHAP. XXXI.--THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE CHRISTIANS MORE ANCIENT THAN THAT OF THE
GREEKS.

   But now it seems proper for me to demonstrate that our philosophy is
older than the systems of the Greeks. Moses and Homer shall be our limits,
each of them being of great antiquity; the one being the oldest of poets
and historians, and the other the founder of all barbarian wisdom. Let us,
then, institute a comparison between them; and we shall find that our
doctrines are older, not only than those of the Greeks, but than the
invention of letters.[3] And I will not bring forward witnesses from among
ourselves, but rather have recourse to Greeks. To do the former would be
foolish, because it would not be allowed by you; but the other will
surprise you, when, by contending against you with your own weapons, I
adduce arguments of which you had no suspicion. Now the poetry of Homer,
his parentage, and the time in which he flourished have been investigated
by the most ancient writers,--by Theagenes of Rhegium, who lived in the
time of Cambyses, Stesimbrotus of Thasos and Antimachus of Colophon,
Herodotus of Halicarnassus, and Dionysius the Olynthian; after them, by
Ephorus of Cumae, and Philochorus the Athenian, Megaclides and Chamaeleon
the Peripatetics; afterwards by the grammarians, Zenodotus, Aristophanes,
Callimachus, Crates, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, and Apollodorus. Of these,
Crates says that he flourished before the return of the Heraclidae, and
within 80 years after the Trojan war; Eratosthenes says that it was after
the 100th year from the taking of Ilium; Aristarchus, that it was about the
time of the Ionian migration, which was 140 years after that event; but,
according to Philochorus, after the Ionian migration, in the archonship of
Archippus at Athens, 180 years after the Trojan war; Apollodorus says it
was 100 years after the Ionian migration, which would be 240 years after
the Trojan war. Some say that he lived 90 years before the Olympiads, which
would be 317 years after the taking of Troy. Others carry it down to a
later date, and say that Homer was a contemporary of Archilochus; but
Archilochus flourished about the 23d Olympiad, in the time of Gyges the
Lydian, 500 years after Troy. Thus, concerning the age of the aforesaid
poet, I mean Homer, and the discrepancies of those who have spoken of him,
we have said enough in a summary manner for those who are able to
investigate with accuracy. For it is possible to show that the opinions
held about the facts themselves also are false. For, where the assigned
dates do not agree together, it is impossible that the history should be
true. For what is the cause of error in writing, but the narrating of
things that are not true?

CHAP. XXXII. --THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIANS, IS OPPOSED TO DISSENSIONS,
AND FITTED FOR ALL.

   But with us there is no desire of vainglory, nor do we indulge in a
variety of opinions. For having renounced the popular and earthly, and
obeying the commands of God, and following the law of the Father of
immortality, we reject everything which rests upon human opinion. Not only
do the rich among us pursue our philosophy, but the poor enjoy instruction
gratuitously;[1] for the things which come from God surpass the requital of
worldly gifts. Thus we admit all who desire to hear, even old women and
striplings; and, in short, persons of every age are treated by us with
respect, but every kind of licentiousness is kept at a distance. And in
speaking we do not utter falsehood. It would be an excellent thing if your
continuance in unbelief should receive a check; but, however that may be,
let our cause remain confirmed by the judgment pronounced by God. Laugh, if
you please; but you will have to weep hereafter. Is it not absurd that
Nestor,[2] who was slow at cutting his horses' reins owing to his weak and
sluggish old age, is, according to you, to be admired for attempting to
rival the young men in fighting, while you deride those among us who
struggle against old age and occupy themselves with the things pertaining
to God? Who would not laugh when you tell us that the Amazons, and
Semiramis, and certain other warlike women existed, while you cast
reproaches on our maidens? Achilles was a youth, yet is believed to have
been very magnanimous; and Neoptolemus was younger, but strong; Philoctetes
was weak, but the divinity had need of him against Troy. What sort of man
was Thersites? yet he held a command in the army, and, if he had not
through doltishness had such an unbridled tongue, he would not have been
reproached for being peak-headed and bald. As for those who wish to learn
our philosophy, we do not test them by their looks, nor do we judge of
those who come to us by their outward appearance; for we argue that there
may be strength of mind in all, though they may be weak in body. But your
proceedings are full of envy and abundant stupidity.

CHAP. XXXIII.--VINDICATION OF CHRISTIAN WOMEN.

   Therefore I have been desirous to prove from the things which are
esteemed honourable among you, that our institutions are marked by
sobermindedness, but that yours are in close affinity with madness.[3] You
who say that we talk nonsense among women and boys, among maidens and old
women, and scoff at us for not being with you, hear what silliness prevails
among the Greeks. For their works of art are devoted to worthless objects,
while they are held in higher estimation by you than even your gods; and
you behave yourselves unbecomingly in what relates to woman. For Lysippus
cast a statue of Praxilla, whose poems contain nothing useful, and
Menestratus one of Learchis, and Selanion one of Sappho the courtezan, and
Naucydes one of Erinna the Lesbian, and Boiscus one of Myrtis, and
Cephisodotus one of Myro of Byzantium, and Gomphus one of Praxigoris, and
Amphistratus one of Clito. And what shall I say about Anyta, Telesilla, and
Mystis? Of the first Euthycrates and Cephisodotus made a statue, and of the
second Niceratus, and of the third Aristodotus; Euthycrates made one of
Mnesiarchis the Ephesian, Selanion one of Corinna, and Euthycrates one of
Thalarchis the Argive. My object in referring to these women is, that you
may not regard as something strange what you find among us, and that,
comparing the statues which are before your eyes, you may not treat the
women with scorn who among us pursue philosophy. This Sappho is a lewd,
love-sick female, and sings her own wantonness;[1] but all our women are
chaste, and the maidens at their distaffs sing of divine things[2] more
nobly than that damsel of yours. Wherefore be ashamed, you who are
professed disciples of women yet scoff at those of the sex who hold our
doctrine, as well as at the solemn assemblies they frequent.[2] What a
noble infant did Glaucippe present to you, who brought forth a prodigy, as
is shown by her statue cast by Niceratus, the son of Euctemon the Athenian!
But, if Glaucippe brought forth an elephant, was that a reason why she
should enjoy public honours? Praxiteles and Herodotus made for you Phryne
the courtezan, and Euthycrates cast a brazen statue of Panteuchis, who was
pregnant by a whoremonger; and Dinomenes, because Besantis queen of the
Paeonians gave birth to a black infant, took pains to preserve her memory
by his art. I condemn Pythagoras too, who made a figure of Europa on the
bull; and you also, who honour the accuser of Zeus on account of his
artistic skill. And I ridicule the skill of Myron, who made a heifer and
upon it a Victory because by carrying off the daughter of Agenor it had
borne away the prize for adultery and lewdness. The Olynthian Herodotus
made statues of Glycera the courtezan and Argeia the harper. Bryaxis made a
statue of Pasiphae; and, by having a memorial of her lewdness, it seems to
have been almost your desire that the women of the present time should be
like her.[3] A certain Melanippe was a wise woman, and for that reason
Lysistratus made her statue. But, forsooth, you will not believe that among
us there are wise women!

CHAP. XXXIV.--RIDICULE OF THE STATUES ERECTED BY THE GREEKS.

   Worthy of very great honour, certainly, was the tyrant Bhalaris, who
devoured sucklings, and accordingly is exhibited by the workmanship of
Polystratus the Ambraciot, even to this day, as a very wonderful man! The
Agrigentines dreaded to look on that countenance of his, because of his
cannibalism; but people of culture now make it their boast that they behold
him in his statue! Is it not shameful that fratricide is honoured by you
who look on the statues of Polynices and Eteocles, and that you have not
rather buried them with their maker Pythagoras? Destroy these memorials of
iniquity! Why should I contemplate with admiration the figure of the woman
who bore thirty children, merely for the sake of the artist Periclymenus?
One ought to turn away with disgust from one who bore off the fruits of
great incontinence, and whom the Romans compared to a sow, which also on a
like account, they say, was deemed worthy of a mystic worship. Ares
committed adultery with Aphrodite, and Andron made an image of their
offspring Harmonia. Sophron, who committed to writing trifles and
absurdities, was more celebrated for his skill in casting metals, of which
specimens exist even now. And not only have his tales kept the fabulist
Aesop in everlasting remembrance, but also the plastic art of Aristodemus
has increased his celebrity. How is it then that you, who have so many
poetesses whose productions are mere trash, and innumerable courtezans, and
worthless men, are not ashamed to slander the reputation of our women? What
care I to know that Euanthe gave birth to an infant in the Peripatus, or to
gape with wonder at the art of Callistratus, or to fix my gaze on the
Neaera of Calliades? For she was a courtezan. Lais was a prostitute, and
Turnus made her a monument of prostitution. Why are you not ashamed of the
fornication of Hephaestion, even though Philo has represented him very
artistically? And for what reason do you honour the hermaphrodite Ganymede
by Leochares, as if you possessed something admirable? Praxiteles even made
a statue of a woman with the stain of impurity upon it. It behoved you,
repudiating everything of this kind, to seek what is truly worthy of
attention, and not to turn with disgust from our mode of life while
receiving with approval the shameful productions of Philaenis and
Elephantis.

CHAP. XXXV.--TATIAN SPEAKS AS AN EYE-WITNESS.

   The things which I have thus set before you I have not learned at
second hand. I have visited many lands; I have followed rhetoric, like
yourselves; I have fallen in with many arts and inventions; and finally,
when sojourning in the city of the Romans, I inspected the multiplicity of
statues brought thither by you: for I do not attempt, as is the custom with
many, to strengthen my own views by the opinions of others, but I wish to
give you a distinct account of what I myself have seen and felt. So,
bidding farewell to the arrogance of Romans and the idle talk of Athenians,
and all their ill-connected opinions, I embraced our barbaric philosophy. I
began to show how this was more ancient than your institutions,[1] but left
my task unfinished, in order to discuss a matter which demanded more
immediate attention; but now it is time I should attempt to speak
concerning its doctrines. Be not offended with our teaching, nor undertake
an elaborate reply filled with trifling and ribaldry, saying, "Tatian,
aspiring to be above the Greeks, above the infinite number of philosophic
inquirers, has struck out a new path, and embraced the doctrines of
Barbarians." For what grievance is it, that men manifestly ignorant should
be reasoned with by a man of like nature with themselves? Or how can it be
irrational, according to your own sophist,[2] to grow old always learning
something?

CHAP.XXXVI.--TESTIMONY OF THE CHALDEANS TO THE ANTIQUITY OF MOSES.

   But let Homer be not later than the Trojan war; let it be granted that
he was contemporary with it, or even that he was in the army of Agamemnon,
and, if any so please, that he lived before the invention of letters. The
Moses before mentioned will be shown to have been many years older than the
taking of Troy, and far more ancient than the building of Troy, or than
Tros and Dardanus. To demonstrate this I will call in as witnesses the
Chaldeans, the Phoenicians and the Egyptians. And what more need I say? For
it behoves one who professes to persuade his hearers to make his narrative
of events very concise. Berosus, a Babylonian, a priest of their god Belus,
born in the time of Alexander, composed for Antiochus, the third after him,
the history of the Chaldeans in three books; and, narrating the acts of the
kings, he mentions one of them, Nabuchodonosor by name, who made war
against the Phoenicians and the Jews,events which we know were announced by
our prophets, and which happened much later than the age of Moses, seventy
years before the Persian empire. But Berosus is a very trustworthy man, and
of this Juba is a witness, who, writing concerning the Assyrians, says that
he learned the history from Berosus: there are two books of his concerning
the Assyrians.

CHAP. XXXVII.--TESTIMONY OF THE PHOENICIANS.

   After the Chaldeans, the testimony of the Phoenicians is as follows.
There were among them three men, Theodotus, Hypsicrates, and Mochus;
Chaitus translated their books into Greek, and also composed with exactness
the lives of the philosophers. Now, in the histories of the aforesaid
writers it is shown that the abduction of Europa happened under one of the
kings, and an account is given of the coming of Menelaus into Phoenicia,
and of the matters relating to Chiramus,[3] who gave his daughter in
marriage to Solomon the king of the Jews, and supplied wood of all kind of
trees for the building of the temple. Menander of Pergamus composed a
history concerning the same things. But the age of Chiramus is somewhere
about the Trojan war; but Solomon, the contemporary of Chiramus, lived much
later than the age of Moses.

CHAP. XXXVIII.--THE EGYPTIANS PLACE MOSES IN THE REIGN OF INACHUS.

   Of the Egyptians also there are accurate chronicles. Ptolemy, not the
king, but a priest of Mendes, is the interpreter of their affairs. This
writer, narrating the acts of the kings, says that the departure of the
Jews from Egypt to the places whither they went occurred in the time of
king Amosis, under the leadership of Moses. He thus speaks: "Amosis lived
in the time of king Inachus." After him, Apion the grammarian, a man most
highly esteemed, in the fourth book of his AEgyptiaca (there are five books
of his), besides many other things, says that Amosis destroyed Avaris in
the time of the Argive Inachus, as the Mendesian Ptolemy wrote in his
annals. But the time from Inachus to the taking of Troy occupies twenty
generations. The steps of the demonstration are the following:--

CHAP. XXXIX.--CATALOGUE OF THE ARGIVE KINGS.

   The kings of the Argives were these: Inachus, Phoroneus, Apis, Criasis,
Triopas, Argeius, Phorbas, Crotopas, Sthenelaus, Danaus, Lynceus, Proetus,
Abas, Acrisius, Perseus, Sthenelaus, Eurystheus, Atreus, Thyestes, and
Agamemnon, in the eighteenth year of whose reign Troy was taken. And every
intelligent person will most carefully observe that, according to the
tradition of the Greeks, they possessed no historical composition; for
Cadmus, who taught them letters, came into Boeotia many generations later.
But after Inachus, under Phoroneus, a check was with difficulty given to
their savage and nomadic life, and they entered upon a new order of things.
Wherefore, if Moses is shown to be contemporary with Inachus, he is four
hundred years older than the Trojan war. But this is demonstrated from the
succession of the Attic, [and of the Macedonian, the Ptolemaic, and the
Antiochian][1] kings. Hence, if the most illustrious deeds among the Greeks
were recorded and made known after Inachus, it is manifest that this must
have been after Moses. In the time of Phoroneus, who was after Inachus,
Ogygus is mentioned among the Athenians, in whose time was the first
deluge; and in the time of Phorbas was Actaeus, from whom Attica was called
Actaea; and in the time of Triopas were Prometheus, and Epimetheus, and
Arias, and Cecrops of double nature, and Io; in the time of Crotopas was
the burning of Phaethon and the flood of Deucalion; in the time of
Sthenelus was the reign of Amphictyon and the coming of Danaus into
Peloponnesus, and the founding of Dardania by Dardanus, and the return of
Europa from phoenicia to Crete; in the time of Lynceus was the abduction of
Kore, and the founding of the temple in Eleusis, and the husbandry of
Triptolemus, and the coming of Cadmus to Thebes, and the reign of Minos; in
the time of Proetus was the war of Eumolpus against the Athenians; in the
time of Acrisius was the coming over of Pelops from Phrygia, and the coming
of Ion to Athens, and the second Cecrops, and the deeds of Perseus and
Dionysus, and Musaeus, the disciple of Orpheus; and in the reign of
Agamemnon Troy was taken.

CHAP.XL.--MOSES MORE ANCIENT AND CREDIBLE THAN THE HEATHEN HEROES.

   Therefore, from what has been said it is evident that Moses was older
than the ancient heroes, wars, and demons. And we ought rather to believe
him, who stands before them in point of age, than the Greeks, who, without
being aware of it,[2] drew his doctrines [as] from a fountain. For many of
the sophists among them, stimulated by curiosity, endeavoured to adulterate
whatever they learned from Moses,[3] and from those who have philosophized
like him, first that they might be considered as having something of their
own, and secondly, that covering up by a certain rhetorical artifice
whatever things they did not understand, they might misrepresent the truth
as if it were a fable. But what the learned among the Greeks have said
concerning our polity and the history of our laws, and how many and what
kind of men have written of these things, will be shown in the treatise
against those who have discoursed of divine things.[4]]

CHAP. XLI.

   But the matter of principal importance is to endeavour with all
accuracy to make it clear that Moses is not only older than Homer, but than
all the writers that were before him--older than Linus, Philammon,
Thamyris, Amphion, Musaeus, Orpheus, Demodocus, Phemius, Sibylla,
Epimenides of Crete, who came to Sparta, Aristaeus of Proconnesus, who
wrote the Arimaspia, Asbolus the Centaur, Isatis, Drymon, Euclus the
Cyprian, Horus the Samian, and Pronapis the Athenian. Now, Linus was the
teacher of Hercules, but Hercules preceded the Trojan war by one
generation; and this is manifest from his son Tlepolemus, who served in the
army against Troy. And Orpheus lived at the same time as Hercules;
moreover, it is said that all the works attributed to him were composed by
Onomacritus the Athenian, who lived during the reign of the Pisistratids,
about the fiftieth Olympiad. Musaeus was a disciple of Orpheus. Amphion,
since he preceded the siege of Troy by two generations, forbids our
collecting further particulars about him for those who are desirous of
information. Demodocus and Phemius lived at the very time of the Trojan
war; for the one resided with the suitors, and the other with the
Phaeacians. Thamyris and Philammon were not much earlier than these. Thus,
concerning their several performances in each kind, and their times and the
record of them, we have written very fully, and, as I think, with all
exactness. But, that we may complete. what is still wanting, I will give my
explanation respecting the men who are esteemed wise. Minos, who has been
thought to excel in every kind of wisdom, and mental acuteness, and
legislative capacity, lived in the time of Lynceus, who reigned after
Danaus in the eleventh generation after Inachus. Lycurgus, who was born
long after the taking of Troy, gave laws to the Lacedemonians. Draco is
found to have lived about the thirty-ninth Olympiad, Solon about the forty-
sixth, and Pythagoras about the sixty-second. We have shown that the
Olympiads commenced 407 years after the taking of Troy. These facts being
demonstrated, we shall briefly remark concerning the age of the seven wise
men. The oldest of these, Thales, lived about the fiftieth Olympiad; and I
have already spoken briefly of those who came after him.

CHAP. XLII.--CONCLUDING STATEMENT AS TO THE AUTHOR.

   These things, O Greeks, I Tatian, a disciple of the barbarian
philosophy,[5] have composed for you. I was born in the land of the
Assyrians, having been first instructed in your doctrines, and afterwards
in those which I now undertake to proclaim. Henceforward, knowing who God
is and what is His work, I present myself to you prepared for an
examination[1] concerning my doctrines, while I adhere immoveably to that
mode of life which is according to God.[2]

FRAGMENTS.[3]

I.   IN his treatise, Concerning Perfection according to the Saviour, he
writes, "Consent indeed fits for prayer, but fellowship in corruption
weakens supplication. At any rate, by the permission he certainly, though
delicately, forbids; for while he permits them to return to the same on
account of Satan and incontinence, he exhibits a man who will attempt to
serve two masters--God by the 'consent' (1 Cor. vii. 5), but by want of
consent, incontinence, fornication, and the devil."--CLEM. ALEX: Strom.,
iii. C. 12.

II.   A certain person inveighs against generation, calling it corruptible
and destructive; and some one does violence [to Scripture], applying to
pro-creation the Saviour's words, "Lay not up treasure on earth, where moth
and rust corrupt;" and he is not ashamed to add to these the words of the
prophet: "You all shall grow old as a garment, and the moth shall devour
you."

   And, in like manner, they adduce the saying concerning the resurrection
of the dead, "The sons of that world neither marry nor are given in
marriage."--CLEM. ALEX.: iii. c. 12, 86.

III.   Tatian, who maintaining the imaginary flesh of Christ, pronounces
all sexual connection impure, who was also the very violent heresiarch of
the Encratites, employs an argument of this sort: "If any one sows to the
flesh, of the flesh he shall reap corruption;" but he sows to the flesh who
is joined to a woman; therefore he who takes a wife and sows in the flesh,
of the flesh he shall reap corruption.--HIERON.: Com. in Ep. ad Gal.

IV.   Seceding from the Church, and being elated and puffed up by a conceit
of his teacher,[4] as if he were superior to the rest, he formed his own
peculiar type of doctrine. Imagining certain invisible AEons like those of
Valentinus, and denouncing marriage as defilement and fornication in the
same way as Marcion and Saturninus, and denying the salvation of Adam as an
opinion of his own.--IRENAEUS: Adv. Hoer., i. 28.

V.   Tatian attempting from time to time to make use of Paul's language,
that in Adam all die, but ignoring that "where sir, abounded, grace has
much more abounded."--IRENAEUS: Adv. Heres., iii. 37.

VI.   Against Tatian, who says that the words, "Let there be light," are to
be taken as a prayer. If He who uttered it knew a superior God, how is it
that He says, "I am God, and there is none beside me"?

   He said that there are punishments for blasphemies, foolish talking,
and licentious words, which are punished and chastised by the Logos. And he
said that women were punished on account of their hair and ornaments by a
power placed over those things, which also gave strength to Samson by his
hair, and punishes those who by the ornament of their hair are urged on to
fornication.--CLEM. ALEX.: Frag.

VII.   But Tatian, not understanding that the expression "Let there be" is
not always precative but sometimes imperative, most impiously imagined
concerning God, who said "Let there be light," that He prayed rather than
commanded light to be, as if, as he impiously thought, God was in
darkness.--ORIGEN: De Orat.

VIII.   Tatian separates the old man and the new, but not, as we say,
understanding the old man to be the law, and the new man to be the Gospel.
We agree with him in saying the same thing, but not in the sense he wishes,
abrogating the law as if it belonged to another God.--CLEM. ALEX.: Strom.,
iii. 12.

IX.   Tatian condemns and rejects not only marriage, but also meats which
God has created for use.--HIERON.: Adv. Jovin., i. 3.

X.   "But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets,
saying, Prophesy not." On this, perhaps, Tatian the chief of the Encratites
endeavours to build his heresy, asserting that wine is not to be drunk,
since it was commanded in the law that the Nazarites were not to drink
wine, and now those who give the Nazarites wine are accused by the
prophet.--HIERON.: Com. in Amos.

XI.   Tatian, the patriarch of the Encratites, who himself rejected some of
Paul's Epistles, believed this especially, that is [addressed] to Tires,
ought to be declared to be the apostle's, thinking little of the assertion
of Marcion and others, who agree with him on this point.--HIERON.: Proef.
in Com. ad Tit.

XII.   [Archelaus (A.D. 280), Bishop of Carrha in Mesopotamia, classes his
countryman Tatian with "Marcion, Sabellius, and others who have made up for
themselves a peculiar science," i.e., a theology of their own.--ROUTH:
Reliquiae, tom. v. p. 137. But see Edinburgh Series of this work, vol. xx.
p. 267.]


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 2, Roberts and Donaldson.) The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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