On the Incarnation of the Word 23
23 Further objections anticipated. He did not choose His manner of death; for He was to prove Conqueror of death in all or any of its forms: (simile of a good wrestler). The death chosen to disgrace Him proved the Trophy against death: moreover it preserved His body undivided
But what others also might have said, we must anticipate in reply. For perhaps a man might say even as follows: If it was necessary for His death to take place before all, and with witnesses, that the story of His Resurrection also might be believed, it would have been better at any rate for Him to have devised for Himself a glorious death, if only to escape the ignominy of the Cross. 2. But had He done even this, He would give ground for suspicion against Himself, that He was not powerful against every death, but only against the death devised for Him; and so again there would have been a pretext for disbelief about the Resurrection all the same. So death came to His body, not from Himself, but from hostile counsels, in order that whatever death they offered to the Saviour, this He might utterly do away. 3. And just as a noble wrestler, great in skill and courage, does not pick out his antagonists for himself, lest he should raise a suspicion of his being afraid of some of them, but puts it in the choice of the onlookers, and especially so if they happen to be his enemies, so that against whomsoever they match him, him he may throw, and be believed superior to them all; so also the Life of all, our Lord and Saviour, even Christ, did not devise a death for His own body, so as not to appear to be fearing some other death; but He accepted on the Cross, and endured, a death inflicted by others, and above all by His enemies, which they thought dreadful and ignominious and not to be faced; so that this also being destroyed, both He Himself might be believed to be the Life, and the power of death be brought utterly to nought. 4. So something surprising and startling has happened; for the death, which they thought to inflict as a disgrace, was actually a monument of victory against death itself. Whence neither did He suffer the death of John, his head being severed, nor, as Esaias, was He sawn in sunder; in order that even in death He might still keep His body undivided and in perfect soundness, and no pretext be afforded to those that would divide the Church.
Εἰ δὲ καὶ χωρίς τινος νόσου καὶ χωρίς τινος ἀλγηδόνος, ἰδίᾳ που καὶ καθ’ ἑαυτὸν ἐν γωνίᾳ, ἢ ἐν ἐρήμῳ τόπῳ, ἢ κατ’ οἰκίαν, ἢ ὅπου δήποτε τὸ σῶμα κρύψας ἦν, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα πάλιν ἐξαίφνης φανείς, ἔλεγεν ἑαυτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγηγέρθαι· μύθους μὲν ἂν ἔδοξε λέγειν παρὰ πᾶσιν, ἠπιστήθη δὲ πολλῷ πλέον καὶ περὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως λέγων, οὐκ ὄντος ὅλως τοῦ μαρτυροῦντος περὶ τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ. τῆς δὲ ἀναστάσεως προηγεῖσθαι δεῖ θάνατον, ἐπεὶ οὐκ ἂν εἵη ἀνάστασις μὴ προηγουμένου θανάτου· ὅθεν εἰ κρύφα που ἐγεγόνει τοῦ σώματος ὁ θάνατος, οὐ φαινομένου τοῦ θανάτου, οὐδὲ ἐπὶ μαρτύρων γενομένου, ἀφανὴς ἦν καὶ ἀμάρτυρος καὶ ἡ τούτου ἀνάστασις.
Ἢ διὰ τί τὴν μὲν ἀνάστασιν ἐκήρυττεν ἀναστάς, τὸν δὲ θάνατον ἀφανῶς ἐποίει γενέσθαι; ἢ διὰ τί τοὺς μὲν δαίμονας ἐπ’ ὅψει πάντων ἀπήλαυνες, τόν τε ἐκ γενετῆς τυφλὸν ἀναβλέπειν ἐποίει, καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ εἰς οἶνον μετέβαλεν, ἵνα δι’ αὐτῶν πιστευθῇ Λόγος Θεοῦ· τὸ δὲ θνητὸν οὐκ ἐπ’ ὄψει πάντων ἄφθαρτον ἐδείκνυεν, ἵνα πιστευθῇ αὐτὸς ὢν ἡ Ζωή;
Πῶς δὲ καὶ οἱ τούτου μαθηταὶ παῤῥησίαν εἶχον περὶ τοῦ τῆς ἀναστάσεως λόγου, οὐκ ἔχοντες εἰπεῖν, ὅτι πρῶτον ἀπέθανεν; ἢ πῶς ἂν ἐπιστεύθησαν λέγοντες γεγονέναι πρῶτον θάνατον, εἶτα τὴν ἀνάστασιν, εἰ μὴ παρ’ οἷς ἐπαῤῥησιάζοντο, εἶχον τούτους μάρτυρας τοῦ θανάτου; εἰ γὰρ καὶ οὕτως ἐπ’ ὄψει πάντων γενομένων τοῦ τε θανάτου καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως οὐκ ἠθέλησαν οἱ τότε Φαρισαῖοι πιστεύειν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ἑωρακότας τὴν ἀνάστασιν ἠνάγκασαν ἀρνήσασθαι ταύτην· πάντως εἰ κεκρυμμένως ἐγεγόνει ταῦτα, πόσας ἂν προφάσεις ἐπενόουν ἀπιστίας;
Πῶς δὲ ἄρα τὸ τοῦ θανάτου τέλος ἐδείκνυτο, καὶ ἡ κατὰ τούτου. νίκη, εἰ μὴ ἐπ’ ὄψει πάντων προσκαλεσάμενος αὐτὸν ἤλεγξε νεκρόν, κενωθέντα λοιπὸν τῇ τοῦ σώματος ἀφθαρσίᾳ;