For since the power of his name was such that the apostle could say that God had graciously given him 'the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth' -- fittingly, in order to display the virtue of the power hidden in his name from most, he said to his disciples: 'Go, make disciples of all the nations in my name.'
Then he also foretells, with great precision, what was to come, saying: 'This gospel must be preached in the whole inhabited world as a testimony to all the nations.' Now the word was spoken then in a corner of the earth, and only those present heard it. How, then, was he trustworthy to them in saying this, unless they had already received proof of the truth of his words from the other divine deeds performed by him? For that they believed him when he spoke, you must, upon reflection, be compelled to acknowledge.
For no one disobeyed when he commanded, but, submitting to his nod, they made disciples of the whole race of mankind according to what had been enjoined upon them, setting out from their own land to all the nations; and in a short time it was possible to see the words become deeds. The gospel, at any rate, had been preached in a short time throughout the whole inhabited world as a testimony to the nations, and barbarians and Greeks alike received the writings concerning Jesus in their own native characters and in their own native tongue.
And yet who would not reasonably be at a loss as to what the manner of the teaching of the disciples of Jesus actually was? Did they, then, come into the middle of a city, then stand in the marketplace, and, raising a great shout, call together those passing by, and then deliver a public speech? And what, then, was the substance of their public address, by which it would be reasonable for the hearers to be persuaded? And how, indeed, did men who were unversed in eloquence and had no share in any education deliver public speeches?
But surely they did not converse with crowds, but individually, with those they happened to meet. What sort of words, then, and of what kind did they use to persuade their hearers, since the struggle before them was by no means small -- for they did not deny the disgraceful death of him whom they proclaimed?
For if, concealing this and not confessing to all how much and what manner of things he suffered at the hands of the Jews, they had brought forward only the solemn and glorious things -- I mean his wonder-working and his marvelous deeds and his philosophical teachings -- not even so would their message have been an easy one to make hearers who found the words strange, and who were hearing new sayings for the first time from men who brought forward nothing trustworthy in support of the testimony of what was said, readily assent to it. Nevertheless, in that case, what was said would have seemed more persuasive.
But as it is, they proclaimed at one time that he who was announced as God had come to be in the body of a man, and that his nature was nothing other than the Word of God -- for which reason he also performed such prodigious powers, as befits a god; but at another time, contrary to these things, that he endured outrages and dishonors, and at last the most shameful punishment by the cross, that is inflicted upon the worst of all criminals -- who would not reasonably have spat upon them as men speaking contradictions?
And who was so foolish as readily to believe them when they said they had seen him restored to life from the dead after his death -- him who, even while he was among the living, had not been able to defend himself? And who would ever have been persuaded by those uneducated and lowly men, when they said one must despise the ancestral gods, and condemn as folly all things held from time immemorial, and believe only them and the things enjoined by the crucified one -- for he, they said, was the only beloved and only-begotten Son of the one and only God over all?
I, then, examining the matter within myself with a love of truth, find in it no persuasive power at all, nor anything solemn, nor anything trustworthy -- indeed, nothing even plausible enough to be able to persuade even a single one of the foolish.
But again, when I look at the power of the word -- how it has persuaded countless multitudes, and how churches of countless numbers of men have been established by those very same most lowly and rustic disciples of Jesus, founded not in obscure and unknown places, but in the most illustrious cities of all -- in the very city that rules over the Romans, I mean, and in Alexandria and Antioch, and throughout all Egypt and Libya, and Europe and Asia, and in villages and rural districts and every sort of nation -- I am once again compelled by necessity to run back to the search for the cause, and to confess together that they prevailed in their daring enterprise by no other means than a more divine and superhuman power and the cooperation of him who had said to them: 'Make disciples of all the nations in my name.'
Having said this, then, he appended a promise, by which they would be encouraged and would readily devote themselves to the things enjoined upon them. For he says to them: 'And behold, I am with you all the days, even to the end of the age.' Moreover, he is said also to have breathed into them a divine spirit, and to have given them a divine and marvel-working power, saying at one time: 'Receive the Holy Spirit,' and at another: 'Heal the sick, cleanse lepers, cast out demons; freely you received, freely give.'
You yourself, then, can also perceive how the word proclaimed through them prevailed, since their own book of Acts too bears witness in harmony and accord with these things; there they themselves are recorded as astonishing those present and those who beheld, by the working of marvels accomplished through them by the name of Jesus.
For, as is reasonable, they first astonished those who beheld them by their deeds; and then they thus had them eager to inquire who this was, by whose power and name the wonder had come about; and then, in teaching them, they found their hearers outstripping in faith the teaching that came from them.
For it was not by being persuaded by words, but by being overtaken beforehand by deeds, that they readily made themselves receptive to what was said in words. Indeed, some are even said to have already offered sacrifices of oxen and libations to the disciples of Jesus, as though they were already gods; and to have supposed one of them to be Hermes, and another to be Zeus -- so greatly did the display of their marvelous deeds astonish their minds.
And so, to men so disposed, all that they proclaimed concerning Jesus was thereafter reasonably held to be true; and concerning his coming to life again after death, they did not merely bear witness in bare and unproven words, but persuaded by the very working of miracles, presenting deeds that belonged to a living person.
And if they proclaimed him also to be God and Son of God, existing with the Father even before his coming among men, how would they not the more readily have assented also to this, reasonably supposing the contrary to be incredible and impossible, reckoning that what was being done could not be thought the works of mortal nature, but of God, even if no one said so?
This, then, and nothing else, was precisely the very thing sought -- by what power the disciples of Jesus prevailed over their hearers from the outset, and how they persuaded Greeks and barbarians alike to think of him as concerning the Word of God, and how, in the midst of the cities and throughout the countryside, they established schools of piety toward the one God over all.
And yet who would not marvel, reckoning within himself and considering how it was no merely human matter that never before had the greater part of the nations of the inhabited world come under a single Roman rule, except from the times of Jesus onward?
For it happened that, at the same time as his marvelous sojourn among men, the affairs of the Romans also came to flourish, when Augustus for the first time became sole ruler of most of the nations, in whose reign, upon the capture of Cleopatra, the Ptolemaic succession over Egypt was dissolved; and from that time until now, the kingdom of Egypt, which had subsisted from time immemorial and, so to speak, from the very first age of mankind, was brought down.
From that time also the nation of the Jews became subject to the Romans, and likewise that of the Syrians, of the Cappadocians and Macedonians, and of the Bithynians and Greeks, and, to speak in sum, of all the rest of the peoples under Roman rule.
And who would not confess that this came about together with the teaching concerning our Savior not without divine agency, when he considers that it would not have been easy for his disciples to set out on a journey into foreign lands, while the nations were at variance with one another, and there was no intercourse among them because of the many separate national governments? But once these had been removed, they now accomplished the task set before them fearlessly and in safety, since the God over all had already smoothed the way for their journey beforehand, and had checked the tempers of the superstitious in the various cities by fear of the greater rule.
For consider: if nothing had hindered those infatuated with the error of polytheism from waging war against the teaching of Christ, you would long ago have seen throughout the cities and the countryside civil strife, and persecutions and wars not of the ordinary kind, supposing that the superstitious had really held in their own hands authority over them.
But as it is, this too was the work of the God who is over all: to enslave the enemies of his own Word under the greater fear of the highest authority; for he wills that it advance day by day and grow to reach all mankind.
Again, moreover, lest it should be thought that it endured merely by the sufferance of those in power, whenever any one of these, seized by wickedness, set himself to war against the word of Christ, he would grant him leave to do as his heart desired — at once to display the champions of piety, and also to make it manifest to all that the establishment of the Word was not of human counsel, but of the power of God.
Indeed, who would not marvel at the things that are wont to happen at such times? For the champions of piety, before the eyes of all men, became conspicuous and distinguished, being deemed worthy of the prizes that come from God; while the enemies of piety paid the penalties that were their due, goaded by scourges sent from heaven and having their whole bodies destroyed by terrible and grievous sufferings, so that they were even driven to come at last to a confession of their impiety against Christ.
But all the rest who had been deemed worthy of the divine name and gloried in being minded as Christ was minded, having been exercised for a little while by trials, and having shown the genuine and sincere quality of their disposition, again received back their own freedom, the saving Word shining forth ever the more through them day by day, and prevailing even in the very midst of its enemies.
— not only rising up victorious over visible enemies, but over invisible ones as well, if indeed there be any dark and evil demons and their rulers about the air surrounding the earth; whom the genuine disciples of Christ, by purity of life and by prayers to God, and by his divine name, drive out, performing wonders like those of old recorded as done by him, and in this displaying to those able to perceive it the proofs of his divine power.
But since these matters have now been rehearsed in their proper season, the time already calls us to lay hold of the more mystical theology concerning him, and to contemplate the divine Word — whoever he was — who performed the wonder-working deeds through the man who appeared.