To Autolycus 1.1–2.4

A glib tongue and elegant phrasing give pleasure, and win praise for empty glory, among wretched people whose minds are corrupted; but the lover of truth pays no attention to defiled words, and examines instead what the reality behind the words is, and of what kind. Since, then, my friend, you have assailed me with empty words, boasting of your gods of stone and wood, hammered and cast, modeled and painted, which neither see nor hear (for they are idols and the works of human hands), and since you also call me a Christian as though I bore an evil name: I for my part confess that I am a Christian, and I bear this name beloved of God, hoping to be useful to God. For it is not as you suppose, that the name of God is a grievous thing; perhaps it is because you yourself are still useless to God that you think this way about God.

But if you say, “Show me your God,” I would say to you, “Show me your man, and I will show you my God.” Show me, that is, that the eyes of your soul see and the ears of your heart hear. For just as those who see with the eyes of the body perceive the business of this earthly life and at the same time tell apart what differs, light or darkness, white or black, ugly or beautiful, well proportioned and well measured or ill proportioned and ill measured, oversized or stunted, and likewise what falls on the ear, sounds high or low or sweet: so it is with the ears of the heart and the eyes of the soul, and their power to see God. For God is seen by those who are able to see him, when they have the eyes of their soul opened. All people have eyes, but in some they are clouded over and do not see the light of the sun. Yet it is not because the blind do not see that the light of the sun does not shine; the blind must blame themselves and their own eyes. So you too, O man, have the eyes of your soul clouded over by your sins and your evil deeds. A person must have a pure soul, like a polished mirror. When there is rust on the mirror, a person's face cannot be seen in it; so too when there is sin in a person, such a one cannot behold God. So show me yourself: that you are not an adulterer, not sexually immoral, not a thief, not a robber, not a swindler, not a man who lies with males, not insolent, not a slanderer, not given to anger, not envious, not boastful, not arrogant, not violent, not a lover of money, not disobedient to parents, not one who sells his children. For to those who do these things God does not show himself, unless they first cleanse themselves from all defilement. All these things, then, darken your sight, as when a discharge of matter comes over the eyes so that they cannot look at the light of the sun; so, O man, your impieties darken you so that you cannot see God.

You will say to me, then, “You who see, describe to me the form of God.” Listen, O man. The form of God is unspeakable and inexpressible, and cannot be seen with eyes of flesh. In glory he is beyond containing, in greatness beyond grasping, in height beyond conceiving, in strength beyond comparing, in wisdom beyond rivaling, in goodness beyond imitating, in beneficence beyond describing. If I call him Light, I am speaking of his handiwork; if I call him Word, I am speaking of his sovereignty; if I call him Mind, I am speaking of his wisdom; if I call him Spirit, I am speaking of his breath; if I call him Wisdom, I am speaking of his offspring; if I call him Strength, I am speaking of his might; if I call him Power, I am speaking of his activity; if I call him Providence, I am speaking of his goodness; if I call him Kingdom, I am speaking of his glory; if I call him Lord, I am speaking of him as Judge; if I call him Judge, I am speaking of him as just; if I call him Father, I am speaking of all things as coming from him; if I call him Fire, I am speaking of his wrath. You will say to me, then, “Is God angry?” Indeed he is: he is angry with those who do evil; but to those who love and fear him he is good and kind and merciful. For he is the teacher of the godly and the father of the righteous, but the judge and punisher of the ungodly.

He is without beginning because he is uncreated; he is unchangeable because he is immortal. He is called God (θεός) because he has set (τεθεικέναι) all things on his own secure foundation, and because of θέειν; and θέειν means to run, to move, to act, to nourish, to provide, to govern, and to give life to all things. He is Lord because he rules over the universe; Father because he is before all things; Creator and Maker because he is the founder and maker of all things; Most High because he is above all things; Almighty because he himself rules and encompasses all things. For the heights of the heavens and the depths of the abysses and the ends of the world are in his hand, and there is no place of his rest. The heavens are his work, the earth is his creation, the sea is his handiwork, the human being is his formation and his image; sun, moon, and stars are his elements, made for signs and seasons and days and years, for the service and use of human beings. And God made all things out of what did not exist into being, so that through his works his greatness might be known and understood.

For just as the soul in a human being is not seen, being invisible to people, but is perceived through the movement of the body, so God cannot be seen by human eyes, but is seen and perceived through his providence and his works. When someone sees a ship on the sea, fitted out, running before the wind and making for harbor, he will plainly conclude that there is a pilot on board steering it; so we must conclude that God is the pilot of the universe, even though he is not seen with eyes of flesh, since he is beyond containing. If a human being cannot look at the sun, though it is a very small element, because of its surpassing heat and power, how much less can a mortal face the glory of God, which is beyond expression? A pomegranate, enclosed by its rind, has within it many cells and compartments separated by membranes, and many seeds that dwell in it. In the same way the whole creation is enclosed by the spirit of God, and the enclosing spirit, together with the creation, is enclosed by the hand of God. And just as the pomegranate seed, dwelling within, cannot see what is outside the rind, since it is inside, so the human being, enclosed with the whole creation by the hand of God, cannot behold God. Again, an earthly king is believed to exist even though he is not seen by everyone, and is known through his laws and ordinances, his officials and forces and statues; and will you not allow God to be known through his works and mighty deeds?

Consider, O man, his works: the change of the seasons in their times and the turning of the weather; the orderly course of the elements; the orderly progress of days and nights, months and years; the varied beauty of seeds, plants, and fruits; the manifold brood of four-footed beasts, birds, creeping things, and swimming creatures of fresh water and sea; the instinct given to the animals themselves to beget and rear their young, not for their own use but so that human beings may have them; the providence God exercises in preparing food for all flesh; the subjection he has decreed, by which all things are subject to humankind; the flow of sweet springs and ever-flowing rivers; the supply of dews, showers, and rains in their seasons; the manifold movement of the heavenly bodies; the morning star rising and announcing the coming of the perfect light; the bonds of the Pleiades and Orion, and Arcturus, and the dance of the other stars in the circle of the heaven, all of which the manifold wisdom of God has called by their own names. He alone is God who made light out of darkness, the chambers of the south, the treasuries of the deep, the boundaries of the seas, and the treasuries of snow and hail; who gathers the waters into the storehouses of the deep and the darkness into his storehouses, and brings out the sweet, longed-for, and delightful light from his storehouses; who brings up clouds from the ends of the earth and makes lightnings for the rain; who sends out the thunder to bring fear, and announces the crash of the thunder beforehand by the lightning, so that no soul may faint from sudden terror; and who measures out the strength of the lightning that comes down from heaven so that it does not burn up the earth. For if the lightning were given full power, it would burn up the earth, and if the thunder were, it would overturn everything on it.

This is my God, the Lord of all, who alone stretched out the heaven and set in place the breadth of the earth under heaven; who stirs up the depths of the sea and makes its waves roar; who rules its might and calms the tossing of its waves; who founded the earth upon the waters and gave a spirit to nourish it, whose breath gives life to all things, and who, if he held back his breath, would make all things fail. Him you speak of, O man; his breath you breathe; him you do not know. This has happened to you because of the blindness of your soul and the hardness of your heart. But if you wish, you can be healed. Entrust yourself to the physician, and he will operate on the eyes of your soul and of your heart. Who is the physician? God, who heals and gives life through his Word and his Wisdom. God made all things through his Word and his Wisdom; for “by his Word the heavens were made firm, and all their host by his Spirit.” His Wisdom is supreme: “God by Wisdom founded the earth, and by understanding he prepared the heavens; by his knowledge the depths broke open, and the clouds poured down dew.” If you understand these things, O man, living purely, holily, and justly, you can see God. But before everything else let faith and the fear of God lead the way in your heart, and then you will understand these things. When you have put off mortality and put on incorruption, then you will see God as you deserve. For God raises your flesh immortal together with your soul; and then, having become immortal, you will see the Immortal, if you believe him now; and then you will know that you spoke against him unjustly.

But you do not believe that the dead are raised. When it happens, you will believe, whether you want to or not; and your faith will be counted as unbelief, unless you believe now. Why do you disbelieve? Do you not know that faith leads the way in all things? What farmer can reap unless he first entrusts the seed to the earth? Who can cross the sea unless he first entrusts himself to the ship and the pilot? What sick person can be healed unless he first entrusts himself to the physician? What art or science can anyone learn unless he first gives himself up and entrusts himself to the teacher? If, then, the farmer trusts the earth, the sailor the ship, and the sick man the physician, will you not entrust yourself to God, when you have received so many pledges from him? First, he made you out of nothing into being. For if at one time your father did not exist, nor your mother, much more did you once not exist. And he formed you from a small moist substance, a tiny drop, which itself once did not exist; and God brought you into this life. Then you believe that statues made by human beings are gods and work wonders, and yet you do not believe that the God who made you can make you again hereafter?

The names of the gods you say you worship are the names of dead men. And what men, and of what kind? Is not Kronos found to be a devourer of children, consuming his own offspring? And if you mention Zeus his son, learn his deeds and his conduct too. First, he was nursed on Ida by a goat, and, according to the myths, he killed her, flayed her, and made himself a garment of her skin. His other deeds, his incest with his sister, his adulteries, and his corruption of boys, are better told by Homer and the other poets. Why should I list the rest, about his sons: Heracles who burned himself, Dionysus drunk and raving, Apollo who feared Achilles and fled from him, who loved Daphne and did not foresee the death of Hyacinthus; or Aphrodite wounded, and Ares the bane of mortals, and even the ichor flowing from these so-called gods? And these are mild things to mention, when a god called Osiris is found torn limb from limb, for whom rites are held every year as though he were lost and found and sought limb by limb; for no one knows whether he is lost, and no one shows whether he is found. Why should I speak of Attis castrated, or Adonis roaming the woods and hunting and wounded by a boar, or Asclepius struck by lightning, and Sarapis who fled from Sinope to Alexandria, or the Scythian Artemis, herself a fugitive, a murderess and a huntress, who fell in love with Endymion? It is not we who say these things; your own historians and poets proclaim them.

Why should I go on to list the multitude of creatures the Egyptians worship: creeping things, cattle, wild beasts, birds, and fish of the waters, and even footbaths and indecent noises? And if you mention the Greeks and the other nations, they worship stones and wood and other matter, as we have said, images of dead men. Phidias is found making the Olympian Zeus for the Eleans at Pisa, and the Athena on the acropolis for the Athenians. I too will ask you, O man, how many Zeuses there are. First there is Zeus called Olympian, and Zeus Latiaris, and Zeus Casius, and Zeus of the Thunderbolt, and Zeus the Forefather, and Zeus of the All-Night Festival, and Zeus Guardian of the City, and Zeus Capitolinus. And Zeus son of Kronos, who became king of the Cretans, has a tomb in Crete; the others perhaps were not even thought worthy of burial. And if you mention the mother of the so-called gods, far be it from my lips to relate her deeds (for it is unlawful for us even to name such things), or the deeds of the attendants by whom she is served, and how many taxes and contributions she and her sons provide to the emperor. For they are not gods but idols, as we said before, the works of human hands and unclean demons. “May those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them.”

So I will rather honor the emperor, not by worshiping him but by praying for him. I worship God, the real and true God, knowing that the emperor was made by him. You will say to me, then, “Why do you not worship the emperor?” Because he was not made to be worshiped, but to be honored with lawful honor. For he is not God, but a man appointed by God, not to be worshiped but to judge justly. In a way he has been entrusted with a stewardship by God. He himself does not want those he has appointed under him to be called emperors, since “emperor” is his own title and no one else may be called by it; in the same way no one may be worshiped except God alone. So you are wrong in every respect, O man. Honor the emperor by being loyal to him, being subject to him, and praying for him; for by doing this you do the will of God. For the law of God says: “My son, honor God and the king, and do not disobey either of them; for they will suddenly take vengeance on their enemies.”

As for your laughing at me and calling me a Christian, you do not know what you are saying. First, what is anointed is sweet and useful and nothing to laugh at. What ship can be useful and seaworthy unless it is first caulked with oil? What tower or house is handsome and useful unless it has been anointed? What person entering this life, or competing as an athlete, is not anointed with oil? What work or ornament can look beautiful unless it is oiled and polished? And the air and everything under heaven is, in a way, anointed with light and spirit. Will you not, then, be anointed with the oil of God? That is why we are called Christians: because we are anointed with the oil of God.

And as for your denying that the dead are raised, when you say, “Show me even one person raised from the dead, so that I may see and believe”: first, what great thing is it if you believe once you have seen it happen? Besides, you believe that Heracles, who burned himself, is alive, and that Asclepius, struck by lightning, was raised; and do you disbelieve what God has done for you? Perhaps I could even show you a dead man raised and alive, and you would disbelieve that too. God shows you many proofs so that you may believe him. If you wish, consider the ending of seasons and days and nights, how they too die and rise again. And what of the resurrection of seeds and fruits, which takes place for the use of human beings? For example, a grain of wheat or of any other seed, when it is cast into the earth, first dies and is dissolved, then is raised and becomes an ear. And the trees and fruit trees: do they not, by God's command, bring forth their fruits in their seasons out of what is hidden and invisible? Sometimes, too, a sparrow or some other bird swallows the seed of an apple or a fig or some other tree, comes to a rocky hill or a tomb and drops it there, and the seed takes hold and grows into a tree, though it had once been swallowed and had passed through so much heat. All these things the wisdom of God brings about, to show through them too that God is able to bring about the general resurrection of all human beings. And if you wish to see a still more wonderful sight that proves the resurrection, not only among earthly things but among heavenly ones too, consider the resurrection of the moon that happens every month: how it wanes, dies, and rises again. Hear, too, of a work of resurrection taking place in you yourself, O man, even if you do not know it. Perhaps you once fell ill and lost your flesh, your strength, and your looks; but receiving mercy and healing from God, you recovered your body, your looks, and your strength. And just as you did not know where your flesh went when it disappeared, so you do not know where it came from or how it came back. But you will say, “From food and juices turned into blood.” Very well; but this too is the work of God, who designed it so, and of no one else.

So do not disbelieve, but believe. For I too once disbelieved that this would happen, but now, having considered these things, I believe. At the same time I came upon the sacred writings of the holy prophets, who by the Spirit of God foretold how past things happened, how present things are happening, and in what order future things will be accomplished. Having received proof, then, from events that happen as they were foretold, I do not disbelieve but believe, obeying God. Submit yourself to him too, if you will, and believe him, lest by disbelieving now you should be convinced later, in distress, in eternal punishments. These punishments were foretold by the prophets; and the poets and philosophers, who came later, stole from the holy writings in order to make their own teachings credible. Yet they too foretold the punishments that will come upon the ungodly and unbelieving, so that it might be attested to all, and no one might say, “We did not hear, and we did not know.” If you wish, read the prophetic writings eagerly yourself; they will guide you more clearly to escape the eternal punishments and to obtain the eternal good things of God. For he who gave the mouth to speak, formed the ear to hear, and made the eyes to see, will examine all things and judge with justice, rendering to each according to the worth of his deeds. To those who by patience in good works seek incorruption he will give eternal life, joy, peace, rest, and a multitude of good things “which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man.” But for the unbelievers and the scornful, who do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, when they are defiled with adulteries, sexual immorality, homosexual acts, greed, and unlawful idolatries, there will be wrath and fury, tribulation and distress; and in the end eternal fire will hold such people. Since you added, my friend, “Show me your God”: this is my God, and I advise you to fear him and believe him.

Some days ago, my excellent Autolycus, we had a conversation. You asked me who my God was, and gave your ears to our discussion for a little while, and I set out for you my religion. Then we said goodbye to each other with great friendliness and went each to his own house, although at first you were harsh toward us; for you know and remember that you thought our teaching foolishness. Since you have urged me since then, I wish, unskilled in speech though I am, to show you now more precisely, in this treatise, the futile labor and vain religion in which you are held fast, and at the same time to make the truth plain to you from a few of your own histories, which you read but perhaps do not yet understand.

It seems ridiculous to me that stonecutters, modelers, painters, and metal-casters should model and paint and carve and cast and so fashion gods. When the craftsmen have made them, they think nothing of them. But when they have been bought by someone and set up in a so-called temple or in some house, not only do those who bought them sacrifice to them, but even those who made and sold them come eagerly, with a parade of sacrifices and libations, to worship them, and hold them to be gods. They do not realize that the images are just what they were when they made them: stone or bronze or wood or paint or some other matter. The same thing has happened to you who read the histories and genealogies of the so-called gods. When you read of their births, you think of them as human beings; but afterward you call them gods and worship them, not noticing or understanding that they were born just such as you read they were.

Of the gods of those days, if indeed they were born, many births were recorded. But now, where is any birth of gods shown? If they begot and were begotten then, clearly gods ought to be born up to the present day; if not, the whole idea will seem feeble: either they have grown old and so no longer beget, or they have died and exist no longer. For if gods were born, they ought to go on being born to this day, just as human beings are; indeed there ought to be more gods than human beings, as the Sibyl says: “If gods beget and yet remain immortal, the gods born would outnumber men, and there would never be room for mortals to stand.” The children of human beings, who are mortal and short-lived, are to be seen to this day, and human beings have not ceased to be born, so that cities and villages are full and even the countryside is inhabited. How much more, then, ought gods, who according to the poets do not die, to beget and be begotten, since you say the gods had a birth? And why was the mountain called Olympus inhabited by gods then, but deserted now? Or why did Zeus once live on Ida (he was known to live there according to Homer and the other poets), while now no one knows of him there? And why was he not everywhere, instead of being found in one part of the earth? Either he neglected the rest, or he was unable to be everywhere and provide for all. If he was, say, in the east, he was not in the west; and if he was in the west, he was not in the east. But it belongs to the Most High and Almighty God, the true God, not only to be everywhere, but also to see all things and hear all things, and not to be contained in a place; otherwise the place containing him would turn out to be greater than he, since what contains is greater than what is contained. For God is not contained; he himself is the place of all things. And why did Zeus leave Ida? Did he die, or did the mountain no longer please him? And where did he go? To heaven? No. You will say, to Crete? Yes, where his tomb is shown to this day. Or you will say, to Pisa, which to this day glories in the handiwork of Phidias. Let us come, then, to the writings of the philosophers and poets.

Some of the Stoics deny altogether that God exists, or say that, if he exists, he cares for no one but himself. These views are wholly the product of the folly of Epicurus and Chrysippus. Others say that all things happen by chance, that the world is uncreated and nature eternal, and have dared to declare that there is no providence of God at all, but that God is only each person's conscience. Others again teach that the spirit that pervades all things is God. Plato and those of his school acknowledge that God is uncreated and the Father and Maker of all things; but then they suppose that matter as well as God is uncreated, and say that it has existed as long as God. But if God is uncreated and matter uncreated, then according to the Platonists God is no longer the Maker of all things, and, as far as their view goes, the sole sovereignty of God is not established. And further, just as God, being uncreated, is also unchangeable, so matter, if it were uncreated, would also be unchangeable and equal to God; for what is created is mutable and changeable, but what is uncreated is immutable and unchangeable. And what great thing would it be if God made the world out of preexisting matter? Even a human craftsman, when he gets material from someone, makes whatever he wants out of it. But the power of God is shown in this, that he makes whatever he wants out of what does not exist; just as giving life and motion belongs to no one but God alone. A man makes an image, but he cannot give reason and breath or sensation to what he has made. God has this power beyond him: to make what is rational, breathing, and capable of sensation. As, then, in all these things God is more powerful than man, so too in making, and having made, the things that exist out of what did not exist, whatever he wills and in whatever way he wills.