Section 74

After this, other men came who were regarded as wise among the Greeks and asked Antony to give an account of our faith in Christ. They tried to argue about the proclamation of the divine cross and intended to ridicule it.

Antony paused for a moment. First, pitying their ignorance, he said through an interpreter who was able to render his words accurately:

“Which is more honorable: to confess the cross, or to attribute adultery and the sexual corruption of boys to those whom you call gods? What we confess is a sign of courage and a sure mark of contempt for death; what you attribute to your gods consists of the passions of sexual license.

“And which is better: to say that the Word of God did not change but, while remaining what he is, took a human body for the salvation and well-being of humanity, so that by sharing in human birth he might enable human beings to share in the divine and spiritual nature—or to compare the divine with irrational animals and consequently worship four-footed creatures, reptiles, and images of human beings? For these are the objects of reverence among you who call yourselves wise.

“How can you dare to mock us for saying that Christ appeared as a human being, when you yourselves bring the soul down from heaven and claim that it wandered and fell from the vault of heaven into a body? If only you had said that it fell into a human body alone! Instead, you claim that it passes into and changes into four-footed animals and reptiles.

“Our faith proclaims that Christ came for the salvation of human beings. You, however, go astray when you speak of the soul as ungenerated.

“We consider the power and loving-kindness of Providence and therefore understand that Christ’s coming in the flesh was not impossible for God. But although you call the soul an image of Mind, you connect it with falls and invent myths in which it changes. Consequently, because the soul is the image of Mind, your reasoning implies that Mind itself is changeable. For whatever character belongs to an image must correspond in some way to that of which it is the image.

“Whenever you think about Mind in such a way, remember that you are also speaking blasphemously about the Father of Mind himself.