On the Incarnation

On the Incarnation by Athanasius, Chapter 8, Reputation of the Gentiles, Continued. When did people begin to abandon the worship of idols, unless it were since the very Word of God came among men? When have oracles ceased and become void of meaning among the Greeks and everywhere except since the Savior has revealed Himself on earth? When did those whom the poets call gods and heroes begin to be adjudged as mere mortals, except when the Lord took the spoils of death and preserved incorruptible the body He had taken, raising it from among the dead? Or, when did the deceitfulness and madness of demons fall under contempt, save when the Word, the power of God, the Master of all these as well, condescended on account of the weakness of mankind, and appeared on earth? When did the practice and theory of magic begin to be spurned underfoot, if not at the manifestation of the divine Word to men? In a word, when did the wisdom of the Greeks become foolish, save when the true wisdom of God revealed Himself on earth? In old times, the whole world and every place in it was led astray by the worship of idols, and men thought that idols were the only gods that were. But now, all over the world, men are forsaking the fear of idols and taking refuge with Christ. And by worshiping Him as God, they come through Him to know the Father also, whom formerly they did not know. The amazing thing, moreover, is this. The objects of worship formerly were varied and countless. Each place had its own idol, and the so-called God of one place could not pass over to another in order to persuade the people there to worship Him, but was barely reverenced even by His own. Indeed, no, nobody worshipped his neighbor's God, but every man had his own idol and thought that it was Lord of all. But now Christ alone is worshipped, as one and the same among all peoples everywhere. And what the feebleness of idols could not do, namely, convince even those dwelling close at hand, He has effected. He has persuaded not only those close at hand, but literally the entire world to worship one and the same Lord, and through Him, the Father. Again, in former times, every place was full of the fraud of the oracles and the utterances of those at Delphi and Dordona and in Boeotia and Lycia and Libya and Egypt, and those of the Kibiri and the Pythonese were considered marvelous by the minds of men. But now, since Christ has been proclaimed everywhere, their madness, too, has ceased, and there is no one left among them to give oracles at all. Then, too, demons used to deceive men's minds by taking up their abode in springs or rivers or trees or stones and imposing upon simple people by their frauds. But now, since the divine appearing of the Word, all this fantasy has ceased, for by the sign of the cross, if a man will but use it, he drives out their deceit. Again, people used to regard as gods those who are mentioned in the poets, Zeus and Cronos and Apollo and the heroes, and in worshipping them they went astray. But now that the Savior has appeared among men, those others have been exposed as mortal men, and Christ alone is recognized as true God, Word of God, God Himself. And what is one to say about the magic that they think so marvelous? Before the sojourn of the Word, it was strong and active among Egyptians and Chaldeans and Indians and filled all who saw it with terror and astonishment. But by the coming of the truth and the manifestation of the Word, it too has been confuted and entirely destroyed. As to Greek wisdom, however, and the philosophers' noisy talk, I really think no one requires argument from us, for the amazing fact is patent to all that for all that they had written so much, the Greeks failed to convince even a few from their own neighborhood in regard to immortality and the virtuous ordering of life. Christ alone, using common speech and through the agency of men not clever with their tongues, has convinced whole assemblies of people all the world over to despise death and to take heed of the things that do not die, to look past the things of time and gaze on things eternal, to think nothing of earthly glory and to aspire only to immortality. These things which we have said are no mere words, they are attested by actual experience. Anyone who likes may see the proof of glory in the virgins of Christ and in the young men who practice chastity as part of their religion, and in the assurance of immortality in so great and glad a company of martyrs. Anyone, too, may put what we have said of the proof of experience in another way. In the very presence of the fraud of demons and the imposture of the oracles and the wonders of magic, let him use the sign of the cross which they all mock at, and but speak the name of Christ, and he shall see how through him demons are routed, oracles cease, and all magic and witchcraft is confounded. Who, then, is this Christ, and how great is he, who by his name and presence overshadows and confounds all things on every side, who alone is strong against all and has filled the whole world with his teaching? Let the Greeks tell us, who mock at him without stint or shame. If he is a man, how is it that one man has proved stronger than all those whom they themselves regard as gods, and by his own power has shown them to be nothing? If they call him a magician, how is it that by a magician all magic is destroyed, instead of being rendered strong? Had he conquered certain magicians or proved himself superior to one of them only, they might reasonably think that he excelled the rest only by his greater skill. But the fact is that his cross has vanquished all magic entirely, and has conquered the very name of it. Obviously, therefore, the Savior is no magician, for the very demons whom the magicians invoke flee from him as from their master. Who is he, then? Let the Greeks tell us. Whose only serious pursuit is mockery? Perhaps they will say that he, too, is a demon, and that is why he prevailed. But even so, the laugh is still on our side, for we can confuse them by the same proofs as before. How could he be a demon who drives demons out? If it were only certain ones that he drove out, then they might reasonably think that he prevailed against them through the power of their chief, as the Jews wishing to insult him actually said. But since the fact is, here again, that the mere naming of his name, all Greeks are wrong here, too, and our Lord and Savior is not, as they maintain some demonic power. If, then, the Savior is neither a mere man nor a magician, nor one of the demons, but has by his Godhead confounded and overshadowed the opinions of the poets and the delusion of the demons and the wisdom of the Greeks, it must be manifest and will be owed by all that he is in truth Son of God, existent Word and Wisdom and Power of the Father. This is the reason why his works are no mere human works, but, both intrinsically and by comparison with those of man, are recognized as being superhuman and truly the works of God. What man that ever was, for instance, formed a body for himself from a virgin only? Or what man ever healed so many diseases as the common Lord of all? Who restored that which was lacking in man's nature, or made one blind from birth to see? Asclepius was deified by the Greeks because he practiced the art of healing and discovered herbs as remedies for bodily diseases, not, of course, forming them himself out of the earth, but finding them out by the study of nature. But what is that, in comparison with what the Savior did, when instead of just healing a wound, he both fashioned essential being and restored to health the thing that he had formed? Hercules, too, is worshipped as a god by the Greeks because he fought against other men and destroyed wild animals by craft. But what is that, to what the Word did, in driving away from men diseases and demons and even death itself? Dionysus is worshipped among them because he taught men drunkenness. Yet they ridicule the true Savior and Lord of all, who taught man temperance.