Sophron and Neophilus, or The School of Wisdom

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pierced, without wounding him dangerously, or—even more likely!—that he merely scratched him a little on his thick leg. Given these circumstances, our good man considers it quite probable—but what am I saying?—he considers it a completely settled fact that Jesus, through the magnificent spices of Joseph of Arimathea, was brought back to life in the grave, then wandered around Judea and Galilee for a time, but finally died in reality from an inflammatory fever contracted due to his as-yet-unhealed wounds.

Neoph. Well, as a mere hypothesis, I would think something like that would not be entirely unbearable.

Soph. But what use are all such hypotheses in the end, even if they were six-hundred times less improbable and absurd than they actually are? To increase the number of doubters? Well, that would truly be an important benefit to the world of men! But that is not what even our