On the Christian Religion

before it was ordained than Josephus wrote after the ruin. Furthermore, it is worth the effort to hear what kind of address both Jesus and each of His disciples used to persuade their listeners: “Give all your goods to the poor, reject your dearest ones, offer your cheeks to the striker, do good to your enemies, hold this life and all its delights for nothing, deny yourselves, take up this cross of ours—this terrible cross—sustain it, and follow us as soon as we ask. For if you follow us, without a doubt, you will undergo all the things that are considered evils by mortals.” These were their persuasions, full of dissuasion on every side. Do we think that Demosthenes or Cicero could have persuaded anyone of anything by this method? Yet that address persuaded many great men suddenly. But whence came that which is more wonderful than every miracle, since, as those who heard Him testify, Jesus spoke not as the scribes and Pharisees, but as one having authority? But they were persuaded to such a degree that the followers of Christ loved Him more than is possible for human nature; which no one will deny who, with a void mind, has considered their works and writings; for the whole thing is divine. If there is anyone who doubts, let him read and reread diligently the books of the prophets, evangelists, and apostles; let him read also the commentaries of those who followed them at that time. The truth of this matter will immediately shine forth; for in them is a new power, and also a singular simplicity, sobriety, and ardor, gravity, depth, and majesty. This indeed indicates that divine power and flame are not absent from them, and that the truth itself does not need the varnish of words nor divine matters the artifice of humans. Add to this that in so many volumes of the Old and New Testament, nothing is ever found unless it is consonant, which is not granted to others, and is the greatest evidence of divine truth. Those writers have neither