Exhortation to the Greeks 1.4

He alone of all who ever lived has tamed the most intractable of wild beasts, human beings: birds, the flighty among them; reptiles, the deceivers; lions, the passionate; swine, the lovers of pleasure; wolves, the rapacious. Stones and wood are the senseless; indeed a human being steeped in ignorance is more insensible than stones. Let the prophetic voice come forward as our witness, singing in harmony with the truth and pitying those who are worn down by ignorance and folly: “For God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” He, taking pity on the great ignorance and hardness of heart of those who had been turned to stone against the truth, raised up from those stones, the nations who had trusted in stones, a seed of godliness, responsive to virtue. Again, he somewhere called certain venomous and treacherous hypocrites, who lie in wait for righteousness, a “brood of vipers”; yet if even one of these serpents repents of his own accord and follows the Word, he becomes “a man of God.” Others he calls, figuratively, “wolves” clothed in sheepskins, hinting at those who are rapacious in human form. And all these most savage beasts, and such stones as these, the heavenly song itself has transformed into gentle human beings. “For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, slaves to various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another,” as the apostolic writing says; “but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” See how powerful the new song is! It has made human beings out of stones and human beings out of beasts.