The Apocriticus (Answers to the Pagan Critic)

Contents

Reading pages: 1.6–2.15 · 2.16–3.1 · 3.2–3.9 · 3.10–3.12 · 3.13–3.16 · 3.17–3.25 · 3.26–3.34 · 3.35–3.41 · 3.42–4.9 · 4.10–4.13 · 4.14–4.17 · 4.18–4.24 · 4.25–4.28 · 4.29–4.30

1. 1.6A fragment of Macarius's lost first book tells how the woman healed of a flow of blood, here called Berenice of Edessa, had the miracle commemorated in bronze.
2. 2.7Macarius explains Christ's sword that divides families as the call to renounce earthly ties for the heavenly warfare, shown in the martyrs and ascetics, and allegorically as the separation of the apostles from the law.
3. 2.8Macarius explains that Christ's question about his mother and brothers rebukes those who took him for a mere man, and that those who do the Father's will become his kin by faith.
4. 2.9Macarius explains that Christ refused the title “good” only as the young man meant it, of a mere man, since God alone is good by nature and creatures only by participation.
5. 2.10Macarius explains that the demon attacked the boy at the moon's phases so that people would blame the Creator, and that Christ's rebuke of the faithless generation was aimed at that hidden blasphemy.
6. 2.11Macarius explains that Christ's own testimony is untrue only if he is a mere man, as his opponents thought, but true because he is God, to whom no one else can bear witness.
7. 2.12The pagan philosopher argues that the Evangelists' differing accounts of Jesus' last drink and last words prove them inventors rather than historians.
8. 2.13The pagan philosopher argues that only John reports the piercing of Jesus' side and that his claim to be a true witness is empty.
9. 2.14The pagan philosopher asks why the risen Jesus appeared only to obscure women and a few others rather than to Pilate, Herod, the high priest, or the Roman senate.
10. 2.15The pagan philosopher ridicules the saying that the ruler of this world will be cast out, arguing that no ruler of the world can be thrown outside it.
11. 2.16The pagan philosopher asks who the devil, called the Jews' father, is, and argues from the meaning of “slanderer” that either the devil does no wrong or deserves pardon.
12. 2.17Macarius answers that the Evangelists vary only in wording, and that in the terror and confusion of the crucifixion they faithfully recorded what confused people said and did.
13. 2.18Macarius answers that John's unique report of the piercing is to be valued, since blood and water from Christ's side undo the evil that came from a side and bring cleansing.
14. 2.19Macarius answers that the risen Christ did not appear to Pilate or the powerful so that the Jews could not claim a substitution and fraud, and so that the resurrection would be proclaimed by humble witnesses as God's work rather than men's.
15. 2.20Macarius answers that “world” here means humanity, a part of the universe, and that the ruler cast out is the devil, stripped by Christ of the power he had usurped over men, not moved from one place to another.
16. 2.21Macarius reads “you are of the father of the devil” as meaning that the serpent, the devil, has a father, the fallen angel who sowed slander in him at the fall, to whom the Jews who rejected Christ turned.
17. 3.0Macarius tells Theosthenes how the third day of debate began, with the pagan philosopher's forceful opening before a large audience.
18. 3.1The pagan philosopher asks why Christ said nothing wise before his judges and endured insult, unlike Apollonius of Tyana, who spoke boldly to Domitian and vanished.
19. 3.2The pagan philosopher argues that Jesus' fear and prayer in Gethsemane contradict his teaching not to fear death and are unworthy of a son of God or a wise man.
20. 3.3The pagan philosopher denies that Moses wrote anything that survives, claiming the books were rewritten by Ezra long after, and that in any case they never call Christ God or foretell his crucifixion.
21. 3.4The pagan philosopher mocks the story of the Gadarene swine as either fiction or proof of Christ's injustice in transferring harm from one man to others, and asks how Judaea had so many swine and how a lake could drown them.
22. 3.5The pagan philosopher argues that the camel and needle saying makes poverty rather than virtue the way to heaven and complains that preachers use it to strip wealthy women of their property.
23. 3.6The pagan philosopher argues that the Sea of Galilee is a small lake that cannot have storms, so Mark's story of Jesus walking on the stormy sea is an invention to make a miracle.
24. 3.7The pagan philosopher contrasts Jesus' saying that the disciples would not always have him with his promise to be with them always, and Macarius then describes how the philosopher multiplied questions like the hydra.
25. 3.8Macarius answers that Christ kept silent and humble before his judges to fulfil the prophecies of a suffering servant and to avoid any suspicion of sorcery, and that his divinity was shown afterwards in the signs at his death.
26. 3.9Macarius answers that in Gethsemane Christ feigned fear to lure the hesitant devil into bringing on the Passion, catching him as a fisherman catches a fish with a worm on a hook.
27. 3.10Macarius answers that Moses wrote of Christ in many figures, that the same Spirit restored the law through Ezra accurately, and that the prophets and Psalms call Christ the Word and God.
28. 3.11Macarius answers that Matthew and Mark differ only in counting persons or nature, that the demons sought the water to cool the burning of Christ's presence, that the swine belonged to Romans, and that the visible drowning taught everyone the demons' powerlessness.
29. 3.12Macarius answers that wealth does not exclude the rich from the kingdom, but its misuse does, citing Job as a rich man who used his riches well and bore poverty nobly, and urging the rich to make the poor their advocates.
30. 3.13Macarius answers that the lake may rightly be called a sea, as Genesis calls every gathering of waters, and interprets the walking on the water, Peter's doubt, and the fourth watch both literally and as the coming of Christ after the patriarchs, the law, and the prophets.
31. 3.14Macarius answers that Christ before his death spoke of his bodily departure, but after the resurrection, as God, is present everywhere, as he already was on the cross when he took the thief into paradise that very day.
32. 3.15The pagan philosopher attacks the command to eat Christ's flesh and drink his blood as worse than any cannibalism known from myth or history, and argues that the other three Gospels omitted it as uncivilized.
33. 3.16The pagan philosopher proposes that bishops be tested by drinking poison, since Mark promises that believers will not be harmed, and argues that refusing would show that they do not believe.
34. 3.17The pagan philosopher argues that since no Christian, bishop, or presbyter can move a mountain, none has the faith Jesus required.
35. 3.18The pagan philosopher argues that Jesus refused to throw himself from the temple out of fear, when he should have proved himself God's Son by doing so unharmed.
36. 3.19The pagan philosopher argues that Jesus contradicted himself by calling Peter Satan and then making him the rock of the Church and key-holder of the kingdom, especially since Peter later denied him.
37. 3.20The pagan philosopher argues that Peter, told to forgive seventy times seven, cut off the ear of the high priest's innocent servant.
38. 3.21The pagan philosopher accuses Peter of unjustly killing Ananias and Sapphira for keeping back part of their own money, when he himself had perjured himself in denying Jesus.
39. 3.22The pagan philosopher attacks Peter's fitness to hold the keys, citing his escape that cost the guards their lives, his early death, Paul's rebuke at Antioch, and his travelling with a wife.
40. 3.23Macarius answers that as a newborn lives on its mother's blood as milk, the children of God live on Wisdom's flesh and blood, first allegorically in the words of Scripture and then truly in the eucharistic bread and wine, which are Christ's body and blood.
41. 3.24Macarius answers that the deadly drug that does not harm believers is the death to sin in baptism, and the laying of hands on the sick is the saints' prayer over sick seasons and souls, as Polycarp's prayers ended drought and flood.
42. 3.25Macarius answers that Christ meant not a physical mountain but the demon he had just cast out of the moonstruck boy, and that the apostles moved such spiritual mountains by driving out demons.
43. 3.26Macarius answers that Christ refused to leap from the temple because accepting the devil's advice even once, though it quoted prophecy about him, would have led him on to worship the devil.
44. 3.27Macarius answers that the devil, not Peter, was called Satan for prompting Peter to oppose the Passion, while Peter, by his confession of the Christ, the Son of the living God, received the keys as one who had seen the truth of Christ's divinity.
45. 3.28Macarius answers that Ananias and Sapphira committed sacrilege by secretly keeping back what they had vowed to God, and that their deaths, caused by their own conscience at Peter's word, protected the young church from the belief that God does not see secret sin.
46. 3.29Macarius answers that Peter escaped Herod not from fear but to preach and die in Rome, that Herod alone was guilty of killing the guards, that Peter's conduct at Antioch was a wise accommodation to win both Jews and Gentiles, and that Paul's “false apostles” were the envoys of the Jews.
47. 3.30The pagan philosopher accuses Paul of inconsistency and servility in becoming all things to all men and in circumcising Timothy after condemning circumcision.
48. 3.31The pagan philosopher argues that Paul, by calling himself now a Jew and now a Roman, shows himself a deceiver who cannot be trusted.
49. 3.32The pagan philosopher accuses Paul of using the law about not muzzling the ox to support his own greed, while denying God's care for oxen.
50. 3.33The pagan philosopher argues that Paul contradicts himself by cursing those under the law in Galatians while calling the law holy and spiritual in Romans.
51. 3.34The pagan philosopher argues that Paul, after appealing to the law, condemns it as increasing sin and as the power of sin.
52. 3.35The pagan philosopher argues that Paul contradicts himself on food sacrificed to idols, both forbidding fellowship with demons and permitting such food to be eaten.
53. 3.36The pagan philosopher argues that Paul contradicts himself by praising virginity while calling the prohibition of marriage a doctrine of deceiving spirits and admitting he has no command of the Lord about virgins.
54. 3.37Macarius answers that Paul became all things to all, and even circumcised Timothy, as a teacher, physician, or general accommodates himself to those he wants to win, without sharing their errors.
55. 3.38Macarius answers that Paul, persecuted by his own people, rightly took refuge in his Roman identity, as one may be both a Jew by descent and a Roman by residence and mission.
56. 3.39Macarius answers that Paul used the images of soldier, shepherd, and farmer not from greed but to make his converts grateful and fruitful, as God asks for first-fruits not from need but to reward.
57. 3.40Macarius answers that Paul does not disparage the law but shows that no one can keep all of it, as the clash of sabbath and circumcision proves, and that Christ alone fulfilled it, so that trying to keep it again denies his work.
58. 3.41Macarius answers that the law made the trespass abound by exposing and punishing sin that had gone unrecognized, and that, like the moon before the sun, it has given way to Christ, its Master, though it remains good and holy.
59. 3.42Macarius answers that Paul forbade food offered in the demonic sacrifices that then filled the world but allowed ordinary meat from the market, and that an idol is nothing because what pagans worship are demons, not idols.
60. 3.43Macarius answers that Paul gave no command about virginity so that it would be a free and more glorious choice, while his warning about those who forbid marriage and foods targets heretics such as the Manichaeans, Encratites, and Dositheus.
61. 4.0Macarius tells Theosthenes how the fourth day of debate began before a large and distinguished audience, with the philosopher mocking the apostles' teaching.
62. 4.1The pagan philosopher ridicules Paul's saying that the form of the world is passing away, arguing that it makes the Creator either a destroyer of what is well founded or a maker of an imperfect world.
63. 4.2The pagan philosopher mocks Paul's teaching that believers will be caught up in the clouds as against the natural order, and as proved false since three hundred years have passed without its happening.
64. 4.3The pagan philosopher argues that the Gospel has been preached everywhere yet the end Matthew predicted has not come.
65. 4.4The pagan philosopher argues that Christ's promise of protection to Paul failed, since Paul was beheaded, Peter crucified, and many others martyred while the promised resurrection remains uncertain.
66. 4.5The pagan philosopher argues that Christ's prediction of many false Christs has not come true in three hundred years, unless Apollonius of Tyana is counted.
67. 4.6The pagan philosopher objects to the Apocalypse of Peter's teaching that heaven will be judged with the earth, since the unchanging heavens have never sinned.
68. 4.7The pagan philosopher attacks the prophecy that heaven will be rolled up and the stars fall, and Jesus' saying that heaven and earth will pass away, as impious toward God's own creation and throne.
69. 4.8The pagan philosopher mocks the parables of the mustard seed, the leaven, and the pearl as lowly and obscure images unworthy of divine things.
70. 4.9The pagan philosopher argues that if the mysteries are hidden from the wise and revealed to infants, ignorance would be preferable to wisdom.
71. 4.10The pagan philosopher argues that if Christ came only for sinners, those who never needed his healing would be the righteous; Macarius then describes the dismay of the audience and his resolve to answer.
72. 4.11Macarius answers that the passing form of the world is shown in the brevity of life, the fall of rulers and empires, and the cycle of the seasons, so that Paul rightly bids those who have to live as though they had not.
73. 4.12Macarius answers that the cloud in 1 Thessalonians stands for the angels, who will lift risen humanity as clouds lift water, and that Paul said “we” because he identified himself with the whole human race.
74. 4.13Macarius answers that the Gospel has already brought an end to the old evils of the world, while the bodily end still awaits the preaching of the Gospel to peoples not yet reached, and God lengthens the time for men's sake as a thousand years are one day to him.
75. 4.14Macarius answers that Peter and Paul were protected until their work was done and then allowed to die as martyrs in Rome, so that their endurance would refute the charge of sorcery and show that faith must be proved by suffering.
76. 4.15Macarius answers that Christ's prophecy of many deceivers coming in his name has been fulfilled by Manes, Montanus, Cerinthus, Simon, Marcion, Bardesanes, Droserius, Dositheus, and their followers.
77. 4.16Macarius answers that heaven and earth, made for man, will pass away with fallen man only to be renewed with him, like a silver vessel remade by the smith, and that God's throne does not depend on them; allegorically, man himself is heaven and earth, soul and body.
78. 4.17Macarius answers that small images like the leaven, mustard seed, and pearl fittingly convey the kingdom's hidden power, as philosophers picture the earth as a point, and that the mysteries are hidden only from those wise in wickedness.
79. 4.18Macarius answers that the healthy and righteous are the angels, who need no call, while fallen humanity is the sick whom the Word has called from Adam onwards and still calls, the fault of refusal lying with human choice.
80. 4.19The pagan philosopher argues that Paul's teaching that baptism washes away every sin encourages people to sin freely in the expectation of easy pardon.
81. 4.20The pagan philosopher argues that God can only be called a monarch if he rules over other gods, as an emperor rules over men like himself.
82. 4.21The pagan philosopher argues that the Christians' angels are what pagans call gods, defends images and temples as reminders rather than dwellings of the gods, and notes that Christians themselves build great houses of prayer.
83. 4.22The pagan philosopher argues that belief in God's birth from the Virgin Mary is less worthy than the crudest belief that the gods dwell in their statues.
84. 4.23The pagan philosopher argues from the law's “You shall not revile gods” and from Paul's “many gods and many lords” that Scripture itself acknowledges other gods who deserve honour.
85. 4.24The pagan philosopher argues that bodily resurrection is unworthy of God and impossible, since bodies eaten by fish, beasts, and birds cannot be reassembled and the earth could not hold all the risen dead.
86. 4.25Macarius answers that God, as master of the law, may forgive sinners freely as a king pardons, that baptism in the name of the Trinity truly cleanses, and that those who abuse the gift by delaying baptism harm only themselves.
87. 4.26Macarius answers that sameness of name does not make the angels gods in nature; God alone is God by nature and rules not his equals but the beings he created, granting them the name of gods by grace as the sun lends its brightness.
88. 4.27Macarius answers that the angels' freedom from marriage and death is held up for imitation, not for making images, and that Scripture's talk of God's finger and the angels' human form at Abraham's table describes visions adapted to human weakness.
89. 4.28Macarius answers that the Word took flesh from the Virgin without being defiled, as the sun dries mud without being soiled, and that God, who formed man from dust, could not be ashamed to dwell in the human nature he made in his own image.
90. 4.29Macarius answers that the gods Moses forbids reviling are those to whom God's word came, not lifeless idols or the elements and stars, and that giving the divine name to such things harms only those who do it.
91. 4.30Macarius answers that God, who created from nothing, will raise and renew the dissolved body as fire recovers scattered metals, that the resurrection's timing wrongs no one, and that those sealed with faith in Christ will escape judgment, while virtue without faith lacks its end; the manuscript breaks off mid-sentence.