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SINCE I have mentioned this city I do not think it proper to omit
an account which is worthy of record for posterity. For they say that
the woman with an issue of blood, who, as we learn from the sacred
Gospel, received from our Saviour deliverance from her affliction,
came from this place, and that her house is shown in the city, and
that remarkable memorials of the kindness of the Saviour to her remain
there. For there stands upon an elevated stone, by the gates of her
house, a brazen image of a woman kneeling, with her hands stretched
out, as if she were praying. Opposite this is another upright image
of a man, made of the same material, clothed decently in a double
cloak, and extending his hand toward the woman. At his feet, beside
the statue itself, is a certain strange plant, which climbs up to the
hem of the brazen cloak, and is a remedy for all kinds of diseases.
They say that this statue is an image of
Jesus. It has remained to our day, so that we ourselves also saw it
when we were staying in the city. Nor is it strange that those of the
Gentiles who, of old, were benefited by our Saviour, should have
done such things, since we have learned also that the likenesses of his
apostles Paul and Peter, and of Christ himself, are preserved in
paintings, the ancients being accustomed, as it is likely, according
to a habit of the Gentiles, to pay this kind of honor indiscriminately
to those regarded by them as deliverers.
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