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TELL me then, you heretic, you enemy of all men, but of yourself above
all--to whom the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is an offence as with the
Jews, and foolishness as with the Gentiles, you who reject the mysteries of
true salvation, with the stumbling of the former, and are foolish with the
stubbornness of the others, why was the preaching of the Apostle Paul
foolishness to the pagans, and a stumbling-block to the Jews? Surely it
would never have offended men, if he had taught that Christ was, as you
maintain He is, a mere man? For who would think that His birth, passion,
cross, and death were incredible or a difficulty? Or what would there have
been novel or strange about the preaching of Paul, if he had said that a
merely human Christ suffered that which human nature daily endures among
men everywhere? But it was surely this that the foolishness of the Gentiles
could not receive, and the unbelief of the Jews rejected; viz., that the
Apostle declared that Christ whom they, like you, fancied to be a mere man,
was God. This it certainly was which the thoughts of these wicked men
rejected, which the ears of the faithless could not endure; viz., that the
birth of God should be proclaimed in the man Jesus Christ, that the passion
of God should be asserted, and the cross of God proclaimed. This it was
which was a difficulty: this was what was incredible; for that was
incredible to the hearing of men, which had never been heard of as
happening to the Divine nature. And so you are quite secure, with such an
announcement and teaching as yours, that your preaching will never be
either foolishness to the Gentiles or a stumbling-block to the Jews. You
will never be crucified with Peter by Jews and Gentiles, nor stoned with
James, nor beheaded with Paul. For there is nothing in your preaching to
offend them. You maintain that a mere man was born, a mere man suffered.
You need not be afraid of their troubling you with persecution, for you are
helping them by your preaching.
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