Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter V.—The manners of the Christians.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter V.—The
manners of the Christians.
For
the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor
language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit
cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a
life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which
they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of
inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the
advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as
barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined,
and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food,
and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their
wonderful and confessedly striking281
| 281 Literally, “paradoxical.” | method
of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As
citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things
as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country,
and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as
do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their
offspring.282
| 282 Literally,
“cast away fœtuses.” | They
have a
common table, but not a common bed.283
| 283 Otto omits “bed,” which is an emendation,
and gives the second “common” the sense of
unclean. | They are in the flesh, but they do not live
after the flesh.284
They pass their days on
earth, but they are citizens of heaven.285
They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by
their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are
unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life.286
They are poor, yet make many rich;287
they are in lack of all things, and yet abound
in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are
glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are
reviled, and bless;288
they are insulted, and
repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as
evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they
are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks;
yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their
hatred.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
