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| Chapter XXXVIII
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Chapter
XXXVIII.
The belief, then, in Antinous,3557
| 3557 [See vol. ii. p. 185,
and the stinging reference of Justin, vol. i. p. 172, this series.] | or any other such person, whether among the
Egyptians or the Greeks, is, so to speak, unfortunate; while the belief
in Jesus would seem to be either a fortunate one, or the result of
thorough investigation, having the appearance of the former to the
multitude, and of the latter to exceedingly few.3558
| 3558 περι δὲ τοῦ
᾽Ιησοῦ ἤτοι
δόξασα ἂν
εἶναι
εὐτυχὴς, ἢ
καὶ
βεβασανισμένως
ἐξητασμένη,
δοκοῦσα μὲν
εὐτυχὴς παρὰ
τοῖς πολλοῖς,
βεβασανισμένως
δὲ
ἐξητασμένη
παρὰ πάνυ
ὀλιγωτάτοιβ. | And when I speak of a certain belief
being, as the multitude would call it, unfortunate, I in such a case
refer the cause to God, who knows the reasons of the various fates
allotted to each one who enters human life. The Greeks, moreover,
will admit that even amongst those who are considered to be most
largely endowed with wisdom, good fortune has had much to do, as in the
choice of teachers of one kind rather than another, and in meeting with
a better class of instructors (there being teachers who taught the most
opposite doctrines), and in being brought up in better circumstances;
for the bringing up of many has been amid surroundings of such a kind,
that they were prevented from ever receiving any idea of better things,
but constantly passed their life, from their earliest youth, either as
the favourites of licentious men or of tyrants, or in some other
wretched condition which forbade the soul to look upwards. And
the causes of these varied fortunes, according to all probability, are
to be found in the reasons of providence, though it is not easy for men
to ascertain these; but I have said what I have done by way of
digression from the main body of my subject, on account of the proverb,
that “such is the power of faith, because it seizes that which
first presents itself.”3559
| 3559 τοσοῦτον
ποιεῖ πίστις,
ὁποία δὴ
προκατασχοῦσα. | For it was
necessary, owing to the different methods of education, to speak of the
differences of belief among men, some of whom are more, others less
fortunate in their belief; and from this to proceed to show that what is
termed good or bad fortune would appear to contribute even in the case
of the most talented, to their appearing to be more fully endowed with
reason and to give their assent on grounds of reason to the majority of
human opinions. But enough on these points.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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