Opening the library…

Search the Bible

A Plea for the Christians

Athenagoras of Athens

Chapter 35

About this work

A polished petition to Roman emperors rebutting charges of atheism, incest, and cannibalism while explaining Christian monotheism, moral discipline, and belief in Father, Son, and Spirit.

Author: Athenagoras of Athens
Date: c. AD 176–177
Origin: Athens (traditional)
Genre: Apology

Chapter XXXV.—The Christians Condemn and Detest All Cruelty.

What man of sound mind, therefore,

‹ Chapter 34 Chapter 36 ›

will

affirm

,

while

such

is

our

character

,

that

we

are

murderers

?

For

we

cannot

eat

human

flesh

till

we

have

killed

some

one

.

The

former

charge

,

therefore

,

being

false

,

if

any

one

should

ask

them

in

regard

to

the

second

,

whether

they

have

seen

what

they

assert

,

not

one

of

them

would

be

so

barefaced

as

to

say

that

he

had

.

And

yet

we

have

slaves

,

some

more

and

some

fewer

,

by

whom

we

could

not

help

being

seen

;

but

even

of

these

,

not

one

has

been

found

to

invent

even

such

things

against

us

.

For

when

they

know

that

we

cannot

endure

even

to

see

a

man

put

to

death

,

though

justly

;

who

of

them

can

accuse

us

of

murder

or

cannibalism

?

Who

does

not

reckon

among

the

things

of

greatest

interest

the

contests

of

gladiators

and

wild

beasts

,

especially

those

which

are

given

by

you

?

But

we

,

deeming

that

to

see

a

man

put

to

death

is

much

the

same

as

killing

him

,

have

abjured

such

spectacles

.

How

,

then

,

when

we

do

not

even

look

on

,

lest

we

should

contract

guilt

and

pollution

,

can

we

put

people

to

death

?

And

when

we

say

that

those

women

who

use

drugs

to

bring

on

abortion

commit

murder

,

and

will

have

to

give

an

account

to

God

for

the

abortion

,

on

what

principle

should

we

commit

murder

?

For

it

does

not

belong

to

the

same

person

to

regard

the

very

fœtus

in

the

womb

as

a

created

being

,

and

therefore

an

object

of

God’s

care

,

and

when

it

has

passed

into

life

,

to

kill

it

;

and

not

to

expose

an

infant

,

because

those

who

expose

them

are

chargeable

with

child

-

murder

,

and

on

the

other

hand

,

when

it

has

been

reared

to

destroy

it

.

But

we

are

in

all

things

always

alike

and

the

same

,

submitting

ourselves

to

reason

,

and

not

ruling

over

it

.

Notes

133
[See Tatian, cap xxiii., supra, p. 75. But here the language of Gibbon is worthy to be quoted: though the icy-hearted infidel failed to understand that just such philosophers as he enjoyed these spectacles, till Christianity taught even such to profess a refined abhorrence of what the Gospel abolished, with no help from them. He says, “the first Christian emperor may claim the honour of the first edict which condemned the art and amusement of shedding human blood; but this benevolent law expressed the wishes of the prince, without reforming an inveterate abuse which degraded a civilized (?) nation below the condition of savage cannibals. Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, victims were annually slaughtered in the great cities of the empire.” He tells the story of the heroic Telemachus, without eulogy; how his death, while struggling to separate the combatants abolished forever the inhuman sports and sacrifices of the amphitheatre. This happened under Honorius. Milman’s Gibbon, iii. 210.]
134
[Let Americans read this, and ask whether a relapse into heathenism is not threatening our civilization, in this respect. May I venture to refer to Moral Reforms (ed. 1869, Lippincotts, Philadelphia), a little book of my own, rebuking this inquity, and tracing the earliest violation of this law of Christian morals, and of nature itself, to an unhappy Bishop of Rome, rebuked by Hippolytus. See vol. vi. p. 345, Edinburgh Series of Ante-Nicene Fathers.]