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On the Theophania
Eusebius of Caesarea, tr. Lee, 1843
Which of the magicians is it, who ever projected that which our Saviour did? But, if one …
Which of the magicians is it, who ever projected that which our Saviour did? But, if one did so project; still he dared not to advance this. But, if one so dared; still he brought not the matter to effect. He (the Saviour) said in one word and enouncement to His Disciples, “Go and make disciples of all nations in my name, and teach ye them every thing that I have commanded you.” And the deed He made to follow the word. For thence, every race of the Greeks and Barbarians became at once, and in a short space of time, (His) Disciples: The laws too of our Saviour were not written in any Book of His; but, without book, were disseminated at His command among all nations; (and) these were opposed to the ancient worship of a plurality of Gods:—laws at enmity with the Demons, and unfriendly to every error of a multitude of Deities:—laws purifying the Scythians, the Persians, and other Barbarians, and converting (them) from every savage, and lawless sort of life:—laws subversive of the customs, which had obtained from ancient times among the Greeks, and teaching the new and genuine worship of God. How then have they dared so (to advance) such things as these, that one should say of Him, that He was probably aided (in) this magic by others,—the ancient magicians,—who were before His times? But, if there was no other person, whom any one could say resembled Him; neither was there consequently, who could have been the cause of His possessing all this superiority.—It is now time therefore that we should confess, that an extraordinary and Divine Nature came into the world, which first and alone performed the things which had never before been commemorated among men.