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The First Apology
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Chapter 20: Pagan Similarities to Christian Doctrine.
THE SIBYL AND HYSTASPES SAID THAT THERE WILL BE A DESTRUCTION BY GOD OF CORRUPTIBLE THINGS: The philosophers known as Stoics teach that even God Himself will transform into fire, and they say the world will be created anew by this change. However, we believe that God, the Creator of everything, is beyond the things that are to be transformed. Therefore, if in some aspects we teach the same things as the poets and philosophers you honor, and in others provide a deeper and more divine teaching, and if we alone provide evidence for what we claim, why are we unjustly hated more than everyone else? For when we say that everything has been created and arranged into a world by God, we seem to express Plato's doctrine; and when we say that there will be a complete burning, we represent the Stoics' doctrine. And when we affirm that the souls of the wicked, having sensation even after death, are punished, and the souls of the good, freed from punishment, enjoy a blessed existence, we seem to agree with the poets and philosophers. And when we maintain that people should not worship the works of their own hands, we echo what the comic poet Menander and similar writers have said, for they proclaimed that the creator is greater than the creation.
Hear the Scriptures cited in The First Apology
The First Apology quotes or alludes to these Bible chapters more than any others. Each link opens the free audio Bible, where the chapter is read aloud alongside the text, cross-references, and what other early Christian writers said about it.
- Hear Isaiah 52 (audio Bible) — cited 3 times in this work
- Hear Matthew 5 (audio Bible) — cited 3 times in this work
- Hear Genesis 6 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Genesis 49 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Numbers 21 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Psalms 22 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Isaiah 65 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Matthew 19 (audio Bible) — cited 2 times in this work
- Hear Genesis 14 (audio Bible)
- Hear Genesis 18 (audio Bible)
- Hear Genesis 32 (audio Bible)
- Hear Exodus 3 (audio Bible)