The Second Apology

I too, when I was enjoying Plato's teachings and heard Christians being slandered and saw them unafraid of death and other things considered terrifying, realized that they could not be living in wickedness and pleasure. For what indulgent or intemperate person, or someone who finds it good to feast on human flesh, would welcome death and give up their pleasures instead of trying to escape notice and prolong their life? Moreover, why would they confess to actions that would lead to death? This is also caused by wicked demons through evil people.

Some have been executed due to false accusations against us, and even children and weak women among our servants were tortured to confess to fabricated actions that the accusers themselves commit openly. We worry less about this because none of these actions are ours, and the unbegotten and ineffable God witnesses our thoughts and deeds. Why haven’t we publicly declared these actions as ideals and claimed them as divine philosophy if they were ours? Could we not say that the mysteries of Saturn are fulfilled when we kill a man, and that drinking blood, as we’re accused of doing, mirrors your own rituals before the idol you honor, which are sprinkled with the blood of both animals and humans, offered by your most noble leaders? And in copying Jupiter and the other gods in shameless acts, could we not use the writings of Epicurus and poets as our defense? But as we encourage people to avoid such teachings and those who practice and imitate them, as we attempt to persuade you now in this discourse, we face all sorts of attacks.

Yet, we are not worried, knowing that God is a just observer of all. Oh, how we wish someone would stand on a high platform and loudly declare: “Shame on you who accuse the innocent of deeds you openly commit, and attribute your own sins and those of your gods to people who don’t even sympathize with them. Turn back; become wise.”