Didascalia Apostolorum

Historical source scan page 118

90 DIDASCALTA. against those who deny God, (S. + and against those who do not worship God, and against transgressors of the Law and against the heathen,) that when they shall see the glory of believers they shall return to perish in the fire because they did not believe. But we have learnt and believed in His Resurrection from the dead. The Resurrection which God has promised to us is sure to us and not deceptive, because our Saviour Himself is the earnest of our resurrection, He having risen first. Confirmation about the Resurrection, even from the writings of the heathen. Also those among the Gentiles who read, read and hear, even among the heathen, about the Resurrection from the Sybil, what was said and Oracuia preached to them thus, " When everything shall be dust and ashes, the Sybillma c. iv. 179— Most High God shall cause the fire which He hath kindled to cease, 185 (ed. . Ezach) and then God Himself shall raise the bones and ashes of men, and shall f. 61 b clothe them with their likeness, and raise men as they were before. And then the judgment shall take place, in which God shall judge the wicked 187—190 in the future world, and the earth shall cover the impious. The just and the righteous shall live in the land of life ; God will give them spirit and goodness, (S. + and life) and thereafter they shall all see one another." It is not only, my friends, by means of the Sybil that the Resurrection was preached to the heathen, but also by means of the holy Scriptures, before the Lord preached to the Jews and to the heathen and to the Christians together, and announced the Resurrection of the dead which shall come to men. (S. + Confirmation about the Resurrection also from natural demonstra- tions^ God shows us abundantly about the Resurrection, even by means of a bird that cannot speak, we mean the phcenix, which is solitary, for if it had a mate many would be seen by man, but now one alone is seen once in five hundred years, which enters Egypt and goes to the altar that is called of the Sun. It brings cinnamon ; as it prays towards the East, the fire kindles of itself, and consumes it, so that it becomes ashes ; and again from the ashes is formed a worm, which grows up in its likeness, and becomes a perfect phcenix, and thereafter it departs and goes whence it came.) Confirmation that we must not excuse ourselves from Martyrdom for the sake of the Christ. If therefore God has shown us about the Resurrec- tion by means of an irrational animal, much more we who believe in the Resurrection of God and in the promise of God, if martyrdom come upon, us as on men worthy of all this glory of God, shall receive the incorruptible crown in eternal life, and in the glorious honour of the martyrdom of God ;