Macarius Magnes
Apocriticus

BOOK III

CHAPTER I

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CHAPTER I. How did Jesus allow Himself to be crucified with insult?

Why did not Christ utter anything worthy of one who was wise and divine, when brought either before the high-priest or before the governor? He might have given instruction to His judge and those who stood by and made them better men. But He endured to be smitten with a reed and spat on and crowned with thorns, unlike Apollonius,109 who, after speaking boldly to the Emperor Domitian, disappeared from the royal court, and after not many hours was plainly seen in the city then called Dicaearchia, but now Puteoli. But even if Christ had to suffer according to God's commands, and was obliged to endure punishment, yet at least He should |53 have endured His Passion with some boldness, and uttered words of force and wisdom to Pilate His judge, instead of being mocked like any gutter-snipe.




109. 1 Apollonius of Tyana is said by Eusebius to have been the hero whom Hierocles set up in opposition to the claims of Christ. Born at the beginning of the Christian era, he became a philosopher of the Neo-Pythagorean School. He was an ascetic, and after travelling in the East and studying Oriental mysticism, he returned to Europe as a magician. He set up a school at Ephesus. His life, written by Philostratus, is full of fictitious stories. He was accused of treason by both Nero and Domitian, but is said to have escaped in each case by miraculous means. Further details of his escape from Domitian are given in the answer of Macarius in ch. viii. p. 66, 1. 19. See p. 55. That his opponent regarded him as a hero is plain from Bk. iv. 25. (See p. 127.)



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