Oration to the Greeks

Contents

1. 1Tatian opens by arguing that every Greek art was borrowed from “barbarians,” and that Greek speech and rhetoric are divided and corrupt.
2. 2Tatian mocks the lives and doctrines of famous philosophers, especially Aristotle and his pupil Alexander.
3. 3Heraclitus, Zeno, Empedocles, Pythagoras, Plato, and Crates are mocked for arrogance and contradictory doctrines.
4. 4Christians obey rulers and pay taxes but fear God alone, who is spirit, without beginning, known through creation, and in need of nothing.
5. 5Tatian's doctrine of the Word: begotten from the Father's power without diminishing him, like a torch lit from a torch, and the maker of the world; matter itself was created, not eternal.
6. 6The resurrection of the body will happen once, at the end, for judgment by God; nothing of a person is lost, however the body perishes.
7. 7The Word made angels and humans free; the first angel rebelled, was worshiped, and became the chief demon, and the first human lost the higher spirit and became mortal.
8. 8The demons invented astrology and fate; the myths show the gods to be as passionate and contradictory as mortals.
9. 9The zodiac and fate are the demons' invention; Christians are above fate, and the constellations are absurd honors given to myths.
10. 10The gods of myth change shape for their lusts, and the constellations honor adulterers and even the dead favorite Antinous.
11. 11The Christian is free of ambition, greed, and fear of death; death came through human free will and sin, not through fate or God.
12. 12Tatian's cosmology: matter was created by God; one material spirit runs through all things, but humans were first given also a higher spirit, God's image; the demons are made of matter.
13. 13The soul is not immortal by nature; united with the divine Spirit and knowing God it lives, but without the Spirit it dies and is raised only for punishment.
14. 14The demons cannot die, but their immortality will be one of punishment, which those who follow them will share.
15. 15The image of God in humans is the indwelling divine Spirit, making the person God's temple; the demons cannot repent, but humans can conquer death through faith and repentance.
16. 16The demons are not the souls of the dead; they deceive by illusions, claim credit for illnesses, and flee before the word of God's power.
17. 17Magic and amulets work only as signals the demons have agreed to answer; God made nothing for evil use.
18. 18Healing by drugs belongs to the demons' art; the demons cause illness and then “heal” to win worship, like robbers who kidnap for ransom.
19. 19The philosophers' contempt for death is a pose; the Cynic Crescens plotted against Justin and Tatian. Oracles serve human greed; God alone should be followed.
20. 20The soul lost its “wings,” the divine spirit, through sin; paradise was beyond this world; the prophets, clothed with the Spirit, reveal what lies beyond it.
21. 21The incarnation is no more absurd than the Greek myths of gods in human form; and allegorizing the myths only abolishes the gods.
22. 22The pantomime actor, playing gods and heroes on stage, teaches vice to the audience, including children.
23. 23Tatian condemns athletic contests and, far more, the gladiatorial games, in which the rich buy men to be killed for entertainment.
24. 24Tragedy, mythographers, comedy, and music are useless; Tatian leaves them to the Greeks.
25. 25The Cynics' claim to self-sufficiency is hollow and the schools contradict each other; Christians hold one consistent teaching, and the charge of cannibalism fits the Greek myths, not them.
26. 26Greek learning is borrowed, divided into warring schools, and fussy about Attic style; Christians have left it to follow the word of God.
27. 27Christians are condemned for their name without examination, while pagan atheists and skeptics are read freely; the philosophers' speculations are idle.
28. 28Human laws contradict each other, allowing among some peoples what others forbid, such as incest and pederasty.
29. 29Tatian's conversion: disgusted by pagan rites, he sought the truth and was won over by the ancient “barbarian” Scriptures.
30. 30Tatian puts away his pagan past; to the Greeks he offers a full account of Christian teaching and of the origin of languages.
31. 31Tatian begins his proof that Moses is older than Homer by showing that the Greeks cannot even agree on when Homer lived.
32. 32Christian teaching is free and open to rich and poor, old women and youths alike; the Greeks, who admire old Nestor and warrior women, mock Christian elders and virgins.
33. 33The Greeks honor poetesses, courtesans, and scandalous women with statues, yet mock the chaste Christian women who study God's word.
34. 34The Greeks honor with statues tyrants, fratricides, adulterers, and prostitutes, while despising the Christian way of life.
35. 35Tatian writes from his own experience of Greek learning and of Rome, and now returns to proving the antiquity of Christian (“barbarian”) philosophy.
36. 36Even if Homer lived at the time of the Trojan War, Moses is far older; the Babylonian historian Berossus confirms the biblical account of Nebuchadnezzar.
37. 37Phoenician historians place Hiram, Solomon's contemporary, near the Trojan War; Moses is much older.
38. 38Egyptian chronology places the Exodus under King Amosis, a contemporary of Inachus of Argos, twenty generations before the fall of Troy.
39. 39The list of the kings of Argos from Inachus to Agamemnon shows that all the events of Greek legend come after Moses.
40. 40Moses is older than all Greek legend, and Greek sages borrowed from him and distorted what they borrowed.
41. 41Moses is older also than the legendary poets before Homer and than the Greek lawgivers and sages.
42. 42Tatian signs off: an Assyrian by birth, educated in Greek learning, now a Christian ready to be examined but never to deny his faith.