Letter 484: The danger that accompanies learning, Ammonios, is pride — and the pride of the learned is particularly resistant to...

To Ammonios. On the renowned death of our Saviour. From what, you said, is it clear that Christ went to His death willingly? Above all, from the fact that He raised the dead by His own lordly authority. For He who bestowed life upon the dead could surely not have been led unwillingly to the Passion. But even if He did not wish to make use of His divine power, still it was open to Him to make a defense and to escape, if He had wished. For He had even Pilate cooperating with Him to this end, who said at one point, "I find in Him no cause of death," and at another, "I am innocent of this blood." And if He did not wish to make a defense, it was open to Him to appeal, as Paul did. For they too were under the Romans. For Augustus, the emperor of the Romans, after subduing all peoples—among whom they too were—commanded that the whole inhabited world be registered, before the Saviour was born according to the flesh; and Pilate was the Roman governor among them, administering affairs, and sending those who appealed to Rome, and preserving for them the right of asylum—just as Festus also did, or, if you like, the tribune [the chiliarch, Claudius Lysias in Acts 23], who both rescued Paul from the murderous assembly and sent him up to Rome to Caesar. But Christ did none of these things; for He made use neither of His power, nor of a defense, nor of an appeal, so that He might splendidly show that He had come here to put death itself to death.

Εἰς τὸν ἀοίδιμον θάνατον τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν (20). Πόθεν, ἔφης, δῆλόν ἐστιν, ὅτι ἑκὼν ἐπὶ τὸν θάνατον ἦλθεν ὁ Χριστὸς (21); Μάλιστα μὲν ἐκ τοῦ νεκροὺς Δεσποτικῇ αὐθεντίᾳ ἐγηγερκέναι. Ὁ γὰρ νεκροὺς ζωὴν χαρισάμενος, οὐκ ἂν δήπου ἄκων ἐπὶ τὸ πάθος ἥχθῃ. Εἰ δὲ καὶ τῇ θεϊκῇ ἐξουσίᾳ οὐκ ἤθελε χρήσασθαι, ἀλλὰ γε ἐξῆν ἀπολογήσασθαι ἐκφυγεῖν, εἴγε ἤθελε. Καὶ γὰρ εἶχε καὶ τὸν Πιλάτον εἰς τοῦτο αὐτῷ συμπράττοντα, καὶ λέγοντα, ποτὲ μὲν • « Οὐχ εὑρίσκω ἐν αὐτῷ οὐδεμίαν αἰτίαν θανάτου » • ποτὲ δὲ • « Ἀθῷός εἰμι ἀπὸ τοῦ αἵματος τούτου. » Εἰ δὲ μὴ ἀπολογήσασθαι ἤθελεν, ἐκκαλέσασθαι κατὰ Παῦλον ἐξῆν. Καὶ γὰρ ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίους ἦσαν. Λοιπὸν γὰρ Αὔγουστος ὁ Ῥωμαίων αὐτοκράτωρ χειρωσάμενος ἅπαντας, ἐν οἷς ἦσαν καὶ αὐτοὶ, ἐκέλευσεν ἀπογράψασθαι πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην, πρὸ τοῦ τὸν Σωτῆρα τὸ κατὰ σάρκα γεννηθῆναι • καὶ Ῥωμαίων ἡγεμὼν ἦν παρ’ αὐτοῖς ὁ Πιλάτος, διέπων τὰ πράγματα, καὶ τοὺς ἐκκαλουμένους πέμπων εἰς τὴν Ῥώμην, καὶ τηρῶν αὐτοῖς τὸ ἄσυλον • ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ ὁ Φῆστος, εἰ δὲ βούλει, ὁ χιλίαρχος, τὸν Παῦλον καὶ διέσωσεν ἐκ τῆς φονώσης συνόδου, καὶ εἰς Ῥώμην πρὸς Καίσαρα ἀνέπεμψεν. Ἀλλ’ οὐδὲν τούτων πεποίηκεν ὁ Χριστὸς • οὔτε γὰρ τῇ ἐξουσίᾳ, οὔτε τῇ ἀπολογίᾳ, οὔτε τῇ ἐκκλήτῳ ἐχρήσατο, ἵνα λαμπρῶς δείξῃ, ὅτι τὸν θάνατον θανατώσων δεῦρ’ ἀφίκτο.