For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking 281
method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. 282
They
Literally, “cast away fœtuses.”
27:283Otto omits “bed,” which is an emendation, and gives the second “common” the sense of unclean.
27:284Comp. 2 Cor. x. 3.
27:285Comp. Phil. iii. 20.
27:286Comp. 2 Cor. vi. 9.
27:287Comp. 2 Cor. vi. 10.
27:288Comp. 2 Cor. iv. 12.
