Athanasius’s Defense of His Flight

On this occasion Athanasius read to those present the Defense he had written some time before to justify his flight. It may be useful to give a few passages from it here, leaving the whole work, which is too long to copy out, for the studious to look up and read for themselves. [a]

“See the daring crimes of these impious men! Such are their doings. And yet, instead of blushing at their earlier clumsy plots against us, they even now abuse us for having escaped from their murderous hands; indeed, they are bitterly vexed that they could not do away with us altogether. In short, they overlook the fact that while they pretend to reproach us with cowardice, they are really accusing themselves. For if it is disgraceful to flee, it is still more disgraceful to pursue, since the one is only trying to avoid being murdered, while the other is trying to commit murder. But Scripture itself tells us to flee; and those who persecute to the death, in trying to break the law, force us to take to flight. They should rather be ashamed of their persecution, then, than reproach us for having tried to escape it. Let them stop harassing us, and those who flee will stop fleeing too. Yet they set no limit to their malice, using every trick to trap us, because they know that the flight of the persecuted is the strongest condemnation of the persecutor. For no one runs away from a gentle and kindly person, but from someone of a savage and cruel disposition. That is why ‘everyone who was discontented and in debt’ fled from Saul to David. And that is why these enemies of ours likewise want to kill those who hide, so that no evidence may remain to convict them of their wickedness.

But in this too these misguided men deceive themselves badly. For the more plainly people try to escape them, the more openly their deliberate killings and banishments will be exposed. If they play the part of murderers, the voice of the blood they shed will cry out against them all the louder; and if they condemn people to banishment, they will set up everywhere living monuments of their own injustice and oppression. Surely, unless their minds were unsound, they would see the dilemma their own plans entangle them in. But since they have lost sound judgment, their folly is exposed when they vanish, and when they seek to stay they do not see their wickedness.

But if they reproach those who manage to hide from the malice of their bloodthirsty enemies, and revile those who flee from their persecutors, what will they say about Jacob’s retreat from the rage of his brother Esau, and about Moses withdrawing into the land of Midian for fear of Pharaoh? And what excuse will these babblers make for David’s flight from Saul, when Saul sent messengers to his house to kill him; and for his hiding in a cave, after he had managed to free himself from the treacherous designs of Abimelech by pretending to be mad? What will these reckless men, who assert whatever suits their purpose, answer when they are reminded of the great prophet Elijah? He had called on God and brought the dead back to life, yet he hid himself for fear of Ahab and fled because of Jezebel’s threats. At that time the sons of the prophets too, who were being hunted in order to be killed, withdrew and were hidden in caves by Obadiah. Or do they not know these examples because they are so old? Have they also forgotten what is recorded in the Gospel, that the disciples withdrew and hid themselves for fear of the Jews? And Paul, when the governor of Damascus was searching for him, ‘was let down from the wall in a basket, and so escaped the hands of the one who sought him.’

Since Scripture tells these things about the saints, then, what excuse can they invent for their rashness? If they charge us with cowardice, they do so in complete blindness to the condemnation it pronounces on themselves. If they slander these holy men by claiming that they acted against the will of God, they show their ignorance of Scripture. For the Law commanded that ‘cities of refuge’ be set up, so that those who were being pursued to be put to death might have a way of saving themselves. Again, at the completion of the ages, when the Word of the Father, who had spoken earlier through Moses, came to earth himself, he gave this express command: ‘When they persecute you in one city, flee to another.’ And shortly after: ‘So when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let whoever reads understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let the one who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, nor the one who is in the field go back to get his clothes.’ The saints, then, knowing these commands, shaped their conduct by this kind of training. For what the Lord commanded at that time, he had already spoken of through his servants before his coming in the flesh. And this is a universal rule for mankind, leading to perfection: ‘to practice whatever God has commanded.’

For this reason the Word himself, having become flesh for our sake, condescended to hide himself when he was searched for, and when he was persecuted again, condescended to withdraw to avoid the plot against him. For it was fitting for him, by hungering and thirsting and suffering other afflictions, to show that he had truly been made man. For at the very beginning, as soon as he was born, he gave this direction to Joseph through an angel: ‘Get up, take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, for Herod will seek the child’s life.’ And after Herod’s death, it appears that he withdrew to Nazareth for fear of Herod’s son Archelaus. Later, when he had given unmistakable proof of his divine nature by healing the withered hand, ‘when the Pharisees took counsel how they might destroy him, Jesus, knowing their wickedness, withdrew from there.’ Again, when he had raised Lazarus from the dead and they had become still more set on destroying him, we are told that ‘Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews, but withdrew to a region near the desert.’ Again, when the Savior said, ‘Before Abraham was, I am,’ and the Jews took up stones to throw at him, Jesus hid himself, and going through the middle of them out of the Temple, went away from there and so escaped. Since they see these things, then, or rather understand them (for they will not see), do they not deserve to be burned with fire, as it is written, for acting and speaking so plainly against everything the Lord did and taught? Finally, when John had suffered martyrdom and his disciples had buried his body, Jesus, hearing what had been done, went away from there by boat to a desert place by himself.

Now the Lord did these things, and taught accordingly. But I wish these men I am speaking of had the decency to confine their rashness to men only, and did not dare to be guilty of such madness as to accuse the Savior himself of cowardice, especially after they have already uttered blasphemies against him. But even if they are mad, they will not be tolerated, and everyone will see their ignorance of the Gospels. The reason for withdrawing and fleeing in circumstances like these is sound and valid, and the evangelists have given us examples of it in the conduct of our Savior himself. From this it may be concluded that the saints have always been rightly guided by the same principle, since whatever is recorded of him as man applies to mankind in general. For he took our nature on himself and showed in himself the feelings of our weakness. John has pointed this out in these words: ‘Then they sought to arrest him; but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.’ Moreover, before that hour came, he himself said to his mother, ‘My hour has not yet come’; and to those who were called his brothers, ‘My time has not yet come.’ Again, when the time had arrived, he said to his disciples, ‘Sleep on now and take your rest; for look, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of sinners.’ … So he neither let himself be arrested before the time came, nor, when the time had come, did he hide himself, but he gave himself up willingly to those who had plotted against him. … So too the blessed martyrs have protected themselves in times of persecution: when persecuted they fled and kept themselves hidden, but when they were discovered they suffered martyrdom.”

Such is the reasoning of Athanasius in his defense of his own flight.