ACC ~ Mark 5 v4

TRANSFORMING THE DEPTHS

LACTANTIUS: “Neither could anyone tame him.” [1] Give me a reprobate who is impetuous, foul-mouthed and overbearing. With few words the Lord will render him as gentle as a lamb. Give me one who is covetous, avaricious, grasping. The Lord will restore him to liberality, and he will dispose of his resources bountifully of his own hand. Show me one who trembles at the idea of pain and of death, and soon I will show you one who has learned to disdain crosses, flames and the bull of Perillus. [2] Even one who is sensual, adulterous and gluttonous can be made sober, chaste and abstinent. [3] DIVINE INSTITUTES 3.26.4. [4]

[1] Mk 5:4.

[2] Perillus was an Athenian artist, who designed the hollow brazen bull in which people could be roasted alive. Phalaris (c. 570-549 B.C.), the tyrant of Agrigentum, Sicily, who commissioned the bull, decided to make Perillus its first victim.

[3] Cf. Is 55:13; 1 Cor 6:9-11.

[4] Cetedoc 0085, 3.26.4; CSEL 19:260.4; cf. ANF 7:128. Are the demonic powers untamable? The redeemer can transform the worst.