According to the Kûmil (of Ibn
Athîr) Galen lived in the days of this Commodus, having been born before the
death of Ptolemy [literally: “and Galen lived to the time of Ptolemy”]. In his
[i.e. Galen’s] time the religion of the Christians in his book Remark on the
Book of Plato on the Republic, where he says: “The mass of the people are
not able to follow the thread of an apodictic discourse, wherefore they need
allusive (enigmatic) sayings, so that they may enjoy instruction thereby (by
allusive sayings he means the tales concerning rewards and punishments in the
world to come). Of this sort we now see the people who are called Christians
deriving their faith from such allusive sayings. Yet on their part deeds have
been produced equal to the deeds of those who are in truth philosophers. For
example, that they are free from the fear of death is a fact which we all have
observed; likewise their abstinence from the unlawful practice of sexual
intercourse. And, indeed, there are some among them, men and women, also, who
during the whole of their natural life refrain altogether from such
intercourse. And some of them have attained to such a degree of severe
self-control and to such earnestness in their desire for righteousness, that
they do not fall short of those who are in truth philosophers. Thus far the
words of Galen. (M. Sprengling, “Galen on the Christians,” American Journal
of Theology 21, no. 1 [1917]: 96)
