16. But it is impossible, some one will say,
that the dead should rise; and yet Eliseus twice raised the
dead,—when he was alive, and also when dead. Do we then
believe, that when Eliseus was dead, a dead man who was cast upon him
and touched him, arose and is Christ not risen? But in that case,
the dead man who touched Eliseus, arose, yet he who raised him
continued nevertheless dead: but in this case both the Dead of
whom we speak Himself arose, and many dead were raised without having
even touched Him. For many bodies of the Saints which slept
arose, and they came out of the graves after His Resurrection, and went
into the Holy City Matt. xxvii. 52, 53., (evidently this
city, in which we now are The Archdeacon of
Jerusalem, Photius Alexandrides, observes that “by this
parenthetic explanation Cyril perhaps wished to refute the opinion
which some favoured that these saints which slept and were raised
entered into the heavenly Jerusalem.” See Euseb. Dem.
Evang. IV. 12.,) and appeared
unto many. Eliseus then raised a dead man, but he conquered
not the world; Elias raised a dead man, but devils are not driven away
in the name of Elias. We are not speaking evil of the Prophets,
but we are celebrating their Master more highly; for we do not exalt
our own wonders by disparaging theirs; for theirs also are ours; but by
what happened among them, we win credence for our own.