Letter 540

To Domitian the Eparchicus [an official of the praetorian prefect's office]. If the God of all and the benefactor, the God Christ, who truly died, has not truly been raised from the dead, our faith is vain, and in vain do we eat the mystical body and drink the blood for our own purification, so that we may proclaim not only the death and the burial, but also the resurrection, and the glory, and the unceasing kingdom of Christ.

Εἰ μὴ ὁ τῶν ὅλων Θεὸς καὶ εὐεργέτης Θεὸς Χρι- στὸς κατὰ ἀλήθειαν τεθνηκὼς ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀληθῶς ἐγήγερται, ματαία ἡ πίστις ἡμῶν ὑπάρχει, μάτην δὲ ἐσθίομεν τὸ σῶμα τὸ μυστικὸν, πίνομεν δὲ τὸ αἷμα πρὸς κάθαρσιν οἰκείαν, ἵνα καταγγέλωμεν, οὐ μόνον τὸν θάνατον, καὶ τὴν ταφὴν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἔγερσιν, καὶ τὴν δόξαν, καὶ τὴν ἀκατάπαυστον βασι- λείαν τοῦ Χριστοῦ.