Hellenic gods, and worshipping that crucified one, their sophist, and living after his laws. So they despise all things alike [i.e., all dangers and sufferings], and hold their goods in common; though they have received such traditions without any certain warrant. If, then, an artful impostor comes among them, an adroit man of the world, he very soon enriches himself by making these simple folk his dupes."
The first point to be noted in this passage is that, though the general tone is disdainful towards Christianity as a creed, there is nothing which indicates hostility or malice. At the time when Lucian wrote, the term σοφιστής which he applies to the Founder of Christianity, had not necessarily a bad sense. It had become a quasi-professional designation, analogous to "professor" or "doctor." Under Hadrian and the Antonines, the Sophists reached a high degree of dignity and influence. The chair of Sophistic—concerned with the theory and art of rhetoric—held an honourable place among the professorships which Marcus Aurelius founded in the University of Athens. But the title "sophist," like "professor" or "doctor," could be tinged with irony by the context; and, when Lucian speaks of "their crucified sophist," that tone is apparent, just as when he calls the religion of Christians their θαυμαστὴν σοφίαν. He also refers to Christ as "that great one," τὸν μέγαν ἐκεῖνον. It has been proposed to change μέγαν into μάγον: but this, though specious at first sight, is not really probable. Lucian would not have used the word μάγον unless he had meant to suggest trickery and fraud; but nothing else in the passage suggests that he would
