Why did the Lord Christ keep His silence during the religious and civil trials?

The Greek philosopher Celsus wrote an attack on the Christian faith. The scholar Origen was asked to respond, so he wrote, “Jesus, however, is at all times assailed by false witnesses, and, while wickedness remains in the world, is ever exposed to accusation. And yet even now He continues silent before these things, and makes no audible answer, but places His defense in the lives of His genuine disciples, which are a pre-eminent testimony, and one that rises superior to all false witness, and refutes and overthrows all unfounded accusations and charges.”³²⁰

The Lord did not author books, nor provide answers to ethical questions, but instead presented a way of life that He passed on to His disciples by living it with them; whether by practicing love, or by participating in feasts in a properly spiritual manner, or in His forgiveness of those who resisted Him and crucified Him, or even in His style of teaching and His submitting to death. He never asked His disciples to study His life or His sermons, but rather to partake of His life, His suffering, and His crucifixion.

Our Lord Jesus Christ’s response to false accusations against Him is nothing more than the life of His followers. Through this life, they make disciples of others. The Church accepts this principle and therefore focuses on the fellowship of the saints.

The Sixth Article: “suffered and was buried, and on the third day He rose from the dead according to the Scriptures.”

319 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation, trans., John Behr (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011) 54: p. 167 (PG 25:192) amended. See also his Four Discourses Against the Arians 3.34 (NPNF II/4:413).

320 Origen, Against Celsus Book 1, Preface 2 (ANF 4:395).