1 It is my purpose to write an account of the successions of the
holy apostles, as well as of the times which have elapsed from the days
of our Saviour to our own; and to relate the many important events which
are said to have occurred in the history of the Church; and to mention
those who have governed and presided over the Church in the most
prominent parishes, and those who in each generation have proclaimed
the divine word either orally or in writing.
2 It is my purpose also to give the names and number
and times of those who through love of innovation have run into the
greatest errors, and, proclaiming themselves discoverers of knowledge
falsely so-called[1] have like fierce wolves unmercifully devastated the
flock of Christ.
3 It is my intention, moreover, to recount the
misfortunes which immediately came upon the whole Jewish nation in
consequence of their plots against our Saviour, and to record the ways
and the times in which the divine word has been attacked by the
Gentiles, and to describe the character of those who at various periods
have contended for it in the face of blood and of tortures, as well as
the confessions which have been made in our own days, and finally the
gracious and kindly succor which our Saviour has afforded them all.
Since I propose to write of all these things I shall commence my work
with the beginning of the dispensation[2] of our Saviour and Lord Jesus
Christ.[3]
4 But at the outset I must crave for my work the
indulgence of the wise,[4] for I confess that it is beyond my power to
produce a perfect and complete history, and since I am the first to
enter upon the subject, I am attempting to traverse as it were a lonely
and untrodden path.[5] I pray that I may have God as my guide and the
power of the Lord as my aid, since I am unable to find even the bare
footsteps of those who have traveled the way before me, except in brief
fragments, in which some in one way, others in another, have transmitted
to us particular accounts of the times in which they lived. From afar
they raise their voices like torches, and they cry out, as from some
lofty and conspicuous watch-tower, admonishing us where to walk and how
to direct the course of our work steadily and safely.
5 Having gathered therefore from the
matters mentioned here and there by them whatever we consider important
for the present work, and having plucked like flowers from a meadow the
appropriate passages from ancient writers,[6] we shall endeavor to
embody the whole in an historical narrative, content if we preserve the
memory of
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the successions of the apostles of our Saviour; if not indeed of all,
yet of the most renowned of them in those churches which are the most
noted, and which even to the present time are held in honor.
6 This work seems to me of especial importance because I
know of no ecclesiastical writer who has devoted himself to this
subject; and I hope that it will appear most useful to those who are
fond of historical research.
7 I have already given an epitome of these things in the
Chronological Canons[7] which I have composed, but notwithstanding that,
I have undertaken in the present work to write as full an account of
them as I am able.
8 My work will begin, as I have said, with the
dispensation[8] of the Saviour Christ,--which is loftier and greater
than human conception,--
9 and with a discussion of his divinity[9]; 9 for it is
necessary, inasmuch as we derive even our name from Christ, for one who
proposes to write a history of the Church to begin with the very origin
of Christ's dispensation, a dispensation more divine than many think.
CHAPTER II.
Summary View of the Pre-existence and Divinity of Our Saviour and
Lord.Jesus Christ.
1 Since in Christ there is a twofold nature, and the one--in so
far as he is thought of as God--resembles the head of the body, while
the other may be compared with the feet,--in so far as he, for the sake
of our salvation, put on human nature with the same passions as our
own,--the following work will be complete only if we begin with the
chief and lordliest events of all his history. In this way will the
antiquity and divinity of Christianity be shown to those who suppose it
of recent and foreign origin,[1] and imagine that it appeared only
yesterday[2]
2 No language is sufficient to express the origin and the
worth, the being and the nature of Christ. Wherefore also the divine
Spirit says in the prophecies, "Who shall declare his generation?"[3]
For none knoweth the Father except the Son, neither can any one know the
Son adequately except the Father alone who hath begotten him.[4]
3 For alone who beside the Father could clearly understand
the Light which was before the world, the intellectual and essential
Wisdom which existed before the ages, the living Word which was in the
beginning with the Father and which was God, the first and only begotten
of God which was before every creature and creation visible and
invisible, the commander-in-chief of the rational and immortal host of
heaven, the messenger of the great counsel, the executor of the
Father's unspoken will, the creator, with the Father, of all things, the
second cause of the universe after the Father, the true and
only-begotten Son of God, the Lord and God and King of all created
things, the one who has received dominion and power, with divinity
itself, and with might and honor from the Father; as it is said in
regard to him in the mystical passages of Scripture which speak of his
divinity: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God."[5]
4 "All things were made by him; and without him was not
anything made."[6] This, too, the great Moses teaches, when, as the most
ancient of all the prophets, he describes under the influence of the
divine Spirit the creation and arrangement of the universe. He declares
that the maker of the world and the creator of all things yielded to
Christ himself, and to none other than his own clearly divine and
first-born Word, the making of inferior things, and communed with him
respecting the creation of man.
5 "For," says he," God said, Let us make man in our image and in
our likeness."[7] And another of the prophets confirms this, speaking of
God in his hymns as follows: "He spake and they were made; he commanded
and they were created."[8] He here introduces the Father and Maker as
Ruler of all, commanding with a kingly nod, and second to him the
divine Word, none other than the one who is proclaimed by us, as
carrying out
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6 the Father's commands. All that are said to have excelled in
righteousness and piety since the creation of man, the great servant
Moses and before him in the first place Abraham and his children, and as
many righteous men and prophets as afterward appeared, have
contemplated him with the pure eyes of the mind, and have recognized him
and offered to him the worship which is due him as Son of God.
7 But he, by no means neglectful of the reverence due to
the Father, was appointed to teach the knowledge of the Father to them
all. For instance, the Lord God, it is said, appeared as a common man to
Abraham while he was sitting at the oak of Mambre.[9] And he,
immediately failing down, although he saw a man with his eyes,
nevertheless worshiped him as God, and sacrificed to him as Lord, and
confessed that he was not ignorant of his identity when he uttered the
words, "Lord, the judge of all the earth, wilt thou not execute
righteous judgment?"[10]
8 For if it is unreasonable to suppose that the unbegotten
and immutable essence of the almighty God was changed into the form of
man or that it deceived the eyes of the beholders with the appearance of
some created thing, and if it is unreasonable to suppose, on the other
hand, that the Scripture should falsely invent such things, when the
God and Lord who judgeth all the earth and executeth judgment is seen
in the form of a man, who else can be called, if it be not lawful to
call him the first cause of all things, than his only pre-existent
Word?[11] Concerning whom it is said in the Psalms, "He sent his Word
and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions."[12]
9 Moses most clearly proclaims him second Lord after the
Father, when he says, "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone
and fire from the Lord."[13] The divine Scripture also calls him God,
when he appeared again to Jacob in the form of a man, and said to
Jacob, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy
name, because thou hast prevailed with God."[14] Wherefore also Jacob
called the name of that place "Vision of God,"[15] saying, "For I have
seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."[16]
10 Nor is it admissible to suppose that the theophanies
recorded were appearances of subordinate angels and ministers of God,
for whenever any of these appeared to men, the Scripture does not
conceal the fact, but calls them by name not God nor Lord, but angels,
as it is easy to prove by numberless testimonies.
11 Joshua, also, the successor of Moses, calls him, as
leader of the heavenly angels and archangels and of
the supramundane powers, and as lieutenant of the Father,[17] entrusted
with the second rank of sovereignty and rule over all, "captain of the
host of the Lords" although he saw him not otherwise than again in the
form and appearance of a man. For it is written:
12 "And it came to pass when Joshua was at Jericho[18] that he
looked and saw a man standing over against him with his sword drawn in
his hand, and Joshua went unto him and said, Art thou for us or
for our adversaries? And he said unto him, As captain of the host of the
Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and said
unto him, Lord, what dost thou command thy servant? and the captain of
the Lord said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the
place whereon thou standest is holy."[19]
13 You will perceive also from the 13 same words that this
was no other than he who talked with Moses[20] For the Scripture says in
the same words and with reference to the same one, "When the Lord saw
that he drew near to see, the Lord called to him out of the bush and
said, Moses, Moses. And he said, What is it? And he said, Draw not nigh
hither; loose thy shoe from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground. And he said unto him, I am the God of thy
fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob."[21]
14 And that there is a certain substance which lived and
subsisted[22] before the world, and which ministered unto the
Father and God of the universe for the formation of all created things,
and which, is called the Word of God and Wisdom, we may learn, to quote
other proofs in addition to those already cited, from the mouth of
Wisdom herself, who reveals most clearly through Solomon the following
mysteries concerning herself: "I, Wisdom, have dwelt
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with prudence and knowledge, and I have invoked understanding. Through
me kings reign, and princes ordain righteousness.
15 Through me the great are magnified, and through me
sovereigns rule the earth."[23] To which she adds: "The Lord created me
in the beginning of his ways, for his works; before the world he
established me, in the beginning, before he made the earth, before he
made the depths, before the mountains were settled, before all hills he
begat me. When he prepared the heavens I was present with him, and when
he established the fountains of the region under heaven[24] I was with
him, disposing.
16 I was the one in whom he delighted; daily I rejoiced
before him at all times when he was rejoicing at having completed the
world."[25] That the divine Word, therefore, pre-existed and appeared to
some, if not to all, has thus been briefly shown by us.
17 But why the Gospel was not preached in ancient times to
all men and to all nations, as it is now, will appear from the following
considerations.[26] The life of the ancients was not of such a kind as
to permit them to receive the all-wise and all-virtuous teaching 18 of
Christ.
18 For immediately in the beginning, after his original
life of blessedness, the first man despised the command of God, and fell
into this mortal and perishable state, and exchanged his former
divinely inspired luxury for this curse-laden earth. His descendants
having filled our earth, showed themselves much worse, with the
exception of one here and there, and entered upon a certain brutal and
insupportable mode of life.
19 They thought neither of city nor state, neither of arts
nor sciences. They were ignorant even of the name of laws and of
justice, of virtue and of philosophy. As nomads, they passed their lives
in deserts, like wild and fierce beasts, destroying, by an excess of
voluntary wickedness, the natural reason of man, and the seeds of
thought and of culture implanted in the human soul. They gave themselves
wholly over to all kinds of profanity, now seducing one another, now
slaying one another, now eating human flesh, and now daring to wage war
with the Gods and to undertake those battles of the giants celebrated
by all; now planning to fortify earth against heaven, and in the
madness of ungoverned pride to prepare an attack upon the very God of
all.[27]
20 On account of these things, when they conducted
themselves thus, the all-seeing God sent down upon them floods and
conflagrations as upon a wild forest spread over the whole earth. He cut
them down with continuous famines and plagues, with wars, and with
thunderbolts from heaven, as if to check some terrible and obstinate
disease of souls with more severe punishments.
21 Then, when the excess of wickedness had overwhelmed
nearly all the race, like a deep fit of drunkenness, beclouding and
darkening the minds of men, the first-born and first-created wisdom of
God, the pre-existent Word himself, induced by his exceeding love for
man, appeared to his servants, now in the form of angels, and again to
one and another of those ancients who enjoyed the favor of God, in his
own person as the saving power of God, not otherwise, however, than in
the shape of man, because it was impossible to appear in any other way.
22 And as by them the seeds of piety were sown among a
multitude of men and the whole nation, descended from the Hebrews,
devoted themselves persistently to the worship of God, he imparted to
them through the prophet Moses, as to multitudes still corrupted by
their ancient practices, images and symbols of a certain mystic Sabbath
and of circumcision, and elements of other spiritual principles, but he
did not grant them a complete knowledge of the mysteries themselves.
23 But when their law became celebrated, and, like a sweet
odor, was diffused among all men, as a result of their influence the
dispositions of the majority of the heathen were softened by the
lawgivers and philosophers who arose on every side, and their wild and
savage brutality was changed into mildness, so that they enjoyed deep
peace, friendship, and social intercourse.[28] Then, finally, at the
time of the origin of the Roman Empire, there appeared again to all men
and nations throughout the world, who had been, as it were, previously
assisted, and were now fitted to receive the knowledge of the Father,
that same teacher
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of virtue, the minister of the Father in all good things, the divine
and heavenly Word of God, in a human body not at all differing in
substance from our own. He did and suffered the things which had been
prophesied. For it had been foretold that one who was at the same time
man and God should come and dwell in the world, should perform wonderful
works, and should show himself a teacher to all nations of the piety of
the Father. The marvelous nature of his birth, and his new teaching,
and his wonderful works had also been foretold; so likewise the manner
of his death, his resurrection from the dead, and,finally, his divine
ascension into heaven.
24 For instance, Daniel the prophet, under the influence of
the divine Spirit, seeing his kingdom at the end of time,[29] was
inspired thus to describe the divine vision in language fitted to human
comprehension: "For I beheld," he says, "until thrones were placed, and
the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow and the
hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was a flame of fire and his
wheels burning fire. A river of fire flowed before him. Thousand
thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood
before him.
25 He appointed judgment, and the books were
opened."[30] And again, "I saw," says he, "and behold, one like the Son
of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he hastened unto the Ancient
of Days and was brought into his presence, and there was given him the
dominion and the glory and the kingdom; and all peoples, tribes, and
tongues serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall
not pass away, and his kingdom shall not be destroyed."[31]
26 It is clear that these words can refer to no one
else than to our Saviour, the God Word who was in the beginning with
God, and who was called the Son of man because of his final appearance
in the flesh. But since we have collected in separate books as the
selections from the prophets which relate to our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and have arranged in a more logical form those things which have been
revealed concerning him, what has been said will suffice for the present.
CHAPTER III.
The Name Jesus and also the Name Christ were known from the
Beginning, and were honored by the Inspired Prophets.
1 It is now the proper place to show that the very name
Jesus and also the name Christ were honored by the ancient prophets
beloved of God.[1]
2 Moses was the first 2 to make known the name
of Christ as a name especially august and glorious. When he delivered
types and symbols of heavenly things, and mysterious images, in
accordance with the oracle which said to him, "Look that thou make all
things according to the pattern which was shown thee in the mount,"[2]
he consecrated a man high priest of God, in so far as that was possible,
and him he called Christ.[3] And thus to this dignity of the high
priesthood, which in his opinion surpassed the most honorable position
among men, he attached for the sake of honor and glory the name of
Christ.
3 He knew so well that in Christ was something divine. And
the same one foreseeing, under the influence of the divine Spirit, the
name Jesus, dignified it also with a certain distinguished privilege.
For the name of Jesus, which had never been uttered among men before the
time of Moses, he applied first and only to the one who he knew would
receive after his death, again as a type and symbol, the supreme
command.
4 His successor, therefore, who had not hitherto
borne the name Jesus, but had been called by another name, Auses,[4]
which had been given him by his parents, he now called Jesus, bestowing
the name upon him as a gift of honor, far greater than any kingly
diadem. For Jesus himself, the son of Nave, bore a resemblance to our
Saviour in the fact that he alone, after Moses and after the completion
of the symbolical worship which had been transmitted by him, succeeded
to the government of the true
and pure religion.
5 Thus Moses bestowed the name of our Saviour, Jesus
Christ, as a mark of the highest honor, upon the two men who in his time
surpassed all the rest of the people in virtue and glory; namely, upon
the high priest and upon his own successor in the government.
6 And the prophets that came after also clearly foretold
Christ by
name, predicting at the same time the plots which the Jewish people
would form against him, and the calling of the nations through him.
Jeremiah, for instance, speaks as follows: "The
86
Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in their
destructions; of whom we said, under his shadow we shall live among the
nations."[5] And David, in perplexity, says, "Why did the nations rage
and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth set
themselves in array, and the rulers were gathered together against the
Lord and against his Christ";[6] to which he adds, in the person of
Christ himself, "The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."[7]
7 And not only those who were honored with the high
priesthood, and who for the sake of the symbol were anointed with
especially prepared oil, were adorned with the name of Christ among the
Hebrews, but also the kings whom the prophets anointed under the
influence of the divine Spirit, and thus constituted, as it were,
typical Christs. For they also bore in their own persons types of the
royal and sovereign power of the true and only Christ, the divine Word
who ruleth over all.
8 And we have been told also that certain of the prophets
themselves became, by the act of anointing, Christs in type, so that all
these have reference to the true Christ, the divinely inspired and
heavenly Word, who is the only high priest of all, and the only King of
every creature, and the Father's only supreme prophet of prophets.
9 And a proof of this is that no one of those who were of
old symbolically anointed, whether priests, or kings, or prophets,
possessed so great a power of inspired virtue as was exhibited by our
Saviour and Lord Jesus, the true and only Christ.
10 None of them at least, however superior in dignity and
honor they may have been for many generations among their own people,
ever gave to their followers the name of Christians from their own
typical name of Christ. Neither was divine honor ever rendered to any
one of them by their subjects; nor after their death was the disposition
of their followers such that they were ready to die for the one whom
they honored. And never did so great a commotion arise among all the
nations of the earth in respect to any one of that age; for the mere
symbol could not act with such power among them as the truth itself
which was exhibited by our Saviour.
11 He, although he received no symbols and types of high
priesthood from any one, although he was not born of a race of priests,
although he was not elevated to a kingdom by military guards, although
he was not a prophet like those of old, although he obtained no honor
nor pre-eminence among the Jews, nevertheless was adorned by the Father
with all, if not with the symbols, yet with the truth itself.
12 And therefore, although he did not possess like honors
with those whom we have mentioned, he is called Christ more than all of
them. And as himself the true and only Christ of God, he has filled the
whole earth with the truly august and sacred name of Christians,
committing to his followers no longer types and images, but the
uncovered virtues themselves, and a heavenly life in the very doctrines
of truth.
13 And he was not anointed with oil prepared from material
substances, but, as befits divinity, with the divine Spirit himself, by
participation in the unbegotten deity of the Father. And this is taught
also again by Isaiah, who exclaims, as if in the person of Christ
himself, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; therefore hath he anointed
me. He hath sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor, to proclaim
deliverance to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind."[8]
14 And not only Isaiah, but also David addresses him,
saying, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is
the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated
iniquity. Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of
gladness above thy fellows."[9] Here the Scripture calls him God in the
first verse, in the second it honors him with a royal scepter.
15 Then a little farther on, after the divine and
royal power, it represents him in the third place as having become
Christ, being anointed not with oil made of material substances, but
with the divine oil of gladness. It thus indicates his especial honor,
far superior to and different from that of those who, as types, were of
old anointed in a more material way.
16 And elsewhere the same writer speaks of him as
follows: "The
Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool";[10] and, "Out of the womb, before the morning
star, have I begotten thee. The Lord hath sworn and he will not repent.
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedec."[11]
17 But this Melchizedec is introduced in the Holy
Scriptures as a priest of the most high God,[12] not consecrated by any
anointing oil, especially prepared, and not even belonging by descent to
the priesthood of the Jews. Wherefore after his order, but not after
the order of the others, who received symbols and types, was our Saviour
proclaimed, with
an appeal to an oath, Christ and priest.
18 History, therefore, does not relate that he 18 was
anointed corporeally by the Jews, nor
Please choose an option.87
that he belonged to the lineage of priests, but that he came into
existence from God himself before the morning star, that is before the
organization of the world, and that he obtained an immortal and
undecaying priesthood for eternal ages.
19 But it is a great and convincing proof of his
incorporeal and divine unction that he alone of all those who have ever
existed is even to the present day called Christ by all men throughout
the world, and is confessed and witnessed to under this name, and is
commemorated both by Greeks and Barbarians and even to this day is
honored as a King by his followers throughout the world, and is admired
as more than a prophet, and is glorified as the true and only high
priest of God.[13] And besides all this, as the pre-existent Word of
God, called into being before all ages, he has received august honor
from the Father, and is worshiped as God.
20 But most wonderful of all is the fact that we who have
consecrated ourselves to him, honor him not only with our voices and
with the sound of words, but also with complete elevation of soul, so
that we choose to give testimony unto him rather than to preserve our
own lives.
21 I have of necessity prefaced my history with these matters in
order that no one, judging from the date of his incarnation, may think
that our Saviour and Lord Jesus, the Christ, has but recently come into
being.
CHAFFER IV.
The Religion proclaimed by him to All Nations was neither New nor
Strange.
1 But that no one may suppose that his doctrine is new and
strange, as if it were framed by a man of recent origin, differing in no
respect from other men, let us now briefly consider this point also.
2 It is admitted that when in recent times the appearance
of our Saviour Jesus Christ had become known to all men there
immediately made its appearance a new nation; a nation confessedly not
small, and not dwelling in some corner of the earth, but the most
numerous and pious of all nations,[1] indestructible and unconquerable,
because it always receives assistance from God. This nation, thus
suddenly appearing at the time appointed by the inscrutable counsel of
God, is the one which has been honored by all with the name of Christ.
3 One of the prophets, when he saw beforehand with the eye
of the Divine Spirit that which was to be, was so astonished at it that
he cried out, "Who hath heard of such things, and who hath spoken thus?
Hath the earth brought forth in one day, and hath a nation been born at
once?"[2] And the same prophet gives a hint also of the name by which
the nation was to be called, when he says, "Those that serve me shall be
called by a new name, which shall be blessed upon the earth."[3]
4 But although it is clear that we are new and that this
new name of Christians has really but recently been known among all
nations, nevertheless our life and our conduct, with our doctrines of
religion, have not been lately invented by us, but from the first
creation of man, so to speak, have been established by the natural
understanding of divinely favored men of old. That this is so we shall
show in the following way.
5 That the Hebrew nation is not new, but is universally
honored on account of its antiquity, is known to all. The books and
writings of this people contain accounts of ancient men, rare indeed and
few in number, but nevertheless distinguished for piety and
righteousness and every other virtue. Of these, some excellent men lived
before the flood, others of the sons and descendants of Noah lived
after it, among them Abraham, whom the Hebrews celebrate as their own
founder and forefather.
6 If any one should assert that all those who have enjoyed
the testimony of righteousness, from Abraham himself back to the first
man, were Christians in fact if not in name, he would not go beyond the
truth.[4]
7 For that which the name indicates, that the Christian
man, through the knowledge and the teaching of Christ, is distinguished
for temperance and righteousness, for patience in life and manly virtue,
and for a profession of piety toward the one and only God over all--all
that was zealously practiced by them not less than by us.
8 They did not care about circumcision of the body, neither
do we. They did not care about observing Sabbaths, nor do we. They did
not avoid certain kinds of food, neither did they regard the other
distinctions which Moses first delivered to their posterity to be
observed as symbols; nor do Christians of the present day do such
things. But they also clearly knew the very Christ of God; for it has
already been shown that he appeared unto Abraham, that he imparted
revelations to Isaac, that he talked with Jacob, that he held converse
with Moses and with the prophets that came after.
9 Hence you will find those divinely favored men honored
with the name of Christ, according to the passage which says of them,
"Touch not my Christs, and do my prophets no harm."[5]
88
10 So that it is clearly necessary to consider that
religion, which has lately been preached to all nations through the
teaching of Christ, the first and most ancient of all religions, and the
one discovered by those divinely favored men in the age of Abraham.
11 If it is said that Abraham, a long time afterward, was
given the command of circumcision, we reply that nevertheless before
this it was declared that he had received the testimony of righteousness
through faith; as the divine word says, "Abraham believed in God, and
it was counted unto him for righteousness."[6]
12 And indeed unto Abraham, who was thus before his
circumcision a justified man, there was given by God, who revealed
himself unto him (but this was Christ himself, the word of God), a
prophecy in regard to those who in coming ages should be justified in
the same way as he. The prophecy was in the following words: "And
in thee shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed.''[7] And
again, "He shall become a nation great and numerous; and in him shall
all the nations of the earth be blessed.''[8]
13 It is permissible to understand this as fulfilled in us.
For he, having renounced the superstition of his fathers, and the former
error of his life, and having confessed the one God over all, and
having worshiped him with deeds of virtue, and not with the service of
the law which was afterward given by Moses, was justified by faith in
Christ, the Word of God, who appeared unto him. To him, then, who was a
man of this character, it was said that all the tribes and all the
nations of the earth should be blessed in him.
14 But that very religion of Abraham has reappeared at the
present time, practiced in deeds, more efficacious than words, by
Christians alone throughout the world.
15 What then should prevent the confession that we who are
of Christ practice one and the same mode of life and have one and the
same religion as those divinely favored men of old? Whence it is evident
that the perfect religion committed to us by the teaching of Christ is
not new and strange, but, if the truth must be spoken, it is the first
and the true religion. This may suffice for this subject.
CHAPTER V.
The Time of his Appearance among Men.
1 AND now, after this necessary introduction to our
proposed history of the Church, we can enter, so to speak, upon our
journey, beginning with the appearance of our Saviour in the flesh. And
we invoke God, the Father of the Word, and him, of whom we have been
speaking, Jesus Christ himself our Saviour and Lord, the heavenly Word
of God, as our aid and fellow-laborer in the narration of the truth.
2 It was in the forty-second year of the reign of
Augustus[1] and the twenty-eighth after the subjugation of Egypt and the
death of Antony and Cleopatra, with whom the dynasty of the Ptolemies
in Egypt came to an end, that our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was
born in Bethlehem of Judea, according to the prophecies which had been
uttered concerning him.[2] His birth took place during the first
census, while Cyrenius was governor of Syria.[3]
3 Flavius Josephus, the most celebrated of Hebrew
historians, also mentions this census,[4] which was taken during
Cyrenius'
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term of office. In the same connection he gives an account of the
uprising of the Galileans, which took place at that time, of which also
Luke, among our writers, has made mention in the Acts, in the following
words: "After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the
taxing, and drew away a multitude[5] after him: he also perished; and
all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed."[6]
4 The above-mentioned author, in the eighteenth book of his
Antiquities, in agreement with these words, adds the following, which we
quote exactly: "Cyrenius, a member of the senate, one who had held
other offices and had l passed through them all to the consulship, a man
also of great dignity in other respects, came to Syria with a small
retinue, being sent by C'sar to be a judge of the nation and to make an
assessment of their property."[7]
5 And after a little[8] he says: "But Judas,[9] a
Gaulonite, from a city called Gamala, taking with him Sadduchus,[10] a
Pharisee, urged the people to revolt, both of them saying that the
taxation meant nothing else than downright slavery, and exhorting the
nation to defend their liberty."
6 And in the second book of his History of the Jewish War,
he writes as follows concerning the same man: "At this time a certain
Galilean, whose name was Judas, persuaded his countrymen to revolt,
declaring that they were cowards if they submitted to pay tribute to the
Romans, and if they endured, besides God, masters who were mortal."[11]
These things are recorded by Josephus.
CHAPTER VI.
About the Time of Christ, in accordance with Prophecy, the Rulers who
had governed the Fewish Nation in Regular Succession from the Days of
Antiquity came to an End, and Herod, the First Foreigner, became King.
1 When Herod,[1] the first ruler of foreign blood, became
King, the prophecy of Moses received its fulfillment, according to which
there should "not be wanting a prince of Judah, nor a ruler from his
loins, until he come for whom it is reserved."[2] The latter, he also
shows, was to be the expectation of the nations.[3]
2 This prediction remained unfulfilled so long as it was
permitted them to live under rulers from their own nation, that is, from
the time of Moses to the reign of Augustus. Under the latter, Herod,
the first foreigner, was given the Kingdom of the Jews by the Romans.
As Josephus relates,[4] he was an Idumean[5] on his father's side and
an Arabian on his mother's. But Africanus,[6] who was also no common
writer, says that they who were more accurately informed about him
report that he was a son of Antipater, and that the latter was the son
of a certain Herod of Ascalon,[7] one of the so-called
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servants[8] of the temple of Apollo.
3 This Antipater, having been taken a prisoner while a boy
by Idumean robbers, lived with them, because his father, being a poor
man, was unable to pay a ransom for him. Growing up in their practices
he was afterward befriended by Hyrcanus,[9] the high priest of the Jews.
A son of his was that Herod who lived in the, times of our Saviour.[10]
4 When the Kingdom of the Jews had devolved upon such a man
the expectation of the nations was, according to prophecy, already at
the door. For with him their princes and governors, who had ruled in
regular succession from the time of Moses came to an end.
5 Before their captivity and their transportation to
Babylon they were ruled by Saul first and then by David, and before the
kings leaders governed them who were called Judges, and who came after
Moses and his successor Jesus.
6 After their return from Babylon they continued to have
without interruption an aristocratic form of government, with an
oligarchy. For the priests had the direction of affairs until Pompey,
the Roman general, took Jerusalem by force, and defiled the holy places
by entering the very innermost sanctuary of the temple.[11]
Aristobulus,[12] who, by the right of ancient succession, had been up to
that time both king and high priest, he sent with his children in
chains to Rome; and gave to Hyrcanus, brother of Aristobulus, the high
priesthood, while the whole nation of the Jews was made tributary to the
Romans from that time.[13]
7 But Hyrcanus, who was the last of the regular line of
high priests, was, very soon afterward taken prisoner by the
Parthians,[14] and Herod, the first foreigner, as I have already said,
was made King of the Jewish nation by the Roman senate and by Augustus.
8 Under him Christ appeared in bodily shape, and the
expected Salvation of the nations and their calling followed in
accordance with prophecy.[15] From this time the princes and rulers of
Judah, I mean of the Jewish nation, came to an end, and as a natural
consequence the order of the high priesthood, which from ancient times
had proceeded regularly in closest succession from generation to
generation, was immediately thrown into confusion,[16]
9 Of these things Josephus is also a witness,[17] who shows
that when Herod was made King by the Romans he no longer appointed the
high priests from the ancient line, but gave the honor to certain
obscure persons. A course similar to that of Herod in the appointment of
the priests was pursued by his son Archelaus,[18] and after him by the
Romans, who took the government into their own hands.[19]
10 The same writer shows[20] that Herod was the first that locked
up the sacred garment of the high priest. under his own seal and refused
to permit the high priests to keep it for themselves. The same course
was followed by Archelaus after him, and after Archelaus by the Romans.
11 These things have been recorded by us in order to show that
another prophecy has been fulfilled in the appearance of our Saviour
Jesus Christ. For the Scripture, in the book of Daniel,[21] having
expressly mentioned a certain number of weeks until the coming of
Christ, of which we have treated in other books,[22] most clearly
prophesies, that after the completion of those weeks the unction among
the Jews should totally perish. And this, it has been clearly shown, was
fulfilled at the time of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. This
has been neces-
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sarily premised by us as a proof of the correctness of the time.
CHAPTER VII.
The
Alleged Discrepancy in the Gospels in regard
to the Genealogy of Christ.
1 Matthew and Luke in their gospels have given us the
genealogy of Christ differently, and many suppose that they are at
variance with one another. Since as a consequence every believer, in
ignorance of the truth, has been zealous to invent some explanation
which shall harmonize the two passages, permit us to subjoin the account
of the matter which has come down to us,[1] and which is given by
Africanus, who was mentioned by us just above, in his epistle to
Aristides,[2] where he discusses the harmony of the gospel genealogies.
After refuting the opinions of others as forced and deceptive, he give
the account which he had received from tradition[3] in these words:
2 "For whereas the names of the generations were reckoned in
Israel either according to nature or according to law;--according to
nature by the succession of legitimate offspring, and according to law
whenever another raised up a child to the name of a brother dying
childless;[4] for because a clear hope of resurrection was not yet
given they had a representation of the future promise by a kind of
mortal resurrection, in order that the name of the one deceased might be
perpetuated;--
3 whereas then some of those who are inserted in this
genealogical table succeeded by natural descent, the son to the father,
while others, though born of one father, were ascribed by name to
another, mention was made of both of those who were progenitors in fact
and of those who were so only in name.
4 Thus neither of the gospels is in error, for one reckons
by nature, the other by law. For the line of descent from Solomon and
that from Nathan[5] were so involved, the one with the other, by the
raising up of children to the childless and by second marriages, that
the same persons are justly considered to belong at one time to one, at
another time to another; that is, at one time to the reputed fathers, at
another to the actual fathers. So that both these accounts are strictly
true and come down to Joseph with considerable intricacy indeed, yet
quite accurately.
5 But in order that what I have said may be made clear I
shall explain the interchange of the generations. If we reckon the
generations from David through Solomon, the third from the end is found
to be Matthan, who begat Jacob the father of Joseph. But if, with Luke,
we reckon them from Nathan the son of David, in like manner the third
from the end is Melchi,[6] whose son Eli was the father of Joseph. For
Joseph was the son of Eli,the son of Melchi.
6 Joseph therefore being the object proposed to us, it must
be shown how it is that each is recorded to be his father, both Jacob,
who derived his descent from Solomon, and Eli, who derived his from
Nathan; first how it is that these two, Jacob and Eli, were brothers,
and then how it is that their fathers, Matthan and Melchi, although of
different families, are declared to be grandfathers of Joseph.
7 Matthan and Melchi having married in succession the same
woman, begat children who were uterine brothers, for the law did not
prohibit a widow, whether such by divorce or by the death of her
husband, from marryinganother.
8 By Estha[7] then (for this was the woman's name according
to tradition) Matthan, a descendant of Solomon, first begat Jacob.
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And when Matthan was dead, Melchi, who traced his descent back to
Nathan, being of the same tribe[8] but of another family,[9] married her
as before said, and begat a son Eli.
9 Thus we shall find the two, Jacob and Eli, although
belonging to different families, yet brethren by the same mother. Of
these the one, Jacob, when his brother Eli had died childless, took the
latter's wife and begat by her a son to Joseph, his own son by nature n
and in accordance with reason. Wherefore also it is written: 'Jacob
begat Joseph.'[12] But according to law[13] he was the son of Eli, for
Jacob, being the brother of the latter, raised up seed to him.
10 Hence the genealogy traced through him will not be
rendered void, which the evangelist Matthew in his enumeration gives
thus: 'Jacob begat Joseph.' But Luke, on the other hand, says: 'Who was
the son, as was supposed'[14] (for this he also adds), 'of Joseph, the
son of Eli, the son of Melchi'; for he could not more clearly express
the generation according to law. And the expression 'he begat' he has
omitted in his genealogical table up to the end, tracing the genealogy
back to Adam the son of God. This interpretation is neither incapable of
proof nor is it an idle conjecture.[15]
11 For the relatives of our Lord according to the flesh,
whether with the desire of boasting or simply wishing to state the fact,
in either case truly, have banded down the following account:[16] Some
Idumean robbers,[17] having attacked Ascalon, a city of Palestine,
carried away from a temple of Apollo which stood near the walls, in
addition to other booty, Antipater, son of a certain temple slave named
Herod. And since the priest[18] was not able to pay the ransom for his
son, Antipater was brought up in the customs of the Idumeans, and
afterward was befriended by Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews.
12 And having, been sent by Hyrcanus on an embassy to
Pompey, and having restored to
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him the kingdom which had been invaded by his brother Aristobulus, he
had the good fortune to be named procurator of Palestine.[19] But
Antipater having been slain by those who were envious of his great good
fortune[20] was succeeded by his son Herod, who was afterward, by a
decree of the senate, made King of the Jews[21] under Antony and
Augustus. His sons were Herod and the other tetrarchs.[22] These
accounts agree also with those of the Greeks.[23]
13 But as there had been kept in the archives[24] up to
that time the genealogies of the Hebrews as well as of those who traced
their lineage back to proselytes,[25] such as Achior [26] the Ammonite
and Ruth the Moabitess, and to those who were mingled with the
Israelites and came out of Egypt with them, Herod, inasmuch as the
lineage of the Israelites contributed nothing to his advantage, and
since he was goaded with the consciousness of his own ignoble
extraction, burned all the genealogical records,[27] thinking that he
might appear of noble origin if no one else were able, from the public
registers, to trace back his lineage to the patriarchs or proselytes and
to those mingled with them, who were called Georae.[28]
14 A few of the careful, however, having obtained private
records of their own, either by remembering the names or by getting them
in some other way from the registers, pride themselves on preserving
the memory of their noble extraction. Among these are those already
mentioned, called Desposyni,[29] on account of their connection with
the family of the Saviour. Coming from Nazara and Cochaba,[30]
villages of Judea,[31] into other parts of the world, they drew the
aforesaid genealogy from memory[32] and from the book of daily
records[33] as faithfully as possible.
15 Whether then the case stand thus or not no one could
find a clearer explanation, according to my own opinion and that of
every candid person. And let this suffice us,
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for, although we can urge no testimony in its support,[34] we have
nothing. better or truer to offer. In any case the Gospel states the
truth." And at the end of the same epistle he adds these words:
"Matthan, who was descended from Solomon, begat Jacob. And when Matthan
was dead, Melchi, who was descended from Nathan begat Eli by the same
woman. Eli and Jacob were thus uterine brothers. Eli having died
childless, Jacob raised up seed to him, begetting Joseph, his own son by
nature, but by law the son of Eli. Thus Joseph was the son of both."
17 Thus far Africanus. And the lineage of Joseph being thus
traced, Mary also is virtually shown to be of the same tribe with him,
since, according to the law of Moses, inter-marriages between different
tribes were not permitted.[35] For the command is to marry one of the
same family[36] and lineage,[37] so that the inheritance may not pass
from tribe to tribe. This may suffice here.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Cruelty of Herod toward the Infants, and
the Manner of his Death.
1 When Christ was born, according to the prophecies, in
Bethlehem of Judea, at the time indicated, Herod was not a little
disturbed by the enquiry of the magi who came from the east, asking
where he who was born King of the Jews was to be found,--for they had
seen his star, and this was their reason for taking so long a journey;
for they earnestly desired to worship the infant as God,[1]-- for he
imagined that his kingdom might be endangered; and he enquired therefore
of the doctors of the law, who belonged to the Jewish nation, where
they expected Christ to be born. When he learned that the prophecy of
Micah[2] announced that Bethlehem was to be his birthplace he
commanded, in a single edict, all the male infants in Bethlehem,
and all its borders, that were two years of age or less,
according to the time which he had accurately ascertained from the
magi, to be slain, supposing that Jesus, as was indeed likely, would
share the same fate as the others of his own age.
2 But the child anticipated the snare, being carried into
Egypt by his parents, who had learned from an angel that appeared unto
them what was about to happen, These things are recorded by the Holy
Scriptures in the Gospel.[3]
3 It is worth while, in addition to this, to observe the
reward which Herod received for his daring crime against Christ and
those of the same age. For immediately, without the least delay, the
divine vengeance overtook him while he was still alive, and gave him a
foretaste of what he was to receive after death.
4 It is not possible to relate here how he tarnished the
supposed felicity of his reign by successive calamities in his family,
by the murder of wife and children, and others of his nearest relatives
and dearest friends.[4] The account, which casts every other tragic
drama into the shade, is detailed at length in the histories of
Josephus.[5] 5 How, immediately after his crime against our
Saviour and the other infants, the punishment sent by God drove him on
to his death, we can best learn from the words of that historian who, in
the seventeenth book of his Antiquities of the Jews, writes as follows
concerning his end:[6]"
6 But the disease of Herod grew more severe, God inflicting
punishment for his crimes. For a slow fire burned in him which was not
so apparent to those who touched him, but augmented his internal
distress; for he had a terrible desire for food which it was not
possible to resist. He was affected also with ulceration of the
intestines, and with especially severe pains in the colon, while a
watery and transparent humor settled about his feet.
7 He suffered also from a similar trouble in his abdomen.
Nay more, his privy member was putrefied and produced worms. He found
also excessive difficulty in breathing, and it was particularly
disagreeable because of the offensive-
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ness of the odor and the rapidity of respiration.
8 He had convulsions also in every limb, which gave him
uncontrollable strength. It was said, indeed, by those who possessed the
power of divination and wisdom to explain such events, that God had
inflicted this punishment upon the King on account of his great impiety."
9 The writer mentioned above recounts these things in the
work referred to. And in the second book of his History he gives a
similar account of the same Herod, which runs as follows:[7] "The
disease then seized upon his whole body and distracted it by various
torments. For he had a slow fever, and the itching of the skin of his
whole body was insupportable. He suffered also from continuous pains in
his colon, and there were swellings on his feet like those of a person
suffering from dropsy, while his abdomen was inflamed and his privy
member so putrefied as to produce worms. Besides this he could breathe
only in an upright posture, and then only with difficulty, and he had
convulsions in all his limbs, so that the diviners said that his
diseases were a punishment.[8] 10 But he, although wrestling
with such sufferings, nevertheless clung to life and hoped for safety,
and devised methods of cure. For instance, crossing over Jordan he used
the warm baths at Callirhoë,[9] which flow into the Lake
Asphaltites,[10] but are themselves sweet enough to drink.
11 His physicians here thought that they could warm his
whole body again by means of heated oil. But when they had let him down
into a tub filled with oil, his eyes became weak and turned up like the
eyes of a dead person. But when his attendants raised an outcry, he
recovered at the noise; but finally, despairing of a cure, he commanded
about fifty drachms to be distributed among the soldiers, and great sums
to be given to his generals 12 and friends.
12 Then returning he came to Jericho, where, being seized
with melancholy, he planned to commit an impious deed, as if challenging
death itself. For, collecting from every town the most illustrious men
of all Judea, he commanded that they be shut up in the so-called
hippodrome. 13 And having summoned Salome,[11] his sister,
and her husband, Alexander,[12] he said: 'I know that the Jews
will rejoice at my death. But I may be lamented by others and have a
splendid funeral if you are willing to perform my commands. When I
shall expire surround these men, who are now under guard, as quickly as
possible with soldiers, and slay them, in order that all Judea and
every house may weep for me even against their will.'"[13] And after a
little Josephus says,
14 "And again he was so tortured by want of food and by a
convulsive cough that, overcome by his pains, he planned to
anticipate his fate. Taking an apple he asked also for a knife,
for he was accustomed to cut apples and eat them. Then looking round to
see that there was no one to hinder, he raised his right hand as if to
stab himself."[14]
15 In addition to these things the same writer records that
he slew another of his own sons[13] before his death, the third one
slain by his command, and that immediately afterward he breathed his
last, not without excessive pain.
16 Such was the end of Herod, who suffered a just
punishment for his slaughter of the children of Bethlehem,[16] which was
the result of his plots against our Saviour.
17 After this an angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in
Egypt and commanded him to go to Judea with the child and its mother,
revealing to him that those who had sought the life of the child were
dead.[7] To this the evangelist adds, "But when he heard that Archelaus
did reign in the room of his father Herod he was afraid to go thither;
notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream he turned aside into the
parts of Galilee."[18]
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CHAPTER IX.
The Times of Pilate.
THE historian already mentioned agrees with the evangelist in regard to
the fact that Archelaus[1] succeeded to the government after Herod. He
records the manner in which he received the kingdom of the Jews by the
will of his father Herod and by the decree of C'sar Augustus, and how,
after he had reigned ten years, he lost his kingdom, and his brothers
Philip[2] and Herod the younger,[3] with Lysanias,[4] still ruled their
own tetrarchies. The same writer, in the eighteenth book of his
Antiquities,[5] says that about the twelfth year of the reign of
Tiberius,[6] who had succeeded to the empire after Augustus had ruled
fifty-seven years,[7] Pontius Pilate was entrusted with the government
of Judea, and that he remained there ten full years, almost until the
death of Tiberius.
2 Accordingly the forgery of those who have recently given
currency to acts against our Saviour[8] is clearly proved. For the very
date given in them[9] shows the falsehood of their fabricators.
3 For the things which they have dared to say concerning
the passion of the Saviour are put into the fourth consulship of
Tiberius, which occurred in the seventh year of his reign; at which time
it is plain that Pilate was not yet ruling in Judea, if the testimony
of Josephus is to be believed, who clearly shows in the above-mentioned
work[10] that Pilate was made procurator of Judea by Tiberius in the
twelfth year of his reign.
CHAPTER, X.
The High Priests of the Jews under whom Christtaught.
1 IT was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius,[1]
according to the evangelist, and in the fourth year of the governorship
of Pontius Pilate,[2] while Herod and Lysanias and Philip were ruling
the rest of Judea,[3] that our Saviour and Lord, Jesus the Christ of
God, being about thirty years of age,[4] came to John for baptism and
began the promulgation of the Gospel.
2 The Divine Scripture says, moreover, that he passed the
entire time of his ministry under the high priests Annas and
Caiaphas,[5] showing that in the time which be-
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longed to the priesthood of those two men the whole period of his
teaching was completed. Since he began his work during the high
priesthood of Annas and taught until Caiaphas held the office, the
entire time does not comprise quite four years.
3 For the rites of the law having been already abolished
since that time, the customary usages in connection with the worship of
God, according to which the high priest acquired his office by
hereditary descent and held it for life, were also annulled and there
were appointed to the high priesthood by the Roman governors now one and
now another person who continued in office not more than one year.[6]
4 Josephus relates that there were four high priests in
succession from Annas to Caiaphas. Thus in the same book of the
Antiquities[7] he writes as follows: "Valerius Graters[8] having put an
end to the priesthood of Ananus[9] appoints Ishmael,[10] the son of
Fabi, high priest. And having removed him after a little he appoints
Eleazer,[11] the son of Ananus the high priest, to the same office. And
having removed him also at the end of a year he gives the high
priesthood to Simon,[12] the son of Camithus. But he likewise held the
honor no more than a year, when Josephus, called also Caiaphas,[13]
succeeded him." Accordingly the whole time of our Saviour's ministry is
shown to have been not quite four full years, four high priests, from
Annas to the accession of Caiaphas, having held office a year each. The
Gospel therefore has rightly indicated Caiaphas as the high priest under
whom the Saviour suffered. From which also we can see that the time of
our Saviour's ministry does not disagree with the foregoing
investigation.
5 Our Saviour and Lord, not long after the 5 beginning of
his ministry, called the twelve apostles,[14] and these alone of all his
disciples he named apostles, as an especial honor. And again he
appointed seventy others whom he sent out two by two before his face
into every place and city whither he himself was about to come.[15]
CHAPTER XI.
Testimonies in Regard to John the Baptist and
Christ.
1 NOT long after this John the Baptist was beheaded by the
younger Herod,[1] as is stated in the Gospels.[2] Josephus also records
the same fact,[3] making mention of Herodias[4] by name, and
stating that, although she was the wife of his brother, Herod made her
his own wife after divorcing his former lawful wife, who was the
daughter of Aretas,[5] king of Petra, and separating Herodias from her
husband while he was still alive.
2 It was on her account also that he slew John, and waged
war with Aretas, because of the disgrace inflicted on the daughter of
the latter. Josephus relates that in this war, when they came to battle,
Herod's entire army was destroyed,[6] and that he suffered this
calamity on account of his crime against John.
3 The same Josephus confesses in this account that John the
Baptist was an exceedingly righteous man, and thus agrees with the
things written of him in the Gospels. He records also that Herod lost
his kingdom on account of
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the same Herodias, and that he was driven into banishment with her, and
condemned to live at Vienne in Gaul.[7]
4 He relates these things in the eighteenth book of the
Antiquities, where he writes of John in the following words:[8] "It
seemed to some of the Jews that the army of Herod was destroyed by God,
who most justly avenged John called the Baptist.
5 For Herod slew him, a good man and one who exhorted the
Jews to come and receive baptism, practicing virtue and exercising
righteousness toward each other and toward God; for baptism would appear
acceptable unto Him when they employed it, not for the remission of
certain sins, but for the purification of the body, as the soul had
been already purified in righteousness.
6 And when others gathered about him (for they found much
pleasure in listening to his words), Herod feared that his great
influence might lead to some sedition, for they appeared ready to do
whatever he might advise. He therefore considered it much better, before
any new thing should be done under John's influence, to anticipate it
by slaying him, than to repent after revolution had come, and when he
found himself in the midst of difficulties.[9] On account of Herod's
suspicion John was sent in bonds to the above-mentioned citadel of
Mach'ra,[10] and there slain."
7 After relating these things concerning John, he makes
mention of our Saviour in the same work, in the following words:[11]
"And there lived at that time Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it be proper
to call him a man. For he was a doer of wonderful works, and a teacher
of such men as receive the truth in gladness. And he attached to himself
many of the Jews, and many also of the Greeks. He was the Christ.
8 When Pilate, on the accusation of our principal men,
condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him in the beginning did
not cease loving him. For he appeared unto them again alive on the
third day, the divine prophets having told these and countless other
wonderful things concerning him. Moreover, the race of Christians, named
after him, continues down to the present day."
9 Since an historian, who is one of the Hebrews themselves,
has recorded in his work these things concerning John the Baptist and
our Saviour, what excuse is there left for not convicting them of being
destitute of all shame, who have forged the acts against them?[12] But
let this suffice here.
CHAPTER XII.
The Disciples of our Saviour.
1 THE names of the apostles of our Saviour are known to
every one from the Gospels.[1] But there exists no catalogue of the
seventy disciples.[2] Barnabas, indeed, is said to have been one of
them, of whom the Acts of the apostles makes mention in various
places,[3]
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and especially Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians.[4]
2 They say that Sosthenes also, who wrote to the
Corinthians with Paul, was one of them.[5] This is the account of
Clement[6] in the fifth book of his Hypotyposes, in which he also
says that Cephas was one of the seventy disciples,[7] a man who bore the
same name as the apostle Peter, and the one concerning whom Paul says,
"When Cephas came to Antioch I withstood him to his face."[8]
3 Matthias,[9] also, who was numbered with the
apostles in the place of Judas, and the one who was honored by being
made a candidate with him,[10] are like-wise said to have been deemed
worthy of the same calling with the seventy. They say that Thaddeus[11]
also was one of them, concerning whom I shall presently relate an
account which has come down to us.[12] And upon examination you will
find that our Saviour had more than seventy disciples, according to the
testimony of Paul, who says that after his resurrection from the dead he
appeared first to Cephas, then to the twelve, and after them to above
five hundred brethren at once, of whom some had fallen asleep;[13] but
the majority were still living 4 at the time he wrote.
4 Afterwards he says he appeared unto James, who was
one of the so-called brethren of the Saviour.[14] But, since in addition
to these, there were many others who were called apostles, in imitation
of the Twelve, as was Paul himself, he adds: "Afterward he appeared to
all the apostles."[15] So much in regard to these persons. But the
story concerning Thaddeus is as follows.
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CHAPTER XIII.
Narrative concerning the Prince of the Edessences.
1 The divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ being
noised abroad among all men on account of his wonder-working power, he
attracted countless numbers from foreign countries lying far away from
Judea, who had the opening of being cured of their diseases and of all
kinds of sufferings.
2 For instance the King Abgarus,[1] who ruled with
great
glory the nations beyond the Euphrates, being afflicted with a terrible
disease which it was beyond the power of human skill to cure, when he
heard of the name of Jesus, and of his miracles, which were attested by
all with one accord sent a message to him by a courier and begged him to
heal his disease.
3 But he did not at that time comply with his
request; yet he deemed him worthy of a personal letter in which he said
that he would send one of his disciples to cure his disease, and at the
same time promised salvation to himself and all his house.
4 Not long afterward his promise was fulfilled.
For after his resurrection from the dead and his ascent into heaven,
Thomas,[2] one of the twelve apostles, under divine impulse sent
Thaddeus, who was also numbered among the seventy disciples of
Christ,[3] to Edessa,[4] as a preacher and evangelist of the teaching of
Christ.
5 And all that our Saviour had promised received
through him its fulfillment. You have written evidence of these things
taken from the archives of Edessa,[5] which was at that time a royal
city. For in the public registers there, which contain accounts of
ancient times and the acts of Abgarus, these things have been found
preserved down to the present time. But there is no better way than to
hear the epistles themselves which we have taken from the archives and
have literally translated from the Syriac language[6] in the following
manner. Copy of an epistle written by Abgarus the ruler to Jesus, tend
sent to him at Jerusalem by Ananias[7] the swift courier.
6 "Abgarus, ruler Of Edessa, to Jesus the 6 excellent
Saviour who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting. I have
heard the reports of thee and of thy cures as performed by thee without
medicines or herbs. For it is said that thou makest the blind to see and
the lame to walk, that thou cleansest lepers and castest out impure
spirits and demons, and that thou healest those afflicted with lingering
disease, and raisest the dead.
7 And having heard all these things concerning thee,
I have concluded that one of two things must be true: either thou art
God, and having come down from heaven thou doest these things, or else
thou, who doest these things, art the Son of God.[8]
8 I have therefore written to thee to ask thee that thou
wouldest take the trouble to come to me and heal the disease which I
have. For I have heard that the Jews are murmuring against thee and are
plotting to injure thee. But I have a very small yet noble city which is
great enough for us both."
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The answer of Jesus to the ruler Abgarus by the
courier Ananias.
9 "Blessed art thou who hast believed in me without having seen
me.[9] For it is written concerning me, that they who have seen me will
not believe in me, and that they who have not seen me will believe and
be saved.[10] But in regard to what thou hast written me, that I should
come to thee, it is necessary for me to fulfill all things here for
which I have been sent, and after I have fulfilled them thus to be taken
up again to him that sent me. But after I have been taken up I will
send to thee one of my disciples, that he may heal thy disease and give
life to thee and thine."
10 To these epistles there was added the following account in the
Syriac language. "After the ascension of Jesus, Judas,[11] who was also
called Thomas, sent to him Thaddeus, an apostle,[12] one of the Seventy.
When he was come he lodged with Tobias,[13] the son of Tobias. When the
report of him got abroad, it was told Abgarus that an apostle of Jesus
was come, as he had written him.
11 Thaddeus began then in the power of God to heal every
disease and infirmity, insomuch that all wondered. And when Abgarus
heard of the great and wonderful things which he did and of the cures
which he performed, he began to suspect that he was the one of whom
Jesus had written him, saying, 'After I have been taken up I will send
to thee one of my disciples who will heal thee.'
12 Therefore, summoning Tobias, with whom Thaddeus
lodged, he said, I have heard that a certain man of power has come and
is lodging in thy house. Bring him to me. And Tobias coming to Thaddeus
said to him, The ruler Abgarus summoned me and told me to bring thee to
him that thou mightest heal him. And Thaddeus said, I will go, for I
have been sent to him with power.
13 Tobias therefore arose early on the following day, and
taking Thaddeus came to Abgarus. And when he came, the nobles were
present and stood about Abgarus. And immediately upon his entrance a
great vision appeared to Abgarus in the countenance of the apostle
Thaddeus. When Abgarus saw it he prostrated himself before Thaddeus,
while all those who stood about were astonished; for they did not see
the vision, which appeared to Abgarus alone.
14 He then asked Thaddeus if he were in truth a
disciple of Jesus the Son of God, who had said to him, 'I will send thee
one of my disciples, who shall heal thee and give thee life.' And
Thaddeus said, Because thou hast mightily believed in him that sent me,
therefore have I 'been sent unto thee. And still further, if thou
believest in him, the petitions of thy heart shall be granted thee as
thou believest.
15 And Abgarus said to him, So much have I
believed in him that I wished to take an army and destroy those Jews who
crucified him, had I not been deterred from it by reason of the
dominion of the Romans. And Thaddeus said, Our Lord has fulfilled the
will of his Father, and having fulfilled it has been taken up to his
Father. And Abgarus said to him, I too have believed in him and in his
Father.
16 And Thaddeus said to him, Therefore I place my
hand upon thee in his name. And when he had done it, immediately Abgarus
was cured of the disease and of the suffering which he had.
17 And Abgarus marvelled, that as he had heard
concerning Jesus, so he had received in very deed through his disciple
Thaddeus, who healed him without medicines and herbs, and not only him,
but also Abdus[14] the son of Abdus, who was afflicted with the gout;
for he too came to him and fell at his feet, and having received a
benediction by the imposition of his hands, he was healed. The same
Thaddeus cured also many other inhabitants of the city, and did wonders
and marvelous works, and preached
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18 the word of God. And afterward Abgarus said, Thou, O Thaddeus, doest
these things with the power of God, and we marvel. But, in addition to
these things, I pray thee to inform me in regard to the coming of Jesus,
how he was born; and in regard to his power, by what power he performed
those deeds of which I have heard.
19 And Thaddeus said, Now indeed will I keep silence,
since I have
been sent to proclaim the word publicly. But to-morrow assemble for me
all thy citizens, and I will preach in their presence and sow among them
the word of God, concerning the coming of Jesus, how he was born; and
concerning his mission, for what purpose he was sent by the Father; and
concerning the power of his works, and the mysteries which he
proclaimed in the world, and by what power he did these things; and
concerning his new preaching, and his abasement and humiliation, and how
he humbled himself, and died and debased his divinity and was
crucified, and descended into Hades,[15] and burst the bars which from
eternity had not been broken,[16] and raised the dead; for he descended
alone, but rose with many, and thus ascended to his Father.[17]
20 Abgarus 20 therefore commanded the citizens to assemble
early in the morning to hear the preaching of Thaddeus, and afterward he
ordered gold and silver to be given him. But he refused to take it,
saying, If we have forsaken that which was our own, how shall we take
that which is another's? These things were done in the three hundred
and fortieth year."[18]
I have inserted them here in their proper place,
translated from the Syriac[19] literally, and I hope to good purpose.
BOOK II.
INTRODUCTION.
1 WE have discussed in the preceding book those subjects in
ecclesiastical history which it was necessary to treat by way of
introduction, and have accompanied them with brief proofs. Such were the
divinity of the saving Word, and the antiquity of the doctrines which
we teach, as well as of that evangelical life which is led by
Christians, together with the events which have taken place in
connection with Christ's recent appearance, and in connection with his
passion and with the choice of the apostles.
2 In the present book let us examine the events which
took place after his ascension, confirming some of them from the divine
Scriptures, and others from such writings as we shall refer to from time
to time.
CHAffER I.
The Course pursued by the Apostles after the
Ascension of Christ.
1 First, then, in the place of Judas, the betrayer,
Matthias,[1] who, as has been shown[2] was also one of the Seventy, was
chosen to the apostolate. And there were appointed to the diaconate,[2a]
for the service of the congregation, by prayer and the laying on of the
hands of the apostles, approved men,
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seven in number, of whom Stephen was one.[3] He first, after the Lord,
was stoned to death at the time of his ordination by the slayers of the
Lord, as if he had been promoted for this very purpose.[4] And thus he
was the first to receive the crown, corresponding to his name,[5] which
belongs to the martyrs of Christ, who are worthy of the meed of victory.
2 Then James, whom the ancients surnamed the Just[6]
on account of the excellence of his virtue, is recorded to have been
the first to be made bishop of the church of Jerusalem. This James was
called the brother of the Lord[7] because he was known as a son of
Joseph,[8] and Joseph was supposed to be the father of Christ, because
the Virgin, being betrothed to him, "was found with child by the Holy
Ghost before they came together,"[9] as the account of the holy Gospels
shows.
3 But Clement in the sixth book of his
Hypotyposes[10] writes thus: "For they say that Peter and James and John
after the ascension of our Saviour, as if also preferred by our Lord,
strove not after honor, but chose James the Just bishop of
Jerusalem."[11]
4 But the same writer, in the seventh book of the
same work, relates also the following things concerning him: "The Lord
after his resurrection imparted knowledge to James the Just and to John
and Peter, and they imparted it to the rest of the apostles, and the
rest of the apostles to the seventy, of whom Barnabas was one.[12] But
there were two Jameses:[13] one called the Just, who was thrown from the
pinnacle of the temple and was beaten to death with a club by a
fuller,[14] and another who was beheaded."[15] Paul also makes mention
of the same James the Just, where he writes, "Other of the apostles saw
I none, save James the Lord's brother."[16]
5 At that time also the promise of our Saviour to the
king of the Osrhoenians was fulfilled. For Thomas, under a divine
impulse, sent Thaddeus to Edessa as a preacher and evangelist of the
religion of Christ, as we have shown a little above from the document
found there?
7 When he came to that place he healed Abgarus by the
word of Christ; and after bringing all the people there into the right
attitude of mind by means of his works, and leading them to adore the
power of Christ, he made them disciples of the Saviour's teaching. And
from that time down to the present the whole city of the Edessenes has
been devoted to the name of Christ,[18] offering no common proof of the
beneficence of our Saviour
toward them also.
8 These things have been drawn from ancient accounts;
but let us now turn again to the divine Scripture. When the first and
greatest persecution was instigated by the Jews against the church of
Jerusalem in connection with the martyrdom of Stephen, and when all the
disciples, except the Twelve, were scattered throughout Judea and
Samaria,[19] some, as the divine Scripture says, went as far as
Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but could not yet venture to impart
the word of faith to the nations, and therefore preached it to the Jews
alone.[20]
9 During this time Paul was still persecuting the
church, and entering the houses of believers was dragging men and women
away and committing them to prison.[21]
10 Philip also, one of those who with Stephen
had been entrusted with the diaconate, being among those who were
scattered abroad, went down to Samaria,[22] and being filled with the
divine power, he first preached the word to the inhabitants of that
country. And divine grace worked so mightily with him that even Simon
Magus with many others was attracted by his
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11 words.[23] Simon was at that time so celebrated, and had acquired,
by his jugglery, such influence over those who were deceived by him,
that he was thought to be the great power of God.[24] But at this time,
being amazed at the wonderful deeds wrought by Philip through the divine
power, he reigned and counterfeited faith in Christ, even going so far
as to receive baptism.[25]
12 And what is surprising, the same thing is done even to
this day by those who follow his most impure heresy.[26] For they, after
the manner of their forefather, slipping into the Church, like a
pestilential and leprous disease greatly afflict those into whom they
are able to infuse the deadly and terrible poison concealed in
themselves.[27] The most of these have been expelled as soon as they
have been caught in their wickedness, as Simon himself, when detected by
Peter, received the merited punishment.[28]
13 But as the preaching of the Saviour's Gospel
was daily advancing, a certain providence led from the land of the
Ethiopians an officer of the queen of that country,[29] for Ethiopia
even to the present day is ruled, according to ancestral custom, by a
woman. He, first among the Gentiles, received of the mysteries of the
divine word from Philip in consequence of a revelation, and having
become the first-fruits of believers throughout the world, he is said to
have been the first on returning to his country to proclaim the
knowledge of the God of the universe and the life-giving sojourn of our
Saviour among men;[30] so that through him in truth the prophecy
obtained its fulfillment, which declares that "Ethiopia stretcheth out
her hand unto God."[31]
14 In addition to these, Paul, that "chosen vessel,"[32]
"not of men neither through men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ
himself and of God the Father who raised him from the dead,"[33] was
appointed an apostle, being made worthy of the call by a vision and by a
voice which was uttered in a revelation from heaven.[34]
CHAPTER II.
How Tiberius was affected when informed by
Pilate concerning Christ.
1 AND when the wonderful resurrection and ascension of our
Saviour were already noised abroad, in accordance with an ancient
custom which prevailed among the rulers of the provinces, of reporting
to the emperor the novel occurrences which took place in them, in order
that nothing might escape him, Pontius Pilate informed Tiberius[1] of
the reports which were noised abroad through all Palestine concerning
the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus from the dead.
2 He gave an account also of other wonders which he
had learned of him, and how, after his death, having risen from the
dead, he was now believed by many to be a God.[2] They say that Tiberius
referred the matter to the Senate,[3] but that they rejected it,
ostensibly because they had not first examined into the matter (for an
ancient law prevailed
106
that no one should be made a God by the Romans except by a vote and
decree of the Senate), but in reality because the saving teaching of the
divine Gospel did not need the confirmation and recommendation of men.
3 But although the Senate of the Romans rejected the
proposition made in regard to our Saviour, Tiberius still retained the
opinion which he had held at first, and contrived no hostile measures
against Christ.[4] 4 These things are recorded by
Tertullian,[5] a man well versed in the laws of the Romans,[6] and in
other respects of high repute, and one of those especially distinguished
in Rome.[7] In his apology for the Christians,[8] which was written by
him in the Latin language, and has been translated into Greek,[9] he
writes as follows:[10]
5 "But in order that we may give an account of these
laws from their origin, it was an ancient decree n that no one should be
consecrated a God by the emperor until the Senate had expressed its
approval. Marcus Aurelius did thus concerning a certain idol,
Alburnus.[12] And this is a point in favor of our doctrine,[13] that
among you divine dignity is conferred by human decree. If a God does not
please a man he is not made a God. Thus, according to this custom, it
is necessary for man to be gracious to God.
6 Tiberius, therefore, under whom the name of Christ
made its entry into the world, when this doctrine was reported to him
from Palestine, where it first began, communicated with the Senate,
making it clear to them that he was pleased with the doctrine.[14] But
the Senate, since it had not itself proved the matter, rejected it. But
Tiberius continued to hold his own opinion, and threatened death to the
accusers of the Christians."[15] Heavenly providence had wisely
instilled this into his mind in order that the doctrine of the Gospel,
unhindered at its beginning, might spread in all directions throughout
the world.
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CHAPTER III.
The Doctrine of Christ soon spread throughout
All the World.
1 THUS, under the influence of heavenly power, and with the
divine co-operation, the doctrine of the Saviour, like the rays of the
sun, quickly illumined the whole world;[1] and straightway, in
accordance with the divine Scriptures,[2] the voice of the inspired
evangelists and apostles went forth through all the earth, and their
words to the end of the world.
2 In every city and village, churches were quickly
established, filled with multitudes of people like a replenished
threshing-floor. And those whose minds, in consequence of errors which
had descended to them from their forefathers, were fettered by the
ancient disease of idolatrous superstition, were, by the power of Christ
operating through the teaching and the wonderful works of his
disciples, set free, as it were, from terrible masters, and found a
release from the most cruel bondage. They renounced with abhorrence
every species of demoniacal polytheism, and confessed that there was
only one God, the creator of all things, and him they honored with the
rites of true piety, through the inspired and rational worship which has
been planted by our Saviour among men.
3 But the divine grace being now poured out upon the
rest of the nations Cornelius, of C'sarea in Palestine, with his whole
house, through a divine revelation and the agency of Peter, first
received faith in Christ;[3] and after him a multitude of other Greeks
in Antioch,[4] to whom those who were scattered by the persecution of
Stephen had preached the Gospel. When the church of Antioch was now
increasing and abounding, and a multitude of prophets from Jerusalem
were on the ground,[5] among them Barnabas and Paul and in addition many
other brethren, the name of Christians first sprang up there,[6] as
from a fresh and life-giving fountain.[7]And Agabus, one of the
prophets who was with them, uttered a prophecy concerning the famine
which was about to take place,[8] and Paul and Barnabas were sent to
relieve the necessities of the brethren.[9]
CHAPTER IV.
After the Death of Tiberius, Caius appointed
Agrippa King of the Jews, having punished Herod with Perpetual Exile.
Tiberius died, after having reigned about twenty-two years,[1] and Caius
succeeded him in the empire.[2] He immediately gave the government of
the Jews to Agrippa,[3] making him king over the tetrarchies of Philip
and of Ly-sanias; in addition to which he bestowed upon him, not long
afterward, the tetrarchy of Herod,[4] having punished Herod (the one
under whom the Saviour suffered[5]) and his wife Herodias with
perpetual exile[6] on account of numerous crimes. Josephus is a witness
to these facts.[7] Under this emperor, Philo[8] became known;
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a man most celebrated not only among many of our own, but also among
many scholars without the Church. He was a Hebrew by birth, but was
inferior to none of those who held high dignities in Alexandria. How
exceedingly he labored in the Scriptures and in the studies of his
nation is plain to all from the work which he has done. How familiar he
was with philosophy and with the liberal studies of foreign nations, it
is not necessary to say, since he is reported to have surpassed all his
contemporaries in the study of Platonic and Pythagorean. philosophy, to
which he particularly devoted his attention.[9]
CHAPTER V.
Philo's Embassy to Caius in Behalf of the Jews.
1 PHILO has given us an account, in five books, of the
misfortunes of the Jews under Caius.[1] He recounts at the same time the
madness of Caius: how he called himself a god, and performed as emperor
innumerable acts of tyranny; and he describes further the miseries of
the Jews under him, and gives a report of the embassy upon which he
himself was sent to Rome in behalf of his fellow-countrymen in
Alexandria;[2] how when he appeared before Caius in behalf of the laws
of his fathers he received nothing but laughter and ridicule, and almost
incurred the risk of his life. Josephus also makes mention of these
things in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, in the following
words: a "A sedition having arisen in Alexandria between the Jews that
dwell there and the Greeks,[4] three deputies were chosen from each
faction and went to Caius.
3 One of the Alexandrian deputies was Apion,[5] who uttered
many slanders against the Jews; among other things saying that they
neglected the honors due to C'sar. For while all other subjects of Rome
erected altars and temples to Caius, and in all other respects treated
him just as they did the gods, they alone considered it disgraceful to
honor him with statues and to swear by his name. And when Apion 4 had
uttered many severe charges by which he hoped that Caius would be
aroused, as indeed was likely, Philo, the chief of the Jewish embassy, a
man celebrated in every respect, a brother of Alexander the
Alabarch,[6] and not unskilled in philosophy, was prepared to enter
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upon a defense in reply to his accusations. But Caius prevented him and
ordered him to leave, and being very angry, it was plain that he
meditated some severe measure against them. And Philo departed covered
with insult and told the Jews that were with him to be of good courage;
for while Caius was raging against them he was in fact already
contending with God." Thus far Josephus. And Philo himself, in the work
On the Embassy[7] which he wrote, describes accurately and in detail the
things which were done by him at that time. But I shall omit the most
of them and record only those things which will make clearly evident to
the reader that the misfortunes of the Jews came upon them not long
after their daring deeds against Christ and on account of the same. And
in the first place he relates that at Rome in the reign of Tiberius,
Sejanus, who at that time enjoyed great influence with the emperor,
made every effort to destroy the Jewish nation utterly;[8] and that in
Judea, Pilate, under whom the crimes against the Saviour were
committed, attempted something contrary to the Jewish law in respect to
the temple, which was at that time still standing in Jerusalem, and
excited them to the greatest tumults.[9]
CHAPTER VI.
The Misfortunes which overwhelmed the Jews
after their Presumption against Christ.
1 After the death of Tiberius, Caius received the empire,
and, besides innumerable other acts of tyranny against many people, he
greatly afflicted especially the whole nation of the Jews[1] These
things we may learn briefly from the words of Philo, who writes as
follows:[2] "So great was the caprice of Caius in his2. conduct toward
all, and especially toward the nation of the Jews. The latter he so
bitterly hated that he appropriated to himself their places of worship
in the other cities,[3] and beginning with Alexandria he filled them
with images and statues of himself (for in permitting others to erect
them he really erected them himself). The temple in the holy city, which
had hitherto been left untouched, and had been regarded as an
inviolable asylum, he altered and transformed into a temple of his own,
that it might be called the temple of the visible Jupiter, the younger
Caius."[4] Innumerable other terrible and 3 almost indescribable
calamities which came upon the Jews in Alexandria during the reign of
the same emperor, are recorded by the same author in a second work, to
which he gave the title, On the Virtues.[5] With him agrees also
Josephus, who likewise indicates that the misfortunes of the whole
nation began with the time of Pilate, and with their daring crimes
against the Saviour.[6] Hear what be says in 4 the second book of his
Jewish War, where he writes as follows:[7] "Pilate being sent to Judea
as procurator by Tiberius, secretly carried veiled images of the
emperor, called ensigns,[8] to Jerusalem by night. The following day
this caused the greatest disturbance among the Jews. For those who were
near were confounded at the sight, beholding their laws, as it were,
trampled under foot. For they allow no image to be set up in their
city." Comparing 5 these things with the writings of the evangelists,
you will see that it was not long before there came upon them the
penalty for the exclamation which they had uttered under the same
Pilate, when they cried out that they had no other king than C'sar.[9]
The same 6 writer further records that after this another calamity
overtook them. He writes as follows:[10] "After this he. stirred up
another tumult by snaking use of the holy treasure, which is called
Corban,[11] in the construction of an aqueduct
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7 three hundred stadia in length.[12] The multitude were greatly
displeased at it, and when Pilate was in Jerusalem they surrounded his
tribunal and gave utterance to loud complaints. But he, anticipating the
tumult, had distributed through the crowd armed soldiers disguised in
citizen's clothing, forbidding them to use the sword, but commanding
them to strike with clubs those who should make an outcry. To them he
now gave the preconcerted signal from the tribunal. And the Jews being
beaten, many of them perished in consequence of the blows, while many
others were trampled under foot by their own countrymen in their flight,
and thus lost their lives. But the multitude, overawed by the fate of
those who
8 were slain, held their peace." In addition to these the
same author records[13] many other tumults which were stirred up in
Jerusalem itself, and shows that from that time seditions and wars and
mischievous plots followed each other in quick succession, and never
ceased in the city and in all Judea until finally the siege of Vespasian
overwhelmed them. Thus the divine vengeance overtook the Jews for the
crimes which they dared to commit against Christ.
CHAPTER VII. Pilate's Suicide.
IT is worthy of note that Pilate himself, who was
governor in the time of our Saviour, is reported to have fallen into
such misfortunes under Caius, whose times we are recording, that he was
forced to become his own murderer and executioner;[1] and thus divine
vengeance, as it seems, was not long in overtaking him. This is stated
by those Greek historians who have recorded the Olympiads, together with
the respective events which have taken place in each period.[2]
CHAPTER VIII.
The Famine which took Place in the Reign of
Claudius.
Caius had held the power not quite four 1 years,[1] when he was
succeeded by the emperor Claudius. Under him the world was visited with
a famine,[2] which writers that are entire strangers to our religion
have recorded in their histories.[3] And thus the prediction of Agabus
recorded in the Acts of the Apostles,[4] according to which the whole
world was to be visited by a famine, received its fulfillment. And 2
Luke, in the Acts, after mentioning the famine in the time of Claudius,
and stating that the brethren of Antioch, each according to his ability,
sent to the brethren of Judea by the hands of Paul and Barnabas,[5]
adds the following account.
CHAPTER IX.
The Martyrdom of James the Apostle. "[1] Now about
that time" (it is clear that 1 he means the time of Claudius)
"Herod the King[2] stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the
Church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword." And 2
concerning this James, Clement, in the seventh book of his
Hypotyposes,[3] relates a story
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which is worthy of mention; telling it as he received it from those who
had lived before him. He says that the one who led James to the
judgment-seat, when he saw him bearing his testimony, was moved, and
confessed that he was himself also a Christian.
3 They were both therefore, he says, led away together;
and on the way he begged James to forgive him. And he, after
considering a little, said, "Peace be with thee," and kissed him. And
thus they were both beheaded at the same time.
4 And then, as the divine Scripture says,[4] Herod, upon
the death of James, seeing that the deed pleased the Jews, attacked
Peter also and committed him to prison, and would have slain him if he
had not, by the divine appearance of an angel who came to him by night,
been wonderfully released from his bonds, and thus liberated for the
service of the Gospel. Such was the providence of God in respect to
Peter.
CHAPTER X.
Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles,
immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.
1 THE consequences of the king's undertaking against the
apostles were no, long deferred, but the avenging minister of divine
justice overtook him immediately after his plots against them, as the
Book of Acts records.[1] For when he had journeyed to C'sarea, on a
notable feast-day, clothed in a splendid and royal garment, he delivered
an address to the people from a lofty throne in front of the tribunal.
And when all the multitude applauded the speech, as if it were the
voice of a god and not of a man, the Scripture relates that an angel of
the Lord smote him, and being eaten of worms he gave up the ghost.[2]
2 We must admire the account of Josephus for its agreement
with the divine Scriptures in regard to this wonderful event; for he
clearly bears witness to the truth in the nineteenth book of his
Antiquities, where he relates the wonder in the following words:[3]
3 "He had completed the third year of his reign over all
Judea[4] when he came to C'sarea, which was formerly called
Strato's Tower.[5] There he held games in honor of C'sar, learning that
this was a festival observed in behalf of C'sar's safety.[6] At this
festival was collected a great multitude of the highest and most
honorable men in the province.
4 And on the second day of the games he proceeded to the
theater at break of day, wearing a garment entirely of silver and of
wonderful texture. And there the silver, illuminated by the reflection
of the sun's earliest rays, shone marvelously, gleaming so brightly as
to produce a sort of fear and terror in those who gazed upon him.
5 And immediately his flatterers, some from one place,
others from another, raised up their voices in a way that was not for
his good, calling him a god, and saying, 'Be thou merciful; if up to
this time we have feared thee as a man, henceforth we confess that thou
art superior to the nature of mortals.'
6 The king did not rebuke them, nor did he reject their
impious
flattery. But after a little, looking up, he saw an angel sitting above
his head.[7] And this he quickly perceived would be the cause of evil as
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it had once been the cause of good fortune,[8] and he was smitten with
a heart-piercing pain.
7 And straightway distress, beginning with the greatest
violence, seized his bowels. And looking upon his friends he said, 'I,
your god, am now commanded to depart this life; and fate thus I on the
spot disproves the lying words you have just uttered concerning me. He
who has been called immortal by you is now led away to die; but our
destiny must be accepted as God has determined it. For we have passed
our life by no means ingloriously, but in that splendor which is
pronounced happiness.'9
8 And when he had said this he labored with an increase of
pain. He was accordingly carried in haste to the palace, while the
report spread among all that the king would undoubtedly soon die. But
the multitude, with their wives and children, sitting on sackcloth after
the custom of their fathers, implored God in behalf of the king, and
every place was filled with lamentation and tears.[10] And the king as
he lay in a lofty chamber, and saw them below lying prostrate on the
ground, could not refrain from weeping himself.
9 And after suffering continually for five days with pain
in the bowels, he departed this life, in the fifty-fourth year of his
age, and in the seventh year of his reign.[11] Four years he ruled under
the Emperor Caius--three of them over the tetrarchy of Philip, to which
was added in the fourth year that of Herod[12] --and three years during
the reign of the Emperor Claudius."
10 I marvel greatly that Josephus, in these things as well as in
others, so fully agrees with the divine Scriptures. But if there should
seem to any one to be a disagreement in respect to the name of the king,
the time at least and the events show that the same person is meant,
whether the change of name has been caused by the error of a copyist,
or is due to the fact that he, like so many, bore two names.[13]
CHAPTER XI.
The Impostor Theudas and his Followers.
1 LUKE, in the Acts, introduces Gamaliel as saying, at the
consultation which was held concerning the apostles, that at the time
referred to,[1] "rose up Theudas boasting himself to be somebody; who
was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered."[2] Let us
therefore add the account of Josephus concerning this man. He records in
the work mentioned just above, the following circumstances:[3]
2 "While Fadus was procurator of Judea[4] a certain
impostor called Theudas[5] persuaded
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a very great multitude to take their possessions and follow him to the
river Jordan. For he said that he was a prophet, and that the river
should be divided at his command, and afford them an easy passage.
3 And with these words he deceived many. But Fadus did not
permit them to enjoy their folly, but sent a troop of horsemen against
them, who fell upon them unexpectedly and slew many of them and took
many others alive, while they took Theudas himself captive, and cut off
his head and carried it to Jerusalem." Besides this he also makes
mention of the famine, which took place in the reign of Claudius, in the
following words.
CHAPTER XII.
Helen, the Queen of the Osrhoenians.
1 [1]"AND at this time" it came to pass that
the great famine a took place in Judea, in which the queen Helen,[4]
having purchased grain from Egypt with large sums, distributed it to the
needy."
You will find this statement also in agreement with
the Acts of the Apostles, where it is said that the disciples at
Antioch, "each according to his ability, determined to send relief to
the brethren that dwelt in Judea; which also they did, and sent it to
the elders by 3 the hands of Barnabas and Paul."[5] But splendid
monuments[6] of this Helen, Of whom the historian has made mention, are
still shown in the suburbs of the city which is now called 'lia,[7] But
she is said to have been queen of the Adiabeni.[8]
CHAPTER XIII.
Simon Magus.[1]
But faith in our Saviour and Lord Jesus 1 Christ having now
been diffused among all men,[2] the enemy of man's salvation contrived a
plan for seizing the imperial city for himself. He conducted thither
the above-mentioned Simon,[3] aided him in his deceitful arts, led many
of the inhabitants of Rome astray, and thus brought them into his own
power. This is 2 stated by Justin,[4] one of our distinguished
writers who lived not long after the time of the apostles. Concerning
him I shall speak in the proper place.[5] Take and read the work of this
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man, who in the first Apology[6] which he addressed to
Antonine in behalf of our religion writes 3 as follows:[7] "And
after the ascension of the Lord into heaven the demons put
forward certain men who said they were gods, and who were not only
allowed by you to go unpersecuted, but were even deemed worthy of
honors. One of them was Simon, a Samaritan of the village of Gitto,[8]
who in the reign of Claudius C'sar[9] performed in your imperial city
some mighty acts of magic by the art of demons operating in him, and was
considered a god, and as a god was honored by you with a statue, which
was erected in the river Tiber,[10] between the two bridges, and bore
this inscription in the Latin tongue, Simoni Deo Sancto, that is, To
Simon the Holy God.[11] And nearly all the Samaritans and a few even of
other nations confess and worship him as the first God. And there went
around with him at that time a certain Helena[12] who had formerly been
a prostitute in Tyre of Phoenicia; and her they call the first idea
that proceeded from him."[13] Justin relates these things, and Iren'us
also 5 agrees with him in the first book of his work, Against Heresies,
where he gives an account of the man[14] and of his profane and impure
teaching. It would be superfluous to quote his account here, for it is
possible for those who wish to know the origin and the lives and the
false doctrines of each of the heresiarchs that have followed him, as
well as the customs practiced by them all, to find them treated at
length in the above-mentioned work of Iren'us. We 6 have understood
that Simon was the author of all heresy.[15] From his time down to the
present those who have followed his heresy have reigned the sober
philosophy of the Christians, which is celebrated among all on account
of its purity of life. But they nevertheless have embraced again the
superstitions of idols, which they seemed to have renounced; and they
fall down before pictures and images of Simon himself and of the
above-mentioned Helena who was with him; and they venture to worship
them with incense and sacrifices and libations. But those matters which
they keep 7 more secret than these, in regard to which they say that one
upon first hearing them would be astonished, and, to use one of the
written phrases in vogue among them, would be confounded,[16] are in
truth full of amazing things, and of madness and folly, being of such a
sort that it is impossible not only to commit them to writing, but also
for modest men even to utter them with the lips on account of their
excessive baseness and lewdness.[17] For what 8 ever could be conceived
of, viler than the
vilest thing -- all that has been outdone by this most abominable sect,
which is composed of those who make a sport of those miserable females
that are literally overwhelmed with all kinds of vices.[18]
CHAPTER XIV.
The Preaching of the Apostle Peter in Rome.
1 The evil power,[1] who hates all that is good
and plots against the salvation of men, constituted Simon at that time
the father and author of such wickedness,[2] as if to make him a mighty
antagonist of the great, inspired apostles of our Saviour. For that
divine and celestial grace which co-operates with its ministers, by
their appearance and presence, quickly extinguished the kindled flame of
evil, and humbled and cast down through them "every high thing that
exalted itself against the knowledge of God."[3] Wherefore neither the
conspiracy of Simon nor that of any of the others who arose at that
period could accomplish anything in those apostolic times. For
everything was conquered and subdued by the splendors of the truth and
by the divine word itself which had but lately begun to shine from
heaven upon men, and which was then flourishing upon earth, and dwelling
in the apostles themselves. Immediately[4] the above-mentioned impostor
was smitten in the eyes of his mind by a divine and miraculous flash,
and after the evil deeds done by him had been first detected by the
apostle Peter in Judea,[5] he fled and made a great journey across the
sea from the East to the West, thinking that only thus could he live
according to his mind. And coming to the city of Rome,[6] by the mighty
co-operation of that power which was lying in wait there, he was in a
short time so successful in his undertaking that those who dwelt there
honored him as a god by the 6 erection of a statue.[7] But this
did not last long. For immediately, during the reign of
Claudius, the all-good and gracious Providence, which watches over all
things, led Peter, that strongest and greatest of the apostles, and the
one who on account of his virtue was the speaker for all the others, to
Rome s against this great corrupter of life. He like a noble commander
of God, clad in divine armor, carried the costly merchandise of the
light of the understanding from the East to those who dwelt in the
West, proclaiming the light itself, and the word which brings salvation
to souls, and preaching the kingdom of heaven.[9]
CHAPTER XV.
The Gospel according to Mark.
AND thus when the divine word had made its home
among them,[1] the power of
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Simon was quenched and immediately destroyed, together with the man
himself.[2] And so greatly did the splendor of piety illumine the minds
of Peter's hearers that they were not satisfied with hearing once only,
and were not content with the unwritten teaching of the divine Gospel,
but with all sorts of entreaties they besought Mark,[3] a follower of
Peter, and the one whose Gospel is extant, that he would leave them a
written monument of the doctrine which had been orally communicated to
them. Nor did they cease until they had prevailed with the man, and had
thus become the occasion of the written Gospel which bears the name of
Mark.[4] And they say that Peter when he had 2 learned, through a
revelation of the Spirit, of that which had been done, was pleased with
the zeal of the men, and that the work obtained the sanction of his
authority for the purpose of being used in the churches.[5] Clement in
the eighth book of his Hypotyposes gives this account, and with him
agrees the bishop of Hierapolis named Papias.[6] And Peter makes mention
of Mark in his first epistle which they say that he wrote in Rome
itself, as is indicated by him, when he calls the city, by a figure,
Babylon, as he does in the following words: "The church that is at
Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my
son."[7]
CHAPTER XVI.
Mark first proclaimed Christianity to the In-
habitants of Egypt.
And they say that this Mark was the first 1 that was sent
to Egypt, and that he proclaimed the Gospel which he had written, and
first established churches in Alexandria. 1 And the multitude of
believers, both men 2 and women, that were collected there at the very
outset, and lived lives of the most philosophical and excessive
asceticism, was so great, that Philo thought it worth while to describe
their pursuits, their meetings, their entertainments, and their whole
manner of life."[2]
CHAPTER XVII.
Philo's Account of the Ascetics of Egypt.
1 It is also said that Philo in the reign of Claudius became
acquainted at Rome with Peter, who was then preaching there.[1] Nor is
this indeed improbable, for the work of which we have spoken, and which
was composed by him some years later, clearly contains those rules of
the Church which are even to this day observed among us. And since he
describes as accurately as possible the life of our ascetics, it is
clear that he not only knew, but that he also approved, while he
venerated and extolled, the apostolic men of his time, who were as it
seems of the Hebrew race, and hence observed, after the manner of the
Jews, the 3 most of the customs of the ancients. In the work to which he
gave the title, On a Contemplative Life or on Suppliants,[2] after
affirming in the first place that he will add to those things which he
is about to relate nothing contrary to truth or of his own invention,[3]
he says that these men were called Therapeut' and the women that were
with them Therapeutrides.[4] He then adds the reasons for such a name,
explaining it from the fact that they applied remedies and healed the
souls of those who came to them, by relieving them like physicians, of
evil passions, or from the fact that they served and worshiped the
Deity in purity and sincerity. Whether Philo himself gave them this 4
name, employing an epithet well suited to their mode of life, or
whether the first of them really called themselves so in the beginning,
since the name of Christians was not yet everywhere known, we need not
discuss here. He bears witness, however, that first of all 5 they
renounce their property. When they begin the philosophical[5] mode of
life, he says, they give up their goods to their relatives, and then,
renouncing all the cares of life, they go forth beyond the walls and
dwell in lonely fields and gardens, knowing well that intercourse with
people of a different character is unprofitable and harmful. They did
this at that time, as seems probable, under the influence of a spirited
and ardent faith, practicing in emulation the prophets' mode of life.
For in the Acts of 6 the Apostles, a work universally acknowledged as
authentic,[6] it is recorded that all the
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companions of the apostles sold their possessions and their property
and distributed to all according to the necessity of each one, so that
no one among them was in want. "For as many as were possessors of lands
or houses," as the account says, "sold them and brought the prices of
the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet, so that
distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."[7]
Philo bears witness to facts very much like those
here described and then adds the following account:[8] "Everywhere in
the world is this race[9] found. For it was fitting that both Greek[9a]
and Barbarian should share in what is perfectly good. But the race
particularly abounds in Egypt, in each of its so-called nomes,[10] and
especially about Alexandria. The best men from every quarter emigrate,
as if to a colony of the Therapeut''s fatherland,[11] to a certain
very suitable spot which lies above the lake Maria[12] upon a low hill
excellently situated on account of its security and the 9 mildness of
the atmosphere" And then a little further on, after
describing the kind of houses which they had, he speaks as follows
concerning their churches, which were scattered about here and
there:[13] "In each house there is a sacred apartment which is
called a sanctuary and monastery,[14] where, quite alone, they perform
the mysteries of the religious life. They bring nothing into it, neither
drink nor food, nor any of the other things which contribute to the
necessities of the body, but only the laws, and the inspired oracles of
the prophets, and hymns and such other things as augment and
makeperfect their knowledge and piety." 10 And after some other
matters he says:[15] "The whole interval, from morning
to evening, is for them a time of exercise. For they read the holy
Scriptures, and explain the philosophy of their fathers in an
allegorical manner, regarding the written words as symbols of hidden
truth which is communicated in obscure 11 figures. They have also
writings of ancient men, who were the founders of their sect, and who
left many monuments of the allegorical method. These they use as models,
and imitate their principles." These things 12 seem to have been stated
by a man who had heard them expounding their sacred writings. But it is
highly probable that the works of the ancients, which he says they had,
were the Gospels and the writings of the apostles, and probably some
expositions of the ancient prophets, such as are contained in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, and in many others of Paul's Epistles. Then
again he writes as 13 follows concerning the new psalms which they
composed: 16 "So that they not only spend their time in meditation, but
they also compose songs and hymns to God in every variety of metre and
melody, though they divide them, of course, into measures of more than
common solemnity." The same book contains an 14 account of many other
things, but it seemed necessary to select those facts which exhibit the
characteristics of the ecclesiastical mode of life. But if any one
thinks that what 15 has been said is not peculiar to the Gospel polity,
but that it can be applied to others besides those mentioned, let him
be convinced by the subsequent words of the same author, in which, if
he is unprejudiced, he will find undisputed testimony on this subject.
Philo's words are as follows:[17] "Having laid down 16 temperance as a
sort of foundation in the soul, they build upon it the other virtues.
None of them may take food or drink before sunset, since they regard
philosophizing as a work worthy of the light, but attention to the
wants of the body as proper only in the darkness, and therefore assign
the day to the former, but to the latter a small portion of the night.
But 17 some, in whom a great desire for knowledge dwells, forget to
take food for three days; and some are so delighted and feast so
luxuriously upon wisdom, which furnishes doctrines richly and without
stint, that they abstain even twice as long as this, and are
accustomed, after six days, scarcely to take necessary food." These
statements of Philo we regard as referring clearly and indisputably to
those of our communion. But if after these things any one still
obstinately persists in denying the reference, let him renounce his
incredulity and be convinced by yet more striking examples, which are to
be found nowhere else than in the evangelical religion of the
Christians.[18] For they say 19 that there were women also with those of
whom we are speaking, and that the most of them were aged virgins[19]
who had preserved
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their chastity, not out of necessity, as some of the priestesses among
the Greeks,[20] but rather by their own choice, through zeal and a
desire for wisdom. And that in their earnest desire to live with it as
their companion they paid no attention to the pleasures of the body,
seeking not mortal but immortal progeny, which only the 20 pious soul is
able to bear of itself. Then after a little he adds still more
emphatically:[21] "They expound the Sacred Scriptures figuratively by
means of allegories. For the whole law seems to these men to resemble a
living organism, of which the spoken words constitute the body, while
the hidden sense stored up within the words constitutes the soul. This
hidden meaning has first been particularly studied by this sect, which
sees, revealed as in a mirror of names, the surpassing beauties of the
thoughts." Why is it necessary to add to these things their meetings and
the respective occupations of the men and of the women during those
meetings, and the practices which are even to the present day habitually
observed by us, especially such as we are accustomed to observe at the
feast of the Saviour's passion, with fasting and night watching and
study of the divine Word. These things the above-mentioned author has
related in his own work, indicating a mode of life which has been
preserved to the present time by us alone, recording especially
the vigils kept in connection with the great festival, and the
exercises performed