Dionysius (Cont.).Exegetical Fragments

Exegetical Fragments.1

I. – A Commentary on the Beginning of Ecclesiastes.2

Chap. I.

Ecc_1:1. “The words of the son of David, king of Israel in Jerusalem.”

In like manner also Matthew calls the Lord the son of David. (Mat_1:1)

Ecc_1:3. “What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?”

For what man is there who, although he may have become rich by toiling after the objects of this earth, has been able to make himself three cubits in stature, if he is naturally only of two cubits in stature? Or who, if blind, has by these means recovered his sight? Therefore we ought to direct our toils to a goal beyond the sun: for thither, too, do the exertions of the virtues reach.

Ecc_1:4. “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever” (unto the age).

Yes, unto the age,3 but not unto the ages.4

Ecc_1:16. “I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem; yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.

Ecc_1:17. I knew parables and science: that this indeed is also the spirit’s choice.5

Ecc_1:18. For in multitude of wisdom is multitude of knowledge: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth grief.”

I was vainly puffed up, and increased wisdom; not the wisdom which God has given, but that wisdom of which Paul says, “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” (1Co_3:19) For in this Solomon had also an experience surpassing prudence, and above the measure of all the ancients. Consequently he shows the vanity of it, as what follows in like manner demonstrates: “And my heart uttered6 many things: I knew wisdom, and knowledge, and parables, and sciences.” But this was not the genuine wisdom or knowledge, but that which, as Paul says, puffeth up. He spake, moreover, as it is written, (1Ki_4:32) three thousand parables. But these were not parables of a spiritual kind, but only such as fit the common polity of men; as, for instance, utterances about animals or medicines. For which reason he has added in a tone of raillery, “I knew that this also is the spirit’s choice.” He speaks also of the multitude of knowledge, not the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, but that which the prince of this world works, and which he conveys to men in order to overreach their souls, with officious questions as to the measures of heaven, the position of earth, the bounds of the sea. But he says also, “He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” For they search even into things deeper than these, – inquiring, for example, what necessity there is for fire to go upward, and for water to go downward; and when they have learned that it is because the one is light and the other heavy, they do but increase sorrow: for the question still remains, Why might it not be the very reverse?

 

Chap. II.

Ecc_2:1. “I said in mine heart, Go to now, make trial as in mirth, and behold in good. And this, too, is vanity.”

For it was for the sake of trial, and in accordance with what comes by the loftier and the severe life, that he entered into pleasure, And he makes mention of the mirth, which men call so. And he says, “in good,” referring to what men call good things, which are not capable of giving life to their possessor. and which make the man who engages in them vain like themselves.

Ecc_2:2. “I said of laughter, It is mad;7 and of mirth, What doest thou?”

Laughter has a twofold madness; because madness begets laughter, and does not allow the sorrowing for sins; and also because a man of that sort is possessed with madness,8 in the confusing of seasons, and places, and persons. For he flees from those who sorrow. “And to mirth, What doest thou?” Why dost thou repair to those who are not at liberty to be merry? Why to the drunken, and the avaricious, and the rapacious? And why this phrase, “as wine?”9 Because wine makes the heart merry; and it acts upon the poor in spirit. The flesh, however, also makes the heart merry, when it acts in a regular and moderate fashion.

Ecc_2:3. “And my heart directed me in wisdom, and to overcome in mirth, until I should know what is that good thing to the sons of men which they shall do under the sun for the number of the days of their life.”

Being directed, he says, by wisdom, I overcame pleasures in mirth. Moreover, for me the aim of knowledge was to occupy myself with nothing vain, but to find the good; for if a person finds that, he does not miss the discernment also of the profitable. The sufficient is also the opportune,10 and is commensurate with the length of life.

Ecc_2:4. “I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards.

Ecc_2:5. I made me gardens and orchards.

Ecc_2:6. I made me pools of water, that by these I might rear woods producing trees.

Ecc_2:7. I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had large possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me.

Ecc_2:8. I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces. I gat me men-singers and women-singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as cups and the cupbearer.

Ecc_2:9. And I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.

Ecc_2:10. And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any pleasure.”

You see how he reckons up a multitude of houses and fields, and the other things which he mentions, and then finds nothing profitable in them. For neither was he any better in soul by reason of these things, nor by their means did he gain friendship with God. Necessarily he is led to speak also of the true riches and the abiding property. Being minded, therefore, to show what kinds of possessions remain with the possessor, and continue steadily and maintain themselves for him, he adds: “Also my wisdom remained with me.” For this alone remains, and all these other things, which he has already reckoned up, flee away and depart. Wisdom, therefore, remained with me, and I remained in virtue of it. For those other things fall, and also cause the fall of the very persons who run after them. But, with the intention of instituting a comparison between wisdom and those things which are held to be good among men, he adds these words, “And whatsoever mine eyes desired, I kept not from them,” and so forth; whereby he describes as evil, not only those toils which they endure who toil in gratifying themselves with pleasures, but those, too, which by necessity and constraint men have to sustain for their maintenance day by day, labouring at their different occupations in the sweat of their faces. For the labour, he says, is great; but the art11 by the labour is temporary, adding12 nothing serviceable among things that please. Wherefore there is no profit. For where there is no excellence there is no profit. With reason, therefore, are the objects of such solicitude but vanity, and the spirit’s choice. Now this name of “spirit” he gives to the “soul.” For choice is a quality, not a motion.13 And David says: “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit.” (Psa_31:5) And in good truth “did my wisdom remain with me,” for it made me know and understand, so as to enable me to speak of all that is not advantageous14 under the sun. If, therefore, we desire the righteously profitable, if we seek the truly advantageous, if in is our aim to be incorruptible, let us engage those labours which reach beyond the sun. For in these there is no vanity, and there is not the choice of a spirit at once inane and hurried hither and thither to no purpose.

Ecc_2:12. “And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what man is there that shall come after counsel in all those things which it has done?”15

He means the wisdom which comes from God, and which also remained with him. And by madness and folly he designates all the labours of men, and the vain and silly pleasure they have in them. Distinguishing these, therefore, and their measure, and blessing the true wisdom, he has added: “For what man is there that shall come after counsel?” For this counsel instructs us in the wisdom that is such indeed, and gifts us with deliverance from madness and folly.

Ecc_2:13. “Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as much as light excelleth darkness.”

He does not say this in the way of comparison. For things which are contrary to each other, and mutually destructive, cannot be compared. But his decision was, that the one is to be chosen, and the other avoided. To like effect is the saying, “Men loved darkness rather than light.” (Joh_3:19) For the term “rather” in that passage expresses the choice of the person loving, and not the comparison of the objects themselves.

Ecc_2:14. “The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness.”

That man always inclines earthward, he means, and has the ruling faculty16 darkened. It is true, indeed, that we men have all of us our eyes in our head, if we speak of the mere disposition of the body. But he speaks here of the eyes of the mind. For as the eyes of the swine do not turn naturally up towards heaven, just because it is made by nature to have an inclination toward the belly; so the mind of the man who has once been enervated by pleasures is not easily diverted from the tendency thus assumed, because he has not “respect unto all the commandments of the Lord. (Psa_119:6) Again: Christ is the head of the Church.” (Eph_5:23) And they, therefore, are the wise who walk in His way; for He Himself has said, “I am the way.” (Joh_14:6) On this account, then, it becomes the wise man always to keep the eyes of his mind directed toward Christ Himself, in order that he may do nothing out of measure, neither being lifted up in heart in the time of prosperity, nor becoming negligent in the day of adversity: “for His judgments are a great deep,” (Psa_36:6) as you will learn more exactly from what is to follow.

Ecc_2:14. “And I perceived myself also that one event happeneth to them all.

Ecc_2:15. Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise?”

The run of the discourse in what follows deals with those who are of a mean spirit as regards this present life, and in whose judgment the article of death and all the anomalous pains of the body are a kind of dreaded evil, and who on this account hold that there is no profit in a life of virtue, because there is no difference made in ills like these between the wise man and the fool. He speaks consequently of these as the words of a madness inclining to utter senselessness; whence he also adds this sentence, “For the fool talks over-much;”17 and by the “fool” here he means himself, and every one who reasons in that way. Accordingly he condemns this absurd way of thinking. And for the same reason he has given utterance to such sentiments in the fears of his heart; and dreading the righteous condemnation of those who are to be heard, he solves the difficulty in its pressure by his own reflections. For this word, “Why was I then wise?” was the word of a man in doubt and difficulty whether what is expended on wisdom is done well or to no purpose; and whether there is no difference between the wise man and the fool in point of advantage, seeing that the former is involved equally with the latter in the same sufferings which happen in this present world. And for this reason he says, “I spoke over-largely18 in my heart,” in thinking that there is no difference between the wise man and the fool.

Ecc_2:16. “For there is no remembrance of the wise equally with the fool for ever.”

For the events that happen in this life are all transitory, be they even the painful incidents, of which he says, “As all things now are consigned to oblivion.”19 For after a short space has passed by, all the things that befall men in this life perish in forgetfulness. Yea, the very persons to whom these things have happened are not remembered all in like manner, even although they may have gone through like chances in life. For they are not remembered for these, but only for what they may have evinced of wisdom or folly, virtue or vice. The memories of such are not extinguished (equally) among men in consequence of the changes of lot befalling them. Wherefore he has added this: “And how shall the wise man die along with the fool? The death of sinners, indeed, is evil: yet the memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked is extinguished.” (Pro_10:7)

Ecc_2:22. “For that falls to man in all his labour.”

In truth, to those who occupy their minds with the distractions of life, life becomes a painful thing, which, as it were, wounds the heart with its goads, that is, with the lustful desires of increase. And sorrowful also is the solicitude connected with covetousness: it does not so much gratify those who are successful in it, as it pains those who are unsuccessful; while the day is spent in laborious anxieties, and the night puts sleep to flight from the eyes, with the cares of making gain. Vain, therefore, is the zeal of the man who looks to these things. 

Ecc_2:24. “And there is nothing good for a man, but what he eats and drinks, and what will show to his soul good in his labour. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.

Ecc_2:25. For who eats and drinks from his own resources?”20

That the discourse does not deal now with material meats, he will show by what follows; namely, “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting.” (Ecc_7:2) And so in the present passage he proceeds to add: “And (what) will show to his soul good in its labour.” And surely mere material meats and drinks are not the soul’s good. For the flesh, when luxuriously nurtured, wars against the soul, and rises in revolt against the spirit. And how should not intemperate eatings and drinkings also be contrary to God?21 He speaks, therefore, of things mystical. For no one shall partake of the spiritual table, but one who is called by Him, and who has listened to the wisdom which says, “Take and eat.” (Pro_9:5)

 

Chap. III.

Ecc_3:3. “There is a time to kill, and a time to heal.”

To “kill,” in the case of him who perpetrates unpardonable transgression; and to “heal,” in the case of him who can show a wound that will bear remedy.

Ecc_3:4. “A time to weep, and a time to laugh.”

A time to weep, when it is the time of suffering; as when the Lord also says, “Verily I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament.” (Luk_6:25; Joh_16:20) But to laugh, as concerns the resurrection: “For your sorrow,” He says, “shall be turned into joy.” (Joh_16:20)

Ecc_3:4. “A time to mourn, and a time to dance.”

When one thinks of the death which the transgression of Adam brought on us, it is a time to mourn; but it is a time to hold festal gatherings when we call to mind the resurrection from the dead which we expect through the new Adam.22

Ecc_3:6. “A time to keep, and a time to cast away.”

A time to keep the Scripture against the unworthy, and a time to put it forth for the worthy. Or, again: Before the incarnation it was a time to keep the letter of the law; but it was a time to cast it away when the truth came in its flower.

Ecc_3:7. “A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”

A time to speak, when there are hearers who receive the word; but a time to keep silence, when the hearers pervert the word; as Paul says: “A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject.” (Tit_3:10)

Ecc_3:10. “I have seen, then, the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

Ecc_3:11. Everything that He hath made is beautiful in its time: and He hath set the whole world in their heart; so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning and to the end.”

And this is true. For no one is able to comprehend the works of God altogether. Moreover, the world is the work of God. No one, then, can find out as to this world what is its space from the beginning and unto the end, that is to say, the period appointed for it, and the limits before determined unto it; forasmuch as God has set the whole world as a realm of ignorance in our hearts. And thus one says: “Declare to me the shortness of my days.”23 In this manner, and for our profit, the end of this world (age) – that is to say, this present life – is a thing of which we are ignorant.

 

II. – The Gospel According to Luke.

An Interpretation. – Luk_22:42-48.

Luk_22:42. “Father, if Thou be willing to remove24 this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but Thine, be done.”

But let these things be enough to say on the subject of the will. This word, however, “Let the cup pass,” does not mean, Let it not come near me, or approach me.25 For what can “pass from Him,” certainly must first come nigh Him; and what does pass thus from Him, must be by Him. For if it does not reach Him, it cannot pass from Him. For He takes to Himself the person of man, as having been made man. Wherefore also on this occasion He deprecates the doing of the inferior, which is His own, and begs that the superior should be done, which is His Father’s, to wit, the divine will; which again, however, in respect of the divinity, is one and the same will in Himself and in the Father. For it was the Father’s will that He should pass through every trial (temptation); and the Father Himself in a marvellous manner brought Him on this course, not indeed with the trial itself as His goal, nor in order simply that He might enter into that, but in order that He might prove Himself to be above the trial, and also beyond it.26 And surely it is the fact, that the Saviour asks neither what is impossible, nor what is impracticable, nor what is contrary to the will of the Father. It is something possible; for I Mark makes mention of His saying, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee.” (Mar_14:36) And they are possible if He wills them; for Luke tells us that He said, “Father, if Thou be willing, remove27 this cup from me.” The Holy Spirit, therefore, apportioned among the evangelists, makes up the full account of our Saviour’s whole disposition by the expressions of these several narrators together. He does not, then, ask of the Father what the Father wills not. For the words, “If Thou be willing,” were demonstrative of subjection and docility,28 not of ignorance or hesitancy. For this reason, the other scripture says, “All things are possible unto Thee.” And Matthew again admirably describes the submission and humility29 when he says, “If it be possible.” For unless I adapt the sense in this way,30 some will perhaps assign an impious signification to this expression, “If it be possible;” as if there were anything impossible for God to do, except that only which He does not will to do. But … being straightway strengthened in His humanity by His ancestral31 divinity, he urges the safer petition, and desires no longer that should be the case, but that it might be accomplished in accordance with the Father’s good pleasure, in glory, in constancy, and in fulness. For John, who has given us the record of the sublimest and divinest of the Saviour’s words and deeds, heard Him speak thus: “And the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (Joh_18:11) Now, to drink the cup was to discharge the ministry and the whole economy of trial with fortitude, to follow and fulfil the Father’s determination, and to surmount all apprehensions. And the exclamation, “Why hast Thou forsaken me?” was in due accordance with the requests He had previously made: Why is it that death has been in conjunction with me all along up till now, and that I bear not yet the cup? This I judge to have been the Saviour’s meaning in this concise utterance.

And He certainly spake truth then. Nevertheless He was not forsaken. But He drank out the cup at once, as His plea had implied, and then passed away.32 And the vinegar which was handed to Him seems to me to have been a symbolical thing. For the turned wine33 indicated very well the quick turning34 and change which He sustained, when He passed from His passion to impassibility, and from death to deathlessness, and from the position of one judged to that of one judging, and from subjection under the despot’s power to the exercise of kingly dominion. And the sponge, as I think, signified the complete transfusion35 of the Holy Spirit that was realized in Him. And the reed symbolized the royal sceptre and the divine law. And the hyssop expressed that quickening and saving resurrection of His, by which He has also brought health to us.36

Luk_22:43. “And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him.

Luk_22:44. And being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

The phrase, “a sweat of blood,” is a current parabolic expression used of persons in intense pain and distress; as also of one in bitter grief people say that the man “weeps tears of blood.” For in using the expression, “as it were great drops of blood,” he does not declare the drops of sweat to have been actually drops of blood.37 For he would not then have said that these drops of sweat were like blood. For such is the force of the expression, “as it were great drops.” But rather with the object of making it plain that the Lord’s body was not bedewed with any kind of subtle moisture which had only the show and appearance of actuality, but that it was really suffused all over with sweat in the shape of large thick drops, he has taken the great drops of blood as an illustration of what was the case with Him. And accordingly, as by the intensity of the supplication and the severe agony, so also by the dense and excessive sweat, he made the facts patent, that the Saviour was man by nature and in reality, and not in mere semblance and appearance, and that He was subject to all the innocent sensibilities natural to men. Nevertheless the words, “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again,” (Joh_10:18) show that His passion was a voluntary thing; and besides that, they indicate that the life which is laid down and taken again is one thing, and the divinity which lays that down and takes it again is another.

He says, “one thing and another,” not as making a partition into two persons, but as showing the distinction between the two natures.38

And as, by voluntarily enduring the death in the flesh, He implanted incorruptibility in it; so also, by taking to Himself of His own free-will the passion of our servitude,39 He set in it the seeds of constancy and courage, whereby He has nerved those who believe on Him for the mighty conflicts belonging to their witness-bearing. Thus, also, those drops of sweat flowed from Him in a marvellous way like great drops of blood, in order that He might, as it were, drain off40 and empty the fountain of the fear which is proper to our nature. For unless this had been done with a mystical import, He certainly would not, even had He been41 the most timorous and ignoble of men, have been bedewed in this unnatural way with drops of sweat like drops of blood under the mere force of His agony.

Of like import is also the sentence in the narrative which tells us that an angel stood by the Saviour and strengthened Him. For this, too, bore also on the economy entered into on our behalf. For those who are appointed to engage in the sacred exertions of conflicts on account of piety, have the angels from heaven to assist them. And the prayer, “Father, remove the cup,” He uttered probably not as if He feared the death itself, but with the view of challenging the devil by these words to erect the cross for Him. With words of deceit that personality deluded Adam; with the words of divinity, then, let the deceiver himself now be deluded. Howbeit assuredly the will of the Son is not one thing, and the will of the Father another.42 For He who wills what the Father wills, is found to have the Father’s will. It is in a figure, therefore, that He says, “not my will, but Thine.” For it is not that He wishes the cup to be removed, but that He refers to the Father’s will the right issue of His passion, and honours thereby the Father as the First.43 For if the fathers44 style one’s disposition gnomè,45 and if such disposition relates also to what is in consideration hidden as if by settled purpose, how say some that the Lord, who is above all these things, bears a gnomic will?46 Manifestly that can be only by defect of reason.

Luk_22:45. “And when He rose from prayer, and was come to His disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow;

Luk_22:46. And said unto them, Why sleep ye? Rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.”

For in the most general sense it holds good that it is apparently not possible for any man47 to remain altogether without experience of ill. For, as one says, the whole world lieth in wickedness;” (1Jo_5:19) and again, “The most of the days of man are labour and trouble.” (Psa_90:10) But you will perhaps say, What difference is there between being tempted, and falling or entering into temptation? Well, if one is overcome of evil – and he will be overcome unless he struggles against it himself, and unless God protects him with His shield – that man has entered into temptation, and is in it, and is brought under it like one that is led captive. But if one withstands and endures, that man is indeed tempted; but he has not entered into temptation, or fallen into it. Thus Jesus was led up of the Spirit, not indeed to enter into temptation, but to be tempted of the devil. (Mat_4:1) And Abraham, again, did not enter into temptation, neither did God lead him into temptation, but He tempted (tried) him; yet He did not drive him into temptation. The Lord Himself, moreover, tempted (tried) the disciples. Thus the wicked one, when he tempts us, draws us into the temptations, as dealing himself with the temptations of evil. But God, when He tempts (tries), adduces the temptations (trials) as one untempted of evil. For God, it is said, “cannot be tempted of evil.” (Jam_1:13) The devil, therefore, drives us on by violence, drawing us to destruction; but God leads us by hand, training us for our salvation.

Luk_22:47. “And while He yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus, and kissed Him.

Luk_22:48. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?

How wonderful this endurance of evil by the Lord, who even kissed the traitor, and spake words softer even than the kiss! For He did not say, O thou abominable, yea, utterly abominable traitor, is this the return you make to us for so great kindness? But, somehow, He says simply “Judas,” using the proper name, which was the address that would be used by one who commiserated a person, or who wished to call him back, rather than of one in anger. And He did not say, “thy Master, the Lord, thy benefactor;” but He said simply, “the Son of man,” that is, the tender and meek one: as if He meant to say, Even supposing that I was not your Master, or Lord, or benefactor, dost thou still betray one so guilelessly and so tenderly affected towards thee, as even to kiss thee in the hour of thy treachery, and that, too, when the kiss was the signal for thy treachery? Blessed art Thou, O Lord! How great is this example of the endurance of evil that Thou hast shown us in Thine own person! how great, too, the pattern of lowliness! Howbeit, the Lord has given us this example, to show us that we ought not to give up offering our good counsel to our brethren, even should nothing remarkable be effected by our words.

For as incurable wounds are wounds which cannot be remedied either by severe applications, or by those which may act more pleasantly upon them;48 so49 the soul, when it is once carried captive, and gives itself up to any kind of50 wickedness, and refuses to consider what is really profitable for it, although a myriad counsels should echo in it, takes no good to itself. But just as if the sense of hearing were dead within it, it receives no benefit from exhortations addressed to it; not because it cannot, but only because it will not. This was what happened in the case of Judas. And yet Christ, although He knew all these things beforehand, did not at any time, from the beginning on to the end, omit to do all in the way of counsel that depended on Him. And inasmuch as we know that such was His practice, we ought also unceasingly to endeavour to set those right51 who prove careless, even although no actual good may seem to be effected by that counsel.

 

III. – On Luk_22:42, Etc.52

But let these things be enough to say on the subject of the will. This word, however, “Let the cup pass,” does not mean, Let it not come near me, or approach me. For what can pass from Him must certainly first come nigh Him, and what does thus pass from Him must be by Him. For if it does not reach Him, it cannot pass from Him. Accordingly, as if He now felt it to be present, He began to be in pain, and to be troubled, and to be sore amazed, and to be in an agony. And as if it was at hand and placed before Him, He does not merely say “the cup,” but He indicates it by the word “this.” Therefore, as what passes from one is something which neither has no approach nor is permanently settled with one, so the Saviour’s first request is that the temptation which has come softly and plainly upon Him, and associated itself lightly with Him, may be turned aside. And this is the first form of that freedom from falling into temptation, which He also counsels the weaker disciples to make the subject of their prayers; that, namely, which concerns the approach of temptation: for it must needs be that offences come, but yet those to whom they come ought not to fall into the temptation. But the most perfect mode in which this freedom from entering into temptation is exhibited, is what He expresses in His second request, when He says not merely, “Not as I will,” but also, “but as Thou wilt.” For with God there is no temptation in evil; but He wills to give us good exceeding abundantly above what we ask or think. That His will, therefore, is the perfect will, the Beloved Himself knew; and often does He say that He has come to do that will, and not His own will, – that is to say, the will of men. For He takes to Himself the person of men, as having been made man. Wherefore also on this occasion He deprecates the doing of the inferior, which is His own, and begs that the superior should be done, which is His Father’s, to wit, the divine will, which again, however, in respect of the divinity, is one and the same will in Himself and in His Father. For it was the Father’s will that He should pass through every trial (temptation), and the Father Himself in a marvellous manner brought Him on this course; not indeed, with the trial itself as His goal, nor in order simply that He might enter into that, but in order that He might prove Himself to be above the trial, and also beyond it. And surely it is the fact that the Saviour asks neither what is impossible, nor what is impracticable, nor what is contrary to the will of the Father. It is something possible, for Mark makes mention of His saying, “Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee;” and they are possible if He wills them, for Luke tells us that He said, “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me.” The Holy Spirit therefore, apportioned among the evangelists, makes up the full account of our Saviour’s whole disposition by the expressions of these several narrators together. He does not then ask of the Father what the Father wills not. For the words, “if Thou be willing,” were demonstrative of subjection and docility, not of ignorance or hesitancy. And just as when we make any request that may be accordant with his judgment, at the hand of father or ruler or any one of those whom we respect, we are accustomed to use the address, though not certainly as if we were in doubt about it, “if you please;” so the Saviour also said, “if Thou be willing:” not that He thought that He willed something different, and thereafter learned the fact, but that He understood exactly God’s willingness to remove the cup from Him, and as doing so also apprehended justly that what He wills is also possible unto Him. For this reason the other scripture says, “All things are possible unto Thee.” And Matthew again admirably describes the submission and the humility, when he says, “if it be possible.” For unless we adapt the sense in this way, some will perhaps assign an impious signification to this expression “if it be possible,” as if there were anything impossible for God to do, except that only which He does not will to do. Therefore the request which He made was nothing independent, nor one which pleased Himself only, or opposed His Father’s will, but one also in conformity with the mind of God. And yet some one may say that He is overborne and changes His mind, and asks presently something different from what He asked before, and holds no longer by His own will, but introduces His Father’s will. Well, such truly is the case. Nevertheless He does not by any means make any change from one side to another; but He embraces another way, and a different method of carrying out one and the same transaction, which is also a thing agreeable to both; choosing, to wit, in place of the mode which is the inferior, and which appears unsatisfying also to Himself, the superior and more, admirable mode marked out by the Father. For no doubt He did pray that the cup might pass from Him; but He says also, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” He longs painfully, on the one hand, for its passing from Him, but (He knows that) it is better as the Father wills. For He does not utter a petition for its not passing away now, instead of one for its removal; but when its withdrawal is now before His view, He chooses rather that this should be ordered as the Father wills. For there is a twofold kind53 of withdrawal: there is one in the instance of an object that has shown itself and reached another, and is gone at once on being followed by it or on outrunning it, as is the case with racers when they graze each other in passing; and there is another in the instance of an object that has sojourned and tarried with another, and sat down by it, as in the case of a marauding band or a camp, and that after a time withdraws on being conquered, and on gaining the opposite of a success. For if they prevail they do not retire, but carry off with them those whom they have reduced; but if they prove unable to win the mastery, they withdraw themselves in disgrace. Now it was after the former similitude that He wished that the cup might come into His hands, and promptly pass from Him again very readily and quickly; but as soon as He spake thus, being at once strengthened in His humanity by the Father’s divinity, He urges the safer petition, and desires no longer that should be the case, but that it might be accomplished in accordance with the Father’s good pleasure, in glory, in constancy, and in fulness. For John, who has given us the record of the sublimest and divinest of the Saviour’s words and deeds, heard Him speak thus: “Act the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” Now, to drink the cup was to discharge the ministry and the whole economy of trial with fortitude, to follow and fulfil the Father’s determination, and to surmount all apprehensions; and, indeed, in the very prayer which He uttered He showed that He was leaving these (apprehensions) behind Him. For of two objects, either may be said to be removed from the other: the object that remains may be said to be removed from the one that goes away, and the one that goes away may be said to be removed from the one that remains. Besides, Matthew has indicated most clearly that He did indeed pray that the cup might pass from Him, but yet that His request was that this should take place not as He willed, but as the Father willed it. The words given by Mark and Luke, again, ought to be introduced in their proper connection. For Mark says, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt;” and Luke says, “Nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done.” He did then express Himself to that effect, and He did desire that His passion might abate and reach its end speedily. But it was the Father’s will at the same time that He should carry out His conflict in a manner demanding sustained effort,54 and in sufficient measure. Accordingly He (the Father) adduced all that assailed Him. But of the missiles that were hurled against Him, some were shivered in pieces, and others were dashed back as with invulnerable arms of steel, or rather as from the stern and immoveable rock. Blows, spittings, scourgings, death, and the lifting up in that death,55 all came upon Him; and when all these were gone through, He became silent and endured in patience unto the end, as if He suffered nothing, or was already dead. But when His death was being prolonged, and when it was now overmastering Him, if we may so speak, beyond His utmost strength, He cried out to His Father, “Why hast Thou forsaken me?” And this exclamation was in due accordance with the requests He had previously made: Why is it that death has been in such close conjunction with me all along up till now, and Thou dost not yet bear the cup past me?56 Have I not drank it already, and drained it? But if not, my dread is that I may be utterly consumed by its continuous pressure;57 and that is what would befall me, wert Thou to forsake me: then would the fulfilment abide, but I would pass away, and be made of none effect.58 Now, then, I entreat Thee, let my baptism be finished, for indeed I have been straitened greatly until it should be accomplished. – This I judge to have been the Saviour’s meaning in this concise utterance. And He certainly spake truth then. Nevertheless He was not forsaken. Albeit He drank out the cup at once, as His plea had implied, and then passed away. And the vinegar which was handed to Him seems to me to have been a symbolical thing. For the turned wine indicated very well the quick turning and change which He sustained when He passed from His passion to impassibility, and from death to deathlessness, and from the position of one judged to that of one judging, and from subjection under the despot’s power to the exercise of kingly dominion. And the sponge, as I think, signified the complete transfusion of the Holy Spirit that was realized in Him. And the reed symbolized the royal sceptre and the divine law. And the hyssop expressed that quickening and saving resurrection of His by which He has also brought health to us.59 But we have gone through these matters in sufficient detail on Matthew and John. With the permission of God, we shall speak also of the account given by Mark. But at present we shall keep to what follows in our passage.

 

IV. – An Exposition of Luk_22:46, Etc.60

This prayer He also offered up Himself, falling repeatedly on His face; and on both occasions He urged His request for not entering into temptation: both when He prayed, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me;” and when He said, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” For He spoke of not entering into temptation, and He made that His prayer; but He did not ask that He should have no trial whatsoever in these circumstances, or61 that no manner of hardship should ever befall Him. For in the most general application it holds good, that it does not appear to be possible for any man to remain altogether without experience of ill: for, as one says, “The whole world lieth in wickedness;” (1Jo_5:19) and again, “The most of the days of man are labour and trouble,” (Psa_90:10) as men themselves also admit. Short is our life, and full of sorrow. Howbeit it was not meet that He should bid them pray directly that that curse might not be fulfilled, which is expressed thus: “Cursed is the ground in thy works: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;” (Gen_3:17) or thus, “Earth thou art, and unto earth shall thou return.” (Gen_3:19) For which reason the Holy Scriptures, that indicate in many various ways the dire distressfulness of life, designate it as a valley of weeping. And most of all indeed is this world a scene of pain to the saints, to whom He addresses this word, and He cannot lie in uttering it: “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” (Joh_16:33) And to the same effect also He says by the prophet, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” (Psa_34:19) But I suppose that He refers to this entering not into temptation, when He speaks in the prophet’s words of being delivered out of the afflictions. For He adds, “The Lord will deliver him out of them all.” And this is just in accordance with the Saviour’s word, whereby He promises that they will overcome their afflictions, and that they will participate in that victory which He has won for them. For after saying, “In the world ye shall have tribulation,” He added, “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” And again, He taught them to pray that they might not fall into temptation, when He said, “And lead us not into temptation;” which means, “Suffer us not to fall into temptation.” And to show that this did not imply they should not be tempted, but really that they should be delivered from the evil, He added, “But deliver us from evil.” But perhaps you will say, What difference is there between being tempted, and falling or entering into temptation? Well, if one is overcome of evil – and he will be overcome unless he struggles against it himself, and unless God protects him with His shield – that man has entered into temptation, and is in it, and is brought under it like one that is led captive. But if one withstands and endures, that man is indeed tempted; but he has not entered into temptation, or fallen under it. Thus Jesus was led up of the Spirit, not indeed to enter into temptation, but “to be tempted of the devil.” (Mat_4:1) And Abraham, again, did not enter into temptation, neither did God lead him into temptation, but He tempted (tried) him; yet He did not drive him into temptation. The Lord Himself, moreover, tempted (tried) the disciples. And thus the wicked one, when he tempts us, draws us into the temptations, as dealing himself with the temptations of evil; but God, when He tempts (tries), adduces the temptations as one untempted of evil. For God, it is said, “cannot be tempted of evil.” (Jam_1:13) The devil, therefore, drives us on by violence, drawing us to destruction; but God leads us by the hand, training us for our salvation. 

 

V. – On Joh_8:12.62

Now this word “I am” expresses His eternal subsistence. For if He is the reflection of the eternal light, He must also be eternal Himself. For if the light subsists for ever, it is evident that the reflection also subsists for ever. And that this light subsists, is known only by its shining; neither can there be a light that does not give light. We come back, therefore, to our illustrations. If there is day, there is light; and if there is no such thing, the sun certainly cannot be present.63 If, therefore, the sun had been eternal, there would also have been endless day. Now, however, as it is not so, the day begins when the sun rises, and it ends when the sun sets. But God is eternal light, having neither beginning nor end. And along with Him there is the reflection, also without beginning, and everlasting. The Father, then, being eternal, the Son is also eternal, being light of light; and if God is the light, Christ is the reflection; and if God is also a Spirit, as it is written, “God is a Spirit,” Christ, again, is called analogously Spirit.64

 

VI. – Of the One Substance.65

The plant that springs from the root is something distinct from that whence it grows up; and yet it is of one nature with it. And the river which flows from the fountain is something distinct from the fountain. For we cannot call either the river a fountain, or the fountain a river. Nevertheless we allow that they are both one according to nature, and also one in substance; and we admit that the fountain may be conceived of as father, and that the river is what is begotten of the fountain.66

 

VII. – On the Reception of the Lapsed to Penitence.67

But now we are doing the opposite. For whereas Christ, who is the good Shepherd, goes in quest of one who wanders, lost among the mountains, and calls him back when he flees from Him, and is at pains to take him up on His shoulders when He has found him, we, on the contrary, harshly spurn such a one even when He approaches us. Yet let us not consult so miserably for ourselves, and let us not in this way be driving the sword against ourselves. For when people set themselves either to do evil or to do good to others, what they do is certainly not confined to the carrying out of their will on those others; but just as they attach themselves to iniquity or to goodness, they will themselves become possessed either by divine virtues or by unbridled passions. And the former will become the followers and comrades of the good angels; and both in this world and in the other, with the enjoyment of perfect peace and immunity from all ills, they will fulfil the most blessed destinies unto all eternity, and in God’s fellowship they will be for ever (in possession of) the supremest good. But these latter will fall away at once from the peace of God and from peace with themselves, and both in this world and after death they will abide with the spirits of blood-guiltiness.68 Wherefore let us not thrust from us those who seek a penitent return; but let us receive them gladly, and number them once more with the stedfast, and make up again what is defective in them.

 

Note by the American Editor.

Frequent references to Gallandi, whose collection I have been unable to inspect, the cost of the best edition being about two hundred dollars, makes it worth while to insert here, from a London book-catalogue, the following useful memoranda: “Gallandii, Cong. Oral. (Andr.) Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum Antiquorumque Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Graeco-Latina; Opera silicet eorundum minors ac rariora usque ad xiii. Saeculum complexa, quorum clxxx. et amplius nec in Veteri Parisiensi, neque in postrema Lugdunensi edits sunt. Venet., 1765.

“The contents are given in Darling, col. 298-306. Of the three hundred and eighty-nine writers enumerated, it appears that nearly two hundred are not in the earlier collections.

“The contents of these great collections are, not the works of the Great Fathers, of whose writings separate editions have been published, but the works, often extensive and important, of those numerous Ecclesiastical writers whose works go, with the Greater Fathers referred to, to make up the sum of Church Patristic literature.”

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 See, in the Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum of Gallandi, the Appendix to vol. xiv., added from the manuscripts, after the editor’s death, by an anonymous scholar.

2 [Compare the Metaphrase, p. 9, supra. Query, are not these twin specimens of exegetical exercises in the school at Alexandria?]

3 είς τον αἰῶνα.

4 είς τὁὑς αἰῶνας.

5 προαίρεσις.

6 εἶπε, for which εἶδε, “discerned,” is suggested.

7 περιφοράν.

8 περιφερεται.

9 ὠς οἶνον.

10 Or, temporary.

11 τέχνη.

12 Reading προστιθεῖσα for προτιθεῖσα.

13 ποιὸν οὐ κινησις.

14 περισσεία.

15 ὃς ἐλεύσεται ὀπίσω τῆς βουλῆς σύμπαντα οσα ἔποιησεν αυτη.

16 τὸ ἡγεμονικόν.

17 ἐκ περισσεύματος.

18 περισσόν.

19 καθότι ἤδη τὰ πάντα ἐπελήσθη.

20 παρ ̓ αὐτοῦ.

21 The text gives, πῶς δὲ καὶ οὐκ παρὲκ Θεοῦ ἀσώτων βρωμάτων καὶ μεθη.

22 [The fast of the Paschal week, and the feast that follows, are here referred to. Of course the religious saltation of the Hebrews (2Sa_6:14) is the thought of Koheleth, and figuratively it is here adopted for holy mirth.]

23 Psa_102:24, τὴν ὀλιγότηατ τῶν ἡμερῶν μου ἀνάγγειλόν μοι.

24 παρενεγκεῖν.

25 οὐκ ἔστι. Migne suggests οὐκέτι: “Let it no more come near me.”

26 μετ ̓ αὐτόν. May it be, “and next to Himself” (the Father)?

27 παρένεγκε.

28 ἐπιεικείας.

29 The text gives κἂν τοῦτο πάλιν τὸ εἰκτικόν, etc. Migne proposes, κἂν τούτῳ πάλιν τὸ εὐκτικόν = and Matthew again describes the supplicatory and docile in Him.

30 Reading ουτως for οὔτε.

31 πατρικῆς.

32 παρελήλυθε.

33 ἐκτροπίας οἶνος.

34 τροπήν.

35 ἀνάκρασιν.

36 The text is, ἡμᾶς υγια ἔδειξεν. Migne proposes ὑγίασεν.

37 [Note this somewhat modern “explaining away.” It proves the freedom of our author from any predisposition to exegetical exaggeration, if nothing more.]

38 This sentence is supposed to be an interpolation by the constructor of the Catena.

39 The text is, τῆς δουλείας. Migne suggests, τῆς δειλίας = “the feeling of our fear.”

40 ἀναξηράνῃ.

41 The text is, οὐδὲ ἡ σφόδρα δειλότατος, etc. We read, with Migne, ει instead of ἡ.

42 [Note the following sentence, without which, as explanatory, this might be quoted as a Monothelite statement. Garbling is a convenient resource for those who claim the Fathers for other false systems.]

43 ἀρχήν.

44 [This seems to be a quotation from the Alexandrian Fathers showing how early such questions began to be agitated. Settled in the Sixth Council, A.D. 681, the last “General Council.”]

45 γνώμη, gnomè.

46 θέλημα γνωμικόν.

47 μάλιστα ἴσως παντι ἀνθρώπῳ.

48 Some such clause as ιαθῆναι δύναται requires to be supplied here.

49 Reading ουτω for οὔτε.

50 Reading ᾡτινιοῦν for ὁτιοῦν.

51 ρυθμίζειν.

52 Another fragment from the Vatican Codex, 1611, fol. 291. See also Mai, Bibliotheca Nova, vi. 1. 165. This is given here in a longer a fuller form than in the Greek of Gallandi in his Bibliotheca, xiv., Appendix, p. 115, as we have had it presented above, and than in the Latin of Corderius in his Catena on Luk_22:42, etc. This text is taken from a complete codex.

53 δύναμις.

54 λιπαρῶς.

55 τοῦ θανάτου τὸ ὑψωμα.

56 παραφέρεις.

57 ει δὲ οὐκ ἔπιον αὐτὸ ἤδη καὶ ἀνήλωσα · ἀλλα δέος μη ὑπ ̓ αὐτοῦ πλήρης ἐπικειμένου καταποθείην.

58 κεκενωμένος.

59 [In these allegorical interpretations we see the pupil of Origen.]

60 Another fragment, connected with the preceding on Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane. Edited in a mutilated form, as given by Gallandi, in his Bibliotheca, xiv. p. 117, and here presented in its completeness, as found in the Vatican Codex 1611, f. 292, b.

61 Reading ἤ for ην.

62 A fragment. Edited from the Vatican Codex 1996, f. 78, belonging to a date somewhere about the tenth century.

63 Reading πολλοῦ γε δεῖ. The text gives πόλυ γε δεῖ.

64 ἀτμίς. If this strange reading ἀτμις is correct, there is apparently a play intended on the two words πνεῦμα and ἀτμίς, = if God is a πνεῦμα, which word literally signifies Wind or Air, Christ, on that analogy, may be called ἀτμίς, that is to say, the Vapour or Breath of that Wind.

65 That the Son is not different from the Father in nature, but con-natural and consubstantial with Him. From the Panoplia of Euthymius Zigabenus in the Cod. xix. Nanianae Biblioth.

66 [See his explanations in the epistle to Dionysius, p. 92, supra.]

67 A fragment, probably by the Alexandrian Dionysius. This seems to be an excerpt from his works On Penitence, three of which are mentioned by Jerome in his De Script. Eccl., ch. 69. See Mai, Classici Auctores, x. 484. It is edited here from the Vatican Codex.

68 τοῖς παλαμναιοις δαίμοσι. Or, with the demons of vengeance.



Julius Africanus. Introductory Notice to Julius Africanus.

[A.D. 200-232-245.] In a former volume, strengthened by a word from Archbishop Usher,1 I have not hesitated to claim for Theophilus of Antioch a primary place among Christian chronologists. It is no detraction from the fame of our author to admit this, and truth requires it. But the great Alexandrian school must again come into view when we speak of any considerable achievements, among early Christian writers, in this important element of all biblical, in fact, all historical, science. Africanus was a pupil of Heraclas, and we must therefore date his pupilage in Alexandria before A.D. 232, when Dionysius succeeded Heraclas in the presidency of that school. It appears that in A.D. 226 he was performing some duty in behalf of Emmaus (Nicopolis) in Palestine; but Heraclas, who had acted subordinately as Origen’s assistant as early as A.D. 218, could not have become the head of the school, even provisionally, till after Origen’s unhappy ordination.2 Let us assume the period of our author’s attending the school under Heraclas to be between A.D. 228 and A.D. 232, however. We may then venture to reckon his birth as circa A.D. 200. And, if he became “bishop of Emmaus,” it could hardly have been before the year 240, when he was of ripe age and experience. He adds additional lustre to the age of Gregory Thaumaturgus and Dionysius, as well as to that of their common mother in letters and theology, the already ancient academy of Pantaenus and of Clement. His reviving credit in modern times has been largely due to the learned criticism of Dr. Routh, to whose edition of these Fragments the student must necessarily apply. Their chief interest arises from the important specimen which treats of the difficult question of the genealogies of our Lord contained in the evangelists. For a succinct statement of the points involved, and for a candid concession that they were not preserved to meet what modern curiosity would prefer to see established, I know of nothing more satisfactory than the commentary of Wordsworth,3 from which I have borrowed almost wholly one of my elucidations.

The reader will remember the specimen of our author’s critical judgment which is given with the works of Origen.4 He differed with that great author, and the Church Catholic has sustained his judgment as just. I regret that the Edinburgh editors thought it necessary to make the Letter to Origen concerning the Apocryphal Book of Susannah a mere preface to Origen’s answer. It might have been quoted there as a preface; but it is too important not to be included here, with the other fragments of his noble contributions to primitive Christian literature.

 

It does not clearly appear, from the Edinburgh edition, who the translator is; but here follows the…

 

Translator’s Introductory Notice.

The principal facts known to us in the life of Africanus are derived from himself and the Chronicon of Eusebius. He says of himself that he went to Alexandria on account of the fame of Heraclas. In the Chronicon, under the year 226, it is stated that “Nicopolis in Palestine, which formerly bore the name of Emmaus, was built. Africanus, the author of the Chronology, acting as ambassador on behalf of it, and having the charge of it.” Dionysius Bar-Salibi speaks of Africanus as bishop of Emmaus.

Eusebius describes Africanus as being the author of a work called κεστοί.5 Suidas says that this book detailed various kinds of cures, consisting of charms and written forms, and such like. Some have supposed that such a work is not likely to have been written by a Christian writer: they appeal also to the fact that no notice is taken of the κεστοί by Jerome in his notice of Africanus, nor by Rufinus in his translation of Eusebius. They therefore deem the clause in Eusebius an interpolation, and they suppose that two bore the name of Africanus, – one the author of the κεστοί, the other the Christian writer. Suidas identifies them, says that he was surnamed Sextus, and that he was a Libyan philosopher.

 

The works ascribed to Africanus, beside the Cesti, are the following: – 

 

1. Five Books of Chronology. Photius6 says of this work, that it was concise, but omitted nothing of importance. It began with the cosmogony of Moses, and went down to the advent of Christ. It summarized also the events from the time of Christ to the reign of the Emperor Macrinus.

 

2. A very famous letter to Aristides, in which he endeavoured to reconcile the apparent discrepancies in the genealogies of Christ given by Matthew and Luke.

 

3. A letter to Origen, in which he endeavoured to prove that the story of Susanna in Daniel was a forgery. A translation of this letter has been given with the Works of Origen.

 

The Acts of Symphorosa and her Seven Sons are attributed in the MSS. to Africanus; but no ancient writer speaks of him as the author of this work. 

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 Vol. 2. p. 87, this series.

2 Vol. 4. p. 227.

3 On St. Matt. i. 1-17

4 Vol. 4. p. 385.

5 Hist. Eccl., vi. 31.

6 Cod. 34.



Julius Africanus (Cont.)The Extant Writings of Julius Africanus.

Julius Africanus (Cont.)

I. – The Epistle to Aristides.

I.

[Africanus on the Genealogy in the Holy Gospels.1 – Some indeed incorrectly allege that this discrepant enumeration and mixing of the names both of priestly men, as they think, and royal, was made properly,2 in order that Christ might be shown rightfully to be both Priest and King; as if any one disbelieved this, or had any other hope than this, that Christ is the High Priest of His Father, who presents our prayers to Him, and a supramundane King, who rules by the Spirit those whom He has delivered, a cooperator in the government of all things. And this is announced to us not by the catalogue of the tribes, nor by the mixing of the registered generations, but by the patriarchs and prophets. Let us not therefore descend to such religious trifling as to establish the kingship and priesthood of Christ by the interchanges of the names. For the priestly tribe of Levi, too, was allied with the kingly tribe of Juda, through the circumstance that Aaron married Elizabeth the sister of Naasson, (Exo_6:23) and that Eleazar again married the daughter of Phatiel, (Exo_6:25) and begat children. The evangelists, therefore, would thus have spoken falsely, affirming what was not truth, but a fictitious commendation. And for this reason the one traced the pedigree of Jacob the father of Joseph from David through Solomon; the other traced that of Heli also, though in a different way, the father of Joseph, from Nathan the son of David. And they ought not indeed to have been ignorant that both orders of the ancestors enumerated are the generation of David, the royal tribe of Juda. ([Heb_7:14.]) For if Nathan was a prophet, so also was Solomon, and so too the father of both of them; and there were prophets belonging to many of the tribes, but priests belonging to none of the tribes, save the Levites only. To no purpose, then, is this fabrication of theirs. Nor shall an assertion of this kind prevail in the Church of Christ against the exact truth, so as that a lie should be contrived for the praise and glory of Christ. For who does not know that most holy word of the apostle also, who, when he was preaching and proclaiming the resurrection of our Saviour, and confidently affirming the truth, said with great fear, “If any say that Christ is not risen, and we assert and have believed this, and both hope for and preach that very thing, we are false witnesses of God, in alleging that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up?” (1Co_15:12, etc.) And if he who glorifies God the Father is thus afraid lest he should seem a false witness in narrating a marvellous fact, how should not he be justly afraid, who tries to establish the truth by a false statement, preparing an untrue opinion? For if the generations are different, and trace down no genuine seed to Joseph, and if all has been stated only with the view of establishing the position of Him who was to be born – to confirm the truth, namely, that He who was to be would be king and priest, there being at the same tune no proof given, but the dignity of the words being brought down to a feeble hymn, – it is evident that no praise accrues to God from that, since it is a falsehood, but rather judgment returns on him who asserts it, because he vaunts an unreality as though it were reality. Therefore, that we may expose the ignorance also of him who speaks thus, and prevent any one from stumbling at this folly, I shall set forth the true history of these matters.]

 

II.

For3 whereas in Israel the names of their generations were enumerated either according to nature or according to law, – according to nature, indeed, by the succession of legitimate offspring, and according to law whenever another raised up children to the name of a brother dying childless; for because no clear hope of resurrection was yet given them, they had a representation of the future promise in a kind of mortal resurrection, with the view of perpetuating the name of one deceased; – whereas, then, of those entered in this genealogy, some succeeded by legitimate descent as son to father, while others begotten in one family were introduced to another in name, mention is therefore made of both – of those who were progenitors in fact, and of those who were so only in name. Thus neither of the evangelists is in error, as the one reckons by nature and the other by law. For the several generations, viz., those descending from Solomon and those from Nathan, were so intermingled4 by the raising up of children to the childless,5 and by second marriages, and the raising up of seed, that the same persons are quite justly reckoned to belong at one time to the one, and at another to the other, i.e., to their reputed or to their actual fathers. And hence it is that both these accounts are true, and come down to Joseph, with considerable intricacy indeed, but yet quite accurately.

 

III.

But in order that what I have said may be made evident, I shall explain the interchange6 of the generations. If we reckon the generations from David through Solomon, Matthan is found to be the third from the end, 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, whose son was Heli the father of Joseph. For Joseph was the son of Hell, the son of Melchi.7 As Joseph, therefore, is the object proposed to us, we have to show how it is that each is represented as his father, both Jacob as descending from Solomon, and Heli as descending from Nathan: first, how these two, Jacob and Heli, were brothers; and then also how the fathers of these, Matthan and Melchi, being of different families, are shown to be the grandfathers of Joseph. Well, then, Matthan and Melchi, having taken the same woman to wife in succession, begat children who were uterine brothers, as the law did not prevent a widow,8 whether such by divorce or by the death of her husband, from marrying another. By Estha, then – for such is her name according to tradition – Matthan first, the descendant of Solomon, begets Jacob; and on Matthan’s death, Melchi, who traces his descent back to Nathan, being of the same tribe but of another family, having married her, as has been already said, had a son Hell. Thus, then, we shall find Jacob and Hell uterine brothers, though of different families. And of these, the one Jacob having taken the wife of his brother Heli, who died childless, begat by her the third, Joseph – his son by nature and by account.9 Whence also it is written, “And Jacob begat Joseph.” But according to law he was the son of Heli, for Jacob his brother raised up seed to him. Wherefore also the genealogy deduced through him will not be made void, which the Evangelist Matthew in his enumeration gives thus: “And Jacob begat Joseph.” But Luke, on the other hand, says, “Who was the son, as was supposed10 (for this, too, he adds), of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Metchi.” For it was not possible more distinctly to state the generation according to law; and thus in this mode of generation he has entirely omitted the word “begat” to the very end, carrying back the genealogy by way of conclusion to Adam and to God.11

 

IV.

Nor indeed is this incapable of proof, neither is it a rash conjecture. For the kinsmen of the Saviour after the flesh, whether to magnify their own origin or simply to state the fact, but at all events speaking truth, have also handed down the following account: Some Idumean robbers attacking Ascalon, a city of Palestine, besides other spoils which they took from a temple of Apollo, which was built near the walls, carried off captive one Antipater, son of a certain Herod, a servant of the temple. And as the priest12 was not able to pay the ransom for his son, Antipater was brought up in the customs of the Idumeans, and afterwards enjoyed the friendship of Hyrcanus, the high priest of Judea. And being sent on an embassy to Pompey on behalf of Hyrcanus. and having restored to him the kingdom which was being wasted by Aristobulus his brother, he was so fortunate as to obtain the title of procurator of Palestine.13 And when Antipater was treacherously slain through envy of his great good fortune, his son Herod succeeded him, who was afterwards appointed king of Judea under Antony and Augustus by a decree of the senate. His sons were Herod and the other tetrarchs. These accounts are given also in the histories of the Greeks.14

 

V.

But as up to that time the genealogies of the Hebrews had been registered in the public archives, and those, too, which were traced back to the proselytes15 – as, for example, to Achior the Ammanite, and Ruth the Moabitess, and those who left Egypt along with the Israelites, and intermarried with them – Herod, knowing that the lineage of the Israelites contributed nothing to him, and goaded by the consciousness of his ignoble birth, burned the registers of their families. This he did, thinking that he would appear to be of noble birth, if no one else could trace back his descent by the public register to the patriarchs or proselytes, and to that mixed race called georoe.16 A few, however, of the studious, having private records of their own, either by remembering the names or by getting at them in some other way from the archives, pride themselves in preserving the memory of their noble descent; and among these happen to be those already mentioned, called desposyni,17 on account of their connection with the family of the Saviour. And these coming from Nazara and Cochaba, Judean villages, to other parts of the country, set forth the above-named genealogy18 as accurately as possible from the Book of Days.19 Whether, then, the case stand thus or not, no one could discover a more obvious explanation, according to my own opinion and that of any sound judge. And let this suffice us for the matter, although it is not supported by testimony, because we have nothing more satisfactory or true to allege upon it. The Gospel, however, in any case states the truth.

 

VI.

Matthan, descended from Solomon, begat Jacob. Matthan dying, Melchi, descended from Nathan, begat Heli by the same wife. Therefore Heli and Jacob are uterine brothers. Heli dying childless, Jacob raised up seed to him and begat Joseph, his own son by nature, but the son of Heli by law. Thus Joseph was the son of both. ([Elucidation I.])

 

II. – Narrative of Events Happening in Persia on the Birth of Christ.20

The best introduction to this production will be the following preface, as given in Migne: – Many men of learning thus far have been of opinion that the narrative by Africanus of events happening in Persia on Christ’s birth,21 is a fragment of that famous work which Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian author of the third century after Christ, composed on the history of the world in the chronological order of events up to the reign of Macrinus, and presented in five books to Alexander, son of Mammaea, with the view of obtaining the restoration of his native town Emmaus. With the same expectation which I see incited Lambecius and his compendiator Nesselius, I, too, set myself with the greatest eagerness to go over the codices of our Electoral Library …. But, as the common proverb goes, I found coals instead of treasure. This narrative, so far from its being to be ascribed to a writer well reputed by the common voice of antiquity, does not contain anything worthy of the genius of the chronographer Africanus. Wherefore, since by the unanimous testimony of the ancients he was a man of consummate learning and sharpest judgment, while the author of the Cesti, which also puts forward the name of Africanus, has been long marked by critics with the character either of anile credulity, or of a marvellous propensity to superstitious fancies, I can readily fall in with the opinion of those who think that he is a different person from the chronographer, and would ascribe this wretched production also to him. But, dear reader, on perusing these pages, if your indignation is not stirred against the man’s rashness, you will at least join with me in laughing at his prodigious follies, and will learn, at the same time, that the testimonies of men most distinguished for learning are not to be rated so highly as to supersede personal examination when opportunity permits.

 

Events in Persia:

on the Incarnation of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Christ first of all became known from Persia. For nothing escapes the learned jurists of that country, who investigate all things with the utmost care. The facts,22 therefore, which are inscribed upon the golden plates,23 and laid up in the royal temples, I shall record; for it is from the temples there, and the priests connected with them, that the name of Christ has been heard of. Now there is a temple there to Juno, surpassing even the royal palace, which temple Cyrus, that prince instructed in all piety, built, and in which he dedicated in honour of the gods golden and silver statues, and adorned them with precious stones, – that I may not waste words in a profuse description of that ornamentation. Now about that time (as the records on the plates testify), the king having entered the temple, with the view of getting an interpretation of certain dreams, was addressed by the priest Prupupius thus: I congratulate thee, master: Juno has conceived. And the king, smiling, said to him, Has she who is dead conceived? And he said, Yes, she who was dead has come to life again, and besets life. And the king said, What is this? explain it to me. And he replied, In truth, master, the time for these things is at hand. For during the whole night the images, both of gods and goddesses, continued heating the-ground, saying to each other, Come, let us congratulate Juno. And they say to me, Prophet, come forward; congratulate Juno, for she has been embraced. And I said, How can she be embraced who no longer exists? To which they reply, She has come to life again, and is no longer called Juno,24 but Urania. For the mighty Sol has embraced her. Then the goddesses say to the gods, making the matter plainer, Pege25 is she who is embraced; for did not Juno espouse an artificer? And the gods say, That she is rightly called Pege, we admit. Her name, moreover, is Myria; for she bears in her womb, as in the deep, a vessel of a myriad talents’ burden. And as to this title Pege, let it be understood thus: This stream of water sends forth the perennial stream of spirit, – a stream containing but a single fish,26 taken with the hook of Divinity, and sustaining the whole world with its flesh as though it were in the sea. You have well said, She has an artificer [in espousal]; but by that espousal she does not bear an artificer on an equality with herself. For this artificer who is born, the son of the chief artificer, framed by his excellent skill the roof of the third heavens, and established by his word this lower world, with its threefold sphere27 of habitation.

Thus, then, the statues disputed with each other concerning Juno and Pege, and [at length] with one voice they said: When the day is finished. we all, gods and goddesses, shall know the matter clearly. Now, therefore, master, tarry for the rest of the day. For the matter shall certainly come to pass. For that which emerges is no common affair.

And when the king abode there and watched the statues, the harpers of their own accord began to strike their harps, and the misses to sing; and whatsoever creatures were within, whether quadruped or fowl, in silver and gold, uttered their several voices. And as the king shuddered, and was filled with great fear, he was about to retire. For he could not endure the spontaneous tumult. The priest therefore said to him, Remain, O king, for the full revelation is at hand which the God of gods has chosen to declare to us.

And when these things were said, the roof was opened, and a bright star descended and stood above the pillar of Pege, and a voice was heard to this effect: Sovereign Pege, the mighty Son has sent me to make the announcement to you, and at the same time to do you service in parturition, designing blameless nuptials with you, O mother of the chief of all ranks of being, bride of the triune Deity. And the child begotten by extraordinary generation is called the Beginning and the End, – the beginning of salvation, and the end of perdition.

And when this word was spoken, all the statues fell upon their faces, that of Pege alone standing, on which also a royal diadem was found placed, having on its upper side a star set in a carbuncle and an emerald. And on its lower side the star rested.

And the king forthwith gave orders to bring in all the interpreters of prodigies, and the sages who were under his dominion. And when all the heralds sped with their proclamations, all these assembled in the temple. And when they saw the star above Pege, and the diadem with the star and the stone, and the statues lying on the floor, they said: O king, a root (offspring) divine and princely has risen, bearing the image of the King of heaven and earth. For Pege-Myria is the daughter of the Bethlehemite Pege. And the diadem is the mark of a king, and the star is a celestial announcement of portents to fall on the earth. Out of Judah has arisen a kingdom which shall subvert all the memorials of the Jews. And the prostration of the gods upon the floor prefigured the end of their honour. For he who comes, being of more ancient dignity, shall displace all the recent. Now therefore, O king, send to Jerusalem. For you will find the Christ of the Omnipotent God borne in bodily form in the bodily arms of a woman. And the star remained above the statue of Pege, called the Celestial, until the wise men came forth, and then it went with them.

And then, in the depth of evening, Dionysus appeared in the temple, unaccompanied by the Satyrs, and said to the images: Pege is not one of us, but stands far above us, in that she gives birth to a man whose conception is in divine fashion.28 O priest Prupupius! what dost thou tarrying here? An action, indicated in writings of old,29 has come upon us, and we shall be convicted as false by a person of power and energy.30 Wherein we have been deceivers, we have been deceivers; and wherein we have ruled, we have ruled. No longer give we oracular responses. Gone from us is our honour. Without glory and reward are we become. There is One, and One only, who receives again at the hands of all His proper honour. For the rest, be not disturbed.31 No longer shall the Persians exact tribute of earth and sky. For He who established these things is at hand, to bring practical tribute32 to Him who sent Him, to renew the ancient image, and to put image with image, and bring the dissimilar to similarity. Heaven rejoices with earth, and earth itself exults at receiving matter of exultation from heaven. Things which have not happened above, have happened on earth beneath. He whom the order of the blessed has not seen, is seen by the order of the miserable. Flame threatens those; dew attends these. To Myria is given the blessed lot of bearing Pege in Bethlehem, and of conceiving grace of grace. Judaea has seen its bloom, and this country is fading. To Gentiles and aliens, salvation is come; to the wretched, relief is ministered abundantly. With right do women dance, and say, Lady Pege, Spring-bearer, thou mother of the heavenly constellation. Thou cloud that bringest us dew after heat, remember thy de pendants, O mistress.

The king then, without delay, sent some of the Magi under his dominion with gifts, the star showing them the way. And when they returned, they narrated to the men of that time those same things which were also written on the plates of gold, and which were to the following effect: – 

When we came to Jerusalem, the sign, together with our arrival, roused all the people. How is this, say they, that wise men of the Persians are here, and that along with them there is this strange stellar phenomenon? And the chief of the Jews interrogated us in this way: What is this that attends you,33 and with what purpose are you here? And we said: He whom ye call Messias is born. And they were confounded, and dared not withstand us. But they said to us, By the justice of Heaven, tell us what ye know of this matter. And we made answer to them: Ye labour under unbelief; and neither without an oath nor with an oath do ye believe us, but ye follow your own heedless counsel. For the Christ, the Son of the Most High, is born, and He is the subverter of your law and synagogues. And therefore is it that, struck with this most excellent response as with a dart,34 ye hear in bitterness this name which has come upon you suddenly. And they then, taking counsel together, urged us to accept their gifts, and tell to none that such an event had taken place in that land of theirs, lest, as they say, a revolt rise against us. But we replied: We have brought gifts in His honour, with the view of proclaiming those mighty things which we know to have happened in our country on occasion of His birth; and do ye bid us take your bribes, and conceal the things which have been communicated to us by the Divinity who is above the heavens, and neglect the commandments of our proper King? And after urging many considerations on us, they gave the matter up. And when the king of Judaea sent for us and had some converse with us, and put to us certain questions as to the statements we made to him, we acted in the same manner, until he was thoroughly enraged at our replies. We left him accordingly, without giving any greater heed to him than to any common person.

And we came to that place then to which we were sent, and saw the mother and the child, the star indicating to us the royal babe. And we said to the mother: What art thou named, O renowned mother? And she says: Mary, masters. And we said to her: Whence art thou sprung?35 And she replies: From this district of the Bethlehemites.36 Then said we: Hast thou not had a husband? And she answers: I was only betrothed with a view to the marriage covenant, my thoughts being far removed from this. For I had no mind to come to this. And while I was giving very little concern to it, when a certain Sabbath dawned, and straightway at the rising of the sun, an angel appeared to me bringing me suddenly the glad tidings of a son. And in trouble I cried out, Be it not so to me, Lord, for I have not a husband. And he persuaded me to believe, that by the will of God I should have this son.

Then said we to her: Mother, mother, all the gods of the Persians have called thee blessed. Thy glory is great; for thou art exalted above all women of renown, and thou art shown to be more queenly than all queens.

The child, moreover, was seated on the ground, being, as she said, in His second year, and having in part the likeness of His mother. And she had long hands,37 and a body somewhat delicate; and her colour was like that of ripe wheat;38 and she was of a round face, and had her hair bound up. And as we had along with us a servant skilled in painting from the life, we brought with us to our country a likeness of them both; and it was placed by our hand in the sacred39 temple, with this inscription on it: To Jove the Sun, the mighty God, the King of Jesus, the power of Persia dedicated this.

And taking the child up, each of us in turn, and bearing Him in our arms, we saluted Him and worshipped Him, and presented to Him gold, and myrrh, and frankincense, addressing Him thus: We gift Thee with Thine own, O Jesus, Ruler of heaven. Ill would things unordered be ordered, wert Thou not at hand. In no other way could things heavenly be brought into conjunction with things earthly, but by Thy descent. Such service cannot be discharged, if only the servant is sent us, as when the Master Himself is present; neither can so much be achieved when the king sends only his satraps to war, as when the king is there himself. It became the wisdom of Thy system, that Thou shouldst deal in this manner with men.40

And the child leaped and laughed at our caresses and words. And when we had bidden the mother farewell,41 and when she had shown us honour, and we had testified to her the reverence which became us, we came again to the place in which we lodged. And at eventide there appeared to us one of a terrible and fearful countenance, saying: Get ye out quickly, lest ye be taken in a snare. And we in terror said: And who is he, O divine leader, that plotteth against so august an embassage? And he replied: Herod; but get you up straightway and depart in safety and peace.

And we made speed to depart thence in all earnestness; and we reported in Jerusalem all that we had seen. Behold, then, the great things that we have told you regarding Christ; and we saw Christ our Saviour, who was made known as both God and man. To Him be the glory and the power unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

 

III. – The Extant Fragments of the Five Books of the Chronography of Julius Africanus.

I.42 On the Mythical Chronology of the Egyptians and Chaldeans.

The Egyptians, indeed, with their boastful notions of their own antiquity, have put forth a sort of account of it by the hand of their astrologers in cycles and myriads of years; which some of those who have had the repute of studying such subjects profoundly have in a summary way called lunar years; and inclining no less than others to the mythical, they think they fall in with the eight or nine thousands of years which the Egyptian priests in Plato falsely reckon up to Solon.43 

(And after some other matter:)

For why should I speak of the three myriad years of the Phoenicians, or of the follies of the Chaldeans, their forty-eight myriads? For the Jews, deriving their origin from them as descendants of Abraham, having been taught a modest mind, and one such as becomes men, together with the truth by the spirit of Moses, have handed down to us, by their extant Hebrew histories, the number of 5500 years as the period up to the advent of the Word of salvation, that was announced to the world in the time of the sway of the Caesars.

 

II.44

When men multiplied on the earth, the angels of heaven came together with the daughters of men. In some copies I found “the sons of God.” What is meant by the Spirit, in my opinion, is that the descendants of Seth are called the sons of God on account of the righteous men and patriarchs who have sprung from him, even down to the Saviour Himself; but that the descendants of Cain are named the seed of men as having nothing divine in them, on account of the wickedness of their race and the inequality of their nature, being a mixed people, and having stirred the indignation of God.45 But if it is thought that these refer to angels, we must take them to be those who deal with magic and jugglery, who taught the women the motions of the stars and the knowledge of things celestial, by whose power they conceived the giants as their children, by whom wickedness came to its height on the earth, until God decreed that the whole race of the living should perish in their impiety by the deluge.

 

III.46

Adam, when 530 years old, begets Seth; and after living other 700 years he died, that is, a second death.

Seth, when 505 years old, begot Enos; from Adam therefore to the birth of Enos there are 435 years in all.

Enos, when 190 years old, begets Cainan.

Cainan again, when 170 years old, begets Malaleel;

And Malaleel, when 165 years old; begets, Jared;

And Jared, when 162 years old, begets Enoch; And Enoch, when 165 years old, begets Mathusala; and having pleased God, after a life of other 200 years, he was not found.

Mathusala, when 187 years old, begot Lamech.

Lamech, when 188 years old, begets Noe.

 

IV.47 On the Deluge.

God decreed to destroy the whole race of the living by a flood, having threatened that men should not survive beyond 120 years. Nor let it be deemed a matter of difficulty, because some lived afterwards a longer period than that. For the space of time meant was 100 years up to the flood in the case of the sinners of that time; for they were 20 years old. God instructed Noe, who pleased him on account of his righteousness, to prepare an ark; and when it was finished, there entered it Noe himself and his sons, his wife and his daughters-in-law, and firstlings of every living creature, with a view to the duration of the race. And Noe was 600 years old when the flood came on. And when the water abated, the ark settled on the mountains of Ararat, which we know to be in Parthia;48 but some say that they are at Celaenae49 of Phrygia, and I have seen both places. And the flood prevailed for a year, and then the earth became dry. And they came out of the ark in pairs, as may be found, and not in the manner in which they had entered, viz., distinguished according to their species, and were blessed by God. And each of these things indicates something useful to us.

 

V.50

Noe was 600 years old when the flood came on. From Adam, therefore, to Noe and the flood, are 2262 years.

 

VI.51

And after the flood, Sem begot Arphaxad.

Arphaxad, when 135 years old, begets Sala in the year 2397.

Sala, when 130 years old, begets Heber in the year 2527.

Heber, when 134 years old, begets Phalec in the year 2661, so called because the earth was divided in his days.

Phalec, when 130 years old, begot Ragan, and after living other 209 years died.

 

VIII.52

In the year of the world 3277, Abraham entered the promised land of Canaan.

 

VIII.53 Of Abraham.

From this rises the appellation of the Hebrews. For the word Hebrews is interpreted to mean those who migrate across, viz., who crossed the Euphrates with Abraham; and it is not derived, as some think, from the fore-mentioned Heber. From the flood and Noe, therefore, to Abraham’s entrance into the promised land, there are in all 1015 years; and from Adam, in 20 generations 3277 years.

 

IX.54 Of Abraham and Lot.

When a famine pressed the land of Canaan Abraham came down to Egypt; and fearing lest he should be put out of the way on account of the beauty of his wife, he pretended that he was her brother. But Pharaoh took her to himself when she was commended to him; for this is the name the Egyptians give their kings. And he was punished by God; and Abraham, along with all pertaining to him, was dismissed enriched. In Canaan, Abraham’s shepherds and Lot’s contended with each other; and with mutual consent they separated, Lot choosing to dwell in Sodom on account of the fertility and beauty of the land, which had five cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, Seboim, Segor, and as many kings. On these their neighbours the four Syrian kings made war, whose leader was Chodollogomo king of Aelam. And they met by the Salt Sea, which is now called the Dead Sea. In it I have seen very many wonderful things. For that water sustains no living thing, and dead bodies are carried beneath its depths, while the living do not readily even dip under it. Lighted torches are borne upon it, but when extinguished they sink. And there are the springs of bitumen; and it yields alum and salt a little different from the common kinds, for they are pungent and transparent. And wherever fruit is found about it, it is found full of a thick, foul smoke. And the water acts as a cure to those who use it, and it is drained in a manner contrary to any other water.55 And if it had not the river Jordan feeding it like a shell,56 and to a great extent withstanding its tendency, it would have failed more rapidly than appears. There is also by it a great quantity of the balsam plant; but it is supposed to have been destroyed by God on account of the impiety of the neighbouring people.

 

X.57 Of the Patriarch Jacob.

1. The shepherd’s tent belonging to Jacob, which was preserved at Edessa to the time of Antonine Emperor of the Romans, was destroyed by a thunderbolt.58

 

2. Jacob, being displeased at what had been done by Symeon and Levi at Shecem against the people of the country, on account of the violation of their sister, buried at Shecem the gods which he had with him near a rock under the wonderful terebinth,59 which up to this day is reverenced by the neighbouring people in honour of the patriarchs, and removed thence to Bethel. By the trunk of this terebinth there was an altar on which the inhabitants of the country offered ectenoe60 in their general assemblies; and though it seemed to be burned, it was not consumed. Near it is the tomb of Abraham and Isaac. And some say that the staff of one of the angels who were entertained by Abraham was planted there.

 

XI.61

From Adam, therefore, to the death of Joseph, according to this book, are 23 generations, and 3563 years.

 

XII.62

From this record,63 therefore, we affirm that Ogygus,64 from whom the first flood (in Attica) derived its name,65 and who was saved when many perished, lived at the time of the exodus of the people from Egypt along with Moses.66 (After a break): And after Ogygus, on account of the vast destruction caused by the flood, the present land of Attica remained without a king tilt the time of Cecrops, 189 years.67 Philochorus, however, affirms that Ogygus, Actaeus, or whatever other fictitious name is adduced, never existed. (After another break): From Ogygus to Cyrus, as from Moses to his time, are 1235 years.

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 This letter, as given by Eusebius, is acephalous. A large portion of it is supplied by Cardinal Angelo Mai in the Bibliotheca nova Patrum, vol. iv. pp. 231 and 272. We enclose in brackets the parts wanting in Gallandi, who copied Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., i. 7). On this celebrated letter of Africanus to Aristides, consult especially Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., i. 7); also Jerome, comm. on Matt. i. 16; Augustine, Retract., ii. 7; Photius, cod. xxxiv. p. 22; and in addition to these, Zacharias Chrysopol. in Bibl. P. P. Lugd., vol. xix. p. 751.

2 δικαίως.

3 Here what is given in Eusebius begins.

4 Ρεαδινγ συνεπεπλάκη. Migne would make it equivalent to “superimplexum est.” Rufinus renders it, “Reconjunctum namque est sibi invicem genus, et illus per Salomonem et illud quod per Nathan deducitur,” etc.

5 ἀναστάσεσιν ἀτέκνων. Rufinus and Damascenus omit these words in their versions of the passage.

6 The reading of the Codex Regius is ἀκολουθίαν, i.e., succession; the other leading MSS. give ἐπαλλαγήν, i.e., interchange or confusion.

7 But in our text in Luk_3:23, Luk_3:24, and so, too, in the Vulgate, Matthat and Levi are inserted between Heli and Melchi. It may be that these two names were not found in the copy used by Africanus.

8 Here Africanus applies the term “widow” (χηρεύουσαν) to one divorced as well as to one bereaved.

9 κατὰ λόγον.

10 Two things may be remarked here: first, that Africanus refers the phrase “as was supposed” not only to the words “son of Joseph,” but also to those that follow, “the son of Heli;” so that Christ would be the son of Joseph by legal adoption, just in the same way as Joseph was the son of Heli, which would lead to the absurd and impious conclusion that Christ was the son of Mary and a brother of Joseph married by her after the death of the latter. And second, that in the genealogy here assigned to Luke, Melchi holds the third place; whence it would seem either that Africanus’s memory had failed him, or that as Bede conjectures in his copy of the Gospel Melchi stood in place of Matthat (Migne). [A probable solution.]

11 Other MSS. read, “Adam the son of God.”

12 The word “priest” is used here perhaps improperly for “servant of the temple,” i.e., ἱερεύς for ἱερόδουλος.

13 So Josephus styles him “procurator of Judea, and viceroy” (ἐπιμελητὴς τῆς Ἰουδαίας, ανδ ἐπίτροπος).

14 This whole story about Antipater is fictitious. Antipater’s father was not Herod, a servant in the temple of Apollo, but Antipater an Idumean, as we learn from Josephus (xiv. 1). This Antipater was made prefect of Idumea by Alexander king of the Jews, and laid the foundation of the power to which his descendants rose. He acquired great wealth, and was on terms of friendship with Ascalon, Gaza, and the Arabians.

15 Several MSS. read ἀρχιπροσηλύτων for ἄχρι προσηλύτων, whence some conjecture that the correct reading should be ἄχρι τῶν ἀρχιπροσηλύτων, i.e., back to the “chief proselytes,” – these being, as it were, patriarchs among the proselytes, like Achior, and those who joined the Israelites on their flight from Egypt.

16 This word occurs in the Septuagint version of Exo_12:19, and refers to the strangers who left Egypt along with the Israelites. For Israel was accompanied by a mixed body, consisting on the one hand of native Egyptians, who are names αὐτόχθονες in that passage of Exodus, and by the resident aliens, who are called γειῶραι. Justin Martyr has the form γηόραν in Dialogue with Trypho, ch. cxxii. The root of the term is evidently the Hebrew גר, “stranger.”

17 The word δεσπόσυνοι was employed to indicate the Lord’s relatives, as being His according to the flesh. The term means literally, “those who belong to a master,” and thence it was used also to signify “one’s heirs.”

18 προειρημένην. Nicephorus reads προκειμένην.

19 ἐκ τε τῆς βίβλου τῶν ἡμερῶν. By this “Book of Days” Africanus understands those “day-books” which he has named, a little before this, ἰδιωτικὰς ἀπογραφάς. For among the Jews, most persons setting a high value on their lineage were in the habit of keeping by them private records of their descent copied from the public archives, as we see it done also by nobles among ourselves. Besides, by the insertion of the particle τε, which is found in all our codices, and also in Nicephorus, it appears that something is wanting in this passage. Wherefore it seems necessary to supply these words, και ἀπὸ μνήμης ἐς οσον ἐξικνοῦντο, “and from memory,” etc. Thus at least Rufinus seems to have read the passage, for he renders it: Ordinem supradictae generationis partim memoriter, partim etiam ex dierum libris, in quantum erat possibile, perdocebant (Migne).

20 Edited from two Munich codices by J. Chr. von. Aretin, in his Beiträge zur Geschichte und Literatur, anno 1804, p. ii. p. 49. [I place this apocryphal fragment here as a mere appendix to the Genealogical Argument. An absurd appendix, indeed.]

21 Which is extant in two MSS. in the Electoral Library of Munich, and in one belonging to the Imperial Library of Vienna.

22 The MSS. read γάρ, for.

23 The term in the original (ἀλκλαρίαις) is one altogether foreign to Greek, and seems to be of Arabic origin. The sense, however, is evident from the use of synonymous terms in the context.

24 There is a play upon the words, perhaps, in the original. The Greek term for Juno (Ηρα) may be derived from ερα, terra, so that the antithesis intended is, “She is no longer called Earthly, but Heavenly.”

25 i.e., Fountain, Spring, or Stream.

26 The initial letters of the Greek Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ, i.e., “Jesus Christ the Son of God the Saviour,” when joined together, make the word ἱχθύς, i.e., fish; and the fathers used the word, therefore, as a mystic symbol of Christ, who could live in the depth of our mortality as in the abyss of the sea. [Vol. 2. p. 297.]

27 i.e., as sea, land, and sky.

28 θείας τύχης σύλλημμα.

29 ἔγγραφος.

30 ἐμπράκτου.

31 The text gives θροβαδεῖ, for which Migne proposes θορύβηθι.

32 πρακτικοὺς φόρους.

33 τί τὸ ἑπόμενον, perhaps meant for, What business brings you?

34 ὑπὲρ μαντείας ἀριστης ωσπερ κατατοξευόμενοι.

35 ὁρμωμένη.

36 Βηθλεωτῶν.

37 μακρὰς τὰς χεῖρας according to Migne, instead of the reading of the manuscript, μακρὶν τὴν κῆραν ἔχουσα.

38 σιτόχροος.

39 διοπετεῖ.

40 The manuscripts give ἀντάρτας, for which Migne proposes ἀνθρώπους or αντεργάτας. [Unworthy, wholly so, of our author. This curious specimen of the romances of antiquity might better have found its place with other Protevangelia in vol. 8., this series.]

41 συνταξάμενοι.

42 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 17, ed. Paris, 14 Venet.

43 The text is: … συμπίπτουσι ταῖς ὀκτὼ καὶ ἐννέα χιλιάσιν ἐτῶν, ἃς Αιγυπτιων οι παρὰ Πλατωνι ἱερεῖς εις Σόλωνα καταριθμοῦντες οὐκ άληθεύουσι.

44 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 19, al. 15.

45 The text here is manifestly corrupt: ἐπιμιχθέντων αὐτῶν, τὴν ἀγανάκτησιν ποιήσασθαι τὸν Θεόν.

46 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 81, al. 65.

47 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 21, al. 17.

48 That is, in Armenia.

49 For there was a hill Ararat in Phrygia, from which the Marsyas issued, and the ark was declared to have rested there by the Sibylline oracles. [But see vol. 5. p. 149.]

50 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 83, al. 67.

51 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 86, al. 68.

52 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 93, al. 74. [Compare vol. 5. p. 148.]

53 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 99, al. 79. [עָבַר is the verb.]

54 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 100, al. 80.

55 λήγει τε παντὶ υδατι πάσχων τὰἐνάντια.

56 ὡς πορφύραν.

57 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 107, al. 86.

58 Heliogabalus is probably intended, in whose time Africanus flourished. At least so thinks Syncellus.

59 On this terebinth, see Scaliger (ad Graeca Euseb., p. 414); Franciscus Quaresimus, in Elucid. terrae sanctae: Eugenius Rogerius, etc.; and also Valesius, ad Euseb. De Vit. Constant., iii. 53, notes 3 and 5

60 Scaliger acknowledges himself ignorant of this word ἐκτενας. In the Eastern Church it is used to denote protracted prayers (preces protensiores) offered by the deacon on behalf of all classes of men, and the various necessities of human life. See Suicer, sub voce. Allatius thinks the text corrupt, and would read, ἐφ ̓ ον τά τε ὁλοκαυτώματα καὶ τὰς ἐκατόμβας ἀνεφερον = on which they offered both holocausts and hecatombs. [Littledale, Eastern Offices, p. 253.]

61 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 106, al. 85.

62 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 148, al. 118, from the Third Book of the Chron. of Africanus.

63 συντάγματος.

64 Others write Ogyges. Josephus (in Apionem), Euseb. (de Praepar.) Tatian [vol. 2. p. 81], Clemens [not so, vol. 2. p. 324), and others write Ogygus.

65 The text is, ὃς τοῦ πρωτοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ γεγονεν ἑπώνυμος. The word ἑπώνυμος is susceptible of two meanings, either “taking the name from” or “giving the name to.” Ὠγυγια κακα was a proverbial expression for primeval ills.

66 The text is here, κατὰ τὴν Αἴγυπτον τοῦ λαοῦ μετὰ Μωυσέως ἔξοδον γενέσθαι, for which we may read κατὰ τὴν ἑξ Αίγυπτου, etc.

67 Ὡγυγον Ἀκταῖον ἢ τὰ πλασσόμενα τῶν ὀνομάτων. Compare xiii. 6, where we have τὸν γὰρ μετὰ Ὡγυγον Ἀκταῖον, etc.



Julius Africanus (Cont.)The Extant Writings of Julius Africanus. (Cont.)

III. – The Extant Fragments of the Five Books of the Chronography of Julius Africanus. (Cont.)

XIII.68

1. Up to the time of the Olympiads there is no certain history among the Greeks, all things before that date being confused, and in no way consistent with each other. But these Olympiads were thoroughly investigated69 by many, as the Greeks made up the records of their history not according to long spaces, but in periods of four years. For which reason I shall select the most remarkable of the mythical narratives before the time of the first Olympiad, and rapidly run over them. But those after that period, at least those that are notable, I shall take together, Hebrew events in connection with Greek, according to their dates, examining carefully the affairs of the Hebrews, and touching more cursorily on those of the Greeks; and my plan will be as follows: Taking up some single event in Hebrew history synchronous with another in Greek history, and keeping by it as the main subject, subtracting or adding as may seem needful in the narrative, I shall note what Greek or Persian of note, or remarkable personage of any other nationality, flourished at the date of that event in Hebrew history; and thus I may perhaps attain the object which I propose to myself.

 

2. The most famous exile that befell the Hebrews, then – to wit, when they were led captive by Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon – lasted 70 years, as Jeremias had prophesied. Berosus the Babylonian, moreover, makes mention of Nabuchodonosor. And after the 70 years of captivity, Cyrus became king of the Persians at the time of the 55th Olympiad, as may be ascertained from the Bibliothecae of Diodorus and the histories of Thallus and Castor, and also from Polybius and Phlegon, and others besides these, who have made the Olympiads a subject of study. For the date is a matter of agreement among them all. And Cyrus then, in the first year of his reign, which was the first year of the 55th Olympiad, effected the first partial restoration of the people by the hand of Zorobabel, with whom also was Jesus the son of Josedec, since the period of 70 years was now fulfilled, as is narrated in Esdra the Hebrew historian. The narratives of the beginning of the sovereignty of Cyrus and the end of the captivity accordingly coincide. And thus, according to the reckoning of the Olympiads, there will be found a like harmony of events even to our time. And by following this, we shall also make the other narratives fit in with each other in the same manner.

 

3. But if the Attic time-reckoning is taken as the standard for affairs prior to these, then from Ogygus, who was believed by them to be an autochthon, in whose time also the first great flood took place in Attica, while Phoroneus reigned over the Argives, as Acusilaus relates, tip to the date of the first Olympiad, from which period the Greeks thought they could fix dates accurately, there are altogether 1020 years; which number both coincides with the above-mentioned, and will be established by what follows. For these things are also recorded by the Athenian70 historians Hellanicus and Phitochorus, who record Attic affairs; and by Castor and Thallus, who record Syrian affairs; and by Diodorus, who writes a universal history in his Bibliothecae; and by Alexander Polyhistor, and by some of our own time, yet more carefully, and71 by all the Attic writers. Whatever narrative of note, therefore, meets us in these 1020 years, shall be given in its proper place.

 

4. In accordance with this writing, therefore, we affirm that Ogygus, who gave his name to the first flood, and was saved when many perished, lived at the time of the exodus of the people from Egypt along with Moses.72 And this we make out in the following manner. From Ogygus up to the first Olympiad already mentioned, it will be shown that there are 1020 years; and from the first Olympiad to the first year of the 55th, that is the first year of King Cyrus, which was also the end of the captivity, are 217 years. From Ogygus, therefore, to Cyrus are 1237. And if one carries the calculation backwards from the end of the captivity, there are 1237 years. Thus, by analysis, the same period is found to the first year of the exodus of Israel under Moses from Egypt, as from the 55th Olympiad to Ogygus, who founded Eleusis. And from this point we get a more notable beginning for Attic chronography.

 

5. So much, then, for the period prior to Ogygus. And at his time Moses left Egypt. And we demonstrate in the following manner how reliable is the statement that this happened at that date. From the exodus of Moses up to Cyrus, who reigned after the captivity, are 1237 years. For the remaining years of Moses are 40. The years of Jesus, who led the people after him, are 25; those of the elders, who were judges after Jesus, are 30; those of the judges, whose history is given in the book of Judges, are 490; those of the priests Eli and Samuel are 90; those of the successive kings of the Hebrews are 490. Then come the 70 years of the captivity,73 the last year of which was the first year of the reign of Cyrus, as we have already said.

 

6. And from Moses, then, to the first Olympiad there are 1020 years, as to the first year of the 55th Olympiad from the same are 1237, in which enumeration the reckoning of the Greeks coincides with us. And after Ogygus, by reason of the vast destruction caused by the flood, the present land of Attica remained without a king up to Cecrops, a period of 189 years. For Philochorus asserts that the Actaeus who is said to have succeeded Ogygus, or whatever other fictitious names are adduced, never existed. And again: From Ogygus, therefore, to Cyrus, says he, the same period is reckoned as from Moses to the same date, viz. 1237 years; and some of the Greeks also record that Moses lived at that same time. Polemo, for instance, in the first book of his Greek History, says: In the time of Apis, son of Phoroneus, a division of the army of the Egyptians left Egypt, and settled in the Palestine called Syrian, not far from Arabia: these are evidently those who were with Moses. And Apion the son of Poseidonius, the most laborious of grammarians, in his book Against the Jews, and in the fourth book of his History, says that in the time of Inachus king of Argos, when Amosis reigned over Egypt, the Jews revolted under the leadership of Moses. And Herodotus also makes mention of this revolt, and of Amosis, in his second book, and in a certain way also of the Jews themselves, reckoning them among the circumcised, and calling them the Assyrians of Palestine, perhaps through Abraham. And Ptolemy the Mendesian, who narrates the history of the Egyptians from the earliest times, gives the same account of all these things; so that among them in general there is no difference worth notice in the chronology.

 

7. It should be observed, further, that all the legendary accounts which are deemed specially remarkable by the Greeks by reason of their antiquity, are found to belong to a period posterior to Moses; such as their floods and conflagrations, Prometheus, Io, Europa, the Sparti, the abduction of Proserpine, their mysteries, their legislations, the deeds of Dionysus, Perseus, the Argonauts, the Centaurs, the Minotaur, the affairs of Troy, the labours of Hercules, the return of the Heraclidae, the Ionian migration and the Olympiads. And it seemed good to me to give an account especially of the before-noted period of the Attic sovereignty, as I intend to narrate the history of the Greeks side by side with that of the Hebrews. For any one will be able, if he only start from my position, to make out the reckoning equally well with me. Now, in the first year of that period of 1020 years, stretching from Moses and Ogygus to the first Olympiad, the passover and the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt took place, and also in Attica the flood of Ogygus. And that is according to reason. For when the Egyptians were being smitten in the anger of God with hail and storms, it was only to be expected that certain parts of the earth should suffer with them; and, in especial, it was but to be expected that the Athenians should participate in such calamity with the Egyptians, since they were supposed to be a colony from them, as Theopompus alleges in his Tricarenus, and others besides him. The intervening period has been passed by, as no remarkable event is recorded during it among the Greeks. But after 94 years Prometheus arose, according to some, who was fabulously reported to have formed men; for being a wise man, he transformed them from the state of extreme rudeness to culture.

 

XIV.74

Aeschylus, the son of Agamestor, ruled the Athenians twenty-three years, in whose time Joatham reigned in Jerusalem.

And our canon brings Joatham king of Juda within the first Olympiad.

 

XV.75

And Africanus, in the third book of his History, writes: Now the first Olympiad recorded – which, however, was really the fourteenth – was the period when Coroebus was victor;76 at that time Ahaz was in the first year of his reign in Jerusalem. Then in the fourth book he says: It is therefore with the first year of the reign of Ahaz that we have shown the first Olympiad to fall in.

 

XVI.77 On the Seventy Weeks of Daniel.

1. This passage, therefore, as it stands thus, touches on many marvellous things. At present, however, I shall speak only of those things in it which bear upon chronology, and matters connected therewith. That the passage speaks then of the advent of Christ, who was to manifest Himself after seventy weeks, is evident. For in the Saviour’s time, or from Him, are transgressions abrogated, and sins brought to an end. And through remission, moreover, are iniquities, along with offences, blotted out by expiation; and an everlasting righteousness is preached, different from that which is by the law, and visions and prophecies (are) until John, and the Most Holy is anointed. For before the advent of the Saviour these things were not yet, and were therefore only looked for. And the beginning of the numbers, that is, of the seventy weeks which make up 490 years, the angel instructs us to take from the going forth of the commandment to answer and to build Jerusalem. And this happened in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia. For Nehemiah his cup-bearer besought him, and received the answer that Jerusalem should be built. And the word went forth commanding these things; for up to that time the city was desolate. For when Cyrus, after the seventy years’ captivity, gave free permission to all to return who desired it, some of them under the leadership of Jesus she high priest and Zorobabel, and others after these under the leadership of Esdra, returned, but were prevented at first from building the temple, and from surrounding the city with a wall, on the plea that that had not been commanded.

 

2. It remained in this position, accordingly, until Nehemiah and the reign of Artaxerxes, and the 115th year of the sovereignty of the Persians. And from the capture of Jerusalem that makes 185 years. And at that time King Artaxerxes gave order that the city should be built; and Nehemiah being despatched, superintended the work, and the street and the surrounding wall were built, as had been prophesied. And reckoning from that point, we make up seventy weeks to the time of Christ. For if we begin to reckon from any other point, and not from this, the periods will not correspond, and very many odd results will meet us. For if we begin the calculation of the seventy weeks from Cyrus and the first restoration, there will be upwards of one hundred years too many, and there will be a larger number if we begin from the day on which the angel gave the prophecy to Daniel, and a much larger number still if we begin from the commencement of the captivity. For we find the sovereignty of the Persians comprising a period of 230 years, and that of the Macedonians extending over 370 years, and from that to the 16th78 year of Tiberius Caesar is a period of about 60 years.

 

3. It is by calculating from Artaxerxes, therefore, up to the time of Christ that the seventy weeks are made up, according to the numeration of the Jews. For from Nehemiah, who was despatched by Artaxerxes to build Jerusalem in the 115th year of the Persian empire, and the 4th year of the 83d Olympiad, and the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes himself, up to ibis date, which was the second year of the 202d Olympiad, and the 16th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there are reckoned 475 years, which make 490 according to the Hebrew numeration, as they measure the years by the course of the moon; so that, as is easy to show, their year consists of 354 days, while the solar year has 365¼ days. For the latter exceeds the period of twelve months, according to the moon’s course, by 11¼ days. Hence the Greeks and the Jews insert three intercalary months every 8 years. For 8 times 11¼ days makes up 3 months. Therefore 475 years make 59 periods of 8 years each, and 3 months besides. But since thus there are 3 intercalary months every 8 years, we get thus 15 years minus a few days; and these being added to the 475 years, make up in all the 70 weeks.

 

XVII.79 On the Fortunes of Hyrcanus and Antigonus, and on Herod, Augustus, Antony, and Cleopatra, in Abstract.

1. Octavius Sebastus, or, as the Romans call him, Augustus, the adopted son of Caius, on returning to Rome from Apollonias in Epirus, where he was educated, possessed himself of the first place in the government. And Antony afterwards obtained the rule of Asia and the districts beyond. In his time the Jews accused Herod; but he put the deputies to death, and restored Herod to his government. Afterwards, however, along with Hyrcanus and Phasaelus his brother, he was driven out, and betook himself in flight to Antony. And as the Jews would not receive him, an obstinate battle took place; and in a short time after, as he had conquered in battle, he also drove out Antigonus, who had returned. And Antigonus fled to Herod the Parthian king, and was restored by the help of his son Pacorus, which help was given on his promising to pay 1000 talents of gold. And Herod then in his turn had to flee, while Phasaelus was slain in battle, and Hyrcanus was surrendered alive to Antigonus. And after cutting off his ears, that he might be disqualified for the priesthood, he gave him to the Parthians to lead into captivity; for he scrupled to put him to death, as he was a relation of his own. And Herod, on his expulsion, betook himself first to Malichus king of the Arabians; and when he did not receive him, through fear of the Parthians, he went away to Alexandria to Cleopatra. That was the 185th Olympiad. Cleopatra having put to death her brother, who was her consort in the government, and being then summoned by Antony to Cilicia to make her defence, committed the care of the sovereignty to Herod; and as he requested that he should not be entrusted with anything until he was restored to his own government80 she took him with her and went to Antony. And as he was smitten with love for the princess, they despatched Herod to Rome to Octavius Augustus, who, on behalf of Antipater, Herod’s father, and on behalf of Herod himself, and also because Antigonus was established as king by the help of the Parthians, gave a commission to the generals in Palestine and Syria to restore him to his government. And in concert with Sosius he waged war against Antigonus for a long time, and in manifold engagements. At that time also, Josephus, Herod’s brother, died in his command. And Herod coming to Antony81 …

 

2. For three years they besieged Antigonus, and then brought him alive to Antony. And Antony himself also proclaimed Herod as king, and gave him, in addition, the cities Hippus, Gadara, Gaza, Joppa, Anthedon, and a part of Arabia, Trachonitis, and Auranitis, and Sacia, and Gaulanitis;82 and besides these, also the procuratorship of Syria. Herod was declared king of the Jews by the senate and Octavius Augustus, and reigned 34 years. Antony, when about to go on an expedition against the Parthians, slew Antigonus the king of the Jews, and gave Arabia to Cleopatra; and passing over into the territory of the Parthians, sustained a severe defeat, losing the greater part of his army. That was in the 186th Olympiad. Octavius Augustus led the forces of Italy and all the West against Antony, who refused to return to Rome through fear, on account of his failure in Parthia, and through his love for Cleopatra. And Antony met him with the forces of Asia. Herod, however, like a shrewd fellow, and one who waits upon the powerful, sent a double set of letters, and despatched his army to sea, charging his generals to watch the issue of events. And when the victory was decided, and when Antony, after sustaining two naval defeats, had fled to Egypt along with Cleopatra, they who bore the letters delivered to Augustus those which they had been keeping secretly for Antony. And on Herod falls83 …

 

3. Cleopatra shut herself up in a mausoleum,84 and made away with herself, employing the wild asp as the instrument of death. At that time Augustus captured Cleopatra’s sons, Helios and Selene,85 on their flight to the Thebaid. Nicopolis was founded opposite Actium, and the games called Actia were instituted. On the capture of Alexandria, Cornelius Gallus was sent as first governor of Egypt, and he destroyed the cities of the Egyptians that refused obedience. up to this time the Lagidae ruled; and the whole duration of the Macedonian empire after the subversion of the Persian power was 298 years. Thus is made up the whole period from the foundation of the Macedonian empire to its subversion in the time of the Ptolemies, and under Cleopatra, the last of these, the date of which event is the 11th year of the monarchy and empire of the Romans, and the 4th year of the 187th Olympiad. Altogether, from Adam 5472 years are reckoned.

 

4. After the taking of Alexandria the 188th Olympiad began. Herod founded anew the city of the Gabinii,86 the ancient Samaria, and called it Sebaste; and having erected its seaport, the tower of Strato, into a city, he named it Caesarea after the same, and raised in each a temple in honour of Octavius. And afterwards he founded Antipatris in the Lydian plain, so naming it after his father, and settled in it the people about Sebaste, whom he had dispossessed of their land. He founded also other cities; and to the Jews he was severe, but to other nations most urbane.

 

It was now the 189th Olympiad, which (Olympiad) in the year that had the bissextile day, the 6th day before the Calends of March, – i.e., the 24th of February, – corresponded with the 24th year of the era of Antioch, whereby the year was determined in its proper limits.87

 

XVIII.88 On the Circumstances Connected with Our Saviour’s Passion and His Life-Giving Resurrection.

1. As to His works severally, and His cures effected upon body and soul, and the mysteries of His doctrine, and the resurrection from the dead, these have been most authoritatively set forth by His disciples and apostles before us. On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Saviour fails on the day before the passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun. And it cannot happen at any other time but in the interval between the first day of the new moon and the last of the old, that is, at their junction: how then should an eclipse be supposed to happen when the moon is almost diametrically opposite the sun? Let that opinion pass however; let it carry the majority with it; and let this portent of the world be deemed an eclipse of the sun, like others a portent only to the eye.89 Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth – manifestly that one of which we speak. But what has an eclipse in common with an earthquake, the rending rocks, and the resurrection of the dead, and so great a perturbation throughout the universe? Surely no such event as this is recorded for a long period. But it was a darkness induced by God, because the Lord happened then to suffer. And calculation makes out that the period of 70 weeks, as noted in Daniel, is completed at this time.

 

2. From Artaxerxes, moreover, 70 weeks are reckoned up to the time of Christ, according to the numeration of the Jews. For from Nehemiah, who was sent by Artaxerxes to people Jerusalem, about the 120th year of the Persian empire, and in the 20th year of Artaxerxes himself, and the 4th year of the 83d Olympiad, up to this time, which was the 2d year of the 102d Olympiad, and the 16th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there are given 475 years, which make 490 Hebrew years, since they measure the years by the lunar month of 29½ days, as may easily be explained, the annual period according to the sun consisting of 365¼ days, while the lunar period of 12 months has 11¼ days less. For which reason the Greeks and the Jews insert three intercalary months every eight years. For 8 times 11¼ days make 3 months. The 475 years, therefore, contain 59 periods of 8 years and three months over: thus, the three intercalary months for every 8 years being added, we get 15 years, and these together with the 475 years make 70 weeks. Let no one now think us unskilled in the calculations of astronomy, when we fix without further ado the number of days at 365¼. For it is not in ignorance of the truth, but rather by reason of exact study,90 that we have stated our opinion so shortly. But let what follows also be presented as in outline91 to those who endeavour to inquire minutely into all things.

 

3. Each year in the general consists of 365 days; and the space of a day and night being divided into nineteen parts, we have also five of these. And in saying that the year consists of 365¼ days, and there being the five nineteenth parts … to the 475 there are 6¼ days. Furthermore, we find, according to exact computation, that the lunar month has 29½ days….92 And these come to93 a little time. Now it happens that from the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes (as it is given in Ezra among the Hebrews), which, according to the Greeks, was the 4th year of the 80th Olympiad, to the 16th year of Tiberius Caesar, which was the second year of the 102d Olympiad, there are in all the 475 years already noted, which in the Hebrew system make 490 years, as has been previously stated, that is, 70 weeks, by which period the time of Christ’s advent was measured in the announcement made to Daniel by Gabriel. And if any one thinks that the 15 Hebrew years added to the others involve us in an error of 10, nothing at least which cannot be accounted for has been introduced. And the 1½ week which we suppose must be added to make the whole number, meets the question about the 15 years, and removes the difficulty about the time; and that the prophecies are usually put forth in a somewhat symbolic form, is quite evident.

 

4. As far, then, as is in our power, we have taken the Scripture, I think, correctly; especially seeing that the preceding section about the vision seems to state the whole matter shortly, its first words being, “In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar,” (Dan_8:1) where he prophesies of the subversion of the Persian power by the Greeks, which empires are symbolized in the prophecy under the figures of the rain and the goat respectively. (Dan_8:13, Dan_8:14) “The sacrifice,” he says, “shall be abolished, and the holy places shall he made desolate, so as to be trodden under foot; which things shall be determined within 2300 days.” (Dan_8:13, Dan_8:14) For if we take the day as a month, just as elsewhere in prophecy days are taken as years, and in different places are used in different ways, reducing the period in the same way as has been done above to Hebrew months, we shall find the period fully made out to the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes, from the capture of Jerusalem. For there are given thus 185 years, and one year falls to be added to these – the year in which Nehemiah built the wall of the city. In 186 years, therefore, we find 230 Hebrew months, as 8 years have in addition 3 intercalary months. From Artaxerxes, again, in whose time the command went forth that Jerusalem should be built, there are 70 weeks. These matters, however, we have discussed by themselves, and with greater exactness, in our book On the Weeks and this Prophecy. But I am amazed that the Jews deny that the Lord has yet come, and that the followers of Marcion refuse to admit that His coming was predicted in the prophecies when the Scriptures display the matter so openly to our view. And after something else: The period, then, to the advent of the Lord from Adam and the creation is 5531 years, from which epoch to the 250th Olympiad there are 192 years, as has been shown above.

 

XIX.94

For we who both know the measure of those words,95 and are not ignorant of the grace of faith, give thanks to the Father96 who has bestowed on us His creatures Jesus Christ the Saviour of all, and our Lord;97 to whom be glory and majesty, with the Holy Spirit, for ever.

 

IV. – The Passion of St. Symphorosa and Her Seven Sons.98

The text is given from the edition of Ruinart. His preface, which Migne also cites, is as follows: “The narrative of the martyrdom of St. Symphorosa and her seven sons, which we here publish, is ascribed in the MSS. to Julius Africanus, a writer of the highest repute. And it may perhaps have been inserted in his books on Chronography, – a work which Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. vi. 31) testifies to have been written with the greatest care, since in these he detailed the chief events in history from the foundation of the world to the times of the Emperor Heliogabalus. As that work, however, is lost, that this narrative is really to be ascribed to Africanus, I would not venture positively to assert, although at the same time there seems no ground for doubting its genuineness. We print it, moreover, from the editions of Mombritius, Surius, and Cardulus, collated with two Colbert MSS. and one in the library of the Sorbonne. The occasion for the death of these saints was found in the vicinity of that most famous palace which was built by Adrian at his country seat at Tiber, according to Spartianus. For when the emperor gave orders that this palace, which he had built for his pleasure, should be purified by some piacular ceremonies, the priests seized this opportunity for accusing Symphorosa, alleging that the gods would not be satisfied until Symphorosa should either sacrifice to them or be herself sacrificed; which last thing was done by Hadrian, whom, from many others of his deeds, we know to have been exceedingly superstitious, about the year of Christ 120, that is, about the beginning of his reign, at which period indeed, as Dio Cassius observes, that emperor put a great number to death. The memory of these martyrs, moreover, is celebrated in all the most ancient martyrologies, although they assign different days for it. The Roman, along with Notker, fixes their festival for the 18th July, Rabanus for the 21st of the same month, Usuardus and Ado for the 21st June. In the Tiburtine road there still exists the rubbish of an old church, as Aringhi states (Rom. Subter., iv. 17), which was consecrated to God under their name, and which still retains the title, To the Seven Brothers. I have no doubt that it was built in that place to which the pontiffs in the Acta, sec. iv., gave the name, To the Seven Biothanati, i.e., those cut off by a violent death, as Baronius remarks, at the year 138.” So far Ruinart: see also Tillemont, Mem. Eccles., ii. pp. 241 and 595; and the Bollandists, Act. S.S. Funii, vol. iv. p. 350.

 

1. When Adrian had built a palace, and wished to dedicate it by that wicked ceremonial, and began to seek responses by sacrifices to idols, and to the demons that dwell in idols, they replied,99 and said: “The widow Symphorosa, with her seven sons, wounds us day by day in invoking her God. If she therefore, together with her sons, shall offer sacrifice, we promise to make good all that you ask.” Then Adrian ordered her to be seized, along with her sons, and advised them in courteous terms to consent to consent to offer sacrifice to the idols. To him, however, the blessed Symphorosa answered: “My husband Getulius,100 together with his brother Amantius, when they were tribunes in thy service, suffered different punishments for the name of Christ, rather than consent to sacrifice to idols. and, like good athletes, they overcame thy demons in death. For, rather than be prevailed on, they chose to be beheaded, and suffered death: which death, being endured for the name of Christ, gained them temporal ignominy indeed among men of this earth, but everlasting honour and glory among the angels; and moving now among them, and exhibiting101 trophies of their sufferings, they enjoy eternal life with the King eternal in the heavens.”

 

2. The Emperor Adrian said to the holy Symphorosa: “Either sacrifice thou along with thy sons to the omnipotent gods, or else I shall cause thee to be sacrificed thyself, together with thy sons.” The blessed Symphorosa answered: “And whence is this great good to me, that I should be deemed worthy along with my sons to be offered as an oblation to God?”102 The Emperor Adrian said: “I shall cause thee to be sacrificed to my gods.” The blessed Symphorosa replied: “Thy gods cannot take me in sacrifice; but if I am burned for the name of Christ, my God, I shall rather consume those demons of thine.” The Emperor Adrian said: “Choose thou one of these alternatives: either sacrifice to my gods, or perish by an evil death.” The blessed Symphorosa replied: “Thou thinkest that my mind can be altered by some kind of terror; whereas I long to rest with my husband Getulius,103 whom thou didst put to death for Christ’s name.” Then the Emperor Adrian ordered her to be led away to the temple of Hercules, and there first to be beaten with blows on the cheek, and afterwards to be suspended by the hair. But when by no argument and by no terror could he divert her from her good resolution, he ordered her to be thrown into the river with a large stone fastened to her neck. And her brother Eugenius, principal of the district of Tiber, picked up her body, and buried it in a suburb of the same city.

 

3. Then, on another day, the Emperor Adrian ordered all her seven sons to be brought before him in company; and when he had challenged them to sacrifice to idols, and perceived that they yielded by no means to his threats and terrors, he ordered seven stakes to be fixed around the temple of Hercules, and commanded them to be stretched on the blocks there. And he ordered Crescens, the first, to be transfixed in the throat; and Julian, the second, to be stabbed in the breast; and Nemesius, the third, to be struck through the heart; and Primitivus, the fourth, to be wounded in the navel; and Justin, the fifth, to be struck through in the back with a sword; and Stracteus,104 the sixth, to be wounded in the side; and Eugenius, the seventh, to be cleft in twain from the head downwards.

 

4. The next day again the Emperor Adrian came to the temple of Hercules, and ordered their bodies to be carried off together, and cast into a deep pit; and the pontiffs gave to that place the name, To the Seven Biothanati.105 After these things the persecution ceased for a year and a half, in which period the holy bodies of all the martyrs were honoured, and consigned with all care to tumuli erected for that purpose, and their names are written in the book of life. The natal day, moreover, of the holy martyrs of Christ, the blessed Symphorosa and her seven sons, Crescens, Julian, Nemesius, Primitivus, Justin, Stracteus, and Eugenius, is held on the 18th July. Their bodies rest on the Tiburtine road, at the eighth mile-stone from the city, under the kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Elucidations.

I.

(Joseph the son of both)

The opinion that Luke’s genealogy is that of Mary was unknown to Christian antiquity. In the fifteenth century it was first propounded by Latin divines to do honour (as they supposed) to the Blessed Virgin. It was first broached by Annius of Viterbo, A.D. 1502. Christian antiquity is agreed that: – 

 

1. Both genealogies are those of Joseph.

 

2. That Joseph was the son of Jacob or of Heli, either by adoption, or because Jacob and Heli were either own brothers or half-brothers; so that, – 

 

3. On the death of one of the brothers, without issue, the surviving brother married his widow, who became the mother of Joseph by this marriage; so that Joseph was reckoned the son of Jacob and the son of Heli.106

 

4. Joseph and Mary were of the same lineage, but the Hebrews did not reckon descent from the side of the woman. For them St. Luke’s genealogy is the sufficient register of Christ’s royal descent and official claim. St. Luke gives his personal pedigree, ascending to Adam, and identifying Him with the whole human race.

 

II.

(Conclusion, cap. xix.)

On Jewish genealogies, note Dean Prideaux,107 vol. i. p. 296, and compare Lardner, vol. ii. 129, et alibi. Stillingfleet108 should not be overlooked in what he says of the uncertainties of heathen chronology.

Lardner repeatedly calls our author a “great man;” and his most valuable account,109 digested from divers ancient and modern writers, must be consulted by the student. Let us observe the books of Scripture which his citations attest, and the great value of his attestation of the two genealogies of our Lord. Lardner dates the Letter to Origen110 A.D. 228 or 240, according to divers conjectures of the learned. He concludes with this beautiful tribute: “We may glory in Africanus as a Christian” among those “whose shining abilities rendered them the ornament of the age in which they lived, – men of unspotted characters, giving evident proofs of honesty and integrity.”

 

Note.

The valuable works of Africanus are found in vol. ix. of the Edinburgh edition, mixed up with the spurious Decretals and remnants of preceding volumes. I am unable to make out very clearly who is the translator, but infer that Drs. Roberts and Donaldson should be credited with this work.

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

68 From Georgia Syncellus, Chron., Third Book. In Euseb., Praepar., x. 40. [Compare vol. 2. pp. 324-334.]

69 ἠκριβῶντο.

70 There is a difficulty in the text; Viger omits “Athenian.”

71 The Latin translator expunges the “and” (καί), and makes it = more careful than all the Attic writers.

72 The original here, as in the same passage above, is corrupt. It gives κατὰ τὴν Αἴγυπτον, which Migne would either omit entirely or replace by ἀπ ̓ Αἰγύπτου.

73 These words are inserted according to Viger’s proposal, as there is a manifest omission in the text.

74 From Georgius Syncellus, Third Book. In the Chron. Paschal., p. 104, ed. Paris, 84 Venet.

75 From Georgius Syncellus, Book III., and from Book IV., in the Chron. Paschal., p. 197, al. 158.

76 The text is, ἀναγραφῆναι δὲ πρώτην τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτην, etc.

77 From Book v. In Eusebius, Demonst. Evang., Book VIII. ch. ii. p. 389, etc. The Latin version of this section is by Bernardinus Donatus of Verona. There is also a version by Jerome given in his commentary on Dan_9:24.

78 Jerome in his version gives the 15th (quintum decimum).

79 In Syncellus, p. 307, al. 244.

80 The sense is doubtful here: καὶ ὡς οὐδὲν ἠξίου πιστεύεσθαι ἔστ ̓ ἂν καταχθῇ εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀρχήν, etc.

81 There is a break here in the original.

82 This is according to the rendering of the Latin version.

83 Here again there is a blank in the original.

84 The text is corrupt here. It gives, ἐν τῷ μεσαιολίῳ, a word unknown in Greek. Scaliger reads Μαισαιόλιον. Goarus proposes Μαυσωλαῖον, which we adopt in the translation.

85 i.e., sun and moon.

86 Samaria was so named in reference to its restoration by Gabinius, the proconsul of Syria. See Josephus (Antiq., book xiv. ch. x.), who states that Gabinius traversed Judea, and gave orders for the rebuilding of such towns as he found destroyed; and that in this way Samaria, Azotus, Scythopolis, Antedon, Raphia, Dora, Marissa, and not a few others, were restored.

87 The text is: ἦν Ὀλυμπιὰς ρπθ’, ητις πρὸ ς’ καλανδῶν Μαρτίων κατὰ Ἀντιοχεῖς κδ ̓ ἔτει ἤχθη, δι ̓ ἧς ἐπὶ τῶν ἰδίων ὁρίων ἔστη ὁ ἐνιαυτός. In every fourth year the 24th day of February (= vi. Cal. Mart.) was reckoned twice. There were three different eras of Antioch, of which the one most commonly used began in November 49 B.C. Migne refers the reader to the notes of Goarus on the passage, which we have not seen. The sense of this obscure passage seems to be, that that period formed another fixed point in chronology.

88 In Georgius Syncellus, Chron., p. 322 or 256.

89 εν τι κατὰ τὴν ὄψιν. [Vol. 3. p. 58, Elucid. V., this series.]

90 δια τὴν λεπτολογίαν.

91 Or, on a table; ὡς ἐν γραφῇ.

92 The text in the beginning of this section is hopelessly corrupt. Scaliger declares that neither could he follow these things, nor did the man that dreamt them understand them. We may subjoin the Greek text as it stands in Migne: Μεταξυ δὲ τοῦ λέγειν τὸν ἐνιαυτὸν ἡμερῶν τχε, καὶ τετραμορίου, καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ ιθ ̓ τῆς νυχθημέρου, μερῶν έ … εἱς τὰ υοέ, ἡμέραι τὸ παράλληλον εἰσὶ ς’, καὶ τετραμοριον. Ἑτι γε μὴν τὸν τῆς σελήνης μῆνα κατὰ τὴν ἀκριβῆ λεπτολογίαν σὑρίσκομεν κθ’, καὶ ἡμισείας ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς διαιρεθείσης εἰς μέρη σέ, τούτων τὰ ο, καὶ ημισυ … ἃ γἰνεται ἐννενηκοστοτεταρτα τρία.

93 καταγίνεται.

94 In Basil, De Spiritu Sancto, ch. xxix. § 73; Works, vol. iii. p. 61, edit. Paris. [Elucidation II.]

95 For ῥημάτων, words, three MSS. give ῥητῶν, sayings.

96 For ἡμῖν Πατρί there is another reading, ἡμων πατράσι = to Him who gave to our father.

97 These words, “and our Lord,” are wanting in three MSS.

98 Gallandi, Bibl. Patrum, vol. i. Proleg. p. lxxi. and p. 329.

99 See Eusebius, Life of Constantine, ii. 50.

100 The Martyologies celebrate their memory on the 10th June: one of the Colbert MSS. gives Zoticus for Getulius.

101 A Colbert MS. gives “laudantes” = praising.

102 This response, along with the next interrogation, is wanting in the Colbert manuscripts.

103 Sur., Card., and the Colbert Codex give “Zoticus.”

104 The Colbert Codex reads “Extacteus;” Cardulus gives “Stacteus,” by which name he is designated beneath by them all.

105 In one of the Colbert codices, and in another from the Sorbonne, there is a passage inserted here about the death of Adrian, which is said to have happened a little after that of these martyrs.

106 Routh, Reliqu. Sacrae, vol. ii. pp. 233, 339, 341, 355. Compare also vol. 2. 334 and 346, this series.

107 Also on the Seventy Weeks (p. 134, supra), vol. 1. pp. 227-240 and 322.

108 Origines Sacrae, vol. i. pp. 64-120.

109 Works, vol. ii. pp. 457-468.

110 See Introductory Notice, p. 123, note 4, supra.



Anatolius and Minor Writers.Introductory Notice to Anatolius and Minor Writers.

Instead of reprinting a disjointed mass of “Fragments,” I have thought it desirable to present them in a group, illustrative of the Alexandrian school. I give to Anatolius the deserved place of prominence, marking him as the meet successor of Africanus in ability if not in the nature of his pursuits. His writings and the testimony of Eusebius prove him to have been a star of no inferior magnitude, even in the brilliant constellation of faith and genius of which he is part.

These minor writers I have arranged, not with exclusive reference to minute chronology, but with some respect to their material, as follows: — 

 

 

I. Anatolius A.D. 270   

II. Alexander of Cappadocia A.D. 250   

III. Theognostus A.D. 265   

IV. Pierius A.D. 300   

V. Theonas A.D. 300   

VI. Phileas A.D. 307   

VII. Pamphilus A.D. 309  



Anatolius and Minor Writers. (Cont.)Anatolius of Alexandria.

Translator’s Biographical Notice.

[A.D. 230-270-280.] From Jerome1 we learn that Anatolius flourished in the reign of Probus and Carus, that he was a native of Alexandria, and that he became bishop of Laodicea. Eusebius gives a somewhat lengthened account of him,2 and speaks of him in terms of the strongest laudation, as one surpassing all the men of his time in learning and science. He tells us that he attained the highest eminence in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, besides being a great proficient also in dialectics, physics, and rhetoric. His reputation was so great among the Alexandrians that they are said to have requested him to open a school for teaching the Aristotelian philosophy in their city.3 He did great service to his fellow-citizens in Alexandria on their being besieged by the Romans in A.D. 262, and was the means of saving the lives of numbers of them. After this he is said to have passed into Syria, where Theotecnus, the bishop of Caesareia, ordained him, destining him to be his own successor in the bishopric. After this, however, having occasion to travel to Antioch to attend the synod convened to deal with the case of Paul of Samosata, as he passed through the city of Laodicea, he was detained by the people and made bishop of the place, in succession to Eusebius.4 This must have been about the year 270 A.D. How long he held that dignity, however, we do not know. Eusebius tells us that he did not write many books, but yet enough to show us at once his eloquence and his erudition. Among these was a treatise on the Chronology of Easter; of which a considerable extract is preserved in Eusebius. The book itself exists now only in a Latin version, which is generally ascribed to Rufinus, and which was published by Aegidius Bucherius in his Doctrina Temporum, which was issued at Antwerp in 1634. Another work of his was the Institutes of Arithmetic, of which we have some fragments in the θεολογούμενα τῆς ἀριθμητικῆς, which was published in Paris in 1543. Some small fragments of his mathematical works, which have also come down to us, were published by Fabricius in his Bibliotheca Graeca, iii. p. 462. 

 

The Paschal Canon of Anatolius of Alexandria.1

I.

As we are about to speak on the subject of the order of the times and alternations of the world, we shall first dispose of the positions of diverse calculators; who, by reckoning only by the course of the moon, and leaving out of account the ascent and descent of the sun, with the addition of certain problems, have constructed diverse periods,2 self-contradictory, and such as are never found in the reckoning of a true computation; since it is certain that no mode of computation is to be approved, in which these two measures are not found together. For even in the ancient exemplars, that is, in the books of the Hebrews and Greeks, we find not only the course of the moon, but also that of the sun, and, indeed, not simply its course in the general,3 but even the separate and minutest moments of its hours all calculated, as we shall show at the proper time, when the matter in hand demands it. Of these Hippolytus made up a period of sixteen years with certain unknown courses of the moon. Others have reckoned by a period of twenty-five years, others by thirty, and some by eighty-four years, without, however, teaching thereby an exact method of calculating Easter. But our predecessors, men most learned in the books of the Hebrews and Greeks, – I mean Isidore and Jerome and Clement, – although they have noted similar beginnings for the months just as they differ also in language, have, nevertheless, come harmoniously to one and the same most exact reckoning of Easter, day and month and season meeting in accord with the highest honour for the Lord’s resurrection.4 But Origen also, the most erudite of all, and the acutest in making calculations, – a man, too, to whom the epithet χαλκευτής5 is given, – has published in a very elegant manner a little book on Easter. And in this book, while declaring, with respect to the day of Easter, that attention must be given not only to the course of the moon and the transit of the equinox, but also to the passage (transcensum) of the sun, which removes every foul ambush and offence of all darkness, and brings on the advent of light and the power and inspiration of the elements of the whole world, he speaks thus: In the (matter of the) day of Easter, he remarks, I do not say that it is to be observed that the Lord’s day should be found, and the seven6 days of the moon which are to elapse, but that the sun should pass that division, to wit, between light and darkness, constituted in an equality by the dispensation of the Lord at the beginning of the world; and that, from one hour to two hours, from two to three, from three to four, from four to five, from five to six hours, while the light is increasing in the ascent of the sun, the darkness should decrease.7 … and the addition of the twentieth number being completed, twelve parts should be supplied in one and the same day. But if I should have attempted to add any little drop of mine8 after the exuberant streams of the eloquence and science of some, what else should there be to believe but that it should be ascribed by all to ostentation, and, to speak more truly, to madness, did not the assistance of your promised prayers animate us for a little? For we believe that nothing is impossible to your power of prayer, and to your faith. Strengthened, therefore, by this confidence, we shall set bashfulness aside, and shall enter this most deep and unforeseen sea of the obscurest calculation, in which swelling questions and problems surge around us on all sides.

 

II.

There is, then, in the first year, the new moon of the first month, which is the beginning of every cycle of nineteen years, on the six and twentieth day of the month called by the Egyptians Phamenoth.9 But, according to the months of the Macedonians, it is on the two-and-twentieth day of Dystrus. And, as the Romans would say, it is on the eleventh day before the Kalends of April. Now the sun is found on the said six-and-twentieth day of Phamenoth, not only as having mounted to the first segment, but as already passing the fourth day in it. And this segment they are accustomed to call the first dodecatemorion (twelfth part), and the equinox, and the beginning of months, and the head of the cycle, and the starting-point10 of the course of the planets. And the segment before this they call the last of the months, and the twelfth segment, and the last dodecatemorion, and the end of the circuit11 of the planets. And for this reason, also, we maintain that those who place the first month in it, and who determine the fourteenth day of the Paschal season by it, make no trivial or common blunder.

 

III.

Nor is this an opinion confined to ourselves alone. For it was also known to the Jews of old and before Christ, and it was most carefully observed by them.12 And this may be learned from what Philo, and Josephus, and Musaeus have written; and not only from these, but indeed from others still more ancient, namely, the two Agathobuli,13 who were surnamed the Masters, and the eminent Aristobulus,14 who was one of the Seventy who translated the sacred and holy Scriptures of the Hebrews for Ptolemy Philadelphus and his father, and dedicated his exegetical books on the law of Moses to the same kings. These writers, in solving some questions which are raised with respect to Exodus, say that all alike ought to sacrifice the Passover15 after the vernal equinox in the middle of the first month. And that is found to be when the sun passes through the first segment of the solar, or, as some among them have named it, the zodiacal circle.

 

IV.

But this Aristobulus also adds, that for the feast of the Passover it was necessary not only that the sun should pass the equinoctial segment, but the moon also. For as there are two equinoctial segments, the vernal and the autumnal, and these diametrically opposite to each other, and since the day of the Passover is fixed for the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, the moon will have the position diametrically opposite the sun; as is to be seen in full moons. And the sun will thus be in the segment of the vernal equinox, and the moon necessarily will be at the autumnal equinox.

 

V.

I am aware that very many other matters were discussed by them, some of them with considerable probability, and others of them as matters of the clearest demonstration,16 by which they endeavour to prove that the festival of the Passover and unleavened bread ought by all means to be kept after the equinox. But I shall pass on without demanding such copious demonstrations(on subjects17) from which the veil of the Mosaic law has been removed; for now it remains for us with unveiled face to behold ever as in a glass Christ Himself and the doctrines and sufferings of Christ. But that the first month among the Hebrews is about the equinox, is clearly shown also by what is taught in the book of Enoch.18

 

VI.

And, therefore, in this concurrence of the sun and moon, the Paschal festival is not to be celebrated, because as long as they are found in this course the power of darkness is not overcome; and as long as equality between light and darkness endures, and is not diminished by the light, it is shown that the Paschal festival is not to be celebrated. Accordingly, it is enjoined that that festival be kept after the equinox, because the moon of the fourteenth,19 if before the equinox or at the equinox, does not fill the whole night. But after the equinox, the moon of the fourteenth, with one day being added because of the passing of the equinox, although it does not extend to the true light, that is, the rising of the sun and the beginning of day, will nevertheless leave no darkness behind it. And, in accordance with this, Moses is charged by the Lord to keep seven days of unleavened bread for the celebration of the Passover, that in them no power of darkness should be found to surpass the light. And although the outset of four nights begins to be dark, that is, the 17th and 18th and 19th and 20th, yet the moon of the 20th, which rises before that, does not permit the darkness to extend on even to midnight.

 

VII.

To us, however, with whom it is impossible for all these things to come aptly at one and the same time, namely, the moon’s fourteenth, and the Lord’s day, and the passing of the equinox, and whom the obligation of the Lord’s resurrection binds to keep the Paschal festival on the Lord’s day, it is granted that we may extend the beginning of our celebration even to the moon’s twentieth. For although the moon of the 20th does not fill the whole night, yet, rising as it does in the second watch, it illumines the greater part of the night. Certainly if the rising of the moon should be delayed on to the end of two watches, that is to say, to midnight, the light would not then exceed the darkness, but the darkness the light. But it is clear that in the Paschal feast it is not possible that any part of the darkness should surpass the light; for the festival of the Lord’s resurrection is one of light, and there is no fellowship between light and darkness. And if the moon should rise in the third watch, it is clear that the 22d or 23d of the moon would then be reached, in which it is not possible that there can be a true celebration of Easter. For those who determine that the festival may be kept at this age of the moon, are not only unable to make that good by the authority of Scripture, but turn also into the crime of sacrilege and contumacy, and incur the peril of their souls; inasmuch as they affirm that the true light may be celebrated along with something of that power of darkness which dominates all.

 

VIII.

Accordingly, it is not the case, as certain calculators of Gaul allege, that this assertion is opposed by that passage in Exodus, (Exo_12:18, Exo_12:19) where we read: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the first month, at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one-and-twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses.” From this they maintain that it is quite permissible to celebrate the Passover on the twenty-first day of the moon; understanding that if the twenty-second day were added, there would be found eight days of unleavened bread. A thing which cannot be found with any probability, indeed, in the Old Testament, as the Lord, through Moses, gives this charge: “Seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread.” (Exo_12:15; Lev_23:6) Unless perchance the fourteenth day is not reckoned by them among the days of unleavened bread with the celebration of the feast; which, however, is contrary to the Word of the Gospel which says: “Moreover, on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus.” (Mat_26:17; Mar_14:12; Luk_22:7) And there is no doubt as to its being the fourteenth day on which the disciples asked the Lord, in accordance with the custom established for them of old, “Where wilt Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat the Passover?” But they who are deceived with this error maintain this addition, because they do not know that the 13th and 14th, the 14th and 15th, the 15th and 16th, the 16th and 17th, the 17th and 18th, the 18th and 19th, the 19th and 20th, the 20th and 21st days of the moon are each found, as may be most surely proved, within a single day. For every day in the reckoning of the moon does not end in the evening as the same day in respect of number, as it is at its beginning in the morning. For the day which in the morning, that is up to the sixth hour and half, is numbered the 13th day of the month, is found at even to be the 14th. Wherefore, also, the Passover is enjoined to be extended on to the 21st day at even; which day, without doubt, in the morning, that is, up to that term of hours which we have mentioned, was reckoned the 20th. Calculate, then, from the end of the 13th20 day of the moon, which marks the beginning of the 14th, on to the end of the 20th, at which the 21st day also begins, and you will have only seven days of unleavened bread, in which, by the guidance of the Lord, it has been determined before that the most true feast of the Passover ought to be celebrated.

 

IX.

But what wonder is it that they should have erred in the matter of the 21st day of the moon who have added three days before the equinox, in which they hold that the Passover may be celebrated? An assertion which certainly must be considered altogether absurd, since, by the best-known historiographers of the Jews, and by the Seventy Elders, it has been clearly determined that the Paschal festival cannot be celebrated at the equinox.

 

X.

But nothing was difficult to them with whom it was lawful to celebrate the Passover on any day when the fourteenth of the moon happened after the equinox. Following their example up to the present time all the bishops of Asia – as themselves also receiving the rule from an unimpeachable authority, to wit, the evangelist John, who leant on the Lord’s breast, and drank in instructions spiritual without doubt – were in the way of celebrating the Paschal feast, without question, every year, whenever the fourteenth day of the moon had come, and the lamb was sacrificed by the Jews after the equinox was past; not acquiescing, so far as regards this matter, with the authority of some, namely, the successors of Peter and Paul, who have taught all the churches in which they sowed the spiritual seeds of the Gospel, that the solemn festival of the resurrection of the Lord can be celebrated only on the Lord’s day. Whence, also, a certain contention broke out between the successors of these, namely, Victor, at that time bishop of the city of Rome, and Polycrates, who then appeared to hold the primacy among the bishops of Asia. And this contention was adjusted most rightfully by Irenaeus,21 at that time president of a part of Gaul, so that both parties kept by their own order, and did not decline from the original custom of antiquity. The one party, indeed, kept the Paschal day on the fourteenth day of the first month, according to the Gospel, as they thought, adding nothing of an extraneous kind, but keeping through all things the rule of faith. And the other party, passing the day of the Lord’s Passion as one replete with sadness and grief, hold that it should not be lawful to celebrate the Lord’s mystery of the Passover at any other time but on the Lord’s day, on which the resurrection of the Lord from death took place, and on which rose also for us the cause of everlasting joy. For it is one thing to act in accordance with the precept given by the apostle, yea, by the Lord Himself, and be sad with the sad, and suffer with him that suffers by the cross, His own word being: “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;” (Mat_26:38) and it is another thing to rejoice with the victor as he triumphs over an ancient enemy, and exults with the highest triumph over a conquered adversary, as He Himself also says: “Rejoice with Me; for I have found the sheep which I had lost.” (Luk_15:6)

 

XI.

Moreover, the allegation which they sometimes make against us, that if we pass the moon’s fourteenth we cannot celebrate the beginning of the Paschal feast in light,22 neither moves nor disturbs us. For, although they lay it down as a thing unlawful, that the beginning of the Paschal festival should be extended so far as to the moon’s twentieth; yet they cannot deny that it ought to be extended to the sixteenth and seventeenth, which coincide with the day on which the Lord rose from the dead. But we decide that it is better that it should be extended even on to the twentieth day, on account of the Lord’s day, than that we should anticipate the Lord’s day on account of the fourteenth day; for on the Lord’s day was it that light was shown to us in the beginning, and now also in the end, the comforts of all present and the tokens of all future blessings. For the Lord ascribes no less praise to the twentieth day than to the fourteenth. For in the book of Leviticus (Lev_23:5-7) the injunction is expressed thus: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of this month, at even, is the Lord’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of this month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord. Seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread. The first day shall be to you one most diligently attended23 and holy. Ye shall do no servile work thereon. And the seventh day shall be to you more diligently attended24 and holier; ye shall do no servile work thereon.” And hence we maintain that those have contracted no guilt25 ‘before the tribunal of Christ, who have held that the beginning of the Paschal festival ought to be extended to this day. And this, too, the most especially, as we are pressed by three difficulties, namely, that we should keep the solemn festival of the Passover on the Lord’s day, and after the equinox, and yet not beyond the limit of the moon’s twentieth day.

 

XII.

But this again is held by other wise and most acute men to be an impossibility, because within that narrow and most contracted limit of a cycle of nineteen years, a thoroughly genuine Paschal time, that is to say, one held on the Lord’s day and yet after the equinox, cannot occur. But, in order that we may set in a clearer light the difficulty which causes their in credulity, we shall set down, along with the courses of the moon, that cycle of years which we have mentioned; the days being computed before in which the year rolls on in its alternating courses, by Kalends and Ides and Nones, and by the sun’s ascent and descent.

 

XIII. The Moon’s Age Set Forth in the Julian Calendar.

January, on the Kalends, one day, the moon’s first (day); on the Nones, the 5th day, the moon’s 5th; on the Ides, the 13th day, the moon’s 13th. On the day before the Kalends of February, the 31st day, the moon’s 1st; on the Kalends of February, the 32d day, the moon’s 2d; on the Nones, the 36th day, the moon’s 6th; on the Ides, the 44th day, the moon’s 14th. On the day before the Kalends of March, the 59th day, the moon’s 29th; on the Kalends of March, the 60th day, the moon’s 1st; on the Nones, the 66th day, the moon’s 7th; on the Ides, the 74th day, the moon’s 15th. On the day before the Kalends of April, the 90th day, the moon’s 2d; on the Kalends of April, the 91st day, the moon’s 3d; on the Nones, the 95th day, the moon’s 7th; on the Ides, the 103d day, the moon’s 15th. On the day before the Kalends of May, the 120th day, the moon’s 3d; on the Kalends of May, the 121st day, the moon’s 4th; on the Nones, the 127th day, the moon’s 10th; on the Ides, the 135th day, the moon’s 18th. On the day before the Kalends of June, the 151st day, the moon’s 3d; on the Kalends of June, the 152d day, the moon’s 5th; on the Nones, the 153d day, the moon’s 9th; on the Ides, the 164th day, the moon’s 17th. On the day before the Kalends of July, the 181st day, the moon’s 5th; on the Kalends of July, the 182d day, the moon’s 6th; on the Nones, the 188th day, the moon’s 12th; on the Ides, the 196th day, the moon’s 20th. On the day before the Kalends of August, the 212th day, the moon’s 5th; on the Kalends of August, the 213th day, the moon’s 7th; on the Nones, the 217th day, the moon’s 12th; on the ides, the 225th day, the moon’s 19th. On the day before the Kalends of September, the 243d day, the moon’s 7th; on the Kalends of September, the 244th day, the moon’s 8th; on the Nones, the 248th day, the moon’s 12th; on the Ides, the 256th day, the moon’s 20th. On the day before the Kalends of October, the 273d day, the moon’s 8th; on the Kalends of October, the 247th day, the moon’s 9th; on the Nones, the 280th day, the moon’s 15th; on the Ides, the 288th day, the moon’s 23d. On the day before the Kalends of November, the 304th day, the moon’s 9th; on the Kalends of November, the 305th day, the moon’s 10th; on the Nones, the 309th day, the moon’s 14th; on the Ides, the 317th day, the moon’s 22d. On the day before the Kalends of December, the 334th day, the moon’s 10th; on the Kalends of December, the 335th day, the moon’s 11th; on the Nones, the 339th day, the moon’s 15th; on the Ides, the 347th day, the moon’s 23d. On the day before the Kalends of January, the 365th day, the moon’s 11th; on the Kalends of January, the 366th day, the moon’s 12th.

 

XIV. The Paschal or Easter Table of Anatolius.

Now, then, after the reckoning of the days and the exposition of the course of the moon, whereon the whole revolves on to its end, the cycle of the years may be set forth from the commencement).26 This makes the Passover (Easter season) circulate between the 6th day before the Kalends of April and the 9th before the Kalends of May, according to the following table: – 

 

 

Equinox. Moon. Easter. Moon.   

1. Sabbath XXVI. XVth before the Kalends of 17th April XVIII.   

2. Lord’s Day VII. Kalends of April, i.e., 1st April XIV.   

3. IId Day (Ferial) XVIII. XIth before the Kalends of May, i.e., 21st April XVI.   

4. IIId Day XXIX. Ides of April, i.e., 13th April XIX.   

5. IVth Day X. IVth before the Kalends of April, i.e., 29th March XIV.   

6. Vth Day XXI. XIVth before the Kalends of May, i.e., 18th April XVI.   

7. Sabbath27 II. VIth before the Kalends of April, i.e., 27th March XVII.   

8. Lord’s Day XIII. Kalends of April, i.e., 1st April XX.   

9. IId Day XXIV. XVIIIth before the Kalends of May, i.e., 14th March, XV.   

10. IIId Day V. VIIIth before the Ides of April, i.e., 6th April XV.   

11. IVth Day XVI IVth before the Kalends of April, i.e., 29th March XX.   

12. Vth Day XXVII. IIId before the Ides of April, i.e., 11th April XV.   

13. VIth Day VIII IIId before the Nones of April, i.e., 3d April XVII   

14. Sabbath XX. IXth before the Kalends of May, i.e., 23d April XX.   

15. Lord’s Day I. VIth before the Ides of April, 1.e., 8th April XV.   

16. IId Day XII. IId before the Kalends of April, i.e., 31st March XVIII.   

17. IVth Day27 XXIII. XIVth before the Kalends of May, i.e., 18th April XIX.   

18. Vth Day IV. IId before the Nones of April, i.e., 4th April XIV.   

19. VIth Day XV. VIth before the Kalends of April i.e., 27th March XVII.  

 

XV.

This cycle of nineteen years is not approved of by certain African investigators who have drawn up larger cycles, because it seems to be somewhat opposed to their surmises and opinions. For these make up the best proved accounts according to their calculation, and determine a certain beginning or certain end for the Easter season, so as that the Paschal festival shall not be celebrated before the eleventh day before the Kalends of April, i.e., 24th March, nor after the moon’s twenty-first, and the eleventh day before the Kalends of May, i.e., 21st April. But we hold that these are limits not only not to be followed, but to be detested and overturned. For even in the ancient law it is laid down that this is to be seen to, viz., that the Passover be not celebrated before the transit of the vernal equinox, at which the last of the autumnal term is overtaken,28 on the fourteenth day of the first month, which is one calculated not by the beginnings of the day, but by those of the moon.29 And as this has been sanctioned by the charge of the Lord, and is in all things accordant with the Catholic faith, it cannot be doubtful to any wise man that to anticipate it must be a thing unlawful and perilous. And, accordingly, this only is it sufficient for all the saints and Catholics to observe, namely, that giving no heed to the diverse opinions of very many, they should keep the solemn festival of the Lord’s resurrection within the limits which we have set forth.

 

XVI.

Furthermore, as to the proposal subjoined to your epistle, that I should attempt to introduce into this little book some notice of the ascent and descent of the sun, which is made out in the distribution of days and nights. The matter proceeds thus: In fifteen days and half an hour, the sun ascending by so many minutes, that is, by four in one day, from the eighth day before the Kalends of January, i.e., 25th December, to the eighth before the Kalends of April, i.e., 25th March, an hour is taken up;30 at which date there are twelve hours and a twelfth. On this day, towards evening, if it happen also to be the moon’s fourteenth, the lamb was sacrificed among the Jews. But if the number went beyond that, so that it was the moon’s fifteenth or sixteenth on the evening of the same day, on the fourteenth day of the second moon, in the same month, the Passover was celebrated; and the people ate unleavened bread for seven days, up to the twenty-first day at evening. Hence, if it happens in like manner to us, that the seventh day before the Kalends of April, 26th March, proves to be both the Lord’s day and the moon’s fourteenth, Easter is to be celebrated on the fourteenth. But if it proves to be the moon’s fifteenth or sixteenth, or any day up to the twentieth, then our regard for the Lord’s resurrection, which took place on the Lord’s day, will lead us to celebrate it on the same principle; yet this should be done so as that the beginning of Easter may not pass beyond the close of their festival, that is to say, the moon’s twentieth. And therefore we have said that those parties have committed no trivial offence who have ventured either on anticipating or on going beyond this number, which is given us in the divine Scriptures themselves. And from the eighth day before the Kalends of April, 25th March, to the eighth before the Kalends of July, 24th June, in fifteen days an hour is taken up: the sun ascending every day by two minutes and a half, and the sixth part of a minute. And from the eighth day before the Kalends of July, 24th June, to the eighth before the Kalends of October, 24th September, in like manner, in fifteen days and four hours, an hour is taken up: the sun descending every day by the same number of minutes. And the space remaining on to the eighth day before the Kalends of January, 25th December, is determined in a similar number of hours and minutes. So that thus on the eighth day before the Kalends of January, for the hour there is the hour and half. For up to that day and night are distributed. And the twelve hours which were established at the vernal equinox in the beginning by the Lord’s dispensation, being distributed over the night on the eighth before the Kalends of July, the sun ascending through those eighteen several degrees which we have noted, shall be found conjoined with the longer space in the twelfth. And, again, the twelve hours which should be fulfilled at the autumnal equinox in the sun’s descent, should be found disjoined on the sixth before the Kalends of January as six hours divided into twelve, the night holding eighteen divided into twelve. And on the eighth before the Kalends of July, in like manner, it held six divided into twelve.

 

XVII.

Be not ignorant of this, however, that those four determining periods,31 which we have mentioned, although they are approximated to the Kalends of the following months, yet hold each the middle of a season, viz., of spring and summer, and autumn and winter. And the beginnings of the seasons are not to be fixed at that point at which the Kalends of the month begin. But each season is to be begun in such way that the equinox divides the season of spring from its first day; and the season of summer is divided by the eighth day before the Kalends of July, and that of autumn by the eighth before the Kalends of October, and that of winter by the eighth before the Kalends of January in like manner.32 

 

Fragments of the Books on Arithmetic.33

What is mathematics?

Aristotle thinks that all philosophy consisted of theory and practice,34 and divides the practical into ethical and political, and the theoretic again into the theological, the physical, and the mathematical. And thus very clearly and skilfully he shows that mathematics is (a branch of) philosophy.

The Chaldaeans were the originators of astronomy, and the Egyptians of geometry and arithmetic….

And whence did mathematics derive its name? Those of the Peripatetic school affirmed that in rhetoric and poetry, and in the popular music, any one may be an adept though he has gone through no process of study; but that in those pursuits properly called studies,35 none can have any real knowledge unless he has first become a student of them. Hence they supposed that the theory of these things was called Mathematics, from μάθημα, study, science. And the followers of Pythagoras are said to have given this more distinctive name of mathematics to geometry, and arithmetic alone. For of old these had each its own separate name; and they had up till then no name common to both. And he (Archytas) gave them this name, because he found science 36 in them, and that in a manner suitable to man’s study.37 For they (the Pythagoreans) perceived that these studies dealt with things eternal and immutable and perfect,38 in which things alone they considered that science consisted. But the more recent philosophers have given a more extensive application to this name, so that, in their opinion, the mathematician deals not only with substances39 incorporeal, and falling simply within the province of the understanding,40 but also with that which touches upon corporeal and sensible matter. For he ought to be cognisant of41 the course of the stars, and their velocity, and their magnitudes, and forms, and distances. And, besides, he ought to investigate their dispositions to vision, examining into the causes, why they are not seen as of the same form and of the same size from every distance, retaining, indeed, as we know them to do, their dispositions relative to each other,42 but producing, at the same time, deceptive appearances, both in respect of order and position. And these are so, either as determined by the state of the heavens and the air, or as seen in reflecting and all polished surfaces and in transparent bodies, and in all similar kinds. In addition to this, they thought that the man ought to be versed in mechanics and geometry and dialectics. And still further, that he should engage himself with the causes of the harmonious combination of sounds, and with the composition of music; which things are bodies,43 or at least are to be ultimately referred to sensible matter.

What is mathematics?

Mathematics is a theoretic science44 of things apprehensible by perception and sensation for communication to others.45 And before this a certain person indulging in a joke, while hitting his mark, said that mathematics is that science to which Homer’s description of Discord may be applied. – 

“Small at her birth, but rising every hour,

While scarce the skies her horrid (mighty) head can bound,

She stalks on earth and shakes the world around.”46

For it begins with a point and a line,47 and forthwith it takes heaven itself and all things within its compass.

How many divisions are there of mathematics?

Of the more notable and the earliest mathematics there are two principal divisions, viz., arithmetic and geometry. And of the mathematics which deals with things sensible there are six divisions, viz., computation (practical arithmetic), geodesy, optics, theoretical music, mechanics, and astronomy. But that neither the so-called tactics nor architecture,48 nor the popular music, nor physics, nor the art which is called equivocally the mechanical, constitutes, as some think, a branch of mathematics, we shall prove, as the discourse proceeds, clearly and systematically.

As to the circle having eight solids and six superficies and four angles…. What branches of arithmetic have closest affinity with each other? Computation and theoretical music have a closer affinity than others with arithmetic; for this department, being one also of quantity and ratio, approaches it in number and proportion.49 Optics and geodesy, again, are more in affinity with geometry. And mechanics and astrology are in general affinity with both.

As to mathematics having its principles50 in hypothesis and about hypothesis. Now, the term hypothesis is used in three ways, or indeed in many ways. For according to one usage of the term we have the dramatic revolution;51 and in this sense there are said to be hypotheses in the dramas of Euripides. According to a second meaning, we have the investigation of matters in the special in rhetoric; and in this sense the Sophists say that a hypothesis must be proposed. And, according to a third signification, the beginning of a proof is called a hypothesis, as being the begging of certain matters with a view to the establishment of another in question. Thus it is said that Democritus52 used a hypothesis, namely, that of atoms and a vacuum; and Asclepiades53 that of atoms54 and pores. Now, when applied to mathematics, the term hypothesis is to be taken in the third sense.

That Pythagoras was not the only one who duly honoured arithmetic, but that his best known disciples did so too, being wont to say that “all things fit number.” ([Wis. 11:20; Ecclus. 38:29 and 42:7])

That arithmetic has as its immediate end chiefly the theory of science,55 than which there is no end either greater or nobler. And its second end is to bring together in one all that is found in determinate substance.56

Who among the mathematicians has made any discovery?

Eudemus57 relates in his Astrologies that Oenopides58 found out the circle of the zodiac and the cycle 59 of the great year. And Thales60 discovered the eclipse of the sun and its period in the tropics in its constant inequality. And Anaximander61 discovered that the earth is poised in space,62 and moves round the axis of the universe. And Anaximenes63 discovered that the moon has her light from the sun, and found out also the way in which she suffers eclipse. And the rest of the mathematicians have also made additions to these discoveries. We may instance the facts – that the fixed stars move round the axis passing through the poles, while the planets remove from each other64 round the perpendicular axis of the zodiac; and that the axis of the fixed stars and the planets is the side of a pente-decagon with four-and-twenty parts.

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 De illustr. viris., ch. 73. [The dates which are known suggest conjectural dates of our author’s birth and death.]

2 In the 32d chapter of the seventh book of his Ecclesiastical History.

3 [“There were giants in those days.” How gloriously, even in the poverty and distress of the martyr-ages, the cultivation of learning was established by Christianity!]

4 [This Eusebius was a learned man, born at Alexandria.]

1 First edited from an ancient manuscript by Aegidius Bucherius, of the Society of Jesus.

2 Circulos. [Note the reference to Hippolytus.]

3 Gressus, Vol. v. p. 3: also Bunsen, i. pp. 13, 281.]

4 [It seems probable that the hegemony which Alexandria had established in all matters of learning led to that full recognition of it, by the Council of Nicaea, which made its bishop the dictator to the whole Church in the annual calculation of Easter. Vol. 2. 343.]

5 i.e., “smith” or “brasier,” probably from his assiduity.

6 Lunae vii. Perhaps, as Bucher conjectures, Lunae xiv., fourteen days, &c.

7 The text is doubtful and corrupt here.

8 Aliquid stillicidii.

9 [The Church’s Easter-calculations created modern astronomy, which passed to the Arabians from the church. (See Whewell’s Inductive Sciences.) They preserved it, but did not improve it, in Spain. Christianity re-adopted it, and the presbyter Copernicus new-created it. The court of Rome (not the Church Catholic) persecuted Galileo; but it did so under the lead of professional “Science,” which had darkened the human mind, from the days of Pythagoras, respecting his more enlightened system.]

10 The word is ἄφεσις, which Valesius makes equivalent to ἀφετηρια, the rope or post from which the chariots started in the race, and so = starting point. – Tr.

11 περιοδου.

12 πρὸς αὑτῶν – others read πρό, before them.

13 Anatolius writes that there were two Agathobuli with the surname Masters; but I fear that he is wrong in his opinion that they were more ancient than Philo and Josephus. For Agathobulus, the philosopher, flourished in the times of Adrian, as Eusebius writes in his Chronicon, and after him Georgius Syncellus. – Vales.

14 Ἀριστοβουλου τοῦ πάνυ – Rufinus erroneously renders it Aristobulum ex Paneade, Aristobulus of Paneas. Scaliger also, in his Animadversiones Eusebianae, p. 130, strangely thinks that the text should be corrected form the version of Rufinus. And Bede, in his De Ratione Computi, also follows the faulty rendering of Rufinus, and writes Aristobulus et Paniada, as though the latter word were the proper name of a Jewish writer, finding probably in the Codex of Rufinus, which he possessed, the reading Aristobulus et Paneada, which indeed is found in a very ancient Paris manuscript, and also in the Codex Corbeiensis. But that that Aristobulus was not one of the seventy translators, as Anatolius writes, is proved by Scaliger in the work cited above. This Aristobulus was also surnamed διδάσκαλος, or Master, as we see from the Maccabees, ii. 1. For I do not agree with Scaliger in distinguishing this Aristobulus, of whom mention is made in the Maccabees, from the Peripatetic philosopher who dedicated his Commentaries on the Law of Moses to Ptolemy Philometor. – Vales. [See vol. 2. p. 487, note 44, and Elucidation II. p. 520, same volume, this series.]

15 τὰ διαβητήρια θὐειν.

16 κυριακὰς ἀποδείξεις – Christophorsonus renders it ratas; Rufinus gives validissimas assertiones. The Greeks use κύριος in this sense, κυρίαι δίκαι, δοξαι, &c., decisive, valid, judgments, opinions, &c.

17 The text gives ἀπαιτῶν ὧν περιῄρηται, &c.; various codices read απ ̓ αὐτῶν, &c. Valesius now proposes υλας ἀπαιτῶν · ᾧ περι ῃρηται, I shall pass on without … for the veil is removed from me.

18 An apocryphal book of some antiquity, which professes to proceed from the patriarch of that name, but of whose existence prior to the Christian era there is no real evidence. The first author who clearly refers to it by name is Tertullian. [Vol. 3. p. 62, and Vol. 4. p. 380, sec. 35.]

19 xiv. luna. The Romans used the phrase luna prima, secunda, &c., as meaning, the first, second day, &c., after new moon. – Tr.

20 But the text gives the 12th.

21 [Vol. 3. p. 630. The convenire ad of Irenaeus is thus shown to be geographical, not ecclesiastical. Vol. 1. pp. 415, 569.]

22 Lucidum.

23 Celeberrimus, honoured, solemn.

24 Solemn.

25 [The sanctification of the Lord’s Day is thus shown to be a Christian principle. The feast of Easter was the Great Lord’s Day, but the rule was common to the weekly Easter.]

26 Annorum circuli principium inchoandum est.

27 Bissextile reckoning. [Compare note 273, p. 110, supra.]

28 In quo autumnalis novissima pars vincitur.

29 Lunae orsibus.

30 Diminuitur. [This year (1886) we have the lowest possible Easter.]

31 Temporum confinia.

32 [Compare what is said of Hippolytus, vol. 5. p. 3, this series. See the valuable work of Professor Seabury on the Calendar, ed. 1872.]

33 Fabricius, Biblioth. Graeca, ed. Harles, vol. iii. p. 462. Hamburg, 1793.

34 θεωρίας καὶ πράξεως.

35 μαθήματα.

36 τὸ ἐπιστημονικόν.

37 μάθησιν.

38 εἰλικρινῇ, absolute.

39 υλην.

40 νοητήν.

41 θεωρητικός.

42 τοὺς πρὸς ἄλληλα λόγους.

43 σώματα, substances.

44 ἐπιστήμη θεωρητική.

45 πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὑποπιπτόντων δόσιν.

46 Iliad, iv. 442-443 (Pope).

47 σημείου καὶ γραμμῆς.

48 τὸ ἀρχιτεκτονικόν.

49 ἀναλογίας.

50 ἀρχάς, beginnings.

51 περιπέτεια, reversal of circumstances on which the plot of a tragedy hinges.

52 A native of Abdera, in Thrace, born about 460 B.C., and, along with Leucippus, the founder of the philosophical theory of atoms, according to which the creation of all things was explained as being due to the fortuitous combination of an infinite number of atoms floating in infinite space.

53 A famous physician, a native of Bithynia, but long resident in great repute at Rome in the middle of the first century B.C. He adopted the Epicurean doctrine of atoms and pores, and tried to form a new theory of disease, on the principle that it might be in all cases reduced to obstruction of the pores and irregular distribution of the atoms.

54 ὄγκοις.

55 τὴν ἐπιστημονικὴν θεωρίαν.

56 συλλήβδην καταλαβεῖν πόσα τῇ ὡρισμένῃ οὐσίᾳ συμβέβηκεν.

57 A native of Rhodes, a disciple of Aristotle, and editor of his works.

58 A native of Chios, mentioned by Plato in connection with Anaxagoras, and therefore supposed by some to have been a contemporary of the latter sage.

59 περίστασιν, revolution.

60 Of Miletus, one of the sages, and founder of the Ionic school.

61 Of Miletus, born 610 B.C., the immediate successor of Thales in the Ionic school of philosophy.

62 μετέωρος.

63 Of Miletus, the third in the series of Ionic philosophers.

64 απεχουσιν ἀλλήλων.



Anatolius and Minor Writers. (Cont.)Alexander of Cappadocia.

Translator’s Biographical Notice.

[A.D. 170-233-251.] Alexander was at first bishop of a church in Cappadocia, but on his visiting Jerusalem he was appointed to the bishopric of the church there, while the previous bishop Narcissus was alive, in consequence of a vision which was believed to be divine.1 During the Decian persecution he was thrown into prison at Caesarea, and died there,2 A.D. 251. The only writings of his which we know are those from which the extracts are made.3 

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 Euseb., Hist. Eccles., vi. 11. [Narcissus must have been born about A.D. 121. Might have known Polycarp.]

2 Euseb., Hist. Eccles., vi. 46. [Narcissus lived till A.D. 237, and died a martyr, aged 116.]

3 [He was a pupil of Pantaenus, continued under Clement, and defended Origen against the severity of Demetrius. Two dates which are conjectural are adjusted to these facts. I find it difficult to reconcile them with those implied by Eusebius.]

 

From the Epistles of Alexander.

I. An Epistle to the People of Antioch.1

Alexander, a servant and prisoner of Jesus Christ, sends greeting in the Lord to the blessed church of Antioch. Easy and light has the Lord made my bonds to me during the time of my imprisonment since I have learned that in the providence of God, Asclepiades – who, in regard to the right faith, is most eminently qualified for the office – has undertaken the episcopate of your holy church of Antioch. And this epistle, my brethren and masters, I have sent by the hand of the blessed presbyter Clement,2 a man virtuous and well tried, whom ye know already, and will know yet better; who also, coming here by the providence and supervision of the Master, has strengthened and increased the Church of the Lord.

 

II. From an Epistle to the Antinoites.3

Narcissus salutes you, who held the episcopate in this district before me, who is now also my colleague and competitor in prayer for you,4 and who, having now attained to5 his hundred and tenth year, unites with me in exhorting you to be of one mind.6

 

III. From an Epistle to Origen.7

For this, as thou knowest, was the will of God, that the friendship subsisting between us from our forefathers should be maintained unbroken, yea rather, that it should increase in fervency and strength. For we are well acquainted with those blessed fathers who have trodden the course before us, and to whom we too shall soon go: Pantaenus, namely, that man verily blessed, my master; and also the holy Clement, who was once my, master and my benefactor; and all the rest who may be like them, by whose means also I have come to know thee, my lord and brother, who excellest all.8

 

IV. From an Epistle to Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria.9

And he10 – i.e., Demetrius – has added to his letter that this is a matter that was never heard of before, and has never been done now, – namely, that laymen should take part in public speaking,11 when there are bishops present. But in this assertion he has departed evidently far from the truth by some means. For, indeed, wherever there are found persons capable of profiling the brethren, such persons are exhorted by the holy bishops to address the people. Such was the case at Laranda, where Evelpis was thus exhorted by Neon; and at Iconium, Paulinus was thus exhorted by Celsus; and at Synada, Theodorus also by Atticus, our blessed brethren. And it is probable that this is done in other places also, although we know not the fact.12

 

Note by the American Editor.

If Alexander died in the Decian persecution, it is noteworthy how far the sub-apostolic age extended. This contemporary of Cyprian was coadjutor to Narcissus, who may have seen those who knew St. John. See vol. 1. p. 416, note 5, this series; also vol 1. p. 568, Fragment ii. 

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 A fragment. In Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., book vi. ch. xi.

2 It was the opinion of Jerome in his Catalogus that the Clement spoken of by Alexander was Clement of Alexandria. This Clement, at any rate, did live up to the time of the Emperor Severus, and sojourned in these parts, as he tells us himself in the first book of his Stromateis. And he was also the friend of bishop Alexander, to whom he dedicated his book On the Ecclesiastical Canon, or Against the Jews, as Eusebius states in his Eccles. Hist., book vi. ch. xiii. (Migne). [But from the third of these epistles one would certainly draw another inference. How could he, a pupil of Clement, describe and introduce his master in such terms as he uses here?]

3 In Euseb., Hist. Eccles., book vi. ch. xi.

4 συνεχεταιζομενός μοι διὰ τῶν εὐχῶν. Jerome renders it: Salutat vos Narcissus, qui ante me hic tenuit episcopalem locum et nunc mecum eundem orationibus regit.

5 ηνυκώς.

6 The text gives ὀμοιως ἐμοὶ φρονῆσαι. Several of the codices and also Nicephorus give the better reading, ὁμοιως ἐμοὶ ὁμοφρονῆσαι, which is confirmed by the interpretations of Rufinus and Jerome.

7 In Euseb., Hist. Eccles., ch. xiv.

8 [This contemporary tribute confirms the enthusiastic eulogy of the youthful Gregory. See p. 38, supra.]

9 In Euseb., Hist. Eccles., ch. xix.

10 Demetrius is, for honour’s sake, addressed in the third person. Perhaps ἡ σὴ ἁγιότης or some such form preceded.

11 ὁμιλεῖν.

12 [This precise and definite testimony is not to be controverted. It follows the traditions of the Synagogue (Act_13:15), and agrees with the Pauline prescription as to the use of the charismata in 1Co_14:1-40. The chiefs of the Synagogue retained the power of giving this liberty, and this passed to the Christian authorities.]



Anatolius and Minor Writers. (Cont.)Theognostus of Alexandria.

Translator’s Biographical Notice.

[A.D. 260. I can add nothing but conjectures to the following :] Of this Theognostus we have no account by either Eusebius or Jerome. Athanasius, however, mentions him more than once with honour. Thus he speaks of him as ἀνὴρ λόγιος, an eloquent or learned man.1 And again as Θεόγνωστος ὁ θαυμάσιος καὶ σπουδαῖος, the admirable and zealous Theognostus.2 He seems to have belonged to the Catechetical school of Alexandria, and to have flourished there in the latter half of the third century, probably about A.D. 260. That he was a disciple of Origen, or at least a devoted student of his works, is clear from Photius.3 He wrote a work in seven books, the title of which is thus given by Photius:4 The Outlines of the blessed Theognostus, the exegete of Alexandria. Dodwell and others are of opinion that by this term exegete,5 is meant the presidency of the Catechetical school and the privilege of public teaching; and that the title, Outlines,6 was taken from Clement, his predecessor in office. According to Photius, the work was on this plan. The first book treated of God the Father, as the maker of the universe; the second, of the necessary existence of the Son; the third, of the Holy Spirit; the fourth, of angels and demons; the fifth and sixth, of the incarnation of God; while the seventh bore the title, On God’s Creation.7 Photius has much to say in condemnation of Thegnostus, who, however, has been vindicated by Bull8 and Prudentius Maranus.9 Gregory of Nyssa has also charged him with holding the same error as Eunomius on the subject of the Son’s relation to the work of creation.10 He is adduced, however, by Athanasius as a defender of the Homousian doctrine.

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 De Decret. Nic. Syn., 25, Works, vol. i. part i. p. 230.

2 Epist. 4, to Serapion, sec. 9, vol. i. part ii. p. 702

3 Bibl., cod. 106.

4 τοῦ μακαρίου Θεογνώστου Ἀλεξανδρέως καὶ ἐξ ηγητοῦ ὑποτυπώσες.

5 ἐξηγητοῦ.

6 ὑποτυπώσεις.

7 De Dei Creatione.

8 Defens. fid. Nic., sec. ii. 1Co_10:1-33. [Bull always vindicates where he can do so, on the principle of justice, for which I have contended on p. v. (prefatory) of vol. 4.]

9 Divinit I. C., iv. 24.

10 Book iii., against Eunomius.

 

From His Seven Books of Hypotyposes or Outlines.

I.1

The substance2 of the Son is not a substance devised extraneously,3 nor is it one introduced out of nothing;4 but it was born of the substance of the Father, as the reflection of light or as the steam of water. For the reflection is not the sun itself, and the steam is not the water itself, nor yet again is it anything alien; neither He Himself the Father, nor is He alien, but He is5 an emanation6 from the substance of the Father, this substance of the Father suffering the while no partition. For as the sun remains the same and suffers no diminution from the rays that are poured out by it, so neither did the substance of the Father undergo any change in having the Son as an image of itself.

 

II.7

Theognostus, moreover, himself adds words to this effect: He who has offended against the first term8 and the second, may be judged to deserve smaller punishment; but he who has also despised the third, can no longer find pardon. For by the first term and the second, he says, is meant the teaching concerning the Father and the Son; but by the third is meant the doctrine committed to us with respect to the perfection9 and the partaking of the Spirit. And with the view of confirming this, he adduces the word spoken by the Saviour to the disciples: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. But when the Holy Spirit is come, He will teach you.” (Joh_16:12, Joh_16:13)

 

III.10

Then he says again: As the Saviour converses with those not yet able to receive what is perfect,11 condescending to their littleness, while the Holy Spirit communes with the perfected, and yet we could never say on that account that the teaching of the Spirit is superior to the teaching of the Son, but only that the Son condescends to the imperfect, while the Spirit is the seal of the perfected; even so it is not on account of the superiority of the Spirit over the Son that the blasphemy against the Spirit is a sin excluding impunity and pardon, but because for the imperfect there is pardon, while for those who have tasted the heavenly gift, (Heb_6:4. [Compare Mat_12:31.]) and been made perfect, there remains no plea or prayer for pardon.

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 From book ii. In Athanasius, On the Decrees of the Nicene Council, sec. xxv. From the edition BB., Paris, 1698, vol. i. part i. p. 230. Athanasius introduces this fragment in the following terms: – Learn then, ye Christ-opposing Arians, that Theognostus, a man of learning, did not decline to use the expression “of the substance” (ἐκ τῆς οὐσίας). For, writing of the Son in the second book of his Outlines, he has spoken thus: The substance of the Son. – Tr.

2 οὐσία.

3 ἔξωθεν ἐφευρεθεῖσα.

4 ἐκ μὴ ὄντων ἐπεισήχθη.

5 The words in italics were inserted by Routh from a Catena on the Epistle to the Hebrews, where they are ascribed to Theognostus: “He Himself” is the Son.

6 ἀπόῤῥοια.

7 In Athanasius, Epist. 4, to Serapion, sec. 11, vol. i. part ii. p. 703.

8 ορον.

9 τελειώσει. [i.e., making the disciples τέλειοι. Jam_1:4.]

10 From Athanasius, as above, p. 155.

11 τὰ τέλεια.



Anatolius and Minor Writers. (Cont.)Pierius of Alexandria.

Pierius of Alexandria.1

Translator’s Biographical Notice.

[A.D. 275.] Among the very eminent men who flourished near his own time, Eusebius mentions Pierius, a presbyter of Alexandria, and speaks of him as greatly renowned for his voluntary poverty, his philosophical erudition and his skill in the exposition of Scripture and in discoursing to the public assemblies of the Church.2 He lived in the latter part of the third century, and seems to have been for a considerable period president of the Catechetical school at Alexandria. Jerome says that he was called Origenes, junior; and according to Photius, he shared in some of the errors of Origen, on such subjects especially as the doctrine of the Holy Ghost and the pre-existence of souls.3 In his manner of life he was an ascetic. After the persecution under Galerius or Maximus he lived at Rome. He appears to have devoted himself largely to sacred criticism and the study of the text of Scripture; and among several treatises written by him, and extant in the time of Photius, we find mention made of one on the prophet Hosea. And, in addition to the Commentary an the First Epistle to the Corinthians,4 Photius notices twelve books of his, and praises both their composition and their matter.5 

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 [See Introductory Note, p. 143, supra; also p. 99, note 160, supra.]

2 Hist. Eccl., vii. 32.

3 [Perhaps only speculatively (see Frag. II. infra), not dogmatically. Compare Wordsworth’s Platonic Ode on Immorality.]

4 Lardner (part ii. book i. chap. xxiv.) does not think that there was a commentary written by Pierius on this epistle, but only that the word of Paul, mentioned below, was expounded at length in some work or other by Pierius. Fabricius holds the opposite opinion. – Tr.

5 See Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., vii. 32, Jerome in the preface to Hosea, Photius, cod. 118, 119; Epiphanius, 69, 2; Lardner, part ii. book i. chap. 24; &c.

 

I. – A Fragment of a Work of Pierius on the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians.1

Origen, Dionysius, Pierius, Eusebius of Caesareia, Didymus, and Apollinaris, have interpreted this epistle most copiously;2 of whom Pierius, when he was expounding and unfolding the meaning of the apostle, and purposed to explain the words. For I would that all men were even as I myself, (1Co_7:7) added this remark: In saying this, Paul, without disguise, preaches celibacy.3

 

II. – A Section on the Writings of Pierius.4

 

Different Discourses of the Presbyter Pierius.

There was read a book by Pierius the presbyter, who, they say, endured the conflict5 for Christ, along with his brother Isidorus. And he is reputed to have been the teacher of the martyr Pamphilus in ecclesiastical studies, and to have been president of the school at Alexandria. The work contained twelve books.6 And in style he is perspicuous and clear, with the easy flow, as it were, of a spoken address, displaying no signs of laboured art,7 but bearing us quietly along, smoothly and gently, like off-hand speaking. And in argument he is most fertile, if any one is so. And he expresses his opinion on many things outside what is now established in the Church, perhaps in an antique manner;8 but with respect to the Father and the Son, he sets forth his sentiments piously, except that he speaks of two substances and two natures; using, however, the terms substance and nature, as is apparent from what follows, and from what precedes this passage, in the sense of person9 and not in the sense put on it by the adherents of Arius. With respect to the Spirit, however, he lays down his opinion in a very dangerous and far from pious manner. For he affirms that He is inferior to the Father and the Son in glory.10 He has a passage also in the book11 entitled, On the Gospel according to Luke, from which it is possible to show that the honour or dishonour of the image is also the honour or dishonour of the original. And, again, he indulges in some obscure speculations, after the manner of the nonsense of Origen, on the subject of the “pre-existence of souls.” And also in the book on the Passover (Easter) and on Hosea, he treats both of the cherubim made by Moses, and of the pillar of Jacob, in which passages he admits the actual construction of those things, but propounds the foolish theory that they were given economically, and that they were in no respect like other things which are made; inasmuch as they bore the likeness of no other form, but had only, as he foolishly says, the appearance of wings.12 

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 This very brief quotation is preserved in Jerome’s Second Epistle to Pammachius.

2 Latissime.

3 Vol. iv. p. 243, edit. Benedictin. [No doubt he does, as did his Master, Christ, before him, and under the same limitations. Mat_19:12.]

4 From the Bibliotheca of Photius, cod. 119, p. 300, ed. Hoeschel.

5 Of martyrdom.

6 λόγους.

7 ἐπιμελὲς ἐνδεικνύμενος.

8 [e.g., his Platonic ideas, as explained in note 3, p. 156, supra.]

9 ὑπόστασις. [See my remarks, vol. 4. p. v., introductory.]

10 [Photius must often be received with a grain of salt.]

11 εἰς τον λόγον. [On images, etc., Photius is no authority.]

12 The text here is evidently corrupt. It runs thus: οἰκονομίας δὲ λόγῳ συγχωρηθῆναι ματαιολογεῖ ὡς οὐδέν ἦσαν ὼς ετερα τὰ γεγενημένα. ὡς οὑδὲ τυπον ἄλλον ἔφερε μορφῆς, ἀλλὰ μόνον πτερυγων κενολογεῖ φερειν αὐτὰ σχῆμα. Hoeschelius proposes ὡς οὐδὲν ἦσαν, ὡς ετερον ἦσαν, ὡς ετερα, &c., and he rejects the ὡς in ὡς οὐδὲν τύπον on the authority of four codices. – Tr.



Anatolius and Minor Writers. (Cont.)Theonas of Alexandria.

Translator’s Biographical Notice.

[A.D. 300.] Of this Theonas we know extremely little. Eusebius1 tells us that Maximus, who had held the episcopal office at Alexandria for eighteen years after the death of Dionysius, was succeeded by Theonas. That bishopric, we also learn, he held for nineteen years. His date is fixed as from about 282 to 300 A.D. The only thing of his that has come down to our time is his letter to Lucianus, the chief chamberlain,2 and a person in high favour with the emperor. This epistle, which is a letter of advice to that individual on the duties of his office, was first published in the Spicilegium of Dacherius, and again in Gallandi’s Bibliotheca. The name of the emperor is not given, neither does the letter itself tell us who the Bishop Theonas was who wrote it. Hence some have, without much reason, supposed another Theonas, bishop of Cyzicus, as the author. And some, such as Cave, have thought the emperor in question was Constantius Chlorus. But the whole circumstances suit Diocletian best.3 Some infer from the diction of the epistle, as we have it, that it is a translation from a Greek original.

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 Hist. Eccl., vii. 32.

2 Praepositus cubiculariorum.

3 See Neander’s Church History, vol. i. p. 197 (Bohn). [Christians began to be preferred for their probity. Diocletian’s reign at first gave the Church a long peace (see vol. 4. p. 126) of well-nigh ten years.]

 

The Epistle of Theonas, Bishop of Alexandria, to Lucianus, the Chief Chamberlain.1

Bishop Theonas to Lucianus, the Chief Chamberlain of Our Most Invincible Emperor.

I.

I give thanks to Almighty God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who has not given over the manifesting of His faith throughout the whole world, as the sole specific for our salvation,2 and the extending of it even in the course of the persecutions of despots. Yea, like gold reduced in the furnace, it has only been made to shine the more under the storms of persecution, and its truth and grandeur have only become always the more and more illustrious, so that now, peace being granted to the churches by our gracious prince, the works of Christians are shining even in sight of the unbelieving, and God your Father, who is in heaven, is glorified thereby; (Mat_5:16) a thing which, if we desire to be Christians in deed rather than in word, we ought to seek and aspire after as our first object on account of our salvation. For if we seek our own glory, we set our desire upon a vain and perishing object, and one which leads ourselves on to death. But the glory of the Father and of the Son, who for our salvation was nailed to the cross, makes us safe for the everlasting redemption; and that is the greatest hope of Christians.

Wherefore, my Lucianus, I neither suppose nor desire that yon should make it a matter of boasting, that by your means many persons belonging to the palace of the emperor have been brought to the knowledge of the truth; but rather does it become us to give the thanks to our God who has made thee a good instrument for a good work, and has raised thee to great honour with the emperor, that you might diffuse the sweet savour of the Christian name to His own glory and to the salvation of many. For just the more completely that the emperor himself. though not yet attached3 to the Christian religion, has entrusted the care of his life and person to these same Christians as his more faithful servants, so much the more careful ought ye to be, and the more diligent and watchful in seeing to his safety and in attending upon him, so that the name of Christ may be greatly glorified thereby, and His faith extended daily through you who wait upon the emperor. For in old times some former princes thought us malevolent and filled with all manner of crime; but now, seeing your good works, they should not be able to avoid glorifying Christ Himself.4

 

II.

Therefore you ought to strive to the utmost of your power not to fall into a base or dishonourable, not to say an absolutely flagitious way of thinking, lest the name of Christ be thus blasphemed even by you. Be it far from you that you should sell the privilege of access to the emperor to any one for money, or that you should by any means place a dishonest account of any affair before your prince, won over either by prayers or by bribes. Let all the lust of avarice be put from you, which serves the cause of idolatry rather than the religion of Christ. (Eph_5:4, Eph_5:5) No filthy lucre, no duplicity, can befit the Christian who embraces the simple and unadorned5 Christ. Let no scurrilous or base talk have place among you. Let all things be done with modesty, courteousness, affability, and uprightness, so that the name of our God and Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in all.

Discharge the official duties to which yon are severally appointed with the utmost fear of God and affection to your prince, and perfect carefulness. Consider that every command of the emperor which does not offend God has proceeded from God Himself;6 and execute it in love as well as in fear, and with all cheerfulness. For there is nothing which so well refreshes a man who is wearied out with weighty cares as the seasonable cheerfulness and benign patience of an intimate servant; nor, again, on the other hand, does anything so much annoy and vex him as the moroseness and impatience and grumbling of his servant. Be such things far from you Christians, whose walk is in zeal for the faith.7 But in order that God may be honoured (1Pe_4:11) in yourselves, suppress ye and tread down all your vices of mind and body. Be clothed with patience and courtesy; be replenished with the virtues and the hope of Christ. Bear all things for the sake of your Creator Himself; endure all things; overcome and get above all things, that ye may win Christ the Lord. Great are these duties, and full of painstaking. But he that striveth for the mastery (1Co_9:25) is temperate in all things; and they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

 

III.

But because, as I apprehend it, ye are assigned to different offices, and you, Lucianus, are styled the head of them all, whom, also, by the grace of Christ given you, you are able to direct and dispose in their different spheres, I am certain that it will not displease you if I also bring before your notice, in a particular and summary manner, some of my sentiments on the subject of these offices. For I hear that one of you keeps the private moneys of the emperor; another the imperial robes and ornaments; another the precious vessels; another the books, who, I understand, does not as yet belong to the believers; and others the different parts of the household goods. And in what manner, therefore, these charges ought, in my judgment, to be executed, I shall indicate in a few words.

 

IV.

He who has charge of the private moneys of the emperor ought to keep every thing in an exact reckoning. He should be ready at any time to give an accurate account of all things. He should note down every thing in writing, if it is at all possible, before giving money to another. He should never trust such things to his memory, which, being drawn off day by day to other matters, readily fails us, so that, without writing, we sometimes honestly certify things which have never existed; neither should this kind of writing be of a commonplace order, but such as easily and clearly unfolds all things, and leaves the mind of the inquirer without any scruple or doubt on the subject; a thing which will easily he effected if a distinct and separate account is kept in writing of all receipts, and of the time when, and the person by whom, and the place at which they were made.8 And, in like manner, all that is paid out to others, or expended by order of the emperor, should be entered in its own place by itself in the reckoning; and that servant should be faithful and prudent, so that his lord may rejoice that he has set him over his goods (Mat_24:45, Mat_24:47) and may glorify Christ in him.

 

V.

Nor will the diligence and care of that servant be less who has the custody of the robes and imperial ornaments. All these he should enter in a most exact catalogue, and he should keep a note of what they are and of what sort, and in what places stored, and when he received them, and from whom, and whether they are soiled or unsoiled. All these things he should keep in his diligence; he should often review again, and he should often go over them that they may be the more readily known again. All these he should have at hand, and all in readiness; and he should always give the clearest information on every matter on which it is sought, to his prince or his superior, whenever they ask about any thing; and all this at the same time in such wise that every thing may be done in humility and cheerful patience, and that the name of Christ may be praised even in a small matter.

 

VI.

In a similar manner should he conduct himself to whose fidelity are entrusted the vessels of silver and gold, and crystal or murrha,9 for eating or for drinking. All these he should arrange suitably, of them all he should keep an account, and with all diligence he should make an inventory of how many and which sort of precious stones are in them. He should examine them all with great prudence; he should produce them in their proper places and on their proper occasions. And he should observe most carefully to whom he gives them, and at what time, and from whom he receives them again, lest there should occur any mistake or injurious suspicion, or perhaps some considerable loss in things of value.

 

VII.

The most responsible person. however, among you, and also the most careful, will be he who may be entrusted by the emperor with the custody of his library. He will himself select for this office a person of proved knowledge, a man grave and adapted to great affairs, and ready to reply to all applications for information, such a one as Philadelphus chose for this charge, and appointed to the superintendence of his most noble library — I mean Aristeus, his confidential chamberlain, whom he sent also as his legate to Eleazar, with most magnificent gifts, in recognition of the translation of the Sacred Scriptures; and this person also wrote the full history of the Seventy Interpreters. If, therefore, it should happen that a believer in Christ is called to this same office, he should not despise that secular literature and those Gentile intellects which please the emperor.10 To be praised are the poets for the greatness of their genius, the acuteness of their inventions, the aptness and lofty eloquence of their style. To be praised are the orators; to be praised also are the philosophers in their own class. To be praised, too, are the historians, who unfold to us the order of exploits, and the manners and institutions of our ancestors, and show us the rule of life from the proceedings of the ancients. On occasion also he will endeavour to laud the divine Scriptures, which, with marvellous care and most liberal expenditure, Ptolemy Philadelphus caused to be translated into our language;11 and sometimes, too, the Gospel and the Apostle will be landed for their divine oracles; and there will be an opportunity for introducing the mention of Christ; and, little by little, His exclusive divinity will be explained; and all these things may happily come to pass by the help of Christ.

He ought, therefore, to know all the books which the emperor possesses; he should often turn them over, and arrange them neatly in their proper order by catalogue; if, however, he shall have to get new books, or old ones transcribed, he should be careful to obtain the most accurate copyists; and if that cannot be done, he should appoint learned men to the work of correction, and recompense them justly for their labours. He should also cause all manuscripts to be restored according to their need, and should embellish them, not so much with mere superstitious extravagance, as with useful adornment; and therefore he should not aim at having the whole manuscripts written on purple skins and in letters of gold, unless the emperor has specially required that. With the utmost, most submission, however, he should do every thing that is agreeable to Caesar. As he is able, he should, with all modesty, suggest to the emperor that he should read, or hear read, those books which suit his rank and honour, and minister to good use rather than to mere pleasure. He should himself first be thoroughly familiar with those books, and he should often commend them in presence of the emperor, and set forth, in an appropriate fashion, the testimony and the weight of those who approve them, that he may not seem to lean to his own understanding only.

 

VIII.

Those, moreover, who have the care of the emperor’s person should be in all things as prompt as possible; always, as we have said, cheerful in countenance, sometimes merry, but ever with such perfect modesty as that he may commend it above all else in you all, and perceive that it is the true product of the religion of Christ. You should also all be elegant and tidy in person and attire, yet, at the same time, not in such wise as to attract notice by extravagance or affectation, lest Christian modesty be scandalised.12 Let every thing be ready at its proper time, and disposed as well as possible in its own order. There should also be due arrangement among you, and carefulness that no confusion appear in your work, nor any loss of property in any way; and appropriate places should be settled and suitably prepared, in accordance with the capacity (captu) and importance of the places.

Besides this, your servants should be the most thoroughly honest, and circumspect, and modest, and as serviceable to you as possible. And see that you instruct and teach them in true doctrine with all the patience and charity of Christ; but if they despise and lightly esteem your instructions, then dismiss them, lest their wickedness by any hap recoil upon yourselves. For sometimes we have seen, and often we have heard, how masters have been held in ill-repute in consequence of the wickedness of their servants.

If the emperor visits her imperial majesty, or she him, then should ye also be most circumspect in eye and demeanour, and in all your words. Let her mark your mastery of yourselves and your modesty;13 and let her followers and attendants mark your demeanour; let them mark it and admire it, and by reason thereof praise Jesus Christ our Lord in you. Let your conversation always be temperate and modest, and seasoned with religion as with salt. (Col_4:6) And, further, let there be no jealousy among you or contentiousness, which might bring you into all manner of confusion and division, and thus also make you objects of aversion to Christ and to the emperor, and lead you into the deepest abomination, so that not one stone of your building could stand upon another.

 

IX.

And do thou, my dearest Lucianus, since thou art wise, bear with good-will the unwise; (2Co_11:19) and they too may perchance become wise. Do no one an injury at any time, and provoke no one to anger. If an injury is done to you, look to Jesus Christ; and even as ye desire that He may remit your transgressions, do ye also forgive them theirs; (Mar_11:25) and then also shall ye do away with all ill-will, and bruise the head of that ancient serpent, (Rom_16:20) who is ever on the watch with all subtlety to undo your good works and your prosperous attainments. Let no day pass by without reading some portion of the Sacred Scriptures, at such convenient hour as offers, and giving some space to meditation.14 And never cast off the habit of reading in the Holy Scriptures; for nothing feeds the soul and enriches the mind so well as those sacred studies do. But look to this as the chief gain you are to make by them, that, in all due patience, ye may discharge the duties of your office religiously and piously — that is, in the love of Christ — and despise all transitory objects for the sake of His eternal promises, which in truth surpass all human comprehension and understanding15 and shall conduct you into everlasting felicity.

A happy adieu to you in Christ, my Lord Lucianus.

 

 

FOOTNOTES

 

1 In Dacherii Spicilegium, iii. pp. 297-299.

2 In salutis nostrae unicum remedium.

3 Ascriptus.

4 [A beautiful concern of our author for the honour of the Master seems to have dictated this noble letter. Mat_5:16.]

5 Nudum.

6 [See note 249, p. 108, supra.]

7 Qui zelo fidei inceditis.

8 [A most important hint to the clergy in their accounts with the Church.]

9 Murrhine vessels were first introduced into Rome by Pompey. They were valued chiefly for their variegated colours, and were extremely costly. Some think they were made of onyx stone, others of variegated glass; but most modern writers suppose that what is meant was some sort of porcelain.

10 [A lofty spirit of liberal love for literature is here exemplified.]

11 It is from these words that the inference is drawn that this epistle was written by a Greek.

12 [The teachings of Clement had formed the minor morals of Christians. See vol. 2. book ii. pp. 237, 284.]

13 [Thus is reflected the teaching of St. Paul, 1Ti_5:2. All women to be honoured, and “all purity” to characterize society with them.]

14 [Blessed spirit of primitive piety! Is not this rule too much relaxed in our own Laodicean age?]

15 Phi_4:7. [How much there is in this letter which ought to prick the consciences of wealthy and “fashionable” Christians of our day!]