Eusebius of Caesarea: Ecclesiastical History, Book I
It is my purpose to write an account of the successions of the
holy apostles as well as of the times which have elapsed from the days of
our Saviour to our own; and to relate the many important events which are said to
have occurred in the history of the Church; and to mention those who have
governed and presided over the Church in the most prominent
parishes, and
those who in each generation have proclaimed the divine word either
orally or
in writing.
It is my purpose also to give the names and number and times of those who
through love of innovation have run into the greatest errors, and, proclaiming
themselves discoverers of knowledge falsely so-called have like fierce
wolves unmercifully devastated the flock of Christ.
It is my intention, moreover, to recount the misfortunes which
immediately came upon the whole Jewish nation in consequence of their plots
against our Saviour, and to record the ways and the times in which the divine
word has been attacked by the Gentiles, and to describe the character of those
who at various periods have contended for it in the face of blood and of
tortures, as well as the confessions which have been made in our own days, and
finally the gracious and kindly succor which our Saviour has afforded them
all. Since I propose to write of all these things I shall commence my work
with the beginning of the dispensation (oikonomia)
of our Saviour and
Lord Jesus Christ.
But at the outset I must crave for my work the indulgence of the wise,
for I confess that it is beyond my power to produce a perfect and complete
history, and since I am the first to enter upon the subject, I am attempting
to traverse as it were a lonely and untrodden path. I pray that I may have
God as my guide and the power of the Lord as my aid, since I am unable to find
even the bare footsteps of those who have traveled the way before me, except
in brief fragments, in which some in one way, others in another, have
transmitted to us particular accounts of the times in which they lived. From
afar they raise their voices like torches, and they cry out, as from some
lofty and conspicuous watch-tower, admonishing us where to walk and how to
direct the course of our work steadily and safely. Having gathered
therefore from the matters mentioned here and there by them whatever we
consider important for the present work, and having plucked like flowers from
a meadow the appropriate passages from ancient writers, we shall endeavor
to embody the whole in an historical narrative, content if we preserve the
memory of
the successions of the apostles of our Saviour; if not indeed of all, yet of
the most renowned of them in those churches which are the most noted, and
which even to the present time are held in honor.
This work seems to me of especial importance because I know of no
ecclesiastical writer who has devoted himself to this subject; and I hope that
it will appear most useful to those who are fond of historical research.
I have already given an epitome of these things in the Chronological
Canons which I have composed, but notwithstanding that, I have undertaken
in the present work to write as full an account of them as I am able.
My work will begin, as I have said, with the dispensation (oikonomia)
of the
Saviour Christwhich is loftier and greater than human conceptionand with a discussion of his divinity
(theologia);
for it is necessary, inasmuch
as we derive even our name from Christ, for one who proposes to write a
history of the Church to begin with the very origin of Christ's dispensation,
a dispensation more divine than many think.
Since in Christ there is a twofold nature, and the onein so far as he is
thought of as Godresembles the head of the body, while the other may be
compared with the feetin so far as he, for the sake of our salvation, put
on human nature with the same passions as our ownthe following work will be
complete only if we begin with the chief and lordliest events of all his
history. In this way will the antiquity and divinity of Christianity be shown
to those who suppose it of recent and foreign origin, and imagine that it
appeared only yesterday.
No language is sufficient to express the origin and the worth, the being
and the nature of Christ. Wherefore also the divine Spirit says in the
prophecies, "Who shall declare his generation?" For none knoweth the Father
except the Son, neither can any one know the Son adequately except the Father
alone who hath begotten him.
For who beside the Father could clearly understand the Light which
was before the world, the intellectual and essential Wisdom which existed
before the ages, the living Word which was in the beginning with the Father
and which was God, the first and only begotten of God which was before every
creature and creation visible and invisible, the commander-in-chief of the
rational and immortal host of heaven, the messenger of the great counsel, the
executor of the Father's unspoken will, the creator, with the Father, of all
things, the second cause of the universe after the Father, the true and
only-begotten Son of God, the Lord and God and King of all created things, the
one who has received dominion and power, with divinity itself, and with might
and honor from the Father; as it is said in regard to him in the mystical
passages of Scripture which speak of his divinity: "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
"All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made." This, too, the great
Moses teaches, when, as the most ancient of all the
prophets, he describes under the influence of the divine Spirit the creation
and arrangement of the universe. He declares that the maker of the world and
the creator of all things yielded to Christ himself, and to none other than
his own clearly divine and first-born Word, the making of inferior things, and
communed with him respecting the creation of man.
"For," says he," God said, Let us make man in our image and in our
likeness."
And another of the prophets confirms this, speaking of God in
his hymns as follows: "He spake and they were made; he commanded and they were
created."
He here introduces the Father and Maker as Ruler of all,
commanding with a kingly nod, and second to him the divine Word, none other
than the one who is proclaimed by us, as carrying out
the Father's commands. All that are said to have excelled in righteousness
and piety since the creation of man, the great servant Moses and before him in
the first place Abraham and his children, and as many righteous men and
prophets as afterward appeared, have contemplated him with the pure eyes of
the mind, and have recognized him and offered to him the worship which is due
him as Son of God.
But he, by no means neglectful of the reverence due to the Father, was
appointed to teach the knowledge of the Father to them all. For instance, the
Lord God, it is said, appeared as a common man to Abraham while he was sitting
at the oak of Mambre.
And he, immediately failing down, although he saw a
man with his eyes, nevertheless worshiped him as God, and sacrificed to him as
Lord, and confessed that he was not ignorant of his identity when he uttered
the words, "Lord, the judge of all the earth, wilt thou not execute righteous
judgment?"
For if it is unreasonable to suppose that the unbegotten and immutable
essence of the almighty God was changed into the form of man or that it
deceived the eyes of the beholders with the appearance of some created thing,
and if it is unreasonable to suppose, on the other hand, that the Scripture
should falsely invent such things, when the God and Lord who judgeth all the
earth and executeth judgment is seen in the form of a man, who else can be
called, if it be not lawful to call him the first cause of all things, than
his only pre-existent Word? Concerning whom it is said in the Psalms, "He
sent his Word and healed them, and delivered them from their
destructions."
Moses most clearly proclaims him second Lord after the Father, when he
says, "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the
Lord."
The divine Scripture also calls him God, when he appeared again to
Jacob in the form of a man, and said to Jacob, "Thy name shall be called no
more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name, because thou hast prevailed with
God."
Wherefore also Jacob called the name of that place "Vision of
God,"
saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is
preserved."
Nor is it admissible to suppose that the theophanies recorded were
appearances of subordinate angels and ministers of God, for whenever any of
these appeared to men, the Scripture does not conceal the fact, but calls them
by name not God nor Lord, but angels, as it is easy to prove by numberless
testimonies.
Joshua, also, the successor of Moses, calls him, as leader of the
heavenly angels and archangels and of the supramundane powers, and as
lieutenant of the Father, entrusted with the second rank of sovereignty
and rule over all, "captain of the host of the Lords" although he saw him not
otherwise than again in the form and appearance of a man. For it is written:
"And it came to pass when Joshua was at Jericho that he looked and saw
a man standing over against him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua
went unto him and said, Art thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said
unto him, As captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on
his face to the earth and said unto him, Lord, what dost thou command thy
servant? and the captain of the Lord said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off
thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy."
You will perceive also from the same words that this was no other than
he who talked with Moses. For the Scripture says in the same words and with
reference to the same one, "When the Lord saw that he drew near to see, the
Lord called to him out of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, What
is it? And he said, Draw not nigh hither; loose thy shoe from off thy feet,
for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. And he said unto him, I am
the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob."
And that there is a certain substance which lived and subsisted
before the world, and which ministered unto the Father and God of the universe
for the formation of all created things, and which, is called the Word of God
and Wisdom, we may learn, to quote other proofs in addition to those already
cited, from the mouth of Wisdom herself, who reveals most clearly through
Solomon the following mysteries concerning herself: "I, Wisdom, have dwelt
with prudence and knowledge, and I have invoked understanding. Through me
kings reign, and princes ordain righteousness.
Through me the great are magnified, and through me sovereigns rule the
earth."
To which she adds: "The Lord created me in the beginning of his
ways, for his works; before the world he established me, in the beginning,
before he made the earth, before he made the depths, before the mountains were
settled, before all hills he begat me. When he prepared the heavens I was
present with him, and when he established the fountains of the region under
heaven I was with him, disposing.
I was the one in whom he delighted; daily I rejoiced before him at all
times when he was rejoicing at having completed the world." That the
divine Word, therefore, pre-existed and appeared to some, if not to all, has
thus been briefly shown by us.
But why the Gospel was not preached in ancient times to all men and to
all nations, as it is now, will appear from the following considerations.
The life of the ancients was not of such a kind as to permit them to receive
the all-wise and all-virtuous teaching of Christ.
For immediately in the beginning, after his original life of blessedness,
the first man despised the command of God, and fell into this mortal and
perishable state, and exchanged his former divinely inspired luxury for this
curse-laden earth. His descendants having filled our earth, showed themselves
much worse, with the exception of one here and there, and entered upon a
certain brutal and insupportable mode of life.
They thought neither of city nor state, neither of arts nor sciences.
They were ignorant even of the name of laws and of justice, of virtue and of
philosophy. As nomads, they passed their lives in deserts, like wild and
fierce beasts, destroying, by an excess of voluntary wickedness, the natural
reason of man, and the seeds of thought and of culture implanted in the human
soul. They gave themselves wholly over to all kinds of profanity, now seducing
one another, now slaying one another, now eating human flesh, and now daring
to wage war with the Gods and to undertake those battles of the giants
celebrated by all; now planning to fortify earth against heaven, and in the
madness of ungoverned pride to prepare an attack upon the very God of all.
On account of these things, when they conducted themselves thus, the
all-seeing God sent down upon them floods and conflagrations as upon a wild
forest spread over the whole earth. He cut them down with continuous famines
and plagues, with wars, and with thunderbolts from heaven, as if to check some
terrible and obstinate disease of souls with more severe punishments.
Then, when the excess of wickedness had overwhelmed nearly all the race,
like a deep fit of drunkenness, beclouding and darkening the minds of men, the
first-born and first-created wisdom of God, the pre-existent Word himself,
induced by his exceeding love for man, appeared to his servants, now in the
form of angels, and again to one and another of those ancients who enjoyed the
favor of God, in his own person as the saving power of God, not otherwise,
however, than in the shape of man, because it was impossible to appear in any
other way.
And as by them the seeds of piety were sown among a multitude of men and
the whole nation, descended from the Hebrews, devoted themselves persistently
to the worship of God, he imparted to them through the prophet Moses, as to
multitudes still corrupted by their ancient practices, images and symbols of a
certain mystic Sabbath and of circumcision, and elements of other spiritual
principles, but he did not grant them a complete knowledge of the mysteries
themselves.
But when their law became celebrated, and, like a sweet odor, was
diffused among all men, as a result of their influence the dispositions of the
majority of the heathen were softened by the lawgivers and philosophers who
arose on every side, and their wild and savage brutality was changed into
mildness, so that they enjoyed deep peace, friendship, and social
intercourse. Then, finally, at the time of the origin of the Roman Empire,
there appeared again to all men and nations throughout the world, who had
been, as it were, previously assisted, and were now fitted to receive the
knowledge of the Father, that same teacher
of virtue, the minister of the Father in all good things, the divine and
heavenly Word of God, in a human body not at all differing in substance from
our own. He did and suffered the things which had been prophesied. For it had
been foretold that one who was at the same time man and God should come and
dwell in the world, should perform wonderful works, and should show himself a
teacher to all nations of the piety of the Father. The marvelous nature of his
birth, and his new teaching, and his wonderful works had also been foretold;
so likewise the manner of his death, his resurrection from the dead,
and,finally, his divine ascension into heaven.
For instance, Daniel the prophet, under the influence of the divine
Spirit, seeing his kingdom at the end of time, was inspired thus to
describe the divine vision in language fitted to human comprehension: "For I
beheld," he says, "until thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days did sit,
whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool; his
throne was a flame of fire and his wheels burning fire. A river of fire flowed
before him. Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten
thousand stood before him.
He appointed judgment, and the books were opened." And again, "I
saw," says he, "and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of
heaven, and he hastened unto the Ancient of Days and was brought into his
presence, and there was given him the dominion and the glory and the kingdom;
and all peoples, tribes, and tongues serve him. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom shall not be
destroyed."
It is clear that these words can refer to no one else than to our
Saviour, the God Word who was in the beginning with God, and who was called
the Son of man because of his final appearance in the flesh. But since we have
collected in separate books as the selections from the prophets which relate
to our Saviour Jesus Christ, and have arranged in a more logical form those
things which have been revealed concerning him, what has been said will
suffice for the present.
It is now the proper place to show that the very name Jesus and also the
name Christ were honored by the ancient prophets beloved of God.
Moses was the first to make known the name of Christ as a name
especially august and glorious. When he delivered types and symbols of
heavenly things, and mysterious images, in accordance with the oracle which
said to him, "Look that thou make all things according to the pattern which
was shown thee in the mount,"
he consecrated a man high priest of God, in
so far as that was possible, and him he called Christ. And thus to this
dignity of the high priesthood, which in his opinion surpassed the most
honorable position among men, he attached for the sake of honor and glory the
name of Christ.
He knew so well that in Christ was something divine. And the same one
foreseeing, under the influence of the divine Spirit, the name Jesus,
dignified it also with a certain distinguished privilege. For the name of
Jesus, which had never been uttered among men before the time of Moses, he
applied first and only to the one who he knew would receive after his death,
again as a type and symbol, the supreme command.
His successor, therefore, who had not hitherto borne the name Jesus, but
had been called by another name, Auses, which had been given him by his
parents, he now called Jesus, bestowing the name upon him as a gift of honor,
far greater than any kingly diadem. For Jesus himself, the son of Nave, bore a
resemblance to our Saviour in the fact that he alone, after Moses and after
the completion of the symbolical worship which had been transmitted by him,
succeeded to the government of the true and pure religion.
Thus Moses bestowed the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, as a mark of
the highest honor, upon the two men who in his time surpassed all the rest of
the people in virtue and glory; namely, upon the high priest and upon his own
successor in the government.
And the prophets that came after also clearly foretold Christ by
name, predicting at the same time the plots which the Jewish people would form
against him, and the calling of the nations through him. Jeremiah, for
instance, speaks as follows: "The
Spirit before our face, Christ the Lord, was taken in their destructions; of
whom we said, under his shadow we shall live among the nations."
And David,
in perplexity, says, "Why did the nations rage and the people imagine vain
things? The kings of the earth set themselves in array, and the rulers were
gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ";
to which he
adds, in the person of Christ himself, "The Lord said unto me, Thou art my
Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give thee the
nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy
possession."
And not only those who were honored with the high priesthood, and who for
the sake of the symbol were anointed with especially prepared oil, were
adorned with the name of Christ among the Hebrews, but also the kings whom the
prophets anointed under the influence of the divine Spirit, and thus
constituted, as it were, typical Christs. For they also bore in their own
persons types of the royal and sovereign power of the true and only Christ,
the divine Word who ruleth over all.
And we have been told also that certain of the prophets themselves became,
by the act of anointing, Christs in type, so that all these have reference to
the true Christ, the divinely inspired and heavenly Word, who is the only high
priest of all, and the only King of every creature, and the Father's only
supreme prophet of prophets.
And a proof of this is that no one of those who were of old symbolically
anointed, whether priests, or kings, or prophets, possessed so great a power
of inspired virtue as was exhibited by our Saviour and Lord Jesus, the true
and only Christ.
None of them at least, however superior in dignity and honor they may
have been for many generations among their own people, ever gave to their
followers the name of Christians from their own typical name of Christ.
Neither was divine honor ever rendered to any one of them by their subjects;
nor after their death was the disposition of their followers such that they
were ready to die for the one whom they honored. And never did so great a
commotion arise among all the nations of the earth in respect to any one of
that age; for the mere symbol could not act with such power among them as the
truth itself which was exhibited by our Saviour.
He, although he received no symbols and types of high priesthood from any
one, although he was not born of a race of priests, although he was not
elevated to a kingdom by military guards, although he was not a prophet like
those of old, although he obtained no honor nor pre-eminence among the Jews,
nevertheless was adorned by the Father with all, if not with the symbols, yet
with the truth itself.
And therefore, although he did not possess like honors with those whom we
have mentioned, he is called Christ more than all of them. And as himself the
true and only Christ of God, he has filled the whole earth with the truly
august and sacred name of Christians, committing to his followers no longer
types and images, but the uncovered virtues themselves, and a heavenly life in
the very doctrines of truth.
And he was not anointed with oil prepared from material substances, but,
as befits divinity, with the divine Spirit himself, by participation in the
unbegotten deity of the Father. And this is taught also again by Isaiah, who
exclaims, as if in the person of Christ himself, "The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me; therefore hath he anointed me. He hath sent me to preach the Gospel
to the poor, to proclaim deliverance to captives, and recovery of sight to the
blind."
And not only Isaiah, but also David addresses him, saying, "Thy throne, O
God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of thy kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness and hast hated iniquity. Therefore God, thy God,
hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Here the
Scripture calls him God in the first verse, in the second it honors him with a
royal scepter.
Then a little farther on, after the divine and royal power, it
represents him in the third place as having become Christ, being anointed not
with oil made of material substances, but with the divine oil of gladness. It
thus indicates his especial honor, far superior to and different from that of
those who, as types, were of old anointed in a more material way.
And elsewhere the same writer speaks of him as follows: "The
Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies
thy footstool"; and, "Out of the womb, before the morning star, have I
begotten thee. The Lord hath sworn and he will not repent. Thou art a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedec."
But this Melchizedec is introduced in the Holy Scriptures as a priest of
the most high God, not consecrated by any anointing oil, especially
prepared, and not even belonging by descent to the priesthood of the Jews.
Wherefore after his order, but not after the order of the others, who received
symbols and types, was our Saviour proclaimed, with
an appeal to an oath, Christ and priest.
History, therefore, does not relate that he was anointed corporeally
by the Jews, nor
that he belonged to the lineage of priests, but that he came into existence
from God himself before the morning star, that is before the organization of
the world, and that he obtained an immortal and undecaying priesthood for
eternal ages.
But it is a great and convincing proof of his incorporeal and divine
unction that he alone of all those who have ever existed is even to the
present day called Christ by all men throughout the world, and is confessed
and witnessed to under this name, and is commemorated both by Greeks and
Barbarians and even to this day is honored as a King by his followers
throughout the world, and is admired as more than a prophet, and is glorified
as the true and only high priest of God. And besides all this, as the
pre-existent Word of God, called into being before all ages, he has received
august honor from the Father, and is worshiped as God.
But most wonderful of all is the fact that we who have consecrated
ourselves to him, honor him not only with our voices and with the sound of
words, but also with complete elevation of soul, so that we choose to give
testimony unto him rather than to preserve our own lives.
I have of necessity prefaced my history with these matters in order that
no one, judging from the date of his incarnation, may think that our Saviour
and Lord Jesus, the Christ, has but recently come into being.
But that no one may suppose that his doctrine is new and strange, as if it
were framed by a man of recent origin, differing in no respect from other men,
let us now briefly consider this point also.
It is admitted that when in recent times the appearance of our Saviour
Jesus Christ had become known to all men there immediately made its appearance
a new nation; a nation confessedly not small, and not dwelling in some corner
of the earth, but the most numerous and pious of all nations, indestructible and unconquerable, because it always receives assistance from
God. This nation, thus suddenly appearing at the time appointed by the
inscrutable counsel of God, is the one which has been honored by all with the
name of Christ.
One of the prophets, when he saw beforehand with the eye of the Divine
Spirit that which was to be, was so astonished at it that he cried out, "Who
hath heard of such things, and who hath spoken thus? Hath the earth brought
forth in one day, and hath a nation been born at once?" And the same
prophet gives a hint also of the name by which the nation was to be called,
when he says, "Those that serve me shall be called by a new name, which shall
be blessed upon the earth."
But although it is clear that we are new and that this new name of
Christians has really but recently been known among all nations, nevertheless
our life and our conduct, with our doctrines of religion, have not been lately
invented by us, but from the first creation of man, so to speak, have been
established by the natural understanding of divinely favored men of old. That
this is so we shall show in the following way.
That the Hebrew nation is not new, but is universally honored on account
of its antiquity, is known to all. The books and writings of this people
contain accounts of ancient men, rare indeed and few in number, but
nevertheless distinguished for piety and righteousness and every other virtue.
Of these, some excellent men lived before the flood, others of the sons and
descendants of Noah lived after it, among them Abraham, whom the Hebrews
celebrate as their own founder and forefather.
If any one should assert that all those who have enjoyed the testimony of
righteousness, from Abraham himself back to the first man, were Christians in
fact if not in name, he would not go beyond the truth.
For that which the name indicates, that the Christian man, through the
knowledge and the teaching of Christ, is distinguished for temperance and
righteousness, for patience in life and manly virtue, and for a profession of
piety toward the one and only God over allall that was zealously practiced
by them not less than by us.
They did not care about circumcision of the body, neither do we. They did
not care about observing Sabbaths, nor do we. They did not avoid certain kinds
of food, neither did they regard the other distinctions which Moses first
delivered to their posterity to be observed as symbols; nor do Christians of
the present day do such things. But they also clearly knew the very Christ of
God; for it has already been shown that he appeared unto Abraham, that he
imparted revelations to Isaac, that he talked with Jacob, that he held
converse with Moses and with the prophets that came after.
Hence you will find those divinely favored men honored with the name of
Christ, according to the passage which says of them, "Touch not my Christs,
and do my prophets no harm."
So that it is clearly necessary to consider that religion, which has
lately been preached to all nations through the teaching of Christ, the first
and most ancient of all religions, and the one discovered by those divinely
favored men in the age of Abraham.
If it is said that Abraham, a long time afterward, was given the command
of circumcision, we reply that nevertheless before this it was declared that
he had received the testimony of righteousness through faith; as the divine
word says, "Abraham believed in God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness."
And indeed unto Abraham, who was thus before his circumcision a justified
man, there was given by God, who revealed himself unto him, a prophecy in regard to those who in coming
ages should be justified in the same way as he. The prophecy was in the
following words: "And in thee shall all the tribes of the earth be
blessed." And again, "He shall become a nation great and numerous; and in
him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."
It is permissible to understand this as fulfilled in us. For he, having
renounced the superstition of his fathers, and the former error of his life,
and having confessed the one God over all, and having worshiped him with deeds
of virtue, and not with the service of the law which was afterward given by
Moses, was justified by faith in Christ, the Word of God, who appeared unto
him. To him, then, who was a man of this character, it was said that all the
tribes and all the nations of the earth should be blessed in him.
But that very religion of Abraham has reappeared at the present time,
practiced in deeds, more efficacious than words, by Christians alone
throughout the world.
What then should prevent the confession that we who are of Christ
practice one and the same mode of life and have one and the same religion as
those divinely favored men of old? Whence it is evident that the perfect
religion committed to us by the teaching of Christ is not new and strange,
but, if the truth must be spoken, it is the first and the true religion. This
may suffice for this subject.
And now, after this necessary introduction to our proposed history of the
Church, we can enter, so to speak, upon our journey, beginning with the
appearance of our Saviour in the flesh. And we invoke God, the Father of the
Word, and him, of whom we have been speaking, Jesus Christ himself our Saviour
and Lord, the heavenly Word of God, as our aid and fellow-laborer in the
narration of the truth.
It was in the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus
and the
twenty-eighth after the subjugation of Egypt and the death of Antony and
Cleopatra, with whom the dynasty of the Ptolemies in Egypt came to an end,
that our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ was born in
The above-mentioned author, in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, in
agreement with these words, adds the following, which we quote exactly:
"Cyrenius, a member of the senate, one who had held other offices and had l
passed through them all to the consulship, a man also of great dignity in
other respects, came to Syria with a small retinue, being sent by Cæsar
to be a judge of the nation and to make an assessment of their property."
And after a little he says: "But Judas, a Gaulonite, from a city
called Gamala, taking with him Sadduchus, a Pharisee, urged the people to
revolt, both of them saying that the taxation meant nothing else than
downright slavery, and exhorting the nation to defend their liberty."
And in the second book of his History of the Jewish War, he writes as
follows concerning the same man: "At this time a certain Galilean, whose name
was Judas, persuaded his countrymen to revolt, declaring that they were
cowards if they submitted to pay tribute to the Romans, and if they endured,
besides God, masters who were mortal." These things are recorded by
Josephus.
When
Herod, the first ruler of foreign blood, became King, the prophecy
of Moses received its fulfillment, according to which there should "not be
wanting a prince of Judah, nor a ruler from his loins, until he come for whom
it is reserved." The latter, he also shows, was to be the expectation of
the nations.
This prediction remained unfulfilled so long as it was permitted them to
live under rulers from their own nation, that is, from the time of Moses to
the reign of Augustus. Under the latter, Herod, the first foreigner, was given
the Kingdom of the Jews by the Romans. As Josephus relates, he was an
Idumean on his father's side and an Arabian on his mother's. But
Africanus, who was also no common writer, says that they who were more
accurately informed about him report that he was a son of Antipater, and that
the latter was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of the so-called
servants of the temple of Apollo.
This Antipater, having been taken a prisoner while a boy by Idumean
robbers, lived with them, because his father, being a poor man, was unable to
pay a ransom for him. Growing up in their practices he was afterward
befriended by Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews. A son of his was that
Herod who lived in the times of our Saviour.
When the Kingdom of the Jews had devolved upon such a man the expectation
of the nations was, according to prophecy, already at the door. For with him
their princes and governors, who had ruled in regular succession from the time
of Moses came to an end.
Before their captivity and their transportation to Babylon they were ruled
by Saul first and then by David, and before the kings leaders governed them
who were called Judges, and who came after Moses and his successor
Jesus.
After their return from Babylon they continued to have without
interruption an aristocratic form of government, with an oligarchy. For the
priests had the direction of affairs until Pompey, the Roman general, took
Jerusalem by force, and defiled the holy places by entering the very innermost
sanctuary of the temple. Aristobulus, who, by the right of ancient
succession, had been up to that time both king and high priest, he sent with
his children in chains to Rome; and gave to Hyrcanus, brother of Aristobulus,
the high priesthood, while the whole nation of the Jews was made tributary to
the Romans from that time.
But Hyrcanus, who was the last of the regular line of high priests, was,
very soon afterward taken prisoner by the Parthians, and Herod, the first
foreigner, as I have already said, was made King of the Jewish nation by the
Roman senate and by Augustus.
Under him Christ appeared in bodily shape, and the expected Salvation of
the nations and their calling followed in accordance with prophecy. From
this time the princes and rulers of Judah, I mean of the Jewish nation, came
to an end, and as a natural consequence the order of the high priesthood,
which from ancient times had proceeded regularly in closest succession from
generation to generation, was immediately thrown into confusion,
Of these things Josephus is also a witness, who shows that when Herod
was made King by the Romans he no longer appointed the high priests from the
ancient line, but gave the honor to certain obscure persons. A course similar
to that of Herod in the appointment of the priests was pursued by his son
Archelaus, and after him by the Romans, who took the government into their
own hands.
The same writer shows that Herod was the first that locked up the
sacred garment of the high priest under his own seal and refused to permit
the high priests to keep it for themselves. The same course was followed by
Archelaus after him, and after Archelaus by the Romans.
These things have been recorded by us in order to show that another
prophecy has been fulfilled in the appearance of our Saviour Jesus Christ. For
the Scripture, in the book of Daniel, having expressly mentioned a certain
number of weeks until the coming of Christ, of which we have treated in other
books, most clearly prophesies, that after the completion of those weeks
the unction among the Jews should totally perish. And this, it has been
clearly shown, was fulfilled at the time of the birth of our Saviour Jesus
Christ. This has been necessarily premised by us as a proof
of the correctness of the time.
Matthew and Luke in their gospels have given us the
genealogy of Christ differently, and many suppose that they are at variance with one another.
Since as a consequence every believer, in ignorance of the truth, has been
zealous to invent some explanation which shall harmonize the two passages,
permit us to subjoin the account of the matter which has come down to us, and which is given by Africanus, who was mentioned by us just above, in his epistle to Aristides, where he discusses the harmony of the gospel
genealogies. After refuting the opinions of others as forced and deceptive, he
gives the account which he had received from tradition in these words:
"For whereas the names of the generations were reckoned in Israel either
according to nature or according to lawaccording to nature by the
succession of legitimate offspring, and according to law whenever another
raised up a child to the name of a brother dying childless; for because a
clear hope of resurrection was not yet given they had a representation of the
future promise by a kind of mortal resurrection, in order that the name of the
one deceased might be perpetuatedwhereas then some of those who are inserted in this genealogical table
succeeded by natural descent, the son to the father, while others, though born
of one father, were ascribed by name to another, mention was made of both of
those who were progenitors in fact and of those who were so only in name.
Thus neither of the gospels is in error, for one reckons by nature, the
other by law. For the line of descent from Solomon and that from Nathan were so involved, the one with the other, by the raising up of children to the
childless and by second marriages, that the same persons are justly considered
to belong at one time to one, at another time to another; that is, at one time
to the reputed fathers, at another to the actual fathers. So that both these
accounts are strictly true and come down to Joseph with considerable intricacy
indeed, yet quite accurately.
But in order that what I have said may be made clear I shall explain the
interchange of the generations. If we reckon the generations from David
through Solomon, the third from the end is found to be Matthan, who begat
Jacob the father of Joseph. But if, with Luke, we reckon them from Nathan the
son of David, in like manner the third from the end is Melchi, whose son
Eli was the father of Joseph. For Joseph was the son of Eli,the son of Melchi.
Joseph therefore being the object proposed to us, it must be shown how it
is that each is recorded to be his father, both Jacob, who derived his descent
from Solomon, and Eli, who derived his from Nathan; first how it is that these
two, Jacob and Eli, were brothers, and then how it is that their fathers,
Matthan and Melchi, although of different families, are declared to be
grandfathers of Joseph.
Matthan and Melchi having married in succession the same woman, begat
children who were uterine brothers, for the law did not prohibit a widow,
whether such by divorce or by the death of her husband, from marrying another.
By Estha then Matthan, a descendant of Solomon, first begat Jacob. And when Matthan was dead, Melchi, who traced his descent back to Nathan,
being of the same tribe but of another family, married her as before
said, and begat a son Eli.
Thus we shall find the two, Jacob and Eli, although belonging to different
families, yet brethren by the same mother. Of these the one, Jacob, when his
brother Eli had died childless, took the latter's wife and begat by her a son
to Joseph, his own son by nature n and in accordance with reason. Wherefore
also it is written: 'Jacob begat Joseph.' But according to law he was
the son of Eli, for Jacob, being the brother of the latter, raised up seed to
him.
Hence the genealogy traced through him will not be rendered void, which
the evangelist Matthew in his enumeration gives thus: 'Jacob begat Joseph.'
But Luke, on the other hand, says: 'Who was the son, as was supposed', 'of Joseph, the son of Eli, the son of Melchi'; for he
could not more clearly express the generation according to law. And the
expression 'he begat' he has omitted in his genealogical table up to the end,
tracing the genealogy back to Adam the son of God. This interpretation is
neither incapable of proof nor is it an idle conjecture.
For the relatives of our Lord according to the flesh, whether with the
desire of boasting or simply wishing to state the fact, in either case truly,
have banded down the following account: Some Idumean robbers, having
attacked Ascalon, a city of Palestine, carried away from a temple of Apollo
which stood near the walls, in addition to other booty, Antipater, son of a
certain temple slave named Herod. And since the priest was not able to pay
the ransom for his son, Antipater was brought up in the customs of the
Idumeans, and afterward was befriended by Hyrcanus, the high priest of the
Jews.
And having, been sent by Hyrcanus on an embassy to Pompey, and having
restored to
him the kingdom which had been invaded by his brother Aristobulus, he had the
good fortune to be named procurator of Palestine. But Antipater having
been slain by those who were envious of his great good fortune was
succeeded by his son Herod, who was afterward, by a decree of the senate, made
King of the Jews under Antony and Augustus. His sons were Herod and the
other tetrarchs. These accounts agree also with those of the Greeks.
But as there had been kept in the archives up to that time the
genealogies of the Hebrews as well as of those who traced their lineage back
to proselytes, such as Achior the Ammonite and Ruth the Moabitess,
and to those who were mingled with the Israelites and came out of Egypt with
them, Herod, inasmuch as the lineage of the Israelites contributed nothing to
his advantage, and since he was goaded with the consciousness of his own
ignoble extraction, burned all the genealogical records, thinking that he
might appear of noble origin if no one else were able, from the public
registers, to trace back his lineage to the patriarchs or proselytes and to
those mingled with them, who were called Georae.
A few of the careful, however, having obtained private records of their
own, either by remembering the names or by getting them in some other way from
the registers, pride themselves on preserving the memory of their noble
extraction. Among these are those already mentioned, called Desposyni, on
account of their connection with the family of the Saviour. Coming from Nazara
and Cochaba, villages of Judea, into other parts of the world, they
drew the aforesaid genealogy from memory and from the book of daily
records as faithfully as possible.
Whether then the case stand thus or not no one could find a clearer
explanation, according to my own opinion and that of every candid person. And
let this suffice us,
for, although we can urge no testimony in its support, we have nothing.
better or truer to offer. In any case the Gospel states the truth." And at the
end of the same epistle he adds these words: "Matthan, who was descended from
Solomon, begat Jacob. And when Matthan was dead, Melchi, who was descended
from Nathan begat Eli by the same woman. Eli and Jacob were thus uterine
brothers. Eli having died childless, Jacob raised up seed to him, begetting
Joseph, his own son by nature, but by law the son of Eli. Thus Joseph was the
son of both."
Thus far Africanus. And the lineage of Joseph being thus traced, Mary
also is virtually shown to be of the same tribe with him, since, according to
the law of Moses, inter-marriages between different tribes were not
permitted. For the command is to marry one of the same family and
lineage, so that the inheritance may not pass from tribe to tribe. This
may suffice here.
When Christ was born, according to the prophecies, in
Bethlehem of Judea at the time indicated, Herod was not a little disturbed by the enquiry of the
magi who came from the east, asking where he who was born King of the Jews was
to be foundfor they had seen his star, and this was their reason for taking
so long a journey; for they earnestly desired to worship the infant as
God, for he imagined that his kingdom might be endangered; and he
enquired therefore of the doctors of the law, who belonged to the Jewish
nation, where they expected Christ to be born. When he learned that the
prophecy of Micah announced that Bethlehem was to be his birthplace he
commanded, in a single edict, all the male infants in Bethlehem, and all its
borders, that were two years of age or less, according to the time which he
had accurately ascertained from the magi, to be slain, supposing that Jesus,
as was indeed likely, would share the same fate as the others of his own age.
But the child anticipated the snare, being carried into Egypt by his
parents, who had learned from an angel that appeared unto them what was about
to happen, These things are recorded by the Holy Scriptures in the Gospel.
It is worth while, in addition to this, to observe the reward which Herod
received for his daring crime against Christ and those of the same age. For
immediately, without the least delay, the divine vengeance overtook him while
he was still alive, and gave him a foretaste of what he was to receive after
death.
It is not possible to relate here how he tarnished the supposed felicity
of his reign by successive calamities in his family, by the murder of wife and
children, and others of his nearest relatives and dearest friends. The
account, which casts every other tragic drama into the shade, is detailed at
length in the histories of Josephus. How, immediately after his crime
against our Saviour and the other infants, the punishment sent by God drove
him on to his death, we can best learn from the words of that historian who,
in the seventeenth book of his Antiquities of the Jews, writes as follows
concerning his end: "But the disease of Herod grew more severe, God inflicting punishment for
his crimes. For a slow fire burned in him which was not so apparent to those
who touched him, but augmented his internal distress; for he had a terrible
desire for food which it was not possible to resist. He was affected also with
ulceration of the intestines, and with especially severe pains in the colon,
while a watery and transparent humor settled about his feet.
He suffered also from a similar trouble in his abdomen. Nay more, his
privy member was putrefied and produced worms. He found also excessive
difficulty in breathing, and it was particularly disagreeable because of the
offensiveness of the odor and the rapidity of respiration.
He had convulsions also in every limb, which gave him uncontrollable
strength. It was said, indeed, by those who possessed the power of divination
and wisdom to explain such events, that God had inflicted this punishment upon
the King on account of his great impiety.
The writer mentioned above recounts these things in the work referred to.
And in the second book of his History he gives a similar account of the same
Herod, which runs as follows: "The disease then seized upon his whole body
and distracted it by various torments. For he had a slow fever, and the
itching of the skin of his whole body was insupportable. He suffered also from
continuous pains in his colon, and there were swellings on his feet like those
of a person suffering from dropsy, while his abdomen was inflamed and his
privy member so putrefied as to produce worms. Besides this he could breathe
only in an upright posture, and then only with difficulty, and he had
convulsions in all his limbs, so that the diviners said that his diseases were
a punishment. But he, although wrestling with such sufferings,
nevertheless clung to life and hoped for safety, and devised methods of cure.
For instance, crossing over Jordan he used the warm baths at Callirho, which flow into the Lake Asphaltites, but are themselves sweet enough to drink.
His physicians here thought that they could warm his whole body again by
means of heated oil. But when they had let him down into a tub filled with
oil, his eyes became weak and turned up like the eyes of a dead person. But
when his attendants raised an outcry, he recovered at the noise; but finally,
despairing of a cure, he commanded about fifty drachms to be distributed among
the soldiers, and great sums to be given to his generals and friends.
Then returning he came to Jericho, where, being seized with melancholy,
he planned to commit an impious deed, as if challenging death itself. For,
collecting from every town the most illustrious men of all Judea, he commanded
that they be shut up in the so-called hippodrome. And having summoned
Salome, his sister, and her husband, Alexander, he said: 'I know that
the Jews will rejoice at my death. But I may be lamented by others and have a
splendid funeral if you are willing to perform my commands. When I shall
expire surround these men, who are now under guard, as quickly as possible
with soldiers, and slay them, in order that all Judea and every house may weep
for me even against their will.'" And after a little Josephus says,
"And again he was so tortured by want of food and by a convulsive cough
that, overcome by his pains, he planned to anticipate his fate. Taking an
apple he asked also for a knife, for he was accustomed to cut apples and eat
them. Then looking round to see that there was no one to hinder, he raised his
right hand as if to stab himself."
In addition to these things the same writer records that he slew another
of his own sons before his death, the third one slain by his command, and
that immediately afterward he breathed his last, not without excessive pain.
Such was the end of Herod, who suffered a just punishment for his
slaughter of the children of Bethlehem, which was the result of his plots
against our Saviour.
After this an angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and commanded
him to go to Judea with the child and its mother, revealing to him that those
who had sought the life of the child were dead. To this the evangelist
adds, "But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in the room of his father
Herod he was afraid to go thither; notwithstanding being warned of God in a
dream he turned aside into the parts of Galilee."
The historian already mentioned agrees with the evangelist in regard to the
fact that Archelaus succeeded to the government after Herod. He records the
manner in which he received the kingdom of the Jews by the will of his father
Herod and by the decree of Cæsar Augustus, and how, after he had reigned ten
years, he lost his kingdom, and his brothers Philip and Herod the
younger, with Lysanias, still ruled their own tetrarchies. The same
writer, in the eighteenth book of his Antiquities, says that about the
twelfth year of the reign of Tiberius, who had succeeded to the empire
after Augustus had ruled fifty-seven years, Pontius Pilate was entrusted
with the government of Judea, and that he remained there ten full years,
almost until the death of Tiberius.
Accordingly the forgery of those who have recently given currency to acts
against our Saviour is clearly proved. For the very date given in them
shows the falsehood of their fabricators.
For the things which they have dared to say concerning the passion of the
Saviour are put into the fourth consulship of Tiberius, which occurred in the
seventh year of his reign; at which time it is plain that Pilate was not yet
ruling in Judea, if the testimony of Josephus is to be believed, who clearly
shows in the above-mentioned work that Pilate was made procurator of Judea
by Tiberius in the twelfth year of his reign.
It was in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, according to the
evangelist, and in the fourth year of the governorship of Pontius Pilate, while Herod and Lysanias and Philip were ruling the rest of Judea, that our
Saviour and Lord, Jesus the Christ of God, being about thirty years of age, came to John for baptism and began the promulgation of the Gospel.
The Divine Scripture says, moreover, that he passed the entire time of his
ministry under the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, showing that in the
time which
belonged to the priesthood of those two men the whole period of his teaching was
completed. Since he began his work during the high priesthood of Annas and
taught until Caiaphas held the office, the entire time does not comprise quite
four years.
For the rites of the law having been already abolished since that time,
the customary usages in connection with the worship of God, according to which
the high priest acquired his office by hereditary descent and held it for
life, were also annulled and there were appointed to the high priesthood by
the Roman governors now one and now another person who continued in office not
more than one year.
Josephus relates that there were four high priests in succession from
Annas to Caiaphas. Thus in the same book of the Antiquities he writes as
follows: "Valerius Graters having put an end to the priesthood of Ananus appoints Ishmael, the son of Fabi, high priest. And having removed him
after a little he appoints Eleazer, the son of Ananus the high priest, to
the same office. And having removed him also at the end of a year he gives the
high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus. But he likewise held the
honor no more than a year, when Josephus, called also Caiaphas, succeeded
him." Accordingly the whole time of our Saviour's ministry is shown to have
been not quite four full years, four high priests, from Annas to the accession
of Caiaphas, having held office a year each. The Gospel therefore has rightly
indicated Caiaphas as the high priest under whom the Saviour suffered. From
which also we can see that the time of our Saviour's ministry does not
disagree with the foregoing investigation.
Our Saviour and Lord, not long after the beginning of his ministry,
called the twelve apostles, and these alone of all his disciples he named
apostles, as an especial honor. And again he appointed seventy others whom he
sent out two by two before his face into every place and city whither he
himself was about to come.
Not long after this John the Baptist was beheaded by the younger Herod, as is stated in the Gospels. Josephus also records the same fact, making
mention of Herodias by name, and stating that, although she was the wife
of his brother, Herod made her his own wife after divorcing his former lawful
wife, who was the daughter of Aretas, king of Petra, and separating
Herodias from her husband while he was still alive.
It was on her account also that he slew John, and waged war with Aretas,
because of the disgrace inflicted on the daughter of the latter. Josephus
relates that in this war, when they came to battle, Herod's entire army was
destroyed, and that he suffered this calamity on account of his crime
against John.
The same Josephus confesses in this account that John the Baptist was an
exceedingly righteous man, and thus agrees with the things written of him in
the Gospels. He records also that Herod lost his kingdom on account of
the same Herodias, and that he was driven into banishment with her, and
condemned to live at Vienne in Gaul.
He relates these things in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, where
he writes of John in the following words: "It seemed to some of the Jews
that the army of Herod was destroyed by God, who most justly avenged John
called the Baptist.
For Herod slew him, a good man and one who exhorted the Jews to come and
receive baptism, practicing virtue and exercising righteousness toward each
other and toward God; for baptism would appear acceptable unto Him when they
employed it, not for the remission of certain sins, but for the purification
of the body, as the soul had been already purified in righteousness.
And when others gathered about him, Herod feared that his great influence might lead to
some sedition, for they appeared ready to do whatever he might advise. He
therefore considered it much better, before any new thing should be done under
John's influence, to anticipate it by slaying him, than to repent after
revolution had come, and when he found himself in the midst of
difficulties. On account of Herod's suspicion John was sent in bonds to the
above-mentioned citadel of Mach'ra, and there slain."
After relating these things concerning John, he makes mention of our
Saviour in the same work, in the following words: "And there lived at that
time Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it be proper to call him a man. For he was a
doer of wonderful works, and a teacher of such men as receive the truth in
gladness. And he attached to himself many of the Jews, and many also of the
Greeks. He was the Christ.
When Pilate, on the accusation of our principal men, condemned him to the
cross, those who had loved him in the beginning did not cease loving him. For
he appeared unto them again alive on the third day, the divine prophets having
told these and countless other wonderful things concerning him. Moreover, the
race of Christians, named after him, continues down to the present day."
Since an historian, who is one of the Hebrews themselves, has recorded in
his work these things concerning John the Baptist and our Saviour, what excuse
is there left for not convicting them of being destitute of all shame, who
have forged the acts against them? But let this suffice here.
The names of the apostles of our Saviour are known to every one from the
Gospels. But there exists no catalogue of the seventy disciples. Barnabas, indeed, is said to have been one of them, of whom the Acts of the apostles makes mention in various places, and especially Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians.
They say that Sosthenes also, who wrote to the Corinthians with Paul, was
one of them. This is the account of Clement in the fifth book of his
Hypotyposes, in which he also says that Cephas was one of the seventy
disciples, a man who bore the same name as the apostle Peter, and the one
concerning whom Paul says, "When Cephas came to Antioch I withstood him to his
face."
Matthias, also, who was numbered with the apostles in the place of
Judas, and the one who was honored by being made a candidate with him, are
like-wise said to have been deemed worthy of the same calling with the
seventy. They say that Thaddeus also was one of them, concerning whom I
shall presently relate an account which has come down to us. And upon
examination you will find that our Saviour had more than seventy disciples,
according to the testimony of Paul, who says that after his resurrection from
the dead he appeared first to Cephas, then to the twelve, and after them to
above five hundred brethren at once, of whom some had fallen asleep; but
the majority were still living at the time he wrote.
Afterwards he says he appeared unto James, who was one of the so-called
brethren of the Saviour. But, since in addition to these, there were many
others who were called apostles, in imitation of the Twelve, as was Paul
himself, he adds: "Afterward he appeared to all the apostles." So much in
regard to these persons. But the story concerning Thaddeus is as follows.
The divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ being noised abroad
among all men on account of his wonder-working power, he attracted countless
numbers from foreign countries lying far away from Judea, who had the opening
of being cured of their diseases and of all kinds of sufferings.
For instance the King Abgarus who ruled with great glory the nations beyond the Euphrates, being afflicted with a terrible disease which it was beyond the power of human skill to cure, when he heard of
the name of Jesus, and of his miracles, which were attested by all with one
accord sent a message to him by a courier and begged him to heal his disease.
But he did not at that time comply with his request; yet he deemed him
worthy of a personal letter in which he said that he would send one of his
disciples to cure his disease, and at the same time promised salvation to
himself and all his house.
Not long afterward his promise was fulfilled. For after his resurrection
from the dead and his ascent into heaven, Thomas, one of the twelve
apostles, under divine impulse sent Thaddeus, who was also numbered among the
seventy disciples of Christ, to Edessa, as a preacher and evangelist of
the teaching of Christ.
And all that our Saviour had promised received through him its
fulfillment. You have written evidence of these things taken from the archives
of Edessa, which was at that time a royal city. For in the public registers
there, which contain accounts of ancient times and the acts of Abgarus, these
things have been found preserved down to the present time. But there is no
better way than to hear the epistles themselves which we have taken from the
archives and have literally translated from the Syriac language in the
following manner. Copy of an epistle written by Abgarus the ruler to Jesus,
tend sent to him at Jerusalem by Ananias the swift courier.
"Abgarus, ruler Of Edessa, to Jesus the excellent Saviour who has
appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting. I have heard the reports of
thee and of thy cures as performed by thee without medicines or herbs. For it
is said that thou makest the blind to see and the lame to walk, that thou
cleansest lepers and castest out impure spirits and demons, and that thou
healest those afflicted with lingering disease, and raisest the dead.
And having heard all these things concerning thee, I have concluded that
one of two things must be true: either thou art God, and having come down from
heaven thou doest these things, or else thou, who doest these things, art the
Son of God.
I have therefore written to thee to ask thee that thou wouldest take the
trouble to come to me and heal the disease which I have. For I have heard that
the Jews are murmuring against thee and are plotting to injure thee. But I
have a very small yet noble city which is great enough for us both."
The answer of Jesus to the ruler Abgarus by the
courier Ananias.
"Blessed art thou who hast believed in me without having seen me. For it
is written concerning me, that they who have seen me will not believe in me,
and that they who have not seen me will believe and be saved. But in
regard to what thou hast written me, that I should come to thee, it is
necessary for me to fulfill all things here for which I have been sent, and
after I have fulfilled them thus to be taken up again to him that sent me. But
after I have been taken up I will send to thee one of my disciples, that he
may heal thy disease and give life to thee and thine."
To these epistles there was added the following account in the Syriac
language. "After the ascension of Jesus, Judas, who was also called
Thomas, sent to him Thaddeus, an apostle, one of the Seventy. When he was
come he lodged with Tobias, the son of Tobias. When the report of him got
abroad, it was told Abgarus that an apostle of Jesus was come, as he had
written him.
Thaddeus began then in the power of God to heal every disease and
infirmity, insomuch that all wondered. And when Abgarus heard of the great and
wonderful things which he did and of the cures which he performed, he began to
suspect that he was the one of whom Jesus had written him, saying, 'After I
have been taken up I will send to thee one of my disciples who will heal
thee.'
Therefore, summoning Tobias, with whom Thaddeus lodged, he said, I have
heard that a certain man of power has come and is lodging in thy house. Bring
him to me. And Tobias coming to Thaddeus said to him, The ruler Abgarus
summoned me and told me to bring thee to him that thou mightest heal him. And
Thaddeus said, I will go, for I have been sent to him with power.
Tobias therefore arose early on the following day, and taking Thaddeus
came to Abgarus. And when he came, the nobles were present and stood about
Abgarus. And immediately upon his entrance a great vision appeared to Abgarus
in the countenance of the apostle Thaddeus. When Abgarus saw it he prostrated
himself before Thaddeus, while all those who stood about were astonished; for
they did not see the vision, which appeared to Abgarus alone.
He then asked Thaddeus if he were in truth a disciple of Jesus the Son
of God, who had said to him, 'I will send thee one of my disciples, who shall
heal thee and give thee life.' And Thaddeus said, Because thou hast mightily
believed in him that sent me, therefore have I 'been sent unto thee. And still
further, if thou believest in him, the petitions of thy heart shall be granted
thee as thou believest.
And Abgarus said to him, So much have I believed in him that I wished
to take an army and destroy those Jews who crucified him, had I not been
deterred from it by reason of the dominion of the Romans. And Thaddeus said,
Our Lord has fulfilled the will of his Father, and having fulfilled it has
been taken up to his Father. And Abgarus said to him, I too have believed in
him and in his Father.
And Thaddeus said to him, Therefore I place my hand upon thee in his
name. And when he had done it, immediately Abgarus was cured of the disease
and of the suffering which he had.
And Abgarus marvelled, that as he had heard concerning Jesus, so he had
received in very deed through his disciple Thaddeus, who healed him without
medicines and herbs, and not only him, but also Abdus the son of Abdus,
who was afflicted with the gout; for he too came to him and fell at his feet,
and having received a benediction by the imposition of his hands, he was
healed. The same Thaddeus cured also many other inhabitants of the city, and
did wonders and marvelous works, and preached
the word of God. And afterward Abgarus said, Thou, O Thaddeus, doest these
things with the power of God, and we marvel. But, in addition to these things,
I pray thee to inform me in regard to the coming of Jesus, how he was born;
and in regard to his power, by what power he performed those deeds of which I
have heard.
And Thaddeus said, Now indeed will I keep silence, since I have
been sent to proclaim the word publicly. But tomorrow assemble for me all thy
citizens, and I will preach in their presence and sow among them the word of
God, concerning the coming of Jesus, how he was born; and concerning his
mission, for what purpose he was sent by the Father; and concerning the power
of his works, and the mysteries which he proclaimed in the world, and by what
power he did these things; and concerning his new preaching, and his abasement
and humiliation, and how he humbled himself, and died and debased his divinity
and was crucified, and descended into Hades, and burst the bars which from
eternity had not been broken, and raised the dead; for he descended alone,
but rose with many, and thus ascended to his Father.
Abgarus therefore commanded the citizens to assemble early in the
morning to hear the preaching of Thaddeus, and afterward he ordered gold and
silver to be given him. But he refused to take it, saying, If we have forsaken
that which was our own, how shall we take that which is another's? These
things were done in the three hundred and fortieth year."
I have inserted them here in their proper place, translated from the
Syriac literally, and I hope to good purpose.
Issue Oriented Discussion Newsletter
Index | Search This Site | Aristide.Org | The Latter Rain | Babylon the Great | The Kingdom | The Nicolaitans | Jezebel
The Plan of the Work
Summary View of the Pre-existence and Divinity of Our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ
The Name Jesus and also the Name Christ were known from the Beginning, and were honored by the Inspired Prophets
The Religion proclaimed by him to All Nations was neither New nor Strange
The Time of his Appearance among Men
About the Time of Christ, in accordance with Prophecy, the Rulers who had governed the Jewish Nation in Regular Succession from the Days of Antiquity came to an End, and Herod, the First Foreigner, became King
The Alleged Discrepancy in the Gospels in regard to the Genealogy of Christ
The Cruelty of Herod toward the Infants, and the Manner of his Death
The Times of Pilate
The High Priests of the Jews under whom Christ taught
Testimonies in Regard to John the Baptist and Christ
The Disciples of our Saviour
Narrative concerning the Prince of the Edessences
As One Body
Help To Prepare A Holy Bride!
The Baptism With the Holy Ghost | The Grand Delusion | World Trade Org | Liberation Theology | Jay Atkinson | Alphabetical Index