Historia Ecclesiastica

VII. it is also worthy of notice that tradition relates that that same pilate, he οf the Saviour's time, in the days of Caius, whose Ρeriοd we have described, fell into such great calamity that he was forced to become his own slayer and to punish himself with his οwn hand, for the Ρenalty of God, as it seems,

VIII. caius had not completed four years οf sovereignty when Clauffius suceeeded him as Emperor.2 In his time famine seized the world (and this also writers 3 with a purpose quite other than ours have reeorded in their histories), and so what the prophet Αgabus had foretold, aceorffing to the Acts οf the Apostles, that a famine would be over the whole wold, received fuffihnent. Luke in the Αcts describes the famine in the time οf clauffius and narrates how the Chrirtians at Antioch sent to those in Judaea, eaeh accorffidlng to his ability, by Ρaul and Barnabas, and he goes οn to say,

(IX.) “ Νοw at that ” — obviously that οf Claudius, — “ Ηerοd the king put forth his hand to vex certain οf the church and killed James the brother of John with the ” Concerning this James, clement adds in the seventh book οf the Hypotyposes a story worth mentioning, apparently from the tradition of his predecessors, to the effect that he who brought him to the court was so moved at seeing him testify as to eonfess that he also was himself a Christian. “ so they Were both led away ” he says, “ and on the way he asked for forgivensess for himself from James. Αnd James looked at him for a moment and said, ‘ Ρeace be to ’ and kissed him. so both were beheaded at the same time.”

Αt that time, as the divinde scripture says, Herod, Seeing that his action in the murder of Jame had given pleasure to the Jews, turned to Ρeter also, put him in prison, and would have perpetrated his murder alsO had it not been for Divine intervention at the last moment, for an angel appeared to him by night and he Was miraculously released from lris bonds and set free for the ministry of preaching. such Was the dispensation of heaven for Peter.

X. Αs the king's attempt on the Apostles there was no more delay, but the avenging minister of the sentenee Of God OvertoOk him at once, immediatedly after his plot against the Apostles, as the Scripture relates in the Acts. Ηe had gone to Caesarea, and there on the set day of the feast,1 adorned with splendid and royal robes, he addressed the standing on high before his judgement-seat. The whole people applauded his address, as though at the voice Of a god and not of a man, and tbe story 2 relates that an angel of the Lord smote him at once, and he was eaten of worms and expired. Ιt is worthy or wonder how in this marvel also the narrative of Josephus agrees with the diVine seripture. He clearly testffies to the truth in the nineteenth book or the Antiquities where the wonder in related in the following words: “ Now the third year of his reign over ah Judaea had been ffirished when he came to the eity of Caesarea, wbiCh was formerly called the

But after a little looking up he saw an angel seated above hiS head.1 ThiS he at once Ρerceived to be the harbinger of evil, as it had formerly been of good ; 1 he had in his hiS heart, and agony rapidly beginning Spread increasingly through hiS stomach. So he looked up to hiS friendS and said, ἴ’ I, Who am your god, am now commanded to give up my life, for fate has immediately reproved the lying wordS just urtered about me. I, whom you called im- mortal, am now being taken off to ffie. Fate muSt be accepted aS Ood haS willed, yet I have

XI. Since Luke in the Αcts introduceS Gamaliel as saying at the inquiry about the Apostles that at the time indicated Theudas aroSe, saying that he WaS Somebody, and that he was destroyed and all who [*](1 This would be Α.D. 44, which ifts in well with all the οther data, except the faet that there are eoins of Agrippa referring to his eighth and ninth years; they are usually thought to be spurious, but the point is obscure.)

After this he mentions mentions as follOWs the famine Whieh took Ρlace in the time of Claudius:

XII. “ Αt the Same time it happened that the great famine tOOk plaee in Judaea, in Whieh Queen Ηelena bought corn from Egypt at great expense and distributed it to those who were in ” You would find that this too agrees ẁ̀ith the writing of the Acts οf the Αpostles, whieh reeords hoW the disciples in Αntioch, each aceording to his several ability, deter- mined to send to the relier of the dwellers in Judaea, which they did, sending it to the eldem by the hand of Barnabas and Ρaul. Splendid monuments of the Ηelena whom the historian has COmmemOrated are Theudas eannot really have been rererred to by Gamaliel, who was speaking many years before the time of Fadus. Μοst modern writers on Αcts think that nevertheless the Helena whom the historian has commemorated are

XIII. Seeing that the faith in our sariour and Lord Jesus Christ was already being given to all men, the enemy of men's salvation planned to capture rile capital in advanee, and sent there simon, who was mentioned above, and by aiding the ’s trieky soreery won over to error many Of the inhabitants of Rome. This is told by Jurtin, Who was an ornament of our farth not Ιong after the Apostles, and I will set out the necessary infoimation about him in due eourse. Ιn his first Apology to Antoninus for our opinions he writes as follows: “ Αnd after the ascensiOn of the Lord intO heaven the demOns Ρut forward men Vho said that they were gOds, and they not only escaped perseeution by you but were eVen Vouehsafed honours. There Was a certain simon, a Samaritan, from a Village callcd Gittho, vho in the time of Claudius Caesar worked miracles by magie through the art of the demOns possessing him ;he Was reekoned as a god in Rome, your capital city, and honoured as a god among you by a statue οn the river Tiber between the two bridges, with this inscription in Latin — SIMONI DEO SANCTO, 2” that is to Simon a holy god. “ and almost all Samaritans and a few in other nations a well, recognize him as the chief god and worship him, and [*](1 The name given to Jerusalem by Hadrian.) [*](2 Ιn 1574 a sLatue was found on the island of St. sebast to which Justin probably referred. Unfortunately for him it bears the inscription SEMONI SANCO DEO, that is to say, TO THE GOD SEMO SANCUS, thus explaining but not confirming Justin's improbable story. Some sancus was an οld sabine deity, not a Samaritan sorcerer.)

This is what Justin says, and Irenaeus agrees with him in the first book against heresies where he collects the stories about Simon and his unholy and foul teaching. It would be superfluous to relate this in the present work since those who desire it can study in detail the origin and life and the false doctrinal principles of the heresiarchs who followed him and the customs introduced by them all, for they are carefully preserved in the above-mentioned book of Irenaeus. Thus we have received the tradition that Simon was the first author of all heresy. From him, and down to the present time, those who have followed, feigning the Christian philosophy, with its sobriety and universal fame for purity of life, have in no way improved on the idolatrous superstition from which they thought to be set free, for they prostrate themselves before pictures and images of Simon himself and of Helena, who was mentioned with him, and undertake to worship them with incense and sacrifices and libations. Their more secret rites, at which they say that he who first hears them will be astonished, and according to a scripture current among them will be “ thrown into marvel,” truly are full of marvel and frenzy and madness ; for they are of such a kind that they not merely

XIV. of such evil was Simon the father and fabricator, and the Evil Power, which hates that which is good and plots against the salvation of men, raised him up at that time as a great antagonist for the great and inspired Apostles of our Saviour. Nevertheless the grace of God which is from heaven helped its ministers and quickly extinguished the flames of the Evil One by their advent and presence, and through them humbled and cast down “ every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.” Wherefore no conspiracy, either of Simon, or of any other of those who arose at that time, succeeded in those Apostolic days ; for the light of the truth and the divine Logos himelf, which had shone from God upon men by growing up on the earth and dwelling among his own Apostles, was overcoming all things in the might of victory. The aforesaid sorcerer, as though the eyes of his mind had been smitten by the marvellous effulgence of God when he had formerly been detected in his crimes in Judaea by the Apostle Peter, at once undertook a great journey across the sea, and went off in flight from east to west, thinking that only in this way could he live as he wished. He came to the city of the Romans,

XV. Thus when the divine word made its home among them the power of Simon was extinguished and perished immediately. together with the fellow himself.

But a great light of religion shone on the minds of the hearers of Peter, so that they were not satisfied with a single hearing or with the unwritten teaching of the divine proclamation, but with every kind of exhortation besought Mark, whose Gospel is extant, seeing that he was Ρeter’s follower, to leave them a written statement of the teaching given them verbally, nor did they cease until they had persuaded him, and so became the cause of the Scripture called the Gospel according to Mark. And they say that the Apostle, knowing by the revelation of the spirit to him what had been done, was pleased at their

XVI. They Say that this Μark was the first to be sent to preach in Egypt the Gospel which he had also put into writing, and was the first to establish churches in Alexandria itself. The number of men and women who were there converted at the first attempt was so great, and their asceticism was so extraordinarily philosophic, that Philo thought it right to describe their conduct and assemblies and meals and all the rest of their manner of life.

XVII. Tradition says that he came to Rome in the time of Claudius to speak to Peter, who was at that time preaching to those there. This would, indeed, be not improbable since the treatise to which we refer, composed by him many years later, obviously contains the rules of the Church which are still observed in our own time. Moreover, from his very accurate description of the life of our ascetics it will be plain that he not only knew but welcomed, reverenced, and recognized the divine mission of the apostolic men of his day, who were, it appears, of Hebrew origin, and thus still preserved most of the ancient

To practices like those which have been related Philo bears witness and continues in the following words : “ The race is found in many places in the world, for it was right that both Greece and barbarism should share in perfect good, but it abounds in Εgypt in each of the so-ealled nomes and especially around Αlexandria. The noblest from every region send a colony to a district well suited for their purpose, as though it were the land of the Therapeutae. This distriet is situated above Lake Mareia 1 on a low hill, very convenient for its safety and the temperateness οf the climate." Ηe then goes on to describe the nature οf their dwellings, and says this about the churches in various districts : “ In eaeh house there is a sacred dwelling whieh is called ‘ a sanctuaq and , ' whieh they celebrate in seclusion the mysteries of the sacred life, and bring nothing into it, either drink or food or any of the other things necessary for bodily needs, but law and inspired oraeles given by the prophets and hymns and other things by which knowledge and religion are increased and perfected." Αnd further on he says : The whole period from dawn [*](1 More often known as Lake mareotis, a little south of Alexandria.)

This seems to have been said by a man who had listened to their expositions of the sacred scriptures, and it is perhaps probable that the writings of men of old, whieh he says were found among them, were the Gospels, the writings of the Apostles, and some expositinos οf prophets after the manner of the ancients, sueh as are in the Εpistle to the Ηebrews and many οther of the epistles of Ρaul. Ηe then goes on to write thus about their composition οf new psahns : “ So that they not οnly contemplate but make songs and hymns to God in all kinds of metres and melodies, though they perforce arrange them in the more sacred measures."

Ηe discusses many οther points as well in the same book, but it seemed necessary to enumerate those by whieh the charaeteristics of the life of the Church are exhibited; but if anyone doubt that what has been said is peculiar to life according to the gospel, and think that it can be applied to others besides those indicated, let him be persuaded by the following words of Philo in which he will find, if he be fair, indisputable testimony on this point. Ηe

we think that these words of Ρhilo are elear and indisputably refer to our communion. But if after this anyone obstinately deny it let him be converted from his scepticism and be persuaded by clearer indications which cannot be found among any, save only in the worship of Christians according to the Gospel. For Ρhilo says that women belong aho to those under discussion and that most οf them are aged virgins who kept their chastity from no compulsion, like some of the priestesses among the Greeks, but rather from voluntary opinion, from zeal and yearning for wisdom, with which they desired to live, and paid no attention to bdily pleasures, longing not for mortal but for immortal children, which only the soul that loves God is eapable of bearing of itself. Ηe then proceeds to expound this more elearly. “ But the interpretations of the

What need is there to add to this a description of their meetings, and of how the men live separately and the women separately in the same place, and of the customary exercises which are still celebrated among us, particularly those which we are accutomed to celebrate at the feast of the Passion of the Saviour by abstinellce from food and vigils and attention to the word οf God ? The writer referred to has given in his own writing a description οf this, which exactly agrees with the manner which is still observed by us and by us alone ; he relates the vigils for the entire night of the great feast, and the exercises during them, and the hymns which we are aecustomed to recite, and how while one sings regularly with cadenee, the rest listen in silence and join in singing only the refrain of the hymns, and how οn stated days they sleep on the ground οn straw, how they completely refrain from wine, as he expressly states, and from all kinds of Resh, drinking only water and using salt and hyssop to season their bread. In adffition to this he writes of the order of preeedence οf those who have been appointed to the service of the Church, both to the diaconate and to the supremacy of the episcopate

XVIII. Philo vas rich in language and broad in thought, sublime and elevated in his views of the divine writings, and had made various and diverse his exposition of the sacred words. Ηe rirst went through the subject of the events in Genesis in connected sequence, in the book which he entitled “ The Allegories of the sacred ’’ Ηe then made detailed arrangement into chapters of the difficulties in the Scriptures and gave their statement and solution in the books to which he gave the suitable title οf “ The Problems and Solutions in Genesis and in Exodus." There are, besides this, some specially elaborated treatises of his on certain problems, such as the two books “ On Agriculture," and as many “ Οn Drunkenness," and others with various appropriate titles, such as “ The Things which the Sober Μind desires and exercrates," “ On the confusion of Tongues," “ Οn flight and Discovery," “ Οn Assembly for Instruction," and “ On the Question who is Heir of the Divine Things," or “ On the Distinction between Οdd and Even," and further “ Οn the three Virtues which Moses describes with ’’ in additon to this, “ On those whose names have been changed and why they where," in which he says that he has also composed Books I. and II. “ Οn the Covenants." There is also a book of his “ Οn Migration and the wise life of the Man

Αt this time, while Ρaul was finishing his journey from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum, Claudius banished the Jews from Rome, and Aquila and Priscilla, with the other Jews, left Rome and came into Αsia, and lived there with Ρaul the Apostle, while he was strengthening the foundations of the churches there which had reeently been laid by him. The sacred Scripture of the Acts teaches this also.

XIX. Νow while Claudius was still administering the Εmpire there was a riot and confusion in Jerusalem at the feast οf the Ρassover so great that, merely among those who were violently crowded together at the ways leading οut οf the temple, thirty thousand Jews perished by tramplinlg οn each other, and the feast was turned into mourning for the whole nation and into lamentation in each house. This too Josephus relates in So many words. Claudius appointed Agrippa, the child οf Αgrippa, as king of the Jews, and sent out as Ρrocurator of the whole district or samaria and Galilee, together with that called Peraea. Ηe had administered the government for thirteen years and eight months when he died and left Νero his successor in the sovereignty.

XX. In the time of Νerο, while Felix was Ρrocurator of Judaea, Josephus again relateS the quarrel of the priests with one another in the following words in a passage in the twentieth book οf the Antiquities : “ Νow a quarrel arose between the Ηigh Ρriests and the priests and leaders of the people of Jerusalem.

The same writer again relates that at the same time a certain kind of bandits arose in Jerusalem, who, as he says, murdered daily those whom they met, even in the midst of the city. In particular at the feasts they used to mingle with the crowd and concealing short daggers in their clothes used to Stab distinguished people with them ; then, when they had fallen, the murderers themselves shared in the indignation. In this way they evaded discovery through the conhdence generally plaeed in them. Jonathan the Ηigh Priest was the first to be slain by them, but after him many were murdered daily, and fear was worse than the disasters, for as if in war every man was hourly expecting death.

XXI. Ηe continues his narrative after οther details as follows: : “ The Εgyprian false prophet affiicted the Jews with a worse scourge than this, for this man appeared in the country as a sorcerer and secured for himself the faith due to a prophet. Ηe assembled about thirty thousand who had been deceived and

Josepohus relates this in the second book of the Wars, but it is worth nothing what is said about the Egyptian there and in the Acts or the Apostles, where, in the time of Felix, the centurion at Jerusalem said to Ρaul, when the mob of the Jews was rioting against him, “ Αrt thou not that Egyptian who before these days made an uprorar and led out in the wilderness four thousand men of the Sicarii 1 ? ’’ Such was the course of events under Felix.

XXII. Festus was sent as his successor by Νero, and Ρaul was tried before him and taken as a prisoner to Rome ; Αristarchus was with him, and he naturally called him his fellow-prisoner in a passage in tlle Epistles. Luke also, who committed the Acts of the Apostles to writing, finished his narrative at this point by the statement that Ρaul spent two whole years in Rome in freedom, and preached the word of God without hindrance. Trdition has it that after derending himelf the Apostle was again sent [*](1 The Sicrarii were the special group of revolutionaries in Jerusalem who practised the assination of their opponents by means οf a short dagger οr sica which could be conveniently concealed in the sleeve, bee p. 163.)

XIII. When Ρaul appealed to eaesar and was sent over to Rome by Festus the Jews were disappointed of the hope in which they had laid their plot against him and turned against James, the brother of the Lord, to whom the throne of the bishopric in Jerisalem had been allotted by the Apostles. The crim which they committed was as follows. They brought him into the midst and demanded a denial of the faith in Christ before all the people, but When he, contrary to the expectation of all of them, with a loud voice and with more courage than they had expected, confessed before all the people that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the son of God. they could no longer endure his testimony, since he was by all men believed to be most righteous beeause of the height which he had reached in a life of philosophy and religion, and killed him, using anarchy as an opportunity for power since at that moment Festus had died in Judaea, leaving the district without government or procurator. The manner of

This account is given at length by Hegesippus, but in agreement with Clement. Thus it seems that James was indeed a remarkable man and ramous among all for righteousness, so that the wise even οf the Jews thought that this was the cause of the siege of Jemsalem immediately after his martyrdom, and that it happened for no other reason than the crime which they had committed against him.

of course Josephus did not shrink from giving written testimonyp to this, as follows : “ And theSe things happened to the Jews to avenge JameS the Just, who was the brother of Jesus the so-called christ, for the Jews killed him in spite of his great righteousness." 1 The same writer also narrates his death in the twentieth book of the Antiquities as follows : “ Νow when Caesar heard οf the death of Festus he sent Albinus as governor to Judaea, but the younger Αnanus, who, as we said, had received the Ηigh Priesthood, was bold in temperament and remarkably daring. Ηe followed the Seet of the sadducees, who are cruel in their judgements beyond all the Jews, as we have already explained. nus his eharacter led Αnanus to think that he had a suitable opportunity through the faet that Festus was dead and Albinus still on his way. Ηe sum- moned a council of judges, brought before it the brother of Jesus, the so-ealled Christ, whose name was James, and some otherS, on the accusation of breaking the law and delivered them to be stoned. But all who were reputed the most reasonable of the citizens and strict observers of the law were [*](1 This passage is not in the traditional text οf Josephus.)

XXIV. In the eighth year of the reign οf Νero Αnnianus was the nrst after Mark the Evangelist to receive charge of the ffiocese 2 of Alexandria.

XXV. When the rule of Νero was now gathering strenght for unholy objects he began to take up arms against the worship of the Good οf the universe. Ιt is not part of the present work to describe his depravity : many indeed have related his story in accurate nauative, and from them he who wishes can study [*](1 or, possibly, to King Αgrippa.) [*](2 Literally, οlοny or province.) [*](1 Cf. George Syncellus 641, 7-642, 9.)

In this way then was he the Rrst to be heralded as above all a fighter against God, and raised up to slaughter against the Apostles. It is related that in his time Ρaul was beheaded in Rome itselr, and that Ρeter likewise was crucified, and the title οf “ Ρeter and Ρaul,’’ which is still given to the cemeteries there, confirms the story, no less than does a writer οf the Church named caius, who lived when Zefyrinus was bishop οf Rome. Caius in a written discussion

XXVI. Josephus in the courSe of hiS extremely detailed description of the cataStrophe which overcame the whole Jewish raee, in addition to many other things explains exactly how many thousand Jews οf high rank in Jerusalem itself were outraged, Seourged, and crucified by FloruS, and that he was procurator of Judaea when it happened that the beginning of the war blamd up in the twelfth year of the reign of Νero. Ηe next says that throughout syria terrible disturbances followed the revolt οf the Jews. Εverywhere the Gentiles mercilessly attaeked [*](1Literally, theopinionamong the Phrygians." Μọntanus was οf Ρhrygian origin. Ηis story ls told by Euseblus ln Hist. Eccl. v. 14–18. Ρrοclus was one of his successors.) [*](2 According to; the tradition that Ρeter was crucified on the Vatican (the exact spot is variously indicated), and Ρaul beheaded on the Via Ostia at Tre Fontane.)