CONTENTS OF BOOK III
The contents of the third book of the History of the Church is as follows :
I. The parts of the world in which the apostles preached Christ.
II. Who was the first ruler of the church οf the Romans.
III. on the letters of the Ρostles.
IV, on the first successors of the aportles.
V. on the last siege of the Jews after Christ.
VI. On the famine that οppressed them.
VII. On the Ρrοphecies οf Crhist.
VIII. On the signs before the war.
IX. On Josephus and the writings which he left.
X. Ηow he quotes the sacred books.
XI. Ηow after James Simeon ruled the church at Jerusalem.
XII. Ηοw vespasian ordered the family of Darivld to be sought out.
XIII. Ηow Abilius was the seeond ruler of the Alexandrians.
XIV. Ηow Anencletus was the second bishop of the Romans.
XV. How, after him, clement was the third.
XVI. On the epistle of Clement. XVII.p On the Ρersecution under Domitian.
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XVIII. On John the Apostle and the Apocalypse.
XIX. How domitian commanded the family of David to be destroyed.
XX. On family family of our Saviour.
XXI. How Cerdo was the third to rule the church of the Alexandrians.
XXII. How Ignatius was the second of the Antiochians.
XXIII. Α narrative about John the Apostle.
XXIV. Οn the order of the Gospels.
XXV. Οn the writings acknowledged as sacred and Οn those which are not.
XXVI. Οn Μenander the Sorcerer.
XXVII. Οn the heresy of the Ebionites.
XXVII. On Cerinthus the Heresiarch.
XXIX. On Nicholas and those called after him.
XXX. Οn the apostles who were tested by marriage.
XXXO/ On the death of John and Philip.
XXXII. How Simeon, the bishop in Jerusalem, was martyred.
XXXIII. How Trajan forbade the Christians to be sought out.
XXXIV. How Evarestus was the fourth to rule the church of the Romans.
XXXV. How Justus was the third ruler of the church in jerusalem.
XXXVI. Οn Ignatius and his letters.
XXXVII. On the evangelists who were still flourishing.
XXXVIII. On the letter of Clement and the writings fabely attributed to him.
XXXIX. On the writings of Papias.
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BOOK III
I. Such was the condition of things among the Jews, but the holy Apostles and disciples of our Saviour were seattered throughout the whole world. Thomas, as tradition relates, obtained by lot Parthia, Andrew Scythia, John Asia (and he stayed there and died in Ephesus), but Ρeter Seems to have preached to the Jews of the Dispersion in Pontus and Galatia and Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia, and at the end he came to Rome and was crueffied head downwards, for so he had demanded to suffer. What need be said of Ρaul, who fulffiled the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem to Illyria and afterward was martyred in Rome under Νerο ? This is stated exactly by Οrigen in the third volume of his commentary on Genesis.
II. Αfter the martyrdom of Paul and Ρeter, Linus was the first appointed to the bishopric of the church of Rome. Ρaul mentions him when writing from Rome to Timothy in the salutation at the end of the Εpistle.
III. Οf Ρeter, one epistle, that which is called his first, is admitted, and the aneient presbyters used
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this in their οwn writings as unquestioned, but the so-called second Epistle we have not received as canonical, but nevertheless it has appeared useful to many, and has been studied with other seriptures. On the other hand, of the Αcts bearing his name, and the Gospel named according to him and Preaching called his and the so-called Revelation, we have no knowledge at all in Catholic tradition, for no orthodox1 writer of the andent time or of our own has used their testimonies. Αs the narrative proceeds 1 will take pains to infficate suecessively wMhlch of the orthodox writers in eaeh period used any of the doubtful books, and what they said about the canonical and accepted scriptures and what about those which are not such. Νow the above are the books bearing the name of Ρeter, of which I recognize only οne as genuine and admitted by the presbyters of old. Αnd the fourteen letters of Ρaul are obvious and plain, yet it is not right to ignore that some dispute the Epistle to the Hebrews, saying that it was rejected by the church of Rome as not being by Ρaul, and I will expound at the proper time what was sriald about it by our predecessors. Νor have I received his so-called Acts among undisputed books. But since the same Apostle in the salutations at the end οf Romans has mentioned among others Hermas, whose, they say, is the Book of the shepherd, it should be known that this also is rejected by some, and for their sake should not be placed among
[*](1 Gk. “ecclesiastic,” that is, belonging to or recognized by the church, as opposed to heretics, Jews, οr heathen.) 195
aceepted books, but by others it has been judged most valuable, especially to thoSe Who need elementary instruction. For this reason we know that it has been used in public in churehes, and I have found it quoted by some of the most ancient writers. Let this suffiee for the establishment of the divine wrintings which are undisputed, and of those which are not received bv all.
IV. Νοw it would be clear from Paul's own words and from the narrative of Luke in the Acts that Ρaul, in his preaching to the Gentiles, laid the foundations of the churches from Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum. Αnd from the Epistle which we have spoken of as indisputably Peter's, in which he writes to those of the Hebrews in the Dispersion of Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, it would be clear from his own words in how many provinces he delivered the word οf the Νew Testament by preaching the Gospel of Christ to those of the eireumcision. But it is not easy to say how many οf these and which of them were genuinely zealous and proved their ability to be the pastors of the churches founded by the Apostles, except by making a list of those mentioned by raul. For there were many thousands of his fellow-workers and, as he called them himself, fellow - soldiers, of whom the most were granted by him memorial past forgetting, for he recounts his testimony to them unceasingly in his own letters, and, moreover, Luke also in the Acts gives a list of those known to him and mentions them by name. Thus Timothy is related to have been the first appointed bishop of the diocese of Ephesus, as
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was Titus of the ehurehes in Crete. Luke, who was by raee an Antiochian and a physician by profession, was long a companion of Ρaul, and had careful conversation with the other Apostles, and in two books left us examples of the medicine for souls which he had gained from them—the Gospel, which he testifies that he had planned according to the tradition reeeived by him by those who were from the beginning eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, all of whom he says,1 moreover, he had followed from the beginning, and the Acts of the Apostles which he composed no longer on the evidence of hearing but of his own eyes. Αnd they say that Paul was actually accustomed to quote from Luke's Gospel since when writing of some Gospel as his own he used to say, “ According to my ” Of the other followers of Ρaul there is evidence that Crescens was sent by him to Gaul, and Linus, who is mentioned in the seeond Epistle to Timothy as present with him in Rome has already been deelared to have been the first after Ρeter to be appointed to the bishopric of the Chureh in Rome. Of Clement too, who was himself made the third bishop of the chureh of Rome, it is testified by Paul that he worked and strove in company with him. In addition to these Dionysius, one of the ancients, the pastor Of the diocese of the Corinthians, relates that the first bishop of the Chureh at Athens was that member of the Areopagus, the Οther Dionysius, whose original eonversion after Ρaul’s speech to the Athenians in the Areopagus Luke deseribed in the Acts. Now
[*](1 The translation obscures the difficulty οf the Greek. Is it the tradition or the eyewitnesses which Luke (in the opinion of Eusebius) claims to have followed? The Greek is quite ambiguous.) 199
as we go on our way the chronological details of the succession of the Apostles will be related, but at present let us go on to the next stage of the narrative.
V. Αfter Νero had held the sovereignty for thirteen years 1 the affairs of Galba and Otho 2 occupied a year and six months, and then Vespasian, who had distinguished himself in the operations against the Jews, was proclaimed Imperator by the army there and appointed Emperor in Judaea itself. Ηe at once set off for Rome and entrusted the war against the Jews to his son Titus. Now after the ascension of our Saviour in addition to their crime against him the Jews at onee contrived numberless plots against his disciples. Stephen was first stoned to death by them and next after him James, the son of Zebedee and brother of John, was beheaded.3 In addition to all, James, who was the first after the ascension οf our Saviour to be appointed to the throne of the bishopric in Jerusalem, paried away in the manner deseribed above and the other Apostles were driven from the land of Judaea by thousands of deadly Ρlots. They went on their way to all the heathen teaching their mesage in the power of Christ for he had said to them, “ Go and make disciples of all the heathen in my ” 4 On the other hand, the [*](3 Cf. Acts vi. 8 ff. and xii. 2.) [*](4 This is the form in which Eusebius usually quotes Matt. xxviii. 19, omitting the reference to baptism. It cannot be accidental, but there are no MSS. of the N.T. with this text. Some think that the Eusebian text is an earlier form, some that Eusebius wished to keep secret the formula of baptism.)
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people οf the church in Jerusalem were commanded by an oracle given by revelation before the war to those in the city who were worthy of it to depart and dwell in one οf the cities of Perea which they called Ρella. To it those who believed on Christ migrated from Jerusalem, that when holy men had altogether deserted the royal eapital of the Jews and the Whole land of Judaea, the judgement of God might at last overtake them for all their crimes against the Christ and his Apostles, and all that generation οf the wicked be utterly blotted out from among men. Those who wish can retrace accurately from the history written by Josephus how many evils at that time overwhelmed the whole nation in every place and especially how the inhabitants οf Judaea were driven to the last point of suffering, how many thousands οf youths, women, and children perished by the sword, by famine, and by countless other forms of death ; they ean read how many and what famous Jewish cities were besieged, and Rnally how terrors and worse than terrors were seen by those who fled to Jerusalem as if to a mighty capital; they can study the nature οf the whole war, all the details οf what happened in it, and how at the end the abomination of deSolation spoken of by the prophets was set up in the very temple of God, for all its ancient fame, and it perished utteriy and passed away in flames. But it is neceSSary to point οut how the same writer estimates at three millions the
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number οf those who in the days of the Feart of the Passover thronged Jerusalem from all Judaea and, to use his own words, were shut up as if in prison. Ιt vas indeed right that on the same day on which they had perpetrated the passion of the Saviour and benefactor of all men and the Chrit of God they sholrid be, as it were shut up in prison and reeeiVe the destruetiOn which pursued them from the sentence of God.
Omitting then the details of their misfortunes from the sword and otherwise, Ι think it necessary to adduce only their sufferings from famine in order that those who study this work may have some partial knowledge of how the punishment of God follOWed close after them for their crime against the Christ of God.
VI. Come then, take up again the fifth book of the history of Josephus and go through the tragedy of what was then done. “For the ’’he says, “ to remain was equal to destruction, since for the sake of their property they were murdered on the charge of intended desertion. But the madneb of the rebels grew with the famine, and the terror of both blazed more fiercely day by day. No corn was visible anywhere, but they burst into houses and searched them. Then, if they found any, they tormented the inmates for their denying; if not they tortured then for having hidden it too earefully. The bodies of the miserable creatures were evidence whether they had it or not. Those who were still in health seemed to be provided with food, while those who were already wasted away were passed by, and it seemed unreasonable to kill
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those who would soon die of need. Μany secretly exchanged their property for a single measure or wheat, if they were richer, of barley, if they were poorer. Then, shutting themselves up in the inmost recesses of their houSes, some, in the extremity of their want, would eat the grain unprepared, others would cook it as necessity and fear dietated. No table was set anyWhere, but snatching it from the fire they tore in pieces the still uncooked food. Their living was pitiable, and their appearance worthy of tears ; the strong plundered and the weak wailed. Famine truly surpasses all sufferings, but it destroys nothing so much as shame 1 ; for what is at other times worthy of respect is despised in famine ; women took the food from the very mouths of their husbands, children from their fathers, and, most piteous of all, mothers from their children, and while their deareSt were wasting away before them there WaS no scruple in taking away the last drop of life. Yet they did not escape detection When they thus ate, but everywhere the rioters arose to rob them even of this; for whenever they Saw a house Shut up it was a sign that those within had obtained food and at onee they tore down the doors, ruShed in, and seized the morSelS, almost squeering them out of their throats. Old men were beaten for withholding food, and Women were dragged by the hair for concealing it in their hands. There Was no pity for grey-headed age or for little children, but they picked up babies clinging to crusts and dashed them on the floor.
[*](1 The Greek means rather more than this: it is almost a “ sense of decency.”) 207
To those who had anticipated their entry, and had gulped down their expected prey, they were the more cruel, as though they had been injured by them. For the ffiscovery of food they sought for terrible methods of torture, sewing up their victims and inmpaling them on sharp stakes. Men suffered things terrible even to hear to secure the confession of a single loaf, and to disclose a single pint of hidden barley. But the torturers suKered no hunger (and indeed their cruelty would have been less had it been from neeessity) but there was method in their madness and they prorided sustenanee for themselves for days to come. When some crept out by night as far as the Roman lines to gather wild herbs and grass, they intercepted them when they thought that they had at last escaped the enemy, plundered them of what they were carrying, and for all their many entreaties and invocations of the awful name οf God to give them some share οf what they had brought at their οwn risk, they gave them nothing whatever, and he Who Was robbed was lueky not to be murdered too.” Αfter some οther details he continues: “Νow When all hope of safety was cut off from the Jews by the closing of the exits from the city and famine deepening from house to house and family to family was eating up the people, the rooms were filled with dead women and children and the alley—ways the corpses of old men. Boys and young men, wandering 1 like ghosts through the market—place, were seimd by death and lay each where the blow had stricken him. The sick had no strength to bury sufferers from famine, not of ghosb (and the text seems corrupt). Or it may be “ swllen yet ghost—like ghost—like ’’
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their families and the strong heritated for the number of the dead and their own doubtful fate. Many indeed fell in death on those whom they were burying and many went to their graves before the necessity arose. There was no lamentation or wailing at losses, but famine overcame emotion and those who were dying in misery looked with dry eyes on those Who had found rest before them. Deep silence and night pregnant with death encompassed the city. Worse than these were the robbers. Breaking into houses like body-snatchers they robbed the dead, tearing the garments from their bodies, and went out with laughter. They tried the edge of their Swords on the corpses, and to prove the steel ran through some of the fallen who were still alive, but those who begged for the kindliness of a mortal blow they left in contempt to the famine. These all died with eyes fixed on the temple and lert the rebels to life. Αt first orders were giVen to bury the dead at the public expense because of the unbearable stench ; then afterwards when this was impracticable they Were thrown from the walls into the trenches. When Titus, going round the trenches, saw then full of the dead and the thick gore oozing from the rotting bodies, he groaned, and raising his hand called God to witness that this was not his doing.”
Αfter a little more he goes on : “Ι cannot refrain from stating what emotion bids me. Ι think that had the Roman delayed their attack on the scoundrels the city would haVe been engulfed by the earth opening or overwhelmed by a flood or shared the
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thunderbolts of Sodom, for it had brought forth a generation far more ungodly than those who thus suffered. It was by their madness that the whole people perished.”
In the sixth book he writes thus : “Οf those who perished in the city from the famine the number which fell was countless and their sufferings indescribable. For in each house if there appeared the very shadow οf food there was fighting, and the dearest friends wrestled together for it, snatching the miserable sustenance of life. Νor were even the dying believed to be destitute, but while they were still breathing the robbers searched them, lest any should feign death while having food on his person. others, gaping from lack of food, stumbled and hurried along like mad dogs, beating at the doors like drunken men, and rushing two or three times in a single hour into the same houses from sheer incompetence. Necessity brought all things to men's teeth and they endured eating a collection of scraps unnt for the ffithieSt of brute beasts. Αt the last they abstained not even from belts and shoes and gnawed the hides stripped off their shieldS. Some fed on wisps of old straw, others collected Stubble and sold a tiny portion for four Attic drachmae.1
“But what need is there to Speak of the shamelessness οf the famine towards inanimate things? I purpose to relate a consequenee of it such as has been narrated neither by the Greeks nor by the barbarians, horrible to tell, ineredible to hear. I myself would have gladly omitted the tragedy to avoid [*](1 About half a crown or sixty cents.)
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appearing to posterity to fabricate legend had I not had coulrtless vitneses to it in my own generation. Certainly I should render cold comfort to my country Were I to compromise the account of her sufferings. There was a woman among those who lived beyond Jordan named Mary whose father was Eliezer of the village Bathezor (which means “ House of ”). She was famous for her family and Wealth, and having fled with the rest of the population to Jerusalem was eaught in the Siege. The tyrants seized all her other possessions which she had brought from Peraea and carried into the city, and the guards rushed in daily and seized the iemnants of her property and any food which they perceived. Fierce indignation seized the woman and by her frequent abuseS and curses she tried to irritate the robbers against herSelf. But when no one killed her either in anger or pity and she wearied of finding food for others, and indeed it was now impossible to do so anywhere, famine entered into her heart and marrow, and rage burnt more fiercely than famine. Anger and neceSsity were her councillors: she turned against nature and seized her child, a boy whom She was suckling. ‘Miserable infant,’ she said, ‘amid war, famine, and rebellion for what 1 am I keeping you ? Slavery among the Romans faces us if they give us our liveS ; famine is overtaking slavery; the rebelS are worse than both. Come, be food for me, an avenging fury to the rebels, and the one story still lacking to the sufferings of the Jews to be told to the world.’ With these words she her son, and then cooked him, ate half, and covered
[*](1 Οr possibly “ for whom.”) [*](1 κἄν in most MSS. and in Josephus, but it seems impossible.) 215
up and kept the rest. Αt that moment the rebels came and smelling the horrible savour, threatened to kill her at onee if they were not given what she had made ready. she told them that rile had kept a good helping for them and uncovered the remains of the child. Αs for them, horror and amazement seized them at once, and they stood transfixed at the sight, but She said, ‘ This was my own child and the deed is mine. Eat, for I myself have eaten. Do not be more squeamish than a woman, or compassionate than a mother. But if you have scruples, and turn away from my sacrifice, What I have eaten was your share, let the rest remain for me.’ Αt they went out trembling, for only thiS made them coWards, and they scarcely yielded eVen thiS food to the mother ; but the Whole eity waS at once ffiled with the horror, and each, holding the tragedy before hiS eyes, shuddered as if it had been his own crime. And the sufferers from the famine sought for death and pronounced those blessed whom it had reached before they heard or saw such awful evils.”
VII. Such was the reward of the iniquity of the Jews and of their impiety against the ChriSt of God, but it is worth appending to it the infallible foreeast of our saviour in which he prophetically expounded these very — “ woe unto them that are with child and give suek in those days, but pray that your ffight be not in the winter nor on a sabbath day, for there Shall then be great affliction such as was not from the beginning of the world until now, nor shall be.” Αnd the historian, estimating the whole
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of those who were destroyed, says that 1.100.000 perished by famine and tlle sword, and that the rest of the rebels and bandits were pointed out by one another after the capture of the city and killed. The tallest of the youths, and those distinguished for physical beauty, were kept for a triumph, and of the remaining population those above seventeen years old Were sent as prisoners to hard labour in Egypt, but more were distributed throughout the provinces to be destroyed in the theatres by the sword and by wild beasts. Those below seventeen years old were sold into slavery and these alone were 90.000.
These things happened in this Way in the second year of the reign of Vespasian in accordance with the prophetic utterances of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who foreseeing them by divine power as though already present, shed tears at them and mourned according to the writing of the saered evangelist, who appends his actual words. For once he said to Jerusalem herself, “ If thou hadst known, even thou, in this day the thing which belong to thy peaee : but now they are hid from thine eyes, for the days will come upon thee When thine enemy Shall cart a trench around thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee and thy children even with the ground.” at another time, as if concerning the ”For there shall be great distress On the earth and wrath upon this people, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be sold into slavery to all the Gentiles, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles
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be fulfilled.” And again, “ Αnd when ye Jemsalem surrounded by armies then know that her desolation is at ” If anyone compare the words of our Saviour with the other narratives of the historian concerning the whole war, how can he avoid surprise and a confession οf the truly divine and supematurally wonderful character both of the foreknowledge knowledge and of the foretelling οf our Saviour?
There is no necessity to add to the narratives of what happened to the whole nation after the passion of the Saviour and those words in which the multitude of the Jews begged off from death the robber and murderer and besought that the author of Life should be taken from them ; but it would be right to add a possible connnnation οf the kindliness οf beneficent Providence. For forty whole years it suspended their dertruction, after their crime against the Christ, and during all of them many ofthe apostles and disciples, and James himself, who is called the Lord's brother, the first bishop of the city, still survived in this world. By their dwelling in Jerusalem, they afforded, as it were, a strong proteetion to the place; for the govemment of God had still patience, if haply they might at last by repenting of their deeds, be able to obtain pardon and salvation; and in addition to such great long—suffering it wonderful tokens from God οf what would happen to them if they did not repent. These things have been thought worthy of mention by the historian already quoted, and there is nothing better than to append them for the readers of this work.
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VIII. Take, then, and read what is related in the sixth book of the Jervish War. “ Now at that time impostors and lying prophets perverted the miserable people, but they gaVe neither attention nor credence to the clear marvels which foretold approaching desolation, but as though they had been thunderstruck and had neither eyes nor soul, they neglected the declarations of God. Αt One time a star stood over the city like a sword, and a comet which lasted for a year. Αt another tlme, before the insurrection, and the disturbance which led to the war, when the people were assembled for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the eighth of April, at the ninth hour of the night, a light shone on the alter and on the temple so brightly that it seemed to be full day, and this lasted for half an hour. TO the inexperienced this seemed a good sign, but was at once interpreted by the seribes before the events which actually followed. Αnd at thc same feast a cow, which had been led by the —priest for the sacrifice, gave birth to a lamb in the middle of the tempIe, And the eastern gate of the inner building, which was of bronze and very massive and was closed at evening time with difficulty by twenty men, and rested on beams bound with iron and had bars sunk deep, was seen at night at the sixth hour to have opened of itself. Αnd after the feast, not many days later, on the twenty—first of May, a demonic phantom of increffible size, and what will be related would have seemed a fairy-tale had it not been told by those who saw it, and been attended by suffering
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worthy of the portent. For before sunset there appeared in the air over the whole country chariots and armed troops coursing through the clouds and surrounding the cities. Αnd at the feast called Pentecost the priests passed into the temple at night, as was their custom, for their services, and said that they first perceived movement and noise and after that a sudden cry, ‘ We go hence’ But what was terrible a man of the people named Jesus, the son οf Ananias, a countryman, four years before the war, when the city was in complete peaee and prosperity, came to the feast when it was the custom for all to make booths for God, and began suddenly to cry οut opposite the temple, ‘ Α voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the temple, a voice against bridegrooms and brides, a voice against all the people.’ With this cry night and day he through all the narrow streets. But some οf the notables οf the people were annoyed at the ill omen, seized the man and abused him with many stripes. But he uttered no word in his own behalf, nor in private to those present, but went οn with the same cry as before. But the rulers thought that the man's action was inspired by some demon, as it indeed was, and brought him to the Roman govemor 1 ; there, though he was flayed to the bone with scourges, he uttered no plea and shed no tear, but taising his
[*](1 That is, Albinus who was procurator from 61 to 64.) 225
voice with all his power, answered to every blow, ‘Woe, woe to Jerusalem.’”
The same writer has a still more remarkable account in Which he alleges that an oracle was found in “ sacred seript ” to the effect that at that time one from their country should rule the world and he himself considered that this was fulfilled by Vespasian. Yet he did not reign over the whole world, but only such part as was subject to the Romans, and it would be more justly referred to Christ, to whom it was said by the Father, “ Αk of me and Ι will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the ends οf the earth for thy possession.” was of his holy apostles at that Very time that “ the sound went forth into all tbe earth and their words unto the end of the earth.”
IX. In addition to all this, it is right not to ignore [*](1 Two late manuscripts make the following additions from Josephus. “ Αnd when Albinus, for he was governor, asked him who he was and whence he came and why he said these things, he made no answer but did not cease reising his lamentation against the city until Albinus considered him mad and let him go. Until the time οf the war he neither approached any of the citizens nor was he seen talking, but daily, as though reciting a prayer, he wailed ‘Woe, woe to ’ He never cursed those who struck him daily, nor did he bless those who gave him food, but all received the same melancholy wail as an answer. He howled with especial vigour on feast days, and this he kept up for seven year and five months, nor did his voice fail or grow weary until at the siege he rested, seeing his lamentations fulfilled. For he went round on the wall with the piercing cry, ‘Woe, woe to the people, to the city, and to the temple,’ and as last he ‘ Woe, woe to me also,´ a stone flew from a catapult and hit him; he died at once, and gave up his soul still uttering those lamentations.”)
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the date and Origin οf the Josephus who collected so mueh material in the work just dealt with. Ηe himself gives this information and says, “ was a son of Mathhisas, a priest of Jerusalem, and at the beginning he fought againrt the Romans and was forced to take part in the later events.” was the most famous Jew of that time, not only among his fellow countrymen but also among the Romans, so that he was honoured by the erection of a statue in the city of Rome, and the inclusion of the work composed by him in its library Ηe compiled the whole ancient history of the Jews in twenty volumes, 1 and the history of the Roman War 2 in his own time in seven; he testifies that he committed this not only to Greek but also to his native language, and he is for other reasons worthy of credenee. Two other books of his, worthy of notice, are extant, entitled Οn the ancientness of the Jervs, 3 in which he controverts Apion the Scribe, who had composed a treatise against the Jews, and other who had tried to calumniate the ancertral customs of the Jewish nation. Ιn the first of these he gives the number of the canonical scriptures of the –called Old Testament, and showed as follows which are undisputed among the Hebrews as belonging to ancicnt tradition.
X. “ We have no myriads of discordant and contradictory books, but only two and twenty, containing the narrative of all time, which have been justly believed to be divine. Οf thee five are those of [*](1 Usually qouted as “ Antiquities,” from the Latin rendering of ἀρχαιολογία by antiquitates.) [*](2 Usually known as the “Wars” Οr the “ Jewish and often quoted as B.I. (bellum iudaicum).) [*](3 Usually known as Contra Apionem.)
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Moses and contain the Law and the tradition of human history until his deatll. This period covers almost three thousand years. From the death of Moses to Artaxerxes who succeeded Xerxes, king of the Persians, the prophets after Moses wrote the aecount of the events contemporary with them in thirteen books. 1 The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the life of men. From the time of Artaxerxes to our own the details have been written, 2 but are not considered worthy οf equal credence with the rest because there has not been an aceurate succession of prophetS. Αnd facts show plainly how we approach our own literature, for though so long a time has elapsed no one has dared to make additions, omissions, or changes, but it is innate in Jews from their very birth to regard them as the decreeS of God, to abide in them and, if it need be, to die for them ” This quotation from the author may be usefully appended.
Another work which is not without merit was produced by him on The Supremacy of Reason, which some entitled Maccabees 3 because it contains the conflicts of those Hebrews mentioned in the so-called books of the Maccabees, who strove valiantly for the worship of God. Αt the end of the twentieth book οf the Antiquities the same writer announces that he had planned to compose four books on the aneestral belief of the Jews concerning God and his nature and [*](1 Josephus does not state which these are. Probably he means Joshua, Judges and Ruth, 1 and 2 Sam., 1 and Κings, 1 and 2 Chron., Ezra and Νeh., Esther, Isaiah, Jer. and Lam., Ezek., Dan., the minor prophets, Job. The “ remaining four books” would be Pss., Ρrov., Feel., the Song of Songs.) [*](2 Ηe means 1 Maccabees and perhaps 2 Maccabees.) [*](3 4 Maccabees.)
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concerning the Laws, why they allow some aetions and forbid others. Ηe also mentions in his οwn treatises that he had produced other works. Moreover, it is right to mention the words which he appends to the end οf the Antiquities to confirm our quotation οf the passages taken from him. Accusing of false statements Justus of Tiberias, who had undertaken to write a similar account of the same period, and bringing many οther charges against him, he continues as follows : “ I had no such fear as you with regard to my own writing, but I gave the books to the Emperors themselves while the events were still almost before their eyes. For I was conscious of having kept the tradition of the truth and I did not fail in my expectation of obtaining their testimony to that effect. I also gave the narrative to many others, of whom some had actually taken part in the war, such as King Agrippa and some of his relations. For the Emperor Titus Was pleased that from these book alone should information be given the public as to the events, and, writing with his own hand, he ordered the books to be published, and King Agrippa wrote sixty-two letters testifying that they were handing on the ” of these letters he appends two, but let this suffice οn the subject of Josephus and let us proceed.
XI. Αfter the martyrdom of James and the capture of Jemsalem which immeffidlately followed, the story goes that those οf the Apostles and of the disciples οf the Lord who were still alive came together from
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every place with those who were, humanly speaking, οf the family οf the Lord, for many of them were then still alive, and they all took counsel together as to whom they οught to adjudge worthy to succeed James, and all unanimously decided that Simeon the son οf Clopas, whom the scripture οf the Gospel also mentions, was worthy of the throne of the diocese there. He was, so it is said, a cousin οf the Saviour, for Hegesippus relates that Clopas was the brother of Joseph,
(XII.) and in addition that Vespasian, after the capture of Jerusalem, ordered a seareh to be made for all who were of the family of David, that there might be left among the Jews no one of the royal family and, for this reason, a very great persecution was again infficted οn the Jews.
XIII. when Vespasian had reigned for ten years, his son Titus succeeded him as emperor, 1 and in the second year of his reign, Linus, bishop οf the church οf the Romans, after holding his office for twelve years, handed it οn to Anencletus. Αfter Titus had reigned for two years and as many months Domitian, his brother, suceeeded him. 2
XIV. Νow in the fourth year of Domitian, Annianus, the hrst of the see of Alexandria, died after completing twenty-two years, and Abilius succeeded him as the second.
XV. Αnd in the twelfth year of the same reign, Clement sueeeeded Anencletus after he had been bishop of the church of the Romans for twelve years. The apostle states that he had been his –worker in his epistle to the Philippians saying, “ With Clement and [*](1 June 24, A.D. 79.) [*](2 Dec 13. Α.D. 81.)
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my other fellow-workers whose names are in book οf Life.”
XVI. There is one recognized epistle of Clement, Ιong and wonderful, Which he drew up for the church of the Corinthians in the name of the church of the Romans when there had been dissension in Corinth. We have ascertained that this letter was pubhely read in the common assembly in many churches both in the days of old and in our own time ; and that the affairs οf Corinth were disturbed by dissension in his day is adequately testffied to by Hegesippus.
XVII. When Domitian had given many proofs of his great cruelty and had put to death without any reasonable trial no small number of men distinguished at Rome by family and career, and had punished without a cause myriads of other notable men by banishment and confiscation of their property, he finally showed himself the successor of Nero's campaign of hostility to God. Ηe was the second to promote persecution against uS, though his father, Vespasian, had planned no evil against us.
XVIII. Αt this time, the story goes, the Apostle and Evangelist John was still alive, and was condemned to live in the island of Patmos for his witness to the divine word. Αt any rate Irenaeus, Writing about the number of the name ascribed to the anti-Christ the so-called Apocalypse of John, states this about John in so many words in the fifth book against Heresies. “But if it had been neceSSary to announce his name plainly at the present time, it would have
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been spoken by him who saw the apocablypse. For it was not seen long ago but almost in our own time, at the end of the reign of Domitian.”
The teaching of our faith shone so brilliantly in the days described that even writers foreign to our belief did not hesitate to commit to their narratives the persecutions and the martyrdoms in it, and they even indicated the time accurately, relating that in the fifeenth year 1 of Domitian, Flavia Domitilla, who was the niece of Flavius Clemens, one of the consuls at Rome at that time, was banished with many others to the island of Pontia as testimony to Christ.
ΧΙΧ. The samc Domitian gave orders for the execution of those of the family of David and an ancient story goes that some hererics accused the grandsons of Judas (who is said to have been the brother, according to the flesh, of the Saviour) saying that they were of the family of David and related to the Christ himself. Hegesippus this exactly as follows.