Book 1
Late Antiquity Eusebius of Caesarea GreekTHE FIRST BOOK OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
Contents of Book One
I. What is the subject proposed in this work. II. A summary account of the pre-existence and divinity of our Saviour and Lord, the Christ of God. III. That both the name of Jesus and that of Christ itself were known from of old and held in honour among the inspired prophets. IV. That the manner of the religion proclaimed by him to all the nations was neither new nor strange. V. Of the times of his appearing among men. VI. How, in his days and in accordance with the prophecies, those rulers failed who had from of old governed the nation of the Jews by hereditary succession, and Herod, the first foreigner, became their king. VII. Of the supposed disagreement in the Gospels concerning the genealogy of Christ. VIII. Of Herod's plot against the children, and what manner of end overtook him in life. IX. Of the times of Pilate. X. Of the high priests among the Jews in whose days Christ taught. XI. The testimonies concerning John the Baptist and Christ. XII. Of the disciples of our Saviour. XIII. The story of the ruler of the people of Edessa.
CHAPTER I
It is my purpose to record the successions of the holy apostles, together with the times that have passed from our Saviour's day down to our own; the number and greatness of the deeds said to have been wrought in the history of the Church; the number of those who governed and presided over it with distinction in the most renowned communities; the number of those who in each generation, whether by the spoken or the written word, were ambassadors of the divine teaching; who, and how many, and at what times, driven by the lust of innovation to the extremity of error, proclaimed themselves the introducers of knowledge falsely so called, ravaging the flock of Christ without mercy, like grievous wolves;
and, besides these things, the calamities that straightway came upon the whole nation of the Jews in consequence of their plot against our Saviour; and also in what manner, and how often, and at what times, the divine word has been warred upon by the nations, and how great were those who at various seasons passed through the contest for it in blood and torments; and further, the martyrdoms of our own day, and the gracious and favouring help of our Saviour in them all. Having proposed to commit all this to writing, I shall begin from no other point than the first dispensation in the case of our Saviour and Lord, Jesus the Christ of God.
But here the undertaking entreats the indulgence of the kindly-minded, for I confess that to make good the promise of a complete and unbroken account is beyond my power, since I am the first now to enter upon the subject, attempting to travel a kind of lonely and untrodden road, praying that I may have God as my guide and the power of the Lord as my fellow-worker. For I have been wholly unable to find even the bare footprints of men who have gone before me along the same way—save only slight indications, by which, in one fashion or another, men have left us partial narratives of the times through which they passed, raising their voices from afar like beacons, and crying out from on high as from some watch-tower, directing us where we must walk and how to guide the course of the work without error and without danger.
All, then, that we judge to be of profit for the subject before us, gathered from the things mentioned here and there by those very writers, and culling, as it were from intellectual meadows, the fitting utterances of the old authors themselves, we shall endeavour to embody in a historical narrative, content if we may rescue from oblivion the successions, if not of all, yet at least of the most distinguished of our Saviour's apostles in those churches which even now are reckoned famous.
I judge this subject to be most necessary to labour upon, because I am not aware that any ecclesiastical writer has hitherto made it his concern to give attention to this branch of writing; and I trust that it will appear most useful to those who are zealous for instruction in history.
Now of these things I have already given a summary in the chronological canons which I formerly drew up; yet for all that I have set myself in the present work to give the fullest narrative of them.
And my account, as I have said, will begin from the dispensation and divinity of Christ, conceived as higher and greater than belongs to a man.
For he who is about to commit to writing the history of the ecclesiastical narrative must needs begin from on high, from the first dispensation concerning Christ himself—a dispensation more divine than the multitude suppose—seeing that from him we have been deemed worthy even of our name.
CHAPTER II
Since in him there is a twofold nature—the one likened to the head, in which he is conceived as God, the other compared to the feet, in which for our salvation he put on a manhood subject to the same conditions as our own—our account of what follows will be complete if we begin the narrative of his whole history from the chief and most authoritative points of the doctrine. In this way also the antiquity and divine character of the Christian profession will be displayed to those who suppose it new and outlandish, appearing only yesterday and not before.
As to the lineage, the dignity, the very being and nature of Christ, no language can suffice to set them forth, wherefore the divine Spirit also says in the prophecies, "Who shall declare his generation?"—since neither has anyone known the Father save the Son, nor again has anyone known the Son according to his worth,
save only the Father who begot him; and who, save the Father, could clearly conceive the Light that was before the world, the intelligent and substantial Wisdom that was before the ages, the living Word of God who was in the beginning with the Father and is God—the first and only offspring of God before all creation and fashioning, both visible and invisible; the commander-in-chief of the rational and immortal host of heaven; the angel of great counsel; the minister of the Father's ineffable purpose; the maker of all things together with the Father; the second cause, after the Father, of all things; the true and only-begotten Son of God; the Lord and God and King of all created things, having received from the Father lordship and might, together with deity itself and power and honour? For according to the mystical theologies of the Scriptures concerning him, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made."
This too the great Moses teaches, who, being the most ancient of all the prophets, describes by the divine Spirit the bringing into being and ordering of the universe, declaring that the Maker of the world and Creator of all things yielded to none other than to Christ himself—that is, to his own divine and first-begotten Word—the making of the things of lower rank, and held converse with him concerning the creation of man. For "God said," he says, "Let us make man after our image and likeness."
Another of the prophets confirms this utterance, theologizing in his hymns somewhat thus: "He spake, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created"—bringing in the Father and Maker as supreme ruler commanding with a royal nod, and the divine Word who holds the second place to him, none other than he who is preached by us, ministering to the Father's commands.
Him all those who from the first creation of man are said to have been distinguished for righteousness and the virtue of godliness—both the company about the great servant Moses, and before him Abraham first of all, and his sons, and as many righteous men and prophets as afterwards appeared—beheld with the pure eyes of the mind, and knew, and rendered him the worship due to the Son of God.
And he himself, in no wise neglecting the reverence due to the Father, was established as the teacher to all men of the knowledge of the Father. The Lord God, at any rate, is recorded to have appeared as an ordinary man to Abraham as he sat by the oak of Mamre; and Abraham, falling down at once, although he beheld a man with his eyes, yet worships him as God and supplicates him as Lord, and confesses that he is not ignorant who he is, saying in these very words: "Lord, thou that judgest all the earth, wilt thou not do judgement?"
For if no reason allows us to suppose that the unbegotten and unchangeable substance of God the Almighty was changed into the form of a man, or that it deceived the eyes of beholders with the appearance of some created thing, nor yet that the Scripture falsely fashions such things, then who else could be proclaimed as God and Lord that judges all the earth and executes judgement, seen in the shape of a man, save—if it be lawful to say it—the first cause of all things, or his pre-existent Word alone? Of whom it is also said in the Psalms, "He sent his Word, and healed them, and delivered them from their corruptions."
Him, the second Lord after the Father, Moses most clearly proclaims, saying, "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord." Him also the divine Scripture names as God when he appeared again in the shape of a man to Jacob, saying to Jacob, "Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name, because thou hast prevailed with God"—when Jacob also called the name of that place "the Vision of God," saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and my soul is saved."
Nor indeed is it lawful to suppose that these recorded theophanies were of subordinate angels and ministers of God, since whenever any of these appears to men, the Scripture does not conceal it, but says expressly that they are called angels by name, not God nor yet Lord—as it is easy to confirm by countless testimonies.
Him too Joshua, the successor of Moses, names "the commander of the host of the Lord," as being the leader of the heavenly angels and archangels and the supramundane powers, and as being, as it were, the Power and Wisdom of the Father, entrusted with the second place in the kingship and rule over all things—seeing him in no other way than again in the form and shape of a man.
For it is written: "And it came to pass, when Joshua was in Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and saw a man standing over against him, and his sword was drawn in his hand; and Joshua drew near and said, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said unto him, I am the commander of the host of the Lord; now am I come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and said unto him, Master, what dost thou command thy servant? And the commander of the Lord's host said to Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."
Here too you will perceive from the very words that this is none other than he who spoke also to Moses; for in these very words the Scripture says in his case also: "And when the Lord saw that he drew near to look, the Lord called him out of the bush, saying, 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 father, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob."
And that there is a certain pre-mundane substance, living and subsisting, which ministered to the Father and God of all things in the creation of all created things—the Word of God and Wisdom—besides the proofs already set down, it is possible to hear the very voice of Wisdom from her own person, where through Solomon she most plainly initiates us into the mysteries concerning herself somewhat thus: "I, Wisdom, made counsel my dwelling, and knowledge and understanding I called upon. By me kings reign, and the mighty decree justice; by me are the great magnified, and through me tyrants hold the earth."
To which she adds: "The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works; before the world he founded me; in the beginning, before he made the earth, before the springs of waters came forth, before the mountains were settled, and before all the hills he begets me. When he prepared the heaven, I was present with him; and when he laid sure the springs beneath the heaven, I was with him, harmonizing all things. I was she in whom he delighted day by day, and I rejoiced before him at every season, when he rejoiced at the completion of the world."
That, then, the divine Word existed beforehand and appeared to some, if not to all—let this be said by us in brief.
But why it was not preached of old, as it is now, to all men and all nations, will become evident from what follows. The life of men of old was not yet capable of receiving the all-wise and all-virtuous teaching of Christ.
For straightway in the beginning, after the first life in blessedness, the first man, having paid too little heed to the divine commandment, fell into this mortal and perishable life, and exchanged his former God-given delight for this accursed earth; and his descendants, who filled our whole world, showed themselves far worse, save one here and there, taking up a kind of brutish manner and an unlivable life.
Neither did they conceive in their minds city or polity, nor arts nor sciences; of laws and ordinances, and still more of virtue and philosophy, they had not so much as the name; but they lived as nomads in the wilderness, like wild and savage creatures, destroying by an excess of self-chosen wickedness the reasonings that belong to them by nature and the rational and gentle seeds of the human soul, giving themselves wholly over to every kind of impiety, so that now they corrupted one another, now slew one another, now devoured one another; venturing on wars against God and the battles of the giants noised abroad among all men; planning to wall up earth against heaven, and in the madness of a monstrous spirit preparing to make war on the supreme God himself.
For these things, since they brought such a manner of life upon themselves, God, the overseer of all, pursued them with floods and conflagrations as though it were a wild forest scattered over the whole earth; with continual famines and pestilences, with wars again and thunderbolts from on high he cut them off, restraining as it were a dread and most grievous disease of souls with the bitterer remedies of chastisement.
At that time, then, when the heavy stupor of wickedness lay poured out, all but over all men, like the torpor of a dread drunkenness overshadowing and darkening the souls of well-nigh all mankind, the first-born and first-created Wisdom of God, the pre-existent Word himself, in the excess of his love for men, at one time through visions of angels to those of lower rank, at another through himself, as the saving Power of God, showed himself to one and another of the God-beloved men of old—yet in no other way than through the form of a man, since it was not otherwise possible for them.
But when through these the seeds of godliness had been sown among a multitude of men, and a whole nation upon earth devoted to the worship of God arose, derived from the Hebrews of old, to these—as being still a multitude habituated to the ancient ways—he delivered, through the prophet Moses, images and symbols of a certain mystical Sabbath and of circumcision, and introductions to other intelligible truths, but not the clear initiations themselves.
But when their legislation became noised abroad and was spread like a fragrant breath to all men, then already, by reason of it, the dispositions of the greater part of the nations also were softened, through the lawgivers and philosophers everywhere; the wild and savage brutishness was changed into mildness, so that they enjoyed deep peace and friendship and intercourse with one another. Then at last, to all men now and to the nations throughout the world, as being already benefited beforehand and now fitted to receive the knowledge of the Father, that same teacher of the virtues, the Father's minister in all good things, the divine and heavenly Word of God, appearing through a man in no respect differing in the substance of his body from our own nature at the beginning of the Roman empire, did and suffered such things as accorded with the prophecies, which foretold that one who was at once man and God should sojourn in the world as a worker of marvellous deeds, and should be shown forth to all the nations as a teacher of the worship of the Father; foretelling also the marvel of his birth, the new teaching, the wonders of his works, and besides these the manner of his death, the resurrection from the dead, and above all his divine restoration to the heavens.
The prophet Daniel, at least, beholding by the divine Spirit his kingdom at the end, was thus inspired, describing the divine vision in rather human terms: "For I beheld," he says, "till thrones were set, and the Ancient of Days did sit. And his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head as pure wool; his throne was a flame of fire, his wheels burning fire; a river of fire issued before him. Thousand thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgement was set, and the books were opened."
And going on he says, "I beheld, and lo, with the clouds of heaven one coming as a Son of Man, and he came even to the Ancient of Days, and was brought near before him; and to him was given the rule and the honour and the kingdom, and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him. His authority is an everlasting authority, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom shall not be destroyed."
These things plainly could refer to none other than to our Saviour, the Word who was God with God in the beginning, called Son of Man because of his last assumption of manhood.
But since in our proper memoirs we have gathered the prophetic selections concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ, and have set forth more demonstratively in other works the things declared concerning him, for the present we shall be content with what has been said.
CHAPTER III
That the very name both of Jesus and indeed of Christ was held in honour among the God-beloved prophets themselves of old, it is now time to show.
Moses himself was the first to make known how revered and glorious beyond all else is the name of Christ. For when, in accordance with the oracle which said to him, "See that thou make all things according to the pattern shown thee in the mount," he delivered the types of heavenly things and symbols and mystic images, designating a high priest of God—so far as that was possible for a man—he proclaimed him Christ; and to this dignity of the high priesthood, which in his eyes surpassed every kind of pre-eminence among men, he attached, for honour and glory, the name of Christ: so well did he know Christ to be a thing divine.
The same Moses, foreseeing also by the divine Spirit the title of Jesus, again deemed it worthy of a certain peculiar privilege. The name of Jesus, which had never before been uttered among men until it was made known to Moses, Moses bestowed upon one man first and alone—him whom he knew would, as a type and symbol, succeed after his own death to the rule over all.
For not before had he called his successor by the name of Jesus; rather, he had been called by another name, Auses, which his parents had given him; but Moses himself proclaims him Jesus, bestowing the name upon him as an honoured gift, far greater than any royal diadem—because the very Jesus, son of Nave, bore the image of our Saviour, who alone, after Moses and the completion of the symbolic worship delivered through him, succeeded to the rule of the true and most pure religion.
Thus, then, did Moses attach the title of our Saviour Jesus Christ, for the greatest honour, to two men who in his time surpassed all the people in virtue and glory—the one the high priest, the other he who should lead after him.
And plainly the prophets who came after also foretold Christ by name, at once bearing witness to the conspiracy that should be raised against him by the people of the Jews, and at the same time to the calling of the nations through him. Now Jeremiah says somewhat thus: "The Spirit of our face, the Lord Christ, was taken in their corruptions, of whom we said, In his shadow we shall live among the nations." And David, at a loss, says through these words: "Why did the nations rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ." To which he adds, from the very person of the Christ: "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 ends of the earth for thy possession."
Now it was not those alone who were honoured with the high priesthood, and were anointed for the sake of the symbol with prepared oil, whom the name of Christ adorned among the Hebrews, but also the kings, whom the prophets, anointing them by a divine intimation, made into a kind of figurative Christs—because they too bore in themselves the types of the kingly and ruling authority of the one and true Christ, the divine Word who reigns over all.
And we have received that some even of the prophets themselves became, by anointing, Christs in figure, so that all these have their reference to the true Christ, the divine and heavenly Word, who is the only High Priest of all, the only King of every creation, and the only Chief Prophet of the Father among the prophets.
A proof of this is that none of those anointed of old by the symbol, neither priests nor kings nor prophets, acquired such power of divine virtue as our Saviour and Lord Jesus, the only and true Christ, has displayed.
None of them, at any rate, although for very many generations they shone in dignity and honour among their own people, ever named his subjects Christians from the figurative title of Christ that belonged to him; nor was reverent honour ever paid to any of them by their subjects; nor was there, after his death, such devotion that men were ready to die for the one honoured; nor was there ever, concerning any of those of that time, such a stirring among all the nations throughout the world—since the power of the symbol could not work in them so much as the manifestation of the truth, displayed through our Saviour, was able to do.
He received neither symbols nor types of high priesthood from anyone, nor was he descended in the body from a priestly line, nor was he advanced to a kingdom by the spears of men, nor did he become a prophet in like manner with those of old, nor did he obtain among the Jews any dignity or pre-eminence whatever; and yet with all these things, if not by the symbols, yet by the very truth itself, he had been adorned by the Father.
Therefore, having obtained things unlike those we have mentioned, he is the more proclaimed Christ than all of them; and, as being himself alone the true Christ of God, he has filled the whole world with Christians, who bear his truly august and sacred title, delivering to his devotees no longer types or images, but the naked virtues themselves and a heavenly life, together with the very doctrines of truth.
And the anointing—not that fashioned for bodies, but the very divine anointing of the Spirit—he received by partaking of the unbegotten and fatherly Godhead. This too Isaiah teaches, crying out somewhat thus as from Christ's own person: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore he hath anointed me; he hath sent me to preach good tidings to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind."
And not Isaiah alone, but David also speaks to his person, saying: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." In these words the passage in the first verse names him God, and in the second honours him with a royal sceptre,
and then, descending in order after the divine and kingly power, it presents him, in the third place, as having become Christ, anointed not with oil made from the substance of bodies, but with the divine oil of gladness; whereby it indicates his pre-eminence and how far superior and different he is from those of old who were anointed in figure, in a more bodily fashion.
And elsewhere the same David declares concerning him somewhat thus, saying: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet"; and, "From the womb before the morning star I have begotten thee. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."
Now this Melchizedek is introduced in the sacred writings as a priest of God Most High, designated by no prepared anointing, and not even belonging by succession of family to the priesthood among the Hebrews. Wherefore our Saviour is proclaimed Christ and priest, with the taking of an oath, after his order, and not after the order of the others who received symbols and types.
Whence also the history does not record that he was anointed in the body among the Jews, nor that he was of the tribe of those who held the priesthood, but rather that he was brought into being from God himself before the morning star—that is, before the foundation of the world—and that he holds the priesthood, immortal and ageless, for the boundless ages.
And a great and clear proof of the incorporeal and divine anointing wrought upon him is this: that he alone, of all who ever were, even to this day, is called Christ among all men throughout the whole world, and is confessed and witnessed to by all under that title, and is remembered both by Greeks and barbarians; and to this day he is honoured by his devotees throughout the world as a King, marvelled at as more than a prophet, and glorified as the true and only High Priest of God; and, above all this, as being the Word of God, pre-existent and brought into being before all ages, and having received the august honour from the Father, he is worshipped as God.
And the most marvellous thing of all is that we who are consecrated to him honour him not with the mere sound of voices and words, but with the whole disposition of the soul, so that we prefer the witness borne to him even before our own life.
CHAPTER IV
Let these things, then, be set down by me here of necessity, before the history, lest anyone should suppose that our Saviour and Lord Jesus the Christ is recent because of the times of his life in the flesh. And lest anyone should imagine that his teaching too is new and strange, as composed by a man who was recent and in nothing differing from the rest of mankind, come, let us treat briefly of this also.
For when the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ had but lately shone upon all men, a new nation, confessedly neither small nor weak nor settled in some corner of the earth, but of all nations the most populous and most god-fearing, and on that account indestructible and unconquerable—because it ever obtains help from God—suddenly so appeared, at the ineffable appointed seasons, this nation honoured among all by the title of Christ.
One of the prophets, too, was amazed at this, foreseeing with the eye of the divine Spirit that which was to be, so that he uttered these words: "Who hath heard such things, and who hath spoken thus? Did the earth travail in one day, and was a nation brought forth at once?" The same prophet also somewhat indicates the title that should be, saying: "And to those who serve me a new name shall be called, which shall be blessed upon the earth."
But although we are plainly new, and this is indeed a new name, the name of Christians, lately known among all the nations, yet the life and manner of conduct, with the principles of godliness, has not been recently invented by us, but was from the first creation of man, so to speak, upheld by the natural conceptions of the God-beloved men of old, as we shall here show.
The nation of the Hebrews is not new, but is honoured for its antiquity among all men, and is itself known to all. Now its writings and records contain ancient men, few in number indeed and scanty, yet excelling in godliness and righteousness and every other virtue—some before the Flood, others after it, of the sons and descendants of Noah, and above all Abraham, whom the children of the Hebrews boast as their founder and forefather.
If anyone should call all those who are attested for righteousness, from Abraham himself back to the first man, Christians in deed though not in name, he would not stray from the truth.
For that which the name would signify—that the Christian man, through the knowledge and teaching of Christ, is distinguished by temperance and righteousness, by endurance of life and manly virtue, and by the confession of one and the only God over all—all this was pursued by those men no less than by us.
They had no care, then, for circumcision of the body, even as neither have we; nor for the observance of Sabbaths, even as neither have we; nor for the avoidance of such-and-such foods, nor for the distinctions which Moses first of all delivered to those who came after, to be observed in symbols—even as neither now do Christians observe such things. But they knew the very Christ of God clearly, since it has been shown that he appeared to Abraham, gave oracles to Isaac, spoke to Israel, and conversed with Moses and the prophets who came after.
Whence you would find those very God-beloved men deemed worthy even of the title of Christ, according to the saying which says concerning them: "Touch not my Christs, and do my prophets no harm."
So that one must plainly hold that godliness, as it is now proclaimed to all nations through the teaching of Christ, is the first and most ancient and oldest discovery of those very God-beloved men about Abraham.
And if they say that Abraham received the commandment of circumcision much later, yet before this he is recorded to have been attested for righteousness through faith, the divine word saying somewhat thus: "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness."
And to him, being such a man before circumcision, an oracle was given by the God who manifested himself to him—and this was Christ himself, the Word of God—concerning those who in after times should be justified in the like manner with him; and it was promised beforehand in these very words, saying: "And in thee shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed"; and that "he shall become a great and numerous nation, and in him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."
And it is possible to perceive this fulfilled in us. For he was justified by faith in the Word of God who appeared to him, the Christ, having departed from the superstition of his fathers and from his former erring life, and having confessed one God over all, and served him by works of virtue and not by the observance of the law of Moses which came after; and to such a man it was said that all the tribes of the earth and all the nations should be blessed in him.
And by works more manifest than words, that very manner of the godliness of Abraham is now displayed, practised only among Christians throughout the whole world.
What, then, remains as a hindrance to confessing that there is one and the same life and manner of godliness for us who are of Christ and for the God-beloved men of old? So that it is shown that the godliness delivered to us through the teaching of Christ is not new and strange, but, if one must speak truly, the first and only and true achievement of religion. And let this suffice.
CHAPTER V
Come now, after the needful preparation for the ecclesiastical history we have set before us, let us at last set forth, as upon a kind of journey, beginning from the appearance of our Saviour in the flesh, having called upon God the Father of the Word, and the very Jesus Christ who has been declared, our Saviour and Lord, the heavenly Word of God, to be our helper and fellow-worker in the truth of the narrative.
It was, then, 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—in whom the dynasty of the Ptolemies in Egypt came to its end—when our Saviour and Lord Jesus the Christ, at the time of the first census, while Quirinius was governor of Syria, was born in Bethlehem of Judaea, in accordance with the prophecies concerning him.
Of this census under Quirinius, Flavius Josephus also, the most distinguished of the historians among the Hebrews, makes mention, adding besides another account concerning the sect of the Galileans which arose in those same times; of which Luke too among us has made mention in the Acts, saying somewhat thus: "After this man rose up Judas the Galilean in the days of the census, and drew away people after him; and he too perished, and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered."
With these things the writer above mentioned, agreeing in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, sets down the following in these very words: "Now Quirinius, one of those gathered into the senate, a man who had passed through the other offices and through them all had attained to be consul, and was in other respects great in dignity, came with a few to Syria, sent by Caesar as a dispenser of justice to the nation and to be assessor of their properties." And after a little he says:
"Judas, a Gaulanite, a man from a city named Gamala, having taken to himself Saddok, a Pharisee, was eager for revolt, saying that the assessment brought nothing else than downright slavery, and calling upon the nation to assert their freedom."
And in the second book of the Histories of the Jewish War he writes thus about the same man: "In his time a certain Galilean, Judas by name, incited the natives to revolt, reproaching them if they should submit to pay tribute to the Romans and, after God, endure mortal masters." So far Josephus.
CHAPTER VI
At that time also, when Herod, the first of foreign race, had taken over the kingdom of the nation of the Jews, the prophecy delivered through Moses received its fulfilment, which declared that there should not fail a ruler from Judah, nor a leader from his loins, until he come for whom it is reserved—whom it also declares shall be the expectation of the nations.
Now these things of the prediction remained unfulfilled during the time in which it was permitted them to live under rulers of their own nation, beginning from Moses himself above, and continuing down to the reign of Augustus; under whom Herod, the first foreigner, was entrusted by the Romans with the rule over the Jews. He was, as Josephus relates, an Idumaean by race on his father's side and an Arabian on his mother's; but as Africanus (and he too was no ordinary historian) reports, those who give an exact account of him say that Antipater—and he was Herod's father—was the son of a certain Herod of Ascalon, one of those called temple-slaves of the temple of Apollo;
which Antipater, taken captive as a child by Idumaean robbers, was with them, because his father, being poor, was unable to pay a ransom for him; and being brought up in their customs, he was afterwards befriended by Hyrcanus, the high priest of the Jews. Of him was born the Herod who lived in the days of our Saviour.
When, then, the kingdom of the Jews had come round to such a man, the expectation of the nations was now also at the doors, in accordance with the prophecy, since from that time those had failed who from Moses himself had ruled and governed them by succession.
For before their captivity and removal to Babylon they were ruled by kings, beginning from Saul first and David; and before the kings, rulers governed them, those called Judges, who themselves also ruled after Moses and his successor Joshua.
And after the return from Babylon they did not cease to use an aristocratic form of government with oligarchy—for the priests presided over affairs—until Pompey, a Roman general, came upon them and besieged Jerusalem by force, and defiled the holy things by advancing as far as the inmost sanctuary of the temple; and the one who by hereditary succession had continued down to that time as king and high priest together—his name was Aristobulus—he sent in chains to Rome together with his children, and delivered the high priesthood to Hyrcanus, his brother, and from that time made the whole nation of the Jews tributary to the Romans.
Forthwith, then, when Hyrcanus also, to whom the succession of the high priests had last come round, had been taken captive by the Parthians, Herod, the first, as I have said, of foreign race, was entrusted with the nation of the Jews by the senate of the Romans and by Augustus the emperor;
and in his time, the coming of Christ being clearly at hand, there followed also, in accordance with the prophecy, the expected salvation and calling of the nations. From which time, the rulers and leaders from Judah—I mean those of the nation of the Jews—having failed, there was naturally thrown into confusion among them the regular succession of the high priesthood, which had advanced steadily from their forefathers, generation by generation, to the nearest successors.
You have Josephus too as a trustworthy witness of these things, who shows that when Herod had been entrusted with the kingdom by the Romans, he no longer appointed high priests of the ancient line, but assigned the honour to certain obscure men; and that the like was done concerning the appointment of the priests by Archelaus his son, and after him by the Romans, when they took over the rule of the Jews.
The same writer shows that Herod was the first to shut up under his own seal the sacred robe of the high priest, no longer permitting the high priests to have it under their own control; and that the same was done by Archelaus after him, and by the Romans after him.
And let these things be said by us for the proof of another prophecy fulfilled at the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ. For most plainly in Daniel the word, having included by name a number of certain weeks up to "Christ the ruler"—concerning which we have treated elsewhere—prophesies that after the completion of these the anointing among the Jews should be utterly destroyed; and this is plainly shown to have been fulfilled at the time of the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Let these things, then, be observed by us beforehand of necessity, for the establishment of the truth of the times.
CHAPTER VII
Since both Matthew and Luke have delivered to us in their Gospels the genealogy of Christ in different ways, and they are thought by many to disagree, and each of the faithful, in ignorance of the truth, has been zealous to invent explanations of these passages, come, let us set forth the account concerning these matters which has come down to us, which Africanus, of whom we made mention a little before, recorded in a letter written to Aristides concerning the harmony of the genealogy in the Gospels. Having refuted the opinions of the rest as forced and false, he sets forth the account which he himself had received in these very words:
"For since the names of the families in Israel were reckoned either by nature or by law—by nature, by the succession of genuine offspring; by law, when another begot a child in the name of a brother who had died childless (for because no clear hope of resurrection had yet been given, they imitated the future promise by a mortal resurrection, that the name of the departed might not fail)—
since, then, of those who are comprised in this genealogy, some succeeded their fathers as genuine sons, while others were begotten of some men but reckoned to others by name, mention was made of both—both of those who begot and of those who were as though they had begotten. Thus neither of the Gospels speaks falsely, reckoning both by nature and by law.
For the families were interwoven with one another, both that from Solomon and that from Nathan, by the raisings up of seed for the childless, and by second marriages, and by the raising up of seed, so that the same men are rightly reckoned at one time as sons of some, at another of others—of fathers in appearance, and of fathers in reality; so that both narratives are strictly true, coming down to Joseph in an intricate but accurate manner.
But that what is said may be clear, I will explain the interchange of the families. If one reckons the generations from David through Solomon, Matthan is found third from the end, who begot Jacob, the father of Joseph; but from Nathan the son of David, according to Luke, likewise third from the end is Melchi: for Joseph was the son of Heli, the son of Melchi.
Joseph, then, being our aim, it must be shown how each is recorded as his father—both Jacob who traces his descent from Solomon, and Heli who traces his from Nathan—and how first these two, Jacob and Heli, were brothers, and before that, how their fathers, Matthan and Melchi, being of different families, are shown to be the grandfathers of Joseph.
Now Matthan and Melchi, having in turn married the same woman, begot brothers of the same mother, since the law did not forbid a widow, whether divorced or whose husband had died, to be married to another.
Of Estha, then (for this, it is handed down, was the woman's name), first Matthan, who traced his descent from Solomon, begot Jacob; and when Matthan had died, Melchi, who is referred by descent to Nathan, being of the same tribe but of a different family, as I said before, married her, then a widow, and had a son, Heli.
Thus we shall find Jacob and Heli, of two different families, brothers of the same mother. Of these the one, Jacob, when his brother Heli had died childless, took his wife and begot of her a third, Joseph—by nature his own son (and according to the reckoning, on account of which it is written, 'Jacob begot Joseph'), but by law the son of Heli; for Jacob, being his brother, raised up seed to him. Wherefore the genealogy concerning him shall not be made void;
which Matthew the evangelist sets forth in detail, saying, 'Jacob begot Joseph'; but Luke, on the contrary, 'who was, as was supposed' (for he too adds this), 'the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Melchi.' For it was not possible to express the birth according to law more distinctly; and he kept silent to the end the word 'begot' in such a begetting, carrying back the reckoning up to 'Adam, the son of God,' by way of resolution.
Nor is this incapable of proof, or hastily devised. For the kinsmen of the Saviour after the flesh, whether out of ostentation or simply by way of teaching, but in any case speaking truly, have handed down these things also: that Idumaean robbers, coming upon Ascalon, a city of Palestine, carried off captive from a temple of Apollo, which was set near the walls, along with the other plunder, Antipater, the son of a certain Herod, a temple-slave; and the priest being unable to pay the ransom for his son, Antipater was brought up in the customs of the Idumaeans, and afterwards was befriended by Hyrcanus, the high priest of Judaea;
and having gone on an embassy to Pompey on behalf of Hyrcanus, and having freed for him the kingdom which was being cut short by his brother Aristobulus, he himself prospered, being styled procurator of Palestine. And Antipater, treacherously slain through envy of his great prosperity, was succeeded by his son Herod, who afterwards was adjudged by Antony and the august senate, by decree, to reign over the Jews. His sons were Herod and the other tetrarchs. These things, indeed, are common also to the histories of the Greeks.
But since the families of the Hebrews were recorded down to that time in the archives, and those traced back as far as the proselytes—such as Achior the Ammanite and Ruth the Moabitess, and those mixed peoples who came out together from Egypt—Herod, since the race of the Israelites contributed nothing to him, and pricked by the consciousness of his ignoble birth, burned the records of their families, supposing that he would appear of noble birth if no other could trace his descent from a public document to the patriarchs, or to the proselytes and those called geiorae, the mixed multitude.
A few of the careful, then, having made private records for themselves, either remembering the names or otherwise possessing them from copies, pride themselves on the preservation of the memory of their noble birth. Among these were the aforesaid, called Desposyni, on account of their connection with the family of the Saviour; and these, from the Jewish villages of Nazara and Cochaba, went forth into the rest of the land and expounded the foregoing genealogy from the Book of Days, so far as they were able.
Whether, then, it be so or otherwise, no one else could find a clearer explanation, as I myself think, and as does every man who is kindly-minded; and let this account be our concern, even though it is unattested, since we have nothing better or truer to say. The Gospel, at any rate, is in every way true."
And at the end of the same letter he adds these things: "Matthan, descended from Solomon, begot Jacob. Matthan having died, Melchi, descended from Nathan, begot Heli of the same woman. Heli and Jacob, then, are brothers of the same mother. Heli having died childless, Jacob raised up seed to him, begetting Joseph—by nature his own, but by law the son of Heli. Thus Joseph was the son of both."
So far Africanus. And now that the genealogy of Joseph has been thus set forth, Mary too is virtually shown to be of the same tribe as he, since by the law of Moses it was not permitted to marry into other tribes; for the law commands that a man be joined in marriage to one of the same district and the same family, that the inheritance of the family might not be shifted from tribe to tribe. Let this, then, suffice for these matters.
CHAPTER VIII
But when Christ had been born, in accordance with the prophecies, in Bethlehem of Judaea at the times indicated, Herod, on the inquiry of the Magi from the East, who asked where was he that was born King of the Jews—for they had seen his star, and this had been to them the cause of so long a journey, in their eagerness to worship as God the one who was born—was not a little disturbed at the matter, as supposing his rule to be in peril; and having inquired of the teachers of the law among the nation where they expected the Christ to be born, when he learned that the prophecy of Micah foretold it would be in Bethlehem, he commanded by a single edict that the infants in Bethlehem and in all its borders, from two years old and under, according to the time exactly ascertained by him from the Magi, should be put to death—supposing that Jesus too, as was likely, would share the same calamity with his coevals.
But the child anticipated the plot, being carried away into Egypt, his parents having learned beforehand what was to come through the appearing of an angel. These things indeed the sacred Scripture of the Gospel also teaches;
and it is worth while, in addition to these things, to observe the requital of Herod's audacity against Christ and the children of like age with him: how at once, with no slight delay, the divine justice overtook him while still living in this life, foreshowing the prelude of what should receive him after his departure hence.
How, then, he darkened the prosperities he supposed himself to enjoy in his reign by the successive calamities in his house, by the murders of wife and children and the rest of those nearest in kin and dearest to him, it is not even possible now to recount, for the subject concerning these things overshadows all tragic drama, which Josephus has set forth at large in the histories about him.
But how, immediately upon the plot against our Saviour and the other infants, a divinely-sent scourge laid hold of him and drove him to death, it is not amiss to hear from the words of the writer himself, who in the seventeenth book of the Jewish Antiquities writes the catastrophe of his life in this manner: "But upon Herod the disease grew more grievous, God exacting the penalty for the lawless deeds he had committed.
For there was a slow fire, not so much betraying its heat to those who touched as adding to the inward harm; and a terrible craving to receive something, nor was it possible but to minister to it; and an ulceration of the bowels, and especially dreadful pains of the colon, and a moist and transparent phlegm about the feet;
and there was a like affliction about the abdomen; nay more, a putrefaction of the privy member, breeding worms; and an erect tension of the breath, itself exceedingly distressing both by the offence of its odour and by the frequency of the gasping; and he was convulsed in every part, with a strength beyond endurance.
It was said, at any rate, by the diviners and by those whose wisdom it is to foretell such things, that God was exacting this as a penalty from the king for his great impiety." These things the writer above mentioned notes in the work indicated;
and in the second book of the Histories he hands down the like concerning the same man, writing somewhat thus: "Thereupon the disease, seizing his whole body, divided it among manifold sufferings. For there was a lukewarm fever, and an intolerable itching of the whole surface, and continual pains of the colon; about the feet swellings as of a man with dropsy; an inflammation of the abdomen, and a putrefaction of the privy member, breeding worms; besides these, difficulty of breathing both upright and otherwise, and convulsions of all the limbs, so that the diviners said the diseases were a penalty.
But he, wrestling with so many sufferings, nevertheless clung to life, and hoped for recovery, and devised remedies. So he crossed the Jordan and made use of the hot springs at Callirhoe; these flow out into the Asphalt Lake, and from their sweetness are even drinkable.
The physicians here resolving to warm his whole body again with hot oil, he was let down, his strength relaxed, into a bath full of oil, and his eyes failed and rolled back as of one fainting. A tumult arising among the attendants, he recovered at the shock; but for the rest, despairing of recovery, he commanded that fifty drachmas be distributed to the soldiers, and much money to the commanders and his friends.
He himself, returning, came to Jericho, now grown melancholy and all but threatening death itself; and he advanced to the plotting of an unlawful deed. For having gathered from all Judaea the men of note from each village into the place called the hippodrome, he commanded that they be shut up,
and summoning Salome his sister and her husband Alexas, he said: 'I know that the Jews will keep festival at my death; but I can be mourned through others, and have a splendid funeral, if you will consent to obey my commands. These men under guard, as soon as I have breathed my last, kill them with all speed, setting the soldiers about them, that all Judaea and every house may weep over me even against their will.'"
And after a little he says again: "And indeed, distressed by want of food and a convulsive cough, and overcome by the pains, he set himself to anticipate his destiny. Taking an apple, he asked also for a knife; for he was wont to cut and eat. Then, looking round lest anyone should hinder him, he raised his right hand as though to strike himself."
In addition to these things the same writer relates that he had another of his own genuine sons put to death by command, before the very end of his life—a third already, after two previously slain—and straightway broke off his life, not without grievous pains.
And such was the end of Herod's death, having paid a just penalty for the children he had slain about Bethlehem on account of his plot against our Saviour; after which an angel, appearing in a dream to Joseph as he tarried in Egypt, bade him depart with the child and his mother to Judaea, declaring that those who sought the child's life were dead. To this the evangelist adds, saying: "But when he heard that Archelaus reigned in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither; and being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the parts of Galilee."
CHAPTER IX
With the establishment of Archelaus in the rule after Herod, the historian above mentioned agrees, recording both the manner in which he succeeded to the kingdom over the Jews by the testaments of his father Herod and the decision of Caesar Augustus, and how, when after a ten-year period he fell from his rule, his brothers Philip and the younger Herod, together with Lysanias, governed their own tetrarchies.
The same writer, in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, shows that in the twelfth year of the reign of Tiberius—for he succeeded to the rule over all when Augustus had held the government fifty-seven years—Pontius Pilate was entrusted with Judaea, and that he remained there for almost ten whole years, nearly until the death of Tiberius.
So then the fabrication of those who have but yesterday and lately put forth memoirs against our Saviour is clearly refuted, in which the very date of the notation first convicts the falsehood of those who forged them.
For the things they have ventured concerning the saving Passion they place in the fourth consulship of Tiberius, which fell in the seventh year of his reign; at which time it is shown that Pilate had not yet been set over Judaea—if indeed one must use Josephus as a witness, who clearly indicates thus in the writing of his already mentioned, that in the twelfth year of the reign of Tiberius Pilate was appointed procurator of Judaea by Tiberius.
CHAPTER X
In their time, then, according to the evangelist, when Tiberius Caesar was in the fifteenth year and Pontius Pilate in the fourth of his governorship, and when Herod and Lysanias and Philip were tetrarchs of the rest of Judaea, our Saviour and Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, being about thirty years old, came to the baptism of John, and then made the beginning of his preaching according to the Gospel.
The divine Scripture says that he carried on the whole time of his teaching under the high priest Annas and Caiaphas, showing that within the years of their ministry the whole time of his teaching was completed. Beginning, then, under the high priesthood of Annas, and continuing to the rule of Caiaphas, the intervening time does not amount to four full years.
For since the ordinances according to the law were even then being in some sort abolished, that abrogation was loosed by which the offices pertaining to the worship of God belonged to a man for life and by hereditary succession; and now, by the Roman governors, different men at different times were entrusted with the high priesthood,
and they continued in it not more than a single year. Josephus relates, at any rate, that four high priests in succession down to Caiaphas held office after Annas, saying somewhat thus in the same writing of the Antiquities: "Valerius Gratus, having put an end to the priesthood of Ananus, declares Ishmael, the son of Phabi, high priest; and removing him also after no long time, he appoints Eleazar, the son of Ananus the high priest, to be high priest. And when a year had passed, he put an end to him also,
and delivered the high priesthood to Simon, the son of Camithus. But to this man too no longer than a year fell the holding of the honour; and Joseph, who is also called Caiaphas, was his successor."
So then the whole time of our Saviour's teaching is shown to be not even a full four years, since within four years four high priests, from Annas to the appointment of Caiaphas, had each fulfilled a yearly ministry. And the Gospel naturally noted Caiaphas as high priest of the year in which the things of the saving Passion were accomplished; and from this very fact the time of Christ's teaching is shown to be not out of accord with the foregoing observation.
But indeed our Saviour and Lord, not long after the beginning of his preaching, calls together the twelve apostles, whom alone, of all the rest of his disciples, by a certain peculiar privilege he named apostles; and again he appoints other seventy, whom also he sent two by two before his face into every place and city whither he himself was about to come.
CHAPTER XI
Not long after, when John the Baptist had been beheaded by the younger Herod, the divine Scripture of the Gospels makes mention; and Josephus also bears witness with it, naming Herodias by name, and saying that Herod took her, the wife of his brother, to wife, having put away the woman who had first been lawfully married to him (this was the daughter of Aretas, king of the Petraeans), and having separated Herodias from her husband while he yet lived—on whose account he both slew John and took up war against Aretas, as one whose daughter had been dishonoured;
in which war, when battle was joined, he says that the whole army of Herod was destroyed, and that he suffered this on account of the plot that had been made against John.
The same Josephus, confessing John to have been a most righteous man and a baptizer, bears witness in agreement with the things written concerning him according to the Scripture of the Gospels; and he relates also that Herod fell from his kingdom on account of this same Herodias, with whom he was driven into exile, condemned to dwell at Vienna, a city of Gaul.
And these things are set forth by him in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities, where he writes thus, in these very syllables, concerning John: "Now to some of the Jews it seemed that the army of Herod had perished at the hand of God, who very justly avenged the penalty of John, called the Baptist.
For Herod slew him, a good man, and one who bade the Jews, practising virtue and using righteousness toward one another and godliness toward God, to come together for baptism. For so indeed would the baptism appear acceptable to him, if used not for the deprecation of certain sins, but for the purity of the body, since the soul had already been cleansed beforehand by righteousness.
And when others gathered together—for they were greatly stirred by the hearing of his words—Herod, fearing his persuasiveness with men carried so far, lest it might lead to some revolt (for they seemed likely to do everything by his counsel), thought it much better, before any new thing should be done by him, to forestall and slay him, than, when a change had come, to fall into troubles and repent. And he, on Herod's suspicion, was sent in bonds to Machaerus, the fortress before mentioned, and there put to death."
Having gone through these things concerning John, he makes mention of our Saviour also in the same writing of his history somewhat thus: "Now about this time arose Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man; for he was a doer of marvellous works, a teacher of men who receive the truth with pleasure, and he drew to himself many both of the Jews and of the Greeks.
This was the Christ. And when, on the indictment of the leading men among us, Pilate had condemned him to the cross, those who had first loved him did not cease; for he appeared to them alive again on the third day, the divine prophets having spoken these and ten thousand other marvels concerning him. And even to this day the tribe of Christians, named from him, has not failed."
Since, then, the writer from among the Hebrews themselves has from of old delivered in his own writing these things concerning both John the Baptist and our Saviour, what refuge remains for escaping the conviction of shamelessness for those who have fabricated the memoirs against them? But let this suffice.
CHAPTER XII
The naming of the apostles of the Saviour is clear to everyone from the Gospels; but of the seventy disciples no list anywhere is extant. It is said, at any rate, that one of them was Barnabas, of whom both the Acts of the Apostles have made mention in various places, and not least Paul writing to the Galatians. They say that Sosthenes too was of these, who wrote with Paul to the Corinthians;
and the account is in Clement, in the fifth book of the Hypotyposes. In this he says that Cephas, concerning whom Paul says, "But when Cephas came to Antioch, I withstood him to the face," was one of the seventy disciples, having the same name as Peter the apostle.
And the account holds that Matthias too, who was reckoned among the apostles in the room of Judas, and the one who was honoured with him by the like vote, were deemed worthy of the same calling as the seventy. And they say that Thaddaeus also was one of these, concerning whom I shall presently set forth an account that has come down to us.
And you would find, on observation, that there appeared more than seventy disciples of the Saviour, using Paul as a witness, who says that after the resurrection from the dead he appeared first to Cephas, then to the twelve, and after these to above five hundred brethren at once, of whom he said some had fallen asleep, but the greater part were still living at the time when these things were composed by him;
and then he says that he appeared to James—and this James too was one of those reckoned brethren of the Saviour—then, as in addition to these, after the manner of the twelve, very many having become apostles, such as Paul himself also was, he adds, saying, "Then he appeared to all the apostles." So much, then, concerning these.
CHAPTER XIII
The account concerning Thaddaeus was of this manner. The divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, being noised abroad among all men on account of his wonder-working power, drew countless multitudes even of those in foreign lands far from Judaea, in the hope of healing from diseases and sufferings of every kind.
In this way King Abgar, who ruled with great distinction over the nations beyond the Euphrates, being wasted in body by a dread suffering, incurable so far as human power went, when he heard of the name of Jesus and of his powers, attested with one accord by all, became his suppliant, sending by a letter-bearer and asking to obtain release from his disease.
But he, not obeying at the time when he was called, yet deigned to send him a letter of his own, promising to send one of his disciples for the healing of his disease, together with salvation for himself and all his kin.
And not long after the promise was fulfilled to him. For after his resurrection from the dead and his ascent into the heavens, Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, by a divine impulse sent forth to Edessa Thaddaeus—who himself was reckoned among the number of the seventy disciples of Christ—as a herald and evangelist of the teaching concerning Christ; and through him all the things of our Saviour's promise received their fulfilment.
You have also a written testimony of these things, taken from the record-offices at Edessa, which was then a royal city. For in the public documents there, which contain the ancient things and the deeds about Abgar, these things too are found preserved from that time even until now. And nothing is so good as to hear the letters themselves, taken up by us from the archives and translated word for word in this manner from the Syriac tongue.
COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY ABGAR THE TOPARCH TO JESUS AND SENT TO HIM BY THE COURIER ANANIAS TO JERUSALEM: "Abgar Uchama, the toparch, to Jesus the good Saviour, who has appeared in the region of Jerusalem, greeting. I have heard concerning thee and thy cures, that they are wrought by thee without drugs and herbs. For, as the report goes, thou makest the blind see again, the lame walk, and cleansest lepers, and castest out unclean spirits and demons, and healest those tormented in long sickness, and raisest the dead.
And having heard all these things concerning thee, I set it in my mind that it is one of the two: either that thou art God, and having come down from heaven doest these things, or thou art the Son of God who doest these things.
For this cause, therefore, I have written to entreat thee to take the trouble to come to me, and to heal the suffering which I have.
For I have heard also that the Jews murmur against thee and wish to do thee harm. But I have a city, very small indeed and venerable, which suffices for us both."
THE ANSWER WRITTEN BY JESUS THROUGH THE COURIER ANANIAS TO ABGAR THE TOPARCH: "Blessed art thou who hast believed in me, not having seen me. For it is written concerning me, that those who have seen me will not believe in me, and that those who have not seen me will themselves believe and live. But concerning what thou hast written to me, that I should come to thee, it is needful that I fulfil here all the things for which I was sent, and after I have fulfilled them, so to be taken up to him who sent me. And when I have been taken up, I will send to thee one of my disciples, that he may heal thy suffering and give life to thee and to those with thee."
To these letters there was further appended the following in the Syriac tongue: "After Jesus had been taken up, Judas, who is also Thomas, sent to him Thaddaeus the apostle, one of the seventy; who, coming, lodged with Tobias, the son of Tobias. And when it was heard concerning him, it was reported to Abgar that an apostle of Jesus had come there, even as he had written to thee.
Thaddaeus, then, began in the power of God to heal every disease and weakness, so that all marvelled. And when Abgar heard of the mighty and marvellous deeds he did, and how he healed, he came to the suspicion that this was he concerning whom Jesus had written, saying, 'When I have been taken up, I will send to thee one of my disciples, who shall heal thy suffering.'
So summoning Tobias, with whom he lodged, he said: 'I have heard that a certain mighty man has come and lodged in thy house; bring him up to me.' And Tobias, coming to Thaddaeus, said to him: 'The toparch Abgar, summoning me, said that I should bring thee up to him, that thou mightest heal him.' And Thaddaeus said, 'I go up, since I have been sent to him with power.'
So Tobias, rising early the next day, and taking Thaddaeus, came to Abgar. And when he went up, the great men of his court being present and standing by, straightway as he entered a great vision appeared to Abgar in the face of the apostle Thaddaeus; and Abgar, seeing it, did obeisance to Thaddaeus, and amazement seized all who stood around; for they did not see the vision, which appeared to Abgar alone.
He asked Thaddaeus also: 'Art thou in truth a disciple of Jesus the Son of God, who said to me, I will send thee one of my disciples, who shall heal thee and give thee life?' And Thaddaeus said: 'Since thou hast greatly believed in him who sent me, for this cause I have been sent to thee. And again, if thou believest in him, the requests of thy heart shall be to thee as thou believest.'
And Abgar said to him: 'So have I believed in him, that I wished to take a force and destroy the Jews who crucified him, had I not been hindered from this by the Roman empire.' And Thaddaeus said: 'Our Lord has fulfilled the will of his Father, and having fulfilled it has been taken up to the Father.'
Abgar says to him: 'I too have believed in him and in his Father.' And Thaddaeus said: 'For this cause I lay my hand upon thee in his name.' And when he had done this, straightway he was healed of the disease and the suffering which he had.
And Abgar marvelled that, even as he had heard concerning Jesus, so in very deed he had received it through his disciple Thaddaeus, who had healed him without drugs and herbs—and not only him, but also Abdus the son of Abdus, who had the gout; who also, coming and falling at his feet, and receiving prayer by the laying on of hands, was healed. And the same man healed many others of their fellow-citizens, doing wonderful and great deeds, and preaching the word of God.
After these things Abgar said: 'Thou, Thaddaeus, doest these things by the power of God, and we ourselves have marvelled. But besides this I beg of thee, recount to me concerning the coming of Jesus, how it came to pass, and concerning his power, and by what power he did these things which I have heard.'
And Thaddaeus said: 'For now I will keep silence; but since I have been sent to preach the word, assemble for me tomorrow all thy citizens, and before them I will preach and sow among them the word of life: concerning the coming of Jesus, how it came to pass; and concerning his mission, and for what cause he was sent by the Father; and concerning his power and his works, and the mysteries which he spoke in the world, and by what power he did these things; and concerning his new preaching; and concerning his lowliness and his humiliation, and how he humbled himself and laid aside and made small his divinity, and was crucified, and descended into Hades, and cleft asunder the partition that from the beginning had not been cleft, and raised up the dead, and descended alone, but ascended with a great multitude to his Father.'
So Abgar commanded that in the morning his citizens should be gathered together and should hear the preaching of Thaddaeus; and after this he gave order that gold and coined silver be given to him. But he did not receive it, saying: 'If we have left our own things, how shall we take what belongs to others?'
These things were done in the year three hundred and forty." And these things, translated word for word from the Syriac tongue, let them be set down here by me, not unprofitably, in due season.