Church History (Book 2 – Book 3)

Church History

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Chapter 10

Agrippa, Who Was Also Called Herod, Having Persecuted the Apostles, Immediately Experienced the Divine Vengeance.

1 The king’s attack on the apostles did not go unpunished for long. The agent of divine justice, the avenger, went after him right away, immediately after his plot against the apostles, as the Acts of the Apostles records. He had gone down to Caesarea. There, on a notable feast day, he put on splendid royal clothing and made a public speech from a high seat in front of the tribunal. All the people applauded the speech as the voice of a god and not of a man. The Scripture records that at once an angel of the Lord struck him, and he was eaten by worms and died.^[31] [Acts 12:21-23] 3 It is worth marveling that Josephus’s account agrees with the divine Scripture even in this astonishing event. In the nineteenth book of his *Antiquities* he plainly bears witness to the truth, and he tells the wonder in these very words: “He had now completed the third year of his reign over all Judea, and he came to the city of Caesarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tower. There he put on spectacles in honor of Caesar, since he understood that this was a festival kept for Caesar’s well-being. A great crowd had gathered for it, made up of the leading men of the province and those of high rank.^[32]

5 “On the second day of the spectacles he put on a robe made entirely of silver, of marvelous workmanship, and came into the theater at the start of the day. There the silver was lit by the first strokes of the sun’s rays and shone wonderfully. It gleamed so brightly that it was fearful and made those who gazed at it shudder. At once his flatterers cried out from one place and another, in words that did him no good, calling him a god. They added, ‘Be gracious to us. Until now we have feared you as a man, but from now on we confess that you are above mortal nature.’ 7 “The king did not rebuke them, and he did not turn away their impious flattery. But a little later he looked up and saw an angel sitting above his head. He understood at once that this angel, who had once been a bringer of good things, was now the cause of evil, and a pain pierced him to the heart. Then a sudden pain gripped his belly, beginning with great violence. He looked at his friends and said, ‘I, your god, am now ordered to end my life. Fate is immediately proving false the words you have just spoken about me. I, who was called immortal by you, am now being dragged off to die. But we must accept the destiny God has willed. For we have lived no ordinary life, but one of the kind men call blessed splendor.’ While he said this he was overcome by the growing pain.

8 “He was quickly carried to the palace, and word spread to everyone that he would certainly die before long. At once the whole crowd, with their wives and children, sat down in sackcloth in the manner of their fathers and begged God for the king. Everything was full of wailing and lamentation. The king lay in an upper room, and when he looked down and saw them throwing themselves face down on the ground, he could not keep from weeping himself. 10 “He suffered constantly from the pain in his belly for five days, and then ended his life. He was fifty-four years old, in the seventh year of his reign. He had reigned four years under Gaius Caesar: three years over the tetrarchy of Philip, and in the fourth year he took over Herod’s as well. Then he reigned three more years under the emperor Claudius.” I marvel that Josephus, in this as in other matters, agrees with the divine Scriptures. If anyone thinks there is a disagreement over the king’s name, the time and the events show that it is the same man. Either the name was changed by a copyist’s mistake, or the man had two names, as many people do.^[33]

Chapter 11

The Impostor Theudas and His Followers.

2 Luke again, in Acts, has Gamaliel say, in the discussion about the apostles, that at the time in question Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. He was destroyed, and all who had obeyed him were scattered. So let us set beside it what Josephus wrote about this man. In the work just mentioned he tells the following story, word for word: “While Fadus was governor of Judea, a certain charlatan named Theudas persuaded the great majority of the crowd to take their belongings and follow him to the river Jordan. He said he was a prophet, and that at his command he would split the river and give them an easy way across. By saying this he deceived many.^[34] [Acts 5:36] 3 “But Fadus did not let them enjoy their folly. He sent a squadron of cavalry against them. It fell on them unexpectedly, killing many and taking many alive. They captured Theudas himself alive, cut off his head, and brought it to Jerusalem.” Next to this Josephus also mentions the famine that happened under Claudius, in these words:

Chapter 12

Helen, the Queen of the Osrhoenians.

2 Besides these things, the great famine also came upon Judea. During it Queen Helen bought grain from Egypt at great cost and distributed it to those in need. You will find this agrees with the Acts of the Apostles. That book says that the disciples at Antioch, each according to his means, decided to send help to those living in Judea. They did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Paul. [Acts 11:28-30] 3 Of this Helen, whom the historian mentioned, splendid monuments are still shown in the suburbs of what is now Aelia. She is said to have been queen of the people of Adiabene.^[35]

Chapter 13

Simon Magus.

2 By now faith in our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ had spread to all people. But the enemy of human salvation plotted to seize the imperial city first. He brought there the Simon mentioned earlier, and by assisting the man’s skillful sorceries he won over many of the people living in Rome and led them into error. Not long after the apostles, Justin, who was distinguished among the writers of our own faith, makes this clear. I will say what is fitting about him at the proper time. Take his writing and read it for me, from the first Apology he addressed to Antoninus in defense of our teaching. He writes as follows: 3 “After the Lord’s ascension into heaven, the demons put forward certain men who said they were gods. Not only were they not persecuted by you, they were even thought worthy of honors. One was a Samaritan named Simon, from a village called Gitton. In the reign of Claudius Caesar, through the art of the demons at work in him, he performed magical feats in your royal city of Rome and was regarded as a god. He has been honored by you with a statue, as a god, in the river Tiber between the two bridges. It carries this inscription in Latin: SIMONI DEO SANCTO, that is, ‘To Simon, holy god.’^[36]

5 “Almost all the Samaritans, and a few people in other nations, acknowledge him as the first God and worship him. They also say that a certain Helena, who traveled about with him at that time, and who had previously stood in a brothel in Tyre of Phoenicia, was the first thought that came forth from him.” So far Justin. Irenaeus agrees with him in the first book of his work Against Heresies. There he sets out the facts about the man and his impious and defiled teaching. It would be pointless to list that teaching here. Those who wish can learn the origins, the lives and the false doctrines of the later founders of heresies, one by one, together with the practices all of them cultivated. Irenaeus gives these in that book, and not as a passing matter.^[37] 6 We have received the tradition that Simon was the first leader of every heresy. From his time until now, those who follow his heresy pretend to hold the sober philosophy of the Christians, which is famous among all people for its purity of life. Yet they go back to the superstition about idols that they seemed to have left. They fall down before pictures and images of Simon himself and of the Helena mentioned with him, and they undertake to worship them with incense, sacrifices and drink offerings.

8 Their still more secret teachings are said to astonish anyone who hears them for the first time. According to a saying they have in writing, he will be “amazed.” In truth these teachings are full of amazement, loss of mind and madness. They are of such a kind that they cannot be put in writing, and decent men cannot even speak of them aloud, because of their extreme shamefulness and unspeakable character. Whatever the most defiled thing might be, or might be imagined, this most abominable heresy has gone beyond it all. They make sport of wretched women who are loaded down with every kind of evil.

Chapter 14

The Preaching of the Apostle Peter in Rome.

2 At that time the wicked power that hates what is good and plots against human salvation set up Simon as the father and author of such evils. He was meant to be a great opponent of the great and inspired apostles of our Saviour. Nevertheless, the divine and heavenly grace worked together with its own servants. By their appearing and their presence it quickly put out the evil flame that was being kindled. Through them it humbled and cast down every height raised up against the knowledge of God.^[38] [2 Corinthians 10:5] 4 For this reason, neither Simon nor anyone else who arose at that time was able to build up any faction against the apostles themselves in those apostolic days. The light of the truth overcame and overpowered everything. The divine Word himself had only just shone from God upon humanity; he was flourishing on earth and living as a citizen among his own apostles. At once the sorcerer I have mentioned was struck in the eyes of his mind, as if by a divine and astonishing flash of light. He had first been caught in his wickedness in Judea by the apostle Peter. Now he set out on a very long journey across the sea, from the East to the West, and fled, thinking that only in this way could he live as he wished.^[39]

6 When he reached the city of Rome, the power that lay in wait there helped him mightily. In a short time his undertaking succeeded so well that the people there honored him as a god by setting up a statue. But this did not last long. Right away, in the reign of Claudius, the all-good and most loving providence over all things led Peter to Rome. He was the strong and great apostle, the spokesman for all the rest because of his courage, and he was sent against such a destroyer of life. Like a noble general of God, armed with divine weapons, he brought the priceless merchandise of the light of the mind from the East to those in the West. He brought the light itself and the word that saves souls, announcing the good news and preaching the kingdom of heaven.

Chapter 15

The Gospel According to Mark.

1 So when the divine Word had come to stay among them, Simon’s power was put out, and it was destroyed at once together with the man himself. But the light of true religion shone so brightly on the minds of Peter’s hearers that they were not content to have heard it once. Nor were they satisfied with the unwritten teaching of the divine message. They pleaded with Mark, whose Gospel is still with us and who was a follower of Peter, with every kind of appeal, to leave them a written record of the teaching that had been handed on to them by word of mouth. They did not stop until they had won the man over, and so they became the cause of the writing of the Gospel called the Gospel according to Mark. 2 They say that the apostle learned what had been done when the Spirit revealed it to him. He was pleased with the eagerness of these men and authorized the writing to be read in the churches. Clement gives this account in the sixth book of his Hypotyposes, and Papias, the bishop of Hierapolis, also bears witness to it. They say too that Peter mentions Mark in his first letter, which they say he composed in Rome itself. He indicates this by calling the city Babylon in a figurative way, in these words: “The church in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you, and so does Mark, my son.”^[40] [1 Peter 5:13]

Chapter 16

Mark First Proclaimed Christianity to the Inhabitants of Egypt.

They say that this Mark was the first to be sent to Egypt. He preached the Gospel that he had also written down, and he was the first to establish churches in Alexandria itself. From the very first attempt, so great a crowd of men and women there came to believe, living by a most philosophical and strict discipline, that Philo thought it worth writing an account of their gatherings and meetings, their common meals, and their whole way of life.

Chapter 17

Philo's Account of the Ascetics of Egypt.

2 There is a report that Philo came into conversation with Peter in Rome, in the time of Claudius, when Peter was preaching to the people there. This is not unlikely, since the work of his that I mention was written later, some time afterward, and it plainly contains the rules of the church that are still kept among us to this day. Also, in describing as exactly as possible the life of our ascetics, he shows that he not only knew them but approved of them. He spoke of the apostolic men of his time with reverence and praise. They were, it seems, of Hebrew descent, and so they still kept most of the ancient customs in a rather Jewish manner.^[41] 3 First of all, Philo declares that he will add nothing of his own beyond the truth in what he is about to report. In the work he titled “On the Contemplative Life, or On Suppliants,” he says that these men are called Therapeutae, and the women with them Therapeutrides. He then gives the reasons for this name. Either it is because, like physicians, they relieve the souls of those who come to them from the diseases of vice, healing and treating them; or it is because of their pure and sincere service and worship of the Divine.^[42]

5 Whether Philo himself gave them this name, choosing a word that fitted their way of life, or whether the first of them really called themselves this at the beginning (the name “Christian” not yet being known everywhere), I need not insist here. But he does testify that, first of all, they gave up their property. He says that when they begin to pursue wisdom, they hand over their possessions to their relatives. Then they renounce all the cares of life, go outside the city walls, and spend their time in lonely places and gardens. They know well that mixing with people of unlike character is unprofitable and harmful. At that time, it seems, they did this out of a fervent and burning faith, striving to imitate the life of the prophets.^[43] 6 Accordingly, in the Acts of the Apostles, which is generally accepted as genuine, it is recorded that all the apostles’ disciples sold their lands and possessions and shared the proceeds with everyone, according to each one’s need, so that no one among them was in want. As the account says, all who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the price of what was sold, and laid it at the apostles’ feet, so that it could be distributed to each one according to his need.^[44] [Acts 4:34-35]

8 Philo gives testimony very like this, and then adds these words about them: “This race is found in many parts of the world, for it was right that both the Greek world and the non-Greek world should share in what is perfectly good. But they are most numerous in Egypt, in each of the districts called nomes, and especially around Alexandria. The best of them from every quarter go out, as to a colony that is the homeland of the Therapeutae, to a most suitable place. It lies above Lake Mareotis (Maria) on a rather low hill, well situated for security and for the mildness of the air.”^[45] 9 Then, after describing what their dwellings were like, he says this about their places of meeting in that region: “In each house there is a sacred room, called a holy place and monastery, where they live apart and carry out the mysteries of the holy life. They bring nothing into it, neither drink nor food, nor anything else needed for the body’s necessities. They bring only the laws, the oracles given through the prophets, hymns, and other writings by which knowledge and piety are increased and brought to perfection.”^[46]

11 And after other matters he says: “The whole stretch of time from dawn to evening is given to spiritual discipline. They read the holy Scriptures and pursue the wisdom of their fathers by allegorical interpretation. They regard the words of the literal text as symbols of a hidden nature, which is made known through underlying meanings. They also have writings of ancient men who founded their sect and left behind many records of the method of allegory. They use these as patterns and imitate their way of doing it.” 13 Philo seems to have said this after hearing them explain the sacred Scriptures. But it is likely that the ancient writings he says they had were the Gospels and the writings of the apostles, and probably some explanations of the ancient prophets, like those found in the Epistle to the Hebrews and in many other letters of Paul. Then he goes on to write about their composing new psalms: “So they do not only contemplate, but they also compose songs and hymns to God in all kinds of meters and tunes, which they necessarily set down in rather solemn rhythms.”

16 The same work goes through many other matters as well, but I thought it necessary to pick out those passages that show the marks of the church’s way of life. If anyone thinks that what has been said does not belong specially to life under the gospel, and could fit others besides those described, let him be persuaded by Philo’s following words. If he is fair-minded, he will find in them undisputed testimony on this point. For Philo writes: “They first lay self-control in the soul like a foundation, and build the other virtues on it. None of them would take food or drink before sunset. They judge that pursuing wisdom belongs to the light, while the needs of the body belong to darkness. So they assign the day to the one, and a small part of the night to the other.” 18 Some, in whom a greater longing for knowledge has taken root, are reminded of food only after three days. Others so delight and revel in wisdom, which feeds them richly and without stint with her teachings, that they hold out for twice that long. They have grown used to tasting the food they need only after six days. We regard these words of Philo as clearly and undeniably describing our own people. But if anyone still objects and remains hard-hearted after this, let him also be rid of his unbelief and yield to plainer proofs. These are not to be found among any others, but only in the Christian religion according to the gospel.^[47]

20 Philo says that women also lived with the people he is speaking of, and that most of them were aged virgins. They had kept their purity not under compulsion, as some of the priestesses among the Greeks did, but of their own free choice, out of zeal and longing for wisdom. They were eager to live with wisdom, and so they disregarded the pleasures of the body. They desired not mortal children but immortal ones, which only the soul that loves God can bear of itself. Then, going on a little further, he states this more plainly: “Their interpretations of the sacred writings are made through hidden meanings, in allegories. For these men think the whole law is like a living creature. Its literal words are the body, and the invisible meaning lying within the words is the soul. This sect began to study that meaning with special care. They saw the extraordinary beauty of the thoughts shining out, as in a mirror of the words.”

22 Why should I add to this their gatherings in one place, the men and women spending time there separately, and the disciplines which we still practice by custom even now? We especially practice them at the feast of the Saviour’s passion, with fasting, all-night vigils, and attention to the divine words. The man I have mentioned recorded these things in his own writing, and he noted them quite exactly. They are a way of life kept up to this day among us alone. He describes especially the all-night vigils of the great feast and the disciplines practiced in them. He tells of the hymns we are accustomed to recite. One person sings in measured rhythm, with good order, while the rest listen quietly and join in only on the closing lines of the hymns. He also tells how on the days mentioned they sleep on the ground on beds of straw. In his own words, they “taste no wine at all, nor any meat. Water is their only drink, and the relish with their bread is salt and hyssop.”^[48]

24 Besides this, Philo writes about the way those were organized who were entrusted with the church’s services: the deacons’ ministries, and the highest seat of all, the bishop’s presidency. Anyone who wants an exact account of these matters can learn it from the work of this man. And it is plain to everyone that Philo wrote these things because he had come to know the first preachers of the gospel teaching and the customs handed down from the beginning by the apostles.

Chapter 18

The Works of Philo That Have Came Down to Us.

1 Philo was rich in expression and broad in thought. He was lofty and soaring in his contemplation of the divine Scriptures, and he gave a varied and many-sided exposition of the sacred words. In one work he goes through the contents of Genesis in order and in sequence, and he titled it Allegories of the Sacred Laws. In another he divides the topics raised in the Scriptures into sections, raising difficulties and resolving them. He fittingly titled these works Questions and Answers on Genesis and Questions and Answers on Exodus. 2 Besides these he has other studies, worked out on particular problems. These include the two books On Agriculture and the same number On Drunkenness. There are others with their own fitting titles: On What the Sober Mind Prays for and Curses; On the Confusion of Tongues; On Flight and Finding; On the Preliminary Studies (literally, “On the Meeting with the Educational Subjects”); Who Is the Heir of Divine Things?; On the Division into Equal and Opposite Parts; and also On the Three Virtues, which Moses described along with others.

4 Besides these there is his work On Those Whose Names Were Changed, and Why They Were Changed. In it he says he had also written two books On Covenants. There is also his work On Emigration, and one On the Life of the Wise Man Made Perfect in Righteousness, or On Unwritten Laws. Then there is On Giants, or On the Unchangeableness of God. And there are five books On the Proposition That, According to Moses, Dreams Are Sent by God: first, second, third, fourth and fifth. These are the works on Genesis that have come down to us.^[49] 5 On Exodus we know of his Questions and Answers, in five books: first, second, third, fourth and fifth. We also know his work On the Tabernacle and his work On the Ten Commandments. There are also the books On the Laws that are set out in particular forms under the main headings of the Ten Commandments, in the second, third and fourth books. There is also his work On Animals for Sacrifice, and what the kinds of sacrifices are. And there is his work On the Rewards laid down in the law for the good, and the penalties and curses for the wicked.

7 Besides all these, some single-volume works of his are also in circulation: On Providence; the book he wrote On the Jews; and The Statesman. There is also Alexander, or On the Proposition That Irrational Animals Have Reason. In addition there is On the Proposition That Every Wicked Man Is a Slave, followed by On the Proposition That Every Good Man Is Free. After these he composed On the Contemplative Life, or On Suppliants. From this work we have drawn what we reported about the way of life of the apostolic men. The interpretations of the Hebrew names in the Law and the Prophets are also said to be the product of his labor. 9 In the time of Gaius, Philo came to Rome. He had written an account of Gaius’s hatred of God, and with irony and in a moral tone he gave it the title On Virtues. He is said to have read this work before the whole Roman Senate in the reign of Claudius. His words so impressed them that they judged them worthy of being placed in the libraries. At that time Paul was making his journey from Jerusalem and around as far as Illyricum. Claudius drove the Jews out of Rome, and Aquila and Priscilla, leaving Rome with the other Jews, came to Asia. There they stayed with the apostle Paul, who was strengthening the churches in that region, whose foundations he had only just laid. The sacred book of Acts is our teacher on these matters too.^[50]

Chapter 19

The Calamity Which Befell the Jews in Jerusalem an the Day of the Passover.

While Claudius was still ruling the empire, a great uprising and disturbance broke out in Jerusalem at the Passover festival. Of those alone who were forced together in the crush at the temple exits, thirty thousand Jews died, trampled by one another. The feast became a time of mourning for the whole nation, and of wailing in every house. This is Josephus’s own account, word for word. Claudius appointed Agrippa, son of Agrippa, king of the Jews. He sent Felix as governor over the whole country of Samaria and Galilee, and over the region called Perea. Claudius himself governed for thirteen years and eight months. Then he died and left Nero as his successor in the empire.

Chapter 20

The Events Which Took Place in Jerusalem During the Reign of Nero.

2 In the time of Nero, when Felix was governor of Judea, Josephus again, in his own words, describes the strife among the priests. He writes this in the twentieth book of the Antiquities: “A quarrel also broke out between the high priests on one side, and the priests and the leading men of the people of Jerusalem on the other. Each of them gathered a band of the boldest and most revolutionary men and became their leader. When they clashed, they abused one another and threw stones. No one stepped in to rebuke them. These things were done openly, as if in a city with no one in charge. 4 “Such shamelessness and daring came over the high priests that they dared to send their servants to the threshing floors to take the tithes owed to the priests. Poor priests were seen dying of want. In this way the violence of the rioters overpowered all justice.” The same writer also reports that at about this time a kind of robber appeared in Jerusalem, who, as he says, “in broad daylight, in the middle of the city, murdered those they met.”

6 “They did this especially at the festivals. They mixed with the crowd, hid small daggers in their clothes, and stabbed their opponents with them. Then, when the victims fell, the murderers themselves joined those who were expressing outrage. Because they were so believable, they could not be found out at all. The first to be killed by them was Jonathan the high priest. After him many were killed every day. The fear was worse than the calamities themselves, since everyone, as in a war, expected death at any hour.”

Chapter 21

The Egyptian, Who is Mentioned Also in the Acts of the Apostles.

1 Next, after other matters, Josephus goes on: “The Egyptian false prophet brought the Jews a blow even greater than these. A charlatan came into the country, gave himself the standing of a prophet, and gathered about thirty thousand of the deceived. He led them around from the desert to the Mount of Olives, as it is called. From there he was ready to force his way into Jerusalem, overpower the Roman garrison, and rule the people as a tyrant, using as bodyguards those who burst in with him. 3 “But Felix got ahead of his attack by meeting him with the Roman heavy infantry. All the people joined in the defense. When the clash came, the Egyptian fled with a few men, and most of those with him were killed or taken alive.” Josephus tells this in the second book of his Histories. It is worth comparing what is said here about the Egyptian with the Acts of the Apostles. There, in Felix’s time, the tribune in Jerusalem spoke to Paul when the Jewish crowd was rioting against him: “Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Sicarii out into the wilderness?” So much for events under Felix.^[51] [Acts 21:38]

Chapter 22

Paul Having Been Sent Bound from Judea to Rome, Made His Defense, and Was Acquitted of Every Charge.

2 Festus was sent by Nero to succeed Felix. Under Festus, Paul made his defense and was taken to Rome as a prisoner. Aristarchus was with him, and Paul reasonably calls him his fellow prisoner somewhere in his letters. Luke, who handed down the Acts of the Apostles in writing, ended his history at this point. He noted that Paul spent two whole years in Rome living freely and preaching the word of God without hindrance. After Paul made his defense at that time, the account goes, the apostle set out again on the ministry of preaching. When he came to the same city a second time, he was brought to his end by martyrdom. While in chains then, he wrote his second letter to Timothy, in which he speaks both of his first defense and of his death, which was close at hand.^[52] [Acts 28:30-31; Colossians 4:10] 4 Now take Paul’s own testimony on these matters. “At my first defense,” he says, “no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me (may it not be counted against them). But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished and all the nations might hear. And I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.” By these words he shows plainly that the first time he was rescued from the lion’s mouth so that the proclamation through him might be fulfilled. By “lion” he evidently means Nero, because of his savage temper. That is why Paul did not go on to add something similar, such as “He will rescue me from the lion’s mouth.” For he saw by the Spirit that his death was very near. [2 Timothy 4:16-17]

6 So after the words “and I was rescued from the lion’s mouth,” he adds, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and will save me for his heavenly kingdom.” This points to his martyrdom as imminent. He foretells it more clearly in the same letter when he says, “For I am already being poured out as an offering, and the time of my departure has come.” In the second letter to Timothy, then, he shows that Luke alone was with him as he wrote, but that at the first defense not even Luke was there. So it is reasonable that Luke ended his Acts of the Apostles at that point in time. His history went down to the period when he was with Paul. [2 Timothy 4:18; 2 Timothy 4:6] 8 We have said all this to make the point that Paul’s martyrdom was not completed during the stay in Rome that Luke recorded. It is likely that at the beginning Nero was milder in disposition, so Paul’s defense of his teaching was accepted more easily. But when Nero went on to unlawful acts of daring, he attacked the apostles along with the others.

Chapter 23

The Martyrdom of James, Who Was Called the Brother of the Lord.

2 After Paul appealed to Caesar and Festus sent him on to the city of Rome, the Jews lost the hope behind the plot they had prepared against him. So they turned on James, the brother of the Lord, to whom the apostles had entrusted the bishop’s seat at Jerusalem. This is what they dared to do to him. They brought him out in front of everyone and demanded that he deny his faith in Christ before all the people. But, against everyone’s expectation, he spoke out with a free voice and more boldly than they had expected. Before the whole crowd he confessed that our Savior and Lord Jesus is the Son of God. They could no longer bear the testimony of this man, who was believed by all to be the most righteous of men because of the high standard of discipline and godliness he followed in his life. So they killed him, taking the lawless situation as their chance to seize power. Festus had died in Judea at that very time, and the province was left without a ruler or governor.

4 The manner of James’s death has already been shown by the words of Clement quoted earlier. He recorded that James was thrown from the parapet and beaten to death with a club. Hegesippus, who belonged to the first generation after the apostles, gives the most exact account of him in the fifth book of his Memoirs. He writes this: “James, the brother of the Lord, took over the leadership of the church together with the apostles. From the Lord’s own time until ours he has been called the Just by everyone, since many others were named James. 6 “He was holy from his mother’s womb. He drank no wine or strong drink, and he ate no meat. No razor came near his head. He did not anoint himself with oil, and he did not use the bath. He alone was permitted to enter the holy place, for he wore no wool but only linen. He used to go into the temple alone, and he was found kneeling and asking forgiveness for the people. His knees grew hard like a camel’s, because he was always bending them in worship of God and asking forgiveness for the people.

9 “Because of his extraordinary righteousness he was called the Just, and Oblias, which in Greek means ‘protection of the people’ and ‘righteousness,’ as the prophets declare about him. Now some of the seven sects among the people, which I described earlier in my Memoirs, used to ask him, ‘What is the door of Jesus?’ He said that Jesus was the Savior. Some of them came to believe that Jesus is the Christ. But the sects I mentioned did not believe in a resurrection, or that anyone is coming to repay each person according to his works. Yet all who did believe, believed because of James. [Romans 2:6] 10 “Since many of the rulers also believed, there was an uproar among the Jews, scribes and Pharisees. They said, ‘There is a danger that the whole people will look for Jesus as the Christ.’ So they gathered and said to James, ‘We beg you, hold back the people, for they have been led astray after Jesus, as though he were the Christ. We beg you to persuade everyone who has come for the day of Passover about Jesus. We all listen to you. We and all the people testify that you are righteous and show no partiality.

12 “So you persuade the crowd not to be led astray about Jesus. All the people, and all of us, listen to you. Stand, then, on the parapet of the temple, so that you will be seen from above and your words will be easily heard by all the people. For all the tribes have gathered for the Passover, and the Gentiles with them.’ So the scribes and Pharisees I mentioned set James on the parapet of the temple. They shouted to him, ‘Righteous one, whom we all ought to obey, the people are going astray after Jesus who was crucified. Tell us, what is the door of Jesus?’” 14 And he answered with a loud voice, “Why do you ask me about Jesus, the Son of Man? He himself sits in heaven at the right hand of the great Power, and he is going to come on the clouds of heaven.” Many were fully convinced. They gave glory because of James’s testimony and said, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Then the same scribes and Pharisees said to one another, “We did wrong to provide such a testimony for Jesus. But let us go up and throw him down, so that they will be afraid and not believe him.” [Matthew 26:64; Matthew 21:9]

16 And they cried out, “Oh, oh! Even the Just One has gone astray!” And they fulfilled the Scripture written in Isaiah: “Let us take away the just man, because he is troublesome to us; therefore they will eat the fruit of their deeds.” So they went up and threw the Just One down, and they said to one another, “Let us stone James the Just.” And they began to stone him, since he had not died from the fall. But he turned and knelt, saying, “I entreat you, Lord God our Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” [Isaiah 3:10; Luke 23:34] 18 While they were stoning him like this, one of the priests, one of the sons of Rechab son of Rechabim, the people given testimony by the prophet Jeremiah, cried out, “Stop! What are you doing? The Just One is praying for you!” Then one of them, a fuller, took the club he used to press out clothes and brought it down on the head of the Just One. And so he was martyred. They buried him on the spot beside the temple, and his gravestone still remains beside the temple. He became a true witness, to both Jews and Greeks, that Jesus is the Christ. And immediately Vespasian began to besiege them.

20 Hegesippus also agrees with Clement on these matters, at greater length. James was so remarkable a man, and so famous among everyone for his righteousness, that the more thoughtful Jews believed this was the reason Jerusalem was besieged immediately after his martyrdom. They thought it came on them for no other reason than the outrage committed against him. Josephus, in fact, did not hesitate to testify to this in writing, in these words: “These things happened to the Jews as vengeance for James the Just, who was a brother of Jesus, called the Christ, because the Jews killed him, though he was a most righteous man.” 21 The same writer also describes James’s death in the twentieth book of his Antiquities, in these words: “Caesar sent Albinus to Judea as governor, when he learned of the death of Festus. But the younger Ananus, who as we said had received the high priesthood, was bold in manner and exceptionally reckless. He followed the party of the Sadducees, who are harsher in judgments than all the other Jews, as we have already explained.”

23 “Being such a man, Ananus thought he had a good opportunity, because Festus was dead and Albinus was still on the road. So he convened a council of judges. He brought before it the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ, whose name was James, and some others. He made an accusation that they had broken the law and handed them over to be stoned. But those in the city who seemed the most fair-minded and strict about the laws were greatly offended at this. They secretly sent to the king, urging him to write to Ananus to stop doing such things, for he had not acted rightly even the first time.” 24 “Some of them also went to meet Albinus as he traveled from Alexandria. They told him it was not lawful for Ananus to convene a council without his consent. Albinus was persuaded by what they said and wrote to Ananus in anger, threatening to punish him. Because of this, King Agrippa removed him from the high priesthood after he had ruled three months, and appointed Jesus son of Damnaeus.” These are the events concerning James, whose letter is said to be the first of the so-called catholic epistles.

25 It should be known that this letter is regarded as not genuine. At least, not many of the ancients mention it, just as they do not mention the letter called Jude’s, which is also one of the seven so-called catholic epistles. Nevertheless we know that these letters, along with the rest, have been read publicly in most churches.

Chapter 24

Annianus the First Bishop of the Church of Alexandria After Mark.

In the eighth year of Nero’s reign, Annianus became the first to succeed Mark the evangelist in the ministry of the church at Alexandria.

Chapter 25

The Persecution Under Nero in Which Paul and Peter Were Honored at Rome with Martyrdom in Behalf of Religion.

2 By now Nero’s power was well established. He plunged into unholy practices and took up arms against the worship of the God of the universe. It does not belong to the present work to describe how wicked he was. Many writers have given very accurate accounts of his life, and anyone who likes can learn from them about the crude folly of this strange man’s madness. In that madness he destroyed countless thousands without any reasoning, and he went so far in murder that he did not spare even his closest and dearest. His mother, his brothers and his wife, along with countless others of his family, he put to death in various ways, as though they were enemies and foes. 4 But among all his crimes this one was still lacking: that he should be the first of the emperors to be shown an enemy of the worship of God. The Roman Tertullian mentions this too, saying: “Consult your records. There you will find that Nero was the first to persecute this teaching, when, having subdued the whole East, he was especially cruel at Rome to everyone. We boast of having such a man as the originator of our punishment. For anyone who knows him can understand that Nero would not have condemned it unless it were something very good.”^[53]

6 So this man, proclaimed first among those who fought against God, was stirred up to slaughter the apostles. It is recorded that Paul was beheaded at Rome itself, and that Peter was likewise crucified under Nero. The record is confirmed by the fact that the names of Peter and Paul are still kept to this day on the burial places there. It is confirmed no less by a churchman named Gaius, who lived in the time of Zephyrinus, bishop of the Romans. In a written dispute with Proclus, who led the Phrygian party, Gaius says this about the places where the sacred bodies of these apostles are laid: “But I can show the trophies of the apostles.^[54] 8 If you will go to the Vatican or to the Ostian Way, you will find the trophies of those who founded this church.” That both were martyred at the same time, Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, shows in a letter to the Romans, where he says: “By such counsel you have joined together the planting of Peter and Paul at Rome and at Corinth. For both of them planted us in our Corinth and taught us in the same way. In the same way also they taught together in Italy, and were martyred at the same time.” I have added these things so that the history may be still more firmly established.^[55]

Chapter 26

The Jews, Afflicted with Innumerable Evils, Commenced the Last War Against the Romans.

Josephus again, after describing very many things about the disaster that befell the whole Jewish nation, tells among countless other details how a great many of the most honored of the Jews were flogged and then crucified in Jerusalem itself by Florus. Florus was procurator of Judea when the war broke out, in the twelfth year of Nero’s rule. Josephus then says that a terrible disturbance seized all of Syria because of the Jewish revolt. Everywhere the Jews were mercilessly plundered by the inhabitants of the cities, as if they were enemies. “So you could see cities full of unburied bodies, the old lying dead together with infants, and women without even a covering for their shame. The whole province was full of indescribable disasters, and the dread of what was threatened was greater than what was done in each place.” These are the words of Josephus. Such was the state of the Jews.

Book 3

Chapter 1

The Parts of the World in Which the Apostles Preached Christ.

2 Such was the state of the Jews. Meanwhile the holy apostles and disciples of our Savior were scattered over the whole world. Thomas, as tradition holds, was allotted Parthia, Andrew Scythia, and John Asia; John stayed among the people there and died at Ephesus. Peter seems to have preached to the Jews of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia and Asia. At the end he came to Rome and was crucified head downward, since he himself had asked to suffer in that way.^[56] [1 Peter 1:1] 3 Why do I need to say anything about Paul? He fully preached the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum, and later he was martyred in Rome under Nero. Origen says this in so many words in the third volume of his commentary on Genesis.^[57] [Romans 15:19]

Chapter 2

The First Ruler of the Church of Rome.

After the martyrdom of Paul and Peter, Linus was the first to be appointed to the office of bishop in the church of the Romans. Paul mentions him in the greetings at the end of his letter to Timothy, which he wrote from Rome.^[58] [2 Timothy 4:21]

Chapter 3

The Epistles of the Apostles.

2 One letter of Peter, the one called his first, is acknowledged as genuine. The early elders freely used it in their own writings as beyond dispute. The second letter that goes under his name we have been taught is not part of the canon. Even so, many found it useful, and it has been studied along with the other Scriptures. But the writings called the Acts of Peter, the Gospel named after him, the so-called Preaching of Peter, and the so-called Apocalypse, we know were never handed down among the universally received writings. No church writer, ancient or of our own day, has used quotations from them.^[59] 5 As my history goes on, I will take care to point out, along with the lists of bishops, which church writers in each period used which of the disputed books. I will also say what they reported about the canonical and acknowledged writings, and what about those that are not of that kind. So much for the writings that bear Peter’s name. I know of only one letter of his that is genuine and acknowledged by the early elders. Paul’s fourteen letters are well known and clear. Yet it is not right to ignore that some have rejected the letter to the Hebrews. They say that the church of Rome disputes it, on the ground that it is not by Paul. I will set out at the proper time what those before us have said about it. I have also not received the so-called Acts of Paul among the undisputed writings.^[60]

6 The same apostle, in the greetings at the end of the letter to the Romans, mentions Hermas among others. The book called The Shepherd is said to be his. You should know that this book too has been disputed by some, and for that reason it could not be placed among the acknowledged books. Others, however, have judged it most necessary, especially for those who need basic instruction. So we know that it has been read publicly in churches, and I have found that some of the earliest writers used it.^[61] [Romans 16:14] 7 Let this be enough to distinguish the divine writings that are undisputed from those that are not acknowledged by everyone.

Chapter 4

The First Successors of the Apostles.

2 Paul preached to the Gentiles and laid the foundations of the churches from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum. This is clear from his own words and from what Luke recorded in the Acts. Peter also preached Christ to those of the circumcision and handed on the word of the new covenant. How many provinces he did this in is clear from his own words, in the letter I have mentioned as acknowledged. In it he writes to those of Hebrew origin who are scattered abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.^[62] [Romans 15:19; 1 Peter 1:1] 4 It is not easy to say how many of these men became genuine, zealous followers of the apostles, or who they were, and were judged fit to shepherd the churches the apostles founded. The exception is those whom one can gather from Paul’s own words. He had countless fellow workers, and as he himself called them, fellow soldiers. Most of them he honored with a memorial that will never be forgotten, for he left lasting testimony about them in his own letters. Luke too, in the Acts, lists Paul’s companions and mentions them by name. [Philemon 1:2]

6 Timothy is recorded as the first to receive the office of bishop of the community at Ephesus, as Titus did for the churches on Crete. Luke was by birth from Antioch and a physician by profession. He spent most of his time with Paul and was in close contact with the other apostles as well. From them he gained the art of healing souls, and he has left us examples of it in two divinely inspired books. One is the Gospel, which tradition says he wrote down. He says that those who were eyewitnesses and servants of the word from the beginning handed their accounts down to him, and that he followed all of them closely from the start. The other is the Acts of the Apostles, which he composed from what he had learned no longer by hearsay but with his own eyes.^[63] [Luke 1:2-3] 9 They say that Paul used to have Luke’s Gospel in mind whenever he wrote of “my gospel,” as though speaking of a gospel of his own, in the words “according to my gospel.” Of Paul’s other followers, Crescens is said by Paul himself to have been sent to Gaul. Linus, whom Paul mentions as being with him in Rome in the Second Letter to Timothy, was the first after Peter to be appointed bishop of the church of the Romans, as I have already stated. Clement too, who became the third bishop of the church of the Romans, is attested by Paul as his fellow worker and fellow contender.^[64] [Romans 2:16; 2 Timothy 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:21; Philippians 4:3]

11 In addition, there was that famous member of the Areopagus named Dionysius, whom Luke records in Acts as the first to believe after Paul’s speech to the Athenians on the Areopagus. Another Dionysius, an early writer who was pastor of the church in Corinth, reports that he became the first bishop of the church in Athens. But at the proper point in the course of my work I will speak of the succession of the apostles’ successors in order of time. For now, let us go on with the rest of the history. [Acts 17:34]

Chapter 5

The Last Siege of the Jews After Christ.

2 After Nero had held power for thirteen years, Galba and Otho spent a year and six months in power. Then Vespasian, who had won fame in the campaigns against the Jews, was declared emperor in Judea itself, proclaimed commander-in-chief by the armies there. He set out at once for Rome and handed the war against the Jews over to his son Titus. After our Saviour’s ascension, the Jews, besides their daring act against him, had already devised very many plots against his apostles. First Stephen was killed by them with stones. After him James, the son of Zebedee and brother of John, was beheaded. Then James, who was the first to be appointed to the bishop’s throne there after our Saviour’s ascension, departed this life in the way I described earlier. The rest of the apostles were plotted against in countless ways, to the point of death, and were driven out of the land of Judea. They set out for all the nations to teach the message, in the power of Christ, who had told them, “Go and make disciples of all the nations in my name.”^[65] [Matthew 28:19]

3 The people of the church in Jerusalem, however, had been commanded by a revelation given before the war to the approved men among them, to leave the city and live in a town of Perea called Pella. Those who believed in Christ moved there from Jerusalem. Once holy men had completely left the royal capital of the Jews and the whole land of Judea, the justice of God finally came upon them for all their lawless acts against Christ and his apostles, and wiped that ungodly generation entirely from among men. 4 Anyone who wishes may read in the history written by Josephus the full and accurate account of all that happened at that time. He tells of the evils that came upon the whole nation everywhere. He tells how the people of Judea in particular were driven to the extreme of disaster, and how many tens of thousands of young men, along with women and children, fell to the sword, to famine, and to countless other kinds of death. He describes the many sieges of Jewish cities, and what sieges they were. He tells what terrible things, and worse than terrible, were seen by those who fled to Jerusalem itself as to a most secure capital. He gives the course of the whole war and each of its events in turn. And he tells how, in the end, the “abomination of desolation” announced by the prophets stood in the very temple of God, once so renowned, which then suffered total ruin and final destruction by fire.^[66] [Matthew 24:15]

7 But I must point out that this same writer records that a crowd of about three million people, gathered from all Judea for the days of the Passover feast, were shut up in Jerusalem “as in a prison,” to use his own words. It was fitting that destruction from divine justice should overtake them, shut up as in a prison, in the very days when they had brought suffering on the Savior and Benefactor of all, the Christ of God. I will pass over the particular things that happened to them by the sword and in other ways. I think it necessary to set down only the calamities of the famine, so that those who read this work may know, at least in part, that the punishment from God came upon them for their lawless treatment of the Christ of God, and that it was not long delayed.^[67]

Chapter 6

The Famine Which Oppressed Them.

2 Heading: The Famine Which Oppressed Them. Take up the fifth book of the Histories of Josephus again, and go through the tragedy of what happened then. He says: “For the well-off, staying in the city meant destruction just the same. On the pretext of desertion, a man was killed for the sake of his property. The madness of the rebels grew along with the famine, and every day both evils blazed higher. Grain was nowhere to be seen. But the rebels burst in and searched the houses. If they found any, they abused the owners for having denied it. If they found none, they tortured them for having hidden it too carefully. The bodies of the poor wretches were their evidence of whether they had food or not. Those who were still in good shape were thought to be well supplied with food. Those who were already wasting away were passed over, since it seemed pointless to kill people who would soon die of want anyway.

4 “Many secretly traded all their possessions for a single measure of grain, wheat if they were rather wealthy, barley if they were poorer. Then they shut themselves up in the innermost rooms of their houses. Some ate the grain raw because of extreme hunger. Others baked it, as need and fear directed. No table was set anywhere. They snatched the food still raw from the fire and tore it apart. The fare was pitiful and the sight was worth weeping over: the stronger took more than their share while the weak wailed. 6 “Hunger overpowers every other feeling, but nothing does it destroy so much as shame. For what would normally deserve respect is despised in such a situation. Wives snatched food from their husbands, children from their fathers, and, most pitiful of all, mothers from their infants, taking it right out of their mouths. And while their dearest ones were wasting away in their arms, they felt no restraint about taking from them the drops that kept them alive. Yet even when they ate like this, they did not escape notice. Everywhere the rebels stood ready to rob them of even this. Whenever they saw a house shut up, it was a sign that the people inside were taking food. At once they smashed in the doors and rushed in, and they all but squeezed the morsels out of their throats.

8 “Old men who held on to their food were beaten. Women who hid what was in their hands had their hair torn out. There was no pity for gray hair or for infants. They lifted up babies who were clinging to their scraps of bread and shook them down onto the floor. They were even crueler toward those who had been quicker than they were and swallowed down what they were about to seize, as though they had been wronged by them. They devised terrible methods of torture to search out food. They stopped up the private passages of the poor wretches with bitter vetches and drove sharp rods up their rear passages. People suffered things horrible even to hear of, to make them confess to one loaf of bread, or to make them reveal a single handful of barley meal that they had hidden.^[68] 10 “The torturers were not themselves hungry. (Their cruelty would have been less savage if it had come from need.) They were exercising their madness and stocking up supplies for the coming days. When people crept out at night to the Roman guard posts to gather wild plants and herbs, the rebels would meet them. Just when these people thought they had escaped the enemy, the rebels snatched away what they had brought. Often the victims begged, and even called on the most awesome name of God, asking for some share of what they had risked their lives to bring. The rebels gave them nothing at all. A man was glad enough not to be killed as well as robbed.”

12 After some other matters, Eusebius adds to this account, quoting Josephus: “For the Jews, once the way out of the city was cut off, every hope of safety was gone. The famine sank deeper and devoured the people house by house and family by family. The upper rooms were full of women and babies wasted away in death, and the alleys were full of dead old men. Boys and young men, swollen up like ghosts, staggered about the marketplaces and fell down wherever the suffering overtook them. The sick had no strength to bury their own relatives. Those who still had strength held back, both because of the great number of the dead and because they were uncertain about their own fate. Many died while burying others, and many went to the graves before their appointed hour had come.^[69] 14 “In these disasters there was no weeping and no wailing. Hunger had overcome those feelings. Those who were dying slowly looked with dry eyes at those who had gone to their rest before them. A deep silence held the city, and a night full of death. Yet the robbers were worse than all this. They broke into the houses as if digging up tombs, robbed the dead, pulled the coverings off their bodies, and went out laughing. They tested the edges of their swords on the corpses, and some who were lying there still alive they ran through, to try the iron. Those who begged them for the loan of a right hand and a sword, they arrogantly left to the famine. Each of the dying stared fixedly at the temple as he died, leaving the rebels still alive.

16 “At first these men ordered the dead to be buried at public expense, because they could not bear the smell. Then, when that proved too much, they threw the bodies from the walls into the ravines. Titus went around and saw the ravines full of corpses and the thick liquid of decay flowing from the rotting bodies. He groaned, stretched out his hands, and called God as witness that this was not his doing.” After a few remarks in between, Josephus continues: “I will not hold back from saying what my feelings force me to say. I think that if the Romans had delayed longer against these wicked men, the city would either have been swallowed up by a chasm, or flooded, or struck by the thunderbolts that fell on Sodom. For it produced a generation far more godless than those who suffered such things. Through the madness of these men the whole people perished with them.”

18 In the sixth book he writes as follows: “Of those who were destroyed by the famine in the city, the number who fell was beyond counting, and the sufferings that happened cannot be told. In every house, if even a shadow of food showed up anywhere, there was a fight. The dearest friends came to blows with one another, snatching away the wretched supports of life. Even the dying were not believed when they said they had nothing. The robbers searched even those still breathing, in case someone had food hidden in his bosom and was pretending to be dying. Others, gaping with hunger like mad dogs, lurched and staggered about. They flung themselves against doors like drunken men, and in their helplessness they burst into the same houses two or three times in a single hour. 20 “Necessity drove them to put everything between their teeth. They collected things not even fit for the filthiest of the brute animals, and forced themselves to eat them. In the end they did not keep their hands off belts and shoes, and they tore the hides off their shields and chewed them. For some, scraps of old hay were food. Some gathered the fibers and sold the smallest weight of them for four Attic drachmas. But why should I speak of hunger’s shamelessness toward things without life? For I am about to describe a deed of the kind never recorded among Greeks or barbarians, horrible to tell and unbelievable to hear. I would gladly have passed over this disaster, so as not to seem to later generations to be inventing wonders, if I did not have countless witnesses among my own contemporaries. Besides, I would be paying my country a cold favor if I played down the account of what she suffered.^[70]

22 “There was a woman from the region beyond the Jordan named Mary, the daughter of Eleazar, from the village of Bathezor (which means ‘house of hyssop’). She was well known for her family and wealth. She had fled to Jerusalem with the rest of the crowd and was shut up there in the siege. The tyrants had plundered the rest of her property, everything she had moved into the city from Perea. The remains of her treasures, and any bit of food that could be found, the armed guards rushed in and snatched away every day. The woman was filled with terrible anger. By often reviling and cursing them she stirred the plunderers up against herself. 24 But no one would kill her, whether out of anger or out of pity. She was also tired of searching for food for others to eat. By now finding any food was hard everywhere, and the famine was eating through her bowels and marrow. Her rage burned hotter even than the famine. So she took anger and necessity as her advisers and turned against nature itself. She seized her child, a nursing baby, and said, “Poor little one! In war, in famine, in civil strife, for whom am I keeping you? Under the Romans there is slavery, even if we live to see it, and famine gets to us before slavery does. And the rebels are harsher than both. Come, be food for me, a avenging fury to the rebels, and a tale for the world, the one thing still missing from the sufferings of the Jews.”^[71]

26 As she said this she killed her son. Then she roasted him, ate half, and covered up the rest and kept it. The rebels were there at once. They caught the smell of the unspeakable cooking and threatened to cut her throat immediately unless she showed them what she had prepared. She said she had kept a fine portion for them, and she uncovered the remains of her child. Horror and bewilderment seized them at once, and they stood frozen at the sight. But she said, “This is my own child, and the deed is mine. Eat, for I have eaten too. Do not be softer than a woman or more tender-hearted than a mother. But if you are too devout and turn away from my sacrifice, then I have eaten my share for you, and let the rest stay for me.” 28 After that, the men went out trembling. In this one thing they were cowards, and they hardly left that food to the mother. At once the whole city was filled with the horror of it. Each person pictured the scene before his eyes and shuddered as though he himself had dared the deed. Those who were starving hurried toward death, and they called those blessed who had died before hearing and seeing such great evils.” Such was the payment the Jews received for their lawlessness and ungodliness against the Christ of God.

Chapter 7

The Predictions of Christ.

2 It is worth setting beside these things the unfailing prediction of our Saviour, in which he foretold these very events, speaking prophetically like this: “Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing in those days. Pray that your flight does not happen in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not happened from the beginning of the world until now, and never will again.” The historian adds up the whole number of those killed and says that 1,100,000 died by famine and sword. The rest, the rebels and bandits, informed on one another after the capture of the city and were put to death. The tallest of the young men and those outstanding in bodily beauty were kept for the triumph. Of the remaining crowd, those over seventeen years old were sent in chains to labor in Egypt, and many more were distributed among the provinces to be destroyed in the theaters by the sword and by wild beasts. Those under seventeen were taken captive and sold, and the number of these alone came to ninety thousand men.^[72] [Matthew 24:19-21]

4 These things happened in this way in the second year of Vespasian’s reign. They agreed with the prophetic words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who by divine power saw them beforehand as though they were already present. He wept and lamented, as the holy evangelists record. They also set down his very words. At one time he said, as though speaking to Jerusalem herself: “If you had known, even you, on this day, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build a palisade around you, and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground, you and your children.” [Luke 19:42-44] 6 At another time he spoke as though about the people: “For there will be great distress on the earth, and wrath on this people. They will fall by the mouth of the sword and be taken captive among all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by the nations, until the times of the nations are fulfilled.” And again: “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that her desolation has come near.” If anyone compares our Saviour’s words with the rest of the historian’s account of the whole war, how can he fail to marvel? He must admit that our Saviour’s foreknowledge and prediction were truly divine and wonderfully beyond expectation. [Luke 21:23-24; Luke 21:20]

8 Now as for the calamities that came on the whole nation after the Saviour’s passion, and after the cries in which the Jewish crowd begged that the robber and murderer be spared death but asked that the Author of life be taken away from them, there is no need to add anything to the historian’s account. But it is right to add the following, which shows the kindness of an all-good Providence. For a full forty years after their daring act against Christ, Providence held back their destruction. During that time many of the apostles and disciples were still alive, and James himself, the first bishop of that place, who was called the Lord’s brother. They lived in the city of Jerusalem itself, and they remained there like a very strong fence around the place.^[73] 9 In this time the divine oversight was still patient, in case they might at some point repent of what they had done and obtain forgiveness and salvation. Besides such great patience, it also gave them astonishing signs from God of what would happen to them if they did not repent. The historian already mentioned thought these signs worth recording, and I cannot do better than to set them before those who come to read this work.^[74]

Chapter 8

The Signs Which Preceded the War.

2 The Signs Which Preceded the War. Take, then, and read what he records in the sixth book of his History. His words are these: “At that time the wretched people were being persuaded by cheats and by those who lied about God. But they paid no attention and gave no belief to the clear wonders that announced the coming desolation. As if thunderstruck, with neither eyes nor mind, they ignored the proclamations of God. There was a time when a star like a sword stood over the city, and a comet continued for a whole year. And there was another time, before the revolt and the movement toward war, when the people were gathering for the feast of unleavened bread. On the eighth of the month Xanthicus, at the ninth hour of the night, such a light shone around the altar and the temple that it seemed to be bright day. This lasted for half an hour. To the inexperienced it seemed a good sign, but the sacred scribes immediately judged it in light of what followed.^[75]

5 “At the same feast a cow, brought by the high priest to be sacrificed, gave birth to a lamb in the middle of the temple. The eastern gate of the inner temple was made of bronze and was very heavy. It was closed in the evening only with difficulty by twenty men. It rested on bars bound with iron and had bolts sunk very deep. Yet at the sixth hour of the night it was seen standing open by itself. Then, not many days after the feast, on the twenty-first of the month Artemisius, a supernatural apparition appeared that is beyond belief. What I am about to describe might seem a fable if it were not recorded by those who saw it, and if the sufferings that followed were not worthy of such signs. For before sunset, chariots and armed battalions were seen in the air over the whole country, darting out of the clouds and encircling the cities.

7 “At the feast called Pentecost, the priests went into the temple at night, as was their custom, to perform the services. They said that they first noticed a movement and a noise, and after that a sound of many voices saying, ‘We are leaving this place.’ What follows is even more fearful. A certain Jesus, son of Ananias, an untrained countryman, came to the feast four years before the war, when the city was especially at peace and prospering. At this feast it was the custom for everyone to build booths to honor God. Suddenly, in the temple, he began to cry out: ‘A 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 the whole people.’ Day and night he went about through all the narrow streets, shouting this. [Jeremiah 7:34]

9 “Some of the leading citizens were angry at this ill-omened cry. They seized the man and beat him with many blows. He said nothing in his own defense and said nothing in particular to those present. He kept on crying out the same words as before. The rulers concluded, correctly, that the man’s behavior was moved by something supernatural. So they brought him to the Roman governor. There he was torn to the bone with whips, yet he neither begged nor wept. He bent his voice to the most mournful tone he could and answered each stroke with, ‘Woe to Jerusalem!’” 11 The same writer reports something even more remarkable than this. He says that an oracle was found in their sacred writings, saying that at that time someone from their own country would rule the world. He himself took this to be fulfilled in Vespasian. But Vespasian did not rule the whole world, only the part under Roman rule. It could more rightly be applied to Christ. The Father said to him, “Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” At that very time the voice of the holy apostles went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.^[76]

Chapter 9

Josephus and the Works Which He Has Left.

2 On top of all this, since Josephus has contributed so much to the history we have in hand, we should not be ignorant of where he came from and of what family. He tells us this himself: “Josephus, son of Mattathias, a priest from Jerusalem, who himself fought against the Romans at the first and was present at the later events under compulsion.” He was the most distinguished of the Jews of that time, not only among his own countrymen but also among the Romans. As a result he was honored with a statue set up in Rome, and the works he labored over were judged worthy of a place in the library. 4 He set down the whole of the Jewish Antiquities in twenty books, and the history of the Jewish war of his own time in seven. He himself testifies that he gave the latter not only in Greek but also in his native language. He deserves to be believed, given his reliability in other matters. Two other works of his are also in circulation and are worth studying, On the Antiquity of the Jews. In them he answers Apion the grammarian, who had written an attack on the Jews at that time, and others who likewise tried to slander the ancestral customs of the Jewish nation.^[77]

5 In the first of these books he gives the number of the writings of the so-called Old Testament, setting out which ones were undisputed among the Hebrews, as handed down from ancient tradition. He teaches this in his own words, as follows:

Chapter 10

The Manner in Which Josephus Mentions the Divine Books.

3 “We do not have countless books that disagree and contradict one another. We have only twenty-two books, containing the record of all time, which are rightly believed to be divine. Of these, five are the books of Moses. They contain the laws and the tradition of the origin of mankind, down to his death. This period falls a little short of three thousand years. From the death of Moses to Artaxerxes, who followed Xerxes as king of the Persians, the prophets after Moses wrote the history of their own times in thirteen books. The remaining four contain hymns to God and counsels for human life.”^[78] 5 “From Artaxerxes to our own time every event has been written down, but these accounts have not been thought worthy of the same trust as the earlier ones, because there was no exact succession of prophets. How we treat our own writings shows plainly how we regard them. Although so many ages have now gone by, no one has dared to add to them, take away from them, or change them. It is instinctive in all Jews from their very birth to regard them as God’s decrees, to hold to them, and, if need be, to die for them gladly.”

7 Let these words of the historian be set down here for their usefulness. The same man also produced another work of real merit, On the Sovereignty of Reason, which some have titled “Maccabaean.” It contains the struggles of the Hebrews who fought bravely for their devotion to God, as told in the writings called the Maccabean books. At the end of the twentieth book of the Antiquities, the same author also indicates that he planned to write four books on God and his being, according to the ancestral beliefs of the Jews, and on the laws: why, according to them, some things may be done and others are forbidden. In his own writings he also mentions other works he had labored over.^[79] 9 In addition, it is reasonable to quote the words Josephus placed at the close of his Antiquities, in support of the testimony we have taken from his works. There he attacks Justus of Tiberias, who, like himself, had tried to write a history of the events of the same period, and he charges that Justus did not write the truth. After bringing many other accusations against the man, he goes on in these very words: “I, however, was not afraid, as you were, about my own writing. I gave my books to the emperors themselves, when the events were almost still before men’s eyes. For I knew in my own conscience that I had kept faithfully to the truth of the record, and I was not disappointed in expecting to receive their testimony.

11 I also gave my history to many others, some of whom had actually taken part in the war, such as King Agrippa and some of his relatives. The Emperor Titus so wished men to learn of these events from my books alone that he signed the volumes with his own hand and ordered them to be published. King Agrippa wrote sixty-two letters, testifying to the truth of my account.” Josephus adds two of these letters. But let this be enough about him; let us go on to what follows.

Chapter 11

Symeon Rules the Church of Jerusalem After James.

After the martyrdom of James and the capture of Jerusalem that followed immediately, the story is that those of the apostles and disciples of the Lord who were still alive gathered from every direction. They met together with the Lord’s relatives according to the flesh, for many of these were still living then. They all took counsel together about whom to judge worthy to succeed James. With one mind they all approved Symeon, the son of Clopas, whom the Gospel writing also mentions, as worthy of the throne of the church there. He was, they say, a cousin of the Savior, for Hegesippus records that Clopas was the brother of Joseph.^[80]

Chapter 12

Vespasian Commands the Descendants of David to Be Sought.

Further, he relates that after the capture of Jerusalem Vespasian ordered a search for all who were of the family of David, so that none of the royal tribe would be left among the Jews. Because of this, a very great persecution again fell upon the Jews.

Chapter 13

Anencletus, the Second Bishop of Rome.

After Vespasian had reigned ten years, his son, the emperor Titus, succeeded him. In the second year of Titus’s reign, Linus, who had held the ministry of the church of the Romans for twelve years as bishop, handed it over to Anencletus. Titus was succeeded by his brother Domitian, who reigned two years and the same number of months.^[81]

Chapter 14

Abilius, the Second Bishop of Alexandria.

In the fourth year of Domitian, Annianus, the first head of the community at Alexandria, died after completing twenty-two years. Abilius succeeded him as the second.

Chapter 15

Clement, the Third Bishop of Rome.

In the twelfth year of the same reign, Clement succeeded Anencletus, who had been bishop of the church of the Romans for twelve years. The apostle teaches in his letter to the Philippians that this Clement was his fellow worker. He says: “with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.” [Philippians 4:3]

Chapter 16

The Epistle of Clement.

One letter of this Clement is acknowledged as genuine, long and remarkable. He wrote it in the name of the church of the Romans to the church of the Corinthians, when a dispute had broken out at Corinth. We know that this letter has been read publicly in very many churches, both long ago and in our own day. And that the Corinthian dispute took place at the time I have mentioned, Hegesippus is a reliable witness.

Chapter 17

The Persecution Under Domitian.

Domitian showed great cruelty to many people. He put to death, without any reasonable trial, a considerable number of well-born and distinguished men in Rome. He punished countless other prominent men, without any charge, with exile beyond the borders and loss of their property. In the end he made himself the successor of Nero’s hatred of God and fighting against God. He was the second to stir up persecution against us, although his father Vespasian had planned nothing wrong against us.

Chapter 18

The Apostle John and the Apocalypse.

3 At this time, the story goes, the apostle and evangelist John, who was still living, was condemned to live on the island of Patmos because of his testimony to the divine Word. Irenaeus, in the fifth book of his work Against the Heresies, writes about the number that is given for the name of the Antichrist in the so-called Revelation of John, and says this about John: “If it had been necessary for his name to be proclaimed openly at the present time, it would have been said by the one who also saw the Revelation. For it was seen not long ago, but almost in our own generation, toward the end of Domitian’s reign.” 4 In the time I have described, the teaching of our faith shone so brightly that even writers outside our religion did not hesitate to record the persecution and the martyrdoms in it in their histories. They also marked the time exactly. They report that in the fifteenth year of Domitian, Flavia Domitilla, along with very many others, was punished by being handed over to exile on the island of Pontia because of her testimony to Christ. She was the niece (her mother was a sister) of Flavius Clement, who was at that time one of the consuls at Rome.

Chapter 19

Domitian Commands the Descendants of David to Be Slain.

When this same Domitian ordered that those of the family of David be put to death, an old tradition says that some of the heretics accused the descendants of Jude, who is said to have been the Saviour’s brother according to the flesh. They said these men were of David’s line and were relatives of Christ himself. Hegesippus shows this, saying in his own words something like the following:

Chapter 20

The Relatives of Our Saviour.

2 “There were still living some of the Lord’s family, grandsons of Jude, who is called his brother according to the flesh. They were informed against as being of David’s family. The Evocatus brought them to the Emperor Domitian, for he feared the coming of Christ, as Herod had also feared it. He asked them whether they were of David’s line, and they admitted that they were. Then he asked them how much property they had, or how much money they controlled. They both said that they had only nine thousand denarii between them, half of it belonging to each. They said they did not have this in silver, but in the assessed value of a piece of land of only thirty-nine plethra. From this land they paid their taxes, and they supported themselves by working it with their own hands.”^[82] 4 “Then they also showed their hands. The hardness of their bodies and the calluses stamped on their own hands by constant work were their evidence that they worked the land themselves. When they were asked about Christ and his kingdom, what kind it was, and where and when it would appear, they explained that it was not of this world or of the earth, but heavenly and angelic. It would come at the end of the age, when he would come in glory to judge the living and the dead and to repay each one according to his deeds.” [Romans 2:6]

7 “At this Domitian passed no sentence against them. He despised them as of no account, set them free, and by a decree stopped the persecution against the church. When they were released, they became leaders of the churches, both as martyrs and as members of the Lord’s family. Peace came, and they remained alive until the time of Trajan.” That is what Hegesippus says. Tertullian also mentions Domitian in these words: “Domitian too once tried to do the same thing as Nero, since he shared a part of Nero’s cruelty. But since he had some sense, I suppose, he quickly stopped, and even called back those he had banished.” 9 Domitian ruled for fifteen years, and Nerva then took over the empire. Those who have written down the history of those times report that the Roman Senate voted to cancel Domitian’s honors, and that those who had been unjustly banished should return to their homes and have their property restored. It was then, according to the account handed down among the ancient writers of our own church, that the apostle John came back from his exile on the island and took up residence at Ephesus.

Chapter 21

Cerdon Becomes the Third Ruler of the Church of Alexandria.

Nerva reigned a little over a year and was succeeded by Trajan. In Trajan’s first year, Abilius, who had led the church community at Alexandria for thirteen years, was succeeded by Cerdon. Cerdon was the third to lead it there after Annianus, who was the first. At that time Clement was still leading the church at Rome. He was the third to hold the office of bishop there after Paul and Peter. Linus was the first, and after him came Anencletus.^[83]

Chapter 22

Ignatius, the Second Bishop of Antioch.

At Antioch, too, Ignatius was well known at this time as the second bishop there, Evodius having been appointed the first. In the same period Symeon was the second to hold office in the church at Jerusalem, the Saviour’s brother having been the first.

Chapter 23

Narrative Concerning John the Apostle.

3 After this, the apostle and evangelist John, the very one whom Jesus loved, was still living in Asia. He had come back from his exile on the island after Domitian’s death, and he directed the churches there. That he was still alive until those times can be established by two witnesses. They are trustworthy because they were champions of the church’s sound teaching, and such were Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria. The first of them writes as follows in the second book of his work Against Heresies: “And all the elders who met John, the Lord’s disciple, in Asia bear witness that John handed it down. For he stayed with them until the time of Trajan.” 5 In the third book of the same work he says the same thing in these words: “Moreover, the church in Ephesus was founded by Paul, and John remained with them until the time of Trajan. It is a true witness of the apostles’ tradition.” Clement, for his part, both notes the time and adds a most necessary account for those who love to hear what is good and useful. He gives it in the writing he titled “Who Is the Rich Man Who Is Saved?” Take it and read what he writes:

7 “Listen to a story that is not just a story but a true account, handed down about John the apostle and kept safe in memory. When the tyrant died and John moved from the island of Patmos to Ephesus, he would go when invited to the neighboring Gentile regions as well. In some places he appointed bishops, in others he organized whole churches, and in others he chose by lot one of those marked out by the Spirit. Once he came to a city not far away (some people even give its name). He comforted the brothers in other matters, and then, looking at the bishop who had been appointed over them all, he saw a young man of strong build, pleasing appearance and fervent spirit. He said, ‘I entrust this young man to you with all earnestness, with the church and Christ as witnesses.’ The bishop accepted him and promised everything. John spoke to him again in the same terms and solemnly charged him once more.^[84]

9 “Then John departed for Ephesus. The presbyter took the young man he had been given into his own home. He fed him, kept him close, cared for him warmly, and finally baptized him. After that he relaxed his great care and watchfulness, thinking that in the seal of the Lord he had set over him a perfect safeguard. But the young man took his freedom too early, and some of his own age, idle and dissolute and used to evil, corrupted him. First they led him on with expensive banquets. Then they took him along when they went out at night to rob people. Then they expected him to join them in something even greater.^[85] 12 “Little by little he became used to it. He had a strong nature, and like a powerful, hard-mouthed horse he left the straight road, took the bit between his teeth, and ran all the more wildly toward the precipices. He gave up completely on salvation in God. He no longer planned anything small. Having done some great deed, since he was lost once for all, he thought it right to suffer the same as the others. So he took these same men, formed a robber band, and became its ready chief, the most violent, bloodthirsty and cruel of them all. Time passed, and when some need arose, they called John back. When he had settled the other matters for which he had come, he said, ‘Come now, bishop, give back to us the deposit that Christ and I entrusted to you, with the church over which you preside as witness.’

13 “At first the bishop was thunderstruck. He thought he was being falsely accused over money he had never received, and he could neither believe the charge about what he did not have nor disbelieve John. But John said, ‘I am asking for the young man and for the soul of our brother.’ The old man groaned deeply and shed some tears. ‘That one is dead,’ he said. ‘How? What kind of death?’ ‘He is dead to God,’ the old man said. ‘He turned out wicked and ruined, and in short, a robber. And now, instead of the church, he has taken over the mountain with a band of armed men like himself.’ 16 When the apostle heard this, he tore his clothes and struck his head, groaning loudly. “A fine guard I left for my brother’s soul!” he said. “But let a horse be brought to me at once, and let someone be my guide on the road.” He rode off just as he was, straight from the church. When he reached the place, the robbers’ outpost seized him. He did not try to flee or beg for mercy. He shouted, “This is why I have come! Take me to your leader.” The leader was waiting, armed as he was. But when he recognized John coming toward him, he was ashamed and turned to flee. John chased him with all his strength, forgetting his own age, and cried out:

18 “Why do you run from me, my child, from your own father, unarmed and old? Have pity on me, my child. Do not be afraid. You still have hope of life. I will answer to Christ for you. If need be, I will gladly undergo your death, as the Lord did for us. I will give my own life in place of yours. Stop! Believe me; Christ has sent me.” When the young man heard this, he first stood still, looking at the ground. Then he threw down his weapons. Then he trembled and wept bitterly. As the old man came up, he embraced him, pleading his case with groans as well as he could, and being baptized a second time with his tears. Only his right hand he kept hidden. 19 John pledged himself for him and swore that he had found forgiveness for him from the Saviour. He begged him, fell on his knees, and kissed that very right hand as though it had been cleansed by repentance. Then he brought him back to the church. He pleaded for him with abundant prayers, struggled alongside him in constant fasting, and worked on his mind with all sorts of charming words. He did not leave, so they say, until he had restored him to the church. In this way he gave a great example of true repentance and a great proof of new birth, a trophy of resurrection for all to see.^[86]

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Notes

[31] See Acts 12:19-23. The Greek says only that he spoke from on high before the tribunal (bēma), a raised platform.

[32] The “divine Scripture” here is Acts 12. The Greek word theōrias is general and means “spectacles” or public shows, not necessarily “games.”

[33] The king is Herod Agrippa I. Acts calls him Herod, while Josephus calls him Agrippa.

[34] “Fadus” is Cuspius Fadus, procurator of Judea. Luke’s wording is from Acts 5:36, which Eusebius paraphrases here.

[35] Aelia is Jerusalem. Hadrian refounded it as the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina, planned around AD 130 and completed after the Bar Kokhba revolt (AD 132-135), when Jews were barred from the city.

[36] Many scholars think Justin misread an inscription to the Sabine god Semo Sancus; a stone dedicated to Semo Sancus was found on the Tiber island in 1574. This is a modern suggestion, not something Eusebius says.

[37] Justin’s quotation ends at “came forth from him.” The words that follow are Eusebius’s own.

[38] The last words echo 2 Corinthians 10:5.

[39] The sorcerer is Simon Magus (see Acts 8). The story of his flight to Rome and Peter’s pursuit comes from later tradition, not from Acts.

[40] The quotation is from 1 Peter 5:13, in Eusebius’s wording. Eusebius cites Clement’s Hypotyposes here as being in the sixth book.

[41] The “work” is Philo’s “On the Contemplative Life.” Eusebius here takes Philo’s Therapeutae to be Christians, a view modern readers should treat with caution.

[42] The Greek “therapeuein” can mean both “to heal” and “to serve or worship,” and Philo plays on both senses here.

[43] Eusebius is arguing that Philo’s Therapeutae were Christians. Modern scholars generally do not accept this, but the text is translated here as Eusebius wrote it.

[44] Compare Acts 4:34-35. Eusebius gives the sense of the passage in his own words rather than quoting it exactly.

[45] The Greek has “Maria” (Philo’s Mareia), another name for Lake Mareotis, the lake just south of Alexandria.

[46] The word “monastery” (monasterion) comes from the Greek for “alone.” Here it simply means a place of solitary retreat.

[47] Eusebius is still quoting Philo (On the Contemplative Life) and claims that Philo’s “Therapeutae” were Christians. Most scholars today do not accept this.

[48] “The great feast” is Easter (Pascha). Eusebius reads Philo’s description of the Therapeutae’ vigils, hymns and fasting as describing Christian practice, but most scholars reject this identification.

[49] In On Those Whose Names Were Changed (Mut. 53) Philo mentions that he wrote two books On Covenants. That work is lost.

[50] Eusebius’s phrase “from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum” echoes Paul’s words in Romans 15:19. He is describing Paul’s travels, not quoting the verse exactly.

[51] The Greek says “tribune” (χιλίαρχος) and “Sicarii” (σικαρίων), a word from the Latin for dagger-men, meaning assassins. The “Histories” here is Josephus’s Jewish War.

[52] “The account goes” translates λόγος ἔχει, which means “there is a tradition.” Eusebius is relying on tradition for Paul’s release and second arrest, not on Acts.

[53] Tertullian, Apology 5. Eusebius gives a loose Greek rendering of the Latin, not a close translation. Tertullian says Nero raged against the sect when it was just beginning at Rome.

[54] “Phrygian party” refers to the Montanists. “Trophies” means monuments to the apostles’ victory, probably tombs or memorials. “Sacred tabernacles” (hiera skenomata) is Eusebius’ Greek for the apostles’ resting places.

[55] In the last sentence Eusebius speaks in his own voice, not as part of Dionysius’ letter.

[56] “Dispersion” means Jews living outside Palestine; compare 1 Peter 1:1, which lists most of the same regions.

[57] Paul speaks of preaching “from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyricum” in Romans 15:19.

[58] The greeting is in 2 Timothy 4:21. The Greek word for the office, episkopē, literally means “oversight.”

[59] The Greek word ἐνδιάθηκος (“belonging to the covenant/testament”) is Eusebius’s term for books regarded as canonical. It is not simply the Greek word for “canon.” In the same sentence, ἐν καθολικαῖς means “among the universally received (general) writings.”

[60] Eusebius counts Hebrews among Paul’s “fourteen letters,” while noting that some dispute that it is his. “Lists of bishops” translates διαδοχαῖς, “successions.”

[61] The greeting is in Romans 16:14. Eusebius says the book is “said to be” by this Hermas. He does not state it as fact.

[62] The phrase “from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum” echoes Romans 15:19. Eusebius gives it as a paraphrase, not as a quotation.

[63] The Greek says it “is attested” (μαρτυρεῖται) that Luke wrote the Gospel. This is tradition’s testimony, not Luke’s own claim.

[64] In 2 Timothy 4:10 Crescens is said to have gone to “Galatia”; most manuscripts read this, but some early ones (such as Sinaiticus and C) read “Gaul,” which is the reading Eusebius follows. Linus appears in 2 Timothy 4:21. Eusebius identifies the Clement of Philippians 4:3 with the bishop of Rome, an identification also found in Origen.

[65] The Greek sentence is very long and its main clause does not finish cleanly. “James, the first to be appointed bishop” is James the Lord’s brother, first bishop of Jerusalem, whose death Eusebius described earlier (2.23).

[66] “Abomination of desolation” comes from Daniel (9:27; 11:31; 12:11) and is quoted in the Gospels (Matthew 24:15). The Greek builds up to Josephus at the end of the sentence, and this version moves him to the front to keep it readable.

[67] Josephus (Jewish War 6.420-428) describes the crowds shut up in Jerusalem at Passover “as in a prison.” His own figure is 2,700,000 dead in the city, and Eusebius rounds the total to about three million.

[68] ὀρόβοις is the dative of ὄροβος, “bitter vetch” (a legume, Ervum ervilia).

[69] Eusebius quotes Josephus, Jewish War 5, on the siege of Jerusalem (AD 70). The participle λελυμένων means “loosened” or “worn out,” so “wasted away” or “enfeebled” is the sense.

[70] The Greek ἶνας means “fibers,” that is, strands gathered from old hay (χόρτος).

[71] “Στασιασταί” means the factions fighting one another inside Jerusalem, and “rebels” is used for them here. The “fury” (ἐρινύς, Erinys) is an avenging spirit of Greek myth.

[72] The “historian” is Josephus (War 6.420), who gives 1,100,000 dead (Eusebius’s “110 myriads”) and about 97,000 captives. Eusebius’s Greek reads “nine myriads” (90,000) for the captives. Christ’s words follow Matthew 24:19-21 (compare Mark 13:17-19; Luke 21:23).

[73] “Ἀρχηγός” can be rendered “Author” or “Prince” of life. The Greek says Providence “put off” (ὑπερθεμένης) their destruction. James is called the Lord’s brother here, as in Galatians 1:19.

[74] “Divine oversight” translates θεία ἐπισκοπή, which can also be rendered “visitation” or “providence.” The word is cognate with ἐπίσκοπος (“bishop,” literally “overseer”).

[75] The “historian” is Josephus, and the passage is from his Jewish War, book 6. Xanthicus was a spring month of the Macedonian calendar that Josephus equates with Nisan.

[76] Eusebius is drawing on Josephus (Jewish War 6.312–313) for the oracle. The quotation is from Psalm 2:8, and the last clause echoes Psalm 19:4 (quoted in Romans 10:18).

[77] The two books “On the Antiquity of the Jews” are what we now call Against Apion.

[78] Eusebius is quoting Josephus (Against Apion 1.38–41). “Down to his death” refers to the death of Moses. Josephus gives only the count of twenty-two books, divided 5, 13 and 4, and does not name the individual books here.

[79] The work On the Sovereignty of Reason is now usually called 4 Maccabees. Eusebius ascribes it to Josephus, which is generally doubted today.

[80] The Greek word is paroikia, here “church” (a local Christian community); “throne” means the bishop’s seat. “The Gospel writing” probably refers to John 19:25, where “Mary of Clopas” is named.

[81] The Greek text is not damaged here. “Two years and as many months” is an accusative participle, so it refers to Titus (about two years and two months), not Domitian. The English wrongly applies it to Domitian, who reigned about fifteen years.

[82] The Evocatus was a Roman soldier who, after completing his service, had been recalled or had re-enlisted, often in a privileged post. A plethron was a Greek unit of land of about 100 by 100 Greek feet, roughly a fifth of an acre, so thirty-nine plethra is about 8–9 acres.

[83] “Church community” translates the Greek paroikia, the source of “parish.” It literally means a sojourning or dwelling as resident aliens, and in early Christian usage it came to mean a local church community.

[84] “The tyrant” is Domitian. Eusebius names him earlier, in his account of the persecution and of Nerva’s recall of exiles (3.17–20), not in the sentence just before this one.

[85] “Seal of the Lord” means baptism. The Greek word translated “baptized” is literally “enlightened,” a common early Christian term for baptism. The “presbyter” is the bishop of the previous section.

[86] “New birth” translates the Greek word palingenesia (literally “birth again”), also used in Titus 3:5.