Luke, doctor, historian, and servant of God;
To Antipas, man of honor, scholar, benefactor;
Greetings.
I write with unfortunate news about Calpurnius of Ephesus, with whom you have been in recent contact and whose household I am now helping to oversee. Calpurnius has left Ephesus quite unexpectedly and by great necessity. He is now traveling by land to the seaport city of Patara, where his brother Philoneikos is a civic officer. Philoneikos has just lost his firstborn, a son of twelve years, whose cheeks, in the flower of youth, bloomed with a thin down. Calpurnius intends to deliver his condolences personally to his brother, whose heart is downcast. Calpurnius will stay for as long as his presence is beneficial. If that should be for a month or more, the shipping lanes will be open again, and he will proceed on the journey to which he has long been looking forward. He is likely to purchase passage on one of the first ships to Caesarea, a city that has prospered from your own benefaction. (The northern winds will ensure speed for the journey, although the seas will still be threatening. I pray for his safety.) From there, he will travel to his destination, Jerusalem, to see what remains of the temple that used to stand there and to imagine the city as it might have been before being shattered by the Roman forces in the Judean revolt twenty-five years ago [66–70 CE]. I expect Calpurnius to return to Ephesus in time to enjoy the summer months with us. In the meantime, I am helping to manage his household.
Along with this letter, you will find a note of apology from Calpurnius’s own hand, explaining that he will no longer be able to attend the Pergamene gladiatorial contests this spring and requesting that another Ephesian nobleman be invited in his place [this note has since been lost].
Calpurnius will be glad to hear that the Alexandrian edition of Homer is being put to good use by you and your colleagues. His father, Theophilus, considered it his duty to make his book collection widely available to promote knowledge in the region.
By the way, I have recently come across an opinion on Homer held by the prolific Jewish historian and apologist Flavius Josephus. In a monograph written several years ago, Josephus speaks of Homer’s narrative as being “preserved by memory and assembled later. . . . And it is because of this that there are so many inconsistencies in it” [Josephus, C. Ap. 1.13]. You may want to be alert, then, to narrative inconsistencies as you study the Pergamene and Alexandrian versions of Homer.
I see from the scribal copy of Calpurnius’s earlier letter that you have been informed about the historical monograph that Theophilus commissioned me to write. I have taken the liberty of sending with Stachys a freshly transcribed copy of the first volume of that monograph, in case it is of interest to you. It [Luke’s Gospel] recounts the life of Jesus of Nazareth, a Galilean who was crucified when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea. With your strong connections to Galilee, Antipas, you may find this narrative to be of interest, so I entrust it to your care. Many of us who call ourselves Christians believe this Jesus to be the Jewish messiah, or Christ, and the human incarnation of the most high God. I would only ask that, were your scribes to make a copy, they would do so with extra vigilance and care, since I would regret variant traditions of the narrative being promulgated in the same way that variant editions of Homer have been promulgated. Copies of the monograph are continually being made for Christians around the Mediterranean basin, but Calpurnius’s scribes are busy with the management of the household and cannot produce them as quickly as we would wish. I myself have overseen the production of this copy and therefore verify its authenticity.
It was unfortunate that Quadratus’s banquet coincided with my passing through Pergamum on my way back to Ephesus. (Antonius, my Pergamene host and friend, was also to attend that banquet but unfortunately was prevented from doing so due to a temporary illness.) Perhaps we will have occasion to meet at some point in the future. You and your servants are always welcome in Calpurnius’s house.
I, Luke, now write this with my own hand.3 I was pleased to welcome Stachys, who has proven to be your faithful servant in helping to establish a favorable friendship between the house of Calpurnius and yourself.
Grace be to you.4
1. “Okeanos” (cf. “ocean”) is the great saltwater sea of ancient mythology.
2. The term “temple warden” (neokoros) was applied to those cities that had been granted permission by Rome to establish temples for the purposes of emperor worship. Those distinguished cities served as custodians of the imperial cult in their region.
3. A change in handwriting is evident at this point, confirming that the letter had been dictated by Luke to a scribe. Here Luke picks up the writing implement and adds his own farewell.
4. Dating this set of correspondence is informed by Luke’s reply to Antipas. Luke mentions that Calpurnius might spend a month in Patara before boarding one of the first ships to Caesarea. Shipping lanes were generally closed from mid-November until mid-March (although the safest months to sail were between mid-May and mid-September). This places Luke’s letter just after mid-February 92 CE. Speculative dates for this correspondence might be as follows: Antipas writes his letter prior to 15 February; Stachys departs from Pergamum on the morning of 15 February, arriving in Ephesus on the afternoon of 18 February; on the morning of 19 February, Stachys delivers the contribution to the Domitian bath-gymnasium. He probably spends an additional night in Calpurnius’s house and then leaves Ephesus on 20 February, arriving in Pergamum with Luke’s letter on 23 February. This means that Antipas and his colleagues had studied Homer for approximately two weeks before sending word of their findings to Calpurnius’s household.